That seemed to stump Scott as he thought for a moment then opened his eyes. “They met at the library on campus. I just remember Anna mentioning how she’d run into Sam again at the coffee shop on campus or the cafeteria. Each time it just seemed coincidental until she started talking about getting together with her for this or that. She finally had her over, and we started hearing more and more about her. But the topic of how much they looked alike was one that was brought up by everyone who met her, something that in hindsight Sam seemed to delight in.”
Nathan nearly walked out before remembering something, and he had to ask. “You had two sets of social media back then.” Nathan shrugged, making no apologies. “I had my cousin looking through everything. The one you deleted had photos of you partying with a bunch of girls and shit. That threw me.”
Scott and Josh exchanged glances, only Josh was the one that answered for him. “Scott told me about that. I think we all did it. I know I did. Before we came out, we had a persona to live up to. So like the front we put up for our friends and family before they knew we were gay, our online profiles had to match.”
Nathan let out a quick breath. He’d been so certain Scott had been trying to hide the fact that he was straight that it never even dawned on him it might be the other way around.
~*~
Aiyanna
The hospital room was quiet and dark when Aiyanna awoke. She stared at the ceiling as the memories of what had gone down that day came to her. Despite everything that happened, she still felt terrible for Sam or rather Billie. She was even mad at herself for not having picked up on any signs that Sam was unstable, but she was in awe about how far Billie had come. It was proof of what she’d thought all along: that some patients who were considered hopeless or lost causes really could get better. She just wondered what went wrong with Billie. Why, after nearly a year of rehabilitating herself to the point she’d fooled everyone into thinking she was perfectly sane Sam, had she fallen apart?
A noise in the room made Aiyanna turn to it, and she was instantly choked up. Nathan sat in a lounge chair with a blanket over him, sound asleep. He was as big and beautiful as ever. God, how she’d missed him. But she was almost afraid to get her hopes up. Sure, he was here with her now, and that probably meant something. She just wasn’t sure what exactly, and she was terrified of even letting her already fluttering heart expect more. Maybe he was just there to inquire about the baby. Maybe he’d want her to consider not having it since there was still the possibility it was Scott’s. But after hearing the heartbeat earlier that day, Aiyanna knew she couldn’t abort it.
Resting her hand on her belly, Aiyanna felt the tears run down the side of her face. Already she loved her baby, regardless of whose child it was. Sniffling, she wiped her tears away, surprised by how drained she still felt. She wondered now if maybe they’d given her a sedative or something because she barely remembered getting through the examination before she’d knocked out. Glancing back at Nathan, her breath caught when she saw him staring at her, and once again she was choked up.
“How you feeling?” he asked, sitting up a little straighter.
“Tired,” she whispered, willing the emotion away so she could speak freely.
“Then go back to sleep,” he said, but she shook her head immediately.
No way was she falling asleep and missing out on being around him. No telling how long he was there for. He stood up and walked to her bedside. As soon as he was there, he took her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it over and over. “You have no idea how scared I was today.”
Her heart swelled, but her emotions betrayed her, and she scrunched her face. Nathan leaned over and kissed her forehead softly. “Everything is okay now,” he whispered. “Billie’s getting the help she needs. They said unless you or Scott presses charges she won’t go to jail, just a hospital where they can help her. She has issues she needs to work on, and Anna,” he said, squeezing her hand, “Moe has photos of her before she became Sam. She looks completely different.”
“I know,” Aiyanna said. “I remember her now.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. “You do? From where?”
“One of the hospitals I interned at a few years ago.” Aiyanna shook her head, glad she had a better hold of her emotions, but she felt another kind of emotion overwhelm her now. “I don’t know about Scott, but I won’t be pressing charges. An insanity plea would probably get her off anyway. She has a very tragic past, Nathan. Her parents were killed in a brutal home invasion robbery, and she was beaten, raped, and left for dead. She was already dealing with anxiety issues before that happened, and that just made her snap.”
Aiyanna told him all about the young girl who didn’t speak or communicate with anyone but her. How she’d been making so much progress around the time Aiyanna finished up her internship and how happy Aiyanna had been when she’d gone back to visit and was told she’d been released and was now on an outpatient program. “I never got a good look at her face when she was in the hospital. She was one of those that didn’t like eye contact, so I avoided it at all costs. I never would’ve known Sam was Billie if all this hadn’t happened. She was doing so well. Even had a car and was going to school.”
Aiyanna stopped when Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know all the details yet. With everything that happened today, Moe wasn’t able to tell me everything, but he did say she’s never had a job or attended school, not under either name. She’s living off a trust her parents left her and her disability checks. All those times she was supposedly at school she was doing her mandatory therapy at the hospital and checking in with her doctors.”
Nathan nodded in response to her staring at him in utter disbelief. “She was obsessed with you, babe. The last I heard from Moe he said he found an online cloud account where she kept photos and a bunch of other shit. She had tons of you two side by side. You know how everyone says you two look so much alike? Her before-Sam look isn’t anything like her now. Clearly, makeup, hair dye, and colored contact lenses go a long way. You two have similar body frames and are about the same age. So, basically, she went through great lengths to turn herself into your twin. Her real hair color is dark brown, and her eyes are blue. And, obviously, she’s not even Greek.”
