Narrated by Paige:
A few weeks have passed, and I've been staying calm in Brazil, keeping in touch with my assistant at the company. Fortunately, she does her job very well, and I hardly need to be physically present.
Lucas has been visiting me daily. He's a very good man. However, I can't love him. I care about him a lot, but I can't see him as a romantic partner.
Tabatha knows about this, and she understands. Lucas is also aware that I don't see him in a romantic way. He respects that, and even though he says he loves me, I know and have realized over time of getting to know him that he has never been able to forget that woman from his past. The love he feels for her is still there, but he's too hurt by what she did, and he has his reasons. I can't deny that.
Sarah sent me a message saying she has something really important to tell me and that she'll call me when she's with Riley. Right now, Lucas is arriving as usual with something to eat. If I keep this up, I'll end up rolling through this pregnancy.
On one hand, Tabatha takes care of not letting me eat anything unhealthy, and on the other hand, I have Lucas who buys me whatever I crave and brings it to me secretly.
"Hello," I greet Lucas with a hug.
"Hey, beautiful. Is Tabatha here?" he asks as always before taking out what he brought for me to eat.
"No, she went out, confident that you'll make sure I don't eat anything unhealthy. The day she catches us, she'll be very upset with both of us," I say, smiling.
"Well, the baby will thank me when it's born. I'm sure of that," he says confidently.
"We'll see about that when the baby is born," I say, taking what he brought.
I start eating, and it's delicious. It's a yogurt cake that I was craving, and he always buys me whatever I want to eat.
My phone rings with a video call, and I see that it's Sarah. Lucas looks at me and says, "If you want, I can leave so you can talk to your friends in peace."
"There's nothing you don't know, so stay and hold my phone while I continue eating, okay?" I say, putting on an innocent face.
"I can't deny you anything, and you know it," he replies, shaking his head and laughing. I answer the call, and I see my friends waving excitedly on the screen.
"Hello, friends," I say happily.
"Hey, we have some bombshell news to tell you," Sarah says, excited.
"Wow, what's going on?" I say, smiling.
"Well, are you sitting down?" Riley asks. I notice that Lucas opens his eyes wider than usual when he hears Riley's voice, but I don't pay much attention to it.
"Yeah, I'm sitting down, and now I'm worried," I nervously reply.
"Mason is not going to be a father; it was all a lie from that woman," Sarah says, unable to deliver the news gently.
"I told you to break it to her slowly," Riley scolds her.
"What are you saying?" I ask, confused.
"Yes, my friend, I'll give you a brief summary of the news. It turns out that Emily, along with Riley and Ethan, investigated that woman, and it appears she wasn't pregnant with Mason's child. It was all a plan to marry him for the family's money. She had not one, but two potential fathers for that baby," Riley explains, calmer than Sarah.
"Emily wants to talk to you, as well as Mason, who came to my house yesterday looking for me to find out about you. But Ethan told him you had a headache because he didn't know what to say to him," Sarah adds.
"I don't know what to say," I say as my head starts spinning, and I keep repeating in my mind that it was all a plan by that woman to get Mason's fortune.
"Are you okay?" Lucas asks softly behind the phone.
I'm not capable of saying anything; I just shake my head, and he turns the phone to tell the girls that I'm not feeling well.
"I'm sorry, Paige's friends, but I don't think she took the news very well, and I think she needs to rest for now...," I see him blankly staring at the screen.
"Could you take care of her? Don't leave her alone," Sarah tells him.
"Yeah, of course, I'll take care of her. I have to hang up now; we'll talk later," he says, paler than usual.
I feel like I'm not the only one who didn't take the news well because it's evident that Lucas isn't doing well either.
My friend sits beside me and hugs me. I don't say anything, but it's unnecessary because he understands that I don't want to talk about it. I'm still assimilating what my friends told me.
My mind wanders, and I see thousands of possibilities I could have had with Mason, all of which I set aside because of the baby she was supposedly going to have. I gave up everything to be a good person to her and the family I was going to build with my now ex-husband.
It was all for nothing, and that's what makes me angry. All my suffering was for nothing, although if it served any purpose, it was for me to realize that Mason didn't love or didn't love me as much as I loved him.
I take a deep breath, thinking about what Sarah told me about him looking for me. I look at my friend who remains silent, his mind and gaze lost in who knows what thoughts.
"Are you okay?" I ask when I see him still lost.
"Yeah, sorry, it's just that it seemed... nothing, I'm crazy," he says, shaking his head.
"You can tell me anything, you know that, right?" I say, taking his hand.
"Yeah, I know. It's just that Riley reminds me of someone from my past, that's all. But logically, it's not who I think it is," he says, confused.
"Who?" I ask out of curiosity.
"Never mind, tell me, how do you feel? What do you think about what your friends told you? What do you plan to do with this information?" he asks, changing the subject.
"I don't know, really, I'm not thinking clearly right now. I want to process what happened properly before making a decision. The only thing I'm sure of is that I won't leave this city based on what they told me," I say, sighing.
"How about we watch a movie instead to stop thinking so much about that topic?" he suggests, smiling.
"That sounds good, although don't think I won't bring up what you saw that made you feel weird. It was Riley's voice, and when you looked at the screen and confused it with someone from your past, who does it remind you of?" I ask, looking at him with my eyes half-closed.
"Never mind, really, I saw someone who it isn't. That's all," he says, taking the remote and browsing through movie options.
I send a message to my friends in our common group.
"I'm still processing what I found out. I'll talk to you when I know what to do, but for now, he shouldn't know about me. Love you all and thanks for your support."
After that, I don't pay attention to my phone and focus on the television. I don't want to think about the matter anymore because it will be the only thing on my mind when I go to sleep.