Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter.

Some people may have been upset about the cliffhanger in the last chapter but keep in mind that I'm trying to write as if this was an episode of Ugly Betty stylistically. That includes the use of cliffhangers. However, I woke up at 5 AM on a Saturday just so I can get you this chapter as soon as possible.

On a related note, the wonderful teddy bear has been the beta on this story since the beginning even though she prefers my Star Trek stories. For personal reasons, she will no longer be able to be the beta on this story. I need a new beta. Basically all you need to do is read through the chapter early and correct any homonyms. The good news is I'm getting a lot better at catching this stuff myself. So if you want the next chapter without major typos and as soon as possible please volunteer to be my beta. I'm not sure I'm willing to post a chapter that hasn't been proofread by third-party anymore.

Chapter 10: No Use Crying Over Broken Latex

Daniel felt like he had literally been hit with a sledgehammer. The last time he felt like this was when he found out Alex was dead. It was like there was no air left in his lungs. Of course, unlike the Alex situation, he couldn't deny this because the evidence was sitting in front of him with his dead brother's eyes. He was a father or maybe an uncle and he was not sure why that possibility scared him more.

Maybe if he heard about his brother fucking his girlfriend before his death, he probably would have strangled the bastard. However, Alex was dead and there was no point in being angry anymore. It probably helped that Lucy kept crying during her confession. At least, somebody was showing contrition because he was sure Alex would not.

Under different circumstances, he probably would've been furious but it's hard to work up righteous anger against someone who was dying. Lucy had stage IV breast cancer. Thanks to Betty, he knew what stage IV breast cancer was like. He has seen pictures and listen to Betty explained the details of what her mother's last few months were like. Because he was once in love with this woman he will not bother her with his anger right now because she's not well enough to deal with it.

Lucy was furious that Claudette brought him here and at the same time she was relieved. As he said earlier, she had stage IV breast cancer. The situation with her parents was just this precarious as before. It was actually worse because she was no longer there personal piggy bank. She didn't exactly want to leave Daniel Junior to the same people that saw her as nothing more than a commodity and Daniel understood completely.

However, she was upset because she wasn't supposed to contact him thanks to her accepting a very indecent proposal from Bradford at her parent's insistence. A month after the breakup Lucy found out she was pregnant and was sure that he was the father just because they had sex a lot more and she was completely drunk when the incident with Alex happened and she doesn't even remember exactly how far it went. Because he was so pissed off at her for not accepting his proposal, he didn't pick up the phone (although, Daniel really wished he did now.) She got desperate and ended up calling Bradford (Daniel doesn't think he will ever be able to call the man father again). Bradford decided that illegitimate grandchildren would be bad for his perfect image and offer Lucy a truckload of money to make the problem 'go away'. Lucy refused. However, when he threatened to make her untouchable in the magazine industry she agreed to keep the paternity of her child a secret and never contact Daniel about the baby in exchange for a decent size trust fund for Daniel Junior (that she purposely made sure her parents could never touch).

Daniel didn't blame Lucy for taking the offer. He saw what Hilda had to go through to support her son by herself. She did everything from catering jobs to selling makeup out of the back of her car. Single motherhood was a hard life. He wouldn't wish that life on anyone. Justin was such a great kid that Daniel can't imagine why his father did not want anything to do with him.

Now the person that Daniel was fucking furious with was Bradford Meade. How the hell could the man keep his (or possibly Alex's) child away from him? How could he pay to get rid of his own grandkid? It made Daniel physically ill. (There was a darker part of his mind that wondered if Alex knew that he had a child would he have stuck around, despite the fact that there sperm donor was an asshole.)

"This could just be some scheme to extort money. I know you guys are wealthy." Marcy said on the long drive back. Maybe if DJ and Lucy showed up in Manhattan to tell him this, Daniel would think the same way but he was the one who found her. The shocked look on Lucy's face could not be faked. DJ looked so much like Alex that it was painful. It was like looking at his brother's ghost. Of course, pre-Betty Daniel probably would have saw things differently. He wondered if he would've run away or man up and taken care of his child. Now, he didn't want to be anything like the man who screwed over Betty's sister, even if he really did not like her sister.

"Bradford would not have given her a penny without getting a DNA test. He's just that type of bastard." Daniel said in absolute anger. He was shaking.

"You should just confirm it anyway." Marcy said quietly.

"I'll arrange something. I probably should talk to the lawyers anyway. This is going to be messy." His mom said with bitterness and anger. She had other choice words regarding her husband during Lucy's story. The word divorce may have been mentioned a couple of times.

