CH 37- Possibilities
"Aww Theresa, these are so adorable!" Gwen happily squealed, as she held up the two soccer jerseys. "Where did you get them?"
"Fox," she simply said, folding some of the baby clothes she had left over. "He dropped by today."
Gwen watched as a tiny smile crept up from the corners of Theresa's mouth.
"Oh really?" She looked at her. "I haven't seen Fox in a while. How is he?"
"He's really great." Theresa smiled. "He completely acts as though there is no tension between us even though there's probably enough of it to fill this room."
"You mean with everything that's going on with him and Paloma?" Gwen looked up.
"Yeah, that and just our relationship altogether." Theresa sighed. "Ever since we decided to be friends, things have been so confusing. I still can't believe that he's going to marry Paloma. It's absolutely absurd!"
"What's so crazy about it?" Gwen suspiciously asked her.
"Gwen, she's nineteen years old!" Theresa exclaimed. "She is way too young to be getting married!"
"Is that all?"
"What do you mean?" Theresa suddenly looked up at her.
"Well, I'm just wondering if that's the only reason why you object to them getting married." She smiled, knowing that she hit a nerve.
Theresa let out a deep sigh and stared at Gwen.
"I guess another reason is because I still have pretty strong feelings for Fox." She sadly admitted. "I know we agreed to be friends, but I just can't ignore these feelings that I have. I see him with another woman and I go crazy. I just can't bear to see him with anyone else, even my own sister. Does that make me a horrible person?"
"Not horrible, just really confused." Gwen gave her a comforting smile. "But I completely understand how you're feeling. You and Fox have been through a lot. It's not easy to just forget about it all and start over."
"Yeah, well it doesn't matter how I feel because Fox is going to marry Paloma and Ethan and I going to be parents soon and nothing is ever going to change that." She sighed.
For a moment Gwen just kept silent but after a while she felt the burning need to say what was on her mind.
"Well, that's true." She began. "But what if you find out that Ethan's not the father of the twins?"
"What?" Theresa looked at her stunned. "Gwen, what are you talking about? Of course Ethan's the father of the twins. Why would you say something like that?"
Gwen turned around and faced her looking seriously into her eyes.
"Alright look, I don't want to alarm you because Ethan could very well be the father but I was just thinking, what if he isn't?"
"Gwen, that's crazy!" Theresa exclaimed. "If Ethan's not the father, then who is?"
"I don't know, Fox maybe?"
"Fox?" Theresa looked at her with widened eyes. "Ok, I know in the past I said that I wished Fox was the father of the twins but that was just wishful thinking. There's no way that that can happen. I slept with Ethan and then I got pregnant. Simple."
"But what if it's not that simple?" Gwen asked.
"Oh my gosh!" Theresa threw her hands up in frustration. "Gwen, what are you getting at?"
"Well Theresa, wasn't there a time when you told the girls and I that you and Fox slept together on the night of his party?"
"Yeah, so?" She blankly stared at her.
"Well it was only three nights after that that you accidentally slept with Ethan." She reminded her. "That wasn't very much time apart Theresa. How can you be so sure that you conceived after you slept with Ethan and not before? Remember it takes a while for a woman to know that she is pregnant."
Gwen watched as Theresa's face turned instantly pale.
"Wait—wait a minute," She frantically began. "Gwen, please tell me that you're not saying what I think you're going to say."
"I think there's a 50 percent chance that Fox could be the father of the twins and not Ethan." She told her.
"No—no that can't be!" Theresa nervously paced around the room and then turned to her friend. "Could it?"
Gwen just looked at her, her expression saying it all.
"Oh my god!" Theresa placed a hand to her forehead and sat down in the rocking chair. "What am I going to do?"
"Ok, first of all calm down." Gwen placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The worst thing you could do now is to make any hasty decisions. Right now you have two babies who desperately need to know who their father is and one man who already thinks he is."
"Oh no," Theresa whispered.
"Oh yes," Gwen smiled at her. "With all fairness, I think you should let Ethan know what's going on."
"But he will be so hurt." Theresa worriedly looked at her. "He already thinks the twins are his. How am I supposed to tell him otherwise?"
"Well I think he'd be more upset if he heard it from someone else." Gwen sighed. "Plus, you know first hand, how much Ethan hates being lied to."
"Yeah, I haven't really been honest with Ethan in the past, so maybe I should start now."
First thing tomorrow, I'm going to tell Ethan the truth. She thought to herself. I just hope he doesn't hate me forever for it.
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The next day Theresa could barely eat or sleep. All she kept thinking about was how upset Ethan was going to be when she told him the heart-breaking news. She was almost relieved when Pilar had told her that he had left that morning to file some papers but she knew the time would come when the truth would have to be revealed. That afternoon, she nervously sat in her room and waited for him to come home. Finally she heard the door close from downstairs and her heartbeat began to rapidly increase.
