Hey Lovelies! So I know it has been literally months since I last posted and I'm really sorry especially with leaving you on that slight cliffhanger! I technically have three different stories from three different fandoms in the works right now and I just haven't felt inspired to write for any of them for a while! However, I do hope you enjoy this chapter!

WARNING: There is swearing in this chapter, so please be aware!

Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or any of the characters except for the OC's!

Chapter 3:

Reacting quickly, Betty reached down to scoop the girl into her arms, pulling her into a tight embrace.

"Hey baby girl," she spoke jovially, "how was school?"

The girl beamed up at her with a toothy grin, "It was good! We learnded how to spell a new word today mummy."

"Oh yeah?" Betty laughed, "And what would that be Bunny?" she asked as she placed her back on the ground.

"Frog!" She declared proudly, "See, listen to me Mummy! F, R, O, G. Frog!"

Betty beamed down at the excited girl, "Wow Bunny! That's great!"

"I know! I was so 'cited 'cause they my favourite animal!" The little girl was bouncing around, unable to contain her excitement, but she stopped suddenly when she noticed the strange man standing awkwardly behind her mother.

"Mummy, who's that man?" she asked quietly. Glancing behind her, Betty realised that Jughead was standing there with a very confused and shocked expression on his face. Mentally cursing herself, she bent down to answer her daughter, but was interrupted by the voice of her good friend Amy.

"Oh Lizzie, I'm so sorry! She was so excited to tell you about the new word she learnt today that she dashed inside the second the car stopped moving."

Betty just smiled quickly at her friend, "Don't worry about it Amy, I always like to hear how my girl is doing. Thank you for picking her up today, I got caught up."

It was then that Amy noticed Jughead's presence in the room, and quirked her eyebrow slightly, "Lizzie, who's this handsome fellow?" she asked in a flirtatious tone.

Betty rolled her eyes but answered the question, "Amy, this is an old friend Jughead, we went to high school together. Turns out he's the writer that Jake met that needed insight for his book. And Jug, this is my good friend Amy. We met in my first year at Yale, she got me through a lot of tough times."

Jughead nodded his head slightly, moving to take the outstretched hand of Amy, offering a "hello", by way of greeting. He then turned to look at the little girl who was now hiding behind Betty's legs, causing her to stutter out, "Oh, and this is Bethany, my um, my daughter", the last word spoken quieter than the rest.

Slightly shocked to hear the words, but determined to be polite, Jughead squatted down so that he was eye level with the little girl and stuck out his hand. "Hi Bethany, my name is Jughead", he spoke in a soft tone.

Bethany, watched him curiously, quirking her head to the side as he spoke. Looking up at her mother briefly, she reached out her own hand to shake his before stating matter of factly, "That's a funny name."

Jughead chuckled lightly, already fond of the sweet girl who wasn't afraid to speak her mind, "Yeah it is. It's actually a nickname, but my real name is worse", he spoke conspiratorially.

He watched as her bright eyes, widened comically, causing a wide smile to grace his lips, as she spoke shocked, "No! Really? Will you tell me?"

"Well, that depends," Jughead spoke, "Can you keep a secret?"

He chuckled again, as the little girl nodded her head vigorously, "Of course, I'm nearly five and a half. I won't tell no one!" she spoke earnestly.

Betty watched with a quiet smile on her face as the pair interacted with each other, she couldn't believe that this was actually happening. But when she saw the way Jughead's smile dropped at the mention of Bethany's age, the pang of guilt in her heart had never felt so strong.

"Jug head, are you okay?" Bethany asked, also noticing the change in demeanour of the kind man with the funny name.

Blinking quickly, he smiled briefly at the little girl, "Uh yeah sweetie," he spoke gently, "I just need to speak to your mother about something."

Bethany pouted and stomped her little foot, and if Jughead hadn't been so engrossed in his thoughts he would have found it cute, "But what about the secret?"

"I'll tell you next time kid, okay?" he asked, "I just really need to speak to your mum" he stated turning to Betty and levelling her with a tight glare, "it seems that we all have a few secrets in our lives."

Amy, who had been quietly observing the scene, quickly sprang into action at the change in atmosphere, "Hey Beth, sweetheart? Why don't you and I go and get some ice cream and hang out at the park for a while? I think mummy and Jughead have some business to finish."

Betty shot her a grateful smile, before turning to Bethany who was thankfully unaware of how tense the atmosphere in the room was currently, "I think that's a great idea! So, you go with Auntie A, and I'll come and meet you there when we've finished up, okay?"

Bethany beamed up at Betty, before grabbing onto Amy's hand and skipping towards the door, "Okay mummy, bye Mr Jughead!" she waved brightly as she rushed out of the house.

As the door closed, the house was once again thrown into deathly silence. Neither spoke, but Betty could see the anger and confusion simmer under the surface of Jughead's scowl and she knew he was about to explode.

She watched quietly, as Jughead licked his lips before turning to stare directly into her eyes, "Tell me the truth Betty. Do I have a daughter?" The tone of his voice was eerily calm, something she had never heard from him before, and she suddenly realised that this was so much worse than the exploding anger that she had expected.

Unable to hold his gaze, she looked down at her feet, struggling to find the words to answer him.

"Betty," he spoke again, stronger this time, "is Bethany my daughter?"

Glancing up to meet his gaze briefly, she gave the smallest of nods, before watching as his entire demeanour changed and the bubbling anger rose to the surface.

