No Time Left To Regret

Chapter 12

Suddenly the door burst open and slammed shut. Causing Jonathan to cry, I brought him over my shoulder and rocked him while rubbing his back.

"I can't let things stay the way we left them last night. Give me a chance please..." Joe began to say, but stopped short when he notices his Father, Kevin and Nick already there.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked in slight shock.

"Well apparently your Dad's trying to bribe me out of your life." I stated angrily, shooting Mr. Jonas a dirty look.

"What?" Joe asked shocked, looking at his Father.

"I am not! I gave you two options." Kevin, Sr. said defensively.

"Either way, your bribing me into or out of Joe's life. Your not giving me much to work with." I retorted bitterly.

"Don't forget my offer." Kevin, Jr. piped in.

"What? Seriously someone needs to fill me in on what's going on here." Joe stated shock clearly registering on his face, as he looked at everyone in the room, one at a time, waiting for someone to explain what was going on. He hated being left in the dark about anything.

"Well, Kevin showed up to help, then Nick showed up to try to get us back together, then your Dad showed up to pay me off and take Jonathan away and never bother you again, or marry you and pretend to be a happy family." I explained, while Joe's shocked face turned into anger.

"Why would you do something like that?" Joe shouted at his Father.

"Due to your celebrity status there isn't a lot of room for options since too much time has passed to handle this any other way. She has to decide by the end of the week what she is going to do." Kevin, Sr. stated, looking at Joe with a stonily gaze.

"But Dad, come on there has to be another way. I want to give her time to forgive me and come back in her own time." Joe spoke softly as he jammed his hands into his pockets.

"I'm sorry son, there is no other way and a limited window for us to act on this. I will leave you two to talk this over and Beth, I'll need an answer by the end of the week... on Friday. You two have three days to figure it out. We'll be talking again soon I'm sure." and with that Kevin, Sr. walked briskly out the door.

"Dad's right, you two need time to talk it over. Come on Kevin - let's head back home. I hope you two make the right decision for Jonathan's sake." Nick said resting a hand on Joe's shoulder before walking to the door and exiting with Kevin solemnly in tow.

"My offer still stands no matter what you decide." Kevin stated sadly as he walked out the door.

Joe looked at me, confusion crossed his face from Kevin's statement. I looked back at Joe with a blank expression before I spoke, trying to avoid having to explain the whole Kevin situation to Joe.

"So what are we going to do now? Your Dad was clear we didn't have many options or much time to decide..." I trailed off.

"We're gonna talk it over and have an answer for my Father and the record company before Friday." Joe replied, looking into my eyes.

"There's nothing you can do is there?" I questioned, looking from Jonathan to Joe.

"I didn't have a clue about any of this believe me, I wouldn't ambush you like that. I was trying to work things out with you under my own conditions and keep the business and my family out of it." Joe reasoned.

"Well that didn't exactly work did it?" I said sarcastically.

"Hey, I am not the bad guy here. I didn't know the record company was going to pressure my Father into getting us to decide so quickly..." Joe started but I cut him off.

"This comes as no surprise, come on Joe you knew it was going to be hard to attempt to explain to all your fans where your son suddenly came from and why we weren't married before he was even conceived. You shouldn't have walked out on me 8 months ago - now you just made this whole situation complicated for everyone." I paused trying to remain calm. "Especially for yourself and your career, your going to lose fans since you broke your promise to God." I rambled on, starting to become upset. Joe rubbed my back as he spoke, trying desperately to calm me down, before my emotions in turn upset the baby.

"That doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that does matter now is you and my son. I don't want you to be running off somewhere and I never get to see my son again. Marry me so I don't have to live without either of you..." Joe asked, grabbing my hand.

"I can't! I just can't jump into this with you right now." I shook my head in disbelief at Joe's suggestion as I threw his hand off of mine.

"Please... reconsider." Joe pleaded with me.

"I don't know what is a better choice for me and Jonathan - having you in our lives or not having you around at all...." Joe was quick to cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

"Wait! I got it! We'll get married and in front of everyone we will act the part of a happy family and privately we will work through our problems. No one needs to know any different. We'll keep the skeletons in our closet at home instead of being apart or airing them out in the public eye. What do you think?" Joe reasoned while locking eyes with me and giving me a friendly smile.

"Fine, I'll do it just promise me one thing... that you won't give up your music." I urged.

"I won't as long as we're together." Joe looked down at the baby smiling as he took Jonathan into his arms.

***Chapter end notes*** - Thank you for reading this chapter. Wish this story got more attention, not too many reads, votes  or comments currently. This story is finished and will be updated soon. Upvote if you like this chapter and leave a comment telling me what you think.