Lies are not becoming of anyone, especially of people who supposedly love you.

Chapter 26 – Shattered Faith in Luck

Rapunzel sat on the couch, giddy. She kept staring at the engagement ring, her engagement ring, and she was rubbing her belly. There was a baby in there and it was Eugene's and hers. And she was marrying him. How much more perfect could her life be?

On the TV, the main title screen for Court Jester was up. Eugene would be home any minute and she and him were going to watch his favorite movie, but Rapunzel wondered if he'd try to replay that afternoon. She giggled at the memory.

She got up from the couch to stretch. She was only four weeks pregnant, but her body was already starting to get sore. She didn't realize that it could happen so early, but the doctor had told her that all pregnancies are different.

Rapunzel wandered to look out the window, thinking that maybe by chance she'd see Eugene's car drive by and pull in behind the bookstore. She stared out it awhile, watching nameless cars and passengers drive by. She imagined herself and Eugene in a car, with a baby seat in the back, a little bundle of joy tucked in and fast asleep. Then there would be a booster seat, first day of kindergarten, high school, graduation, sending them off to college. Rapunzel couldn't actually see their child, because she couldn't decide if she wanted a boy or a girl, but just thinking of the milestones made her happy.

She wondered which gender Eugene would prefer. She hadn't asked him yet; maybe she should.

Rapunzel was just so ecstatic. The feeling had hit when Eugene put the ring on her finger. This was going to be her future and she was going to have it with Eugene and a precious little angel. She might have been imaging illusions of grandeur, but Rapunzel saw Eugene as a successful author, herself a world renowned artist. Their child would be incredibly gifted in all areas: academia, art, theater, athleticism. She could see the three of them happy and together.

Then Rapunzel thought about more children, and she stopped herself right there. Their first child wasn't even out of the first trimester; Rapunzel wasn't sure she could handle more than one at a time.

Eugene was still home yet. She'd been watching the window for the last ten minutes. She took her phone off the coffee table and texted him.

[You're coming home soon, right?] She thought of something else to add. [Can you bring home dinner? I don't feel like cooking.]

Her cell buzzed with Eugene's reply.

[Sure. Anything in particular?]

Rapunzel thought.

[I don't know. The weird cravings haven't started yet. Something that won't make me throw up.]

[I'll try, babe. I love you.]

Rapunzel smiled.

[I love you too. 3]

Rapunzel put her phone back on the coffee table and decided to clean the apartment up a bit. The last few days, Rapunzel had either been working or too sick to get out of bed. The pregnancy was really taking a lot out of her. Some days, he stomach churned, other days, she felt like a million bucks. It was just odd.

Eugene had tried to do his part around the apartment; he'd done a few loads of laundry, cleaned dishes here and there and dusted. However, Eugene was pulling extra hours where he could. Even though he had loads of money saved up, according to him, that was his parents' money and he wanted to do what he could for his child. He was already a good father.

Rapunzel took a basket of clean clothes and sat down on the couch. She turned the TV over from the DVD player to a station. She flipped channels and found a marathon of My Little Pony on. She settled into her work and listened to the antics of the ponies.

Total, there had been three baskets of clothes and in thirty minutes, Rapunzel had sorted and folded every single one of them. However, in those thirty minutes, Eugene had not shown up. She glanced down at her phone, wondering if she should give him a call.

"I wonder where he went for dinner." Rapunzel decided to not call him. She didn't want to seem like she was fretting about him.

She put the clothes away and as she was coming back to the couch, she heard sirens in the distance. Rapunzel ran up to the window as a fire engine passed, followed by two police cars. A few minutes later, an ambulance zoomed by. Another police car wailed by too.

"My, God," Rapunzel said to herself, "I wonder what happened. I hope it's nothing serious." She strained to see where they were all going. It looked like they were turning downtown. Rapunzel shrugged the incident off and walked back to the couch when the doorbell rang.

Rapunzel stopped mid step and stared at the door. She wasn't expecting anyone. Was it Eugene? Were his hands too full to open the door? Rapunzel crossed the apartment floor. There was no peephole on the door, so Rapunzel opened it just a crack. She saw black heels and then she saw who those heels were connected to.

