'What do you think happened?'

'Do you think he cheated again?'

'Peter wouldn't do that, not after last time.'

'Well, something clearly happened. She literally legged it out of the wedding.'

'Maybe one of them have someone else.' Michelle focuses on her breathing, bouncing the little one on her knees up and down gently. She's trying to pinpoint where the signs were that her best friend didn't want to marry Peter.

'Maybe, she's going cuckoo again.'

'Tracy, that's a horrible thing to say.'

'Can't discount it.'

'Will you shut up.' Maria suddenly turns around, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. 'It's no one else's business.'

'Do you know why she ran off?' Someone questions, Michelle finally daring to turn around, glaring at the perpetrator.

'No, we are just as in the dark as you.' She tells them, 'we don't know why she ran out, I do not, however, think she's going mad Tracy, that's a horrible thing to say.'

'It's not like she hasn't gone mad before.'

'Tracy.' Ken scolds, 'do I have to treat you like a child?' Michelle just shakes her head. 'Now is not the time.'

'I think it's best we do not speculate.' Roy tells the room, 'it is none of our business.' Michelle hums a thank you as people fall into their conversations again, knowing they're all talking about her best friend.

'Liam.' Maria starts, getting the boys attention. 'Will you take Beatrice out?'

'Why?'

'Because she's your little cousin and she is bored of sitting here.'

'Do I have too?' Maria nods, patting his shoulder.

'Aye, mate, I'll come with you. Pass 'ere here.'

'Thanks Si.' They watch as he starts smiling to the baby, as the trio walk out of the room, tailed by Amy Barlow.

'So, Michelle, what did happen?' Johnny suddenly comes up, 'that's unlike Carla.'

'Do you want to know something?'

'G'on.'

'We. Don't. Know.' She snaps, 'right, as far as we know, she was having pre-wedding nerves, but she was fine. Believe it or not, she didn't go, "actually I'm going to run out of the wedding." This is as much '

'No need to be sarcastic.' Kate quips, 'I'm sure she'll be back soon.' The pair shake their heads, there was just something that made them worry.

She should have said something.

'We'll see.' Maria mutters, looking at her friend, 'we will see.'

'Do think she will come back to the wedding?'

'In the mood she was in, this morning? I'd be surprised.'

-CS-

'I thought you wanted to get married.' The man starts, trying to keep his voice cool, but he can't help the hurt seeping into it. 'Be a little family.'

'We are a family.'

'You said cement it, why did you say yes if you didn't want to get married.'

'Peter, I did.' She whispers, 'I do. But I can't. We are a family and we don't need to have the same name.' She points out, placing her hands in her head. 'Peter, I can't marry you.'

'You keep saying that, but why? You claim you love me.'

'Peter, I do. I love you so much. You're my partner. You're the best dad to our little girl, she adores you. I adore you.'

'But?'

'But what?'

'Why did you run out of our wedding?'

'This whole wedding wasn't a good idea.'

'Why?' He sits back, not daring to look at his fiancé, if that was what she is.

His runaway bride.

That might be a better name.

'Because I don't want to get married again.' She sighs, taking a deep breath. 'I know you don't understand it, but it's not because I don't love you.'

'Then what is it?' He watches her bit her lip, taking deep breath. 'Why won't you marry me.' It suddenly dawns on him the whole reason why she doesn't want to marry him. Carla, I can't change the past. I thought we'd moved past it, though. I thought we were good.'

'Peter, we are good. That's the problem.'

'Carla, I don't see it. I'm changed.'

'Peter, you have to try to understand it from my point. I know we've moved past this; I know we have, but it's going to be there. I thought it would be okay, that I'd be able to go down the aisle and think it was exactly the same, but Peter, it's not. I can just see her there. Both of them.'

'Carla.'

'No, no. You don't get it, I can't forget my psychosis, I'll never be able that. I'll never forget being in that hospital with everyone when Paul died, I won't forget Liam dying, and the guilt.' She points out, 'I can't forget being in the factory with Tony, I can't forget being raped, then everything that ensured. I can't forget that I was the one to shatter Simons world, I guess it was karma with Tina.'

'Carla, it wasn't.'

'You need to let me finish.' She tells him softly, she's embarrassed. She doesn't want to be in this situation, she really does love him, but she needs him to understand. 'I'm not going to forget the way I slept with Robert, my kidney failure, and my pride, the way I slept with my best mates' son.'

'Where are you going with?'

'What I'm trying to say Peter is that I can't forget these things, I can move on from them, come to peace with them, but this is my baby we're talking about. Tina, she'll always be there. Being here, it brings back to many memories and they stir up my feelings. I know that I won't be able to carry on like this. If these memories are going to be there, this, it won't work out. ' She watches him flinch, as if she'd physically hit him.

'You know I regret that; it is the biggest mistake of my life.'

'My baby died because of stress, she'd been nearly 7 now, I can't just forget her. And when I was walking up the aisle, I could see her, I could hear her. I was thinking about the life we could have had. I couldn't focus on you and that's not fair. Up until this point, Peter, I've been okay. The thought of doing it all over again, I just can't do. I'm sorry.'

'Carla.'

'She's the reason I can't marry you. I love you; you know that. But our last wedding you got off with someone and, a few months down the line, you killed my baby. You had an affair and I can't forget that, and the fact it happened on our wedding day is always going to be there. Our whole marriage, last time, was built on a lie.'

'Carla.'

'I'm not saying you're a bad dad, you're the best with Beatrice, but I can't marry you. I'm doing it for all the wrong reasons.'

'Carla, I love you so much. I can apologise again, if you want.'

