The next morning, I woke to twenty-three missed calls. Seven voicemails from Jacob, desperate and confused.
But the last one made me freeze.
“Mom, please call me,” he said. “Ellie says she’s pregnant.”
My heart slammed.
Before I could process it, someone knocked on my door hard, three loud bangs that rattled the frame. I looked through the peephole and opened the door to find Jacob standing there looking disheveled, shirt wrinkled, hair uncombed, holding a folder like he was practicing what to say. Behind him stood Ellie with her arms crossed and sunglasses hiding her eyes.
The first words out of her mouth weren’t I’m sorry.
They were: “You just ruined our lives.”
I stepped aside silently and let them in. They sat on the couch. I stood.
“You hurt me,” I said quietly.
Ellie rolled her eyes. “I tripped. It wasn’t my fault you’re so fragile.”
Jacob cut in, “Ellie—”
But she kept going. “She was in our kitchen, judging everything, telling me how to raise a child I haven’t even had yet. You think I’m just going to take that?”
I raised my cast. The bruising was dark now, purple and blue, the swelling worse.
“You didn’t even come downstairs, Jacob.”
He looked like he’d been slapped.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
Jacob placed the folder on the coffee table and slid it toward me. “We can’t afford another co-signer,” he said. “They’re giving us seventy-two hours to update the application or the home goes to the next buyer.”
I looked down at the folder.
“Do you want me back in your lives?” I asked.
Jacob nodded.
“Do you want me in this baby’s life?”
Another nod.
I turned to Ellie. “And you?”
She shrugged. “You’re his mom, not mine. I’ll tolerate you if you sign those papers.”
And just like that, the mask dropped.
I smiled gently, picked up the pen… and paused.
“I’ll sign it if you apologize out loud, right now.”
Ellie’s face twisted. “You’re seriously going to make this about pride?”
“No,” I replied. “I’m making it about respect.”
Jacob looked at her, pleading.
Then she said it. “I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t real.
I stood up without signing.
“Actually… never mind.”
“I thought I could do it,” I said. “But I know you’ll just forget this ever happened.”
“Wait,” Jacob started.
I raised my hand. “You told me to stay away. You chose your side. Now I’m choosing mine.”
Ellie lunged forward. “We’re pregnant!”
“And?” I asked.
“You’re going to let your grandchild grow up homeless?”
“You’re the one who hit me,” I said. “And now you want me to forget it because it’s convenient.”
Jacob’s voice broke. “Please, Mom. We need this.”
“No,” I replied. “I needed you once too. The night you said nothing.”
I grabbed the folder, walked to the fireplace, and dropped it into the flames.
Three days later, the house listing went back on the market.
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