Rapunzel slammed the door in her Aunt Donna's face.

How did she find me? Oh, God, Eugene, where are you?

Donna knocked on the door.

"Rapunzel, are you alright?"

Of course I'm not alright! You just showed up on my doorstep.

"Rapunzel, please, open the door, I want to talk to you."

"Go away."

"Rapunzel, please. I know I deserve whatever hate you have towards me, but please, I want to talk."

Rapunzel struggled with herself. She knew Eugene would be furious with her if she let her aunt in, but what would the harm be in talking? She cracked the door open again.

"Are you sober?" Donna looked hurt by the question.

"Yes. That's what I want to talk to you about." Rapunzel squinted her eyes at her aunt. She did look sober. Rapunzel sighed and opened the door fully.

"Five minutes. Eugene will be home soon and he won't want you here."

"Of course." Donna stepped in. "Eugene… is that the man who pushed you out of the way of that car?"

"Yes." Rapunzel wandered to the couch. She tried to sound cold to her aunt.

"You know, I'm so glad that he did that, because well…" Donna trailed off. She hurried to the couch and sat down beside her niece. "Oh, Rapunzel!" Donna threw her arms around her and sobbed into her shoulder.

This was a new experience for Rapunzel. She'd never been touched by her aunt, except when she had slapped her in the face when she was high.

"Oh, Rapunzel," she wept as she stroked her hair, "I've missed you so much." She pulled back and took Rapunzel's hands. "I know what this must sound like after I treated you, but Rapunzel, I really have. My house and my life are so empty without you in it."

Rapunzel gawked at her aunt, her jaw hanging loose. Was she hearing the right words?

"Right after I realized how much I missed you, I looked at myself to figure out why you left me and it was so painfully obvious. I threw out all the alcohol, the drugs, the cigarettes: I threw it all away and I've been going to meetings to get to this point, to be sitting here beside you and telling you how sorry I am."

Rapunzel's brain finally clicked on. She pulled her hands from her aunt's and stood.

"You're sorry? You're sorry? Don't you think that's a few years too late? Where's the 'I'm sorry your parents died?' or the 'I'm sorry I forgot your birthday' or 'I'm sorry I slugged you because I was high off MY FUCKING ASS?'" Rapunzel huffed at her aunt. "What the hell, Donna? Twelve years you have to be an aunt to me and the moment I get away from you and am finally happy with my life, you barge in and say 'you're sorry?' I don't think so." Rapunzel crossed the apartment to the door. "Get out." Donna stood.

"Rapunzel, there's something else, and I have to know, because you're happiness for the rest of your life could be ruined."

"What?"

"Are you and this… Eugene…dating?" Rapunzel threw her arms up.

"What, you want to know if I'm screwing around with him because I'm a dirty little whore? No, we're not dating, we're engaged." Rapunzel held her left hand up. Donna was shocked.

"En-engaged? But you just met him six months ago."

"We happen to be very much in love."

"Then I think you need to see this." Donna sat back down and dug in her purse for something. She produced a manila envelope. Rapunzel looked at it quizzically.

"What's that," she asked.

"Please, sit back down." Sighing, Rapunzel went back to her aunt.

"The last thing I want to do right now is upset you, but you have to see these photos."

"Photos?" Donna handed the envelope to her niece. Rapunzel bent up the metal brad and pulled the contents out. The first photo was sideways; Rapunzel righted it and examined the subject.

It had been taken from far away, probably with some telescopic lens. The zoom on the picture was amazing. It was focused on a building and on a certain floor; the top floor to be exact. On the floor were two people. She squinted at them. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to know who they were.

"Look at the next photo, Rapunzel." She flipped to the next one. This shot was closer. She could see that the two people were a male and female, both with brown hair and they were kissing. Rapunzel knew that pose well; it was the pose right before two people would make love.

"If you'll look at the next one, you'll see who they are." Rapunzel glanced at her, confused. What was her aunt getting at? Still, she flipped to the next photograph and her heart stopped for the second time that evening.

She could finally see who was in whose arms.

Eugene Fitzherbert was embracing Isabelle King.

