Chapter 6

The phone slipped from my ear and landed on my lap.

The screen went dark, but the word kept echoing in the quiet space of our living room, sharp and impossible to unhear.

Dad.

"Chloe?" Maya's voice was careful.

She was still standing near the bassinet, her hand resting on the edge of the wood.

She hadn't heard the audio, but she had seen the color drain from my face. "What happened?"

"Noah," I said. My voice didn't even sound like my own. It sounded thin, scraped entirely hollow. "He just called him Dad."

Maya froze.

For a second, the…