Part 31 - Chapter 6 - Together or Apart?

"How long have you known?" Craig asked. "How far along are you?"

"Not long," Lucy answered evasively.

Craig looked at her critically. He could tell she was keeping something from him. "Couldn't be too long, you aren't showing yet." He paused a second doing a quick mental calculation. "But it's been awhile since we've been together in that way . . . Is this baby even mine?"

"Does it matter?" Lucy asked. "We're over, regardless."

"Of course it matters!" Craig replied sharply. "I'm not letting you keep me out of Stuart's life and I have a right to be a father to this baby too. Unless you're telling me it's not mine."

Lucy looked away and didn't answer immediately.

"Is it? I have a right to know."

"It might be."

"What do you mean, 'might'? Is it or isn't it?"

"I don't know, yet. I just found out myself that I'm pregnant. I don't even know for sure how far along I am or when it happened exactly."

"Then there is a chance that it might not be mine," Craig exclaimed. "You have been sleeping around while I was away. I knew it! I knew I had a right not to trust you. I knew there was stuff going on behind my back. For how long? Have you been making a fool of me the entire time we were married, sneaking around behind my back all along?"

"No, it's not like that at all!" Lucy defended herself. "It was just a one time thing. You left me when I needed you, right before my father's trial, without a word to me! You abandoned me and I was feeling vulnerable. But now that I see you for who you are, I'm not sorry that it happened. Not sorry at all."

"Unbelievable. You cheat on me and make my fault? You try to pass yourself as so high class, but you're nothing but a common slut. I'm out of here!"

"Good riddance!"

"Oh, but don't think I won't be back. I'll be back for the rest of my stuff and more importantly I'll be back for my son. There's no way in hell I'm leaving him here to be raised by a lying slut like you."

As Craig started towards the door Lucy followed after him. "You're not taking our son."

"We'll see about that."

"Lawrence. What are you doing here?" Eileen greeted him warmly by wrapping her arms around him. When he lingered a little longer in the embrace and didn't answer right away, she leaned back to look at him. "Is everything alright?"

"It's fine." He paused a second, deciding whether or not to say more. "I went to the police station today. My uncle wanted to see me."

"Really? What happened?"

"He told me some things about the past and my parents' deaths. He told me the accident that took their lives was meant for him instead."

"Oh my gosh. That's . . ." she was at a loss for words to describe what it was. "How are you taking the news?"

"It's made me think a lot about things. My parents were young when they died. Not much older than I am now. Life is short and you never know what might happen."

"I know. Things like that really make you think," Eileen said leaning closer to comfort him.

"I wanted to wait for the right opportunity to say this. I wanted to be sure I was financially stable and well established first, but maybe I have been overly cautious. I don't want to wait and maybe miss the opportunity to let you know that you are the single best thing to come into my life. Just meeting you, seeing you for the first time turned my life around and knowing you has brought me more joy than I'd ever felt before. Before you came along I had no joy. I had no life."

Eileen's heart was racing, she wanted to chime in and tell him that she felt the same way about him, but she didn't want to interrupt where he was going with this.

"I should have done this a long time ago." He got down on one knee and presented Eileen with a ring. "Will you marry me?"

Eileen could hardly contain herself. She leapt into his arms and answered, "Yes."