"You're probably right. How the hell am I going to tell Betty about this?" That was the question he kept thinking about all evening. He just knew that DJ would be in his life from now on and that was going to affect things with Betty. His girlfriend absolutely loved her nephew but how would she feel about playing stepmom to his kid.

"I don't know." His mother said quietly.

"I wouldn't say anything to your girlfriend until you know for sure. There's a good chance this kid may be just your nephew." Marcy suggested. She was pretty much the voice of reason in this entire nasty mess.

"That really doesn't matter. Alex is dead. I have met Lucy's parents. I can't leave my nephew with people like that. They only saw Lucy as a way to fatten their bank accounts. They started her modeling career when she was 9. She did not have a childhood. I'm not going to let them do that to my family." He didn't say anything about the drugs and parties they exposed her to at such a young age. His mom didn't need to know about that.

"If he is Alex's child, he will have a family in the two of us." Of course, Daniel knew it that wouldn't be 'us', it would 'him'. His mom could barely take care of herself, let alone another human being.

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself. Deal with the lawyers and the DNA test first." Marcy said trying to get them to calm down.

"Hopefully, I can find one that isn't in your father's pocket. If your father manages to tear himself away from whoever he is screwing this week to actually call, I prefer you say nothing to him." His mother said icily.

"That's going to be easy to do because I'm not planning on speaking to that man again. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father anymore." Daniel said angrily.

"That's okay; I really don't have a husband anymore." That was enough to make Daniel wonder if his parent's marriage really was over for good.

Daniel was tired of talking and decided to check his blackberry. Okay, maybe he wanted to exchange emails with Betty. Daniel knew he could not tell her about this but he needed a little Betty wonderfulness right now. Of course, he wasn't expecting an email from Jamie that would make the situation even more screwed up, if such a thing were possible. There was no text in the message just the subject line: Jordan's pregnant.

"Actually, we may have another problem." Daniel said passing the blackberry to his mother.

"Fuck!"

Betty was pregnant at 20.

How did this happen to her? With Walter she used condoms and spermicide. Okay, with Daniel she may have been sloppy the first few times they did anything sexual but after the infamous dress incident the two always used condoms to cut down on messiness, if nothing else. She wasn't even completely sure she believed Jordan when she said it was possible for Betty to become pregnant without actual sex sex. However, they were still careful, except for those first few times. Although, considering her roommate was literally sitting next to her waiting for the gynecologist to confirm that her life was going to change forever, maybe the condoms were bad.

Now this situation would be bad under normal circumstances but it was made worse by the fact that her sister was glaring at her and saying "I told you so every 30 seconds". Betty had no choice but to call her sister to bring down her emergency glasses because of Amanda's 'intervention'. Because they could not get an appointment for a couple of hours, Betty did go to the optometrist down the hall (as a distraction, if nothing else) but her new glasses would not be ready for a week. That meant calling her sister and unfortunately her sister was already suspicious because Justin told her about all the throwing up that Betty has been doing lately. The fact that she had to deliver Betty's glasses to a gynecologist office told her everything she needed to know. Hilda hasn't stopped criticizing her since she arrived, even if she was holding onto her hand the entire time.

"Just shut up." Jordan said after 15 minutes of listening to Betty being berated by Hilda. "Accidents happen, no matter how careful you are. I'm probably here because I couldn't keep anything down for the first two weeks after my boyfriend committed—after my boyfriend died, including my birth control pills." Jordan said stopping herself from telling Hilda the truth. Betty was starting to believe that Bradford's confidentiality agreement was more detrimental to Jordan's emotional recovery than anythingelse. How can you get over such a profound event if you are not even allowed to talk about it?

"I'm not saying these things to you. You're not some 20-year-old who just threw her whole life away for a pretty guy who can't even bother to be here." Hilda said sharply.

"Yes, but I'm hearing the same thing. Daniel is my friend and a good person. You don't know him. Daniel is not here because his daddy is making him take care of his dirty business including dealing with his alcoholic mother, the business affairs of his brother who did something I'm not legally allowed to tell you, and firing the EIC in Paris, that Mr. Meade was also screwing behind his wife's back."Jordan practically yelled at Hilda.

"He was sleeping with someone else?" Betty asked.

"According to Amanda, who heard from Marc, Bradford made an excuse to go to Paris every couple of months to hook up with the EIC over there. However she got tired of being his dirty secret and wanted him to divorce Daniel's mom. His response was to send Daniel there to fire her." Betty just shook her head.

