Author's Note: We're getting close to the end (*wipes eyes discretely*). I hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it.

the star

thirteen

Despite her determination to set things right, Rachel was extremely nervous about her meeting with Finn. He certainly would be furious and, despite the presence of both of their lawyers, the idea of having to face her soon-to-be ex-husband wasn't a pleasant one.

"I can feel how tense you are, Rachel", Noah Puckerman commented as they parked the car. "Do you want to tell me what the issue is, so that I know what to expect?"

He was a good man, Rachel had always felt comfortable with him. It was easy to share with him what had happened.

"Can I give you some advice?" He asked once she had finished her tale.

"Please".

"Ms. Fabray did everything she could to rip some of your money. She rubs me as a very experienced conwoman, and I know that kind of people quite well. Don't be surprised if she has already sucked everything she could out of Mr. Hudson".

"Do you mean she lied when she said Finn wouldn't give her anything?"

"I'm only saying it's possible. I'd bet she only was trying the cream of the crop". He smiled. "I'm glad you haven't fallen for her trap".

Rachel scowled. "I gave her five hundred dollars".

"It wasn't such a big loss. And it made you feel better, which already justifies it. I think you won't manage to get it back from Mr. Hudson. Actually, I think you should listen closely to his side of the story before you accuse him of anything. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you, Noah. I really appreciate the advice".

He smiled and nodded. "I'm glad I could help".

"And I'm glad I've called you. I feel... readier now".

"I'll be around if anything happens", he assured her.

"Thank you", she said with a sigh of relief.

Noah turned off the ignition and escorted her to the waiting room of the lawyer's office. Finn and his lawyer were already there, dressed in dark gray suits. Rachel also wore a light pink linen suit and, after the formal introductions, Finn praised it, smiling like he was happy to be near her again.

"You look beautiful, Rachel", he said, confusing her with his charming ways.

She looked at the lawyers. "Can we go straight to business, please?"

They sat by the long conference table, the pairs in different sides of the table. Finn leaned forward, hands reaching out in an appeal as he sincerely said, "Quinn lied to you, Rachel. She lied to me. She isn't pregnant. She never was".

She was expecting lies, but not that one. It stunned her. "But... But I saw her! I saw her protruding stomach, she looked early in her second trimester!"

"It was fake, I assure you", Finn stated. "When the other man she had tricked contacted me, I insisted with Quinn to go with her to a doctor appointment, to confirm the pregnancy. She didn't want to, said I didn't trust her, tried every way she could to make me not demand proof of her condition. She has done it before. Blackmail and fraud".

Rachel looked at him, almost unable to absorb what she was hearing. In her mind, she saw Quinn standing by her door, her pregnancy evident. Was Finn making up some story for his own benefit?

"What other man?"

"He read on the paper about the end of our marriage. The role Quinn played on it. He thought for a while and decided to contact me, said he didn't want another sucker to suffer like he had, he didn't want her to get away with it again". He nodded at his lawyer. "Show her his pledged-by-oath statement".

The lawyer handed her some documents. The first one was a pledged-by-oath statement written by the hand of one Arthur Abrams. Rachel hadn't heard of him before, and she guessed Finn hadn't either, since he lived in Canada. Even so, it was perfectly possible that papers there had written about the scandal.

She began reading.

According to Arthur Abrams, Quinn Fabray had been his assistant four years before. She had seduced him so that he had sexual intercourse with her, even though he loved his wife, Brittany, and had no intention to end their marriage, something he had made clear to Quinn, who, apparently, had accepted the situation. Until she said she was pregnant and pressured him into leaving Brittany. He had refused, ended their affair and offered to pay only child support. Quinn contacted Brittany and begged her to leave him, so that they could get married. Devastated, Brittany divorced Arthur, who wanted nothing to do with Quinn anymore and paid a generous settlement to kick her out of his life. A year later, he decided he wanted to see the child. He hired a private investigator to track Quinn down and found out there wasn't any child or any medical records of her pregnancy or the birth of the child.

There were copies of his PI's reports among the papers. When questioned, Quinn declared his money had been a parting gift, and there wasn't any evidence of the contrary. It was his word against hers. Brittany didn't want to testify in his favor because of his infidelity, and there wasn't how to legally retrieve his money.

