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[text] =>
ⁿᵒʷ ᵖˡᵃʸⁱⁿᵍ
𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 & 𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬
𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 , 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫
Maya couldn’t sleep. Not after the text. Not after every whispered rumor, every shadowed corner, every street corner that reminded her of him.
She sat on the cracked steps of an abandoned stoop, backpack at her side, phone clutched like a lifeline. The screen glowed faintly in the night, casting pale light over her tense face.
You shouldn’t be out here alone. We need to talk.
She stared at it for what felt like hours. The message didn’t have a name, just the number. Could’ve been anyone. But deep down… she knew.
She pressed “Reply.” Her fingers shook so badly she almost hit the wrong keys.
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬?
Seconds stretched. Then the reply came:
𝐌𝐞. 𝐉𝐚𝐱.
The world tilted. Maya dropped her phone onto her lap. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might break ribs.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to run. She wanted to throw something, throw everything — maybe even throw herself into the river. But she couldn’t move. Her fingers hovered over the screen, frozen.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐰? she typed. 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠?
The reply was immediate.
𝐈 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞.
𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆.
The thought of him coming back into her life, after all these months, made her stomach twist. She wanted to say no. She wanted to hide. But something else — something she couldn’t name — pulled her forward.
She typed back:
Where?
Tomorrow. Midnight. Pier 9. Alone.
Maya’s fingers hovered over the send button for a moment longer than they should have. Then she pressed it.
Sleep didn’t come. She stared at the ceiling in the little corner she had claimed under a stairwell in an old apartment building she’d been squatting in. Every creak of the building made her jump. Every passing shadow, every whisper of wind through the cracked window, felt like him already there, watching.She tried to imagine him. The Jax she knew, the boy who had vanished without a trace, who left her pregnant and alone. The boy who made her heart race and then walked away.
She hated him. Loved him. Feared him. Wanted him. All at the same time.
Midnight. The pier was deserted. Water lapped against the wooden pillars, the smell of salt mixing with the faint stench of decay. Her boots clacked on the weathered boards as she approached the meeting spot.
And then she saw him.
Jax.
No hoodie tonight. Just a dark jacket over a black shirt, hands stuffed in his pockets. He hadn’t changed much. Same sharp jaw, same storm behind his eyes. But he had… weight. A shadow. Something different that made her chest ache.
He noticed her before she got close. His gaze snapped, cold and calculating, but beneath it… she thought she saw something else. Hesitation. A crack in the wall.
“Maya,” he said, voice low, almost a growl.
“Hi,” she said, her voice shaking despite herself.
“Why are you here?” he asked, the words sharp, guarded.
“You sent the message,” she said, trying to match his calm. Her stomach fluttered with fear and anticipation. “I’m here.”
He didn’t answer. Just stared at her, dark eyes unreadable, then finally nodded toward the edge of the pier. “We talk here. No distractions.”
They stood in silence for a long moment, just the water moving beneath them, the night pressing down, thick and heavy.
Then he finally said it, the words slicing through the quiet like a knife:
“You have a kid.”
Maya’s stomach drops. Her hand instinctively goes to her belly. Jax’s gaze flickers to it, a flicker she doesn’t understand — shock? Guilt? Fear? She doesn’t know.
The city hums around them, but for the first time in months, it feels like her world has tilted back onto Jax — dangerous, unpredictable, impossible… and maybe, just maybe, not gone.
_
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