Zahir paced his office enough times to wear a visible track into the carpet. He moved from one end of the office to the other, pausing only to mutter a curse word or groan. Layla was pregnant? And it was his?

He was going to be a father?

Nothing made sense, and the more he thought about it, the further he drifted down the path of a decision that had essentially made itself the second his father opened his mouth with the news. He had to call off the engagement. There was no other choice, and that was the most absurd part about it. His father would be furious; the company would suffer. The very two things Zahir lived his life to avoid.

But what else could he do? There was no way he could move forward in life abandoning his unborn child from the get-go. And Layla. He couldn’t abandon her; had never wanted to in the first place. Every cell in his body craved her, despite the secret-keeping and the turmoil. Even amid the anger and the shock, he wanted to cradle her in his arms, let her know that he was going to take care of everything.

Of course, if he called off the engagement in favor of marrying the foreigner carrying his child, he ran the risk that the board wouldn’t accept him as the new CEO. Nothing was set in stone. Zahir stepping up to the plate was more of a ceremonial nod to his father’s legacy, but the board could hire a new CEO in a heartbeat if they decided Zahir was a liability.

But screw it. Screw them all. This was a risk he had to take.

Somehow, the anger and the shock made one thing startlingly clear: he loved Layla, and this was the only right move. This was the move he’d wanted to make the entire time. He wanted to choose Layla.

Zahir stormed out of his office, emboldened by the decision percolating in his gut. He headed for his father’s office, bursting in without knocking. His father looked up with hooded eyes.

“Don’t you bring me more bad news,” he warned.

“I can’t go through with the wedding,” Zahir blurted. His father set down his pen very slowly, his gaze narrowing on him.

“What did you say?”

“I don’t want to marry her. I can’t do it.”

“And why can’t you?”

“Because I’m in love with Layla and she’s pregnant with my child.”

His father leaned back into his chair, his face unreadable. The silence that filled the room throbbed between Zahir’s ears, each passing second making his heart beat faster.

“Father, say something,” Zahir pleaded after what felt like an eternity. Anything, even an angry outburst, would be better than this silence.

His father hadn’t moved, remained still as a statue. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Zahir said, his voice cracking.

“How do you know it’s yours?”

“We’ve been meeting up in secret for months,” Zahir said, averting his gaze. There was nothing more embarrassing than admitting his infidelity as a grown man. “It can only be mine.”

His father let out a long, raggedy sigh. He covered his face with his hands and stayed there for a long while.

“Father,” Zahir started.

“What do you want to do?” His father sat up, sniffing.

Zahir blinked. He’d never been asked that before. His conditioned response was to blurt out whatever you want. But that wasn’t the truth. It hadn’t been for a long time. “I want to be with Layla, the woman that I love. I want to help raise our child. I want to run this company.” When another silence descended, Zahir added, “And I want to honor you. Honor this family and the thousands of people that depend on us.”

His father nodded slowly, some of the color finally returning to his face. “Good. That is good.” He tapped his finger against the desk. “You are a good son, Zahir.”

Zahir’s belly twisted. This was certainly unexpected. Had he ever heard those words from his father’s lips before? He buried his hands in his pockets, unsure how to respond.

His father sighed and swiveled away toward his computer, waving his hand in Zahir’s direction. “Go, now. Just go.”

Zahir opened his mouth to ask him to add more, but decided against it. This was his decision, and it would happen without or without his father’s approval. He stumbled toward the door, his legs gelatin, feeling more buoyant and bristling than ever before in his life.

* * *

Layla rubbed her thumb over the smooth surface of a stone before hurling it into the sea. Marian rubbed her back while she intermittently threw rocks into the water, and murmured softly whenever tears arrived.

“I’m happy you finally did it.” Marian leaned her head against Layla. She’d come as soon as Layla called, leaving the office immediately after Layla said the word ‘resigned.’ “He needed to know.”

“Yeah.” Layla picked up another rock, examining its dappled surface.

“Omar and I had a lot of rocky territory between us at the beginning, too,” Marian went on, squinting out at the sea. The water lapped placidly at the stilts of a nearby dock. They’d met at a public access point a few miles from the Almasi headquarters.

“We don’t have rocks,” Layla said through a tight throat. “We have a bump. One that angered him, and made him storm out of my office.”

Marian stroked her hair. “Well, what did you want Zahir to say? It’s big, shocking news. Probably one of the reasons you avoided telling him in the first place.”

Layla nodded glumly.

“I’m not judging you for not telling him sooner,” she added. “But really. Tell me. If you had imagined some perfect scenario, where it went exactly as you imagined…what would that look like?”

Layla’s insides tightened. She was hesitant to even consider it, since her reality was now so far from that silly fantasy.

“I don’t know,” Layla finally forced out.

“I think you do,” Marian said gently. “And I think you’re so used to being someone’s good time that you forgot to imagine your own happy ending.”

“What good is imagining the happy ending?” Layla shot back. “It won’t happen. It never does.”

“But it does,” Marian murmured, squeezing her friend’s shoulder. “Even for you. So just imagine it. Come on. What would it look like?”