It was a terrible tale, and Rachel shivered as she remembered how Quinn had come to her, the wife, forcing the end of her marriage and taking advantage of her compassion, making herself a victim of Finn's.

"Quinn didn't convince you, did she?" Finn asked anxiously. "You didn't give her the money?"

She slowly looked up from her papers to look straight at him. "No. I thought you should do it. That's why we're here".

His face relaxed in relief. "She didn't cause us that trouble, at least".

It looked like he was dropping all the blame off himself, and Rachel wouldn't accept that. "You have put us in this situation, Finn. You gave her the opportunity to play this little game".

"Do you think I haven't cursed myself millions of times for having fallen on her trap? It was everything she wanted! She began to come onto me from the first day she started working with you! Looks, sexual innuendos, the occasional grind; all kinds of teasing! I spent months not giving a crap about that. I didn't want her. I had you, Rachel. As she did all that, I kept telling myself I had to stop her, but the one I had too much to drink at a party and..." he ran his fingers through his hair in anguish. "She's a predator, Rachel. I was leaving the restroom and she shoved me back, took off my pants and-"

"Spare me the details!" Rachel yelled.

"I'm sorry... I'm just trying to explain how it happened, how I never wanted it to happen. I love you".

He was twisting everything again, and Rachel was furious. It didn't matter if Quinn had or hadn't seduced him. It hadn't only been once in a restroom. "Do not tell me it was a one-time thing, Finn. I know it wasn't!"

"What has Quinn told you?"

Rachel ignored every other lie he could come up with. "My mother did. She called it a relationship, Finn. It was not only once".

"Alright", he caved. "Quinn knew how to tease me and she always won. Any man would have taken what she was offering! I'm human, Rachel. But I felt incredibly guilty and put an end to that because our marriage was more important to me and I didn't want her to ruin it".

Rachel wondered if Jesse would have done the same, taking what Quinn had offered. Obviously Finn considered her more arousing that what he had at more. Did all men value sex more than love? Maybe Jesse hadn't ever been married because sex with only one woman lost its appeal after a while, and he preferred to be free to seek something new when he felt like it.

Something new... like her.

A wave of depression crashed over Rachel. She didn't want to hear anything else. It made no sense to fight for child support for Quinn Fabray's baby. The main issue for this meeting had been closed, for it didn't exist. She looked sadly at the man she had married, blindly believing in love, and said what she believed what was true. "What you didn't want was to lose your meat ticket, Finn".

His face grew red with anger. "It was Quinn who said that. She was decided to break you and me apart, Rachel, but she's out of our lives now. There isn't any baby to tie her to me. All that is behind us. Give us another chance".

She shook her head, pushed her chair back and stood up, turning to their lawyers. "Thank you for clearing the situation concerning Quinn Fabray".

The three men stood up, and Finn rushed to speak. "Please, think about it, Rachel. We had a good marriage before all this. I know you wanted a baby and I haven't followed your wishes. But if you give me another chance, I promise-"

Rachel didn't have any doubt he would fulfill his vow. A baby would be the best way to keep their marriage together. But she remembered perfectly how he had treated Fiyero, a baby dog, and she couldn't see Finn as father material. Or as husband material. He had never been either of these things.

"This meeting is over", she said coldly. "Our relationship wasn't in discussion, Finn".

"But now you certainly realize I was a victim of Quinn's, like Arthur Abrams. You're letting her win, Rachel".

"No. She didn't win anything with this". Anything but five hundred dollars, which was nothing compared with what she aspired to.

"She managed to break us up!" Finn argued.

Strangely, when it came to that Rachel considered Quinn had done her a favor, putting an end to several bad things in her life.

"Move on, Finn. I finally have", she said firmly.

"I can forgive your situation with Jesse St. James. He took advantage of the circumstances".

She shook her head. "I'm leaving". She looked at her lawyer. "I'd appreciate if you and your client stayed in this office until I'm gone".

The lawyer nodded. "I understand, Ms. Berry".

"Rachel..." Finn insisted, imploringly. She turned her back to him and walked towards the door with her lawyer. "Jesse St. James won't marry you", Finn said. " He won't give you children. You'll end up being just another notch on his bedpost".

