Page 117 of Until He Confesses

Now I was looking forward to this trip and even hoping that it would be the release and consolation that I so desperately wanted.

Anna stretched her head as an air hostess walked past us.

"They've shut the door," she said. "So, they should know if there are any business class seats available now, right?”

"Be patient," I told her, but she pouted stubbornly. Soon we took off, and my eyes connected with Julianne's as she came down the aisle. She gave me a wink in assurance, and I nodded in response. A few minutes later, she returned and ushered us as guests over to business class. We found the three seats, though separate, that were available to us and took our seats. There were two together and one a little farther away. I immediately started to go over to it, but then my mom grabbed my hand and pulled me to join her. Anna was on her way in no time, so with a sigh, I settled into the seat next to my mom. I loved being with my mom, but the elephant in the room as to why I was so sad couldn’t exactly be ignored, and since I wasn’t ready to speak or reveal why, it continuously heated the tension between us.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the truth came out and I didn't really know how she would respond, especially since I had made the decision without considering anyone else's feelings on keeping the baby. For the first half of the eight-hour flight, we were silent and even fell asleep. But eventually, when I returned from the bathroom, she turned to me, and I knew she wanted to talk. It was inevitable, and being my mom, I had to give her this chance to satisfy her worries.

Then, she simply smiled at me.

"I'm fine. There's no need for you to be worried." I responded.

She was amused, and I waited for what she would say.

"I'm your mom," she said. "If I can't read you even after being your mom for so long, then what does that make me?"

I sighed at her words but didn't say any more.

"He was the one you were seeing, wasn't he?" she asked.

I nodded, seeing no reason why I couldn't admit this much. She had to find out anyway from the entire world after I was splashed over all the news outlets.

"What happened?" she asked. "The previous issues came up again?"

I looked at her, and then I released a deep breath.

"Yeah, but he resolved it. At least he told me he did. He said he'd found someone who could attest to the fact that it wasn't him in the video. It was his twin brother."

Her eyes widened at my words.

"He had a twin brother?"

"Exactly," I replied, and she immediately understood what the problem was.

"You didn't believe him?" she asked, and I turned to her.

"Would you?"

"Why would he lie?" she asked, and I turned my gaze to hers.

"Why wouldn't he lie? Dad never lied?"

"Your dad is not Lucas."

"But he is a man. Isn't he?"

She gave me a look, and then she turned away.

"Mom?" I called, and she sighed.

"He tries," she said. "He has no reason to, beyond the fact that he just might truly love you. And he just might truly be honest. He might have never cheated on you. If you find out that this is the case it'll hurt you. It has already hurt you."

I went silent at her words, and then I turned away, unwilling to speak any further. The fact of the matter was that she was right, and this possibility had haunted me over the past several weeks. I didn't know how to resolve it anymore. There was no way I could contact him, and I was sure that even if I did, he wouldn't respond to me. All I could do was continue with the consequences of my actions.

It was impossible not to think about him as each day I woke up and was reminded of his baby that was growing inside of me and it made my heart break even further. But then it convinced me without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to keep this little part of Lucas with me no matter what happened. Plus, if I were to admit this was the situation I had found myself in, there were about to be other considerations, not limited to the fact that I might have done this on purpose given his wealth.

It was the worst and least cautious thing I could tolerate, so I decided to stay away from him for as long as possible. I had been successful so far, but now that we were headed to this wedding, I couldn't brush the possibility out of my mind that we would run into each other. He had told me that he had not been invited by Matthew, but that could change at any moment. Either way, it made me extremely nervous, but I tried my best to act as nonchalant as possible. I wasn't hoping for or expecting anything in particular at this point, but I was definitely hoping for an intervention of some sort to make my direction seem a bit clearer because currently, it was cloudier than it had ever been.

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