CARL

No, I didn't sleep well, and yes, there was a sudden pit in my stomach, and it swallowed all the loveliness in me. My eyes had been wide open for the past hour, but I couldn't get out of bed. My gaze remained glued to the ceiling as I relived yesterday's scene. Linda's sudden pregnancy.

I didn't believe it at first until she showed me the paperwork, including the photographs of the ultrasound scan. It still didn't feel real. It felt like a bad dream— a kind of drawback carefully ...