She knew Jesse would move on, like he always did, and she was aware that would hurt her greatly. But he had been there for her during the hours she had needed someone the most, helping her become someone capable of making her own choices. The good he had done her would outweigh any pain she would invariably feel.

"I can give you a better life than Jesse St. James ever will", Finn said in one last plea. "I swear you're the only one for me. I'll never look at anyone ever again. And we'll be a family. As many children as your heart desires. What we had was good before Quinn ruined everything. Think about it, Rachel. Call me!"

The door closed behind her. Rachel could leave already. And so she did.

Jesse looked at his watch again, frowning as he realized how long it had been since Rachel's meeting, at eleven, with the lawyers and Finn Hudson.

"Why are you so nervous, Jesse?" Matt Rutherford asked. "It's the third time you've checked your watch and scowled".

Jesse scowled as he glared at the head of his legal department, a man too clever to allow that to slip unnoticed. "I'm waiting for a call from Rachel. There are some bad things happening with Finn Hudson and Quinn Fabray".

"Ah. The pregnant assistant stirring more shit? Anything I can help with?"

"No. The divorce attorneys are handling it, Matt. What worries me is that this meeting wasn't supposed to last this much. I wish I had accompanied Rachel".

"It was best that you didn't, Jesse".

"I know. But I don't trust her husband. Anyway, Rachel had the idea to call a bodyguard to escort her there and back".

"Puck?"

"The one and only".

"He's one of the best. Why don't you give him a call and see what's happening? I have his number".

"This time I'm not his client", Jesse said. "And Rachel promised to call me".

"But it's for his client's sake", Matt argued. "I'm sure Puck will be pleased".

Jesse didn't like that, he thought it was acting behind Rachel's back, but he was too worried not to call. The feeling that Rachel was breaking free of him was increasingly stronger. She was supposed to have called already. Unless something had gone wrong.

He needed to know.

He made the call.

Ten minutes later, he had already been reassured that Rachel was already safely at home since noon. He had also been told about the fraudulent pregnancy. But what disturbed him the most was what Noah Puckerman said he had heard Finn Hudson say as Rachel left the office. The blows against any hope she harbored of having a lasting relationship with him, what her husband was offering. And his final plea.

Call me.

Rachel hadn't followed through on their deal and hadn't called him, the man whose lifestyle suggested she was just another conquest in his life.

Was she considering the promises her husband had made? Finn Hudson had perfectly played the role of victim, begging for her forgiveness and a new chance: he'd end his relationship with Quinn, Rachel would end her relationship with Jesse, a new beginning, a family...

"Jesse, you're tearing up a hole on my carpet".

The quip made him realize he was pacing from side to side in Matt's office, like a frustrated tiger.

He stopped in front of Matt's desk, who leaned back and rose his hands, like had was afraid he would be shot. "Hey, I'm not your target. I'm the messenger, remember? Just tell me what I have to do".

"She's mine!" The words left him in an emotional explosion. Jesse cut through the air, hand holding out like he held a sword. "I don't want that lowlife crawling back into her life!"

Matt shrugged and looked speculatively at Jesse, like his behavior was particularly strange. "Why would she take him back?"

Jesse growled as he answered, "Because he proved her assistant's pregnancy was fake. Because Finn Hudson knows how to use it in his favor, next to all his promises of love and family..." He held up his hands. "The pregnancy was the straw that broke the camel's back because Rachel wanted a baby!"

"Then give her one, Jesse".

As if it was the simplest thing in the world!

Matt carried on, "If Rachel wants children and you're not ready for that, sooner or later you'll lose her. It's the clock ticking. Since you want to be with her, there's just one road to take that can assure your victory, Jesse. Otherwise, you better resign with the fact that you'll have to give her up".

He couldn't handle the idea of giving her up. It would be completely unbearable for her to leave him and share her life with someone else.

"You've never had any struggle to attract beautiful women. I think Rachel Berry has something very special, but... It's your life, Jesse. Your choice too".

Matt was rught.

Only one sure way to win.

There was only one doubt: would Rachel want to join him in the longest road two people could take together?