𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 | 𝐃𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐈𝐑𝐊 [Collins]

Chapter 25 - The moments we should have shared

(revised)

"I'm so sorry..." James tried to comfort me. "I came as soon as I heard."

I clung to his jacket and tried to control my sobbing.

"I wish I was dead and not him. You guys deserved to be together."

"Please, don't say that," I stopped him as I left his embrace. "It's not helping."

"You're right. Sorry..." he apologised and scratched his cheek with embarrassment, looking down, but he immediately raised his head again and looked at me with genuine surprise.

"You're pregnant?!" he asked.

I nodded. He had seen my belly anyway, it was just a rhetorical question.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed and let out a sigh. "Sorry, I was not expecting that," he added, which caused me to smile.

"How long?" he asked again.

"Six months. Roughly," I informed him.

"Already?"

"Already."

"So, he knew?"

"No... No, it wasn't planned. I discovered weeks after he died."

"It's unfair!" he let out.

"That's war..." I observed.

"At least, he made sure you wouldn't be alone," he tried to cheer me up.

"I don't think it was intentional, but yes, we can say that it's a Christmas miracle," I smiled at the idea. "Do you want to feel the baby?" I asked James who was looking at me as if craving to do it.

"I'd love to!" he immediately replied.

And so, I took his hand and pressed it against my belly, resting mine on top. Within seconds, the baby was moving as if to greet his father's best friend. A smile grew on James's face, who was astonished by such new sensation.

"It's an active one," he observed.

"Just like its father," I said and grinned warmly at him.

"I can't believe you guys made a baby! Did I leave such a long time ago?" he joked.

"Well... A lot happened!" I laughed.

"You've got to tell me everything," he exclaimed.

"I think you've got a lot to tell me too," I replied as I invited him to follow me to the living room, hoping he would tell me what had happened to him during the last two years.

*

Of all the ways I had imagined I would find things after I had managed to escape enemy's territory, this one had never occurred to me. I had been through some tough moments, but to see her so broken-hearted and inconsolable had been the hardest. It was written all over her body that she had suffered an incommensurable loss, from her hollow eyes often looking into the void to her bony hands playing with her necklace. It was a miracle she had not crumbled into my arms. I had no idea how to help her, lift the weight off her heart, but I wanted to. I knew I wasn't the one she had wanted to see on her doorstep, and yet, she seemed glad to have me by her side, telling me about all I had missed during my absence.

"Believe it or not, but we had the perfect wedding. I think the fact that we had to plan it in a rush made it even more special," she let me know.

"You guys were not afraid to skip some steps, and I quite admire you for that. Well, maybe not at the beginning," I joked, "you were both so complicated when everything was so obvious."