On Friday evening, she heard the doorbell ringing. She actually didn't want to open the door, but someone was very persistent. So, she got up, put on the bathrobe, went to the door and opened it.

"What the hell….what do you look like !? Why don't you answer the calls? I've called at least a hundred times and sent a thousand texts and no answer? What happened, Missy?"

"Oh, Dormé," she started to cry.. "He broke up with me..."

"WHAT !?"

And then Padmé told her the whole story.

"Shit, you know, perhaps he sees it as a little exaggerated but still true. Clovis is always somewhere near you to grope you. You know, there are no words that can describe how much I hate that man."

"I don't care about him."

"Don't care? That sounds to me like I love him. Shit, Padmé, you have to get Anakin back."

"I won't go after him…and what can I say to him; I'm sorry you sent me away...right after we made love. Shit." she started crying bitterly again.

"Come on, Padmé, calm down. I'll bring you a glass of water. When did you last eat?"

"I don't know...five days ago...maybe."

Dormé went into the bathroom, ran the water and filled a glass. She looked at the shelf under the mirror. Among other things, there was a round pill box with 21 pills counted in days. She noticed that no pill had been missing since Monday.

"Tell me, Missy, those pills over there…you don't take them anymore?"

"I'm on the pill...I took the pills...regularly..."

"But not since Monday?"

"What do you mean with not since Monday?"

"Well, you took the last pill on Sunday, since Sunday, no more."

"Impossible !" she jumped up and ran into the bathroom…. then a scream.

"Padmé, are you OK. ?"

"No, I'm not. I haven't taken a pill in five days...I forgot...I forgot everything, all because of...Anakin."

"Don't blame him."

"Whom else?"

"You are responsible for yourself."

"What can I do, Dormé, I'm surely pregnant now."

"It certainly wasn't planned, but a baby is a baby, it's a beautiful thing."

"We won't tell anyone, I will probably …"

"No, you don't do that, you can't do that !"

"But he doesn't want me, and he doesn't want a baby either."

"You can't know that and you have to talk to him, you have to tell him."

"I will not do that."

"Padmé, be rational, he has the right to know."

"He sent me away, he has no rights."

"You're making a mistake, Padmé."

"Whatever, I can't bear it, I'm alone, I have to work. What would my parents say."

"I think they would be happy."

"You are wrong."

"Think about it thorough."

This went back and forth until midnight. Dormé tried to convince Padmé to keep the baby, and Padmé tried to argue how having a baby is wrong.

Sola came on Saturday morning.

"Why don't you answer my calls…how do you look like?"

"Anakin and I broke up." And started crying.

"Oh my God ! Why?"

Sola also got the whole story and also the unpleasant news about the unwanted pregnancy.

"But you have to tell him."

"No, I will not."

She also had a long discussion with Sola and discovered how Sola had the same opinion as Domé, but she had to promise not to mention any of this to her parents.

On Monday, she appeared at the office with a little more make-up than usual; the dark circles under her eyes had to be covered somehow.

So, only Sola and her three friends knew that she was pregnant, none of them were allowed to disclose it.

Padmé had not yet decided when she wanted to terminate the pregnancy and more and more often, she thought about keeping the baby.

Anakin walked like a zombie for some time after the breakup. He wondered by himself how he could even suggest something like that, why she didn't say anything against it, why she just accepted it. Did she care? Had their relationship somehow worn out over the past three years? No, he loved her...and now they're apart. What's left? As far as he knew her, she would not come back. He sent her away, broke her heart... and his own.

There was no point in spending days in bed regretting what could have been avoided with a little more sense of tact. He decided to pull himself together and move on, he had to finish his dissertation and then maybe he'll go to Pasadena, or somewhere far away...someday he'll forget her. How can you forget the love of your life? Not at all.

April 19th… his twenty-fifth birthday. It was a nightmare. Padmé took the day off and went shopping. She couldn't concentrate, but had to stay busy. It was always the day when they were together, did something and made love. Now he was gone, but she had the part of him...the baby in her stomach. That was the day she decided to keep it. It was just a matter of how to tell her parents. They were very surprised and disappointed about the break-up, but a baby... out of wedlock? This is a completely different dimension. The father was pretty conservative and his stuffy friends and the reputation of the law firm and, and… OK. , they must have to accept it, she was not sixteen, she was twenty-six.

The parents' reaction was not enthusiastic, but there were no accusations. Padmé agreed with her father to work as long as she could, and later to take a long maternity leave. That was the help of the parents. In return, father wanted to know why exactly she broke up with Anakin. So, she told how it really was.

"If I were him, I would be jealous as well, or wouldn't agree to see you always in the company of Rush Clovis. When I think about it, Clovis was always around you, even though he had no business being there. I was blind to see his true intentions and goals. It's no use being sorry now."