They spoke so long about the whole Billie/Sam situation Aiyanna had actually stopped thinking about the one thing she hadn’t been able to get off her mind for even a few minutes these last several weeks. Until Nathan reached over and touched her belly.
“I heard the heartbeat.”
Their eyes met, and just like when she’d first spotted him outside her home today, his were flooded again. Instantly, the emotion washed over her again.
“It was beautiful,” he whispered, smiling sweetly as his eyes glistened.
He explained how they’d come in to check her vitals while she was sleeping and they’d checked the baby’s heartbeat as well. “I want you to come home with me,” he said, kissing her hand, “where I can take care of you.”
There was no way she could hold it in anymore, and she cried openly now. Nathan leaned in and kissed her lips softly over and over. As beautiful a moment as this was and as much as Aiyanna hated to ruin it, she had to mention it. When he finally pulled away, she wiped her tears.
“I still don’t know—”
“I do,” he said before she could finish like he already knew what she was thinking. “This baby’s mine.”
Aiyanna felt her heart swell over again at the thought that he’d have that much faith in her. “But—”
Nathan shook his head. “I kept thinking all this time there had to be an explanation. No matter how drunk you’d been, I still couldn’t believe you’d actually do that to me, and you didn’t.”
He said it with so much conviction and sounded so convinced Aiyanna almost believed it herself. Only there was no way they could know for sure. Even Scott still wasn’t a hundred percent sure.
“Sam,” he started to say but caught himself then shook his head. “
Billie’s online cloud had more than just photos of you and her side by side. That night I nearly stabbed Scott, it was her we’d heard. She took a bunch of photos of us in the bedroom from just outside the door. The night you supposedly slept with Scott, she took a hell of a lot more photos than the ones she actually sent. There were dozens of you and Scott completely passed out before you’d even taken your clothes off. And there’s proof she planned the whole thing from getting you wasted to the sleeping pill she slipped Scott.”
The relief was overwhelming. “She was adamant I abort,” Aiyanna whispered then gasped. “I had an appointment to do it today.” She knew that would stun him possibly even hurt him, so she squeezed his hand and quickly added, “I thought you hated me, Nathan. I still wasn’t sure whose baby I was carrying. Then she said you’d said all these things to her the night she saw you at Clouds, things I know now were all lies, but at the time, I had no reason not to believe her. She convinced me you wanted nothing to do with me and that you had a fixation with her now.” That reminded her of something and she peered at him. “I saw the text you sent her today.”
Instantly, Nathan was shaking his head. “I’d just found out she was nuts. I was desperate. Neither you nor Scott were answering. I had no idea if she’d done something to you guys, so I thought maybe if I played nice with her I might get a clue.”
“I kept waiting for it to happen.”
Nathan’s brows furrowed. “For what?”
“For me to wake up from the nightmare and I could go back to my perfect life with you.” The warm tears blurred her vision, but she could still see his beautiful face. “Is this really happening?”
Nathan smiled, kissing her hand again. “It really is, baby. Tomorrow I’ll take you home and we’ll put all this behind us. We’ll start back where we left off before Billie tried to ruin things for us.”
Chapter 32: Perfect Forever
Aiyanna
Several weeks after the whole ordeal with Billie, life for Aiyanna and Nathan was finally beginning to feel normal again. The perfection they’d once felt had been back almost instantly. Nathan hadn’t been kidding when he said he wanted to take care of her. He’d taken an entire week off to do just that.
They were officially living together now. So were Scott and Josh. The lease on the house they’d rented wasn’t up for a few months, and Aiyanna had agreed that as soon as it was she’d move in with Nathan. Of course that didn’t happen. Nathan had insisted on paying off the lease so she could move in with him ASAP. He’d even tried to convince her to quit her job so she’d be home more and exert herself less at least during her pregnancy. But Aiyanna drew the line. Letting him pay off her lease was one thing; mooching off him was quite another. It wasn’t like they were married.
Aiyanna had since gotten an update on Billie. She was doing better but still had a lot of issues to work through. Aiyanna had even more reason to want to distance herself from Billie than just for her own safety. She wasn’t even a mother yet, and already she felt overly protective of the child she was carrying. There was no way she’d even consider the possibility of letting Billie back in her life. But she had been curious when she got the email from her.
Even Billie said she understood if Aiyanna didn’t want her in her life anymore, but she did want to explain herself. She said she’d been terrified of losing both Scott and Aiyanna. When she’d stopped taking her medication, she’d become increasingly paranoid about losing her newfound “family.” Josh and Nathan had both become threats of that happening, so she’d fabricated an elaborate scheme in hopes of ruining both relationships in one shot. She just hadn’t counted on Josh being so sure Scott would never do that and especially not on Aiyanna being pregnant. Since Billie knew for sure it was Nathan’s baby, she said she was certain if Aiyanna had it, the moment Nathan got word about his baby he’d be back in her life. She claimed she understood now how wrong she’d been and was working on getting better.