"Okay, so maybe he has a good reason not to be here but will he stick around after he finds out your pregnant?" Hilda asked after a minute, raising the one question that Betty was afraid of the answer of.

"I know Daniel. Sometimes he's an overgrown toddler but he is always there when you need him to be. It wasn't like I was married to Alex but Daniel has been one of the few things that has gotten me through these last horrible weeks. He will do the right thing." Jordan said in Daniel's defense before whispering the last part under breath. "At least he is still alive to be here." Jordan's words were reassuring because Betty was terrified. They didn't have sex. A part of her was almost positive that she was really carrying Walter's baby. Would Daniel stay with her if she was carrying another man's child, even if she got pregnant before they even met? She needed to talk to Daniel but she was afraid to.

"But you don't know that," Hilda told Jordan, breaking Betty out of her thoughts.

"No, I don't. I grew up without a father. I'm well aware that guys run away. Even though my mom had to raise me by herself, she still finished med school. It is not the end of your dream; it is just taking an alternate route to your final destination." Jordan said squeezing Betty's hand for support.

"Before I got pregnant with Justin I had so many plans. I was going to go to college but that didn't happen. Instead, I sell beauty products out of the trunk of my car." There was something in the way her sister was looking at her that was almost as if she was implying that Betty will end up the exact same way. That look was upsetting.

"But I'm not you. You had a 2.3 GPA and spent more time making out with Santos than you did actually doing your homework. I'm not a 16-year-old who got pregnant because the condom broke on prom. I'm an almost 21-year-old college student who works full-time at one of the top men's magazines in the country and I'm in a relationship with a guy that actually loves me. The situation is not the same." Betty said more for herself, then for her sister.

"That just means you should have learned from my mistakes." Hilda said bitterly.

"I did. That's why I didn't have sex until I was 20. Trust me, I wished that I never slept with Walter. I wished Daniel was my first because then I wouldn't be here worried that I'm carrying the child of the guy I had to get a restraining order against. But it's done. If I'm pregnant, that will not change. I just have to accept it." Betty said fighting back tears.

"It could." Hilda said in a whisper. She couldn't believe her sister was suggesting that considering what happened with her and Santos. Justin's biological father did not take the news that he was going to be a dad very well. He essentially demanded that Hilda get an abortion and her response was to knock him unconscious. They've only seen each other about three times since that incident. The man was the definition of absentee father.

"I can't believe you're even suggesting that. I can't picture life without Justin." Betty said angrily,

"I can't either, I just—this is such a hard life. I wanted you to have it better than me. You're the good one. Mom is gone and I'm supposed to take care of you and I feel like I've just failed miserably." Hilda said crying, as she hugged Betty. Betty was crying too.

"But this just happens sometimes. My mother said there's no use crying over broken latex. " Jordan said after a moment.

"Your mother was a smart woman. It's good to see you Jordan. Although, I wished it was under different circumstances." The Doctor said before breaking the news that both pregnancy tests worked perfectly fine.

Jordan cried a lot, especially when she was told she was only about four weeks pregnant. That meant for sure that the baby was Jamie's child. Betty was uncertain if Jordan wanted it to be the other way or not.

Betty was just kind of in a state of shock. The good news was she was only seven weeks pregnant and with the weird way they counted gestation that meant that she managed to get pregnant the first time she and Daniel did something. Surprisingly enough, the only thing her sister said was well at least we know the baby was not Walter's. Because even if Daniel left her after finding out that she was pregnant, carrying Walter's baby would be 1000 times worse. At least she actually loves Daniel.

Did she actually say love?

Okay, yes, she was in love with Daniel, maybe that was the real reason why she was so scared. What if he was exactly like Santos, despite what he has said otherwise? She was afraid to deal with that possibility.

By the time she actually got home she was emotionally exhausted and was thankful that her sister had to get home to pick up Justin. Her sister agreed to keep her mouth shut until Betty was ready to tell people and that wouldn't happen until Daniel got back from France, because you don't break something like this over the phone. She wanted to call Daniel despite the fact that it was after midnight where he was. She just needed to hear his voice even if she could not tell him this. She was scared and not sure what she was going to do next. She just needed him.

Unfortunately, she did not get a chance to because Daniel's father was sitting in the living room waiting for Jordan. They weren't even sure how he managed to get into the apartment. Apparently the Meade rumor mill works better than most people expected and he already knew Jordan was pregnant. Fortunately, no one suspected her situation. Basically he was there to offer Jordan a quarter of a million to make her a little supposed Alex problem go away by whatever means necessary.

