Aaron felt his nerves twist into tight knots as the interviewer casually shifted the conversation toward a more personal topic. The lights of the studio felt suddenly hotter, harsher, like they were spotlighting not just his face but the guilt buried beneath it. The question came softly, almost innocently, yet it hit with the force of something far heavier.

"So... can we expect to see you at the baby shower?"

The words hung in the air, deceptively light. But Aaron’s breath caught in his throat. He knew exactly who the interviewer was referring to—his co-star. The woman he’d come to know far too well off-screen. The woman whose laughter had started echoing in his mind long after they’d left set. The woman he had, in a series of poorly veiled decisions, chosen again and again over his own marriage, despite the quiet heartbreak it planted in the eyes of the wife waiting at home—and despite the fact that he was already a father to two young daughters.

She was now pregnant. On leave. The show’s production was delayed. Their usual rhythm—on screen chemistry, off screen glances, and everything unsaid in between—had been interrupted. But the consequences of their choices hadn’t taken a break. They lingered.

Aaron shifted in his seat, offering a tight-lipped smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He wondered what the ‘right’ answer was. He wondered if there even was one.