Chapter 5 Anna's Doubts

The apartment was silent except for the ticking of the kitchen clock and the occasional murmur of passing cars. Anna sat cross-legged on her bed, the pregnancy test unopened in her trembling hands. The soft glow of her bedside lamp cast a warm, deceptive calm over the room, contrasting sharply with the storm swirling inside her.

She had been counting the days. Recounting. Recalculating. But the math never lied. Neither did her body. The nausea in the mornings. The fatigue that hit like a wall in the afternoons. The subtle changes she tried to dismiss as stress. Her instincts whispered the truth, but part of her refused to listen.

Her fingers tightened around the test.

"Just take it," she muttered aloud. "You need to know."

But knowing meant confronting a reality that could shatter her world.

**

The last time she had seen Nathan was two weeks ago. A quick lunch between his campaign events and her afternoon lecture. He had kissed her goodbye with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Something had shifted. Not in him, necessarily, but in everything surrounding him.

His father's campaign was gaining dangerous traction. And with it, the Elridge family's need for spotless optics intensified. They had not yet discovered their son's relationship with a law student from a modest background-but Anna knew it was only a matter of time.

She remembered the gala-the tension in the air when she was introduced as "Nathan's friend." The way the senator's wife looked her up and down with polite disdain. The barely veiled warnings from campaign advisors. The careful orchestration of Nathan's public appearances to make him look like the perfect bachelor son.

Anna felt like a hidden blemish on an otherwise polished portrait.

And now this.

A pregnancy. Unplanned. Inconvenient. Politically dangerous.

She rose abruptly from the bed and went to the bathroom. With mechanical precision, she opened the test, followed the instructions, and waited.

Three minutes had never felt so long.

She didn't cry when the second line appeared. She just stood there, the test in hand, her face blank in the mirror. Her life had officially split into two timelines: the one she thought she had, and the one barreling toward her now.

**

She didn't answer Nathan's call that night. Or the next. She needed time to think. To breathe. To make decisions without being swept up by his charm or reassurances.

On the third day, she agreed to meet him.

They chose a secluded café on the outskirts of town-far from campus, far from his father's shadow. Nathan looked tired. His eyes scanned hers the moment she sat down, sensing the shift in her energy before she said a word.

"Are you okay?" he asked, leaning in.

Anna looked down at the steaming coffee cup between her hands.

"I'm pregnant."

There was no soft lead-in, no dramatic buildup. Just the truth, bare and unavoidable.

Nathan froze.

The hum of the café faded as the words sank in.

"You're sure?"

She nodded. "I took two tests."

His fingers clenched around the cup. "And... how do you feel?"

That question-simple, human-caught her off guard. For a second, she almost forgot the pressure, the stakes, the Elridge name.

"I don't know," she confessed. "Terrified. Alone. Angry. Excited. Everything at once."

Nathan reached across the table, taking her hand. His eyes were clear now. Grounded. "We'll figure this out, Anna. Together."

She wanted to believe him. But reality wasn't so generous.

"Your father will try to destroy me," she said quietly. "He'll spin this as a scandal. Say I trapped you. Tarnish my name. Maybe worse."

Nathan's jaw tightened. "He can try. But I won't let him touch you."

Anna pulled her hand away gently.

"You say that now. But you come from a world where everything is about image. Power. Appearances. I'm not part of that world, Nathan. I never was. And your family will make sure I never will be."

He stared at her, frustration blooming. "I'm not them."

"No, you're not," she agreed softly. "But you're still tied to them. And I'm not sure love is enough to undo that."

**

The next morning, Anna skipped her classes and went for a long walk in the city. The sky was overcast, and the sidewalks glistened from last night's rain. She passed mothers with strollers, couples holding hands, students rushing to class with headphones in and coffee cups in hand. Life went on around her-unaware of the monumental decision sitting in her heart.

She stopped at a bookstore window. A display of parenting books caught her eye. She stared at a cover featuring a smiling baby and a glowing couple. So neat. So controlled. So different from her reality.

Could she do this?

Raise a child in a storm of political schemes and media scrutiny?

Would the child grow up hidden like a secret? Or paraded as a mistake that the Elridge family tried to erase?

And what about her dreams?

She had wanted to work in human rights law. Travel. Serve the underrepresented. Not hide from photographers or attend court hearings as the plaintiff in a defamation suit.

**

That evening, she returned to her apartment to find an envelope under her door.

It wasn't mailed. No address. Just her name.

Inside was a printed page.

A legal notice.

Cease and desist.

Signed by a lawyer representing the Elridge family campaign.

She read the words twice, her throat tightening.

They accused her of slander. Of making false claims. Of attempting to manipulate a political figure. If she did not "correct the public narrative," legal action would be pursued.

Tears pricked her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

So it had begun.

Not even 24 hours since telling Nathan, and already his family was moving to bury her.

She sat down, pulled out her phone, and dialed.

"Nathan," she said when he picked up, her voice trembling with fury. "Your family sent me a legal threat."

"What?" he said sharply. "Anna, I swear to you-"

"Don't swear," she cut in. "Just listen. This is real. I'm not some gossip they can pay off or silence. This is my life. My child."

"I'm coming over."

"No. Not tonight. I need to think. Alone."

"Anna..."

"I'll call you tomorrow."

She hung up.

Then, gathering every ounce of resolve, she pulled out her laptop.

She typed in the name of a lawyer a professor once mentioned. A woman known for helping whistleblowers and vulnerable clients.

Anna hit send on an email that would mark the beginning of her fight.

**

The next morning, Nathan appeared at her door.

She almost didn't let him in.

But when she saw his face-ashen, angry, ashamed-she stepped aside.

"I didn't know," he said before she could speak. "I swear to you, Anna, I had no idea they would do this."

"I believe you," she replied. "But your belief and mine don't change the fact that your father is already treating this pregnancy like a threat."

Nathan looked at her belly, barely changed. "It's not a threat. It's a child. Ours."

She sat down slowly. "Then you need to decide which side you're on, Nathan. Because if you stay in that house, under his thumb, I can't do this with you."

"I'm already gone," he said quietly. "I left last night. I told my mother. Told my father I wouldn't play their games anymore."

Her eyes widened. "You left?"

"I'm staying with a friend from college. And I'm not going back."

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then Anna whispered, "This changes everything."

He knelt in front of her, took her hands. "Let it change us for the better."

**

Later that week, Anna met with the lawyer she had contacted-Meghan Fields.

Meghan was direct, composed, and fierce. She read the legal notice, scoffed, and said, "This is intimidation, pure and simple. You're not alone, Anna. We'll push back."

For the first time in days, Anna exhaled.

She wasn't just surviving anymore.

She was preparing to fight.

And not just for herself.

But for the child inside her.

For the love she refused to let be twisted by politics.

For the truth.

And the freedom to live it.

**

End of Chapter 5 – "Anna's Doubts"

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