Layla sighed, adjusting her ass on top of the flat rock. “Fine. Zahir would have been happy, for starters. And he’d…” Layla’s throat closed off and she swallowed hard, trying to fight back the tears. “He’d tell me he loves me. Because I’m pretty fucking sure that I love him after all this mess. And he’d say he wants to be with me, to raise our baby, to—” She stopped, tears streaming down her cheek. “He wouldn’t marry that dumb girl, and we’d go make a killer apartment somewhere and visit volcanoes on the weekend.”

Marian grinned, nodding. “Very good.”

“But it’s not gonna happen,” Layla said, misery slithering back into its rightful spot in her heart.

“You don’t know that. But you have to be open to the possibility for it to ever happen in the first place.”

Layla sighed, feeling the fight go out of her. She leaned her head against Marian’s and let the tears stream down her face until she couldn’t cry anymore.

* * *

A couple hours later, Marian had returned to the office and Layla sat alone at the sea. Cross-legged with a gentle breeze caressing her, she looked down at her belly, smoothing a hand over the still-invisible bump.

“You’ll be my little one,” she said, tears instantly filling her eyes. She hadn’t cried this much in one day ever. Not even when her last boyfriend broke her heart. “I will love you to the moon and back. And whatever happens, you will be safe with me.”

She sat for a long time, rubbing her belly, imagining all the sweet things she could show this little creature inside of her. Now that the cat was out of the bag, surely Zahir’s family would have some sort of wealthy influence. But that didn’t mean that having a baby spelled the end of her life. No, she could travel with the baby to see all the things she’d meant to see alone. She’d pass along that appreciation of the world, of culture, of new experiences.

She could forge a new path, exactly as she saw fit.

She smiled, looking out at the sea. For the first time, the pregnancy felt empowering. She wasn’t a helpless bystander or a victim—she was in control of this ship.

“Layla.”

She jumped at the unexpected voice and didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Tears came again to her eyes and she stilled. A warm hand rested on her shoulder.

“Baby.” Zahir’s voice was a balm, one that smoothed everything over with just a couple syllables. She looked up at him through shimmery tears, and the sight of him nearly made her collapse.

“You didn’t wait.” His voice was chiding, but he smiled a little. He sat on the rock next to her, the scent of his cologne grounding her, bringing her clarity despite the turmoil. She swallowed hard, eyeing his chest, desperate to collapse against him.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I kinda had to get out of there.”

“I don’t care that you didn’t tell me,” he said suddenly. “I’m just happy that I know now. And I can take care of you.”

She furrowed a brow, looking back at the sea. “But what will your new wife think?”

“I don’t have a wife. I only have a girlfriend.” He grabbed at her chin, guiding her face back to him.

She avoided his gaze anyway, feeling stubborn. “Oh? Was there another woman on the side you didn’t tell me about?”

“Yeah. This strawberry blonde woman from New York.” Zahir shifted beside her, leaning closer, his heat flooding her. “Sassy, determined, pretty fertile.” He cocked a grin and she couldn’t resist. She smiled too.

“She sounds like a bore,” Layla said, her throat tightening. “Probably wouldn’t want to be with her.”

“No, I do.” Zahir took her hand in his, sealing her in his grip. “I want to be with her more than anything.”

Layla’s breath hitched. “How did you find me out here?”

“My spy, Marian.” He scooted closer to her.

“What will the board members say?” Her brain swirled like a cyclone. She couldn’t believe she even had the capacity to speak right now.

“I have no idea. I’ll find out later.”

Layla shook with restrained sobs. This was unreal. It was too good to be true. But maybe Marian had been right. She had to be willing to imagine the future before it could even happen.

“Do you even want to be a dad?” Layla swung to look at him, the tender expression on his face slashing her in two.

“I never thought much about it, other than I would know when it was right.”

Layla laughed through more tears. “Is this right?”

“The rightest decision I’ve ever made.” Zahir leaned closer, nudging her face with his nose. “Layla, will you be with me? Not in the dark or in secret. Be with me so I can hold your hand in public and we don’t care about what the newspapers say.”

She drew a raggedy breath. That sounded like heaven. “Yes. And the only difference will be now we won’t care about what the newspapers say.”

Zahir laughed. “That’s right. I held your hand in public already.” He ran his fingers up the sides of her arms. “Layla, I love you.”

She crumpled into his arms at the words, heat searing through her, making her dizzy and blind. “I love you too, Zahir.”

His arms encircled her and she wept into his embrace, relief and adoration sweeping through her. This man, the man she’d been attracted to the second she saw him, was hers in a way she’d been too terrified to even hope for. Their baby had been the greatest blessing of all.

And now all she had to do was take the leap and go with it.

“Where do we go from here?” Layla asked into his chest. “We went from hooking up to coworkers to parents. I can’t predict the next step.”

“I think it’s where you move in,” Zahir whispered. “And you wake up at my side every day. And I’ll make you breakfast and rub your belly, and we live life exactly how we want.”

Layla tilted her head back, getting lost in his gaze, and then pressed her lips to his in a kiss so hard that she saw starbursts.