Chapter 22

I had no idea where I was going, I just drove. When I almost ran over a family of ducks, I knew it was time to stop driving.

Somehow, without meaning to, I pulled up the car out the front of Cat"s house. I sat in the car and stared for a long time, considering whether I dared to go inside or not. Should I even knock on the door? Maybe I should go home instead. And do what? Tell my parents everything? I wasn"t ready to do that. Not yet.

I had no idea what I was ready for, to be honest. Nothing made sense yet. A million things ran through my brain but it was all a jumble. I felt like someone picked up a two thousand piece jigsaw puzzle and threw all the pieces up in the air. They"d landed on the ground and scattered. A few pieces probably got lost forever, meaning the puzzle could never be made again. That hole was right where my heart used to be. Right before I found out the guys I thought I cared about betrayed me. Used me.

Without thinking about it further, I pulled the keys out of the ignition, grabbed my bag and headed up to the front door of Cat"s huge house. My parents" house would have fit into this place four or five times over. With three active boyfriends, she needed all the space she could get.

I licked my lips and raised my hand to tap on the door.

I froze. This was a bad idea. I shouldn"t be here or anywhere near her. I should get back into my car and drive to… Anywhere but here.

I lowered my hand. I desperately needed someone to talk to, but it couldn"t be her. I should go to Eden. Maybe she"d understand.

I started to turn away when the door opened.

"Marley, what are you doing out here?" Cat asked. "Have you been crying? What the hell happened?" She grabbed my arm and all but pulled me inside.

"I shouldn"t—" I turned back away from the door, but her hand stopped me from moving further.

"Of course you should," she said. "Come on, let"s sit down."

She led me through the entryway and into a cosy lounge room off to the side. She lowered me onto the couch and sat beside me.

"You don"t have to tell me anything you don"t want to," she said. "But you"re obviously upset and need to talk to someone. You know I"m here for you, no matter what, right?"

"Yeah." She might not be there for me when she heard what I had to say. If I could get the words out. "You might not believe what happened."

"I"ve seen some crazy things," she said dryly. "There"s not much I wouldn"t believe. Was it Cole and Toby? What did they do? Do I have to go and break some balls? Because I will. Whatever it takes. No one fucks with my friends." She did her best, scary, protective face, which was adorable. Especially as pregnant as she was.

I exhaled slowly and massaged my forehead with my thumb and fingers.

"You could say it"s them," I said. I paused for a few beats before saying, "I"m pregnant."

She squealed with joy and threw her arms around me to give me a squeeze. "Congratulations. We"re both having babies. This is amazing."

I squeezed her back, but with none of the enthusiasm she displayed.

Finally she peeled herself away and looked at me. "You"re not happy about it?"

"I"m not… I haven"t had time to think about how I feel about it," I said. "It"s how it happened. It's thrown me for a loop." Several loops.

"I"m not the most worldly person in the world, but I have a fair idea of how it happened," she said. "My father made sure I understood all about sex. He insisted he didn"t want any accidents because I didn"t know what was going on."

I tried not to wince. Oliver Ryan was a fucking hypocrite.

"I know where babies come from," I said. "I was on birth control."

"That"s not one hundred percent effective," Cat said. She"d put a lid on her enthusiasm, swapping it out for sympathy.

"I know it"s not, if it"s actually used," I said with shades of bitterness colouring my tone.

"You… I"m confused." She frowned at me. "You were on birth control, but you weren"t using it?"

I sucked in a breath. "I was on what I thought was birth control. I was taking it carefully."

She sat back and placed her hands on her very pregnant belly. "Okay. You thought it was birth control. What was it?"

"Sugar pills," I said. "My birth control was switched for those."

She blinked a couple of times. "Switched? You didn"t…"

"No," said quickly. "I didn"t change them myself. I wasn"t ready. I"m still not sure I am." The more I talked about it, the more bizarre all of this sounded, the more it all hurt.

"If you didn"t do it, then who did?" she asked. "If the pharmacy changed them without your knowledge, you can sue their asses. Who does something like that? I always thought we could trust them."

"We can," I said quickly. "It wasn"t them." I shook my head. "It was a plan by my boyfriends. They decided to change my pills and get me pregnant on purpose."

Cat"s mouth dropped open. She gaped at me for a solid minute. Shook her head.

"Come again? Your boyfriends tampered with your birth control so they could get you pregnant without you knowing or agreeing to it?" She looked completely disbelieving. Not that I was lying, but that she couldn"t get her head around what they did.

"I know it sounds crazy," I said. "When I told them I was pregnant, they admitted what they did. They seemed pleased with themselves." Tears trickled down my cheeks again. "They did this to me on purpose and they were happy about it. I feel like I have no idea who any of them are, not at all."