'Peter, I don't want you too. I want you to see that I can't marry you. We are doing great but can't marry you because you're a good dad. I've managed to forget it, or rather, get over it, but, every time I think of us being married, I think of the pain that you caused me. You have no idea what it was like, for me. I'm not saying this to be cruel, you have to believe me, I'm saying it because it's true. You need to realise I can't marry you.'

'You don't love me?'

'Peter, I love you with every fibre of my being and you have to know I'm not doing this to hurt you. I'm doing it because it's not right. When you get married, things change, and I don't want them to. We have a baby and we love each other and that's what matters. We are a little family; I don't need a piece of paper that tells me that. If Beatrice wasn't here, we'd never have gotten married, we don't need too.' She reminds him.

'But Carla, I love you.' Her heart breaks as the tone of his voice raises, becoming slightly squeaky. 'I love you so much.' She believes that he does love her, she loves him. But this is all wrong. This wedding was wrong, the marriage was wrong. She agreed to it in a hormonal haste and she never should have said yes, let it get this far.

It was only a few friends and family, but it is going to be around the street.

'And I love you Peter, that's why I'm doing this. We can't get married, if we're doing it for her, then we're doing it wrong. It should be for us. Not her, not our families. For us.'

'We are.'

'No Peter, you and I know, we aren't. I don't want to break up, I love you so much, but marrying one another, it's just not right.' He sits down next to her, as she places an arm around his shoulder, which is soon shaken off.

Not that expects anything less.

'I wanted to marry you; you make a lovely bride. You are the best thing that happened to me, you Bea and Si.' As she shakes her head, trying not to cry.

'But I don't want to be married.' She tells him, honestly. 'You're my partner and I'm okay with that. I don't need any this. You and me, mister, that's all I ever need.'

'It's important to me.'

'And it's not to me.' She tells him, shaking her head. 'I should have said something earlier, but it has only been recently. Peter we can't get married. I'm sorry.'

'It's wedding day nerves.' He insists, as she shakes her head. 'Peter, it's not. I promise you, it's not. I can't marry you, not now, not ever. And it's not because I don't love you, I do love you. It's just marriage/'

'I'm going.' He tells her, grabbing his phone from the bed. 'I can't bear to be in the same room as you, right now.'

'Peter, I love you.' The door slams shut, as tears stream down her face.

Suddenly, smudged mascara doesn't seem important.

-CS-

'We saw him leave.' A voice calls, as the door is gently pushes open. 'I thought we'd come and see if you were okay.'

'Come to see what happened, you mean?'

'Carla, we want to see if you're okay.'

'Where's Bea?'

'With Si and Liam. She'll be fine for a while.'

'Si.' She cries, 'what have I done.'

'What happened?'

'Help me out of this' she whispers, 'please.' She sighs as her friends, knowing they'll want answers.

They deserve answers.

'I just couldn't.' She whispers, 'I wanted too, I wanted too so bad. Then I got there, and I couldn't. It was such a bad idea. All I could think of was Tina and my baby.' She rasps, 'and I can't marry him. That pain, it's never going away. I can't marry him because I'd worry, he was cheating on me. She would always be there. Her memory. Being his girlfriend, it's different. His wife, it's different.'

'It's okay.' Maria whispers, grabbing her hand. 'We all know what it's like, we do. We get it, and Peter will too.'

'What have I done?'

'You've made the right choice.'

'Have I, though?'

'It's what you wanted, right? You can't be unhappy or keep worrying. The stress will get to you and you have to think of Beatrice.'

'Oh, I don't know.' She tells her friends, Michelle gently dabbing at her eyes. 'I love him, but I can't forget last time and' she pauses, trying to steady her breath, 'my baby.'

'It's okay Carla, it's going to be fine.' Michelle tries to soothe her, like she used to-do when Ryan was little, and he'd been hurt.

'It's not, Chelle. I've broken him. What if he does something stupid?'

-CS-

'What can I get you, mate?'

'Jack Daniels and coke.' He tries, knowing he shouldn't be doing this. He pays for his drink and he goes away from the bar, away from temptation. As if the drink in his hand isn't temptation enough. He wants nothing more than to get wasted.

He dismisses the call as he settles back into his seat, 24 missed calls. He doesn't bother to answer them, he'd heard enough. He wasn't interested in her excuses or apologies; he'd been humiliated, and he needed to forget.

Forget today.

Forget her.

But he couldn't. Instead, he ends up looking at the pictures of them. When they were happy, pictures with the baby, with them as a family. Happier times.

How did he not realise she felt like this? That she still felt let down.

The one that really hurt, the one that cut furthest, was the fact she believes he killed her baby.

Then again, he probably did. He was fighting Rob, at the time.

He'd put a murder investigation on her, plying her with unneeded stress.

Rob may have bludgeoned her to death.

But he signed her death warrant.

And the death warrant of his perfect baby.

'You like you could use a friend.' The voice makes him jump, as a blonde woman coming to sit in front of him. 'I'm Sophie.'

'Peter.' He grimaces.

'You drinking alone? I've just split up with my boyfriend and I need a friend. Company.'

'Uhh.' He stares at her, nodding. He knows he should stop; he should turn around and go home, but he can't face Carla, or anyone that knows his name. He needs to speak to Carla. His ex-wife. That's what she was.

Was she his current fiancé?

Or was she his girlfriend?

Or had they split up and were they just parents?

'We'll I'll join you.' She smiles, taking a sip of her red wine. 'Are you going to drink that?'

He just stares between the girl and the glass, not knowing that to say.

Temptation.

A/N thoughts? I changed this chapter sooo many times, but I hoped you enjoyed it.

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