References to prostitution
He held her in his arms for around an hour untiL Azalea woke so Carla reluctantly removed herself from his embrace and see to her daughter. He was confused about his feelings let alone trying to understand hers but all he knew right now was that she needed him to be there, as a friend, or as a lover, he didn't know which one she wanted but he just assumed that she needed someone there as a distraction from all her thoughts. Her phone went off and it was a text from Ray, Peter gingerly picked it up and looked at the message, he gasped in horror over the whole thing, at the fact Ray wanted to see her again, he gulped and she soon clocked him looking at her phone causing her to swipe it off him.
"What are you doing?" she states angrily taking her phone and sighing "You shouldn't be looking at my messages, Peter"
"Sorry I just want to understand, love"
"You don't need to understand" she snipes, he bites his lip "Can you just go?"
"Carla please let me in, let me help you again" he begs, he didn't know why he was begging but he knew how little it would do especially when she had her mind set on something, he watches carefully as her lip trembles "Sorry...sorry I raised my voice"
"It's fine" she sniffles glancing to her phone and typing out a message "I need to go out and see my solicitor"
"Carla wait!" Peter calls, she shakes her head grabbing her coat and chucking it on "What about Azalea?"
"Michelle'll be back soon" she snipes shutting the door, Peter sighs in response rubbing his forehead gently, Azalea starts to scream causing him to sigh and collect her to soothe her from the shouting which went on downstairs, he didn't know why but there was something which made him feel uncomfortable about the situation as if it was tainted a gut feeling almost but right now all he could so was sit and wait, wait for what seemed to be a ticking time bomb in his life...
Carla went to her solicitor and grabbed the paperwork which she had asked to be drawn up for her that morning. She then rushed out of there and then went to the bistro where she was going to meet Ray. She entered the bar and asked Faye to see if she could get Ray for her which she did, and Carla soon entered his office glaring at him, he pours her drink which she turns down and places the brown envelope on the desk in front of him.
"Sign it" she states, Ray smirks taking the paperwork out of the envelope "Sign it and never speak to us again"
"There's one more thing I want you to do for me" Ray states, Carla scoffs and laughs slightly shaking her head
"You said after we had sex that you would sign this, I should have known really shouldn't have I?"
"Known what?" he queries, she smirks slightly knowing that he was playing games all she had to do was catch him out
"That you would break ya promise, that's what you do isn't it Ray?" she grins, Ray frowns at her awfully cheery attitude "Come on, sign the papers"
"Not unless you do something for me" the smirks offering her a tumbler of whiskey which she grabs and smashes on the floor "Classy"
"I'm not doing any more of your hair-brained schemes, it ruined my relationship, it's not happening again, no way"
"Ok then" he smiles grabbing a lighter and holding it close to the paper "Your choice"
"Carla!" Peter barges into the office, she glares at him shaking her head totally unimpressed at his entrance "What are those?"
"Ah, Peter how lovely for you to join us" Ray smirks, Carla shakes her head in annoyance and pinches the bridge of her nose "Adoption papers, the answer to your previous question"
"Adoption...no...Carla..." he shakes his head, she gulps "You're not giving Azalea to him are you?"
"No!" she exclaims glancing to Ray and pleading with her eyes at him "Don't do this Ray, please, we had a deal"
"Yeah, yeah, but you know me, Carla, I always want more, I want my development to take place"
"No!" she shouts getting rather irritated over the whole thing "I had a deal with you, we shaked hands over it, I had sex with you so you would sign Azalea over to Peter so he could be her father-"
"Woah hang on a minute" Peter scoffs, Ray's ears prick up "I don't want that, I don't want to bring up another mans child, especially the likes of him"
"Please!" Carla begs "I don't want him in her life or having any right over her at all please Peter do this for me!"
"I...I can't do that, I'm sorry...no she's not mine I don't want to...you can't make me Carla, is this what all this was about you just think that you can wipe away the past"
"Forgiveness!" she shouts angrily, he scoffs shaking his head in disbelief "Please, Peter take her on, with me"
"No, I'm sorry" he states gesturing for Ray to pass the paper over to him, he grabs the lighter from him and sets fire to the paper himself "No, Carla, enough is enough now, what's done is done, you need to move on and to be honest I thought we were starting to get somewhere but the way you didn't consult me about this before so you just went ahead with it why would you do that?"
"So we could be a family again, for Zi"
"No...it's not happening, sorry" he shakes his head leaving the room, Carla sighs slightly, and Ray just shrugs
"If that's all, then please leave I have things to be getting on with" he smirks, Carla bites her lip trying to control the tears which were filling her eyes
"I hate you!" she screams before leaving the office and making a scene by storming through the bistro and leaving the premises...
She went home unable to comprehend the whole thing, she was sat on the sofa cross-legged with Azalea in her lap, she was humming softly to her daughter who was starting to fall asleep. Michelle was there as well watching as her friend settled her child, there was something special about the situation in front of her seeing Carla so serene and content with her baby was something she loved but she knew something had happened today the way her friend swiped at her face every now and then as the tears fell but the thing was Michelle didn't have the heart to approach her not whilst Azalea was down here as she didn't want to make the baby unsettled. Carla soon left the room and placed Azalea in her cot to sleep before returning downstairs, Michelle sat beside her and brought her into her arms allowing her to cry gently at all the mistakes she made, she knew there was something eating her friend up and she just didn't know what but she was determined to find out.
