The voices around Brooklyn faded in and out until they were gone.

She stood in the middle of a sparkling sea, the waters reminiscent of her own turquoise eyes. Blackness surrounded her, but the glow of a half-moon glinted off the waves, a billion stars twinkling above her head, and she looked around, trying to understand where she was. It was nowhere she had been before, a tropical paradise Brooklyn could only imagine was heaven.

She saw him asleep on the dock, a few feet away, his large frame sprawled out as if he was dead. Cautiously, she approached him, her heart hammering. Though, if she was dead, her heat shouldn’t beat, should it?

Kneeling at his side, Brooklyn touched his face, exhaling as she realized he was very much alive, his chest rising, a serene expression on his face.

“Cass?” she whispered.

His lids parted, and he gaped at her in shock.

She reached out to touch him, but she was jolted across the water.

“She’s back!”

Her eyes flew open, the white of a ceiling the first thing in her view before the doctors and nurses appeared on her radar.

“Brooklyn, can you hear me?”

She nodded slowly, wanting to slip back to the utopia she had left, wanting to touch her lips to Cass’ once more.

“Look at me,” one physician instructed, and she shifted her bleary eyes toward him, focusing on him. His face registered great relief. “Follow the light,” he told her, holding a flashlight, and she did as instructed.

Suddenly, she remembered why she was there and what had happened. Brooklyn bolted upward, reaching for her stomach as the medical staff pressed her back to the bed. Instantly she was consumed by a feeling of lightheadedness.

“My baby!” she cried, her eyes wide with fear.

“Just stay down,” the doctor with the flashlight asked.

“My baby!” Brooklyn insisted, panic swelling in her heart. “What happened to my baby?”

The man’s eyes narrowed behind his wire rimmed glasses, and his gaze shifted toward a nearby nurse.

“Oh,” Brooklyn gasped. “Is he…?” Quickly, the physician shook his dark head.

“The fetus is fine, Brooklyn,” he assured her, keeping his gaze on her. “Everything is fine now.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded, again trying to sit up. Once more, she was kept down.

“You need to rest,” the doctor told her. “Your friend and your boyfriend are outside. They are eager to see you. Are you up for it now, or would you rather wait?”

Brooklyn stared at him uncomprehendingly.

“My baby is fine?” she repeated. “Are you sure?”

He visibly swallowed, turning his head. “Yes…”

There was something in the way he spoke that gave Brooklyn chills.

“What is wrong with him? What happened to me?” She had a thousand questions, but his lips pursed together, and he shook his head again.

“You need to rest first,” he told her firmly. “I promise, the fetus is fine. I will call your family in to see you.” He did not give her time to argue, slipping from the room, the nurse on his heels.

But Brooklyn was troubled by the way he had continuously referred to her baby as “the fetus.” What did that mean? Was she just reading too much into it? They wouldn’t lie to her about her baby, would they?

A thousand more unanswered questions flooded her mind. Tersely, she sat against the pillows, her mind whirling.

What the hell happened to me? she wondered, her palms spread against her belly. It seemed to have grown in only a few hours. Wait… how long have I been here?

“Oh, my God!” Audrey shrieked, rushing into the room. “Oh, my God!” She threw her arms around Brooklyn, and she saw Ryan amble in behind her, although he nervously stood by the door. “How are you feeling?” the redhead demanded. “I have never been so scared in my life!”

“What happened?” Brooklyn asked her, hoping that she could shed some light on what had occurred. “How long have I been here?”

“You need to rest,” Ryan told her, speaking for the first time as he strode toward the bed, his eyes clouded. Brooklyn realized he was still in his uniform—he had been called from work.

She eyed Audrey, wondering why her friend would have called him. She hated Ryan, she wouldn’t have wanted him here.

As if reading her mind, Audrey piped up.

“Ryan is listed as your next of kin on your insurance papers,” she told Brooklyn.

It made sense that he had been called, then, yet at the same time, it did not. The phone number listed on her insurance information should have had Ryan’s old number in Burlingame, not his new one in LA.

Brooklyn shook her head.

“I need to know what happened,” she insisted.

Audrey looked away, and Ryan cleared his throat.

“Everything is fine now,” he said gruffly. “Just rest. Audrey and I will be back later.”

“Go back to work,” Audrey snapped at him, “and speak for yourself.” She turned back to Brooklyn as her eyes grew heavy. “I’m just outside. I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, spinning to yank Ryan out of the room.

