CHAPTER 271: CHAPTER 271: SHATTERED SILENCE

Xu Kai froze.

"I’m... pregnant."

His breath caught. His eyes widened. His lips parted—but no sound came. For a long second, the world around him felt distant and muffled, as if someone had submerged him in water.

Pregnant.

His mind reeled. He stared at her, searching her face, trying to convince himself he’d misheard, that her trembling voice had said something else, anything else.

But no—her tears were real. Her fingers clung to him like she was drowning. Her body shook with silent sobs that clawed at his soul.

Shock thundered through him, then—pain.

A flash of something like pain twisted in his chest, so sudden it stole his breath. Regret and Guilt. And something far darker...fear.

"Would she hate him now?"

"...I’m sorry," he whispered finally, his voice cracking like glass beneath weight. "Baby, I’m so sorry... This is my fault."

He drew her closer, holding her with a kind of reverence, like if he squeezed too hard she’d shatter.

His hand slowly moved to cradle the back of her head. Her hair was damp from sweat, her body too cold. He held her tighter, as if he could shield her from everything in the world.

"You’re still so young, Aeris..." he murmured, his throat tightening with every word. "You’re only nineteen... You shouldn’t have to carry this burden if you’re not ready."

She didn’t respond, just trembled harder in his arms.

"If we don’t want this," he whispered, so gently, like every word could cut her, "we can still abort it. You don’t have to go through with it just because it happened. You don’t need to cry..."

"I’m here, baby. I’ll always be here."

But the moment the word "abort" left his lips, Aeris flinched.

And then—

"You... you bastard!" She sobbed, her voice suddenly sharp, cracked, and filled with pain.

Xu Kai’s heart jolted.

"You want to get rid of it?!" she choked out, pushing against his chest with trembling fists. "Now you don’t want me?! Just because I’m pregnant?! Jerk...!"

Tears streamed down her face, her voice rising with every word. Her shoulders shook violently, and her fists hit his chest with weak, desperate blows.

"You said you loved me! You said you’d stay with me forever!" Her voice cracked and then broke. "But now you want to erase it?!"

"Aeris—no!" Xu Kai’s eyes widened in shock, completely stunned. His hands hovered in the air helplessly, unsure whether to hold her or back away.

"I didn’t mean it like that," he said quickly, panic threading through his voice. "Gods, I never said I didn’t want you. I just—I thought you were scared. I thought maybe... maybe you didn’t want this, and I didn’t want to trap you—"

"Then why are you saying that?!" she screamed through tears. "You’re the one who said it! You said to abort it! As if this child means nothing!"

Her words hit him like knives. Xu Kai’s lips trembled.

"I didn’t mean the child meant nothing," he said hoarsely. "I was trying to protect you... I thought I was doing the right thing..."

But Aeris couldn’t hear him. Her mind was swirling in chaos. She pressed her hands against her stomach, sobbing harder, breath hitching with every cry.

"I’m scared too, you know," she whispered, voice broken. "But you were supposed to tell me we’d figure it out. Not... that."

Xu Kai closed his eyes, guilt flooding through him like poison.

He reached out slowly and carefully, his hands trembling as he cupped her face. She didn’t pull away this time. Her breath was shallow, her eyes glassy and red.

"I’m sorry," he said again, voice raw. "I’m sorry I said that. I was scared too. But not of you or the baby."

He kissed her forehead softly. "This wasn’t what I wanted to say. I panicked. But Aeris... if you want this baby, then I do too."

Her breath hitched.

"I’ll be here," he whispered. "I swear to you. No matter what happens. I’ll be here. For you. For the baby. For us."

Aeris closed her eyes, her tears still falling....but slower now. She didn’t speak, just leaned into him, trembling, her body still curled in quiet pain.

And Xu Kai held her there, in the dim silence, gently rocking her as if trying to mend something fragile...

On the other side, Liora stood frozen.

Her heart thundered so loudly she was certain it would echo through the silence. Her glassy and wide eyes remained fixed on them. On herself and Xu Kai.

Her throat tightened as she watched Xu Kai’s arms wrap protectively around Aeris, his voice cracking with apology and promises. And when Aeris buried her face into his chest, Liora’s own knees threatened to buckle, her hand clamping over her mouth to stifle the sob that rose up so suddenly it nearly choked her.

Tears spilled from her eyes.

She had forgotten this.

She had forgotten her child.

Her gaze shifted—low, instinctively—toward Aeris’s trembling hands pressed protectively against her belly. Liora’s own hand mirrored the gesture without thinking, palm splayed over the faint warmth of her own stomach.

That life... It was already there, wasn’t it?

And suddenly Liora remembered Eli.

That small, bright-eyed boy she had cared for like her own. Her brother’s son. The baby who giggled when she made silly faces, who clung to her fingers with trust, who quieted in her arms like the world outside didn’t matter as long as she was near.

The love she felt for Eli... was overwhelming and pure.

And now... watching this? Watching Aeris break and rise and love and fear and fight?

Liora knew something with painful clarity: she could never have aborted that child. Not her child.

Not after feeling what it was to love a child like Eli. And definitely not when the child is your flesh and blood.

In a quiet corner of her heart, amid the swirling storm of grief and guilt and fragile memory, a small light flickered to life. Hope. A strange, aching joy.

Because no matter how much fear had lived in her back then, no matter how shattered Aeris had felt...part of her had wanted that child.

And now, Liora found herself almost smiling through the tears. Her only wish is that when she comes out from these memories, the child will still be there.