I drew a deep breath and puffed out my cheeks as I exhaled. "The conversation... it just didn't happen. I was out with my cousin that night, using her ID to buy a drink, and when Dylan assumed I was her, I just went with it. We look pretty similar, so..." I shrugged, embarrassed as hell to finally confess this lie.
Riley looked stunned. "Wait. Wait. You had sex that night, and you never told him you were a virgin before?"
I shook my head, my face aflame.
"Well, shit. What did he say when he found out?" She looked like she was on the verge of laughter.
I groaned again, covering my face with my hands. Luckily, Riley was a smart girl and caught on without me needing to say it. She sucked in a shocked gasp and started chuckling.
"Oh my god. He doesn't know? How? How the fuck was that even possible? I mean this in the most platonic way possible, but I've seen his dick and you're a tiny girl. There would have been evidence..."
I mentally kicked myself for deciding to be so painfully honest. But I was down the rabbit hole now. "We were in the shower and it was dark. Just candlelight. So... you know... no evidence to be seen."
Riley gaped at me with a mixture of shock, amusement, and admiration. "Wow. Just... wow. I feel like I underestimated you, Brooklyn."
I snorted a bitter laugh. "I wish that were true, but I doubt it. I'm pretty fucking unremarkable on the best of days. A broken bird, Dylan called me, and he was totally right."
"I did not." The familiar rumble of that voice shocked right through me like an electric bolt. "You called yourself a broken bird, Brooke. I've never thought of you that way."
My mouth opened, but no words came out as I stared wide-eyed at the gorgeous man in the doorway of my room. I hadn't even heard the door open, too caught up in my conversation with Riley. Fuck, how long had he been standing there? Had he heard my confession?
Screw it. I was going to need to tell him sooner or later; otherwise, he was likely to ask for a paternity test or something.
"I'm... going to leave you two to talk," Riley said in an exaggerated whisper. She gave my wrist a reassuring squeeze, then grabbed her jacket from the chair and headed for the door. She paused in front of Dylan, tilting her neck back to look up at him. Whatever she said was too quiet for me to hear, but based on the way his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched, he didn't like it.
She turned briefly to shoot me a smile, then left the room. Part of me wanted so badly to call her back, but that would give away just how freaking nervous I was about Dylan and I being alone.
"Did you find Blake?"
A distraction question was the right way to start. Dylan, as usual, ignored that path and took his own. "What did the doctor say?"
Great, he went right into the heavy shit first. "She said that I sustained a lot of injuries and that the baby is somehow still alive right now, but there's no telling if it will remain that way. I'm lightly bleeding. There's nothing they can do to stop it. So... it's up to fate."
Dylan's face was awash with fury, and I held my breath, waiting for him to explode at me—especially about me keeping the possible pregnancy from him. Instead, he turned and marched toward the door, his boots loud on the tile floors.
When he reached the door, he wrenched it open, scaring the fuck out of a nurse, who must have been in the hallway. "Get me the head of this department, Dr Keller," he said with a snap. "Right. Fucking. Now."
The nurse nodded rapidly before she disappeared from sight.
Dylan stared after her down the hallway, brow furrowed like he was gathering himself, before he returned to my side. He sat in the same chair Riley had, pulling it even closer. I was too exhausted to keep holding onto my tense stress, so I collapsed against the pillows, waiting for him to say something.
"I'm sorry."
For a moment I wondered if I’d dozed off and was dreaming. Had Dylan just apologized to me? "Sorry for what?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"For not protecting you. For not protecting your..." His eyes dropped to my stomach, and both of us stared like a baby was