Julian’s POV
I was cinching my tie tight against my throat when my phone buzzed. I expected it to be Lucy again, calling to scream out her lungs and scold me for not keeping to my words but I was wrong.
The screen lit up with Ethan’s name.
I snatched the phone up, clicking it on. I had been trying to reach him since the middle of the week. I’d called him six times, sent texts that went unanswered, and even drove over to his place some nights ago only to find the lights off and his car missing from the driveway. In our world, silence usually meant one of two things: you were out of town, or you were in deep enough trouble that you didn’t want to bring anyone else down with you.
"Where the hell have you been?" I demanded the second I picked up, not even bothering with a greeting. "I’ve been checking the obituaries for your name, man. I went to your house. You weren’t there. You’ve just ghosted everyone."
On the other end of the line, there was a heavy sigh. I could hear the background noise of a car engine.
"Hey man, I’ve been in deep shit," Ethan muttered. His voice lacked its usual cocky edge. He sounded drained, like he’d been awake for forty-eight hours straight, running on nothing but caffeine. "Serious, life-altering shit."
I frowned, my hand dropping from my tie. Irony of life, to think I had been trying to reach him so I could tell him all the shit that’s been happening to me.
"How deep? What happened? Is it your uncle again? Did he find out about the ledger? Is he asking you to come home?"
There was a long pause. I could hear Ethan’s breathing. He was hesitating, and that alone was enough to let me know that whatever shit he was in must be really deep.
"Stop with suspense and just tell me what’s wrong, Ethan," I pushed, leaning back against the dresser. "We’re best friends. Whatever you did, we’ll fix it. I’m sure you didn’t murder anyone. Besides, even if you did, I’ve got enough dirt on half the city to bury whatever problem you’ve got. Just say it."
"Tessa’s pregnant," he blurted out.
The shock of his revelation made the word pregnant feel totally new to me. My lips twitched and my brain momentarily stalled as I tried to process the information again. Pregnant. The P-word.
"Okay," I said slowly, my mind racing through a mental Rolodex of all the girls Ethan had been with. "Wait... remind me again. Who is Tessa?"
I heard a sound on the other end that was half-groan, half-sob. Ethan sounded like he wanted to reach through the phone and strangle me.
"Are you serious right now, Julian?" he barked, his voice cracking with exhaustion. "Tessa. Catherine’s friend? The girl I’ve been seeing for the last three months? The one you I made you stop coming over to my place for. Ring a bell?"
I rubbed my temple, feeling a headache brewing. "Right. The short one. Catherine’s friend."
"This is literally the third time you’ve asked me who she is," Ethan snapped. "Do you just filter out every human being that doesn’t have the last name Vaughn or isn’t currently trying to ruin your life?"
"Don’t blame me," I replied defensively, trying to regain my footing. "You know how you are, Ethan. You don’t usually spend more than a week with a girl before you get ’bored’ or she realizes you’re a degenerate. I honestly didn’t think you were still dating her. Three months? That’s practically a silver anniversary for you."
"Well, the anniversary gift is a fucking baby, Julian!" Ethan’s voice rose to a panicked shout before he seemingly remembered where he was and muffled his tone.
"What were you expecting? The way you talked about her that day, it makes sense that something like this happened."
"Don’t lecture me now. I’m fucking worried."
I paced the length of my room, my mind finally clicking into gear. "Okay, okay. So she’s pregnant. It happens. It’s 2026, Ethan. People deal with this every day."
"Are you crazy?" Ethan asked, and I could practically see him shaking his head in disbelief. "My uncle, Julian. Think about my uncle. If he finds out I got some girl pregnant—especially a girl who isn’t from one of the ’approved’ families—he will literally unalive me. He’ll cut me off, strip me of my trust, and probably send me to a work camp in the middle of nowhere just to save the family reputation. I’m dead. I’m a dead man walking."
I felt pity for him. Ethan’s uncle was a vulture in a three-piece suit, a man who valued "purity" and "legacy" above all else, mostly because he used those things to control his family like chess pieces. He made Richard look like a caring father.
"So, what’s the plan?" I asked, my voice dropping into a pragmatic tone. "Have you talked about options? Have you... considered having her get an abortion?"
The silence on the other end was heavy.
"This is exactly where the shit got deep, man. I brought it up," Ethan whispered. "I told her I’d pay for the best clinic in the country. I told her we could fly to Europe, make it a ’vacation,’ and no one would ever have to know. But she won’t do it, Julian. She’s terrified."
"Terrified of what? The procedure is—"
"No, it’s not that," Ethan interrupted. "She lost her aunt a few years ago. Some back-alley complication or something from a botched procedure when she lived out of state. It was a whole big thing in her family. It’s a trauma for her. She told me she’d rather die than go through with it. She thinks abortion is a death sentence."
I stopped pacing and looked at my reflection again. The "Ice Prince" looked back at me. Part of me felt for the girl—Tessa, right—but the bigger part of me was thinking about the logistics. If Ethan’s uncle found out, the fallout would splash onto me, too. Richard wouldn’t want his son associated with a "scandalous" teen pregnancy in the middle of a campaign.
"She’s right to think that way though."
A dark, cynical sense of humor bubbled up and I let the words out of my lips. "Well then I guess there’s only one thing left to say."
"What?" Ethan asked hopefully.
"Congratulations, Ethan. You’re going to be a dad. Should I start looking for tiny, designer baby tuxedos? Or maybe a rattle shaped like a whiskey bottle?"
"Fuck you, Julian," Ethan hissed, but I could hear the faint trace of a laugh in his voice. "I mean it. Deeply and truly, fuck you."
"Hey, it’s not my fault you chose to go raw," I mocked, a smirk finally touching my lips. "Face your consequences of choosing pleasure over wisdom. And don’t forget to save my role as the baby’s god father."
"I’m going to kill you," Ethan muttered. "You are such a fool. If you were right here with me, I would have hit you hard."
"Save the energy for Tessa. I heard preggies get hornier during this period," I laughed after telling him.
"JJ uliaaaa nnn!" I could feel his teeth gritting.
"I have a press conference to attend now," I said, my smile fading as I looked at the clock. "We’ll talk later, Ethan. For now, don’t overthink it, we have enough time to find a way out. Don’t tell your uncle anything yet. I could even talk to Catherine. Maybe she can convince or better still... talk some sense into Tessa. We’ll figure it out."
"Thanks buddy. Speaking of Catherine, how is the forbidden ship between you two going? And how did you handle Collins and Sasha? I’ve not been online but I heard a thing or two that you guys did. Catherine’s really changed you."
He was going through it, so I felt it wasn’t right to talk to him about all the mess my life’s been in.
"I don’t have all the time in the world," I said, though I had no idea how. "But we will talk soon. Though I would prefer we meet up at a bar and grab a few drinks. It’s been a while."
"Yeah, sure man. I’ll let you know once I get into town."
I ended the call and tossed the phone back onto the bed. I stood there for a second, thinking of how crazy it would be if Ethan became a dad. Dude was too young for that. How would he even raise a child? Tessa had to get rid of the pregnancy, not only for Ethan’s sake but for hers too.
I looked in the mirror one last time. The tie was perfect. The suit was flawless.
"Showtime," I whispered to the ghost in the glass.
I walked out of the room. As I headed down the grand staircase, I could see Richard waiting in the foyer, checking his watch.