Chapter 371

Elissa snapped back to reality, ignoring Tanya's question as she snatched her phone and opened a delivery app. Her fingertips trembled as she typed.

Tanya peered over her shoulder and saw what she was ordering. Her jaw dropped. "No way. Are you serious?" She knew how skilled Elissa was as a doctor, so she didn't doubt her friend's self-diagnosis for a second.

After placing the order, Elissa looked up, her expression dazed. "After checking my own pulse, the signs were unmistakable—I'm pregnant. But I took the morning-after pill that night. You saw me take it, right?"

She knew it was still possible to get pregnant after taking emergency contraception, but the probability was tiny.

Tanya nodded. "Yeah, I'm the one who ran downstairs to buy it for you."

That night, after Elissa had returned from Rowan's, the two of them had been drinking when Tanya suddenly remembered. She'd raced down to the 24-hour pharmacy in the middle of the night to get the pill for her.

Seeing Elissa fall silent, Tanya tried to comfort her. "Let's just wait for the tests to arrive. Maybe you were just anxious and misread your own pulse."

"Yeah," Elissa agreed, nodding repeatedly, but her mind was a tangled mess. She didn't dare touch her stomach.

The pregnancy tests arrived in less than fifteen minutes. Tanya sprinted to the door, tore open the package, and handed one to Elissa. "You know how to use this, right?"

"...Yes." Although she'd never used one herself, it was common knowledge.

She stepped into the bathroom, took a deep breath, and worked up the courage to take the test.

It was probably still very early, because the second line was only a faint pink, but it was there. It was telling her, undeniably, that she was pregnant.

With Rowan's child.

Right now, at this very moment, there was a tiny new life inside her.

Tanya waited outside the door, her heart pounding with anxiety. Given the current state of Elissa and Rowan's relationship, this was the worst possible time for a pregnancy. If Rowan's grandmother.managed to drive them apart for good, turning them into enemies, a child caught in the middle would be in an impossible position.

Elissa was, at her core, a rational person. Tanya feared she wouldn't keep the baby. But the thought of an abortion, of the physical toll it would take...

The idea made Tanya want to storm into the bathroom to see what was happening. She knocked sharply on the door. "Elissa? What's going on? Did it work? If one test isn't enough, I bought a two-pack."

Just as she finished speaking, the bathroom door opened. Tanya looked down and saw the test in Elissa's hand. Two lines.

A shiver went down her spine, and she started to stammer, "I—I mean, what are you going to..."

"What's wrong?" Elissa's eyes were glistening and ringed with red, as if she'd been crying, but a smile spread across her face. "Tanya, I'm going to have a family."

"I'm so happy it's here."

Her words hit Tanya like a shockwave, leaving her mind blank for a second. When she finally processed them, she was laughing and crying at the same time. "Are you saying... you're going to keep the baby?"

"Of course." Elissa nodded earnestly, but as she blinked, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. The thought that she was carrying a child, that she was creating a family for herself, felt so miraculous that she couldn't stop crying.

Not for a single second had the

thought of not keeping this baby

crossed her mind. She had taken the pill because she knew it wasn't the

right time for her and Rowan to have a child. But this baby had already overcome impossible odds to find its way to her, and she would never, ever give it up.

As a lawyer, Tanya had seen firsthand the immense struggles of single mothers. Seeing Elissa's unwavering resolve to keep the child filled her with a profound sense of protectiveness. She wiped away her own tears, trying to muster a happy her friend, but it came out

smile fo

looking more like a grimace. She

gently poked Elissa's forehead. "You

fool."

Then she pulled her into a tight hug. "Honey, if you want to have this baby, then we're having this baby."

"Don't be scared," she whispered. "From now on, I'll be its dad. I'll raise it with you."

Elissa's tears had been flowing freely, but Tanya's last sentence made her burst out laughing. "Does that mean you need to get gender reassignment surgery first?"

***