"I think I will break some balls," Cat growled. "How dare they do that to you? I thought what Cruz and Easton did was bad enough, but it was nothing compared to this. Not even fucking close. You must feel so…"

"Angry? Violated? Devastated? All of those things." I leaned against the back of the couch and closed my eyes for a moment. "I have no idea what to think or what to do. What do I even tell the baby when it"s born? Hey, I love you but you were put there without my consent. Because three men thought they knew better." I didn"t realise what I was saying until the words were out. Once they were, I couldn"t take them back, especially when Cat realised.

She frowned. "Three men? Toby, Cole, and?"

Fuck.

I thought quickly, but I"d said too much already. It was too late to correct myself, she probably saw the panic on my face that threatened to overwhelm me.

I whispered, "Toby, Cole and… Your father, Oliver."

She stared at me. "My— No. You wouldn"t do that. Not with my father. You"re my best friend. There"s no way. You can"t have."

"I did." I wiped tears off my cheeks. "He and I have been seeing each other."

She shook her head. "How long? How long have you been sleeping with my father?"

I swallowed hard. "About a year. I wanted to tell you but…" Every excuse seemed meaningless now. She was looking at me like I must have looked at the guys, like she didn"t know me at all.

"About a year?" she echoed. "Even though you knew how I felt about the very idea of you or Eden being involved with him. Did you even care what I thought?"

"Of course I did," I said, my voice high. "We fell in love with each other. We wanted to be together. He was the one who changed out my pills and hatched the plan with Toby and Cole. It was his idea."

She stared down at my belly. "You might be carrying my brother or sister." She looked slightly green.

"I might be," I admitted. "But I didn"t?—"

"I don"t care what you didn"t," she said coldly. "I thought we were friends. Clearly I was wrong. You slept with my father, even knowing how upset I"d be about it. Did you really think you could have a relationship with him? Be my stepmother or something? You"re the same age as me, Marley. I"ve known you almost all my life. So. Has. He. Do you realise how sick that sounds?"

Her eyes were glazed, face pink with anger and disappointment. She looked as though I"d stabbed her in the back and then twisted the knife as hard as I could. The expression on her face was a blade straight to my own heart.

"We never wanted to hurt you," I said. "What we had, I thought it was real. He said he loved me. He wanted to be with me. We were going to tell you after your baby was born. I"m so sorry. Nothing was meant to happen like this."

She looked disgusted. "You work with him. Neither of you had any business touching each other. I trusted both of you to respect my feelings on this. But you didn"t. Instead you"re here, throwing it in my face."

"That"s not what I"m doing," I argued.

My whole world was falling down around my ears. There was nothing I could do to stop it from toppling like a house of cards. "I just needed to talk to someone." All I did was make everything a thousand times worse.

"Cat. What"s going on?" Shaw stepped into the room, his face a mask of worry. He barely gave me a glance, his gaze was all for her. His posture was immediately protective and ready. If she needed anything, he"d do it in an instant. He saved her life once, he"d do it a million times again if he had to.

"I didn"t mean to upset her," I said. That was the last thing I wanted. I shouldn"t have come here in the first place. I should have stayed far away. I knew she"d be angry when she found out, but I hadn"t expected to see that expression on her face. Like she"d be happy if she never saw me again.

"You clearly have," Shaw said coolly. "You should go. Cat, you should get some rest."

He looked as though he"d carry her to bed himself if she tried to argue. He was intense, but his love for her was clear for anyone to see. He wouldn"t hesitate to throw himself in front of a bullet for her. A friend who was upsetting her was a small matter in comparison.

I looked over to Cat, silently begging her to try to understand. To tell me to stay so we could talk and work it out. We"d been so close for so long, surely she"d understand deep down.

"You should go," Cat said softly.

With help from her boyfriend, she stood. Before she walked away she said, "I"d like to wish you the best with your baby, but I can"t. You made the bed a long time ago, you can lie in it." She slipped out of the room.

Shaw gave me a long, unreadable look. He"d always been protective of her, it didn"t surprise me he"d step in when she was getting worked up. I thought my guys would have done the same thing but I was so very fucking wrong.

I"d never seen her so angry. I certainly never thought she"d say something like that to me. Her words cut me deeper than anything the guys could have done, sharper than a scalpel right to my heart. My whole life was shattered into a million pieces. I couldn"t even begin to figure out how to start picking them back up and putting them back together.

My legs trembling, I stood and slipped back out the door and into the front seat of my car. Where did I go? What the hell was I supposed to do? I had no idea.

I"d never felt as alone as I did right then.