“…’He says he’s infertile. I swear to God, Ryan, I don’t know what to do now. I can’t pin it on him if he knows it’s biologically impossible!'”<\/p>\n
My blood ran cold. The sheer, overwhelming relief of not being a father collided violently with the sickening realization of what she had been trying to do. I wasn’t her boyfriend; I was her backup plan. A gullible, 19-year-old scapegoat.<\/p>\n
I lay there in the dark, holding my breath and listening to her pace the hallway. She was crying, but it wasn’t the heartbroken, devastated sobbing from earlier in the car. It was the frantic, selfish crying of someone whose trap had just snapped shut on empty air. I could hear the muffled voice of “Ryan” on the other end of the line, arguing with her.<\/p>\n
I didn’t wait until morning. I didn’t even wait for her to hang up.<\/p>\n
I slid out of bed, grabbed my clothes, and dressed as quickly and quietly as I could. I grabbed my keys from the nightstand, the metal jingling loudly in the quiet room. The pacing in the hallway stopped instantly.<\/p>\n
When I walked out of the bedroom, she was standing there, frozen like a deer in headlights. The pale glow of her phone screen illuminated the absolute terror on her face. She slowly lowered the phone from her ear. We stared at each other for a long, heavy moment. All the guilt I had felt an hour ago completely vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity.<\/p>\n
“Tell Ryan congratulations,” I said. My voice was shockingly steady.<\/p>\n
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. The tears welling in her eyes this time were purely from the shame of being caught.<\/p>\n
I didn’t give her the chance to explain, apologize, or spin another web. I just walked past her, opened the front door, and stepped out into the cool night air. As the door clicked shut behind me, a massive weight lifted off my shoulders. I was nineteen, I was officially single, and I was definitely not a father.<\/p>\n
My stupid, panicked, cowardly lie had accidentally saved the rest of my life. I knew I’d probably need to visit a doctor eventually just to make sure my panicked excuse hadn’t somehow jinxed me\u2014but as I started my car and drove away, I was just grateful I fired a blank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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