Page 15 of Plus-Size Pregnant Mate

"Do you have any idea how much that would hurt her?" I asked him. “You can’t honestly be asking me to hurt her.”

"I’m asking for you to step aside so we can have our daughter back.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I love her.”

“And do you love her enough to step aside?” he countered. “If you don’t, I will take us and move us. And trust me, she will follow because she loves her mother. You will always be second best and if you use your head, you know it’s the right decision.

"She might not be happy now, but in the future, she will be. She will know she spent all the time she could with her mother before she died," he said confidently. "You have your choices. Choose wisely. I'm giving you a week."

I remember holding her tightly that week, wanting to engrave every memory in my head so I could always remember. Iwanted to be able to think back and know that she had loved me at one point before she hated me.

I knew the only way to truly end it was by doing something that would ruin us, which is why I asked Nat to help me. Ashley could forgive me almost anything, but cheating was the one thing she wouldn't.

And she hadn't. Our relationship ended the second Ashley laid her eyes on us in my bed. Nat held me down to that bed for a solid minute before she let me even get up. She explained it needed to look like I was trying to collect myself. It needed to look like I was really cheating.

I shook my head, hating to think about that. I hated how quickly she went from being in my life to just a ghost of my past. I thought I had done the right thing. Her mother’s first sickness was hard enough and I wanted her to spend whatever time she had left with her. I thought seeing her from a distance would be enough. It would be better than them moving away and me never getting to see her again. I knew Ashley would never look back, not after what I’d done.

If I had known all these years later her folks would be pulling another stunt like this, I would have stayed with her. I would have made sure she spent time at home and still had me to come home to.

When I arrived back at the cabin later, the moon was high, and the stars were out. I noticed the light was on in the kitchen, which told me Ashley was still up. I wasn't sure I was ready to continue an argument with her, but I couldn't ignore it either.

I headed inside and found her standing in the kitchen. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were red as if she'd been crying.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"I.." I looked at the clock on the wall and frowned. I hadn't realized it was almost midnight. I had been gone for nearly seven hours.

"I lost track of time."

She rounded the island, pulled her hands up, and started to hit me. "You lost track of time? You left, and you lost track of time?"

I grabbed her arms and pulled them out so she couldn't continue. "Ashley, I told you I was going for a fly."

"It doesn't take that long to go for a fly!" she yelled, looking up at me. I stiffened as she started to cry once more.

"Why are you yelling at me?" I asked in a whisper.

"Because you left me!" she screamed, breaking her hands free and throwing them onto my chest. But they just stayed planted on my chest, shaking. "You left me again."

I could hear the heartbreak in her tone, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tightly against my chest. After all, I was the reason for her pain.

Chapter 9 -Ashley

I could almost forget about all the pacing I did with his arms wrapped around me. It was like we never broke up, and I was coming home after a shitty day.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I really did lose track of time."

Suddenly, I pictured him with another woman. I could see the way her arms wrapped around him, and I could hear her moaning.

I shoved free from him, shaking my head, trying to clear the picture from my head. "You left me," I said. "Alone for hours. In the middle of bum-fuck nowhere. You said you would only be gone for a while and were gone for most of the day."

His eyes had softened as he looked at me. "Ashley, I'm sorry. I honestly just went for a fly."

You're lying was all my head screamed. There was no way that was true. He was gone too long for it to have just been a simple fly. There was more he wasn't telling me.

I had paced for hours. At first, I thought he went out for a fly and then after a couple of hours I started to wonder if he went home. Maybe he was tired of fighting and didn't want to be involved in the mess my life was anymore.

And suddenly, that hurt more than anything. I had no one besides him. My own parents weren't in my corner. They were trying to sell me off so they could continue living their life.

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