Page 81 of Psychotic Obsession

I give him a faint smile and follow them out of the room and down the hallway, coming to a halt when I spot my mom standing at the entranceway.

Oh, boy. Here we go.

"Ewan!" she begins, her eyes narrowing at me momentarily. "If you need Jason taken care of while you're working, come to me. He doesn’t need to see Aria in this state. I don't think she's fit to be around him anyway. Seriously, you should do the bothof you a favor and cut her out of your lives. She's nothing but a knocked-up junkie."

Before I can speak or shout, Ewan side-steps in front of me, his fists clenched at his sides. "A knocked-up junkie? Do you hear yourself? Don't speak about her like that, especially in front of my son."

He shakes his head, and I can feel the anger radiating off him, making me place a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

"Yes,yourson, not hers. Why do you even let her see the boy? You aren't together, and truthfully, you could do way better than someone who hasn't got her life sorted out."

"Aria has helped me raise him since he was a baby. She willalwaysbe in his life. You should be ashamed of yourself," he says, turning to Jason and ushering him out to the entrance with Gabriella before he looks over his shoulder. "And she's not a fucking knocked-up junkie."

"She won't be for long; I have her scheduled to deal with the issue tomorrow. You should go, find someone who would take in a halfwit with a kid, no future, no money. I was wrong before. Aria is better off without you. Both of you."

"How dare you speak to him like that!" I yell at her in the middle of the hospital’s reception.

Her hand smacks me across the face, and it takes me a few seconds to realize my mom just hit me.

“No, fuck this. Aria, come on." Ewan takes my hand, scowling at my mom, my silence continuing. "What Aria does with the baby is her choice, not yours!”

Without saying a word, I let Ewan lead me out of the hospital to his car. Gabriella gives me a worried look. “What happened?”

“She slapped Aria,” Ewan tells her. He pulls open the passenger car door for me. “Get in.” His voice is shaking with rage.

"Are you okay, Aria?" Jason asks. I nod, giving him the best smile I can muster.

"Jason," Ewan starts, opening his door for him too. "Hop in."

He listens, Ewan closing it before taking a deep breath and gripping the steering wheel.

“She hit you?” Gabriella asks in disbelief, leaning forward between the seats. “Can I go back there and kick her ass?”

“Yeah!” Jason calls out.

Ewan turns to me, his voice low. "She said she has you scheduled tomorrow for what I can only presume is a?—"

I cover his mouth. "I know.”

“I’m never going to let anything happen to you again,” he says sternly. “Ever.”

He has no idea how much my insides are jumping right now, a flock of butterflies threatening to blow through my ribcage. It's not as if this feeling is new; I've never not felt this way about him.

Telling him I want nothing more than for him to protect me might give us all false hope for our relationship, so I stay silent.

Brushingmy hair in the mirror, I ready myself for my appointment, hoping I’ll finally have some sort of good news in my life. I want them to be healthy. That’s all I can wish for right now.

Last night, we didn't go straight to Ewan's. We got fried pizza then went back to take the dogs for a walk in the park. It kept my mind off everything, something I guess Ewan intended. It worked, and I'm grateful.

It was good to lie on the couch with the dogs on each side of me, nice to fall asleep easily for the first time in so long. Iwoke while Ewan was carrying me to the spare room, and I'm not ashamed to admit I missed his scent, the musky cedarwood filling my nose. I missed the comforting feeling of him being so close to me.

"Are you ready?" Ewan asks through the door, having come back from dropping Jason off at school.

I open the door to him running his hand through his hair, spinning his keys around his finger. I say goodbye to the dogs, following Ewan to his car as he pulls a cap on to tame his wild hair.

Since dying my hair brown, I’ve been missing my blonde hair, but he told me last night that he prefers me with any hair color, so I have no desire to please anyone.

The drive is silent, but it's a peaceful silence I feel comfortable in. I watch the sky, the trees, passing them all as we drive to the hospital. He pulls into the parking lot–closest space to the entrance of the maternity building.