Ana

"So, how has it been? We haven't talked for ages it seems like," My cousin Jenna yells over the music as she leans towards me, drink in hand.

We are in a nightclub in the city where Jenna's bachelorette party is taken place the night before her wedding. We arrived in Nebraska a few hours ago, and Jenna begged me to go out with her and her friends after I told her that I didn't feel like going out. In the end, she won, and now here we are drinking margaritas and dancing the night away.

"It's been good. I'm glad it's the summer," I shrug as I take a sip of my drink.

"How's your hunk of a man?" she smirks as she dances in her seat to the beat of the music.

"He's good," I smirk back as she pouts at my response.

"Geeze, Ana, you are so lucky. Your man is fucking hot," she yells as she fans herself.

I laugh and continue to sip my margarita. "I agree," I giggle as she rolls her eyes.

"Are you excited about tomorrow?" I smile as I put my drink down on the table.

"Hell yes! I can't wait," she claps excitedly causing me to laugh as her friends cheer and dance their way towards our booth.

I hadn't had the chance to meet Jenna's fiancé yet since he was taken away by his friends and colleagues to his bachelor party before I arrived at the house. They are supposedly taking him to play golf and then from there; they are going to another club a few miles from here.

"Come dance, girl," Taylor, one of Jenna's friends grabs her hand and drags her onto the dancefloor where they immediately start dancing.

Jenna's dark brown hair whips around her face as she throws her hands in the air. Jenna has always been a fun, outgoing person. She is only two years younger than me, having majored in marketing and works for a big corporate company for the last two years. I hate that we don't see each other very often, but I am glad I got to be a part of her wedding since she was a bridesmaid in mine.

I laugh as I get up from my seat and walk towards them when she waves me over with her hands.

After ten minutes of dancing, we all go back towards the table. Suddenly, I start to get dizzy causing me to grab onto the back of the booth. Jenna looks at me in concern when I sway a little to the right.

"Are you okay, Ana?" She grabs onto my arm.

"I think so. Just got dizzy suddenly," I groan and sit down into the booth.

"Okay, yep. No more drinking for you," she pushes my drink away before sitting down beside me.

"I wasn't going to drink anymore anyway," I sigh as I rub my temples as I feel a headache coming on.

"Did you want to leave? I can call a cab for us," she stares at me in concern while she rubs my back.

"Jenna, I don't want to ruin the night for you. It's your bachelorette party," I sigh once more and automatically feel guilty that I am taking her away from having fun before her wedding.

"You didn't ruin the night for me. We're family, and I love you," she scolds me as she narrows her blue eyes at me.

"I love you too, but you need to stay and have a good time. I can just call a cab myself," I plead with her before taking out my phone from my purse.

"No. Don't do that. I will call one of John's friends come to pick you up," she grabs my phone from my hand and places it back on the table.

"John?" I frown as she takes her phone out of her purse.

"My fiancé," she says as her phone's screen brightly aluminates her face and the big smile that is plastered onto it.

I smile and nod my head while she calls someone to pick me up. After about fifteen minutes, Jenna says that they are waiting for me outside. She helps me off the booth and leads me through the crowd and out of the club doors. A black Escalade is waiting for us beside the curb, and when we approach the car, a tall red-haired guy gets out from the passenger's seat and smiles at Jenna.

"Having fun?" he winks at her causing her to giggle.

"We are. Please, take care of her and get her home," Jenna says in a serious tone before opening the back door and leans inside.

"You must be Ana. I'm David, one of John's groomsman," he smiles and sticks out his hand for me to shake.

"Yes. Nice to meet you," I smile weakly at him and shake his hand.

"Okay. Well, it looks like my fiancé had too much to drink and is dozing off in the backseat," Jenna leans back from the car and shakes her head.

"Sorry, Ana, but they are on their way to take him home, and they will drop you off," she looks at me guilty causing me to shrug.

"It's okay. No problem. Go have fun, and I will see you in the morning for your big day," I smile as she beams at me and pulls me into a big hug.

"Love you," she whispers into my ear.

"Love you too," I pull back, and she waves at David before walking back into the club.

"Let's go, little lady," David puts his hand on the small of my back and guides me into the car where Jenna's fiancé is sitting there half asleep.

