Holding On

Chapter One

Everyone in town have heard the sad news of the bomb explosion that took place at the Andrews'. They are all worried, devastated, and angry at whoever placed the bomb under his bed, especially Veronica.

"No, no, no, I shouldn't have left him. If I were there, I could have protected him. And I shouldn't have left my dad alive. I'm pretty sure that this was all his doings. He really likes to make an exit," Veronica says, putting her fingers beside her forehead with a throbbing chest and excessive sweat.

She asks Alice Cooper, the one who first heard the explosion and took Betty and Archie to the hospital, what hospital they are in now. Alice is also wounded (but not severely) as her house is literally beside Archie's.

Veronica rushingly wears her stilettos, 24k earrings, necklace, then drives to Riverdale Medical Center at the speed of 120 km/h.

"Excuse me, nurse, may I ask where Archie Andrews is?" Veronica asked nervously while rubbing her sweaty palms.

"Are you his family member? Because her mother specifically told us not to let anyone in his room, especially a Lodge," the nurse said.

Veronica knows that she can use the ____ card, but she knows that it's not the time yet, so she decides to lie instead.

"Yep. I am her half-sister, Veronica Gekko. Her mom sent me," she says with a fake smile.

"Okay, ma'am. The operation is still on-going, so you can't go in there yet. We'll check on you when it's done and tell you what happened," the nurse said, then he walked away from her.

She waits in the waiting area anxiously. The minutes of waiting felt like years. She is so worried to the point that she does not even bother going home to rest or shower. She just goes to Pop's to eat, and that's about it. Until...

"Ms. Gekko?"

"Yes? What happened to Archie?" Veronica's sleepy eyes widen like an owl when she hears the nurse calling her name, expecting news about Archie.

"The patient is stable now, so you can visit him already. However, he is still unconscious and in a coma due to the massive impact of the bomb."

Veronica sighs, relieved that the love of her life is safe now.

"Understandably so. But I would still like to pay him a visit, please."

"Alright. His room is this way, and the other patient that was with him during the explosion is on that way," the nurse directed her.

"Thanks, nurse. I would go to Archie first, then Betty after."

She walks to his room as fast as she can, and when she finally gets in, she loses the strength of her knees and falls down.

"I'm so happy that you're alive," she cries.

She gets a stool and sits beside Archie.

"You can't die yet, babe... you haven't met her yet. I promise that you'll meet her once you wake up," she wipes her tears.

Who is "her"? Well, that is what the show does not let us see yet. You will get to discover some secrets that happened between those seven years if you keep on reading.

Seven years ago, Veronica left Riverdale for New York. Just days after graduation, she immediately grabbed a flight to Manhattan. She stayed at their old, but very sophisticated and large mansion there. Her summer was so magical, spending all day and night going to Lacy's and hanging out with the infamous Katy Keene. She felt so fit-in in New York City, but something felt missing. She tried to make out with random men at her age to fill this void, but nothing worked. She thought that nothing would ever solve this problem, until the last night of her summer vacation.

"Veronica, are you okay? You kept on going to the bathroom every 5 minutes," Lacy said, worried.

"I'm alright, don't worry, I probably just ate something bad. But I can't go to the party."

"Okay, but will you be here okay alone or should I just ditch the party, too?"

"I truly appreciate you being worried, but you don't have to. I'm a healthy grown-ass woman with millions of cash in my trust fund. I can take care of myself. Go and stop treating me like a baby."

"Okay, but you can contact me if any"—

"Go now," she smiled fakely.

Despite her strong and independent attitude, Veronica was worried. She just pretended to be confident that she's okay so that Katy won't worry, but she knew that something was wrong. Even before that weekend when Katy arrived at her house, she was throwing up like crazy. Yeah, "crazy" is one way to describe it. Even her knew that it was not just something bad she must have eaten. After all, she is not eating in any cheap restaurants that might have had spoiled foods because 5-star restaurants are just 20% of the budget being given by her mom every week for every day.

However, she just tried to disregard this. This is Veronica Lodge we're talking about, after all—a bulletproof woman who lives on with pain. This keeps on going on, until...

"Katy, will you please stop? Your driving will make me faint."

"Since when did you get car sick, Ronnie?" Katy chuckles. "Besides, I'm literally driving 50 km/h and never had a turn yet because your school is straight ahead."

"But I think I'm gonna faint," Veronica said, gripping her forehead. And not long after that, she passed out.

When she woke up, what she saw first were blinding lights while in a breather mask.

"What just happened," she said, trying to get up with her elbows.

"Hey, thank God, you're awake. I was so worried," Katy hugged her.

"What do you mean? Why am I even here? Weren't we just about to go to school?"

"Yeah. Until you fainted."

"I fainted?"

Then they heard subtle knocks and the door knob was turned clockwise.

"Oh, good thing you're awake, Ms. Lodge. We ran you some tests while you were unconscious and here they are," the doctor said, showing some brown envelopes to them.

The doctor carefully opened them, and widened his eyes with the results.

"Uhm, Ms. Lodge, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Not now because we broke up a couple of months ago," Veronica stopped, "Why do you even care?"

"Well, you got a bun in the oven."

She smirks, "Pregnant? Seriously? It was three months ago!"

"That explains it. You're exactly three months pregnant."

"Don't be ridiculous. We used protection," she scoffs.

"You know, accidents may still happen."

"Don't you know who I am? I am Veronica freaking Lodge. My family dominates the whole New York City. We earn billions of money from our companies here! Do you really think that I will buy a condom that is bad quality and prone to accidents? If you do, well, you're wrong because what we used is the most expensive one to be very safe, so I am not gonna accept the result, witch doctor," she snapped.

"Be mad and insult me all you want, but you're not gonna change what the result says. You can look it up for yourself if you want and I know you know that it cannot lie," the doctor walked out.

"Ok, fine," she rolled her eyes.

Veronica got the result reluctantly, still very in-denial. but when she sees the results herself, the wind changes its course. "Oh, shit."

A/N: Hi there! Omg I couldn't believe I'm actually uploading it here. Thanks for the others' suggestions. Hopefully, this will make y'all have a better experience in reading this. Please comment what you think of this and how I could improve it more xoxo