Before It's Too Late

Chapter 29

"THE PATERNITY TEST RESULT is out."

Shelly's message was longer, but it was the only sentence that stayed and kept flashing in Avery's mind. Her eyes were closed as she lay in bed, but the information she received kept her awake. Since she came home to her parents, there hadn't been a night that she hadn't cried. Everybody had been telling her it was time to love herself first. Give herself a break from all the pain. She could do better by moving on. But nobody ever told her how.

How could she unlove him?

How could she give herself a break when she was beyond broken?

How could she move on when the ending was not as easy as when she'd started loving?

Avery knew she was trying hard. However painful, she kept trying every day. She wanted to get over David. Get over the hurts. Every time she closed her eyes, she still saw their moments together. It's said time is the best friend of a broken heart. What if time won't do what it was supposed to do? Weeks, months, or even years may pass. Her little bean would always remind her of David.

She kept assuring herself everything would be better with her alone, just her and the baby. Yet, deep inside, she knew how big a space her fears were occupying. It was she who begged David's father to help him. Have a paternity test done, and if the results confirm the baby as Thomas, she made his father promise to guide David in securing the baby's future. She knew how David was in a wrecked state. Avery would only be at peace leaving Boston if she knew David's parents were behind him.

The paternity test result is out. It would reveal another truth soon. She'd asked his father to do it.  She felt as if she wanted to turn back time. Not that she regretted asking because she would like someone to do the same thing if it were her child. It was the fear of not knowing how she could handle the result. Would it break her heart again?

Since she discovered David's cheating, she realized nothing could ever prepare someone to face the ugly truth. At first, she told Shelly she just wanted to confirm it. But, when David admitted it to her face, she felt an unbearable pain she could never compare. In LA, she went to the hospital, needing to see things with her own eyes. But when she witnessed David holding a newborn, it shut her senses down. Whatever the result, she knew it would surely hurt. It was supposed to hurt since it would break her heart either way.

As if her hands had minds of their own, they automatically patted her belly gently. Since she learned about her pregnancy, it'd been giving her the comforting idea that she would never be alone. Her little bean had been her source of everything that kept her sane.

***

Days passed in an instant. David kept reminding Avery of his existence through his daily messages, begging her to see and talk to him. Avery fought so hard at the urge to reply to any of his messages. Her fear of hearing another truth from him scared her. She knew she would eventually need to meet and talk to him but she couldn't face it now.

Though it was ideal to know the truth about anything, for Avery, getting the truth from David's mouth had been nothing but the source of her devastating pain. A misery she never dreamed of for herself, but fate made it her reality.

"Are you going somewhere, Muffin?" Her dad's voice came from the main door behind where she was standing. She got lost in her thoughts while taking the fantastic neighborhood view from their porch.

"Shucks, Dad, you startled me!"

"Did Grandpa startle my Munchkin too?" Her dad looked at her tummy like he could see the baby inside her. "Are you contemplating going out or asking Daddy for a ride?"