The dim light of the Last Drop flickered faintly against the worn wooden beams overhead. The air was thick with the scent of spilled alcohol, smoke curling lazily from a single candle on the counter. Vander’s hands moved mechanically, polishing a glass with a rag that had seen better days, while I sat at the corner table, my notebook balanced on my knee. The scratch of my pen on paper was almost meditative, a quiet attempt to organize my thoughts amidst the chaos outside.

The room hummed softly with the muffled voices and occasional clinks of glass. I looked up briefly, catching the soft glow from the lanterns as they cast long shadows across the walls—shadows that always seemed to stretch a little too far, like the secrets we all carried.

Then, suddenly, she spoke.

“I’m knocked up.”

Her words cut through the low murmur like a shard of glass. My pen halted mid-sentence. The scent of stale ale, the warm amber glow—all seemed to freeze in place. I blinked, eyes narrowing as I registered the weight behind that simple, startling declaration. Pregnant. The word echoed in my mind, repeating, twisting. My heart didn’t race. It slowed, beat steady but heavy. The implication was impossible to ignore.

I glanced at Vander. His hands paused, the glass halfway to the shelf. His eyes met mine, sharp, curious, then softened. There was a brief moment of silence—thick, electric. I studied her face. Nervous? Defiant? Maybe both. There was no denying the truth in her gaze.

A slow smile crept across Vander’s face as he set the glass down and slid a cup of juice toward her, the kindness in his gesture grounding the tension in the room. Then he asked, “You know who the father is?”

I felt a flush rise to my cheeks, a strange mix of apprehension and something closer to hope. It had to be me. It was me. And now, sitting there, the flickering candlelight casting sharp highlights across her features, I realized that the implications of this moment would change everything.

The city outside groaned beneath the weight of violence and ambition, but in this small, shadowed room—the Last Drop—an unexpected future was quietly taking root.