Julien’s instincts kicked in before his thoughts did.
He dropped to his knees beside the woman, her breaths coming in frantic gasps. Her hands gripped her belly, her face pale and soaked with sweat.
The gas station clerk hovered nearby, shaking. “She just came in—said she was lost, looking for help. She collapsed right there.”
Julien took off his jacket and rolled it into a makeshift cushion. “Ma’am, I’m here. I’ve delivered cargo across the country for twenty years, but I’ve never delivered a baby. So please, don’t let today be my first.”
A faint laugh escaped her lips, quickly turning into another moan.
Julien called 911, gave them the location, and knelt beside her again. “Help is coming. Hold on.”
She clutched his arm. “My… my bag. I dropped it… my ID. Please… find it.”
Julien spotted a leather purse near the door, its contents spilled across the icy floor. He hurried over, grabbing it, then paused as he picked up the ID.
His heart stopped.
Élodie Rousseau.
His Élodie.
The same woman who had left him a goodbye note. Who’d vanished. Who’d torn his life apart.
But this Élodie was different.
Her hair was shorter now. She looked exhausted. And pregnant—very pregnant.
His mind spun, tangled in a hundred questions.
She looked up at him, eyes glassy, unaware. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’re kind.”
Did she… not recognize him?
He swallowed hard, walked back, and knelt beside her. “Do you remember me, Élodie?”
She stared at him. Blinked.
Then her eyes widened. “Julien?”
A beat of silence. Then tears streamed down her face.
“I didn’t know where else to go. I was going to the women’s shelter in town… I didn’t know it was you…”
Julien sat down, stunned. “The note. You said you met someone else. That you were happy.”
She nodded weakly. “It was a mistake. He wasn’t who I thought. He left me when he found out I was pregnant. I didn’t want to come back. I was ashamed. I thought I’d ruined everything.”
Julien stared, his breath visible in the cold room, his thoughts a snowstorm of emotion.
“You didn’t ruin everything. But you did break me,” he said quietly. “Still… no one deserves to go through this alone.”
The sirens echoed outside, flashing lights bathing the walls in red and blue.
As medics rushed in and lifted Élodie onto a stretcher, she reached for Julien’s hand. “Will you come?”
He hesitated. Then nodded.
That night, in a hospital waiting room with the scent of antiseptic and coffee in the air, Julien held a newborn baby boy in his arms.
“Léo,” Élodie whispered from her bed, tears in her eyes. “I named him Léo.”
Julien looked down at the baby. So small. So new.
And suddenly, despite everything he’d lost…
He felt like maybe he’d been led here for a reason.
Sometimes the road breaks you.
Sometimes, it brings you home in the most unexpected way.
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