𝐎 𝐁 𝐉 𝐄 𝐂 𝐓 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍 (18+)

21

The Aftermath.

♡♡♡♡

The party was cut short, everyone went home and buzzed about the unexpected events that took place tonight and Serenity's words rang through my ears. I giggled to myself but cleared my throat and hung my head once the arguing in the room got louder.

There stood Jeremy, Issac, and I while Charlotte, Ethan, The Lewis' and Issac's father stood on the other side of the room. They'd been going at it for at least ten minutes now but nobody was saying anything of substance. Ethan had been silent since his outburst but I was terribly interested in what he had to say.

It had to be important enough to not only show up tonight but go through with causing a scene.

"I don't even know why she's here! This has nothing to do with her!"

Issac slammed the table and stood in front of me, "this has everything to do with her! It was your family and my father that came up with this pointed scheme in the first place, she has every right to see this to the end."

Charlotte scoffed and paced the room trying to get a better look at me, "are you happy Leila? Did you get everything you wanted?"

"Not exactly, you're still here." She tried to lunge at me but Ethan grabbed her, making her smack him away. Issac scoffed and muttered something under his breath before Jeremy began speaking.

"I'm sorry there's nothing we can do. The documents merging the company weren't signed and Issac and Charlotte are clearly no longer engaged. The company is mine and I plan to do with it what I see fit. Issac has no rights to it, and neither do you or Ned. It's done."

I had to admit it was satisfying to know that Ned or the Lewis family could no longer control Issac through the company. Most importantly he was free to do what he wanted professionally, like take National Geographic on that underwater photographer position.

"We may not have rights to the company but our daughter is pregnant with his child, we won't be left high and dry."

Disgusting. All of it was revolting and I couldn't believe they were using an unborn child to continue to try and manipulate people into making decisions that benefited them. If it were me, I wouldn't dream about bringing an innocent baby into that.

They didn't deserve it.

"Speaking of which, Ethan is it? Why are you here tonight?" Jeremy was asking the right questions.

"He was just leaving—" Charlotte tried to push him out of the room but he moved away from her.

"Charlotte hasn't been answering my calls. We agreed to end things, I was okay with that until I was going through her things and found this." He handed Issac an orange envelope and silence fell through the room.

I could see her—she was nervous. Doing whatever she could to try and snatch the envelope away from Issac. Her cheeks were already stained with wet streaks of mascara—knees on the floor. Her mother attempted to help her daughter up but it was no use, she was hysterical.

Issac carefully opened the envelope and he and Jeremy looked through the information together, both men sighing deeply once they finished.

"Why? Charlotte what the fuck is this?"

She couldn't answer. All she could muster up were mumblings incoherent to everyone else in the room. I glanced at her parents, both looking at her in disgust. I peeked over Issac's shoulder and read what I could see on the paper.

It was a paternity test, the original one because the name on the paper wasn't Issac Hill, it was Ethan Howard. My heart went out to Issac for trying to force himself to accept a child he didn't want but it broke for Charlotte.