Jess walked down the empty corridor towards the stairs leading to her Mum's office. She had been half expecting the message to go up and see her Mum. She had been distant all day and all of her teachers had threatened to talk to her Mum about her lack of attention to the subject. Jess wasn't bothered, for the first time in months school seemed un-important.
She had spent the whole day unable to take any of her attention away from her bump. She could feel her baby moving inside nearly all of the time. Her baby was growing inside and becoming more and more a part of her. She came to the bottom of the stairs and started walking up. There was nothing more she wanted then to go shopping with her Mum and start picking clothes and things. She wanted everything to fit in. She wanted to be able to move away from what had happened before, in a couple of months she was going to become a Mum. She was determined to do everything in her power to be the best she could be.
Slowly she started walking up the stairs. Her mind was dancing back to the conversation she had with Aiden that morning. She had no doubt that he had been to her Mum. Part of her felt that she should be angry, he had betrayed her...but she knew that it was because he wanted the best for her.
She had read the letter through time and time again. She wanted the words on the page to change, she wanted to open her eyes and for everything to be sorted. Yet it wasn't. The letter still existed and Chris Mead was still the father of her baby, no amount of talking or wishing was going to make that any different.
...
"Come in." Karen looked up from her desk and saw Jess walking slowly into the office. Despite seeing her every day she couldn't help but smile each time she saw her daughters bump. She found it amazing that her daughter was growing a child inside of her, the changed inside her every day were amazing her.
Jess slowly looked up. "I guess Aiden's been to see you." She gently sat down on the sofa in the edge of her room. Leaning back she started massaging the area of her bump the baby was kicking.
Karen nodded. "He's worried about you." She got up from beside her desk and went to sit down next to her youngest daughter.
"I'm not annoyed...I wanted to tell you, I just wasn't sure how." She looked towards her Mum again. "Are you angry?" Jess was starting to think about the fact that yet again she had kept something from her Mum. She started to think about how she would have reacted...
"Of course not sweetheart, I'm happy that you felt able to talk to Aiden. It would worry me more if you weren't talking to anyone." She gently reached her hand across and placed it on top of Jess'. "I can't believe how quickly you're growing." She looked up at her daughter. "I'm not going to make you talk Jess...but I need you to know that I'm not going anywhere..."
"I want to talk Mum...I'm fed up of secrets." She gently turned and took both of her Mum's hands. "The letter this morning was from Chris Mead...but you already knew that..."
Karen nodded. "Can I ask you what he wanted?" Karen still hated that Chris had such a large part in her daughters life and that she couldn't change that.
"Yeah..." Jess pulled the letter out of her bag. She didn't need to read it, she had read through it far too many times. She just needed her Mum to be able to read the words. "He says that if we keep it quiet about me and him then he will walk away out of our lives..." Jess looked down.
Karen looked at him. "But..." Karen had started reading the letter but she was getting more upset and angry as she read the words. What right did Chris have to make any demands of her daughter.
"If people find out...if he starts to get into trouble then he wont leave...he says that he'll fight to be a part of his childs life...that he wont ever walk out of my life." Jess felt a tear form in the corner of her eye. She looked towards her Mum. "I don't want any of this to go further Mum...I don't want him in my life...or my little girls."
Karen nodded. "Of course." She could feel the anger swelling inside of her. What right did Chris have to talk to her daughter like that...he had come in to her life, hurt her and then tried to demand something from her.
Jess looked up at her Mum. "Can I tell you something?" She had been thinking all morning about what was going on in her life as well as what she wanted. Spending time with Aiden had made her start thinking about what she wanted, and what she needed.
"Anything." Karen was pretty sure she knew what Jess was about to talk to her about. She had been watching the relationship between Aiden and Jess grow. She knew that they both felt something for each other, but both were scared about what could happen, or what could go wrong.
"Aiden...it's Aiden..." She looked towards her Mum. "I wish that my babies father was Aiden..." She knew what she was saying and she meant it with all of her. "Why's it so hard?" She lent her head gently against her mother.
Karen wrapped her arms around Jess and held her close. She started to gently stroke her hair before placing a gentle kiss on it. "It'll make sense soon darling." She placed a hand back on top of Jess' bump. "How about this weekend we start looking for baby things? We can start planning out the room..."
Jess nodded. "Sounds fab." She couldn't help but smile. "It feels so real." She looked towards her Mum.
"It is real..." She lent forward and kissed her Mum's cheek. "I'll see you later?" She gently got up from the sofa and left the office. "I love you Mum..." She smiled towards her before leaving.
"Love you too Jess."