David shuts the door as I settle into my seat. I put my seatbelt on before the car starts to drive away from the curb. I sigh and sit back and close my eyes while another one of David's friends drives us all home.

I open my eyes and turn my head when I hear a groan coming from beside me. It's then I get a good look at Jenna's fiancé for the first time. He is slumped down in his seat with his head turned towards me and his green eyes trained on mine. He has long, curly black hair, intelligent green eyes and a light beard that covers his jaw.

"I love her," he says almost miserably.

"I know you do," I look at him in confusion when he seems to be in pain.

"No, I mean I love her," his eyes widen when he moves so that he is sitting up on his knees.

"I know," I stare at him dumbfounded for a second before shifting uncomfortably in my seat at the way he is staring at me.

He shakes his head quickly several times before he gestures with his hands that I have it all wrong.

"No. Jenna is great. Totally a babe, but I'm not talking about her," he drunkenly smiles before looking away in deep thought.

My eyes widen in shock at what he just said. "Ah, John, give it a rest will you," David shifts in his seat and looks at him pleadingly.

"Leila. Sweet Leila," John mumbles when he falls back against the car door.

My mouth opens in utter shock when he keeps mumbling the word Leila under his breath. I open my mouth several times, but nothing comes out. What the hell is he talking about? Who is Leila and why does he keep mentioning her?

Oh, my God! Is he having an affair? He says he loves her? Oh no. Does that mean he really doesn't love Jenna? My mind keeps going through all sorts of scenarios and what he actually means.

Suddenly my brain catches up to what name he said. Leila.

Oh no. No, it couldn't be. The name is just a coincidence, right? I mean there are a lot of people who are named Leila. Oh, please don't be who I think it is.

"Leila Williams," I murmur and automatically his friends groan, and John sits up straight.

"Yes! Do you know her?" John suddenly appears sober now and is staring at me with hope in his green eyes.

Oh hell! This is bad. Really bad.

My eyes slowly close and my head hits the back of the seat. I sigh and try to think about what to say because apparently, I am sitting next to Leila's baby daddy who didn't want anything to do with her or her baby.

It's the day of the wedding, and I am standing in my aunt Mary's bedroom where Jenna is getting into her wedding dress as my aunt helps her with the buttons in the back. I am staring at her nervously while my mother is busy taking pictures of her niece and sister. I smooth down my pale pink bridesmaid dress as they continue to get ready.

My mother sees me fidgeting off to the side, so she stops taking pictures and walks towards me with a frown on her face.

"Ana are you okay, honey?" she stares down at me in worry.

"Um, yeah. I just need to talk to Jenna alone about something," I say nervously.

After John's friends pulled up to my aunt's house, I told them thank you for the ride before almost jumping out of the car. His friend David tried to come after me, but I slammed the door in his face before he can even say anything. I know that they wanted me to not say anything to Jenna about what her fiancé said and I was really tempted to go back to the club and tell her everything.

After an hour of contemplating, I decided not to say anything until today, which is shitty, I know. I was not going to say anything to her at first, but since she is family and that her fiancé apparently loves another woman who he impregnated and left, I feel that she has the right to know before she marries him.

"Okay," my mother stares at me in suspicion for a second before getting my aunts attention. They hug both of us before they leave the room.

Jenna beams at me while she smooths down her wedding dress which is made with lace and has capped sleeves. She looks beautiful and for a moment, I don't want to tell her, since she looks so happy and I don't want to cause her pain on her wedding day.

No! I need to tell her because if she finds out that I knew, she will never forgive me.

"I need to tell you something," I whisper as I walk towards her.

She frowns a little before nodding and fixes her vail while I struggle on how to start this conversation.

"I found out about something last night, and I don't know how to tell you without breaking your heart," I wring my hands together and look everywhere but at her.

"What are you talking about?" she grabs my arm and she turns me towards her so that I can see her face.

"You see, John kept mumbling about this girl named Leila Williams," I stutter and stare down at the floor as I tell her everything about what John said. I also tell her about me being Leila's friend back home and that she is pregnant with John's baby and how he left her after she told him about the baby.

After I am done telling her everything, I look up at her, and she is staring at me with a blank look on her face. I stare down ashamed for a second before looking back up again. Jenna doesn't say anything for a minute; she just stares at me with no emotion on her face.

Finally, after a few more minutes of tense silence, she simply turns around and picks up her bouquet of flowers and fixes her hair.

