“Is this why you moved out here? Did you get her pregnant? Finley, I know you are a traditional man but we can work this out. Just because she’s knocked up doesn’t mean we can’t be together anymore. I still want you, baby.”

I was shocked at her words. She thought that Finn was the one that got me pregnant? What had he told this woman? Unable to take anymore of her scrutiny, I chimed in.

“Hi.” I stood slowly and held my hand out for her to shake. “I’m Emilyn.” I had to tilt my head back a bit as she stood almost a full head taller than I did. Nothing more intimidating that standing up to your boyfriend’s—or whatever he was—ex-lover and feeling small and insignificant.

She didn’t take my hand, so I let it drop back by my side. Alright so this was how we were going to play this.

“Val is it?” She narrowed her eyes at me, knowing I knew damn well what her name was. “I think Finn has told you exactly how he feels. He and I are together now, working out some stuff that isn’t any concern of yours. I realize you probably flew a long way to get here, and for that I’m sorry, but you’re not welcome here. I’ll gladly pay for your ticket back to California and for your car to the airport.”

Her overly fake boobs puffed up at me. “You little bitch, I don’t care if you’re pregnant. You talk to me like that again and I’ll throw your ass to the ground!”

As if emerging from a trance, Finn finally stood in between us and tried to break it up.

“I’d never hit a girl Valerie, but if you touch her, it’s going to get ugly.”

“How can you say that me Finley! I don’t understand. We lived together. We were going to get married. I love you! You can still come back home baby, we’ll work this all out. Please don’t do this to us.”

“Wait… you lived with her?” I stepped to Finn’s side looking up at him.

“It wasn’t like that Em. She would come and stay with me at my house, but we never actually lived together. Not like you and I do.”

“Were you going to marry her Finn?” Tears started to spring to my eyes.

“No, never!”

The fake bimbo jumped in. “Excuse me, but if we weren’t going to get married, then what was all that talk we had before you left for your little reunion? You made me feel like things were getting serious.”

“Cut the shit Val! You’re the one that brought up marriage. I told you that I had never had plans for us to ever be serious. My heart has always been with Em.”

“She,” she pointed her finger at me, “is the reason that you were never able to commit yourself to me. Well I’m here to take you back home. You’ve got her out of your system, and clearly there’s no comparison between me and her. She is just a plain Jane, Finley. Why would you want that for yourself? If this is about the baby, we can send her money. Please don’t let this baby thing stop your goals and making it to the top. We have so much together.”

Ouch, that one hurt. She was right, I could clearly see the difference between her and myself. I was nothing but a simple little girl whereas she was a blonde bombshell. Granted a bitchy one, but men liked the things Val had. Why was he even with me?

“I’m not the father Val. It isn’t about the fucking baby!” Finn all but gritted through his teeth. He was trying to keep his voice down because people in the shop were starting to stare at us. “Em is so much more than you ever were Val. She isn’t fake, she cares about people. She is definitely not a plain Jane. She’s the most beautiful person on this earth. Don’t you get it? I tried to let you down easy, but you don’t seem to be taking no for an answer.”

“That’s because nobody tells me ‘no’ Finley.”

While the two of them faced off, I began having little twinges of pain that I’d never felt before and it was starting to make me nervous. This stress wasn’t good for me, or for my baby. I reached down to grab my purse and cell phone. I’d call Harper to come pick me up as soon as I got outside. I didn’t want to be in the middle of this. Even though Finn was saying words that I wanted to hear him say, he’d also lied to me. There were things about Valerie that he never told me about, such as them living together, and then not telling me that she’d called.

As I started to move away from the two of them and walk towards the door, Finn noticed me leaving.

“If you’re leaving Emilyn, I’m going with you.” He grabbed his coat.

Val grasped a hold of Finn’s arm and said, “We aren’t done talking. Let her go.”

“No.” He said.

“Finn, I need to leave. I don’t want to be a part of this, and I need some space and time to think about things.” Tears ran down my face.

“Don’t walk away from me again Tiny Girl. It’s you and me.” He removed Val’s arm from his own, and began walking towards me.

“I can’t do this Finn, not right now. I just need some time.” I opened the door, knowing full well that he was going to follow me.

“Em.” I heard him call as I started to practically sprint down the sidewalk.

He was behind me, calling my name. I just needed to get away from him. If he’d lied to me about this, what else had he lied to me about? Why hadn’t he just told me what was going on? It seemed like something so simple, something that we could have worked through—talked through—but he kept it from me. And then the way that he told Val that he wasn’t the father. He technically wasn’t, but over the past couple of weeks, how many late night conversations had we had that he told me he was going to be this baby’s father? That he wanted him or her to call him Dad. He said my baby deserved a father, and if West wouldn’t step up to the plate, then he’d assume that role. To hear him say that none of this was about ‘the fucking baby’ was like a slap to the face… or a knife to my heart.

Feeling out of breath and nauseous, I started to slow. I hadn’t run very far but I could hear Finn shouting at me to stop. He was catching up. I was just turning to him to ask him to leave me alone when a sharp shooting pain went through my lower stomach. It hurt so bad that I doubled over in pain. It lasted two seconds and I started to stand back up straight, but another sharp pain hit me, worse than the first one. Oh god, my baby. Something was wrong. Feeling something wet I looked down at my jeans. I thought maybe my waters had broken but it was blood. There was bright red blood seeping down my jeans.

I screamed just as another spasm rocked my body. I could hear Finn shouting my name, and he caught me just before I hit the pavement.

“Emilyn!”

The pain was too much to bear. The last thing I registered was Finn shouting at passerby to call 911. Then everything went black.

Pacing and walking. It was all I could do at this point to not jump out of my skin. There was so much blood… blood that was still all over me. I hadn’t even washed my hands since setting foot in the emergency room. Emilyn had been back with the doctors for two hours so why in the hell hadn’t anyone been out to talk to me? Harper was sitting next to Kyler, gripping his hand like a lifeline while he rubbed her back and whispered in her ear. Richard and Tessa were in the next set of chairs, staring blankly ahead. Tears streamed down Tessa’s face. We were all here for Em. Looking at the four of them, I couldn’t help but think that at least they had each other. Richard and Tessa had each other to lean on and Ky would always be there for Harper. While I knew they would all be there for me, it was Em that I wanted. What would I do without her? I’d be a fucking shell of a man if something happened to her. Jesus Christ there was just so much blood.

Scrubbing my hands down my face I looked up at the sound of the double doors opening. Dr. Monroe came out and walked towards us. He had a white mask hanging from around his neck as if he’d been in surgery. His face was blank and I couldn’t read a single emotion. Harper and Ky came and stood to my left, Richard and Tessa came and stood at my right. Dr. Monroe stopped in front of us and let out a long breath.