Falling Apart, Together✓

Chapter Fourteen

I was sitting next to Ransom in the doctor's office, waiting to be called back. He was bouncing his knee, his nerves getting the better of him.

I place my hand on his knee, stopping his movements. "Whatever happens, we will be ok." I assure him. He begins spacing out again. It was like we couldn't get on the same page since Laurel showed up at our engagement party and blew all of our plans right up.

"I don't know how this is even possible. I've always been careful."

"Sometimes you can do everything right and things still get through. Let's not worry about it until we know we need to."

"Mr. Drysdale?" a nurse calls his names. We both look up. "We're ready for you." He pulls me up and goes to the door. "Umm... This is awkward. She's not allowed back there." the nurse informs us. I make to go sit back down but Ransom's grip on my hand tightens.

"She's my fiance. Whatever is going to be discussed effects her too. She needs to be there." I could see the nurse mentally go back and forth before allowing both of us into the back and we followed her to a conference room.

She opened the door, revealing Laurel. "Well now I know why they tried to give me a hard time being here. You can't be topside this long without sucking some poor man's soul can you? You were hoping he would be alone because he might give you the time of day?" I mumble as we sit down. Ransom squeezes my hand, completely ignoring Laurel and sitting as far away from her as possible.

"I thought I said I didn't want her in here." she whined.

"And I decided that my fiance deserves to be present during a meeting that could change our lives." Ransom says, still not looking at her.

"I don't see how her life will change. She's not a part of this."

"Seeing as she's my fiance, I will be marrying her and if the baby is mine, she will be its stepmother, I'd say her life will be changing."

"We'll see about that." Laurel mumbles under her breath.

"You wanna repeat that?" I ask her. She just gives me a dirty look.

The doctor comes in with a folder and sits across from us. "I have the results here. Are we ready?" They nod and Ransom grabs my hand under the table. "The tests came back that there was a 99.8% probability that the father of Miss James' baby is Mr. Hugh Drysdale." I felt like I had gotten punched in the gut. I felt my eyes burn as I held back tears. When were we going to catch a break?

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It had been a couple of days since the results had come in and we had told our families. My mom had spent most of the day crying after we told her. That's all we seemed capable of doing lately is crying. 

Ransom and I were currently meeting with Mike, a family lawyer who handled cases like his frequently. He was a friend of Dad's and as such, someone that I trusted to be discreet and get the job done. Harlan's attorney, Alan, was present as well at the request of Linda. 

"So what options do I have?" Ransom asks. 

"Well since paternity has been proven you can sue for custody." Mike explained.

"But you should be aware that that can lead her to countersue for child support." Alan adds. 

"Is it possible to get full custody? That she can't have any contact at all."

"You would need a really strong case, evidence of neglect, things like that. It would take time." Mike says.

"How could my presence affect his odds?" I ask. Ransom gives me a look.

"Her representation could make it difficult for him to get any type of custody if there's a woman who is not married to living in his home." Mike informs me, giving me a sad look. I take a shaky breath and nod. 

"I don't want to cause any issues that'll affect your ability to get custody." I say quietly to Ransom. 

"It would look better if you were married before the baby comes. Shows you're more stable and she can't use it against you in court." Mike says. 

"We can't do much more until after the child comes. For now, go home, relax. We'll reach out if anything changes." Alan advises us. 

We get in the car and I allow some tears to fall. I was so tired of crying. I had been doing nothing but crying, for one reason or another, since Christmas and I was tired of it.

"Hey, hey." He says softly. "No tears, she's not worth it."

"I'm tired of all the curveballs Ransom. It's bad enough I don't get to have my dad at our wedding. Now we're going to have to adjust so much so that she can't use our relationship status against you. This wasn't how I imagined it would be when we started our life together."

"So we move it up and make it the best wedding you could have." He says, determinedly.

"How are we going to pull off a wedding in a couple of months? Everyone around here is going to think that I'm the one that's pregnant."

"Who cares what other people think? We certainly never have. And if anyone can pull off a short engagement wedding, it's our moms. I would be surprised if they haven't had this planned since we were little."

"Have you figured out what you're going to do about doctor's appointments and such?" I ask, trying to change the subject. 

"Mike said he's filing a motion to have her or her representation keep me updated on appointments so I can be there. She's supposed to find out the gender next week so hopefully I'll be able to be there for that."

I smile but it doesn't quite reach my eyes. 

"What's wrong?" he asks.

 I fake a smile. "Nothing. I'm ok. Do you think you could drop me off at my mom's? I completely forgot I had made plans to get lunch with her." He doesn't seem to buy it but chooses not to argue. 

He drops me off and kisses me goodbye. "I love you Bentley, more than anything in the world."

I smiled sadly. "I love you too Ransom." I walk inside and I hear him drive away, letting the tears fall more freely behind the closed door.