Chapter 172

Kelly POV

The phone buzzed against my nightstand, the sound cutting through the heavy silence of the room like something far too sharp for this hour. I didn’t look at it immediately. I stayed curled up on the couch, knees pulled tightly to my chest, staring into space without really seeing anything.

My thoughts were everywhere at once, scattered and chaotic in a way I couldn’t organize no matter how hard I tried.

I had barely slept since I saw those two pink lines.

The pregnancy test still sat on the bathroom counter where I left it, untouched since that moment, like it was waiting for me to come back and make sense of it. Every time I passed it, my stomach tightened, my mind refusing to settle on one clear reaction. Fear, disbelief, denial—all of it came in waves that never fully left.

A baby.

The word alone felt heavy in a way I wasn’t prepared for, like it carried consequences I hadn’t even begun to understand yet.

And then my mind