"Well, let's get this show on the road, shall we?" she says enthusiastically which shocks me.

I open my mouth several times as words escape me as she stands there smiling at herself in the mirror. Huh?

"Jenna, di-did you hear what I just said?" I stammer as I stand stock still.

She doesn't respond but simply continues to admire her wedding dress in the mirror.

"Jenna, did you," before I can say anything else she kicks the chair startling me.

"I heard you, Ana!" she shouts and turns towards me in anger.

I swallow thickly as she stands there looking angry and hurt. I look down ashamed, and now I regret saying anything at all to her. What she says next shocks me.

"I know," she whispers.

My head shoots up, and I stare at her in shock when she starts to explain. "I've known for a while about his ex-girlfriend. John doesn't know that I know, but I heard him talking to his friends about her and their baby one day. I mean, I was extremely hurt and angry that he didn't tell me that he was going to be a father and that he just up and abandoned them," she starts whimpering and slumps down onto a nearby chair.

I rush towards her and take her hand in mine as I sit down next to her. She looks up at the ceiling and tries not to cry as she continues.

"I hear him in his sleep sometimes. He calls out her name," she closes her eyes as if she's in pain for a few seconds.

I stare at her sympathetically and squeeze her hand to let her know that I am here for her.

"Our engagement happened so quickly. I knew I loved him on our first date. I know that sound silly, but, when you know you know," she whimpers and shakes her head.

"Jenna, I don't want you to end up marrying someone that loves someone else," I murmur as she sighs and quickly wipes her nose.

"Ana, I understand that, but I love him. I just can't walk away from him. I mean, he wouldn't have proposed to me if he didn't at least feel something for me," she pleads at me and my shoulders slump forward.

"Jenna, you deserve to have someone who loves you fiercely. Loves you and only you. I just don't want you getting hurt," I take her other hand in mine and plead with her to understand that this wedding might not be a good idea.

I hate that she is going through this right now, but I don't think she should be getting married to someone who doesn't feel the same way about her. Does he really? I mean, am I getting this all wrong?

She stares at me for a second before shaking her head and looking towards our conjoined hands. She looks up at me after a few minutes of silence. My heart breaks when she stares at me, her blue eyes that are like mine filled with tears.

"Who knows. Maybe one day he will love me back," she whimpers as a tear runs down her cheek.

My eyes turn glassy as she sniffles and slightly shrugs her shoulder at me before getting up and grabbing a tissue.

"Jenna," I say softly as I get up from the chair.

She turns her back to me as she wipes her eyes with the tissue. She sighs and picks up her bouquet of flowers and turns back towards me.

"I'm ready," she smiles and walks towards the door and opens it to reveal my mother and aunt are patiently waiting in the hallway near my uncle, Ron.

I sigh and dry my eyes when my aunt takes Jenna by the arm and walks down the hallway. My mother comes into the room and frowns.

"Everything okay?" she murmurs uncertainty.

I stand there in my bridesmaid dress staring at the floor not knowing what to say. I know that her marrying him is probably not a good idea, but what else can I do? I feel as though the only thing I can do is give her advice and it's up to her if she takes that advice. I know she loves him, but I don't know for sure if he truly loves her back. In the end, I don't know what his side of the story is when it comes to Leila and the baby.

I don't even know what else to say to make her understand that maybe this wedding is not meant to be, but who am I to tell her that? This is Jenna's decision to marry him, and there is nothing more I can do. I need to support Jeanna and her decision to go through with this wedding if that is what she truly wants. I just want her happy.

After a few minutes of getting myself together, I look up at my mother and nod my head.

"Everything is okay. Ready?" I put a smile to my face and take my own bouget of flowers and walk out the door and out towards the backyard where the ceremony is being held.

"Christian?" I yell out when I walk through our front door suitcase in hand.

I had finally made it home after a long flight. It's now Sunday night, and I was still exhausted from the wedding yesterday. Jenna did end up marrying John, and throughout the ceremony, he did look like he really did care about her which made me somewhat relieved. I am still very anxious about her and what will happen in the future. Who knows, their marriage might just work out in the end, and if it doesn't, then I will be there to support her if that time comes.

"Hey," Christian smiles as she rounds the corner.

I launch myself at him, and he laughs as she catches me. I smash my lips to his causing him to moan into my mouth.

