Chapter 8
Elizabeth walked towards her dorm room with her books in her arms. The weight of them in her arms has slowly become harder with her newfound pregnancy fatigue. Stumbling a bit, a hand catches her at the waist, and its partner reaches over to take the books from her arms.
"Hey be careful there." Elizabeth hears a voice in her ear, turning to look at its owner she's surprised to see purple eyes gleaming at her.
"Oh Arthur, hi." She looks at her books in his hands. "Thank you for your help. I was struggling a bit there I suppose."
The man let out a laugh and smiled at her. "It's not a problem, come on I'll walk you back to your dorm."
Elizabeth nods and they walk together in timid silence. She realizes that she owes the boy more than she's given and speaks up. "I do feel I should apologize. I-I haven't been a very good friend as of late I know."
"It's okay, I know you're busy. With your new," Arthur pauses, and his jaw tightens a moment, but the tension releases before the girl notices. "New relationship."
"Yes, Meliodas and I have been spending a lot of time together." Elizabeth blushes thinking about the man she gets to call her boyfriend. A small smile brushes across her lips as she thinks of the other day, we took her out for lunch. The way he held her hand and called her beautiful. She thinks have how his face lights up seeing the sonogram on the screen of the baby. Their baby.
"Elizabeth?" Arthur breaks through her thoughts and she looks around and sees they've reached her dorm. How long had she zoned out for?
"Thank you for your help." She quickly takes her books back and upturns her lips. "We need to make plans for another study session. Just because winter exams are over doesn't mean we stop working!"
"Yes! I'll email you? Let me know when you're back on campus after winter break!" Arthur looks at the girl with hopeful eyes.
Elizabeth simply nods and enters her room. Closing and locking the door behind her she doesn't notice the figure on her bed.
"Are you fucking him too?"
Elizabeth lets out a yelp and turns to see Meliodas sitting on her bed in the dark. "Meliodas you scared me!"
"I said, are you fucking him too?" Meliodas bites out.
"What?" The girl shakes her head confused. "What do you mea—"
"I know everything, Elizabeth. You don't have to lie." The look on his face is cold. Elizabeth swears the blood in her veins freeze.
"You.. you know everything?" She whispers. Panic sets in and she rushes to his side. "You don't understand! I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want you to—"
"Didn't want me to what, Ellie?! Leave you? Why would I stay with you?" His words cut deep into her heart. "You disgust me."
"I-I-I…" Elizabeth felt her heart shatter inside her chest. She had wanted to tell him, she wanted to wait a little longer, but she was going to tell him her secrets.
"Good luck." Meliodas bit out. "I never want to see you again."
He stands and walks towards the door and slams it on his way out. Elizabeth collapses onto the ground. Her sobs choking her breath as her vision goes blurry. All she feels is agony.
Holding her stomach she cries and whispers to her baby, it'll be okay. I love you.
The anxiety of her situation seeps into her throat. Meliodas just abandoned her, and their baby. All she could do was lie on the floor and wish it would open and swallow her whole.
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Winter break came and left for Elizabeth. With dorms closed and Elizabeth estranged from her father still, she stayed on Margaret and Gilthunder's couch. It was heartwarming for the broken girl to spend the holidays with her eldest sister, but even the glow of her niece's eyes as she opened presents on Christmas morning wasn't enough to bring back the glow in Elizabeth.
Elizabeth went to her first OBGYN appointment alone, and the receptionist let her know Meliodas had removed his card from her file and handed her a bill for the visit.
"Two hundred dollars?" She looked at the receptionist with shaking hands. "I don't have that right now…"
"It's okay, you can start a payment plan." The receptionist turned around and pulled up some paperwork. "This is how much each visit will cost, expected blood work, glucose test, sonograms." She points at the various numbers that increase the total rapidly. "And this is for the hospital visit and delivery." The final number caused Elizabeth to go faint.
"I-I uh, I'll see what I can do," She accepts the paperwork from the receptionist. "Thank you."
Elizabeth walks out of the office and towards the bus station back to campus. She takes a shuttering breath and realizes the gravity of her situation.
Margaret did it, but she had Gilthunder. Elaine is confident, but she has Ban.
