The Mosquito’s Blood Chapter 1

The day I found out I was pregnant was the day my on-again, off-again boyfriend of ten years, Jack, finally kicked me to the curb.

He bailed, only to announce his engagement to someone else a week later.

I became the laughingstock of our social circle. Through the worst of it, Aidan was the one by my side.

Everyone whispered about it. “If Elara was a lovesick fool, then Aidan was her knight in shining armor, swooping in to raise another man's child.”

“The hero finally ditched the side character, so the second lead gets his chance, right?”

Aidan shielded me from all of it, a silent guardian, just as he had been for years.

The day I finally accepted his proposal, the tall, handsome man’s eyes turned red for the first time.

“Lara,” he choked out, “I swear I’ll make you happy.”

On our wedding day, I found myself inexplicably thrown seven years into the future.

The thirty-five-year-old Aidan was looking at me, his voice cold, his face a mask of impatience.

“Just tell me,” he said. “What will it take for you to finally agree to the divorce?”

* * *

“I do.”

The words slipped out automatically, a reflex from the ceremony I’d just left.

It took me a few seconds to realize my surroundings were all wrong.

There were no cheers, no guests, and no response from Aidan.

The man who had been looking at me with tear-filled eyes at the altar just a moment ago now wore a look of pure indifference.

My answer seemed to smooth the deep furrow in his brow.

“Since you agree…”

“A divorce?” The word finally registered. “Why?”

Silence hung in the air for a beat too long.

Aidan’s voice was heavy. “Elara, can you please stop changing your mind over and over again?”

“There’s no point in dragging this out. Do you really want to make such a scene that neither of us can walk away with any dignity?”

His impatient expression and icy tone made the world feel unreal.

Aidan had never looked at me like that.

Before this, he had proposed to me four times.

I’d turned him down the first three times, terrified he would end up hurting me too.

But he had been relentless, telling me again and again, “Lara, I’ll never leave you.”

“I’ll chase you for the rest of my life. Please, just don’t push me away.”

“Just give me one chance, please?”

He’d even had a single, crimson dot tattooed right over his heart.

For me.

I stared at his face, my mind reeling from the whiplash.

Aidan tossed a file onto the table with a sigh of frustration. “When you’ve made up your mind, just contact me. I’m giving you one more month, max.”

“Otherwise, we’ll just let the lawyers handle it.”