As much as Aiyanna felt bad for her, ironically, Billie being so cunning gave her hope. Clearly, if the girl had it in her to put something so contrived together, she had it in her to be able to take care of herself and try to live a normal life outside of a psych ward. As much as she felt for her once best friend, she knew better than to respond with anything that might give her hope that they could someday be friends again. She had a child to think about now, and it just wouldn’t be healthy for Billie. So she’d simply responded to thank her for her explanation and to wish her the best. It was no more than three sentences, and she hadn’t heard back from her since.
With the weather warming now, Aiyanna was enjoying the beautiful Saturday morning, lounging comfortably out on the patio of Nathan’s home. She’d made breakfast but was waiting for Nathan to get home from his shift at the station to eat it with him. Hearing the garage door open had her smiling.
Aiyanna rubbed her belly. “Daddy’s home,” she whispered.
“Don’t get up,” she heard him say just as she was about to. “You look too comfortable. Let me come to you.”
Smiling, she sat back, gazing at her sexy boyfriend in his firefighter blues, as he hurried to her. As soon as he reached her, he did what he did so often now. He kissed her then got down on his knee and kissed her belly. Only to her surprise, this time he did something else. Aiyanna hadn’t even noticed him holding his hand behind his back until he brought it around and she saw the small box he held.
Her eyes widened as he smiled, opening it. She stared at the gorgeous pear-shaped diamond. “I bought it a few days ago and was gonna get my sisters in on doing something big and elaborate, but I can’t wait for all that. We came together perfectly alone, so I figured my proposal would be perfect if it was just you and me. Plus, I need to know now. Will you marry me, Anna? Please?”
Instantly choked up, Aiyanna brought her hand to her mouth as she nodded, unable to speak. “Is that a yes?” he asked, his expression more than excited.
“Yes!” she squeaked. “Of course, yes.”
Unlike when she’d first been afraid he might be proposing just a few months ago, Aiyanna had never been so sure about anything in her life. After getting back together and living with him just a few weeks, she was certain this was how she wanted to spend the rest of her life—never away from him again.
He quickly slipped the ring on her finger then kissed her as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Nathan made himself comfortable next to her on the oversized lounger and held her as she examined the ring, still in unbelievable awe.
“I’ll wait to tell my family until later tonight. Otherwise, I can guarantee you they’ll all be over here within an hour, and I’d like to enjoy my fiancée alone a little longer.”
Aiyanna turned to him with a big smile from just hearing him call her that. “Could my life get any more perfect?”
“It can,” he whispered, touching her belly again with the same lovesick expression she was certain she was wearing. “This is just the beginning of our perfect forever.
“Our perfect forever,” she whispered. “I love that.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Epilogue
Aiyanna
Even as Aiyanna pushed in the delivery room, she couldn't get the nightmares out of her head. For weeks, she’d been dreaming that there’d be something wrong with him because of the tequila she’d consumed the night Billie tricked them.
The doctors had assured them everything appeared to be perfect during all her prenatal visits. All the tests they’d run had come back just fine, and everyone assured her she wouldn’t be the first mom who’d drank alcohol before realizing she was pregnant. This was the moment of truth. “One more good push, Mrs. Romero,” the doctor said as she bared down and pushed with a grunt, using all the strength she could muster.
Aside from Nathan, Aiyanna had wanted her mom and Heidi, who’d just found out she was also pregnant, to be in the delivery room too. They stood off to the side as Nathan stood by the doctor, read
y to cut the umbilical cord once the baby was out. The instant relief of having the baby out was enormous, and she fell back, feeling completely drained as she heard the beautiful sound of his crying. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes in time to see something was wrong. No one said anything, and her sister held her hand to her mouth.
Nathan stared down silently at the baby Aiyanna still couldn’t see. Even the doctor cleared his throat before congratulating them on their baby boy.
“What is it?” Aiyanna whispered, slightly panicked because Nathan still wasn't saying anything.
“You can cut the umbilical cord now, Dad,” the doctor said, handing him the scissors, but Nathan didn’t take them.
Instead, he walked out the door. Without a word, the doctor cut the cord and lifted her baby so she finally got to see him. Aiyanna gasped as they placed the redheaded blue-eyed baby boy on her chest.
Um, no, this is not how the story ends. My beta readers get the story without the epilogue, which I work on while I hear back from them. This was right around April Fool’s Day, so I got them. LOL My hubs thought it’d be funny to leave it this way and fool ALL my readers. But you can rest assured they have a much happier ending. Read ahead and see for yourselves in the real Epilogue!
Two Years Later
Aiyanna
Anna watched curiously as Moe greeted yet another guest at the door. Even something like hosting a gathering to watch a championship boxing match on television was a full house with these families. Already most of their friends and the entire Romero clan were here, including Izzy’s sisters. She wondered who else was still coming then she froze when she saw her.
“Is that . . .?” Kelli, who sat next to her, began to say but then even she seemed to freeze.
Every time Sabian arrived at any of these gatherings, it seemed he had a different girl with him. Only in his case, it wasn’t just any girl. It was always some big-time celebrity.
“Celina Diaz? “Liv, who was sitting across from them, whispered.