"You don't have anything to worry about. The baby is Jamie's child. Did I ever tell you that Alex and I had a polyamorous relationship? We were both fucking Jamie, sometimes simultaneously." She said kicking Mister Meade out of their apartment before the shocked expression fell off the man's face. Jordan was literally shaking when she came back in.

"I can't believe he did that. Oh wait; he's the guy that convinced Alex that suicide was his best option. Yes, I can wholeheartedly believe that he would do something that cruel." Jordan said with tears running down her cheeks. Betty's reaction was to hug her.

"It's okay. He can't make you do anything you don't want to do. Besides the doctors said that you haven't been pregnant long enough for the baby to be Alex's child." Betty said trying to calm her down.

"Even though I'm upset about the fact that I won't have a little piece of Alex to keep with me I'm glad the baby is Jamie's child. He only wants to hurt Alex's child not Jamie's." Jordan said pulling out of the hug as she placed her hands protectively over her stomach.

"What about Daniel's child?" Betty asked out loud absently.

"Fuck," Jordan exclaimed.

"You think that he will do the same thing to me?" She asked with a hint of fear. She wasn't ready to be a mom at 20 that this was her kid and she just knew that she would do anything to protect her child even from his or her own grandfather.

"I know he will. Bradford Meade is a ruthless man that only cares about appearances. You're not the woman that he wants to carry Daniel's child." Jordan said softly and Betty really wished she was in Europe at the moment with Daniel by her side.

Faye Somers hated hospitals. That seemed strange coming from somebody who has been under the knife as many times as she has. Of course, what she hated the most was waking up alone. Her friends were not really friends but rather followers. They did not care about her, only what she could give them. She had a sister who still lived in Puerto Rico that she still spoke to on occasion but that was it. Everyone else was either dead or she was no longer on speaking terms with.

Bradford will not be there. He never was even before their most recent break up. In the last few weeks, she has realized that there relationship was clandestine for reasons other than Claire Meade's existence. Bradford cared more about appearances than her. He didn't love her and never would.

She would be waking up alone because she really had no one. That wasn't exactly true but Amanda didn't exactly know that she was family. That was a secret Faye was planning to take to her grave even if she ended up there tonight.

For years she's been accused of being a masochist, most recently from Marisol. She doesn't understand why Faye has yet to put in her resignation, knowing full well what Bradford did to her. They weren't really friends but they've known each other since high school when her last name was Sanchez. Her first act of masochism in regards to her daughter was hiring Amanda as the Mode receptionist. She could have gotten Amanda a job anywhere in the company but instead she put her at the receptionist desk that she passes 50 times a day. She pretended not to know her even though she made her various assistants report any Amanda related gossip to her immediately. She gave Amanda the job as Wilhelmina's assistant because she knew that Amanda had potential if she actually tried and she knew that Wilhelmina would force Amanda to try. She did better than expected but that annoyed Wilhelmina. Faye couldn't handle her creative director being nasty to her daughter, that's why she made Amanda her other assistant.

Of course, she wasn't expecting Amanda to waste that potential by making the same mistake she did. Her only thought before everything went black was maybe if she was actually there for her daughter, history would not be repeating itself. There was another part of her who wanted to see her granddaughter grow up. Of course, Faye Somers would never admit to something so sentimental. She was the biggest bitch in the fashion industry, she had no place for sentimentality.

She was vaguely conscious under a drug induced haze and not the fun drugs. She had a heart attack brought on by a combination of Bradford induced stress, years of anorexia, and finding out that she was going to be a grandmother before the age of whatever age she was pretending to be right now. She was lucky to be alive apparently.

She was shocked when Dr. McKenzie told Faye that her daughter was outside the room waiting for her to wake up. She didn't even think to say that she did not have a daughter but that would've been a lie even if nobody knew except for a handful of people. Wilhelmina was in Zürich on a personal error and Marisol did not know that Amanda was the daughter that Faye gave up years ago. Did Amanda's father say something? If the situation was serious enough Faye could see him breaking his promise to her. Of course, it didn't occur to her that Amanda was lying as she explained 20 minutes later when she was actually allowed in the room.

"I figure you didn't want to stay here alone and they only allow family to stay overnight when you're in cardiac care. The nurse assumed that I was your daughter because we kind of look-alike and I didn't say anything." Amanda explained.

