Page 102 of Shattered Oaths

I deserve her lack of trust, but it doesn’t hurt any less.

“We don’t have to talk about this now, Bells. I don’t expect forgiveness from you. I don’t even expect you to talk to me, period. But I will be here for you, no matter what. Whether you are here with me, or somewhere else, I will be there. If you want to sit in silence, that’s fine. If you want to scream at me, hit me, throw shit, that’s fine, too. I’ll take it all. But just know, I will spend every single day proving myself to you and earning back your trust. Even if it takes the rest of my life.”

She stares at me with an unreadable expression for so long, I begin to shift uncomfortably in my seat. I have no clue what she’s thinking or if anything I just said was the right thing or not and I start doubting myself farther when one tear falls down her cheek slowly.

I don’t think as I reach out and wipe it away with my thumb and I wait for Bella to flinch away from my touch, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she closes her eyes, a smile so small I would have missed it had I not been watching her so closely, touching her lips as she leans her face into my touch.

CHAPTER 44

BELLA

They say it comes in threes.

I beg to differ.

If that saying were true and bad shit really did happen in sets of three then I must be the unluckiest person to ever walk the earth.

If that saying were true, my bad luck should have ended three days ago when I walked into my childhood home and found my mom overdosed on her bed.

But apparently, God or whoever the powers that be are, decided that being cheated on, having my private life aired in front of basically the entire town, and losing a parent just wasn’t quite enough to test my limits on how much shit I can take in such a short span of time.

No. They decided now would be the perfect time to throw me one last curveball in the form of an absent period.

Yup.

As if the timing couldn’t get any worse, right?

I’d had cramps the day I went to the grocery store, hence the tampons, chocolate and ibuprofen that had gained me weird looks from Mabel as though she’d never seen a woman on her period before.

But with all the stress of the last few days, I’d failed to realise that despite those cramps, my period had never shown up.

And when I woke this morning in the spare bedroom of Noah’s house with cramps again, I’d reached for my phone and gone straight to my tracking app, only for the wordsTen Days Lateto glare at me in bold red writing.

I wish I could blame the pure fear that ran through me at that moment for being the reason I hauled ass out of bed and ran straight for the toilet just in time to throw my guts up, but the more I think about it, the more the reality of my situation dawns on me.

And thus, I came to the conclusion that the universe hates me and I’m royally fucked.

The cherry on top of all of that, though, was Noah racing into the bathroom and pulling my hair out of my face while running a soft, gentle hand over my back while muttering quiet reassuring words until my stomach had stopped heaving and I was completely spent.

It was becoming extremely hard to stay mad at the man when he keeps doing shit like that.

First, it was the morning coffees on the porch where we’d sit in comfortable silence and watch the sunrise.

Then he’d go back inside, giving me just the right amount of space I need while never being so far away that he’s not there if I needed him.

Every morning, he cooks breakfast and every night dinner is ready on the table.

And when I turn in for the night in the bedroom I’d occupied when I first started staying here, I hear the quiet shuffle of his body sliding down the wall outside of the room where he has sat every night until I fall asleep.

Every day that I spend in his presence and he goes out of his way to make me feel less alone, my resolve crumbles just a little bit more.

And now there’s a possibility that I’m pregnant with his baby.

Which leads me to now.

I push my sunglasses up onto my head as I close the rest of the distance to Savannah and Hunter’s house, the knot in my stomach releasing a little when I see her sitting on their porch, a book in her hands.