Chapter Twelve

"I- I don't know what to say." Peter said as he breathed heavily. "Are you, are you you know, sure it's mine?" He asked delicately but that only irritated Carla even more.

"I wasn't the one seeing two people at the same time! Yes i'm sure!" She shouted across at him.

"How long have you known?" Peter asked.

"I found out before Christmas." She said. Peter frowned.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He huffed. Carla was so annoyed with him, she had to do everything she could to not rip his head off his shoulders.

"Because I needed time to get my head around all of this!" Carla replied not taking any nonsense from Peter. She then looked at him from where she was standing as he more or less paced the living room of his flat. "But I should've told you straight away and i'm sorry that I didn't." She said.

Peter stopped pacing and made his way over to where Carla was stood. "Have you told anyone else?" He asked as he panicked on who could possibly know.

"Michelle." Carla said truthfully. Peter took a deep breath.

"Does she know-" Peter began before getting cut off by Carla.

"Yeah, she knows it's you." Carla said. Peter just nodded as his mind went a mile a minute.

"So… What are you planning on… doing?" Peter asked carefully.

"If you're implying about an abortion… I can't… I… I couldn't go through with it." Carla said as she but her lip not daring to look at Peter. She then sighed. "Look, I'm having this baby and it's up to you on what you want to do… If you want to be there for your baby then I'm not going to stop you but if you don't I won't tell people it's yours." Carla said.

Carla had thought long and hard about this. She would never stop Peter seeing his own child but because she was having this baby either way, if he didn't want to be there or tell people then she was more than prepared to make up some excuse about the baby being some business man.

"I… I need time." Peter said as he sat down at the table. "I can't give you any definite answers to anything right now, my heads fried… And then there's Leanne." He said taking a deep breath.

"Okay." Carla said softly. She felt saddened at the thought of Leanne but remembered that she is in fact his wife and if Leanne were to find out it would more than likely be the end of their marriage.

Carla was sitting on her sofa, very deep in thought. She hadn't long got home after dropping the bombshell on Peter. Right now she could murder a bottle of wine but knew she couldn't and very much had to resist the temptation. In Carla's delusional mind, all she wanted was for Peter to choose her and their baby over Leanne but that was so uncertain at the moment. He'd never chosen Carla over Leanne before and didn't see that changing anytime soon. What Carla was certain was, that the baby was going to come first with everything. She was going to give him or her everything she never had.

As Carla sat on her sofa her hand absentmindedly rested on her stomach. She didn't look pregnant in the slightest but she knew that growing inside her was someone that she was going to love for the rest of her life.

The following morning, Michelle came over to Carla's flat before work. "You've told him?" Michelle asked, eyes wide and completely shocked that Carla hadn't tomd her last night.

"Yeah, he knows and it's safe to say he was nothing short of stunned." Carla said as she we through her bag making sure she had everything for her day at work.

"So what's he going to do?" Michelle asked. Carla shrugged.

"He doesn't know… I gave him the option of being there but if he doesn't then I won't say anything about it being his." Carla said.

"I'm surprised you actually told him." Michelle said as she sighed. Carla frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" Carla asked as she could sense that Michelle meant something more.

"Well… Don't take this the wrong way but normally you run away from your problems… I was half expecting you to up and leave and never hearing from you." Michelle said truthfully.

"I might've a few years ago but there's an innocent baby involved in this." Carla said now knowing what Michelle had implied. "Let's just go to work." Carla said as she flung her bag on her shoulder and grabbed her keys.

Carla spent the day at work constantly thinking of Peter. If anything she was worried about him, what if this lead to him to falling off the wagon? What if he couldn't cope with this? Michelle could see that Carla clearly had something on her mind but didn't want to be overbearing and knows if Carla wanted to talk about it she would.

Carla ended up working late that evening. She was the only one left in the factory and she wasn't sure how much longer she could stare at the same four walls so despite not finishing all the work which needed to be done today she decided to leave it for tomorrow.

As she locked the door to the factory she made the decision to pop into the Rovers. She didn't want to go home yet because she'd only spend her time over thinking everything, like she had been all day so the next best place was the pub.

It wasn't that busy considering it was a week day but Carla walked up to the bar and ordered a lemonade. As turned around to see Peter sitting at a table all on his own, clearly deep in thought. "Mind if I join you?" Carla said snapping Peter out of his thoughts.

"If you like." He said as he looked up at her. She sat opposite him, worried that if he was sitting in a pub he was about to go flying off the handles and drink g himself into oblivion.

"So… Uh…" Carla began.

"I haven't made any decisions, okay? I'm still trying to get my head around it." He said quietly so nobody else in war shot would hear.

"I wasn't going to ask if you had… I was going to ask if you're okay." Carla said as he glanced up at her. "I know that it's a shock… I get that… I'm just worried that you're going to turn to the booze." Carla said. Peter wanted to snap but it would look rather suspicious with a bunch of people around. He then sighed realising Carla was only worried about him.

"The thought has crossed my mind but… I can't." Peter said honestly. "Drinking will only make things worse." Carla nodded.

"I know how that feels… A large red would go down a treat." She chuckled softly breaking the tension in the air and earning a small smile off Peter.

"I meant what I said yesterday." Carla said getting serious again. "It's your decision on what you want to do but like I said, I'm having it whether you're there or not." Peter just nodded knowing he couldn't argue with it.

They sat together for a little while making small conversation when Leanne then entered the pub. "Oh, hiya Carla." Leanne smiled as she took off her coat and handed it to Peter.

"Alright?" Carla said a little awkwardly. "I saw Peter sat here all on his own looking ever so lonely so I thought I might as well join him." Carla said to Leanne hoping she wouldn't find anything of this weird. Peter just nodded.

"Since your here, what are you drinking? I'm buying." Leanne said as she got her purse out of her bag.

"Oh, no ta… I better get off." Carla said as she quickly got up.

"We should have a catch up soon, I feel like we haven't seen each other properly in ages." Leanne said. Carla glanced at Peter.

"Yeah, sure." Carla said putting on a rather false smile but acting as normal as possible. "Bye, both." She said as she left the table leaving the couple to it.

Ahhh!!! I'm so sorry it's been longer than I said it was going to be. I've been extremely busy but I'm going to make sure that I update this at least one a week. Thank you so much for the reviews, I appreciate every single one of them. Pleas read and review :)