Losing My Life

Chapter 2

With only two weeks left until Christmas, they manage their time wisely to ensure the rooms are ready for their guests and the presents wrapped for Rory's little girl to open up on Christmas day. He wants her to have Christmas with him and Ryleigh.

Years prior, when he was in a band and did small gigs to get their name out. He was not good at anything else and aspired to be an entertainer with his skills, high-grade looks, and rapping. The music was one thing, and getting to the top was another. Yet he fancied both and saw the bigger picture before he could learn to paint it. Some would say that he was challenging to work with and had issues, but as far as he understood, Rory was in charge, and they had to go with whatever he said.

At one bar on his underpaid tour, he spots a brown hair girl called Stacie. There was something about her that just caught his attention, and she could tell he was into her. Rory promises her that he will come back and take her away to live with him in L.A.'s luxury life and said he would be successful. Stacie believed all his promises and felt that escaping from her small town would be the best decision.

Months into it, there was nothing different to what Stacie had before. Low funds on anything, waiting for the bills to come out and check the little amount left for themselves. Stacie felt down, as the dream he gave her was all a deception. It changed overnight when Rory discovered she was pregnant and decided to marry her.

Not long after the announcement, he went on tour, delighted he would come back with only a few weeks left of her giving birth. The effect of the bands on drinking and drug use contributes to tension on Stacie and their relationship. It almost got to the point of making trouble with the police, wondering the streets high and being disruptive. Luckily, without being arrested.

Stacie never had anyone to turn to with all of this going on. She did not make many friends in L. A but made good friends with one of Rory's, who owned a bar and gave her a job. The owner admitted that he had been sleeping with his pregnant wife while Rory's band would perform that night. Furious about this, Rory beats him in front of people, and it was filmed and got him arrested that night. With this, the owner wanted to sue him and was no longer Rory's mate. When the court case went on, Stacie never denied the adultery and admitted that it was going on before she was pregnant, too, although he wondered if it was his child that Stacie was carrying. Either way, he wanted to be involved and wanted to be at the birth.

Two weeks after her due date, Stacie gave birth to a little girl. He looks at her blue eyes and rosy red cheeks as he holds her in his arms for the first time. Something in him changed that day, and he felt different. Rory considered that he needs to learn from his mistakes and knows once he pays the price for this one, he will never do it again and raise his child to have a happy life. He promises her, getting out of prison one day and be home soon. They settled on the name Layla, and with the help of his mom, Rory wanted to take a private DNA test, and it returned positive, as this would then help him with custody.

At court, Rory was found guilty and sent to prison for two years. Staring at the four mucky walls was something he never wanted to return to again. Stacie never visited him and never responded to his letters. The only thing she sent was divorced papers and the rights to losing Layla. He agreed to a divorce, but he would fight his corner not to lose his daughter. They used the DNA results to get a chance to see his child regularly, and the court agreed to it. Even though he knew he would miss the first two years of her life, when he got out, it wouldn't prevent him from making it up to Layla when he got out.