"What the actual fuck Betty!" he exploded, "I have a daughter, and you didn't tell me? Why the hell would you not tell me!" He couldn't believe this. How the hell could she keep this from him, and for so long! "Five and half years Betty! Why would you keep this from me? What, you didn't think I deserved to know? You didn't think I could step up as a dad? Is that it Betty? Did you think I wouldn't be able to look after my own kid?"

He was breathing heavily, letting the anger run through him as he yelled at her. He couldn't wrap his head around this. And he had absolutely no idea why she wouldn't have told him.

Realising his rant was coming to an end, Betty finally spoke up, "No, Jug! It wasn't like that at all!" she cried reaching out to grasp his face, desperate to make him understand.

"Then you better start bloody explaining it to me Betty", he spat, gripping her wrists and pulling her hands from his face.

Tears springing to her eyes at the harsh tone of his voice, she spoke quickly, needing him to know the truth, "I didn't find out I was pregnant until after we had broken up Jug. It was when I was taking the road trip with my mother, and I started feeling nauseas and then I realised that I was late, so I took a test. Turns out I was six weeks pregnant. With everything that had gone on in those last few weeks of school, I hadn't even noticed the signs. And I was going to call you. The second I found out, I picked up my phone to tell you, but then I thought about everything that happened with us, and everything that you had gone through, and I realised that I couldn't take away your chance at having a real future Jug!"

Noticing the look of confusion on his face, and his slight head tilt, she continued on, "I don't have to tell you, how hard you had it in Riverdale Jug, we both know that. And with everything you had gone through in senior year, with the Stonies trying to kill you, I didn't want to be the reason that you gave up on going to Iowa. Because I know you Jug, I know you would have stepped up, and been an incredible father, but you deserved to live your dream. So, I chose not to tell you. I know it wasn't my smartest decision, but I honestly thought it was the best one at the time."

Jughead nodded slightly, "That doesn't explain why you didn't tell me later, though."

She nodded and sighed, this was going to be the hard part, "I know. I guess that stems from my time at Yale." Jughead's quirked eyebrow was the only indication that he was still following along, "I had decided that I would still go. I knew that it was going to be hard, but I didn't want to let this set me back, so after our road trip, my mother decided to stay in New Haven with me and I started at Yale. I met Amy in first year, and she was amazing, always so supportive and helping me when I felt sick or was getting behind on classes. She was even there at the birth. And after Bethany was born, I thought about calling you again, but then I saw an article on Iowa's website that mentioned you as a promising talent and I couldn't take that away from you. So, once again, I decided not to tell you."

Jughead nodded curtly, but let her continue, "Second year was harder. I had mum and Amy, but Bethany kept getting sick and I was barely sleeping three hours a night, what with a baby and assignments, and I was starting to slip behind in my classes. That was when I met Jake, he was in my criminal justice class and was instantly nice to me. It took me a while to open up, but we soon became friends although he told me that he wanted more than that." Jughead visibly tensed at this but didn't interrupt, "I told him that I wasn't ready. I was still trying to adjust to being a single mum to an eight-month-old baby and get my degree, I just had too much going on. He understood, and continued to support me however he could, and after a while I found it nice to have a guy to lean on and support me in that way again. So, when he asked me out again at the end of our second year, I decided to go for it. He was great with Beth and always supported me in everything that I did. When he asked about her father, I told him that you were an old boyfriend, but we had broken up before I found out and that you didn't know."

Jughead let out a scoffed snort at that, but listened as Betty finished her story, "When we graduated, I thought about calling you again, but Jake and I were in a good place, and Beth was already so attached to him, so I didn't want to break that" she sighed, "I honestly never thought that you would turn up at my door one day needing help with a book. That's not how I wanted you to find out!"

He actually scoffed at that, "Oh, so you decided that you would just never tell me, and go on playing happy families with your perfect lawyer boyfriend, and let him raise MY daughter?" He was pissed, and he had every right to be.

"It wasn't like that Jug! It was never my intention." Her voice was strained, and her eyes close to tears.

"Does she even know about me?" he asked abruptly.

Betty nodded slightly, "Bits and pieces. She knows Jake's not her father, and that her dad loved me very much, but she doesn't know much more than that. She hasn't been curious enough to ask."

"Well, that's something I guess", he scowled slightly, "I want to get to know her Betty. I want her to know who I am."

Betty, who had been nodding along, stopped suddenly, her face growing pale, "Look, I'm happy for you to get to know her. You deserve that. But I'm not telling her that you're her father. Not right now."

"And why the hell not Betty?" he exploded, "I am her father, and she deserves to know that. I deserve to be a part of her life, like I would have been if YOU had told me the truth in the first place."

"It's not that simple Jug! I can't just drop that on her! And then there's Jake. He loves her like she's his own. I can't do that to him!"

Jughead scoffed at her words, "You kept the fact that I had a daughter from me for five and a half years Betty! Five and a half years! So, forgive me if I don't give a shit about your boyfriend and what it will do to him, right now! I deserve to know my daughter, and she deserves to know me! So, you better damn well figure it out. Especially since if you had just told me right away, this, him, would not have been an issue, because I would have been there raising MY daughter!"

With that he grabbed his satchel from the floor and stormed out of the house, slamming the door on the way.

So as always, thanks for reading this chapter and I'm really sorry for not updating sooner! But a quick shoutout to my two reviewers for the last chapter!

MyChihuahuarocks3: Thank you for your kind words! And I am also glad that she told Jug the truth, and that you enjoyed the little curveball at the end.

Gabriela: Aw thanks heaps! I hope this update is worth the wait and that you enjoyed what I had in store!

As always, please continue to review and give me your honest opinion as I really love to see what you think!

Here's hoping that I update again soon, but until then be safe and stay wonderful! xo