Chapter 393
Her gaze drifts slightly, unfocused, as if she can still see that moment clearly.
“Andrew didn’t waste time. He was bold, and that was one of the first things that caught my attention. We only spoke for a minute or two before he asked if he could take me out for coffee after my shift. I told him my shift ended in three hours, but he didn’t care. He waited. He actually stayed and waited until I was done.
And when we finally sat down for that coffee, we talked like we’d known each other forever. There was so much to say, so much to share. I swear, no man had ever made me feel the way he did. I had dated before, but none of them were like Andrew. After that first coffee, I just knew… I had found the one p>
She pauses, drawing in a shaky breath before continuing.
“He was attentive, caring and everything you’d ever want in a man. By the time we went on our fifth date, I was already halfway in love with him. He was unlike anyone I had ever met. He felt perfect in every way, and I truly believed we were building something real, something that would last. Especially after he told me he loved me… We were taking things slow, but we already knew what we wanted. We knew we wanted each other p>
Listening to her feels like something is slowly tearing me apart from the inside. I had always believed my father wasn’t a good man, that there was a reason Mom never wanted to talk about him, but hearing how she talks about him, doesn’t match anything I thought I knew.
“We were together for almost a year and a half when he suddenly disappeared,” she continues, and the shift in her tone is immediate and the warmth fades. “We had made plans that weekend. I was supposed to introduce him to my mother. I remember being so excited… I thought everything was finally falling into place, but when Saturday came… he didn’t show up p>
Silence fills the room, and I watch her as she lets out a shaky breath.
“I tried calling him again and again, but his phone was off. I told myself maybe something came up, maybe he was busy, but then Sunday came, and there was still nothing and then Monday, and the rest of the week and even then, I still couldn’t reach him or find him anywhere… It was like he had just vanished. I didn’t know his family or his friends. He never really talked about them and whenever I asked, he would just say that one day, when everything was right… he’d introduce me p>
By now, tears are freely running down her face, and I can see just how much this is costing her to say out loud, but I don’t stop her because I need to hear it. I needed to know what happened.
“I was heartbroken,” she continues, her voice quieter now, weighed down by memory. “I was so sure we were meant to be, and having him disappear like that almost destroyed me. After trying to reach him for about two weeks, I finally gave up. I told myself maybe I had been the only one who felt something real… It hurt more than I can explain, but there was nothing I could do. I tried to move on. I tried to put everything I thought we had behind me but then I found out I was pregnant, about five weeks after he disappeared p>
We all sit, listening barely breathing as she continues.
“I started looking for him again, because no matter what happened between us, he deserved to know he was going to be a father.” She says “I searched everywhere I could. I went back to the hospital where we met, hoping to find something, anything but there was nothing. I couldn’t access his records because his information was sealed.
A hollow, almost disbelieving smile touches her lips as her gaze drops to her laps.
“I remember laughing to myself on my way back that day. It hit me how little I actually knew about him. A year and a half, and I didn’t even know enough to find him. So how was I supposed to track him down? Eventually, I convinced myself that he was just some rich man looking for something temporary. That when things started getting serious, he walked away because he never intended to stay. It hurt more than anything I had ever felt. There were days I could barely function, days where the pain made everything feel pointless but knowing I was carrying a child… that’s what kept me going p>
My chest tightens as I listen to her. I understand that kind of pain. The kind that makes it hard to breathe, hard to exist, the kind that stays rooted no matter how much time passes and that, for the first time, makes me understand why this was never something she could talk about so easily.