Page 26 of Ricochet
“Av—”
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out. I would have been less shocked if she told me she killed a man.
“I-I’m sorry,” I stuttered. “What?”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
“You think, or you know?”
She hesitated for a second, before answering, “I think, but I’m not quite sure.”
“Okay, okay.” I tried wrapping my mind around this. “We can find out for sure. We can go to the pharmacy, and tell Theo, and—”
“No!”
I pulled back, confused by her reaction.
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“I mean,” she lowered her voice, “Theo can’t know. Please, please, please Phee, promise me you won’t tell him.”
“But he has to know. He has to take responsibility.”
“Phee.” Another waterfall of tears started. “It isn’t Theo’s.”
Oh fuck me sideways and every other way. I had a feeling my eyes were going to pop out of my head.
“What do you mean it’s not Theo’s?”
Did somebody hurt her?
“Exactly what I mean. Theo isn’t the father. We haven’t slept together for months.”
“Then whose is it?” How did I never notice this? I needed to seriously work on my friendship skills. “Did somebody, um, do something to you?”
She flinched as if I pinched her. “Oh no, God no. It wasn’t anything like that, but there is so much I need to tell you, and I tried postponing this as much as possible, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now.”
“So,” I started, confusion lacing my words. “You’re trying to tell me that there’s somebody else? Someone who isn’t my brother?”
“Please don’t hate me.” And here we go with tears again. “You know I never loved him, I never even wanted to be with him. And Theo is awful, Ophelia. I’ve never met a more self-centered person than him.”
“I could never hate you, silly.” I should probably slap some sense into her, considering that what she was doing was a betrayal of our families. “Tell me, who is he?”
The brightest fucking smile appeared on her face, and I knew.
She loved this man.
She loved him more than anything, and if he made her happy, I was happy for them.
Ava fidgeted in her seat, but the nervous energy from before wasn’t what radiated from her anymore.
It was happiness, a pure joy, and I really wanted to know who this person was.
“His name is Nathan,” she started. “He actually works for your father.”
The happy little feeling I started having in my chest evaporated when I realized who she was talking about. Ah fuck, she couldn’t have found a nice little accountant from the town to fall in love with?
She had to fall for one of our assassins.