“I’ll be back after my shift,” Ryan promised her. He looked like wanted to say something else, but Audrey pulled him away.

Brooklyn’s body was bruised, exhausted, but her mind still whirled from what had happened. Nothing made sense, and she wanted answers. Why wouldn’t anyone tell her what had happened? Why had the doctor and the nurse looked at her that way?

The tiredness won out, and her lids dropped together, despite the fact that she fought against her overtaking slumber. Her sleep was dreamless, and when she woke again, Audrey was flopped out in an armchair, flipping through a magazine.

Even in her beaten state, Brooklyn could tell that she was not really reading it, her blue eyes vacant and distracted.

“Hey,” Brooklyn croaked, realizing her throat was absolutely parched.

Audrey snapped to attention, dropping the magazine to the floor.

“Hey,” she replied, hurrying to get her a cup of water. “How are you feeling?”

“Fuzzy,” Brooklyn admitted as she accepted the water. She gulped it back, slightly wrinkling her nose at the lukewarm temperature of the liquid, but it didn’t stop her from drinking it all.

“Take it easy,” Audrey warned. “The doctor said you might throw up if you drink too fast.”

“Tell me what happened!” Brooklyn demanded, pushing herself up. “Why do I have to keep asking the same thing over and over? Audrey, tell me! Please!”

A wave of uneasiness flooded through her, followed by nausea. She quickly shut her eyes to ward it off. After a moment, it passed, and she reopened her eyes to study Audrey’s concerned face.

“Should I call for a nurse?” she asked, and Brooklyn shook her head.

“I don’t want one more damned person in this room until I get answers!” she snapped. “Is the baby really all right?”

Audrey nodded firmly, and Brooklyn sighed with relief, her shoulders sagging slightly. She knew that Audrey wouldn’t lie to her, not about something like that.

Another thought occurred to her, and she stared at her friend with concern.

“Does Ryan know how far along I am?” she whispered.

Audrey avoided her eyes.

“No,” she sighed. “He wasn’t here when Dr. Cameron came to talk to me. Brooklyn, who is the baby’s father?”

Brooklyn wasn’t ready to tell her the truth. “Ryan. We had a fling after we broke up.”

“You’re lying,” Audrey said flatly, and Brooklyn felt her cheeks grow pink.

“What difference does it make?” she snapped. “As far as Ryan knows, the baby is his. You’re not going to tell him, are you?”

“Is that why you took him back?” Audrey asked urgently. “Because you didn’t want to raise the baby alone?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Not now at least,” Brooklyn growled. “What happened to me?”

“I don’t care what you want to talk about!” Audrey yelled back. “You scared the shit out of me! You uprooted your whole life, reconciled with that jackass—who, by the way, couldn’t even stay here to make sure you’re okay—and now you’re telling me you’re pregnant! It’s like I don’t even know you anymore, Brook!”

Brooklyn read the anguish in Audrey’s eyes, and guilt flooded her.

“You’re right,” she murmured, contrition lining her words. “I’m sorry.” Audrey stared at her, and they locked gazes for a long moment.

“Tell me what happened,” Audrey said, the anger gone from her voice as she slid onto the bed beside her. Brooklyn relished the warmth of her friend’s contact, and she exhaled slowly.

Maybe it was time to tell someone her strange secret, and who better than Audrey? Then again, would telling her endanger her, even if Audrey didn’t believe her? Brooklyn supposed that it didn’t matter—not anymore. The stress was too much, and she needed to unburden herself.

Audrey embraced her tightly.

“You can trust me,” she assured her, and Brooklyn laughed mirthlessly.

“I know that,” she sighed. “It’s not trust I’m worried about.”

Audrey slightly pulled her body back to stare at her. “Then what are you worried about? Because let me tell you, nothing you say can make me more concerned than I already am.”

Brooklyn nodded, knowing that Audrey was likely right.

“You have to promise not to call the psych ward after I tell you this, though,” she told Audrey, and her friend snorted.

“Honey, you have seen me pull off so much shit, I think it’s safe to say your secrets are safe with me.”

Brooklyn cleared her throat and exhaled. “The night we went out, the night we ran into Ryan?”

“What about it?” She gnawed on her lower lip, contemplating for the last time if she should say it aloud.

If I speak the words, it will make it true, she warned herself, but she knew Audrey would not let her off the hook now that she had come this far.

“I met a guy that night,” Brooklyn continued.

