Page 135 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

How he’d once promised himself that wanting more only led to heartbreak.

How he’d told himself for years that what he had with Zoe had been enough, and that asking for anything beyond it was a mistake.

“I’m okay,” he said, the words automatic. A complete lie she saw right through.

Her hold tightened. He felt her shake with him. Felt the moisture on his chest from the tears she was shedding. “No, you’re not,” she said quietly. “And you’re allowed not to be.”

“Gabriela,” he said, pulling back just enough to look at her. To see the tears in her eyes also. His were filling now. Therewas no way to stop it. “It wasn’t my child. I didn’t let myself get attached. I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t work out. I just didn’t think it would end like this.”

She lifted a hand to his chest, right over his heart. “Don’t do that,” she said. “Don’t pack this away and pretend it doesn’t hurt.” He stilled. “He wasn’t your child,” she continued gently. “But part of you believed hecould have been. And losing that possibility—losing that hope—is its own kind of grief.”

His throat closed. Because that was it.

Not the baby. Not the outcome.

The hope.

And standing there in her arms, he finally let himself feel the weight of losing it.

He finally let the tears fall as if it was him who went through this ordeal and not the sixteen-year-old blaming herself.

She held him while he cried. While they cried together.

It shouldn’t feel as if he were losing a part of himself again, but it did.

She pulled him out of the hallway and to an empty room. “You should go home and get some sleep,” he said. Anything to make this night end.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Gabriela. It’s past midnight. You have to get up in a few hours.”

“All things considered, I think I’m allowed to come in a little late tomorrow. I’m going to check on the patients in the ward and then we can go home together. You shouldn’t be alone.”

“I want to be alone,” he said flatly.

The way she recoiled back looked like she’d been slapped.

Shock for sure.

Then hurt followed.

He didn’t need that on top of everything else. But he had to be honest too.

“You shouldn’t be.”

“Gabriela. I know you mean well. But trust me. I know myself. I need to be alone. Please, give me the space.”

Her eyes filled again, but he wouldn’t change his mind.

It was better this way. He knew it and she would too, eventually.

Going home with him would only keep them both up. That didn’t serve any purpose.

She nodded, gave him a kiss on the cheek, one more hug and then made her way to the pediatric ward.

There was one more thing he had to do before he left. The right thing to do. And he didn’t want Gabriela around when it was done.

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