The next morning I slept in later than I normally

would and Brayden came and jumped on my bed

waking me up. “Momma! Momma! I’m hungry.”

Brayden said jumping up and down on my bed. I

sighed the last thing I wanted to do right now was

get out of bed. “Is Grandma downstairs?”I asked

pulling Brayden down to sit beside me. “Yeah.”

“Okay will you do mommy a favor and go ask

Grandma to make you breakfast?”I asked.

“Okay.”Brayden said bouncing out of the room.

Sigh. I wish I had the carefree lifestyle of a four

year old. Why did everything have to be so

complicated. Why did I have to go and have sex

with Justin when I did. If we’d never had sex I

wouldn’t have any of these problems. I can’t say

that though. I love Brayden more than the world

and I would not change what happened for

anything. But why does Justin have to be such an

ass. He wasn’t even really an ass he was just upset

at me for hiding it from him. It’s really not his fault

at all, its mine. Just then my mom walked in to find

me curled up in a ball on my bed crying to myself.

“Abby what’s wrong?”My mom asked as she sat

down beside me and brushed the hair out of my

face. “I told him and he got mad at me. Not that I

can blame him but he yelled at me and then he just

left saying he needed time to wrap his head around

everything.”I whispered willing my voice not to

crack. “Oh Abby.”My mom said “You did the right

thing and I’m sure he’ll come around he just needs

some time. That’s a lot to take in and he didn’t

have nine months to prepare for it like you.” “But

whose fault is that.”I snapped as I turned away

from her. “You can’t beat yourself up over this

Abigail. You did what was best for you at the time

and honestly I think if you have to do it over you

would do that exact same thing. You have a chance

to make it up now and you need to make the best

out of the situation.”My mom said running her

fingers through my hair. I knew she was right but it

didn’t make it any less of a fact that I just wanted

to crawl in a hole and die right now. “Listen, I’m

going to take Brayden out for the day to give you

some time to calm down and figure out what you

want to do alright?”My mom said getting up off the

bed. I just nodded and waited for her to leave me

alone to my thoughts.             The next couple

days I walked around like a zombie trying to figure

out a way to make everything up to Justin. Despite

everything that happened my mom was right

Brayden still needed his dad. It killed me to think

that Justin could just walk away and not look back,

but after the other night I wasn’t sure I was going to

hear from him again. J.C. and my mom both told

me to give him time but I wasn’t sure that was

going to work. It had been three days and I still

had not heard a word from Justin and as time went

on I started to get more and more worried and I

started to distance myself further from the people I

loved most. Brayden even noticed something was

wrong even though I tried to put all of the energy I

had into making him think that everything was

okay. He calmed down a lot which was saying

something for him because he was never really a

hyper child. He would just kind of follow me around

and curl up into my lap. I can’t say that I minded,

but it killed me to know that my mood was affecting

him so much. Part of me knew I should just let it go

and not worry about it. Brayden knew nothing that

had happened and if he never got to meet Justin as

his dad then he wouldn’t notice the difference, but

the thing was I was. I would know and it would kill

me.             “Mom.” Justin sighed as his mom

walked into his house and he ran to hug her. “Hey

sweetheart how’ve you been?”Lynn asked pulling

away and saw how weary and ragged Justin looked.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”Lynn asked

leading Justin into the living room “Why did you

insist that I fly out here so quickly?”Lynn asked

sitting down. Justin sighed and rested his head in

his hands not sure where to start. Lynn started to

get worried as she watched her oldest son fall apart

in front of her. This was not like him and she had

no idea what could have possibly happened to

make him act like this. Finally Justin looked up at

her with tears streaming down his face. “Justin, talk

to me.”Lynn prodded as she took his hand into

hers. Justin wasn’t sure where he should start so he

figured the beginning would be the best place.

“Mom, do you remember Abigail from when I was

on the Mickey Mouse Club?” Justin asked wiping

tears off his face. “Uh…yeah.”Lynn said confused

not being able to fathom how any of this could have

anything to do with Abigail. “Okay well you know

how she just disappeared and no one knew where

she went?”He asked again. “Right. So what does

any of this have to do with her?”Lynn asked still

confused. “Hold on I’m getting there.”Justin sighed

“Okay so a couple weeks ago we had new neighbors

move in and it took J.C. and I awhile but we finally

realized that the girl was Abigail or Abby.”Justin

said. “Okay so she’s back? What’d she do to

you?”Lynn asked all of a sudden getting protective.

“Okay, so she was acting all shy at first because

she didn’t want J.C. or I to recognize her but we

 finally figured it out and then after figuring it she

felt the need to tell me the truth about some

things.”Justin sighed stopping again trying to regain

his composure. “And?”Lynn anxiously asked. “And

she introduced me to her four year old son.”Justin

whispered without looking at his mom. “So she

cheated on you?”Lynn asked her voice filled with

hope and a hint of confusion. “No mom.”Justin

voice cracked and he stopped as Lynn just looked

at him expectantly. “I don’t know what to do.”Justin

cried falling into Lynn. Lynn wrapped her arms

around Justin and just held him speechless. Finally

Lynn was the one to break the silence “Did she

come here looking for you?”Lynn asked very tight

lipped. “No mom she didn’t even know we were here

and when she realized we were she tried everything

in her power to avoid us, but when she realized she

couldn’t she felt she had no other choice but to tell

me what happened.”Justin sighed sitting up to look

at Lynn. Lynn sighed “Justin I love you more than

anything and you know that and I will always be

here for you no matter what and I can’t imagine

having a child that I didn’t get to see and interact

with.”Lynn started “I know that this all has to be

really hard on you, and I can understand any

resentment you might have towards Abigail, but you

cannot punish your son for this.”Lynn said her

voicing cracking when she said ‘your son’. “I know..

I just don’t know what to do I’ve missed the past

four years of his life.”Justin said. “Once again you

 can’t blame him for that. Does he even know

you’re his dad?”Lynn questioned. “No.”Justin sighed

“And last time I saw him I was fighting with Abby

 and I think I kinda scared him.” “You can’t expect

to be perfect overnight.”Lynn sighed “How about we

go to dinner and we’ll figure out what to do.” Lynn

said getting up. “Sure.”Justin agreed getting up and

following her to the door.