Okay, so after my last chapter I couldn't stop myself from writing another. It's the effects of not being able to sleep, but I know this story is totally taking a strange turn but I promise it will get better. Just bear with me here!

Chapter 5

How could she keep my child a secret from me? Ryan thought as he sat down on the beach. The same spot he was in when he spotted her two weeks ago. She should have told him, he would have been there for her. Instead she lied. Now here he was with a broken heart and not sure what to do next. How could he love her if she would keep something like that from him? What else was there that she hadn't told him? The truth was he couldn't not love her, even after this. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even heard the cries of a child from behind him. He did however notice a figure standing up in front of him. Taylor.

"What do you want?" He couldn't look up at her so instead he sifted sand through his fingers.

"I want you to meet your daughter." Her voice sounded strong as she pulled the little girl in front of her so that she was facing almost eye level with Ryan. "Ryan I want you to meet Mirabella Elise Atwood." He was staring at the little blue-eye blond in front of him as Taylor told him her name. He wasn't sure if this was all real, it was like he was almost staring at a mirror, minus the fact she was a girl and only four.

"Hi." It was all he could seem to let escape from his lips as he sat there staring at her. "Mommy is this my daddy?" The girl looked up at Taylor. He watched as Taylor nodded and the little girl's face lit up. Ryan was caught by surprise when Bella almost knocked him into the sand with her forceful hug. He didn't know what to do. He was too overwhelmed. He still couldn't speak as the little girl let go of him. As much as he just wanted to embrace the child again, he couldn't.

"Why did you lie to me?" He looked up at Taylor. "Can we talk about this at home?" He knew she didn't want to talk about this in front of the kid, but he just had to know why. There had to be a valuable reason as to why she would lie to him like that.

Ryan realized now why Taylor had insisted that they live together. It was because of Bella, or at least that's how he saw it.

When he finally looked up into Taylor's eyes he realized that he couldn't stay mad at her, but right now it's all he could do. In time he'd stop but it was too soon for that.

Ryan watched as the two made their way back to Taylor's car leaving him alone with his thoughts. He couldn't go home yet, he had to figure everything out. Here he was thinking that coming to Newport he'd restart things, get his career started. Now he was a father to a four year old kid that he didn't even know existed before that day.

Ryan pulled out his cell phone as he dialed Sandy's number. Sandy would know what to do, he always seemed to know. "Ryan, what's going on?" Sandy sounded surprised that he was getting a call from Ryan but Ryan didn't really notice it.

"Taylor has a kid, she's mine. Sandy, I'm a father." Ryan couldn't hold it in, so he knew jumping to the point of his phone call would be the best decision.

"Wait, did I hear your correctly? You haven't seen Taylor in five years."

"Yeah, well the girl is four." Ryan said pulling his hand through his hair as he let out a huge sigh.

"She's just now telling you?" Ryan nodded like Sandy could see him before saying "The girl looks just like me, it's scary."

"I'm sorry I still can't get over the fact that Taylor kept this from you." Sandy was right, this wasn't something that Taylor wouldn't keep from him unless she had a really good reason for it.

"Same here, I don't know what to do. I'm freaking out." He looked behind him and realized that Taylor's car was still sitting there. She was sitting in it watching him talk to Sandy.

"Have you talked to her about it? Did she give you a reason?"

"No, but I don't know if I'm ready for a reason." He wanted the reason, but he just wasn't ready for it.

"I don't know what to tell you then, Ryan. You're going to have to figure this one out on your own." That wasn't what Ryan wanted to hear, he wanted Sandy to tell him what to do. To tell him how to go about this.

Ryan closed his cell phone as he stood up and brushed the sand off of him.

He started walking back to his car when he saw Taylor get out of hers. Bella stayed in the car while she played with something.

"I'm sorry." She folded her arms across her chest. "Sorry? That's all you can say? Taylor! You kept my child from me and all you can come up with is sorry?" He was probably going about this all wrong, but what was he supposed to do? Accept the fact that she lied to him and be okay with all of this?

"You don't understand! I did it for you! I kept her away so you could live your life without worrying about us. It was probably a stupid thing to do, but Ryan in my shoes I'm pretty sure you'd do the same. You didn't deserve to have to give everything up to take care of us. That wasn't what you were destined for, and it still isn't." That was her reason?

"You could have let me make that decision for myself, Taylor. I grew up without my father! You did too! So how could you do that? How could you go to sleep every night realizing that I was out there not knowing about her? How did you go to sleep at night knowing that little girl was missing me from her life?" He yelled. This was probably a bad place for them to be doing this but neither of them made an effort to move their fight elsewhere.

"You don't think I felt guilty? I felt guilty every night I laid my head to my pillow! When she asked about you I couldn't even show her pictures because I felt so guilty for doing this to the both of you."

Ryan didn't want to do this anymore. He didn't want to fight, he didn't want to live with her, he just wanted to go back to Berkley and forget about the Newport Group. He wanted to forget he had a daughter, and try to remember Taylor the way she used to be. He couldn't do that now though. He was in too deep to just leave and forget everything.

"Two weeks ago sitting on this beach with you made my heart melt, but right now sitting on this same beach you're making my heart hurt. So I'm going home." It was the only thing he could think of doing right then. As he passed Taylor's car he watched as Bella had her face pressed up against the window. He couldn't help but smile at her, but only for a second before he remembered what Taylor had done.