One Night With Zayn & Nine Months With His Baby

Chapter Twenty: You Could Love Me Again

Riley

        Louis and I talked for a while, trying to find different solutions to the same problem. But each time we came back with the same answer. Perrie was lying.

        "But why would she lie?" Louis asked as he scratched his head.

        I bit my lip. "Maybe she wants him back," I returned. "But if that's really what she wanted, why didn't she try harder to corroborate her story? I mean, she didn't look pregnant to me."

        He nodded as he stood. "I'm going to call Liam. Give me a sec."

        I watched as he walked over to the curtains with his phone at his ear. Once he started talking, I zoned out. Could it really be that she was lying? Would Zayn believe it?

        Just a few minutes later Louis sat in front of me. "Liam doesn't seem to think she's telling the truth either. He told me she's acting shady. I asked him to talk to Zayn for us and see what he thinks. I don't know. Maybe he'll understand."

Zayn

        I held my head in my hands, trying to keep myself calm. I shifted my gaze up to Perrie where she sat, looking me dead in the eyes. I wanted to insult her, to hate her. I wanted her gone. I wanted Riley. But she'd left with Louis and my baby. And here I was with Perrie and another one of my babies. Except this one I didn't want, no matter how much of an asshole that made me sound.

        "So, when do we tell the press?" she asked, her voice bitter.

        I wanted so much to wipe that smug look off her face. I had to hold myself back when she snapped at Riley. I knew that I could never touch her. But God did I want to smack the living hell out of her. I don't even know what I ever saw in her.

        I sighed. "I don't know."

        Her eyes narrowed. "We have to tell-"

        "I don't..." I interrupted angrily, "know," I finished calmly. "I don't know."

        I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Liam. "I need to talk to you," he said, pulling me into the hallway and then to the now empty room where Riley had been.

        I sat on the bed and held the sheets in my hands, remembering what it'd felt like that day we'd slept together. "What?"

        Liam stood straight in front if me, squaring his shoulders. "I just talked to Louis."

        I looked up at him, feeling a wave of worry in the pit of my stomach. "Is Riley okay?"

        He held up his hand. "She's just fine. Don't worry about her. Louis is taking good care of her," he said, allowing me to relax just a little. "Thing is that they were talking and they came up with something that got me thinking. You can tell that Riley's pregnant, can't you?"

        My eyebrows pulled together. "Well, yeah, she's five months. How could you not tell?"

        "Exactly. I mean, if Perrie were telling the truth, wouldn't you have been able to tell the moment she walked in that door?"

        I looked down at my hands and thought. Perrie isn't showing.

        "You think she's lying?" I asked.

        His head hung low. "Yeah. I do."

        I bit my lip. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. "I lost Riley. She didn't even take the baby stuff. Liam, I need her back."