Page 123 of Baby Surprise for my Brother's Best Friend

I clench my jaw, the words sinking deep, scraping against every stubborn instinct in my body.

"You’re stronger with us behind you," my father says. "And so is she."

His meaning is clear. It isn't just about me anymore. It never was.

The line goes dead before I can even argue.

And I sit there in the dark, staring at my phone, certain that whether I’m ready or not, my life is about to change.

29

SOPHIE

I sit on the couch rifling through the threats Alessio hid from me.

Four messages. Four threats. Four chances he had to tell me.

Four opportunities he wasted, thinking he was protecting me.

My phone lights up again on the coffee table, the screen flashing a name I don’t have the energy to hate right now.

Dad.

Still, I don’t move.

I don’t answer.

The damage is already done, spreading through me like a slow, sick kind of poison.

From down the hall, the shower is running.

He's here.

Close enough to touch.

But he feels miles away.

I squeeze one of the notes in my fist until the edges dig into my palm, the sting grounding me in something that isn’t helplessness.

I need to remember he thought he was doing the right thing. Convinced himself that by lying he was protecting me somehow. Thought that ignorance was safety.

But love isn't supposed to be a cage you’re locked inside without a key.

I know what’s coming next.

I can feel it, hot and bitter.

And it makes me furious.

Furious that I let him in.

Furious that I believed in a version of him that never really existed.

Furious that even now, I’m sitting here waiting for him to prove me wrong.

But deep down, a colder part of me already knows he won’t.

A sharp knock jolts me from my spiral.

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