Mine

One night was supposed to be all it took-a reckless escape, a moment of forgetting, nothing more. Zaliyah never planned for the nausea that crept in weeks later, or the tiny heartbeat blinking on a monitor, sealing a fate she wasn't ready to face.

She had no intention of letting the father into the picture. He was meant to remain a shadow, a mistake buried beneath silence and distance. Her plan was simple: carry the secret alone, raise the child alone, protect her heart the only way she knew how.

But plans have a way of crumbling under the weight of family.

Her sister, nosy and relentless, couldn't leave well enough alone. One phone call, one forced meeting in a café thick with the scent of espresso and unspoken tension, and everything shifted. When he walked in-tall, composed, eyes locked on hers like he'd already claimed something she hadn't offered-Zaliyah felt the ground tilt beneath her.

He didn't argue. Didn't demand. Just looked at her, then at the curve of her stomach, as if he'd already decided. And when their daughter finally arrived-small, furious, undeniably his-Zaliyah realized the truth she'd been running from:

She hadn't just let him in.

She had become his. Only his. And there was no turning back.