Chapter 8: The Secret Revealed

The grad school application hadn’t gone through yet when something unexpected happened.

Today, the kitchen made baked salmon.

I used to love it.

But today, for some reason, the fishy smell made me want to throw up.

Chase picked up a piece and put it on my plate. Wanting to save face, I forced myself to eat it.

But as soon as the fish touched my mouth, I couldn’t help but gag.

Something felt wrong.

Suddenly, I realized it had been a month and a half since that night.

And in all that time, my usually punctual period hadn’t come.

I looked up, and met Chase’s eyes.

He was watching me intently.

"You threw up?"

I rushed to cover it up: "The fish is too fishy today."

He picked up a piece and tasted it himself: "Tastes fine to me."

I lied, "Your sense of taste must be broken."

Chase put down his fork, pulled out a napkin, and gently wiped the corner of my mouth.

"Is that so? My sense of taste is broken?"

"I thought it was…"

"My little sister has morning sickness."

The fork slipped from my hand and clattered to the plate. I stared at him, mouth dry, the room spinning. He knew. Oh God, he knew. His words hung in the air like a thunderclap. My throat closed up, and I gripped the edge of the table. Outside, a siren wailed, the sound slicing through the silence. I didn’t have an answer—just the knowledge that nothing in my life would ever be the same again.

Chase leaned in, voice barely above a whisper. "What are we going to do now?" And for the first time, I realized—I had no idea.