She hadn't expected this insight from her father, but she was glad that he understood.

Padmé occasionally met up with her friends after work, but soon the nausea began to plague her, and she was grateful to work in her father's law firm and that he understood. He just didn't understand why she didn't want to tell Anakin about the pregnancy. But she stubbornly stuck to this decision.

Padmé's first check-up brought a huge surprise: she was carrying twins. Everything was alright. What was wrong, was that she was alone instead of being there with the man she loved and enjoying the ultrasound pictures together.

Just before her birthday, she had her second checkup and found out she was having a boy and a girl. She didn't think about the names yet, she still had time.

When summer-season came at the end of May, the pool cleaning companies were also active. Mrs. Naberrie unfortunately learned that Anakin Skywalker had been replaced with another young man. She hadn't been told that Anakin wouldn't work just for her. She didn't need an explanation, she suspected it was and knew why.

So like always during the holidays, Anakin worked all day every day, was tired, came home, showered, ate something, went to bed and fell asleep. Better that way, he thought, he didn't have an opportunity to think about his emotional misery.

At the beginning of July something happened that he had always feared would happen, something that would prevent him from working, from earning money he needed.

He was driving in the left lane on the Santa Monica Fwy when an overtaking driver on the right pushed him into the guardrail. The right front wheel was torn off, he lost control and overturned. Several cars were involved in the accident, it was actually a serious accident, a pile-up, part of the freeway even had to be closed. Anakin was seriously injured and even had to be flown to the hospital by helicopter. His right forearm was broken in several places and he almost lost his arm.

About the accident was also reported on local TV channel KTLA. Padmé saw the news and was scared to death when she saw the license plate on a red Mustang crashed beyond recognition...YWW 233. Anakin.

This excitement wasn't good for her babies at all. She was now in her second trimester but…not good. She forced herself to calm down and called Dormé. Dormé reacted immediately and called by TV channel to find out which hospital the injured were taken to...well, the journalists always know everything. She got the information…thanks to her charm. Anakin was taken to the nearby Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center.

Padmé didn't want to visit him there, his parents would come, but she knew very well what this accident meant for him, especially now in the summer months: he couldn't work, it was about his existence. Despite everything and how they broke up, she had to help him, his parents certainly couldn't bear the burden of all his expenses.

She asked her friends for help. It was Sunday, the second day after the accident. It was hot, already 28°C early in the morning. She was in the fifth month of pregnancy, her stomach was clearly to see, of course, she was carrying twins. The friends arrived in Dormé's Range Rover around 10:00 am. The heat was unbearable and she was sweating. Luckily, the air conditioning in the Range Rover worked excellently.

Dormé parked in front of the house where Anakin lived.

"Do you want we accompany you?"

"I've seen his landlady a few times, but I don't know her in person, it's better if I do it alone, but thanks girlfriend."

She rang the doorbell and the landlady opened it.

"Good morning, Mrs. Diaz. Can I speak to you…for five minutes?"

"Of course, come in." She closed the door behind Padmé.

"Mrs. Diaz, you probably know that Anakin had a serious accident and has to stay in the hospital." The landlady nodded. "He won't be able to work for a long time to earn the money to live on." She took two envelopes out of her bag. "Here is the money for his little apartment until the end of September. In this envelope is the money for his health insurance and … everything he will need. Please give him this envelope when he gets home?"

"Of course. I haven't seen you in a long time...but you care about him, don't you?" She looked at Padmé's stomach.

"Yes, he is very important to me."

"I wish you all the best and God bless you, señorita."

"Thank you and goodbye, Mrs Diaz."

Padmé went out, went to the car, and quickly sat down in its pleasantly cool interior. The memories flooded her brain and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Everything OK. Missy?"

"Yes." She wiped away her tears and invited her worried friends to sit on the patio, eat Italian salad and drink ice-cold lemonade.

"Beautiful, like the good old days."

"Nothing is like the good old days, Rabé. I feel so shitty, I'm so lonely...yes, I have family and you, but...you know what I mean."

"You love him, don't you?"

"I never stopped loving him, but I don't have him anymore...now I'll have his babies...a replacement."

"His babies, yes, but they are not a replacement. Padmé, you should tell him…" Dormé began again.

"Dormé please…"

"Look Missy, we are lawyers, we all know what can happen because of your refusing to tell him, and not just from a legal point of view. If he somehow finds out that he has children, he will never be able to forgive you, and you will have lost any chance with him. Just try to put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Wouldn't you want to know you have kids?"

"You don't give up, what?...But fine, I'll think about it."

After this attempt at persuasion, the hot afternoon passed easily.

"You don't have a pool, Missy. I wish we could sit on the patio in your grandmother's garden, eat and drink, later dip our feet in the water and fantasize about a good-looking pool boy."

"Dormé !"

Best regards from Germany