Fade Into the Background

Previously

"And you know what, I don't give a damn!" Her mother yelled while taking off the apron she had been wearing and tossing it on the table. "At this point, you're in no condition to care for yourself, so I could care less what you want or don't want. You are pregnant! There is another person living inside you that depends on you for everything you have to give it and right now you're killing it! So from now on, I don't care if you're not hungry, because you will eat! I'll be damned if I let you harm my poor grandchild because you couldn't control your emotions. You made a mistake, big deal, now own up to it. Stop sulking like a little baby and take care of your child like I raised you to have enough common sense to do that."

xx

"There is no problem."

"Bullshit!"

"I hate you!"

"And I love you, that's why I'm telling you this. Get it together, because in less than 2 months, you'll have another life to care for, but it'll mean nothing if you can't even get your own life in check."

xx

"Our wedding night? You fucked my wife only hours after I married her?"

Troy shook his head. "I didn't fuck her, I made love to her."

"You son of a bitch." Kevin's fists began to ball up at his sides

"You wouldn't. You can't. Just accept the fact that your wife was with me on your wedding night, she has sex with me, and that baby that she's having is most likely mine."

Before either man knew what was happening, Kevin's fist flew towards Troy's face and with a loud crack and a grunt, Troy was knocked on his ass, holding his newly bloody nose.

"You know what that's for, bastard."

Do not dwell in the past; do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

-Buddha

Chapter 9

Gabriella looked on as her sister helped finish the last minute decorations to the nursery.

"How's it looking?" Anisah asked, getting down off the latter and stepping back to admire her own handy work.

Gabriella nodded with a half smile as they looked at the boarder around the room that had just been finished. "Looks great."

Anisah was quick to narrow her eyes at her sisters' reaction. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

"Seriously Ani, it's nothing," Gabriella answered with a shake of her head.

"Then why can't you be genuinely happy?"

"I am happy! Who said I'm not happy?"

"The look on your face."

"Ani, I'm fine. It's just feels weird. Not having Kevin here and having Troy pissed at me. To some extent, it feels like I'm alone in this now."

"You've still got us."

"Believe me, I know that, but it's not the same, you know?"

"So why don't you talk to Troy and talk to Kevin and fix this."

"Because I doubt Kevin wants to talk to me, or even look at me right now," Gabriella admitted.

"And Troy?"

"Troy's asking me for a paternity test. What do you think?"

Anisah shrugged. "I think that there's no harm in trying. You can't just mope around. And you're gonna have to talk to BOTH of them eventually, so why not do it as soon as possible?"

"It's a scary thought. There's just so much going on at one time and it's my entire fault and the worst part is I don't know how to fix this."

"Well…" Anisah sat down on the floor next to her sister. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. You are the smart one after all."

Gabriella couldn't help but crack a smile. "I don't feel so smart right now."

Wrapping her arm around her older sister, Gabriella leaned in and they rested their heads against each others, hoping that soon enough all the troubles would be over.

Gabriella sighed as she stood outside the apartment building, glancing up the brick pavement to the window she knew belonged to the apartment of the person she was here to see. Entering the building, she kindly thanked the woman that had held the door open for her and waited just minutes for an elevator to come to the lobby.

Pressing the button for the 8th floor, Gabriella stood quietly across from said woman as they rode the elevator to their respective floors. The woman got off first, waving as she left and the doors closed behind her, leaving Gabi wondering if she should actually go through with this.

When the bell dinged and opened on the 8th floor, Gabriella took a deep breath as she stepped off and turned left, following her memory to the familiar apartment door and pressing the buzzer underneath the peep hole.

Despite her nervousness, Gabriella heard a voice call out and some shuffling before there was a presence at the door. He hadn't opened it yet, but she could hear his breath on the other side and assumed he had looked through the peep hole and spotted her face.

Maybe that meant she should go home. He clearly wasn't expecting her nor did he want her here it seemed. But instead of turning and walking away, Gabriella felt herself looking directly at the peep hole. "Troy, please open the door. We need to talk."

There was another moment or two of silence, before she heard the chain moving and the door cracked open, revealing the left side of Troy's face as he peeked out at her. "What are you doing here?" He asked simply.

"We need to talk," she repeated, hoping he would let her in, but knowing full well that if he didn't it would be okay for her too. This was awkward enough already.

