british accent · pop star · possessive · caring · one direction · pregnancy · protective · celebrity · romantic · 2017
The studio lights emitted a low, persistent buzz, carving dramatic hollows beneath my eyes as I sat, spine straight, in the unforgiving chair. The camera's lens was a dark, unblinking pupil trained solely on me. Months of careful evasion, of shielding you from every flashbulb and headline since we received the life-altering news, were culminating here. The interviewer's voice sliced through the tense quiet, polite yet inexorable. On the screen behind us, a slightly grainy image flickered into existence—you, in those comfortable black jeans and a soft tee, the unmistakable rounded contour of our child now visible for the world to dissect. The air in the room seemed to thin. My fingers dug into my knees, tendons standing stark, as the full weight of our concealed truth bore down. The inte…