Pillow Talk

5~ Listen To Me

I sat in the guest room for hours reading before River finally walked into the room.

"I'm sorry." He immediately said, sitting on the end of the bed, "I should have told you right away, not like that. I'm sorry I embarrassed you and I don't. . . I'm sorry." He took my hand in his, genuine guilt in his eyes. I dropped my head and laid my free hand on my stomach.

"You knew I was terrified to have a kid, River. And you didn't tell me you knew. Why?" I asked, searching his eyes for an answer.

"Because I was scared. . . I was scared you would want to hurt the baby or give it up or something." He confessed, touching my stomach, "And I don't want that. I want this baby." He moved closer to me, but I pulled back a little.

"We aren't ready, River. And don't worry, I wouldn't. . . kill him or her. Adoption would be good, we're still too young and-"

"And I want you to tell me the real reason you don't want this child, Scarlet. When Maya was born, you couldn't keep your hands off of her. You were around the baby more than Mia was." I shook my head, wanting to deny what he said. But I found myself confessing the truth instead.

"I don't want to turn into my mom, either of them." I admitted, meeting his eyes after a second. He slowly ran his fingers along my wrist before kissing it.

"You never will be, Carls. You're a better person then either of them already. You'll be a great mother." He laced his fingers through mine, smiling.

"I'm scared." I whispered. He nodded, the smile starting to fade.

"I am too, Carls. But we can do this together. Me and you, remember? It's us against the world." I laughed quietly, letting him pull me into a hug.

"Have you kept anything else from me?" I asked, getting straight to the point as I tore myself away. He turned his head quickly, avoiding my eyes.

"River-"

"You know I'd never lie or keep anything from you, Carls, not unless it was for the better." I could feel my body straighten out at the comment. What was he trying to say? Was he lying to me about something else too?

"River, what else are you keeping from me?" I asked, grabbing at his elbow. He shifted uncomfortably, his jaw clenched.

"It's not my place to say anything." I frowned at his words, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"River, just say it." I said. He bowed his head, huffing out a long sigh.

"Your brothers should have told you by now, I don't know why they haven't." He muttered, standing up. He walked across the room quickly and pulled something out of a drawer.

"I found this in the basement here, Collin doesn't know I found it." He walked back over to me, dropping the piece of paper down on the bed.

"Talk to them about it, Scarlet. I. . . it's not right for me to say anything if they haven't yet." Then he kissed me gently and walked out of the room.

I picked the dusty piece of paper off and frowned when I realized it was a Birth Certificate.

"What the hell?" I swiped my hand across the dust and looked down at the name on it. My name.

My heart started racing when it fell on the parents names below. The names didn't belong to my father, or Carrie-Anne, or even Sally. They weren't my parents names.

No, it was Damon's.

**

I had always known that there was a huge age gap between Collin and Damon, but I had always been too young to actually look into that gap. Now, as I did the math, Damon had a good eleven years on my brother, which would have made him somewhere in his thirties right now. That would mean that if that birth certificate was right, that Damon was only about seventeen years older then me and. . . and was my father.