Maximus

For a long moment, the world simply stopped.

The night sounds vanished. The river, the crickets, the wind—gone. All I could hear was the echo of her words replaying in my head, again and again, until I finally remembered how to breathe.

Rebecca was watching me, her face half-lit by firelight. Calm. Maybe too calm. Her hand had settled protectively over her stomach, and it hit me then that she wasn’t joking.

“You’re… pregnant,” I repeated, just to ...