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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

❝WELL MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE JEALOUS IF YOU'D MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE.❞

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Winnie stood in her spot frozen solid, almost like she was a statue and honestly, she was doing a damn good job at being still.

Iris creased her eyebrows and snapped her fingers in Winnie's face. "Winnie?"

Winnie snapped out of her daze and gasped softly and cleared her throat as she looked down at her feet and saw the keys and the bag of popcorn.

Cursing under her breath, she bent down and picked up what she dropped as Iris huffed and crossed her arms back over her chest.

"S-Sorry."

"Did you hear what I said?"

Winnie blinked a few times and moved her curls out of her face. "Yes, I did."

"Yeah. . .there's that."

"Why are you here exactly? Telling me? Of all people, don't you hate me?"

"Listen, I don't like you, but right about now I need to push all our differences aside. I think I'm pregnant, Winnie. . .I can't have a kid right now, I'm only 27! I still have things I want to do! I—"

"Stop! C-Can we take this conversation into the house, please? I need some water. . ."

Iris nodded and stepped aside to let Winnie walk in front of her, Winnie pursed her lips and headed off to the door with Iris following behind like a lost puppy on the verge of crying.

Once Winnie opened the door, her and Iris stepped into the house and Iris shut the door behind them and continued to follow Winnie as she went into the kitchen to get some water.

Iris bit on her acrylic nail softly as she watched Winnie open the fridge and grabbed a water bottle, feeling eyes on her, Winnie turned around and cleared her throat.

"You don't have to stare at me, Iris."

"Well help me!"

"I. . .uh, have you taken a test?"

Iris shook her head and sniffed as the tears started to come down her cheeks making Winnie's eyes grow wide as she frantically searched the kitchen for a napkin.

Looking to her left, she saw the oven towel and yanked it off the handle of the oven and speed walked over to Iris who took a seat down on the edge of the kitchen table.

Iris sniffed and looked up through her tear filled vision and took the towel from Winnie and didn't even thank her as she started to wipe her eyes.

"You're welcome. . ."

Iris still ignored her as her crying got worse making Winnie huff and hesitantly place her hand on her back and start to rub it softly in a circular motion making Iris stop crying momentarily.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Comforting you?"

Iris scoffed. "I don't need your pity, Winnie."

"Funny you saying that since you showed up at my doorstep."

"For help."

Winnie huffed and removed her hand away from Iris's back and balled up her fist momentarily before shaking her head and hearing Iris start to cry again.

Winnie took the chance to pull her phone out and go into her messages to text Jade, if she was going to deal with Iris, she needed backup.

s.o.s. ‼️

what's up? lol

the wicked witch of the west is HERE

i need your help

she's there? just you two? alone? omg this is an emergency, do i need to call 911? are you being held hostage?????

honestly, i'd take that scenario over this one i'm in now, look, can you just do me a favor?

sure?

i need you to go to the store and buy a pregnancy test

WHOOAAA, THAT BITCH CARRYING JUSTIN BABY?!

*calls maury*

please! be serious! i'm trying to get her out of the house before justin gets back, idk where he went and idk how long he'll be gone

fine, but you owe me, girl

gotcha, thanks 😩🙏🏽

Winnie let out a breath of relief and locked her phone back and tuned back in to hear Iris starting to slow down her crying making her smack her teeth and slowly walk back over to her. "Iris, I have news."

"W-What?"

"Jade is going to buy you a pregnancy test."

"What? Winnie, I needed this to stay between us! I don't need your friend running her mouth!"

"And she won't! Just calm down!"

Iris huffed and shook her head as she slowly started to build up her crying again making Winnie roll her eyes and groan as she plopped down on the edge of the kitchen table with Iris.

Jade, please hurry, Winnie thought.

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Jade sighed heavily as she opened the door to the pharmacy store and looked around as she searched for a pregnancy test, she squinted her eyes and walked straight to the back.

Once she got to he back, she puffed out a breath and tilted her head as she looked at all the health items and finally got down to the condoms until she reached the pregnancy boxes.

"Bingo."

Jade squatted down and picked up one of the boxes and read over the details of the test before looking at the price and scoffing.

"Winnie, you owe me 4 bucks."

"Jade?"

Jade gasped sharply and jumped making her knock down some of the other pregnancy test boxes on the shelf, she attempted to catch them — but only resulted in more falling.

Clearing her throat, she looked up to see Peter looking down at her with creased eyebrows and a small smile on his lips.

Why me, God? Jade thought.

"Oh. . .hey."

"Um—"

"What're you doing here?"

