Page 26

ROSIE

I wake up in the pitch black with Smudge pressing on my bladder. I blink, taking in the dark room, barely illuminated by the moon, and the arm slung over my chest.

Jackson.

I vaguely remember him climbing into bed with me, but I thought it was a dream. The man softly snoring next to me assures me that he’s as real as my new reality is.

His warmth blankets me and all I want to do is snuggle further into him, safe from the day I’ll have to face as soon as I wake up.

I quietly ease out from under him, awkwardly sliding out of bed so as not to disturb him. His breathing changes but he doesn’t wake up, just turns onto his back, showing me a glimpse of his delicious torso underneath the sheet.

I tiptoe to the bathroom, quickly using the toilet and brushing my teeth with a spare toothbrush I find under the sink, since I’m sure I definitely didn’t do that before I collapsed on the bed last night.

I idly wonder if I should text Anya to tell her I’m here, but the man currently asleep in the next room leads me to deduce some communication has already been had whilst I slept.

I creep back into the bed, lifting the sheet and sliding beneath it. Jackson reaches for me, tucking me back into his side and pressing a kiss to my hair.

He must be awake but he doesn’t say anything and neither do I, and it’s only a few seconds before sleep tugs me back under.

When I wake the second time, the weight on the other side of the bed is significantly lighter, and the hand gently shaking my arm is significantly smaller.

I blink one eye open to find Anya lying beside me, head resting in her hand and a smile on her face. “Hi Mumma.”

I burrow further into the soft duvet. “Hi.” The urge to cry washes over me.

I didn’t even get a chance to tell my best friend.

I waited too long and now I’ve lost the chance to see her reaction in person, to show her a baby onesie or shout about it on a video call.

Remorse clogs in my throat and I can’t stop my lip from wobbling.

“So,” Anya sighs dramatically. “Is there anything you need to tell me?”

I tug my duvet up to cover my face with a wet laugh.

“Is this my punishment for not telling you about Danny? Because in my defence, that was a six week secret, this is more like six months.” The mattress bounces as she burrows under the sheet next to me.

“How many times have we spoken and you just didn’t mention it?

I mean, yeah, I could have asked but I’ll be honest, you having a baby with Jackson Harper was never really something I was suspicious of. When did this even happen?”

“At the wedding,” I mumble into the duvet, squeezing my eyes shut .

Brightness blinds me as her startled face peers down at me. “At my wedding? You mean after?”

“Uhh—”

Anya gasps. “You mean during my wedding? Rosie Taylor .”

I laugh and cover my face with my hands.

“I can’t believe this,” Anya cackles. “You got impregnated at my wedding. By the best man!”

The bed shakes with the force of Anya’s laughter. “Where did you do it? The bathroom? It was occupied for ages, but I did think that was my Aunt Claudette.”

“It wasn’t the bathroom,” I correct.

Anya lifts her hands in front of her ticking off on her fingers. “The cloakroom? Dark, private, comfortable I could see that. There was the honeymoon suite but honestly if you tell me you had sex in that room before I did I will be quite cross at you? — ”

“The balcony,” I mumble quickly.

If Anya’s jaw drops any further, she’ll have to pick it up off the floor. “Sorry, did you just say the balcony ?”

I nod, cheeks flushing.

Anya throws her head back with a cackle. “Oh Rosie, you little whore. I’m so proud of you.”

“Stop laughing,” I giggle, nudging her as if I can push her out of the bed.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Anya says, catching her breath and tugging her phone out of her pocket. “We took photos out there, I need a visual.”

“Oh my God,” I groan. “You do not need a visual.”

She shoves her phone in my face, showing me candid pictures of her and Danny laughing as he twirls her in his arms overlooking the same view I stared out at before Jackson found me. “Here?”

I swipe my finger through the pictures until the shadowy alcove can be seen in the background. I point quickly before pulling my hand back under the duvet.

“There?” Anya pinches her fingers on the screen.

“Would you stop zooming in?” I groan.

“I need to know so I can tell my future nibling where they were conceived.”

“ Why would you need to tell her that?”

“It’s a girl?” Anya asks, the phone discarded as she turns to me with a wide smile.

I nod shakily, feeling tears well in my eyes as Anya squeals beside me.

“We found out at our last appointment. I had a whole plan for how I was going to tell you. I got a little onesie made and everything. I was just waiting until you got home so I didn’t drag you off your honeymoon. But I guess I did it anyway.”

Anya wraps her arms around me. “Rosie, don’t be silly.

We wanted to come home as soon as we heard the news.

” She pauses. “So, you’re right. You probably would have dragged me home and then I’d be a divorced woman by now,” she jests and I splutter out a laugh.

“More importantly–you’re having a little girl! ”

She squeezes me tightly and I let my head fall on her arm as she presses a kiss to my hair.

“I get first dibs on the name.”

“You don’t get first dibs on the name,” I laugh, pulling back until we’re side by side.

“Why not? She was conceived at my wedding. She’s an honorary bridesmaid.”

“You also can’t name your bridesmaids.”

“I can, if they’re conceived at the wedding. It’s the rule.”

