REINA

Paolo still wasn't picking up. It had been a little over four hours since I saw the result and had been trying to reach him, and he still wouldn't pick my call.

I had called seventeen times since morning. Seventeen times the line rang out into nothing, his voicemail swallowing my desperate words like they meant nothing. I sat on the edge of the bed, phone pressed against my chest, staring at the wall with hollow eyes. The positive test was still on the bathroom sink. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Some sick, masochistic part of me needed it there as proof that this was real....