My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 49 - The Decision

**Three Days Later - Juni's Point of View **

I was so glad to finally be back home from the hospital with Noah. My body was still sore and achy but I already felt my energy slowly coming back. I rocked him in the rocking chair in his new nursery, reading a chapter of Winnie the Pooh out loud until he was fast asleep and the bottle he was still sucking on was almost empty. I slowly stood up and very carefully tip-toed over to his crib and gently laid him down into it, pulling a receiving blanket up to his waist.

I stood there and watched him sleep and couldn't believe how perfect he was. He looked like a little angel when he was sleeping.

"Hey," I heard a deep voice whisper from behind me and I turned around to see Tyler standing there in the doorway wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a tight white t-shirt with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

He walked up beside me and looked down at Noah, watching him sleep.

"He's amazing isn't he?" Tyler whispered. "Can you believe me and you made him?"

"Yeah, it's pretty incredible," I whispered, looking down at our baby.

Tyler finally turned to me and whispered, "We really need to have that talk now. You've been putting it off for three days and I'm about to leave for California tomorrow."

He was right. I had been avoiding our talk like the plague, but I couldn't do that anymore. I had run out of time. I took a deep breath in and let it out.

"Ok. Let's go to my room, so we won't wake him up," I whispered, turning on the baby monitor in the nursery and clipping the speaker to my pants.

When we got to my room Tyler walked in and sat down on my bed and I quietly shut the door behind me and set the baby monitor down on the dresser before walking over and taking a seat beside him on the bed.

I hung my head and looked down at my hands, feeling nervous about what I needed to tell him.

"Tyler," I said quietly before raising my head and looking over into his green eyes. "I've thought a lot about what you said at the hospital and honestly, it's been torturing me. I'm so scared of making the wrong choice and regretting it."

He looked into my eyes, anxiously waiting for me to finish.

I looked down at my hands and let out an exhale.

"I ummm. I've struggled and gone back and forth on this, but I've decided, I ummm, I think it would be best for us to ummm, to just be friends."

I waited a couple seconds before I slowly raised my head and looked at him. He looked broken and shocked.

"Friends?" he repeated the word, swallowing hard and running a hand up through his hair.

I nodded and said, "Yeah. I mean, you're leaving for UCLA tomorrow and I'm going to be all the way up here in Seattle taking care of the baby and trying to juggle college classes. You'll be busy with school and football and all that. I just don't see how we could make it work."

He looked at me, studying my face. "Is that the only reason you're saying no? Because we'll be too busy and far away from each other?"

I took a deep breath in and let it out.

"Well that, plus to be completely honest, I'm afraid of getting hurt again. I don't know if I could survive another heartbreak like that, especially now that we have a baby together."

I saw the hurt and guilt on his face and I gave him a sympathetic smile and reached out, giving his arm a light squeeze.

"I'm really sorry Tyler. I wish things could have turned out different for us."