There was no mistaking Eugene's profile. Mrs. King could have been easily mistaken, but Rapunzel could tell it was her penthouse apartment by the dining room table behind them. She turned to the next photo. Eugene had Mrs. King on the table, her legs spread.

"No…" Rapunzel looked at the next one. It was still them, but now they were in a different place; they were in Eugene's apartment, on the floor, completely naked.

"No…" She flicked again through the photos; every single one, Eugene and Mrs. King were in each other's arms, obviously enraptured by their affair.

"No!" Rapunzel threw the photos away. They scattered across the coffee table and floor. Donna put her arms around Rapunzel.

"I know, I know." She stroked her hair, like earlier that day Eugene had, so tenderly and lovingly.

"No…" Rapunzel bawled into her aunt's chest. "It's not true! It's not true! Eugene loves me! He asked me to marry him!"

"I know, but it's true. After you left, I was worried about you and hired a private investigator and when he told me about that man, I asked him to trail him too. This is what he turned up."

"NO!" Donna shushed her.

"I know it hurts and I hate being the one to tell you this, but this is the truth. I know you thought you loved him, but Rapunzel, he doesn't love you, but I do."

"No. Eugene loves me. He has to love me." She put a hand to her stomach. "He must love me."

"I should have warned you, Rapunzel. I really should have warned you what sort of men are out there. The world is dark and selfish and cruel. If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it." Rapunzel still sobbed at her aunt's bosom. "I'm sorry, Rapunzel, I really am, but you have no future with Eugene Fitzherbert. He used you and he will throw you away."

And now Rapunzel was pregnant by him. He really had used her; Eugene had played her. He had played her! She should have known better. Why would he want her when he could have someone had gorgeous as Isabelle King? But how could he have pretended to care for her for so long. Everything he'd ever done for her: letting her move in, not rushing a relationship, waiting for her to be ready. How he was a rock when she found out she was pregnant. How could he fake all that?

Rapunzel's mind reeled.

She was his mother! She seemed so nice, but would she prey upon her adopted son like that? If Eugene was hers, why had she not been more stand-offish to Rapunzel? Why had she accepted her like a daughter? Was it all to keep up appearances? Was Mrs. King in the market for that sort of gratification? She was much younger than her husband; could he not…perform to her satisfaction? But would she really turn cougar on her son? It disgusted Rapunzel.

"Listen to me, Rapunzel; everything is going to be alright. Everything will be as it should be, because I realized I love you and I need you. I need you, Rapunzel, and I want you to come live with me again."

Rapunzel looked at her aunt with a tear streaked and blotchy face. Her aunt smiled tenderly at her, feeling her hurt. She bushed locks of hair from her eyes.

"I guess it was you who I saw at the gallery show. You went and cut your hair and dyed it back. It looks lovely on you, flower."

Rapunzel studied Donna; she desperately wanted to believe her aunt when she said she loved her. She sounded so sincere, but Rapunzel had heard her utter those words to tens of men and left them all. But she was different, right? She was family. Rapunzel was so confused and hurt. She had no idea what to believe. She saw her engagement ring blink in the lamp light.

On the coffee table, Rapunzel's phone began to ring under the obscene photos. Rapunzel bent over and picked it up. The caller I.D. said it was Eugene.

"Don't answer that, Rapunzel. I went to him earlier tonight to tell him to stay away from you. I told him I was going to confess for him, that I wasn't going to let him hurt you."

Rapunzel rejected the call. She looked at her aunt.

"You said you love me."

"Yes."

"And you want us to be together again, be a real family?"

"Yes."

"We'll be happy, just like we should be?"

"Of course, Rapunzel. I'll love you like I should have and more."

Rapunzel looked back down at her ring and at the photos. She turned back to her aunt.

"I don't want to live in New Sonneburg."

"Of course. We'll live wherever you want us to live."

With an aching heart, Rapunzel pulled her ring off, the ring Eugene had just put on her finger that day, and left it on the coffee table, just when her phone rang at her again. She stood and let it ring.

"I'm going to pack."

"Of course, flower."

Rapunzel left her aunt on the couch to pack up her life she had had with Eugene, to never remember it again.