Christian did come to see Ashley at the Academy. And they really did have fun. they had one week that was fantastic. and that should have been the end. But, both lonely and with limited options, they kept seeing each other. Ashley could see this, but she didn't want to be alone anymore. So she kept seeing the young guy who was just as irresponsible as Waffle, with none of the perks he'd had. And a month later, Ashley got a really big surprise. She was pregnant.
She knew this would change everything again. And just as she seemed to have gotten things figured out, she had to quit the Academy. She had to go back home and live with Scarlett. She had to tell the young man he was going to be a father to a bastard child. Predictably, Christian fled. If she had had any any sense at all, Ashley would have never even talked to a man like that. But here she was, stuck with his illegitimate child, and stranded. Here she was at the bottom, again. Ashley firmly believed that all children were blessings, but this was certainly a rough starting point for a baby. And being back home with Scarlett, under this kind of pressure did not create a harmonious home either.
Ashley and her mother raised the baby until he was one year old. Ashley did what she could to learn to be a mother and try to learn a trade so that she could eventually have her own life again. She gained back all of the weight and more with the pregnancy and the abandonment of Christian and the stress it all. She wondered if this was her fate, to just be stuck, alone, and abandoned forever and ever. Even if she found her way out of this mess, would it always come back? She didn't know, but surprisingly, one day Christian did. He showed up on her doorstep with flowers and a ring. Their baby, little Zell, was one and a half, and Christian claimed that he was wracked with guilt and wanted to make things right and take care of them from now on. Ashley had one clause, that she could have another child, because she thought all children deserved a sibling and a playmate. It seemed the best of all the bad options at the time, and who knows, Ashley figured, if he had come back, maybe they could love one another. Maybe it was an exercise in forgiveness and it was fate after all. So she did forgive him, truly. It was in her nature to forgive people, especially when they expressed remorse. What Ashley didn't know though was that Christian was a liar, through and through. No, she would not know that until much later.