"Kevin's done enough talking for the both of you."

By the look on her face, Troy guessed she was aware of Kevin's whereabouts lately. "I guess you didn't know he came to see me?"

"He came to see you?" She questioned. "For what? What'd he say?"

Dropping his head to look at the ground, Troy chuckled. "Not so much what he said, but more did."

Knowing she might regret asking, Gabriella did so anyway, gently pushing on the door as she did. "What did he do?" She felt Troy tense as she started to push the door and she stood, looking pleadingly at him. "Troy it might be easier to talk if you let me in."

Mentally debating with himself for a moment, Troy nodded slightly, opening the door for her to come in and turning his head so that got a full view of the bruise and swelling that covered his right cheek and temple.

"Troy!" She gasped, forgetting their current status and reaching for his face to get a better look and brush her hands over the spot. He winced and she stepped back. "He hit you?"

Shrugging, Troy closed and locked the door again. "Can say I blame him. I would hit me too."

"Troy…"

"And he packs a punch, that's for sure."

She shook her head. "I'm so sor…"

He stopped her with a hand. "You wanted to talk?" And with that he walked into what she knew was his living room, leaving her no choice but to follow behind him.

There was a frantic banging on the hotel room door that interrupted Kevin from his work. Confused, he stood from the papers at his desk to open the door, revealing his very much pregnant and angry wife.

"Gabriella…"

"You hit him?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Troy! You went over there and hit him? Are you crazy?"

Dropping his head, he looked away. "Figures you would find out about that. So I take it you went to see him?"

"Does that matter?" Gabriella asked exasperated. "What matters is that you went over there and punched him in the face. You sought him out!"

"He slept with my wife!" Kevin countered back.

"So what?! You wanna hit me too? Because I willingly slept with him that night Kevin, it's not all his fault. It's not like he forced me."

"Wow! There's goes that confession I've been waiting for!" Kevin exclaimed, turning away from her.

"Stop it! I never once lied about this."

"No! No, that's right because omission isn't lying. You're so right."

"Well what do you want me to say? I made a mistake. I'm not perfect! I'm far from it and you knew that when you married me!"

"I never expected you to be perfect! I expected you to tell me the truth and be 100 percent honest with me. I didn't expect for you to sleep with your ex on our wedding night and get pregnant with his child!"

"We don't know that it's his," she defended quickly.

"Does that change anything? Did you not still sleep with him?"

"But I married you Kevin."

He nodded. "But that doesn't mean you're over him. I mean, there had to be something or else you wouldn't have had sex with him."

"Kevin, I'm sorry I slept with Troy, but you have to understand I wasn't in my right mind that night. It had months since I'd seen him and he showed up like that and…I don't know what came over me, but I needed him."

Kevin scoffed. "Because that's what every man wants to hear his wife say."

"I've already said that I'm sorry, Kevin, but it's not like I can change anything now."

He nodded. "Right, we'll just have to wait for that paternity test."

"And then what?"

"Then you can decide who you want to be with."

"I thought that was obvious!"

"Not so much since I found out you slept with your ex-fiancé the same night we got married!"

Gabriella stepped back at his tone, having nothing else to say to defend her argument. "How'd you even get up here anyway?"

She stared at the floor at she played with her fingers. "The charges for the room showed up on your credit card. And I told the guy at the desk I was your wife and I was coming to surprise you."

He couldn't help the dry chuckled that left his lips. "And surprise me you did, Gabriella."

She stepped to him; taking his hand and making him look up at her. "I never meant to hurt you. It was idiotic and now it's going to cost me a great man who really cared about me."

Gritting his teeth, Kevin nodded. "And then maybe you and Troy can patch things up," he replied bitterly. "I think it's time for you to go." Kevin quickly guided her to the door, holding it open as she stepped out. "Call me when you know and then I'll contact you with the details regarding our divorce."

And with that, he slammed the door shut, leaving Gabriella staring at the three gold numbers on the door with regret.

I'm finally getting somewhat settled into my dorm so I decided to go ahead and give you guys an update since you've been waiting oh so patiently. Not sure when the next update will be, but I'll try not to keep it long. Let me know what you guys are thinking as always in a REVIEW and I'll answer any questions you have for me and have a new chapter out soon (: