**Me:** “Ryan… what the hell is going on?! Why are you sneaking out here? Why are you acting so—so strange since Lily was born?!”
His hands went to his head, fingers clawing through his soaked hair. His voice cracked when he finally spoke:
**Ryan:** “Don’t you understand what’s happening?!”
**Me:** “No! That’s why I followed you!”
He took a step toward me, eyes wild. “When I saw Lily’s face… I knew. I *knew* it wasn’t just me and you anymore. She looks exactly like—” He stopped himself, chest heaving.
My stomach dropped. “Like who?”
He swallowed hard. His eyes darted back at the decaying house, then at me. “My father.”
I froze. Ryan never talked about his father. I’d asked before—always got clipped answers. “Gone. Forget him. Not worth mentioning.” And now, standing in the rain, the truth began to claw its way out.
**Ryan:** “I thought I’d escaped him. Thought if I built a new life, he couldn’t touch me. But Lily… when I looked at her… I saw his face. The same eyes. The same nose. And I knew he wasn’t gone. Not really.”
My pulse raced. “Ryan, your father’s dead—”
He shook his head violently. “No. Not dead. Just… here.” He gestured to the house. “I’ve been coming here, trying to convince myself he isn’t inside. That he can’t be. But every time I see Lily, I hear his voice again. Telling me I’ll ruin everything, that I’ll never be free of him.”
The words made my skin prickle. The abandoned house. The paranoia. The rage when he saw our daughter.
Was Ryan losing his grip on reality? Or was there something more—something about his father I never knew?
I took a shaky breath. “Ryan… you need to tell me the truth. What happened between you and your father? Why are you so afraid of our baby looking like him?”
He looked at me then, rain streaking down his face, and whispered—
**Ryan:** “Because he didn’t just ruin me. He ruined my mother. And I swore… if I ever saw his face again, I’d make sure he could never hurt anyone else.”
The front door of the abandoned house creaked open behind him.
And a shadow moved inside.
