{UNEDITED}

        For four months now I had been Mrs Jenkinson and, in all honesty, it has been the best four months of my life. The day after the wedding Matthew surprised me with a trip to Blackpool for the weekend. It’s not a place people usually go to after their wedding, especially when it’s the beginning of .February, but it was romantic nonetheless.

        John and Vivienne paid for the hotel so we got the luxury of waking up the sight of the ocean every morning. In a strange way, the view reminded me of my relationship with Matthew. The waves were all the pain and the hurt we had endured, the lies which had be told and the mistrust on both sides right at the beginning.

        When the waves reached the beach though, they were significantly smaller and calmer. They were our problems now, basically non-existent. My parents had actually taken a hint and stayed out of my life, Jason had landed a job as manager of some construction sight and was, or so he told me, on the path to love at the same time and I had actually fallen in love with Matthew the way any wife should be in love with their husband.

        Our relationship wasn’t perfect. Hell, it was as far away from perfect as you could get and we still argued about meaningless things, but it worked and we were both happy with what we had.

        “Only a couple of days to go now,” Vivienne spoke up as she looked across to where Matthew and I were sat. It was safe to say that Amanda had turned me into an elephant and people kept asking me if I was having twins, something I would always take offence to and they would never believe when I told them it was just the one.

        “I can’t wait for her to make her appearance,” I muttered as I moved my hand to where Matthew’s was sitting on top of our daughter. The day of our wedding was the first time he actually felt her move and, the look on his face, I swear it was like a kid at Christmas who had seen that one of his presents were from Santa.

        The day had been long and the evening had been even longer. I had tired, and failed, more than once to actually disappear so that I could go to sleep.

        My feet were killing me and Amanda had decided that now was the time she wanted to play football with my insides. I had tired talking to her and asking her to stop but, every single time I asked her to stop, I am sure she kicked me ten times harder on purpose. She was definitely showing me who was the Queen of this castle.

        I had even tried to tell Matthew that she was kicking. Every time I wanted to tell him, someone always came over and stole him away from me before I had the chance to tell him.

        “What you doing over here Mrs Jenkinson? Shouldn’t you be with your husband?” Marcus mused, taking the empty seat beside me as I looked around at the guests who still remained. Most of them were drunk and were at the point of thinking they were the shit at dancing. Sheer embarrassment for them, pure amusement for the sober people like me.

        “He’s otherwise engaged,” I muttered, a hiss suddenly escaping as Amanda kicked once again.

        “Are you okay?” Marcus asked. I could see that he was concerned and, only being seventeen, he hadn’t had the misfortune of having to deal with a pregnant teenager himself.

        “Yeah. It’s just the baby,” I paused as I rubbed the point where I could feel her continuous movements, “she won’t stop bloody kicking me.”

        “Perhaps she’s just happy? She knows how happy her mummy is and now she’s feeding of your own happiness,” Marcus shrugged. I was surprised that he knew something like that and, apparently, even he seemed surprised that the words had come out of his mouth. “Sorry. My mother and sister are both pregnant. They keep filling my head with all this shit.”

        “Mother and sister?” I exclaimed. I was making Matthew’s life hell by being pregnant on my own, so I can’t even imagine how Marcus must be feeling with two hormonal women who is actually related to and living with at the same time. “Wow. I don’t think I could do that.”

        “I don’t even want to think about it. My sister is twenty-two, her being pregnant is totally fine, but my mother? My mother is almost forty-five. I didn’t think they were still having sex at that age,” Marcus felt the need to explain and, as much as I shouldn’t have done, I genuinely couldn’t help it when I burst out laughing.

        It’s almost like he thought sex had an expiry date on it and, once people hit that age, it become like a foreign thing to everyone. They just stopped having sex and got on with their lives, trying to find the meaning in their pointless existence.

        “Just think, when they get to their eighteenth birthday, you’re going to be thirty-six. You’re going to be double your own brother or sister’s age,” I managed to say before I burst out laughing again, I couldn’t even stop myself from laughing when Amanda decided she was going to kick me again.

        “Fuck off,” Marcus muttered. I looked up to see Matthew was now stood beside me and he had put his arm around my shoulder. I wasn’t sure when he did that, the laughing prevented me from seeing that he was even stood there.

        “What did I miss?” Matthew asked. He looked between Marcus and me, him looking like he was ready to cry and me in fits of laughter.

        “Marcus seems to think sex has an expiry date,” I said as I pulled myself together.

