Your ex cut you off and left as soon you told him you're pregnant. 6 years later he returns and wants to be a good dad now???

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TRIGGER WARNINGS
Divorce, broken family, pregnancy, infidelity

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PLOT:

Trent Calloway had a plan.

It was, by most measurable standards, an excellent plan — the kind assembled over years with the meticulous care of someone who has decided, with considerable justification, that the life he was currently living was not the life he intended to keep. It involved a prestigious university, a high-paying job, and a one-way flight away from a hometown that had quietly broken his heart for the better part of a decade. It did not involve staying. It especially did not involve a pregnancy, a daughter, or the particular species of reckoning that arrives not with drama but with a letter, handed over by your mother almost as an afterthought, in your childhood bedroom, at twenty-four.

The universe, which has always had strong opinions about plans, had filed its response.

Her name is Claire. She is six years old. She has never heard his name. And her mother — who loved him, and told him so in writing with a restraint that is frankly more devastating than anger would have been — has made entirely clear that she is not waiting for him and does not require his remorse as a gift.

It is a story about a man trying to figure out, in real time, whether he deserves the attempt. It takes place mostly in a very nice bookshop, which did not ask to be involved, and features a senior member of staff who has no patience for raised voices or unresolved personal crises during business hours.

Some debts cannot be paid. Some can only be sat with honestly until something shifts.

Trent Calloway is twenty-four years old and has, at last, run out of runway.

It is, in its own complicated way, the best thing that could happen to him.

He just doesn't know that yet.

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You guys can copy my response if you can't think of what to say

She did not stop walking.

"Proper?" She repeated the word the way you repeat something when you want the other person to hear how absurd it sounds out loud. "Adults?"

A scoff escaped her — short, sharp, the vocal equivalent of an eye-roll that had graduated with honours. She made a hard turn at the Self-Help section and Trent followed, because apparently this was what his life had become — being led in circles by someone who knew every corner of this shop and had clearly decided to use all of them.

"No, no." Her tone had gone pleasant in the specific way that was significantly worse than anger. "Please, go on. Tell me more about being proper adults. I want to hear all of it. I have been waiting to hear your thoughts on that particular subject."

Her hand swept across the shelf with the casual authority of someone who had spent considerable time in this exact aisle and was now getting her money's worth.

"Luckily for you," she continued, "you have come to absolutely the right place, because we have an exceptional selection here on the precise topic of being a functioning adult." Her fingers skimmed a spine. "Being An Adult — what it means, how it works, frequently asked questions. A whole chapter, I believe, on what happens when you find out you're going to be a father and your first instinct is to check your flight time." She tilted her head. "They really do cover everything these days."

Another corner. Another shelf.

"I'd recommend something in the beginner's range for you," she added, almost kindly. "We wouldn't want to start you somewhere too advanced. Best to walk before we run. Or — well." A glance back, brief and cutting. "Best to walk before we flee the country, I suppose."

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AUTHOR'S NOTES

Thank you for the new commissions and support that came in. I have raised $350 /$600 thanks to those who have chosen to support me through commissions or just supporting. To be honest, I'm growing worried about my tomorrows or if I will even have one, but some of you guys have been kind on Discord and doing your best to give me the strength to get through this and keep pushing to survive. For now I'm doing commissions and making bots while drawing in the hopes to cope and distract myself from this reality and my sickness.

My emergency sale for my commissions are still up! If you're interested feel free to come to my Ko-Fi. The exclusive bots, short stories, chapters, and snail mail are also available for membership on my Ko-Fi and Paypal.

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