This is it. She said to herself. It's now or never.
She slowly made her way down the stairs and paused when she came to the bottom. When she turned towards the living room, she saw Ethan sitting on the couch by himself. An instant lump arose in her throat as she looked at him.
"Ethan?" She finally said.
Oh hey sweetheart, what's up?" He looked up at her.
"There's something that I have to talk to you about." She softly said.
"This sounds serious." He worriedly looked at her.
"It is." She admitted, as she nervously sat beside him. "It's about the twins."
"The twins?" Ethan instantly grew worried. "Is everything ok?"
"No, no it's nothing like that." She assured him. "The babies are fine."
"Ok so what's this all about? You're starting to scare me." He lightly touched her face.
"I don't want to scare you Ethan and I don't want to hurt you, so I'm just going to tell you the truth." She stared into his eyes.
Theresa took a deep breath and then continued to explain herself.
"Well, while you were in the coma a lot of things happened. For one thing, Fox and I were a lot more than just friends. In fact, we were heavily dating but we wanted to keep it a secret until the right time. Only things started to get out of control. First, Paloma came to Harmony and instantly fell in love with him and then there was that night when you and I accidentally slept together." She paused.
"I remember that." He recalled. "You said you thought you were making love to Fox."
"Yes, that's because three nights before that, at Fox's welcome home party, we ended up making love."
Theresa waited for him to say something, but he didn't so she continued.
"Everything just happened so fast with you being admitted to the hospital, and then us finding out how critical your condition was that when Dr. Russell told me that I was pregnant I wasn't thinking straight. I just automatically thought that it was by you, completely forgetting about the night I slept with Fox. It wasn't until yesterday while I was talking to Gwen that something occurred to me."
Ethan just sat completely motionless not saying a word.
"Since I had slept with both you and Fox in such a short period of time, there could be chance that Fox could also be the father of the twins." She blurted out, the tears falling down her face. "I'm so sorry Ethan! I swear I didn't think about this until just now and I feel terrible because I know how much you love the babies."
Ethan placed his head in his hands and let out a deep sigh.
"I know that you're upset but I just want you know that I didn't mean for this to happen!" She cried, staring at his motionless body. "Ethan, please say something!"
For a while, Ethan said nothing, but finally he turned and looked at her.
"I'm not upset." He said.
"You're not?" She confusingly looked at him.
"No," He paused. "I mean, I know I should be but I'm not. I think apart of that is because I could almost feel this coming."
"What do you mean?" Theresa asked him. "You knew there was a chance you weren't the father of the twins?"
"Oh no, trust me that is definitely a surprise." He sadly looked at her. "But I had a feeling that something was going to happen to break this happy spell we had going."
Theresa just stared at him, surprised by how well he was taking the news.
"I never told you this, but the first day I woke up out of the coma I realized something." He paused for a moment. "Life is too short to waste. By some miracle I was granted another chance to live and I promised myself that I would never take advantage of that. What you just told me hurts more than words can say. But I understand that you didn't mean for it to happen."
"Ethan, I don't know what to say." Theresa still strangely looked at him. "I completely expected you to react so differently."
"Yeah, well a near-death experience will do that to you." He smiled. "Suddenly you start to see things differently. I've witnessed a lot of things since I woke up from the coma and a lot of them I didn't say out loud, until now. At first I didn't want to admit it, but it's pretty clear to see how much you still love Fox. You guys share a bond that's pretty hard to break and I'm incredibly jealous of him for that."
"Ethan—" She began.
"No, let me finish." He interrupted her. "As much as it hurts to hear that I may not be the father of the twins, there's no doubt in my mind that Fox will be a good father to them. It took me a while to see it, but he really has changed. At first I was upset when he told me that he was interested in you, but now I see I had no reason to worry. He's taken such good care of you and the twins; I don't know how I'm ever going to repay him. But I just want you to know that whatever happens I'm always going to be here for you."
He gently pulled her in for a hug as Theresa breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you so much Ethan." She whispered.
"So does Fox know?" He asked.
"No he doesn't." She sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to tell him."
"Well, I think you should go do that now. He's probably at the mansion." He stood up, walking her to the door. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"No, it's ok." She smiled. "I need to do this on my own. Besides, I could use the walk over there."
"Alright," he gently kissed her forehead. "Don't be too long."
"I won't." She grinned. "Thanks again Ethan."
"No problem." He winked at her.
She opened the door and stepped out on the front porch, breathing in the cool afternoon breeze.
I'm so glad that that went so well. She thought to herself. I just hope I'm as lucky with Fox.