New Life

Chapter 25

Angelina's POV

I parked my car in my driveway and shut off the engine. Should I have said goodbye? Or at least let him say goodbye to Quinn? I thought to myself. I shook my head and tried to clear my head. I walked to the back seat door and unbuckled Quinn from her carseat and life her up. My thoughts trailed back to him. The logical side of me screamed, "Forget about him. Did you already forget how bad he's hurt you?" But my heart very quietly replied, "You know. You know that he's made a big mistake but he wants to fix it, and you know that. That's why you're hesitating."

I closed the door behind me, Quinn asleep in my arms. I tucked Quinn in her bed and made my way to the kitchen. The front door was slightly open. I pushed the door shut, but it slipped open again. The latch was broken. I sighed, "I guess I need to get that fixed."

"Angie? Is that you?" Janice came down the stairs rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah," I replied, "I think the door's broken." She pulled me into a hug still half asleep.

"Yeah, just kicked it a couple of times and it'll close," she said, "We should call someone to fix that." I nodded. "Hey," her face got serious, "Are you okay?" That was all it took to set me off.

"No," I cried. I buried my face into her shoulder.

I told her what had happened. "Am I a bad mom, Jan?" I asked.

"Angie," she said, "are you kidding me? Your the best mom ever! If my mom was like you, I wouldn't be as f*cked up as I am now."

"Thanks," I sniffled, "Also, I'm telling your mom you said that." That earned me a playful punch to my arm. "Ouch," I pouted.

"Yeah, that's what you get," Janice said, "What should we eat for breakfast?" She walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. "We got..." she stared in the fridge for a while and said, "half a bottle of water and two eggs. Oh! And we also got an almost empty jar of strawberry jam."

"You wanna go get some stuff for breakfast then?" I asked.

"Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself—"

"I'll be fine," I said, "Seriously, don't worry about me." Her face scrunched up in worry. "Seriously, I won't do anything. I just want to take a warm bath right now. Here, I write you up a shopping list," I grabbed a notepad on the counter. I grabbed stuffed her phone, wallet, keys, and the list into her purse and shoved her out the door. "I'll be fine," I said again as she hesitantly looked back at me. I closed the door kicking it a couple of times making sure it stayed shut and went to the bathroom to fill up the tub for a nice warm bath. I'll be fine. I thought, trying to convince myself.

UNKNOWN'S POV

He stared at her as she paged through the papers in her hand. Her eyebrows furrowed at something written on the paper. She watched him carefully out of the corner of her eyes as he did the same, but more directly. She didn't like the gaze in this man's eyes. "No," she said.

"Excuse me?" He asked, slightly taken aback.

"I am going to have to refuse this ridiculous offer," she said, standing her ground.

"Please, don't make this difficult for me," he said, "I don't intend to make this messier than it has to be. You can take that back home and read through it a couple more times until you agree."

"Sir, please—" she started.

"And Monica, please remember..." he put his finger up to his lips and winked. She turned around and walked out of the room. "What do you think, Luke?" Lucas uncrossed his legs and leaned forward in his seat.

"As long as she's happy, I won't interfere," Lucas replied as the stranger's lips curled into a grin.