So this was based on an idea from a guest reviewer so if you're reading this, thank you so much and I hope you enjoy it.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to be happy together. Kittens and candy floss and everything else they'd promised each other.
'We'd have each other.'
She'd told him as she tried so hard to convince him to move Devon with her. It was the admission that she, Carla Connor, actually wanted to start a family that won him over though. It wasn't a lie, it was something she had been thinking about for weeks because when it came down to it she did want to have a family with Nick. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't marry him knowing that she was hiding this massive secret from him that was going to wreck their marriage when he eventually found out, which he would because secrets don't stay buried for long.
So she told him. She told him on their wedding day, the 22nd of May 2016. She'd pulled him away from all their guests and brought his world tumbling down around him. He cried. She cried.
'I still love you but I can't marry you... Not after this.'
She knew he'd never go ahead with the wedding once he found out. She'd told Michelle on numerous occasions but hearing him say those words broke her heart. All she'd wanted for those last few months was to be Mrs Carla Tilsley and now it was ruined. She had nobody to blame but herself.
Her return to Weatherfield hadn't exactly been planned. She'd gone to LA after the wedding and hid there for a couple of months until she got herself together. The past two years she'd been living in Devon, at first the thought of going down there scared her. This was her and Nick's place. The place they should've grown old together but she soon realised she had her heart set on Devon. She'd been on a few dates here and there down in Devon but no one quite compared to her Nicky Tilsley.
Her return had shocked her family. She hadn't told them she was coming and one windy Tuesday morning she just rocked up at the factory. Of course they welcomed her back with open arms; Johnny hugged her like she would disappear any minute and Kate spent at least half an hour telling her just how much she'd missed her. They were acting strange though, as if they were hiding something. They done everything they could to talk her out of going to the pub for dinner, claimed they wanted some family time since she'd been away for so long but she knew there was more to it.
Her first few days were spent cooped up in Kate and Johnny's flat after she came down with a sudden virus which left her curled up on the sofa in her jammies with a sick bucket by her side. Johnny, bless him, took the time off work and sat with her making sure she had everything she possibly needed almost as if he was trying to make up for all the years he missed out on when she was growing up. Michelle came to visit, Roy and Cathy also came although they all acted just as strangely as the rest of them. It wasn't until her fifth day back that she finally found out what they'd all been so desperate to protect her from.
She had ventured out the flat for the first time. She was surprisingly feeling rather confident until her eyes fell onto the Bistro; the bistro that Nick had bought back off Robert after news of their one night stand came out and he decided to move as well. Standing there in his blue suit, the same blue suit that she absolutely adored was her ex-husband... But it wasn't seeing him that brought the tears to her eyes or made her gasp for breath. It was the small cries of 'daddy' as the little girl, probably about eighteen months old, beside him reached her arms up and almost effortlessly he leant down and swept her into his arms earning giggles of delight as his daughter clung onto his shoulder.
It's the thought of what should've been, what could've been if she had just managed to be faithful that breaks her heart. And as she watched as an unknown brunette made her way over to him, rested one hand on his shoulder and leant in to kiss the little girl's forehead she knew that he had moved on and it was about time she done the same.