PART 4–CHAPTER 180
LUKE
The apartment felt like a cage, and I was trapped inside it, pacing back and forth, running a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots just to feel something other than the chaos eating. me alive. My phone buzzed on the counter, the screen lighting up for a second, but it wasn’t what I wanted–no update, no call from Josh.
“Fuck!” I swore under my breath, snatching the phone and dialing his number for the hundredth time tonight.
It rang.
Once.
Twice.
Voicemail.
“Dammit, Josh!” I shouted, throwing the phone onto the couch. The empty sound of the dial tone cut off as the screen dimmed again, and all I could hear was the slow, deliberate tapping of Francesca’s nail file.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She sat on the couch, legs folded under her, casually filing her nails as if the world wasn’t crumbling around me. Her glossy red toes were spread apart, drying as she painted them
meticulously, her focus on anything but me. She didn’t get it.
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She never got it.
“I don’t understand why you’re so worried about her,” Francesca said, not looking up from her nails. Her voice was calm and detached as if she were talking about the weather or some stupid reality show she liked. “She’s your ex, Luke. Why are you calling Josh every five minutes? You need to calm down.”
stopped pacing, my muscles tensed, and my jaw clenched so tight it hurt. Ex. The word made me want to punch a hole in the wall. She wasn’t just my ex. Jess was… she was everything, even if she didn’t know it anymore. Even if she couldn’t remember us.
I turned to face Francesca, and for the first time in hours, I really Mooked at her. She was beautiful, yeah–supermodel perfect. She
was the kind of girl who turned heads when she walked into a room and made men divorce their wives for a chance at getting with her.
But that didn’t matter right now.
“You don’t get it, do you?” I said, voice low, barely holding back
the storm of emotions that threatened to break free. “She’s not just my ex. Jess–she’s more than that. She’s-”
“She’s what?” Francesca cut me off, raising an eyebrow as she set the nail file down and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re with me now, Luke. You need to stop obsessing over her. If you can’t, then maybe we’ve got a bigger problem here.”
All the anger, frustration, worry–it boiled over, and I stepped toward her, fists clenched at my sides.
“Francesca, Jess could be dead right now. Or worse. She’s been
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PART 4 CHAPTER 100
kidnapped, for Christ’s sake! And you want me to just… what? Pretend like it doesn’t matter? Like she doesn’t matter?” My voice was rising, the words coming out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t care.
Not anymore.
“Why does it matter so much, Luke?” Francesca’s eyes narrowed, her voice rising to match mine. “She doesn’t even remember you! Hell, she doesn’t even remember what you two had. So why are you acting like you’re still in love with her? What about us, huh? What about our relationship?”
I froze, her words hanging in the air like a dark cloud. What about us? That was the problem. There was no “us.” There was just Jess–always Jess. The girl I could never stop thinking about, the girl I could never really move on from. The girl I was still in love with, even if she didn’t remember a damn thing about me.
Francesca saw the hesitation in my face, and that was all she needed. She stood up, crossing the room toward me, her eyes cold and calculating. “You need to make a choice, Luke,” she said, her voice like steel. “Either you stop thinking about her, or I’ m done. I can’t keep being with someone who’s obsessed with another woman.”
My heart pounded in my chest. But in that moment, the answer was clear. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want Francesca. This was a one–night stand that turned into something out of convenience. A good fuck when I was frustrated. I was the asshole that made her believe we could be more. This was my fucking fault.
I wanted Jess. I always had.
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“Then leave,” I said, my voice rough, raw. “If you’re going to make me choose, then leave.”
Francesca’s eyes widened, but only for a second. She didn’t move, didn’t storm out the way I thought she would. Instead, she stood there, her gaze hardening.
“You want me to leave?” she asked, her voice dripping with venom. “Fine. But if I go, I’m taking the baby with me.”
The words slammed into me like a freight train. I staggered back, my mind reeling, trying to process what she had just said. The baby? What baby?
“What… what the hell are you talking about?” I asked, my throat dry, my hands shaking.
Francesca’s smile widened, cold and cruel. “That’s right, Luke. I‘ m pregnant. And if I leave, I’m taking your baby with me.”
