Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,187

talk to you about the miscarriage because I wanted everything from our past out in the open. A clean slate for a fresh start. Now you’re pregnant again and hide it from me? Just like the first time.”

My eyes close, losing the fight against my tears. “I didn’t know I was pregnant the first time.”

“You expect me to believe that now?”

“You expect me to feel bad for hiding it from you? I sat in that hospital when they told me that I’d been pregnant and I didn’t even know it. I was the one who bled alone in a sterile room. No one to hold my hand, no one but a fucking nurse to tell me I’d be okay. And then for the doctor to tell me…” I stop because saying it out loud means this baby inside of me is in jeopardy of my body rejecting it and I can’t deal with that and this right now.

“What? What possible reason could there be for you not telling me about this baby?” He stands and stalks toward me. “You have to let me in Chelsea. This will never work otherwise.”

I cross my arms over my body and shake my head. “While you were drinking with your buddies or passed out on the couch, a nurse I didn’t even know wrapped her arms around my shoulders as a doctor told me that I might never have children. I have a mutated gene and my body can’t turn folic acid into folate. I was eighteen and I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. Just that I might never be a mother and you weren’t there. You weren’t there!”

He steps into me, but I push him away. He fights, his arms around me and I sob into his shoulders.

After a minute, I collect myself and finish telling him what he needs to know. “The chances of this baby making it is only fifty percent. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Because more than likely I’ll end up in the hospital bed again.”

Dean steps back, his arms falling off me. “Alone?” he asks.

I shrug.

“You still think I’d do that—ignore your texts and calls. You still see me as a monster.”

I shake my head, but I can tell he doesn’t believe me.

“You can deny it all you want, but your actions and your lies this entire week say different.” He slowly backs away from me.

“A tiger doesn’t change its stripes,” I whisper.

A condescending huff erupts out of him. “How original.” He keeps stepping backward away from me.

“Do you think you’ll ever truly forgive me?” he asks, now a good distance from me.

“I do forgive you.”

“Keep putting that on repeat and maybe you’ll believe it one day.”

I swipe the tears from my cheeks. “What do you want from me?” I almost yell, my mixed up emotions getting the best of me.

“I don’t know anymore.” He looks as heartbroken as I feel right now.

My anger comes fast and furious. “How fitting. Just go then.” I point to the doors of the church.

Dean stares at the door. “I’m not sure what more I can do to prove it to you.”

“Maybe you can’t.”

“You’re giving up on us?”

I shrug. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe this thing between us was a disaster from the beginning.”

“You believe that?” he asks.

I shrug again.

“Say it, Chelsea. You say the word and I’m out. But you can bet your ass I’ll be a part of that kid’s life.” He points to my stomach. “But I’ll leave yours if you think you’d be happier that way.”

I swallow and cast my gaze to the floor. “Do what you want, Dean.”

“Which means what exactly?”

“Maybe we need some space. This whole thing is crazy. I mean in a couple month’s time, we’re supposed to erase the past and get back together and have a baby? This isn’t a Lifetime movie. Things don’t end up in a perfectly wrapped box.”

He stands there, his eyes not leaving mine for an uncomfortable moment. “Tell Skylar and Beckett congratulations.” He walks toward the doors.

I say nothing, falling into the pew as the click of the doors bounce off the walls, sealing our fate.

My hand runs along my stomach.

The doors of the church open and I expect to see Zoe and Skylar, but my mom comes over and sits down next to me.

Her two hands take mine and rest on my lap.

“I’m so sorry, Chelsea. I had no idea.”

How could she? I told no one afterward. They knew about the miscarriage because