BOOK THREE-CHAPTER THREE- WISH UPON A STAR

Two months later:

Charlotte's at the the social group for working mothers' with Akron. Cooper suggested it might be a good way for her to expand her social circle since it's currently limited to her family and co-workers. The woman running the social group greets her and instructs her to mingle with the other mothers. Charlotte makes small talk with another mom about her baby until she is startled to see a familiar face walk in the room. Charlotte tries to focus on her conversation with the new mom but she can't stop her head from turning to look at Allison. She finally decides to walk over and greet her.

"Allison, I almost didn't recognize you." Charlotte greets the long dark haired girl that used to babysit for Bryce and Savannah. Allison's put on a few pounds since Charlotte last saw her almost a year ago.

"Oh Dr. King, I didn't know you had another baby?" Allison looks nervous and avoids eye contact with Charlotte.

"This is Akron. He's three months old." She looks at the baby Allison's holding. "I see you found a new babysitting job?" Charlotte looks at the baby Allison has snuggled up to her in a papoose style sling.

"Oh no," Allison answers quietly avoiding eye contact. "She's mine. I'm here for the working mother's group."

"You had a baby?" Charlotte studies the infants' face. She has dark hair and light eyes, sort of resembles Bryce as a baby. "She's beautiful."

"Thanks. She's also three months old." Allison walks to the oposite end of the room and sits down.

Charlotte's heart sinks. She never considered this and now she wonders, why not.

The leader calls everyone's attention and asks them each to introduce themselves. Charlotte is asked to go first.

"My name is Charlotte King-Freedman. I'm a doctor. This is Akron, my third child with my husband. We named him after the city of Akron, Ohio where my husband was born and raised." The other mother's say hello and they move around the circle until they all get a chance to introduce themselves.

They go around the cirlce and Allison is the last to speak. "My name is Allison. I'm twenty three years old. This is my first child, Sammie, it's short for Samantha. I work as a babysitter, which is great because I can bring my child to work with me.

The remainder of the social hour the mothers are instructed to interact with each other as they sing songs and do exercises with their babies. Charlotte's eyes keep roaming to Allison and Sammie. She can't help but think Sammie looks like Cooper and Bryce.

LATER

Cooper's already in bed when Charlotte comes home. "Cooper, wake up I need to talk to you."

Cooper's groggy. "What is it? How was your class?"

"You'll never guess who I saw there?" Her voice sounds annoyed.

"Charlotte, I'm too tired for guessing games." He pulls the covers up and turns away from her. "Can't this wait until morning?"

"I saw Allison! She has a baby!" She sits down next to him.

"Good for her. I'm glad she was able to move on with her life." He closes his eyes again. "She took it pretty hard when I fired her."

"Cooper the baby is three months old. The same age as Akron." She insists to him.

"So?" Cooper wants to go back to sleep.

"And she looks like you."

He opens his eyes and turns back over to face her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"The baby's the same age as Akron, do the math. You slept with her around the same time I slept with Todd. Get it?" She's talking fast and agitated.

"You think it's my baby?" His heart sinks.

"She can pass for it by the looks of her, but I didn't ask so I don't know for sure." Charlotte lays her head on the pillow next to him. ""She was deliberately avoiding me at the social group."

"Allison would have told me if she was pregnant." Cooper insists.

"You fired her Cooper. You kicked her out of your life."

"No,after she had sex with me she talked about how she just wanted to do it again. I bet she found some guy and ended up getting pregnant." He wants to believe this.

"It's possible but this baby has an uncanny resemblance to you."

"Stop saying that Charlotte! Can we just go to sleep now?" He rolls over but his eyes are wide open. He's not sleeping tonight.

The next morning he tries to call Allison but she changed all her phone numbers. Charlotte decides she'll approach Allison at the next social meeting, except when she gets there Allison doesn't show up. After calling several different numbers with no luck.

Two weeks later:

Charlotte's at work in the emergency room when she sees Allison again.

"Allison? What are you doing here?"

"Sammie's sick!" Allison's teary eyed and visibly upset. "She has a high fever and she started shaking and her eyes were rolling back in her head. I was so scared." Allison's crying now. " Please help her."

"It sounds like she had a febrile seizure, we see that a lot here. Let me look at her chart." Charlotte rubs Allison's shoulder. She can't help but feel compassion for the young mother.

Charlotte looks at the chart and under the medical history notices the father's section is blank. "Do you know anything about the fathers' heath? Do seizures run in his family?"

"I don't know." Allison answers.

"Allison, is Sammie Cooper's baby?" Charlotte asks her directly.

"I can't get into this now. My daughter is sick. I just want her to get better." Allison's crying.

"Sammie will be okay. She had a febrile seizure. We just need to keep her fever down." Charlotte reassures her.

"Why wouldn't you tell Cooper if you were pregnant?"

"I don't want anything to do with Cooper. Please just leave it alone." Allison walks away from Charlotte and back into her daughters' room.

Charlotte knows how it feels to walk in Allison's shoes. Those are the same shoes she wore around Todd. She feels empathy for this girl she should hate.

..TBC...

Thanks to my Beta Just For Fun for all her help with this chapter!