Peter rose an eyebrow and chuckled. "I came to pick up my grandma's prescription. . .you?"

"Oh, I just needed some. . .condoms."

"Before or after your jog?"

Jade creased her eyebrows and then remembered that she was dressed in an orange and black Nike sports bra, Nike pro spandex, and all black huaraches.

As Peter looked over her outfit, he saw the pregnancy test in her hold making him crease his eyebrows as Jade cleared her throat and quickly try to hide it behind her back — even though she made a mess of them behind her.

"Hey, I'm not judging, Jade."

"Oh, it's not for me, Winnie asked me—"

"Winnie?"

Oh fuck, Jade thought.

"S-See um. . .you see. . ."

Before Jade could finish her sentence, she had jetted off as Peter stood there dumbfounded and looking at the mess that Jade had made making him clean it up as she dashed out.

Jade paid for the test and jetted out of the store and kept cursing to herself as she took her car keys out of her jacket pocket and got inside her truck.

Once she did, she puffed out a breath and took her phone out and unlocked it to text Winnie.

we may have a problem 😬😬😬

on the bright side, got the test 😉

Jade swallowed hard and tossed her phone into the passenger seat and drove off to meet Winnie at the beach house, on her drive, she contemplated how she would tell Winnie what happened.

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Justin bit his bottom lip softly as he looked down at his hands that held his glass of whiskey as he waited for his father to return from showering and changing clothes.

As Justin waited, his mind was going crazy with questions for his father, things like: how, why, when?

Sick? How long was he sick for?

Justin never pictured his father to be sick — hell, nobody ever pictures their parents getting sick. It's pretty offsetting to find out that the person you look up to, the person who taught you how to ride a bike, the person who was there for every fall when you learned to walk, the person who watched you walk across the stage in high school. You never expect it to hit you all at once.

Justin snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his father opening his bedroom door and coming out as he buttoned up the last button on his shirt.

Justin sat down the glass of whiskey and leaned back in his seat on the couch as his father walked over and sighed softly as he plopped down next to Justin.

"Justin. . .I don't know what to say."

"How about you tell me when you got sick."

"I've always been sick. . .I was sick when your mother was pregnant with you, I went through chemo and I beat cancer, but now it's back."

Justin felt his chest tighten. "Are you going to do chemo again?"

"What's the point?"

"What kind of question is that? You're my father! I need you!"

"Justin. . .going through chemo now would be pointless. . .my cancer has moved stages since before."

Justin swallowed hard. "What's the stage now?"

"Three."

Justin let out a chuckle of disbelief as he shook his head and rested his forearms onto his thighs and Jeremy rubbed his temples with his left hand.

"Dad. . .how could you keep this from me?"

"I recently just found out, son. . .the doctor said if I didn't do chemo I have about 6 months."

"Then why won't you—"

"Justin. . .I only told you this and that I wasn't doing chemo because I want you to take over the company."

Justin felt his heart start to pound faster, as if things weren't already spiraling out of control in his life. Now he has to worry about taking over his father's business?

"Dad, I can't."

"Justin—"

"I-I can't do this, this is too much to take in. I-I gotta go, dad."

Justin had hopped up from the couch so quickly that Jeremy didn't even bother to try and stop him, he simply watched Justin speed out of his penthouse and head for the elevator.

Once the elevator doors opened, Justin got inside and pressed the lobby button and let the doors shut to take him down as he leaned his head against the wall and tried to calm himself down.

Today had been a long day and he just wanted to go home and relax.

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Justin slammed the door to his Bentley and jangled his car keys in his hand as she started walking to the door, he suddenly stopped in his tracks at the sound of a honk.

Creasing his eyebrows, he turned around to see it was Peter's truck pulling up making him slowly walk over and meet him halfway as Peter sped walked to him.

"Peter? What're you doing here?"

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"Is Winnie pregnant?"

Justin's eyes went wide. "Pregnant."

When has Winnie found the time to have sex? Justin thought.

"I-I saw Jade at the store and she was buying a pregnancy test and she said it was for Winnie. . .is Winnie cheating on me?"

"Are you and Winnie. . .?"

"What? I mean. . .no, but — you know how I feel about her."

Sadly I do, Justin thought.

Justin shook his head and cleared his throat. "Are you sure she might be having a baby?"

"I'm going to talk to her—" Peter murmured as he went to walk around Justin, but was stopped by Justin placing his hand on his chest.

"Not a good idea, you're hyped up on adrenaline, you can't go in there all beast mode. . .I'll talk to her, okay?"

"O-Okay."

"You can wait on the porch, I can bring her to the door and you can listen in, deal?"

