Seasons (Ari AU)

Chapter 25

  Holland POV

  "See you guys in a couple days," I announce to the women on the floor.

  "Days? Excuse me, since uh when?" Shauna asks, following me to the locker area, her hand tapping against the counter as we pass the entirety of the nurse's station. 

  "Since I have to do a twenty-four hour urine collection," I tell her, using my back to push the door open further, letting her pass in front of me. She stops for just a  moment to touch my protruding belly. "It wouldn't quite be sanitary for me to keep a jug of urine in our fridge here."

  "Okay, yeah. You've got me there. Any kicks yet?"

  "Not really. Little flutters, but nothing really worth mentioning."  I know I should be feeling the sweet girl more soon, really at any moment now that I'm twenty-two weeks. 

  "I can't believe you're really over half way there. It seems so surreal."

  I pause my actions, leaning back against my locker cubby. "You think it feels surreal to you? I'm still living in a state of constant confusion when all I really want is to just enjoy this pregnancy."

  There is nothing more true than that statement. I always imagined what it would be like to be pregnant, to live all of the little moments with my spouse and talk about how excited we were for what our little one would grow up to become. 

   And here I am, living the exact utter opposite.

  "Nothing new?"  Shauna asks, pulling me from my pity party.

  "Nope. Well, actually I take that back. Apparently Jeremy had taken out a loan that I had no clue about. It's gone to some claims or something and now I'm being dragged into it. I'm headed there first thing in the morning before I start my fun urine collection." 

  A vibrating sound goes off, Shauna pulling the pager out of her pocket. "Let me know if there's anything we can do, okay?"

  "We?" I ask her, pausing her walk out of the room.  "You and Dean?" My eyes dance in excitement at the prospect of Shauna being in love.

  She gives a small giggle, rolling her eyes at me. "Me and Ari, silly."

  It's been two weeks since Ari's accident. He's been home the last eight days, still requesting to go back to work sooner than medically suggested. From my understanding though he's been able to work on that long 'Honey Do List' that Lissy  had set aside for the house. 

  We haven't spoken. Any details I want to know, I go through his sister who then questions me to no end as to what is going on between the two of us. I tell her it's nothing, he's just filling his time with his newly discovered family, the way it should be. 

  The way my life should be.

  "What do you mean I'm liable?" 

  I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to yell the worst obscenities my brain could possibly come up with as the woman in front of me says that I am now the one to take over the loan that Jeremy applied for. 

  "Mrs. Gable, you co-signed the loan, therefore any debt your husband had with our company is now your responsibility," Margie Highwater tells me, her glasses sitting on the tip of her nose. I'm sure she isn't attempting to actually sound condescending but the more she speaks the more I rethink my thoughts. 

  "No, no. No. I didn't sign any loan," I tell her, adamant that she's somehow wrong in her assumptions.  

  The night of his Jeremy's accident comes screaming back to me. The way that I was so sure they had the wrong house, that there was another Jeremy Gable somewhere else in the United States whose family would be notified that they'd loss a husband, a father. And this time, I'll be proven right. 

  Margie slides a sheet of paper across her desk, turning it to face me. Her finger slides down to the bottom, next to the word co-sign is my name, and my signature. 

"I didn't sign this!" I yell, slamming my hand down on the mahogany wood.  My reaction startles her. I recognize the slight tremor in her hand as she pushes her glasses further up. 

  "Mrs. Gable, I'm going to need you to calm down."

  "How the hell do you expect me to calm down?" I cry  in anger. "I didn't sign this!"

  She slides the form back towards her. "Do you have some way of confirming that this is not your signature?"

  I pull out my license, the one thing I'd had permanently signed with my married name. I nearly toss it at her, not caring where it lands. She eyes both of them before stepping out of the room for another opinion. I hang my head, my elbows keeping me upright against the edge of her desk. Knowing that my blood pressure is rising,  I take several deep breaths, in through my nose and out through my mouth in an effort to keep it from going too high.

  Margie comes back around her desk, another man stands beside her when I look up. I can see the look on both of their faces once again leading me to declare my innocence where this form is concerned. "I didn't sign that!"

  "Your signature matches, Mrs. Gable. We have no way of knowing if it had been forged, therefore you are liable for your husband's debts."

  I scream and cry the entire way back home. My face is splotchy, eyes puffy and my throat raw before I complete the ten minute drive. I've cursed the man I thought I loved more than I ever though humanly possible, asking the heavens above how he could leave me in such a state as this, everything about him making me believe was a complete lie. 

  There's a tap against my driver side window, making me raise my head from the steering wheel where it's been resting ever since I pulled up to my home. I don't say a word as I see the piercing blue eyes staring at me with a look of concern that hasn't been there in weeks. I push the door open, effectively making Ari take a couple of steps back.

  I brush past him, my feet beginning to move too quickly, my body knowing that I'm about to lose myself completely to the heartache all over again. Having him near me is too much right now, because all I want is to hear him tell me that everything will be okay, that he's here for me, and maybe just maybe, call me beautiful again.

  "Holland!" His call doesn't make me slow down, pushing the door open and barreling myself to my bedroom as I crumple to the floor, my hands wrapping around my daughter's home.  "Holland, what the hell is going on?"

  I shake my head, continuing to cry, my eyes glued shut as the turmoil comes rushing towards me faster than a freight train. 

  I feel his hands on my shoulders for only a moment before he's gripping the sides of my face, his large hands pulling my gaze up to face him, demanding answers. "What is going on?" he asks again, more calmly in an effort to make myself calm down as well.

"My life," I hiccup through my tears, "is essentially over before it ever began, to the tune of a hundred thousand dollar loan that I had nothing to do with."