She has no one.
Except…
Shaking her head, she lets the tears fall down her cheeks. She promised herself a long time ago she wouldn't rely on his money. And yet…
"This isn't just me anymore." She whispers to herself. Pausing in her steps she walks from the bus station to the phone booth. Taking a few coins from her purse she lets out a jagged breath and dials the number.
"Father. It's me, Elizabeth." The tears pour down her cheeks. "I need help."
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"Look at his onesie, Meliodas!" Zaneri's voice calls out to the blonde headed man. "Oh, and this one! We're going to need a lot. Where do you think the cribs are?"
They walked together in the baby store hand in hand. In the weeks that passed since she came to visit him that day Zaneri hadn't left his side. He had brought her home to his family over winter break and Zaneri has wasted no time announcing the wonderful news of a new addition to the family.
His father had been displeased that he would have a child out of wedlock, applying pressure to propose before the baby came.
Zaneri had been more than happy to express her agreeance to that, trying to drag him to the jewelry store to pick out rings. He relented and let the girl pick whatever she wanted.
That visit had cost his bank well over twenty thousand. Zaneri had insisted upon matching earrings, necklaces, and bracelets to go with her new engagement ring. He merely accepted it and swiped the card much to her contentment.
Now, they were shopping for the nursey that will go in their new apartment Zaneri insisted they get together. Meliodas allowed the woman to decorate and spend money as she pleased. He was going to have a baby with her after all and then marry her soon if his father continues to demand it.
He had gone with Zaneri to her doctor's appointments and seen for himself the baby on the screen. He hadn't wanted to believe it but the girl was without a doubt pregnant. The excitement he had felt with, her, was missing though.
Meliodas didn't feel overjoyed at hearing the heartbeat. Wasn't excited at the prospect of spending his life with Zaneri and their baby. His anger was still radiating at Elizabeth's betrayal, the way she tried to use him.
"Babe! I need to get my nails done for my Instagram announcement of our engagement." Zaneri's voice cut through his monologuing. Robotically he handed her his card and let the woman go off. "I'll see you at home okay?"
She ran off in the direction of the rest of the mall, and Meliodas sighed in relief at her absence. These past weeks had been rough on him, but he was slowly beginning to accept his life for what it was. The excitement to graduate and start his career had dwindled even lower than before.
Letting his feet carry him out of the store he sat down on a bench. He didn't understand why he felt this way. He escaped, that girl's, nasty plan, and yet he still couldn't bring himself to think her name with absolute pain.
Time passed as he sat there, wondering what to do with himself, barely registering the ringing from his pocket. Pulling the device out he sees the name of his closest friend pop up.
Ban
He had been avoiding the taller man, knowing that his girlfriend was still friends with her. The guilt had been eating at though, and with a sigh, he slides the green button to accept the call.
"Hey man, long time no talk." Meliodas veils himself behind his false difference, hoping the other doesn't hear the pain in his body through the phone.
"Yeah, maybe if you'd text me back it wouldn't be so long, huh?" Ban has never hesitated to go for the low blows of honesty, at least that hadn't changed for Meliodas.
"I've been busy, impending fatherhood and all." His voice heightened a bit to express his excitement, but he felt it came out more sarcastic, which wasn't too far off from the truth.
Things had fallen apart after Meliodas told his friends about Elizabeth. A lot of torn apart friendships and fights. Ban and King had stayed loyal to him and trusted their friend's word, but Elaine and Diane hadn't been so quick to dismiss Elizabeth. The two girls had chosen to trust Elizabeth's lies. After Meliodas had told them about Zaneri and their impending child things only became tenser.
"Same here," He hears a rough cough on the other side of the phone. "Look that's part of while I'm calling." Ban chuckles nervously.
Never knowing his friend to act this way had piqued the blonde interest. "What's going on?"
"We're having a baby shower for the baby in two weeks, and it would mean a lot to me if you came." Ban rushed out, but the genuine care in his voice wasn't missed by Meliodas.
"Why wouldn't I—"
"Elaine invited her." Ban interrupts. "I told her it might go bad, but Elaine says she's not going to abandon her friends like yo—like others have."
