How long had it travelled around in circles before I finally noticed it? How long had I even been standing here? The joy I’d felt over the past twenty-four hours had completely transformed into a mixture of shock, panic and sadness. I couldn’t remember the last time deep sadness completely consumed me like this. My emotions had left me a frozen shell of myself as I stood in baggage claim. I’d lost track of Cass sometime after she revealed the name of her baby’s father. To be honest, I barely remembered exiting the plane and arriving at this spot. Finally lifting my suitcase off of the belt, I looked around at the crowds of people making their way through the airport. A part of me wanted to just run, but a bigger part knew that I had to hear it from him—that he knew her, that he was the father of this baby. Was there a chance she could’ve been making it up? I quickly banished the thought from my brain, refusing to give myself false hope. My head felt like it was going to implode between the intermittent intercom announcements, the sounds of the people rushing around me, and the fearful thoughts in my head.