"I see that you missed me?" he smirks as he sets me down.

"Always," I pout and kiss him again before picking up my suitcase.

"Let me get that, babe," he grabs my suitcase, and I smile gratefully before walking into our bedroom.

I didn't get to talk with Christian before the wedding because his phone had died while I was at the club that night. He called while the wedding was going on, but I didn't get a chance to return his call until after the reception had ended, which was well after midnight.

I stayed up for a little while to tell him what happened the previous night in the car. He was surprised that Jenna was marrying Leila's ex-boyfriend, and in the end, we both decided not to say anything to Leila because she probably didn't care what he did anyway, and she told us previously that she didn't want anything to do with him. So, for now, we are going to let it go and move on. I was too tired after that to talk about anything else, so I let him go after that conversation.

"Leila had her baby," Christian sighs as he helps me with the last of my clothes.

My eyes widen as I shut the lid of the hamper. "Really?" I beam at him.

He nods and smiles tightly at me. "Wow. Oh, my God. I must go visit them. How exciting," I smile and put my hand in my pocket and take out a gum wrapper and throw it away in the trashcan in the bathroom before taking off my jeans.

When I bend down, I frown when I see a wristband in the trash that has Christian's name on it. Curiously, I pick it up and see that the band has his name and Leila's name on it as well as a room number. I deeply frown at the band for a second before walking out of the bathroom to see Christian putting away a pair of my shoes.

"Did you see Leila and the baby already?" I frown as I show him the wristband.

He nods as he walks over to me. "She actually came to the house in labor," he shakes his head and tells me the story on how he drove her to the hospital and was in the delivery room with her when she was given birth since she had no one there to guide her through delivery.

My eyes widened in shock when he said that. The band slips from my fingers as he tells me about how small the baby is and what Leila ended up naming her. My lip trembles when he recounts the events of that night, and I can't help but feel upset that he went into the delivery room.

When Christian sees my expression, he stops talking and frowns at me in concern.

"What's wrong?" he tries to cup my face, but I move away from him. I don't know why, but I am suddenly angry and hurt. For some reason, I start to cry.

"Why would you do that?" I whimper as tears run down my cheeks.

"Do what?" he says confused.

"Be in the delivery room with her. Why?" I wipe my eyes with my shirt.

I really don't know why this is upsetting me so much. I know logically that he only did it because Leila had no one else there with her, but a part of me is crushed that he shared something like that with her.

He looks at me shocked for a second before running his hand through his hair. "Because she had no one there when she was going to deliver. She was scared out of her mind, so I just agreed and was in the room. Why is that upsetting you?" he explains while looking lost.

"Of course, it is upsetting me. I mean, I just found out that my husband was in the delivery room with another woman," I try not to shout at first, but failed miserably at the end.

"What the hell is the big deal? It's not like we are a couple or anything. You're making this into a bigger deal that it needs to be," he says frustrated while he pulls at his hair.

"I am not! It is a big deal. I can't believe you right now," I hiss and stomp out of the room.

Christian runs out of the room behind me while I storm into the kitchen. "Ana! Why the hell are you suddenly acting like this? You act as if I betrayed you. I didn't do anything wrong here! She was scared! What the hell would you have wanted me to do?" he shouts at me while I spin towards him and look at him dumbfounded.

"Geeze, I don't know, maybe stay in the waiting room?" I say sarcastically causing him to grit his teeth.

"She asked me to go in with her. I guess I should be a dick and say, "Oh, no, thanks. I'll just wait right here. Have a good delivery," he says back sarcastically.

"Yes, that is what you should have done. Minus the sarcastic attitude," I yell, and he shakes his head before huffing.

"I can't believe you are pissed off at me for this. I don't know what the big deal is. I didn't do anything wrong. Excuse me for giving a fuck about your friend," he scoffs and walks out of the room.

I whimper again and fall to the floor before starting to cry into my hands. I really don't know why I am this pissed off at him for doing what he did. I know nothing is going on with them, and I know that Christian would never cheat on me or deliberately do something that would hurt me. I just can't shake the way I feel right now, and I do somewhat feel as though he betrayed me, but did he really? Did he purposely go into the room to upset me?

I stop crying and let my hands fall to my thighs and realize, no, he didn't. He was just there for my friend when she had no one else there.

