Chapter 13.

Brooke's POV :

My palms are sweaty and my knees are knocking. Today's the day of mine and Brandon's trial. The girls had no where to go, so all three came with us.

"Hey, you'll be fine." Nolan assures me, kissing me on my cheek. That doesn't make me feel any different about this situation.

"I won't," I sigh.

"Brandon is the best lawyer in the entire state of Georgia. There's no way I can win this case." When the judge asks us to explain our situations, I'm first up. I tell her all about how he acted different right before we left for Disney because he was seeing Maddie, how he smelled like woman's perfume while we were down there, how I followed him when he was supposed to be going to work and he and Maddie were kissing, and how I video tapped the scene at my house.

The judge asks to see proof of it. I show her the video on my phone and she nods, approving it.

When it's Brandon's turn, he comes out and says how that was all a lie and I was cheating on him. He tried to get back at me for 'cheating' by going out with Maddie. My lawyer, Noah, fights for me, and Brandon fights for himself.

"Miss Pent, you are entitled to take custody over your children, Ella Marie Pent and Alison Rose Pent, $15,000 dollars, your children's items, and your items. Mr Pent you are entitled to own your current house, and at least once a year visit with your children." And she bangs her gavel on the table.

I have no place to live. My kids have no place to live. I have to pack up my stuff and move it somewhere. Just as I'm about to leave, Maddie whispers in my ear, "Told ya you'd pay for it."

...

I weep when we get into the car. "Brooklyn Marie Hyland! You quit your crying right now or I'll have a very serious talk with you right now." Nolan orders. I like how he says 'Hyland' as my last name instead of 'Pent'.

I guess I am a Hyland now, anyway. I don't stop crying so he puts both hands on my shoulders and starts his speech:

"You can't cry because your not alone! I'll be here for you every step of the way, even if you don't want me to be. You've got a spot at my house for you to live and for your girls." After all that I'm still crying so he continues.

"Brooke! Stop!" My shoulders are still shaking and tears are still rolling down my face. "Brooke I am in love with you! I'm in love with you! I'll even shout it to the world if you want!" Then he rolls his window down and starts shouting he loves me. He loves me. I smile and stop crying. Nolan wipes my tears and kisses me.

....

Crying, I pack up my stuff with the three girls and Nolan at Brandon's house. I sniffle and wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

"Hey," Nolan says. "It's ok. I promise." He wipes my tears with his thumb.

"I know, I just feel like a bad mother because Brandon will never want to see them, and they won't have their father." I whimper. He hugs me and lets go so we can get back to packing

Joslin and Ella don't help us even though they said they would. So it takes us twice as long to collect all my crap. Most of the stuff in my room is mine, except for the bed and the dressers. I haul all of it into boxes and bring them downstairs. When I come down, Brandon and Maddie are sitting on the couch together.

"Brandon, honey," she whines when she sees me. "You forgot to take the trash out. Look, there it is." She points to me. I laugh.

"Oh, sweetie. If he wanted to take the trash out, you'd be long gone." Satisfied, I walk back upstairs to finish packing.

After we bring everything we can into both of our cars, we still have more boxes to bring home.

"Jeez, Brooke. You have a lot of crap." Nolan laughs. I chuckled. We drop my stuff off and make two more trips to completely get everything.

"So Ella," I start. "Do you like this house?" Ella nods really fast.

"Well good. Because we're living here for a while." I pop open my eyes to tell her I'm serious. "Yay!" She shouts, jumping up and down.

"Josie, we're gonna live together! Like sisters!" They run upstairs to Joslin's room to play or something and I put Ali down for her nap. "You ok?" Nolan asks. I'm sitting on his couch staring off into space. I'm thinking about how ruined these girls would be if they didn't see their dad.

Look at Joslin and her mom: they see each other once every three months. Their trip to Disney was the last they saw of each other. I shake my head. I don't have enough energy for words. He sits next to me and wraps his arms around my shoulders. "C'mere." He lays on the couch with me, him on the outside, me on the inside, his arms wrapped around me.

.....

In September when I've had a job at one of the stores at our local mall, I'm officially over being sad about the girls not being around Brandon. He doesn't care about them anyway. It's now Sunday morning and I'm sipping my coffee on the back porch, watching the bird fly around the trees. I hear Nolan come out and air down next to me. Just his presence make me feel all warm.

"What you smiling about?" He asks. I hadn't even realized I was. "Just you." I answer. He laughs. "How bout we go on a date tonight. I've got the neighbors babysitting." I nod. "Yeah. That'd be great." I do nothing for the rest of the day before I start to get ready.

I shower and curl my hair and apply my makeup and get dressed and I haven't been this excited for a date since the night Brandon asked me to marry him. Shoving him out of my mind, Nolan comes into my room with a bouquet of flowers. "For you." He hands them to me. I hug him as a thanks.

Nolan ended up having a mustang hidden in his garage. "Woah, there boy. Where'd this come from?" I gasp. He laughs.

"You've just been divorced, I'm divorced. You get paid for getting divorced. And plus, I'm a pediatrician." He starts the engine and rolls the window down. "Looks like we get to be teenagers for one night." He says.

Once we're at the restaurant, I gape in awe. This place is probably really expensive! There's some kind of flower vine hanging over the double doors and across the rest of the place. I'm hit with an aroma of pasta and wine; an Italian place, I'm assuming when we walk in. A guy in a tux with black slicked back hair heads towards us.

"Welcome to Chef Armand's, how may I help you?"

"We have a reservation for Betts." The guy leads us to a table that's technically outside, but there's a net covering us. Flowers hang all around us. Within ten minutes, our food comes out.

"Well that was fast." I say. I take a sip of my wine and dig into my spaghetti. Nolan and I lay in some meadow, looking at the stars after dinner. Out of the blue I say, "I love you, too." He asks what I meant by that.

"At the court house. You said you loved me. I love you, too." He smiles so big then kisses me.

THE END

(A/N)

was the end cute? i hope so :)

Thank you for 2k (: