Page 72 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

Would he even believe I didn’t know?

Would I forgive this?

She had let me fall for her. Touch her. Claim her. All while knowing I’d raised the last man she had called, ‘boyfriend’.

I paid the bill without looking at the total. Didn’t even touch the last sip of wine.

When we stepped outside, the cold air slapped me across the face. Still, I didn’t speak. My fists jammed deep into my coat pockets. My jaw locked.

Ella walked beside me, shoulders hunched, her heels clicking against the sidewalk. She didn’t reach for me. Didn’t speak either.

She didn’t need to. I could feel it.

She thought this was the end.

That I’d already walked away.

And maybe I had.

I didn’t know yet.

I just knew I couldn’t breathe.

Chapter 27

Ella

The cold slapped my skin the second we stepped outside, but I barely felt it.

I was too busy trying to breathe.

Dom walked beside me, silent, stiff, every inch of him locked down like he was trying not to feel anything at all. The same hands that had been on my body less than an hour ago now hid in his pockets like they didn’t know what to do with themselves.

And I hated it.

Hated the space that stretched between us like a chasm, hated the way I couldn’t read him anymore, hated myself most of all.

I wrapped my coat tighter around me, trying to keep myself from shattering completely. The city lights blurred around us, traffic noise barely registering. All I could hear was my own heartbeat, frantic and desperate, and the pounding thought that I’d ruined everything.

“I didn’t know,” I said, and my voice cracked the second it left my mouth. “I didn’t know who you were that night.”

Dom didn’t look at me. His jaw flexed, but his eyes stayed forward, and I pressed on anyway, because silence was worse than yelling.

Silence meant he was retreating. Pulling away.

“I swear, I didn’t know your last name until the next morning. I woke up and…” My voice trembled, but I pushed through it. “I Googled your company. Just something dumb, like checking out the hot guy I slept with.”

I forced a breath. “And then I saw your name on the About page. And realized who you were. And my stomach dropped.”

I finally stopped walking, because I couldn’t keep moving with all the weight pressing down on me. I turned to him, heart pounding in my throat. “That was the moment I knew. That I’d just slept with…well…” I couldn't bring myself to say the words.

Dom’s eyes finally met mine. They were dark. Guarded. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and it terrified me.

“I panicked,” I whispered. “I didn’t know what to do, so I left. I told myself it was a one-time thing and I’d handle it. That I wouldn’t complicate your life or ruin your relationship with Leo. I didn’t want to be the reason things got worse between you.”

The tears were dangerously close now. “So I ran. I kept my mouth shut. I made a hundred excuses, but the truth is—I thought I was doing the right thing.”

Still, nothing. Just the rise and fall of his chest, sharp and uneven.

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