"What's going on then Car?" she murmurs into her friends head, Carla just huffs wiping her eyes and collecting the tears there on the pads of her thumbs
"I wanted Azalea to have two parents who love her"
"I don't understand sweetheart" Michelle takes her hand and squeezes it causing Carla to bite her lip and close her eyes feeling embarrassed at the events of the last twenty-four hours
"I slept with Ray on the basis that he sign the adoption papers which I would then get Peter to sign"
"Did you inform Peter of this decision?" Michelle's eyes widen, Carla shakes her head "Do you have the papers?"
"No Peter found out, he figured out where I was going, he was here, we shared a moment"
"What sort of moment?"
"We just hugged, he held me like he used to, before, when the medication was bad when I was having a bad day because of it he used to hold me in this special way and he did that again but it was so loving, it was before I went to see Ray to get the papers signed"
"So when you asked Leanne about prostitution?"
"It was the same wasn't it...it was a stupid plan I wish I never did it now because I didn't get what I set out to get but it was the same except I wasn't doing it for money I was doing it so my daughter could have a better father"
"Oh Carla" Michelle sighs her heart breaking for her friend, she watches as Carla wipes her eyes again "So how did Peter find out"
"After we shared our moment if you even call it that now he saw a message from Ray on my phone and he looked at it, I stormed out to the solicitors to get the paperwork before going to Ray in the bistro, of course, Peter interrupts and Ray took great pleasure in informing him"
"I could kill that man I swear, ruins everyone's lives"
"Yeah well that's Ray Crosby for you" Carla rolls her eyes, Michelle sighs gently kissing her on the forehead, "Peter thought we were getting somewhere, I guess we were to an extent but then I go and ruin it don't I and trust me I hate Ray so much for this, for even stumbling across me when I was at my lowest last time, sometimes I really hate the world I live in"
"You and me both" Michelle smiles sympathetically "What about you and Peter now?"
"He's ignoring my texts" Carla sighs picking away at her nails "Not surprising though is it-"
"Mummy" Aziza walks down the stairs rubbing her eyes, she goes to sit on the seat next to her mother "I don't feel well"
"Oh, baby" Carla whispers pressing a hand to her forehead "You are quite hot arent you sweetheart?"
"I feel sick" she complains, Carla sighs slightly kissing her on the forehead, she gets up and goes to the medicine cabinet and pulls out some Calpol and a thermometer
"Open up" Carla smiles as Aziza rolls her eyes allowing her mother to take her temperature "Oh baby girl you are hot aren't you"
"My tummy hurts" she complains, Carla syringes some Calpol out of the bottle and gives it to her "Thank you"
"No problem" she kisses her on the forehead allowing Aziza to snuggle into her side, it wasn't long before she fell asleep again "Aziza lost so much when me and Peter split before, yeah I know it was his fault but...I don't want Azalea to go through the same pain as her"
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, but I will figure it out I promise"
Peter was back at Ken's stretching out along the sofa where he resided since he moved out of Carla's. He had his head rested in his hands and the whole revelation of Carla's plans had really exhausted him to the core. Ken entered the room and took in his son's dishevelled look which was a cause for concern, he sat down in his armchair and Peter knew what was about to come, a series of anecdotes and the unjustified support he was about to receive off his father no doubt berating him for his actions.
"Speak to me Peter, you've been like this ever since you came back from Carla's, something has obviously happened"
"Yeah it has" he confirms, Ken raises his eyebrows "We had a moment, we didn't kiss or anything she just allowed me to hold her, it was so weird but it felt so foreign"
"How long did this moment last for?"
"An hour at most, Azalea woke up soon after so she needed to sort her out" he shrugs, Ken nods slowly
"Do you still love her?"
"Yes, but how can I after everything she did, she passed off Azalea as being mine then she lied again recently-"
"Lied again?"
"Yeah, she slept with Ray again-"
"She cheated again?"
"No...she did it because she wanted Azalea to have a better life" he responds bitterly, Ken frowns utterly confused "Basically the terms of her sleeping with that sleazebag was to get him to sign adoption papers which no doubt she would trick me into signing later to process adoption for Azalea to be mine"
"Wow...that's-"
"Messed up" Peter snipes, Ken sighs slightly and smiles at him "Sometimes I wonder if she will ever be the same again you know ever since the factory happened now the whole secrecy with Ray it's changed her and not for the better it's like her mental health has tainted the real person underneath how is that even possible though and the thing which gets me is that I still love her after all of this, how can I do that, Dad? Love her after everything she has done"
"It's the same with me and Deirdre you can look at it from that respect"
"Except we're not ancient, things are different when you're your age compared to my age" he retorts, Ken raises an eyebrow "I'll tell you something I've never hated Ray more than I do right now for all this pain he caused her, she was only starting to get herself back to normal after the fa tory then he sprung the whole contract thing on her causing her to get stressed I was pushing her away, its such a mess then she sleeps with him, I can't even understand it fully myself"
"What are you going to do then?"
"Make things better, for Aziza even for Azalea even though I resent that kid so much, it's time to fix everything so everyone can move on"
"Well whatever you decide I think you're mature enough to make the decision, I will always support you"
"Thank you, dad, thank you so much" Peter smiles, Ken nods standing up and leaving the room, Peter sighs glancing to the time, he grabs his jacket and leaves the room...