Being Mrs. Kane

Chapter 16

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.
-Ayrton Senna

The universe gives us signs of times to come in certain ways, just like it had done on the day dad died. It was an hour long rain on a sunny afternoon. I remembered my unrest on the day of Dean's arrest and the cold feeling in my stomach as I accepted the waiting job at Rhino Lounge. This time, it was an unsettling feeling in my guts as I signed the one year contract stating that I accepted the terms and conditions of being Mrs. Kane. As much as I get these signs, I never listen.

Did I know Laura will become a mother sooner than she planned, if she ever planned to? No, but if she had, I knew it was never intended to be with Eddie.

"Shh, stop crying and tell me how it happened," I tried to console my crying friend.

She launched into a sobby story of how Eddie broke up with her last week stating that he would be moving to Edinburgh after his sister's wedding. Laura was ready to accept her fate because she wasn't ready for a long distance affair but that was until it read positive on her pregnancy test.

"You guys broke up?" Again?

"Yeah. I told you," Laura said as she picked up another tissue to blow her nose.

"You did?" I asked not hiding my amazement. Laura was always talking about Eddie and I hated to admit it but sometimes, I wasn't listening. It was hard to keep up with the tales.

"Dakota, I did over the Rosé but I saw you weren't even listening so I figured there must be something wrong with you, how Ironic that I asked if you were pregnant," she said and I couldn't help but feel ashamed for never giving her my attention. I was a bad friend.

"I'm really sorry for not listening that day, or any other day, I'm just- I have no excuse, I'm a bad friend," I said quietly.

"No you aren't, you are just you, you don't share much and I get that but that doesn't make you a bad friend," she said and her words tugged at my heart. Why was I so protective of my business? Why didn't I open up to her when countless opportunities presented itself? Why was it so hard to trust?

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Well, I sure I wasn't ready but I do want to keep the baby and my mom already knows, she'll be coming next week. I wanted to take some time off work to regain my stance and mentally prepare myself for what's coming ahead," she replied and we fell into a comfortable silence, my head swirled with the load of information dumped on me.

"Does Eddie know?" I broke the silence by asking the most important question so far.

"No, but I'll let him know after the wedding, I don't want him to think I'm trying to make him stay. I don't want to but I feel it's the right thing to do,"

"It is," I replied feeling sad yet a little proud that Laura seemed to have it all together even if she was overwhelmed. She seemed to have a plan. I couldn't imagine myself in such a situation, I would be a hot mess.

"You look all dressed up, where were you?" She asked while scrutinizing my dress down to my shoes at the edge of the bed.

"Oh Laura, I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life," I said and I did what I should have done a long time, I told my friend the entire truth about me. I started from dad's death to my job at Rhino Lounge to mom's death to Dean's arrest and to my life being a living hell because of Ratface attempts to ruin it. I also went further to the Landucci incident and my first meeting with Dorian down to the night at Coral Café when he first presented me the offer of being his wife.