“What rule book is this?”

“It’s the ‘Best Man Impregnates Maid of Honor at the Wedding: How To Guide.’ ”

Twelve hours ago, I felt like the sky was falling around me, but lying in a bed with my best friend, it seems to still be up there.

Eventually, Smudge demands another bathroom break so Anya promises to make some tea. I emerge into the living room to find Jackson lounging on one sofa, Danny on the other.

“Get over here, pretty girl,” Jackson smiles, his eyes crinkling.

His gaze roves me, assessing me from head to toe, lingering on my belly.

I approach and he takes my hand in his, tugging me until I’m curled into his side on the sofa.

I rest my head on his chest as his hand comes protectively to my stomach. “How are you?”

“Better now.” I reach up to press my lips to his.

I glance at Danny sitting in the armchair catty corner. “Congratulations,” he says with a smile.

“Thank you,” I return the smile. I didn’t know what to make of Danny when I first met him. I’d spent days comforting my friend when they broke up in the cloud of a different scandal, but he’s always been the kindest person to me. Plus he loves my best friend, so I’m a fan.

Anya appears with a tray of tea. “I’ve had such a morning already. Did you know this all happened because of us?” She hands Danny a mug.

“Well, freckles, I don’t think they would have met otherwise.”

“No I mean?—”

“Okay,” I say, sitting up. “Moving on. When did you guys get back?”

“This morning. We got the first flight out here.”

“You really didn’t have to.”

Danny lifts a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. It just gives me an excuse to take her on a second honeymoon.”

“Oh God, not another one , ” Anya sighs with a smile as she settles next to her husband.

Danny keeps his gaze on me. “What’s your plan?”

I lean my head on Jackson’s bicep with a groan. “I don’t have one. I barely have a plan for having a baby let alone such a scandalous one.”

The muscle under my head tenses and I glance at Jackson with a weak smile.

“I’ve already spoken to my lawyers,” Jackson tells me, his face unusually serious.

I let out a breath, puffing out my cheeks to distract my eyes from watering. Lawyers. “Lawyers?” I ask quietly.

Jackson sighs. “We can issue a cease and desist. It’s slander, Rosie.”

I bite my lip and stare into the breakfast tea Anya placed in my hands as if I can read the leaves for advice.

“Have you seen my phone?” I ask him, sitting up straighter and glancing around the living room. I barely remember taking my coat off last night, let alone where I left my bag.

Anya quickly jumps to her feet. “I’ll get it.”

Danny leans forward in his chair, resting his hands on his knees. “It’s better to get ahead of it, Rosie. Release a statement or something.”

I bristle. “I don’t need to release a statement.”

Jackson and Danny exchange a glance but before I can snap at them, Anya jogs back into the room. “I think it’s dead.”

She hands me my phone and the end of a phone charger. I plug it in and place it on the coffee table .

Jackson turns to face me. “Rosie, I think Danny’s right. We need to release something. I can get my PR team to?—”

He cuts off as my phone vibrates on the table, the screen lighting up.

We all stare at it as dozens of notifications flash on the screen. The room is frozen for a second before I’m moving, snatching up my phone and watching the words as they appear on screen.

Slut

Whore

Golddigger

Maybe it’s not his

Her?? Is this a joke?

Hole in the condom. Obviously.

I can’t peel my eyes away, my ears ringing and my heart clenching in my chest.

I don’t say anything but I see Jackson’s hand reaching for the phone. I stand up quickly out of his grasp as I keep reading. Each comment cuts like a knife, but I can’t look away.

“Rosie,” Anya says gently.

I take a deep breath and turn to my messages. I click on my mum’s contact, my dad’s, Cleo ’s.

Not a single message.

I throw my phone back on the sofa and step to the window.

It’s a picturesque street with barely any cars and leafy green trees lining the pavement.

It’s the kind of street I pictured living on as a teenager, before I realized that I would never in a million years be able to afford the deposit for a house let alone one around here.

Cleo bought a house as soon as she graduated and it was all we talked about for months.

I never figured out where she got the money from.

Who has that kind of money from a few social media posts?

At that point, she only had a few hundred followers, nothing like the hundreds of thousands she has now.

It was a few years later that mum let it slip after a few glasses of wine at lunch that she paid most of the deposit.

I couldn’t believe it. All of the school trips I missed, the holidays I wasn’t invited on because it wasn’t discounted, all the hand-me-downs I had to get from my sister, but they somehow had a house deposit for her?

I had to scrimp and save for the deposit on my flat, working all through university and afterwards to save as much as I could and giving up my pipe dream of traveling the world.

Suffering through horrendous house shares before I was able to upgrade to my one bed flat, and even that comes with a shitty landlord who takes six weeks to fix any complaint whilst pocketing seventy percent of my income every month.

For my whole life, I’ve rolled over and taken it, let my sister bully me, let my mother encourage her and let my dad stick his head in the sand and ignore it all.

This is a step too far.

“Okay,” I say, straightening my back and caressing my belly. I turn back to the others, to the people who have proved that they’ve got my back more than my family will ever have. “Let’s do it, the statement, the lawyers. We can do it.”