Updated Sep 23, 2025 • ~10 min read
Angel stared at the pregnancy test in her trembling hands, the two pink lines as clear and undeniable as a verdict. Positive. Eight weeks, according to her calculations. Eight weeks of carrying Cole Sloane’s child while her entire world had imploded around her.
She’d suspected for the past two weeks—the nausea that she’d attributed to stress, the exhaustion she’d blamed on emotional turmoil, the missed period she’d convinced herself was just her body’s response to trauma. But deep down, Angel had known. Her body had been trying to tell her what her mind wasn’t ready to accept.
She was pregnant with the baby of a man who’d just lost custody of his existing daughter. Pregnant by a man who’d stolen from his wife to fund their affair. Pregnant by a man who’d demanded she help pay his legal fees after his lies had destroyed two families.
Angel sank onto her bathroom floor, still clutching the test, and tried to process this new layer of catastrophe. Three days ago, she’d been packing to disappear from Cole’s life forever. She’d found a small apartment across town, given notice at her current place, and begun the process of rebuilding her identity as a woman who’d never been involved with a married man.
Now she was tied to Cole Sloane for the rest of her life.
The irony was staggering. Harper had fought for full custody of Ava to protect her from Cole’s influence, while Angel was about to become the mother of his second child. The child Cole would inevitably use as leverage, as proof that he wasn’t the monster Harper’s lawyer had painted him as, as evidence that Angel still loved him despite everything.
Angel’s phone sat silent on her bathroom counter. She’d blocked Cole’s number after his pathetic demands for financial support, but she knew she’d have to contact him eventually. She couldn’t make this decision—whatever decision she made—without telling the father.
Even if the father was a lying, manipulative thief who’d already proven himself incapable of putting his children’s needs before his own desires.
Angel stood on unsteady legs and walked to her bedroom, where boxes of her belongings sat ready for her move tomorrow. Everything she owned fit into six cardboard boxes and two suitcases—a life stripped down to its essential components, purged of everything Cole had touched or tainted.
Except now there was something Cole had touched that she couldn’t purge. Something growing inside her that would connect them forever, regardless of how completely she tried to disappear from his world.
Angel grabbed her phone and scrolled to Dahlia’s number, then hesitated. How did you tell your best friend that your attempt to escape a toxic relationship had just become infinitely more complicated?
“Angel?” Dahlia answered on the first ring. “How’s the packing going? Are you ready for your fresh start tomorrow?”
Angel closed her eyes and tried to find words for the impossible situation she’d discovered herself in. “Dahlia, I need to tell you something. Can you come over?”
“Of course. What’s wrong? You sound—”
“I’m pregnant.”
The silence that followed was so complete Angel thought the call had dropped. She checked her screen twice before Dahlia’s voice came through, smaller and more careful than Angel had ever heard it.
“Oh, honey. Are you sure?”
“Three different tests. All positive.” Angel’s voice was surprisingly steady. “I’m about eight weeks along.”
“I’ll be right over,” Dahlia said immediately. “Don’t make any decisions until I get there, okay? Just… sit tight.”
Angel hung up and walked to her kitchen, where she poured herself a glass of water and sat at the small dining table Cole had never eaten at, in the chair he’d never occupied. This corner of her apartment, at least, was untainted by his presence.
But that wouldn’t matter now. Now Cole would be part of her life forever, connected to her through their child in ways that would make her previous involvement with him look simple by comparison.
Angel thought about Harper, dealing with the aftermath of Cole’s betrayal while trying to protect Ava from the worst of it. At least Harper had the legal system on her side, a clear divorce decree that limited Cole’s access to their daughter. Angel would have no such protection. As the father of her child, Cole would have rights that couldn’t be dissolved by a judge’s order.
Twenty minutes later, Dahlia burst through Angel’s front door with grocery bags and the determined expression of someone prepared for crisis management.
“I brought ice cream, wine—which you obviously can’t have now—chocolate, and those fancy crackers you like,” Dahlia announced, unpacking items onto Angel’s counter. “Also tissues, pregnancy vitamins, and a bottle of prenatal supplements I grabbed from the pharmacy on the way over.”
Angel felt tears threatening at her friend’s immediate, practical support. “You bought prenatal vitamins?”
“I figured whatever decision you make, you should be taking care of yourself while you make it,” Dahlia said, settling beside Angel at the table. “So. Talk to me. How are you feeling about this?”
Angel stared at her hands, trying to organize her chaotic thoughts into something coherent. “Terrified. Angry. Confused. I finally got clarity about Cole and what he really is, finally made the decision to cut him out of my life completely, and now…” She gestured helplessly at her still-flat stomach.
“Now you’re connected to him forever,” Dahlia finished gently.