“What? Oh!” Audrey groaned. “They said you disappeared early and didn’t wait for the limo. I should have known you were getting laid! Ugh, I knew there had to be something else! If I had been there—”

“You wouldn’t have been able to stop me,” Brooklyn said. “He was… I don’t know. He seemed to have this kind of spell on me. Even without talking, we had this… bond or something.” Saying it aloud made Brooklyn feel stupid, but she had no other words to adequately describe what she had felt about Cass.

“You mean, you were upset about seeing Ryan and you wanted to get back at him,” Audrey corrected.

Brooklyn tensed. Then she went on, her voice soft as she spoke. “It felt deeper than that at the time. Maybe it was a rebound after all, but it didn’t feel like that when I was with him.”

She didn’t add that she still felt drawn to him, despite what she had seen.

“It was incredible,” Brooklyn explained. “He knew every part of my body like we had been together a million times before. And I swear, Audrey, when I looked at him, I felt like we had met before, even though I was sure we hadn’t. I mean, he was so handsome. It’s not a face you easily forget.”

“What was his name?” Audrey sighed, shaking her head.

“Cass,” she replied, and Audrey’s face scrunched into a perplexed expression.

“That’s an odd name.”

“I didn’t really think about it,” Brooklyn admitted with a shrug. “I was focused on other things.”

“I bet,” Audrey snorted. “Go on. What happened?”

“It was… incredible,” Brooklyn said, her mind shifting back to that night. The hairs on her arms rose in excitement, and she could almost smell Cass’s aftershave in the hospital room. “I have never had sex like that, even though it was more than just sex. We were… inside one another, you know, like we had melded into one person. It’s hard to put it into words, but… he was what I had always envisioned as a prince coming to sweep me off my feet.”

“And then what happened to him?” Audrey demanded. “He just went home, and you have no idea where to find him?”

Brooklyn turned her head toward the window, even though the shades were pulled, worried that her displeasure would show through.

“Yes,” she answered. “And then I learned I was pregnant.” Audrey sighed dramatically.

“Well,” she said. “That is hardly a reason to get back together with Ryan.”

The way she said his name made Brooklyn shiver. There was pure venom in her tone.

“I will help you find this bastard, and he will pay what he owes,” Audrey continued. “You can come home with me, and—”

“I’m not going back to Burlingame,” Brooklyn told her. “And Ryan can never know. He’s sorry. I can tell he’s changed.”

Audrey snorted, untangling her arms from Brooklyn’s shoulders. “A leopard never changes its spots, Brook. You’re deluding yourself if you think he won’t do it again. Men like him can’t help themselves.”

“Audrey, I don’t want to hear about it,” she snapped.

“Listen,” Audrey went on, “if you shared such an intense connection with this booty call, maybe he’ll be thrilled to hear the news. Did that ever occur to you?”

Brooklyn swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I am not looking for him,” she said with finality. “Ryan is the child’s father. That’s the end of the conversation.”

“You’ll see I’m right about Ryan Shilling,” Audrey muttered, rolling her eyes. “You should save us both a lot of time and find the real father.”

“If nothing happened to the baby, why am I here?” Brooklyn asked, determined to change the subject.

Audrey’s body seemed to tense. “You died. Your heart stopped for three minutes.”

“Why?” Brooklyn asked, her face growing pale. A fleeting memory of being on a dock fluttered through her mind. Had that been heaven? Had Cass died, too? The thought that he might not be alive made her want to scream.

“They have no idea,” Audrey responded. “Your toxicology screen showed nothing, and your heart is healthy. It was some freak medical mystery to which no one has an answer.”

“And this didn’t affect the baby?” Brooklyn asked, her eyes wide and dubious.

“Not that they can determine.” Audrey seemed to want to say something else, but she trailed off and looked away. Brooklyn stared at her, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“But?” Audrey grasped her hands and stared into her eyes deeply.

“I don’t want you to freak out, but…” She seemed unable to finish her thought.

“Spit it out, Aud!” Brooklyn demanded. “What is it?”

“The baby… isn’t a baby.”

Brooklyn gaped at her, her jaw dropping. “What the hell does that mean?”

Audrey rose from the bed and began to pace the room.

“You should wait for the doctor,” she said nervously.

“No!” Brooklyn squealed, feeling panic rising in her veins. “What does that mean? What do you mean it’s not a baby?”

Audrey walked toward the nightstand without responding and opened the drawer, pulling out two ultrasound pictures that she silently placed in Brooklyn’s hands.

Brooklyn snatched the pictures up, peering into the black and white images.

Then she began to scream.