Peter didn't respond, he simply nodded and pursed his lips as he watched Justin nod and turn around to head into the house as Peter followed up to the porch.

Once Justin opened the door, he left it cracked a bit and whispered to Peter. "I'll be back, just wait."

"Got it."

Justin puffed out a breath and rubbed his temples as he headed upstairs to find Winnie, but his mind was racing as he thought about it.

Winnie being pregnant?

That brought a slight tension to his chest at the mere thought.

"Winnie?" Justin shouted as he knocked on Winnie's bedroom door and suddenly heard the sound of footsteps followed by a thud and yelp.

Justin creased his eyebrows and stood back from the door and waited before the door opened and Winnie opened it a crack and cleared her throat as she slid out of the crack and shut the door behind her.

"Yes?"

"Can. . .can we talk? Downstairs?"

"Really? I guess it's going to snow in the middle of June, you wanna talk, huh?"

Justin rolled his eyes. "Winnie, please?"

And Winnie didn't know why, but when she looked into those hazel eyes, she felt somewhat mesmerized into doing as Justin asked and follow him down to the middle of the hallway near the front door.

Justin cleared his throat and stepped back a bit so Peter could hear. "What have you been up to today?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting. . .different."

"Different how?"

Justin crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know. . .like you're snappy and have mood swings."

"Justin. . .what are you implying?"

Justin cleared his throat and stared down at Winnie and then looked back at the front door to make sure Peter could hear his words. "Winnie, are you pregnant?"

"Pregnant? What?"

"I-I uh. . .I ran into Jade at the store. . .she was getting a pregnancy test—"

"Did Peter tell you what happened? Because that's exactly what Jade told me happened to her with him."

Justin paused momentarily. "Maybe, just answer the damn question!"

"Why do you care! Even if I was — which I'm not, you shouldn't care!"

"Winnie. . .I know we've had our differences lately—" Justin started to speak, but he was interrupted by the sound of Winnie scoffing as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Differences? Justin, you come home from Iris's one night and start bad mouthing my relationship with Peter and stop talking to me! How the hell is that us having differences?"

Justin paused for a moment, he had suddenly felt the pressure on his chest as he heard their situation out loud making him swallow a sudden lump that formed in his throat.

"Winnie, I only said that stuff because I. . .I. . ."

"You what, Jay? You don't like Peter? Yeah, I got that from day one!"

Justin didn't know what came over him, maybe it was the fact that Winnie was shouting at him or maybe it was he fact that he'd been so stressed today, but he couldn't hold it inside anymore.

"Goddammit, Winnie! It's because I don't think you should be with Peter!"

Winnie went quiet for a moment, almost as if her mouth was glued shut and her heart was about to start doing the talking for her.

"W-What?"

"I. . .I'm jealous of Peter, okay? I don't think you should be with him. . ." Justin breathed out as his breathing became heavy and his chest began to rise up and down rapidly.

"Well. . .maybe you wouldn't have to be jealous if you'd made the right choice."

Justin creased his eyebrows with his chest still rising up and down, and right when he was about to speak, the sound of the front door opening made them both pause.

Peter slowly stepped inside and cleared his throat as his eyes landed on Winnie and saw her looking at him as if she'd just seen a ghost.

"P-Pete. . ."

"Winnie. . ."

"Pete, it's not what you think—"

Peter held his hand up for her to stop as he clenched his jaw and looked over to Justin. "How could you?"

"Peter—"

"Save it. . .," Peter murmured as he felt his throat start to swell and tears start to sting the back of his eyes as he looked over to Winnie. "Both of you."

Winnie started to hyperventilate as tears threatened to leave her eyes as well, she watched Peter leave the house making her run after him and catch him at the last steps of the porch.

"Pete! Please!"

"Winnie, no! How could you do this to me? To us?"

Winnie let out a sob. "Pete. . ."

"I know we weren't together. . .but, Winnie. . .I cared about you. But it was all a lie."

"Peter, it's not like that!"

"It's obvious who you want to be with. . .goodnight, Winnie."

Winnie let out another sob and covered her mouth as she watched Peter jog off and head back to his truck making Winnie run back into the house.

"Winnie—"

"Save it! This is all your fault!"

Justin creased his eyebrows. "What did you expect me to do? I wanted answers!"

"Of course, Justin! You did, nobody else, right? You've once again only thought about yourself! You're so self centered it's sickening!"

Justin swallowed hard and rubbed the back of his head as he watched Winnie shake her head and storm past him back upstairs.

Great, Justin thought.

For him and Winnie's first time talking again after such a long time, he didn't plan for it to end like this.

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