The name hit David like a punch.
Lydia.
He stood up so quickly the chair nearly toppled behind him.
"What did she tell you?" he asked, his voice low but shaken.
Amira's eyes narrowed. "She said you weren't telling me the full story. That there's more about that night. About what you did after the hospital."
David's face turned pale.
Back at the Beginning
That night, Amira sat alone on her bed, Lydia's voice ringing in her ears:
"He didn't just betray you once, Amira. He made a decision after you lost the baby that he's never confessed. Ask him about the second visit to the hospital. The one you never knew happened."
A second visit?
Amira had been unconscious after surgery. The nurses told her no one came.
But now…
Now Lydia claimed David had come back. And that he had made a decision on Amira's behalf.
One that changed everything.
David sat across from Amira again two days later.
He looked older. More tired. And maybe... more honest.
"I need you to tell me," Amira said. "What happened that second time at the hospital?"
David hesitated.
Then, he spoke slowly.
"They told me the baby was gone. You were stable but unconscious. The doctor said there were complications. That future pregnancies could be risky."
Amira's heart pounded.
David looked her in the eye.
"They gave me a choice. To approve an emergency procedure that might protect your life… but might also end your chances of carrying again."
Amira's breath caught.
"And you… you made that decision without me?"
David nodded, tears in his eyes.
"I chose your life."
Betrayal or Love?
Amira stood, fists clenched.
"You robbed me of a future I didn't even know I could still have?"
David stood too. "I saved your life."
"You stole a part of me I didn't even get to grieve for!"
Her voice broke.
"I wanted to be a mother again one day."
"I was trying to protect you," David whispered.
"But you didn't ask me!" she shouted. "You didn't even wait. You made a goddamn choice—and you made it alone."
Silence fell between them.
The coffee shop had become a battlefield of ghosts.
As Amira turned to leave, her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
"If you think David told you everything, you're wrong. Meet me. Tonight. 8pm. No lies this time."
She read it again. And again.
David asked, "What is it?"
She looked up, face pale.
"Someone else knows about that night. And they say… you're still lying."