"Smart nurse," Faye mumbled under breath so low no one else could hear her.

"Do you want some water?" Amanda asked after the silence became a word.

"I'm not allowed to drink anything, although, feel free to drink yourself. I'm sure water is good for babies." She said not really remembering what she did when she was pregnant with Amanda except that she had to give up smoking and all recreational drugs. She pretty much repressed everything. It was too painful to remember.

"I'm not pregnant." Amanda told her but Faye did not believe her daughter.

"I saw the test before I went out." Faye said emphatically.

"It wasn't mine. It belonged to my friend. I had to force her to take the test. Her sister got pregnant at 16 and it derailed her life. She's kind of afraid that this will do the same thing to her, plus her ex-boyfriend was a prick of the insane variety." Amanda said frantically making Faye believe that there was no friend.

"There are alternatives." She suggested trying to calm Amanda down. She didn't like seeing her daughter like this.

"You don't know Bet- my friend. She can't even kill a fly, let alone a baby." Amanda said correcting herself but Faye knew who she was talking about and it was that barely legal potentially pretty but badly dressed college girl that Daniel was currently screwing. If she was telling the truth that meant Bradford was going to be a grandfather again. The man will not be pleased at all. She was there during the Lucy fiasco. She was the one who convinced the young French girl to take the deal by telling her the story of Amanda and how sometimes a mother needs to do what's best for her child instead of herself.

"There are other options besides that. There's adoption."

"I'm not sure she would do that either. What type of person gives up her child to be raised by a stranger?" Faye blames what she said next on all the drugs that were racing through her system.

"Me," she said in the softest whisper imaginable.

"What?" Amanda asked in shock.

"I barely had the job as Mode EIC for 4 months when I found out I was pregnant. I slept with some guy with a Tweety Bird tattoo on his backside at Studio 54. I partied too much and I took too many drugs. I lived only for my job. I couldn't raise a kid. I was not fit to. I found her a nice family in the suburbs to take care of her. Now she is a perfectly well-adjusted 20 something with excellent fashion sense. She would've turned out like Wilhelmina's daughter if I've raised her. It was the hardest decision I ever made but it was for the best." She said leaving out anything that would make Amanda realize that she was talking about her. Of course, she forgot that Amanda was not as stupid as everyone assumed her to be.

"Before you passed out you said you were too young to be a grandmother. You assumed I was the one that was pregnant. I grew up in the suburbs. The nurse said that we look-alike. You were always around when I was growing up and I never knew why. It wasn't like any of my dad's other clients ever came by the house. Was it me?" Amanda asked apparently putting the pieces together better than she expected.

"Yes," she said in a whisper. Even if she was never planning for this moment she thought about what would happen if Amanda ever found out (more so in these last few weeks than ever before) but Faye wasn't expecting the reaction she got. Amanda just ran away.

"Why are you here?" Alexis said as she opened the door to her apartment. The first step in her transformation was to start referring to herself by the female pronoun. The second step was using her new name Alexis. Bangkok was always a great place to disappear. She did not stand out in the city. She dressed as a woman most of the time now, although it would be a few more months of hormone treatments before she can begin phase 1 of her physical transformation.

"I thought you would want your new passport. I got the last name from your brother's latest 'girlfriend'." Wilhelmina said handing the documents to Alexis. She looked inside to see the name Alex Suarez and frowned.

"I thought you would just send a messenger, not come all the way to Thailand. Also, I thought I told you to use the name Alexis." Alexis said slightly annoyed. Alex did not exist anymore. Alex was Bradford Meade's golden boy and that person died last Thanksgiving when he told his father that he wanted to go through gender reassignment surgery and the man reacted badly.

"You're not female yet. Once your body matches your mind you can be Alexis but right now you need to be Alex. Also, plans change. Contrary to what you assumed your brother is not gallivanting off in Rio but working on becoming your father's new golden boy. If Danny keeps going the way that he has your name may go off the will sooner rather than later." Wilhelmina said before going on to explain how Daniel was messing everything up and how Jordan and Jamie didn't care about her at all now that they had each other.

Alexis smiled to herself at Wilhelmina's words because she knew Wilhelmina was lying to her. According to the therapy emails that she has been receiving from her lover, Daniel was in France taking care of firing another one of his father's mistresses and Daniel wasn't even on speaking terms with their father at the moment. He was upset to find out that her revenge for Bradford was seen by her brother, girlfriend, and boyfriend but it made them hate the man as much as she did and therefore it was worth it. At least now they knew who Bradford really was. It was enough to make Alexis very thankful she never gave up her blackberry and Jamie wasn't mentally ready to close out Alex's account. She now had a source outside of Wilhelmina.