“I keep thinking about his daughter. Ava. She’s six years old, and her entire world just got turned upside down because her father couldn’t keep his promises. Now I’m going to bring another child into this mess, another innocent person who’ll have to deal with Cole’s selfishness and manipulation.”
Angel stood and began pacing her small kitchen, energy she couldn’t contain driving her movement. “But it’s worse than that, Dahlia. If I have this baby, Cole will use it as proof that I still love him, that our relationship was real and meaningful. He’ll probably tell people that Harper broke up a loving couple, that she destroyed our happy family out of spite.”
“Is that what you’re worried about? What people will think?”
“I’m worried about what’s true,” Angel said, her voice cracking. “What if some part of me does still love him? What if I’m having his baby because I can’t actually let go? What if this pregnancy is just another way of staying connected to a man I should hate?”
Dahlia stood and took Angel’s hands, stopping her restless movement. “Angel, look at me. Do you love Cole Sloane?”
Angel met her friend’s eyes and felt something settle in her chest. “I love the man I thought he was. But that man never existed. The real Cole Sloane is a liar who steals from his family and manipulates women and then blames everyone else when his choices have consequences. I don’t love that man. I can’t love that man.”
“Then this pregnancy isn’t about love. It’s about biology and timing and terrible luck.”
Angel nodded slowly, feeling some of her panic recede. “I can’t raise a child with him, Dahlia. I won’t put a baby through the kind of emotional manipulation I’ve experienced. I won’t give Cole another victim to use against the women in his life.”
“So what are your options?”
Angel had been avoiding that question for the past hour, but now she forced herself to face it directly. “I can terminate the pregnancy and disappear from Cole’s life like I planned. Or I can have the baby and spend the next eighteen years dealing with Cole’s attempts to control and manipulate both of us.”
“There might be a third option,” Dahlia said carefully.
“What do you mean?”
“You could have the baby and not tell Cole about it.”
Angel stared at her friend, shocked by the suggestion. “I can’t do that. Whatever else he is, Cole is the father. He has rights—”
“Does he?” Dahlia interrupted. “Think about it, Angel. Cole lost custody of his existing daughter because of his choices. He’s financially obligated to Harper for the next seven years. He’s proven himself incapable of putting his children’s needs before his own desires. What exactly would he contribute to this child’s life besides chaos and manipulation?”
Angel sank back into her chair, the weight of Dahlia’s words settling over her. “You’re suggesting I raise the baby alone and never tell Cole it exists?”
“I’m suggesting you consider what’s best for the child, not what’s legally required or socially expected. Cole Sloane has already demonstrated that he’s a destructive force in his family’s life. Why would you voluntarily subject another child to that?”
Angel closed her eyes and tried to imagine both scenarios. Telling Cole about the pregnancy would mean years of custody battles, manipulative behavior, and watching her child get caught between two parents who couldn’t stand each other. Not telling him would mean raising the child alone, but also protecting them from Cole’s influence.
“I can’t make this decision right now,” Angel said finally. “It’s too big, too complicated. I need time to think.”
“How much time do you have?”
Angel calculated quickly. “If I’m eight weeks along, I have about four more weeks to decide about… the other option. And if I choose to continue the pregnancy, I have seven months to figure out whether to tell Cole.”
Dahlia nodded. “That seems reasonable. What do you need from me right now?”
Angel looked around her apartment, at the boxes packed for her escape, at the remnants of a life she’d been preparing to abandon. “Help me move tomorrow. Help me disappear from Cole’s world like I planned. Then give me time to figure out what comes next.”
“Done,” Dahlia said immediately. “But Angel, whatever you decide about the pregnancy, you need to make the choice that’s right for you and the potential child. Not the choice that punishes Cole or protects him or makes anyone else happy.”
Angel nodded, feeling grateful for Dahlia’s practical wisdom. “I know. I just… I finally thought I was free of him. I thought I could rebuild my life without his lies contaminating everything.”
“You still can,” Dahlia said firmly. “A pregnancy doesn’t change who you are or what you’re capable of. It just adds another factor to consider.”
That night, Angel lay in her bed for the last time, surrounded by boxes and the detritus of her relationship with Cole. Her hand rested on her stomach, still flat but harboring a secret that could change everything.
She thought about Harper, fighting for her daughter’s future with the fierce determination of a mother protecting her child. She thought about Ava, navigating the aftermath of her parents’ divorce with the resilience of childhood. She thought about Cole, somewhere across town, probably still trying to figure out how his comfortable lies had exploded so spectacularly.
And she thought about the choice growing inside her—literally and figuratively. The choice between the family Cole would try to force her into and the life she could build on her own terms.
Angel closed her eyes and whispered into the darkness of her old life: “I’ll figure it out.”
But even as she said it, she knew that some choices couldn’t be postponed forever.
And Cole Sloane, whether he knew it or not, was about to become a father again.
The only question was whether he’d ever find out about it.
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