Chapter 19: Two Lines

I don’t remember getting home.

One moment I’m sitting in Dr. Yu’s office with those words echoing in my head—*five weeks pregnant*—and the next I’m standing outside a pharmacy three blocks from the hospital, staring at rows of pregnancy tests through the window.

The hospital could have made a mistake.

Labs mix up samples all the time, someone else’s blood in my vial, my results given to another patient. It happens.

It has to have happened.

I push through the pharmacy door.

The person behind the counter doesn’t look up from his phone as I grab a pregnancy test from the family planning aisle. The cheapest one, the kind with two lines for positive, one for negative.

Simple.

Definitive.

I pay cash and leave.

***

I don’t remember the walk home either.

But suddenly I’m in my bathroom, the test stick unwrapped in my shaking hands, instructions spread on the counter.

Urinate on the absorbent tip for five seconds.

Wait three minutes.

Two lines: pregnant.

One line: not pregnant.

Simple.

I follow the instructions, I urinate on it for five seconds, cap back on and set it on the counter.

Then I wait.

The timer on my phone counts down.

Three minutes.

Two.

One.

The alarm goes off.

I look down at the test stick.

Two lines.

Both pink and both clear, both impossible to misinterpret.

Positive.

My hands won’t stop shaking as I pick it up and walk back to my bedroom.

The hospital test results are still in my other hand. I’d convinced Dr. Yu not to call my family, told him I needed to process this first, that I’d tell them myself when I was ready. He’d looked concerned but agreed, citing patient confidentiality.

Now I sit on my bed.

One hand holds the hospital results.

The other holds the pregnancy test, two pink lines staring up at me.

Both say the same thing.

Pregnant.

Five weeks.

The word doesn’t feel real, none of this feels real.

I’m sitting here holding physical proof and my brain still can’t accept it.

I’m pregnant with Bael’s child, my sister’s fiance’s child.

...I’m doomed.

I’m totally doomed.

The thought arrives with crystalline clarity, not dramatic, not panicked, just a simple statement of fact.

There’s no way out of this. There’s no scenario where this ends well, no universe where I don’t destroy everything.

Feifei’s wedding, the family business, the partnership, my sister’s happiness.

All of it, ruined.

Because I’m carrying her fiance’s baby.

My mind starts racing, spiraling through options that feel less like solutions and more like desperate fantasies.

Abortion.

The word makes my stomach lurch but I force myself to consider it anyway. Do they even perform abortions in this world? For unmated omegas carrying unwanted pregnancies? What are the laws? What are the costs?

I don’t know.

I don’t know anything about how this world works and now I’m supposed to navigate something this massive with zero information.

But even if abortions exist, even if they’re legal and accessible... how would I explain it to my family? How would I get the money without raising suspicion? How would I hide the recovery period?

Impossible.

Run away then.

That’s the other option.

Pack a bag right now and leave tonight, disappear before the wedding, before anyone finds out, before this destroys everything.

But to where?

I have no money. Original Runze’s bank account has maybe enough for a few weeks of cheap hotels and instant noodles. No job prospects, an unfinished architecture degree that’s worthless in my hands.

I’d be a pregnant omega with nothing.

Alone.

Both options are impossible.

But both options are still better than staying here and watching this bomb detonate in my family’s faces.

I need to stand up.

Right now.

Pack whatever I can carry, take the small amount of cash Original Runze kept hidden in his desk drawer, and walk out the door before anyone realizes I’m home.

Just go.

Anywhere.

My body won’t respond.

I sit there, frozen, test results clutched in both hands, completely paralyzed by the weight of what they mean.

The door bursts open.

No warning, no footsteps in the hallway, just wood slamming against wall as Mother storms in mid-sentence.

"...I don’t understand why he didn’t answer his phone even after promising to call us himself, what did the doctor..."

She stops.

Freezes mid-step, mid-word.

Feifei is right behind her, nearly colliding with Mother’s back when she halts so suddenly.

Both women stare at me...at my hands!

Instinct screams at me to hide the evidence.

My hands jerk, trying to shove everything behind my back, under the pillow, anywhere out of sight.

But I’m too slow.

Too shocked.

Too late.

They’ve already seen the pregnancy test stick with two pink lines clearly visible in my right hand.

They’ve already seen the hospital test results in my left.

The silence that follows is deafening.

My heart is pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears. Blood rushing, panic clawing up my throat.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Not like this.

Not now.

Mother’s face drains of all color, her expression shifts from confusion to understanding to pure horror in the space of heartbeats.

Feifei’s hand flies up to cover her mouth. Her eyes go wide with shock and something that looks like fear.

Time stops.

Nobody moves.

Nobody breathes.

My brain is screaming at me to say something, explain, lie, do anything except sit here like a deer in headlights while they process what they’re seeing.

But no words come.

Just silence.

Just the knowledge that they saw it. The pregnancy test, the hospital results, the two pink lines.

There’s no taking it back.

My chest feels tight, my hands are numb. Everything is too bright and too loud and not real enough all at once.

This is it.

This is the moment everything falls apart.

Mother’s mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. When she finally speaks, her voice is barely recognizable...stripped of its usual sharpness, each word forced out like it’s cutting her throat.

"Who is the father?"