Chapter 124
Jake didn’t remember leaving Bella’s house. He didn’t remember getting into his car. He didn’t even remember starting the engine.
All he remembered was the deafening sound of the door closing behind him and the way Bella’s voice, shaking, breaking, and tearing, echoed through his skull like a haunting he couldn’t outrun.
When he finally stumbled into his penthouse, the silence hit him first; cold, sharp, merciless.
He shut the door behind him and leaned his forehead against it, exhaling a long, shuddering breath. His hands trembled. He squeezed them into fists, trying to steady himself, but the tremor only worsened.
He expected to feel justified. He expected anger to stay. He expected the betrayal he thought he’d felt to carry him through the night.
But instead… all he felt was a dull, throbbing ache in the center of his chest.
His mind replayed the scene like a broken recording.
Bella standing there, her eyes bright with tears.
Her voice trembling. Her shock when he said he couldn’t have children. Her disbelief. Her hurt followed by her confusion.
Her palm striking his cheek.
Jake exhaled shakily and closed his eyes.
He deserved that slap.
God, he deserved ten more.
“Did I really say those things to her?” he whispered into the empty room, his own voice foreign to him.
He ran both hands through his hair, gripping the strands tightly. “I compared her to my ex,” he muttered. “I told her she was lying. I… God p>
“What the hell did I just do?” he whispered to himself.
His voice cracked.
He pushed himself off the door and walked deeper into the room, shrugging off his jacket. It slipped from his fingers and dropped onto the floor, but he didn’t bother picking it up. He sank onto the couch, elbows on his knees, hands sliding over his face.
His pulse wouldn’t calm. His chest wouldn’t ease. His head wouldn’t stop spinning.
Bella’s voice repeated in a loop:
“You’d adopt him… but you won’t believe he’s yours p>
“Get out p>
“You chose to see me as your past mistake p>
Jake groaned and dragged his hands down his face.
“God… Bella p>
He hadn’t meant to hurt her.
He hadn’t meant for any of this.
But the moment she’d said the words, “you’re his father” everything inside him had detonated. His past, his fear, his wounds, his betrayal. All of it had crashed over him until all he could taste was panic.
He pressed both palms against his eyes.
“Damn it,” he whispered harshly. “I should’ve… I should’ve handled it differently p>
He replayed the argument in his head.
He saw Bella’s trembling hands. The way her eyes had begged him to believe her. The way her voice had cracked when she said you think I’d lie to you?
Guilt punched him squarely in the stomach.
He’d yelled. He’d snapped. He’d accused her of the one thing he feared most.
And then, the adoption comment.
Jake winced, grabbing a fistful of his hair.
“Why the hell did I say that p>
He cursed under his breath, the words sharp and self-loathing.
“I’m such an idiot p>
He could’ve talked to her calmly. Could’ve asked questions. Could’ve explained the situation and explained himself more, instead of erupting like a man dragging old ghosts into something fragile and new.
He exhaled shakily.
“Even if I was sure I wasn’t his father,” he muttered, “I could’ve asked her why. I could’ve asked how she was so sure. I could’ve listened p>
Bella’s words replayed:
“You were the only one I’ve ever been with p>
Jake went still.
The realization hit him harder now than when he’d first heard it.
She had been a virgin.
He had been the only person she had ever slept with, at least, he knew that much that night.
And she was so sure, so sure, that Timothy was his. Meaning she couldn’t have been with someone else after him.
If she were lying, she wouldn’t have looked at him with eyes that terrified. Broken. Genuine.
He rubbed his chest, suddenly short of breath.
“Is there… a way?” he whispered.
But then he shook his head firmly.
“No. No, there isn’t. The vasectomy. I had the procedure. The test results came back confirming it was successful p>
He stood and paced the room.
“She can’t be right p>
He repeated it as if saying it enough times would make the world make sense again.
But it didn’t.
Instead, something else gnawed at him. Something small at first… then slowly growing louder.
If the procedure made pregnancy impossible after surgery… why had the doctor told him to abstain for three months?
His steps slowed.
He frowned.
His feet suddenly rooted to the floor.
“What exactly did he say?” he whispered aloud.
Jake tried to remember. Tried hard. But the memories of that day blurred—lost under the emotional storm he’d been in at the time. The betrayal. The heartbreak. The sleepless nights. He’d gone to the clinic half-destroyed.
And honestly?
He hadn’t listened that well.
Jake’s jaw tightened.
“What if… what if there was something I forgot? Something I didn’t pay attention to p>
His heart thudded painfully. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ.net
“No,” he said aloud, shaking his head. “No, I would’ve remembered. Something that important p>
But then the image flashed in his mind.
Bella.
Her shy eyes. Her trembling voice. Her flustered innocence.
They had been together two weeks after the procedure. Two weeks.
As though realizing what that meant, Jake froze and his breath caught. His stomach dropped to his feet.
“Oh… shit p>
The word slipped out of him in a whisper. Then louder.
“Oh, shit p>
He pushed both hands into his hair.
“You idiot,” he hissed to himself. “What the hell were you thinking? Two weeks? Two damn weeks? Why weren’t you paying attention? Why didn’t you ask again? Why didn’t you check with the doctor after that p>
He swore again, louder this time.
“I’m such a stupid p>
He caught himself before the word finished but the sentiment stayed heavy in his chest.
Because the reality was settling in now:
He had no idea if there had been a window.
No idea if there had been a chance.
No idea if he had messed up, not Bella.