Hailee's POV
"Callum… what are you saying?"
My voice came out thin, broken, strangled with disbelief.
But Callum stood there… tall… unmoving… like a mountain made of anger and stubbornness.
"It is what it is," he said sharply. "Those are my conditions."
"No," Peter snapped instantly. "Back off, Callum."
Callum lifted his eyes toward him slowly, dangerously. "I wasn't speaking to you."
Peter stepped forward, his shoulders tense, fists clenched. "Then let me make it clear—I WON'T allow you to manipulate my sister at a time like this."
"I'm not manipulating her," Callum replied coldly. "I'm giving her a choice."
"A choice?" I whispered, tears burning at the corners of my eyes. "How is this a choice?"
Callum finally turned his eyes toward me. And the look he gave me…
It wasn't hateful.
It wasn't cruel.
It wasn't evil.
It was broken.
A shattered man begging fate not to take the last thing he loved.
"It IS a choice, Hailee," he whispered. "Nathan… or our child."