On the other hand, I want him to acknowledge my feelings. I can't help the way I feel, but I do want him to understand where I am coming from. If it were the other way around, and I was giving birth and another man was there with me, friend or not, he would be upset that he was there in the room with me.

I sigh and wipe my eyes on my shirt once more before opening the front door and walking onto the front porch and sitting down on the rocking chair. I sit there for a few hours and watch the various cars drive down the street. I look up a few times towards the stars and wish that this pregnancy thing wasn't this hard.

I see the stars twinkle, and I decide to close my eyes and let myself wish upon that star. I wish that we can have our own miracle and wish that I will be able to get to experience my own birth with Christian by my side. I smile at the vision of me holding our own baby girl when the front door suddenly opens startling me.

Christian steps out onto the porch. He closes the door and stares at me with a painful emotion in his eyes. I stare back at him, trying not to show the heartbreak on my face.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs after a minute of silence.

I sigh and swallow quickly before looking away from him. He walks towards me slowly before getting on his knees beside me.

"Baby look at me," he pleads causing me almost to start crying again.

I take a deep breath and turn towards him with glassy eyes. My heart breaks as his tear-filled grey eyes staring back at me.

"Your right. I shouldn't have gone into the room. I'm sorry if I upset you. That wasn't my intention when I did that," he holds my face for a second before placing his forehead on mine.

"I know. I'm sorry too for yelling at you the way I did. I just want you to acknowledge my feelings. I what that experience for us," I whisper as tears fall from my eyes.

"Baby it will be us. We will experience that. It might take some time, but we will have our baby one way or another whether it's adoption or you give birth. We will have it," he pleads as his own tears fall.

I whimper as he kisses me before he pulls me into his arms and we both cry silently into each other's arms.

Little did we know, there was a shooting star flying brightly across the sky behind us.

AN: Here is the next chapter!

I know there were many different opinions about the last chapter and I want to explain really quick about what went into the making of this chapter since I wanted to try to make it as realistic as I can.

*Note that this is purely to help me sort out how I needed the chapter to go, and I'm not trying to change your opinions on what you thought about Chapter 18 when it came to Christian and the birth. *

I wanted a male's opinion on the scenario, so I enlisted help from my husband to see if he thought Christian did the right thing by going into the delivery room and what he would do if we're in that position.

Without reading the chapter individually first, just explained it without going into detail, his response:

"If it were a good friend of yours and if she had one else, I would probably do the same thing. Plus, I'm not an asshole". Hence, Christian's response to Ana.

On the other hand, he gave me some good advice on Ana's reaction, since I was a little stuck on how I wanted her to respond. Basically, I needed to show realistic emotion to the situation. Even though Ana trusts her husband, there is still part of her that is upset that he shared that with her.

To show Christian's reaction to Ana's, his perspective:

"Men can be pretty dense to things on an emotional level." Christian didn't understand the big deal of being in the delivery room.

After a good discussion, I went ahead and started the chapter, and I hope I did okay with showing Ana's feelings towards the situation. Christian was able to see that he hurt his wife, not intentionally, but still hurt her nonetheless. I wanted to show that he did understand her side in the end and that he was upset that he upset her.

I wanted to credit him on this chapter since he did help me tremendously on what Ana's perspective should entail. Thanks, babe. :)

Anyway, someone commented, I can't remember if it was a guest reviewer, but asked if this was going to be all about Leila and her drama because it seemed to be all about her and not Ana and Christian?

No, the story is about Ana and Christian, yes, there will be chapters about other characters, but this will be about C&A. There will be a few more later chapters about Jenna, John, and Leila, but no more than that.

Also, I am sorry about the mess up on the timeline of when Leila gave birth. She would have had her baby (3 months or so) already since the timeline the past few chapters made her in the 12-month mark instead of the 9-month mark. I know that many do not care for Leila and the timeline of her baby anyway, so hopefully, it doesn't bother you too much. *Still facepalming myself for that massive inconsistency in the story* Didn't pay attention when I planned the chapter. I will try to read my earlier chapters next time when planning out future chapters.

Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I am still debating on if I want to do one more chapter before a time jump or just do the time jump next chapter?

Let me know in the reviews since I want to get them closer to making that wish they made, come true. :)

Thank you all for reading. See you next time. Pinterest is updated.