HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

He was angry. And although she knew how angry he was at his brother, she also knew he was mad at her. The fact that his eyes remained fixed through the windscreen, confirmed her worst fear.

He couldn’t even look at her. Perhaps she had been rash confronting Jared like that. But was she meant to ignore it? Let Jared get away with hurting and provoking her and Daniel? Perhaps, It was what Daniel had wanted. He’d never asked her to jump to his defense. But when someone hurt him, it hurt her. It hurt their family, and she hadn’t been able to stand it.

She sighed. “I’m sorry, Daniel” She reached out a hand and brushed it against Daniel’s, hoping to soften the tension there. But he flinched away from her. She caught her breath, shocked by the pain his rejection had caused in her chest.

“I didn’t mean to cause a scene.” she said.

“Well, you still did a good job of it.” he replied harshly. “You shouldn’t have done that. I know Jared could be an asshole but I could handle it… My own way. It’s my family. And all that happened in front of my mother… My brother always behaves like this and I handle without all these because of my mother. I don’t want her getting sick or anything like that because of worry. That’s why I told you to let it go”

“I know, Daniel,” Emma replied. “And I’m very sorry. But was I supposed to let him say those things about you and me-and let him get away with it?”

“I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.” He turned to face her now, and his rage showed in his every feature, his skin flushed, his forehead lined, his mouth thin and hard. He had retreated to the far side of the car, arms crossed again, putting every distance and barrier he could between them again.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

She was desperate to reach out to him.

“There are ways of dealing with this that don’t involve my entire family” he said angrily.

“Yes that’s true” said Emma. “But I wasn’t going to stay there and let him talk to me that way. I can stand up for myself and I couldn’t stand by and watch you hurting.”

“I didn’t want you to interfere, Emma. It’s not worth tearing my family apart for. However much he may have dented your ego.” Daniel said.

“It’s not about my ego, Daniel. And I wasn’t interfering.. He was talking about me”. Her voice was raised now, too, frustrated that he thought this all came down to her wanting to defend only her reputation.

“I understand that he doesn’t like me. I can’t force him to. But I won’t let him… Or anyone get away with bullying. I can’t believe you are more concerned about the fact that I caused a scene.. When he was saying I got pregnant on purpose… Your family should certainly understand that I was just defending myself ” Emma said, deeply hurt.

“Well… I’m sorry that my family won’t bend to what you want.” he replied carelessly.

“That’s not what I was trying to do, Daniel” The heat went out of her voice, as she asked herself if he was deliberately misunderstanding her.

“I have apologized for being rash. He was rude; I pulled him up on it. That’s all.” she said.

“That’s enough! I tried to calm you down but you wouldn’t listen to me. This is my family, and I don’t know how your family handles issues… But you shouldn’t have done what you did” said Daniel.

His words hit her like a slap, and she sucked in a breath, trying to recover from their sting. Then she remembered something Jared had said about warning him.

“What did Jared mean when he said he had already warned you about me?” she asked.

“The last time we were at my mom’s house, he told me he had concerns about you and that you were going to try to trap me…” he paused, then added without thinking. “And now I’m starting to believe him… With the pregnancy and all that”

Emma closed her eyes. She counted to ten very, very slowly, reminding herself that murdering the father of her unborn child was in nobody’s best interest.

“We are obviously both emotional. I think we need to cool down and talk about this tomorrow. Let’s just go to bed and get some sleep” she said.

She reached for the door handle but turned back when she realized Daniel hadn’t moved. “Aren’t you coming inside?” she asked.

“I don’t think I’m going to want to talk about this tomorrow.” he said.

She sighed. “We’ll talk about it tonight, then, if that’s what you want. But either way you are going to have to get out of the car.”

She let out a relieved breath when he finally let go, and turned to look at her.

But when his eyes met hers, she wished she’d let him sit there a little longer. Because what she saw made the dread she’d felt earlier seem like the lightest of butterflies. What she felt now was a lead anvil, heavy despair just waiting to crush her.

“I don’t want to talk about it tonight. I don’t want to talk about it tomorrow. Emma, I don’t want to talk about this at all. I realized something, driving back here…. All this baby stuff is just… I don’t know.. We made… We are making a mistake.”

“Daniel, I don’t understand.” Tears broke her voice, but she forced words out anyway, trying to find a way to fix this. “What mistake?”

“This!” he said. A sharp, sweeping hand movement took in the two of them.

“You have changed your mind about the baby. About wanting to be involved?” she asked.

“No. Not about that. I want this baby. I want to be a good father. But I don’t want to do it like this. With you and me playing happy…. Whatever this is.. It’s impossible. We have to face facts.” he said.

Emma pushed open the car door and shambled out onto the path, not wanting to believe what she was hearing. Not only did he not love her, he wasn’t even interested in trying. She pushed away from the car, stumbling slightly as she headed up the path. She wasn’t even sure where she was going; all she knew was that she had to get away from him.

She wrapped her arms around her belly, protecting her baby from his harsh words and her own hurt. He was just striking out because of what happened with his brother. She thought. She stopped for a moment and almost walked back. And then she saw the hard, uncompromising expression he wore and hesitated. But they were expecting a child. They couldn’t just give up.

She took another step back to the car and spoke. “Daniel, I don’t believe that you can just walk away-”

He climbed out of the car and banged the door closed. He towered above her. “Maybe that was what you wanted all along, wasn’t it? Me completely unable to walk away from this. Trapped. No way out. You were never on the pill. You wanted to get pregnant.”