Meliodas's jaw clenched at his friends slip up. He hadn't abandoned anything. Her problems were her own, not his.
Ban unsure what his friend's silence meant tried to explain further his side. "Look I can tell her—"
"No, it's fine. I'll be there just text me the info. I've got to go, Ban bye."
"Wait—" Meliodas cuts off his friend's voice by ending the call. Running a rough hand down his face he huffs and stands with new determination.
He's going to go to the Boar's Hat. And drink until he can't see straight.
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"Elizabeth, darling." Bartra's voice cooed at the girl sitting down in front of him happily. "I was so happy you called me. I knew you would realize the error of your ways."
"Ye-yes father. I believe I have." The girl whispered with her eyes cast downward. "I do need to tell you someth—"
Her words catch in her throat as a tall man with long silver hair walks up to the table she shared with her father.
"Mael! A pleasure for you to join us, please sit." Her father waves the man into the seat next to his shaking daughter.
"Thank you, sir, it is my pleasure to finally formally meet your beautiful daughter." The tall man she now knew as Mael looked over at her with sparkling blue eyes. He let a smile spread across his lips as he reached for her hand and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. "The photos I've seen do you no justice, Elizabeth."
"I-I uh," Elizabeth tried to speak but her thoughts kept crashing into each other.
"I was so enthralled that your father said you had reconsidered our engagement," Mael speaks calmly. Elizabeth's eye flashes to her father's piercing gaze, knowing better than to argue in his presence. "I had hoped to meet under more, intimate circumstances, but your father stated he felt you would be more comfortable in his presence."
And far less likely to argue. Elizabeth thought bitterly to herself but bit her tongue. But what had she expected going to her father for help? She knew she was nothing more than a pawn in his business dealings.
The urge ran and never come back surged in her stomach, but when the small flutter from inside brushed her hip she bit it down. This isn't about me anymore.
Mael and Bartra began discussing business proposals and ways they would connect their businesses once the marriage was finalized.
Elizabeth felt another flutter and knew she needed to speak up now. "If I may interrupt…" She spoke softly just as Mael opened his mouth to discuss stocks.
Bartra glared at the girl, but Mael smiled grasping her hand. "Of course, my wife to be may always speak her mind."
Not after you hear this. Elizabeth cleared her throat. "I feel I must be honest about, my… situation." Mael raised an eyebrow at the girl but let her continue. "I'm pregnant."
The silence after her admission was piercing. Elizabeth could feel the heat of anger seeping off her father.
"Elizabeth, I believe this would have been a conversation to have privately, my dea—" Her father's false kindness was cut off by Mael's voice.
"That is not an issue for me," He says smoothly. "We will just have to move the wedding sooner before you're showing, my love."
Her father choked on what Elizabeth guessed to be his own saliva before speaking. "Of course! We can set the wedding for two months' time. A spring wedding rather than a fall. That won't be an issue for you will it, sweetheart?" Bartra's gaze bore into his daughter's soul.
With Mael and her father's eyes on her, she knew she had a decision to make. Gazing over to Mael she felt a strange knot in her stomach, he looked at her lovingly while gently rubbing the hand he was still grasping.
This is what is best for you little one. I will do what I need to do to take care of you.
With a deep breath, Elizabeth looked back to her father. "Yes, a spring wedding is fine. We should start planning immediately."
Her father graciously ordered the table a bottle of champagne, and water for his pregnant daughter. Elizabeth let the two men discuss things further, moving timelines up, making plans without her. Sipping on the water in front of her she accepted the emptiness she felt, knowing that this was for the best for her baby. At least that's what she would cling to in her mind to stay strong.
Another chapter down. How do you guys feel about Mael so far? Good guy, right?
And Zaneri is living her best life right now it seems.
It seems I'm pushing chapters out in bursts. I just have so much inspiration right now, and it helps I already have a quite a few major plot points mapped out in my head. I'm just connecting them together at this stage.
I have decided to for certain to go with my triggering part later. How would you guys prefer I do it? TW in the beginning of the chapter or right before the portion. Or both? I don't want to cause anyone issues so let me know if you have all have a preference.
Until next time leave me reviews!?