She already knew not to trust the woman before she first approached Alex nearly 3 months ago with a solution to her problems. Wilhelmina's dad was a senator and she had connections. She could come up with an entire new identity that would allow Alexis to leave Alex behind for good. All she needed to do was help Wilhelmina get control of Mode magazine. She didn't trust Wilhelmina but as the saying goes 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' and Alex hated Faye Somers for what she did to her mother. In light of the fact that Faye Somers actually broke things off, Alexis was not sure that the woman was as evil as initially thought.

Now she wondered if she made the right decision. Daniel mourned her. Her mother was a mess. Jamie and Jordan wanted her back regardless. (He never considered that they would agree to a three-way relationship if he asked). Of course, there was today's confession that he was going to be an uncle and possibly a father. Alexis didn't trust Wilhelmina and she was not sure how she would react when she finds out that there's two new heirs to the Meade Empire. If nothing else she knew that she needed to keep an eye on Wilhelmina and that meant playing her game.

"What's your plan?" Alexis asked.

"We may need to speed up your transformation and I need you to tell me anything I can use against your father." Wilhelmina told her coldly.

It was 7:32 AM when Daniel called her. Maybe he was getting better at figuring out time differences. It didn't matter because she has been up since 6 AM when Amanda showed up at her apartment crying. Betty had no idea why she was there but Betty cannot be mad at her for the glasses incident when she keeps crying like that. That's what she told Daniel about when she tried to pretend that everything was perfectly normal.

"She broke your glasses?" He asked on the verge of laughter.

"She was helping. Okay, in her Amanda way she was helping. Apparently, I'm backsliding." What she wanted to say is 'I was too sick and tired the last few days to care how I look because somehow you managed to get me pregnant without actual sex' but said nothing. Even if she was willing to tell him on the phone, it would be too absurd for him to believe her. She doesn't even completely believe that she's pregnant yet. She is still in the denial phase. Her father was going to kill her.

"Betty, are you still there?" Okay, apparently she got too lost in her baby related thoughts.

"I'm fine Daniel. I'm exhausted because a lot of stuff happened yesterday," she told him with a yawn.

"I know, I got an email from Jamie." Okay, that was not good. Would Jamie tell Daniel that he was going to be a dad in an email? She didn't know Jamie well enough yet to know if you would do something like that.

"What did he say?" she asked tentatively.

"That Jordan's pregnant," Daniel told her exhaled in relief at that moment.

"Yes, she's pregnant. The doctor confirmed it yesterday but she's only four weeks." Betty only confirmed because Jamie already told him.

"That's good. I'm sure Bradford would be furious if that wasn't the case."

"He was," she said before thinking.

"What happened?" Daniel asked slightly scared.

"It's not my place to tell. Talk to Jordan tomorrow," she told him wondering if she already said too much.

"It wasn't something along the lines of offering her money to get rid of her Alex problem?" Daniel asked.

"How did you know that?" How could Daniel have guessed something like that? Did the man do something like this before? With Daniel's reputation such a thing would not be completely outside the realm of possibility.

"It just sounds like something my father would do." Daniel said in a way that told Betty he was lying.

"How did things go with Lucy?" Betty asked changing the subject.

"Badly," Daniel said simply.

"What happened?" She asked with concern.

"Well to start with I found out that she turned down my proposal because she slept with my brother and she currently has stage IV breast cancer." Daniel told her without inflection.

"I'm sorry." She said not sure of what to say.

"I wish you were here." He said with sorrow in his voice.

"I wish I was there." She told him. Deciding what she should do would be so much easier if she didn't feel alone.

"Just promise me you'll be careful around my fa- Bradford." Daniel said correcting himself again. Obviously Mr. Meade did something so horrible that Daniel cannot even call him his father anymore. "Actually, tell Jordan to be careful too. I'm not sure if he will believe that Jordan is not pregnant with Alex's kid without a DNA test."

"You're worried?" Betty asked.

"I don't trust Bradford. If it were you in her situation, I would tell you to run." She wondered if subconsciously he just knew what was going on.

"Promise me that if something similar happened that you'll run away. Do whatever you have to." He told her this in a way that made her think he already knew.

"I promise," she whispered in reply.

To be continued

Please review and consider if you can be my beta on this story. Again, I really do need help.