A Beautiful, Terrible Love

Chapter 23

 I wanted to stay and beg, but that wouldn't help.

Eve's face, streaked with tears, made me want to pull her into a hug. However, the sad thing about it was that I couldn't. If I tried, it would only make things worse.

I knew my secret was strange. The most popular man in America, a 21 year old single man, with a 3 year old toddler who he is taking care of on his own? No one in the entire country could have guessed that, and many by now are thinking I'm a terrible person. I felt like punching those sort of assuming people, people that just thought that I was a player because I made one mistake.

Well a lot of mistakes, but still.

I didn't tell Eve the whole story of Emilie, Felicia, and I, but I did tell her enough so that she would get the big picture. Leaving out the parts where Emilie was bossing me around, stealing money out of my wallet, and going to clubs and never coming back was necessary. It was my mistake, even getting into that mess in the first place, and I didn't want to give Emilie too much of the blame, so I would seem like an innocent man. For I wasn't. I was just as guilty as Emilie.

In the very beginning, it was bearable.

Emilie was a beautiful girl, with blonde hair and hazel eyes that was almost pure gold. She had an amazing figure, her voice nice but not amazing, with all the makings of a future star. I felt myself to be lucky to accidentally take advantage of a girl like her instead of a street rat. Her personality was hidden beneath layers and layers of superficial sweetness. We had fun, for a little while. 

Then she became this paranoid girl who couldn't leave me or my money alone. She had to bury herself under wigs, cheap clothing, and weird makeup so she couldn't be recognized, or else everyone would see she was with child. She hated every minute of that, every second of anonymity. Soon, that hate began to wear on her, and she began to let her true personality show. I had let her move in at about five months into her pregnancy, and regretted it the day I let her bring in her ten suitcases. She got mad at my cook for the smallest things, flirting with the gardener until he had to resign. Stealing money out of my wallet, she would run off to a nightclub, while pregnant, and get drunk. I tried to tell her that it wasn't good for the baby, but she wouldn't listen. She didn't care. And at that time, I believed I would be stuck with her forever, for I didn't believe in getting divorced when there was a kid involved. I came from a divorced family, and I didn't want to inflict the same fate upon my child.

Then, about three weeks before the baby was born, I overheard Emilie talking to her agent. I could still hear, in my mind, her smooth voice as she told him that the plan was working perfectly. She would have my baby, she said, then tell the whole world that I had taken advantage of her and was in hiding for almost a whole year. It would boost her popularity immensely, while destroying my own. I would be the villain, while Emilie would be the victim.

Also, it was then that I found out she had set up the whole escapade, gotten me drunk, and made me conform to her will.

If I tried to explain this to Eve, I couldn't possibly describe the complete defeat and anger I felt at that moment. I was still hoping, on the inside, that she would eventually try to work together with me. That she would want to raise the child. But this, I couldn't allow. Telling her that I didn't want to get married would only infuriate her, for we were both engaged, and she would tell our secret earlier. I was trapped.

Soon, I came to the conclusion that I would have to tell the press before she did. I planned to call the media on the day of our wedding, alerting them then to our secret. However, Emilie's sudden death six days before the wedding, two days after Felicia was born, ruined everything.