Maya’s hands shook so hard the phone almost slipped from her fingers.
She read the text again.
**I know what you did at the clinic.
And I know whose baby it really is.
We need to talk before everyone else finds out.** Damian took the phone from her and stared at the screen.
His jaw tightened.
“Unknown number.
No name.” They were still sitting in his car outside the clinic.
The doctor’s words kept repeating in Maya’s head — the abortion had been incomplete.
The pregnancy she thought was new was actually the first one.
It had survived.
The baby she had tried to end was still growing inside her, further along than anyone had realized.
She pressed both hands to her stomach.
The hollow feeling from the clinic day mixed with a new, sharper fear.
Someone else knew.
Someone who had already contacted Dr.
Vargas with specific questions.
“We need to find out who this is,” Damian said.
He tried calling the number back.
It rang once, then went to a generic voicemail that gave no name.
He hung up.
“Blocked or disposable phone.” Maya’s mind raced through every person who could know.
Her mother?
She had found out about the procedure, but she didn’t know the father’s name.
Richard?
He had been told something by the doctor, but the doctor said the second caller was not him.
Her own father?
One of her friends from the club night?
The idea made her stomach twist.
Damian started the car.
“We’re going to my place.
We need to think this through without anyone walking in.” At his apartment, they locked the door and sat on the couch.
Maya’s body still felt raw from the ultrasound and the emotional shock.
Damian pulled her close.
For a long moment they just held each other.
Then the fear and the need mixed the way they always did.
He kissed her, deep and hungry.
Maya kissed him back harder.
Clothes came off fast.
He laid her on the couch and pushed into her in one long thrust.
The stretch made her gasp — everything felt more sensitive now that she knew the pregnancy was further along.
He moved deep and steady, one hand on her hip, the other braced beside her head.
“We’ll figure this out,” he said against her mouth.
“No one takes this from us.” Maya came with a broken moan, clinging to him.
Damian followed soon after, staying inside her while their hearts slowed.
Afterward they sat with the phone between them and started listing possibilities out loud.
“Your mom knows about the clinic,” Damian said.
“But the doctor said the second caller already knew more than Richard did.
Specific questions about dates and the father’s name.” “My dad doesn’t even know about the marriage yet,” Maya answered.
“At least I don’t think he does.” “What about your friends?
Sarah or Lola.
They were there the night we met.
Maybe one of them saw something later.” Maya shook her head.
“I never told them about you.
Not the real you.” They went through every option.
Clinic staff.
Someone from Richard’s old company who still talked to Dr.
Vargas.
Nothing felt certain.
The phone buzzed again.
Same unknown number.
You left the clinic with him.
I saw the car.
Meet me tonight at the old park near your house.
9 p.m.
Come alone, or I will send everything I have to your father.
Maya’s blood ran cold.
“They were watching us.” Damian’s eyes darkened.
“You’re not going alone.” “If I don’t, they’ll tell my dad.
He still doesn’t know about the marriage or any of this.
It will destroy what’s left of my family while my mom is dying.” They argued for almost an hour.
In the end, Damian agreed to stay nearby, out of sight, while Maya went to the meeting.
He hated it, but the threat of everything going to her father was too real.
At 8:45 that night, Maya walked into the old park.
The streetlights were dim.
She kept her phone in her hand, Damian’s number ready.
A figure stepped out from under a tree near the empty playground.
Maya’s breath stopped.
It was her mother.
She looked smaller than usual, wrapped in a coat despite the mild air.
Her face was pale from the cancer treatments, but her eyes were sharp.
“Mom?” Maya’s voice came out broken.
Her mother held up her own phone, the same unknown number on the screen.
“I told you secrets kill people slowly.
I just didn’t tell you I had already started collecting them.” Maya’s legs felt weak.
“How long have you known?” “Long enough,” her mother said quietly.
“The clinic called the house insurance line first.
I recognized the address and the dates.
Then I called Dr.
Vargas myself from a private number and asked the questions I needed answered.
She confirmed enough.
I know the baby is Damian’s.
I know the abortion didn’t work the way you thought.
And I know you’ve been sneaking into his bed while I’m trying to put this family back together before I die.” The park felt too quiet.
Maya’s mind flashed back to the clinic — the cold gel, the machine, the blood, the empty feeling — and now her own mother had been the one watching from the shadows.
“Why?” Maya whispered.
“Because I am running out of time,” her mother answered.
“And I will not let this family fall apart completely before I’m gone.
You are going to end this with Damian.
Quietly.
Or I will tell your father everything tonight — the marriage, the affair, the baby, all of it.” Maya’s phone buzzed in her pocket.
A message from Damian, who was waiting in the car down the street.
**I can see you.
Who is it?** She didn’t answer.
Her mother stepped closer.
“You have until tomorrow morning to decide,” she said.
“After that, I will stop protecting you.” She turned and walked away into the dark, leaving Maya standing alone under the streetlight with the unfinished pregnancy, the incomplete abortion, and the knowledge that the person who had been hunting their secret was the one person she thought she was protecting.