Unbreak Me

★ CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE ★

ZAYN
She stayed silent, clutching her bag tighter.

"How many bad choices will it take for you to finally see sense, Leia? You don't need his money. Whatever I have, it's all at your disposal." Damn my pride. If she told me, I would've laid out my heart for her on a silver platter. My palm met my forehead, fingers drawing circles at the temples. "For God's sake. Listen to me this time. Don't throw away your entire future for his sake. He's a douche."

When she looked up, I staggered back in shock. Fat tears lined her rheumy eyes and the sore pain in those irises pierced straight through me.

"Do you think I like doing this?" She finally burst out, rising from her seat, bag still in her slender arms. "Do you think I enjoy living with a man whose presence alone makes me feel unworthy? Who constantly tells me I'm not good enough? Do you think I enjoy sleeping next to him? That I—" she sucked in a sharp breath, pausing mid-sentence.

"That you what?" I stepped even closer, looking down directly at her. "Say it now, Leia. Don't shy away from me. You've already plunged the dagger into my heart. Twist it further inside." I huffed pityingly. "It's not like my blood would bother you. After all, I've been bleeding all over the place since you left me and never came back."

Silence descended into the room, as loud as the sound of our breaths mingling together.

"You don't understand," she insisted. "I can't leave him. Not yet."

I slapped my hands over my thighs, throwing my hands up in the air. "You've got to be kidding me. We're not going over this conversation again."

"No," she was frantic, trying to explain something without actually saying the words. "I just can't leave him yet. I will, soon. Not now, though."

My ears only registered the words I will, soon and it felt like my heart boomed to life.

"When?" I probed.

"I . . . What?" Her eyes regarded me frenziedly.

"When do you plan on getting divorced?" I repeated, unable to contain my giddiness.

"Oh. Um." I could tell she was biting her lip though I couldn't see her face. She did some math on her fingers and I frowned. "Around . . . fifteen days?"

Well. I was shocked into muteness.

"That's very exact," I commented after retrieving some control over myself. "Will you tell me why not now and fifteen days later? Something special happening that day?"

I was only kidding but the fear that crawled into her eyes wasn't something I liked seeing. She was definitely hiding something.

And it had something to do with the damned bag she had clutched in a death-hold.

"Leia, for God's sake, leave this bag—" I said at the same time she murmured, "I have to tell you something—"

I paused. "Sure, go ahead."

"I—well, I have no idea how to say this but . . ." Her eyes carefully looked into mine, as though she was afraid I was going to break. "You should know something."

That didn't sound good at all.

"I'm listening,"

She snuck in a sharp breath. Things happened too quickly after that. The backpack I wanted to rip away from her, she let go of it slowly and dumped it into a chair nearby.

"I don't understand—" I moved back, shaking my head.

I shook my head, again and again, refusing to look down. I couldn't. This simply wasn't happening.

But I had to look. I mean, it wasn't something your eyes could avoid. The bump. The giant bump.

Fifteen days, she had said.

I finally got it.

Fifteen days till her delivery.