        “Really? That’s a shame because we’re still going to be having sex when we’re seventy and near death,” Matthew smirked and, for the second time that day, Marcus stood up and ran faster than any normal man should have been able to. I didn’t like any of Matthew’s friends, but Marcus had become the exception to that rule in the last day. He was good for Matthew and I loved seeing that he had one friend who just didn’t give a damn that he was going to be a father or that, at the age of nineteen, he was married to the least likely candidate of all the people he had slept with.

        Another sharp pain moved through my stomach as Amanda reminded me that she was still very much awake and that she was intent on causing as much pain as physically possible.

        “What is it?” Matthew asked. I could hear the panic in his voice as he crouched down beside and looked directly into my eyes, though I didn’t reply. I simply moved his hand from his knee to the point where Amanda kept kicking me; the moment Matthew’s hand touched my skin Amanda jumped to life.

        “Say hello to your daughter.”

        “You won’t be saying that when you push her out. You will be calling Matthew every name under the sun and blaming him for you being in pain,” John laughed. He looked at Vivienne who simply shrugged and resumed looking at Matthew and I with happiness in her eyes. She often told me that we reminded her and John when they were younger, carefree and totally in love without a worry in the world.

        “She does that now,” Matthew chuckled. I moved my head from his shoulder, looking at him in disbelief as he told his parents that I bullied him, before slapping him on the arm. “See?”

        “Every wife abuses their husband. Your mother still does it to me now, even after however many years of marriage it’s been,” John laughed. I knew he was joking and that he remembered their wedding anniversary, he had never forgotten it since they day they were married. He always did something special for Vivienne to show her how much he loved her.

        It was really sweet actually and I hoped that Matthew would be like that when it came to remembering our anniversary. I hoped that he would always show me how much he loved me and how much I meant to him.

        “How many years John?” Vivienne prompted her husband.

        “Seventeen, eighteen this year. We got married in the same year Matthew turned one,” John grinned. I imagined a little Matthew in suit at his parents wedding, running around, and bringing havoc with him as he so. I wouldn’t have minded a little Matthew of our own running round the place. I would run around after the brown haired child as he shouted at his sister or tried to outsmart someone in an argument.

        “Ow,” I muttered as a sharp pain surged down my side, causing me to double over in my seat. I hadn’t experienced pain like this before, it felt like someone was using my body as their personal punch bag. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

        “Chloe? Babe? What’s wrong?” Matthew panicked, his tone as his hand began rubbing up and down soothingly against my back. I didn’t need to answer though as I felt the water dibble down the leg of my trousers and onto the floor. “The baby’s coming. Mum. The baby’s coming.”

        “Mathew you need to calm down and breathe,” I heard Vivienne saying to her son. I am sure this was supposed to be the other way round, I was supposed to be the one panicking and he was supposed to be comforting me.

        “That’s it Chloe. Keep taking those deep breaths,” John encouraged. Another wave of pain hit me and my grip on Matthew’s hand must have increased tenfold in that second as I rode the pain out. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?”

        “At the moment? Probably about a four,” I sighed, looking up to see that Matthew had regained his normal breathing pattern and was now grinning like a total idiot at me.

        “Right, I am going to phone an ambulance. Matthew, you keep hold of that hand and John, well, I’d like to think you know what you’re doing,” Vivienne said as she walked out of the room.

        “We need to get her lying down with her legs elevated. Make sure they’re apart,” John instructed Matthew.

        “I’d prefer to keep my legs closed. Opening them is what got us here in the first place,” I joked. I was glad to see I still had a sense of humour in there somewhere and that I was still capable of doing things besides shouting as many profanities as humanly possible.

        “Matthew, I need you to get her hospital bag and then I need you to get her out of these trousers,” his father instructed and I saw the look of horror sweep across Matthew’s face. I knew he was worried about what his father told him to do because, apart from the drunken night we spent together, he had never touched my clothes while I was wearing them. “Son. Now.”

        He moved slowly away from me and disappeared into the hallway, reappearing moments later with the bag which we had packed the previous week.

        We knew Amanda was going to be joining us any day soon which is the reason we were staying with his parents. Their house was in the town, which meant it was close enough so that we could get to the hospital without waiting around for too long. If we had stayed at home, I would have been having our daughter there, and that’s not something I wanted.

        “It’s at the bottom, on the left hand side,” I muttered, gritting my teeth together as I rode out another wave of pain, the pain which may have gone up on that bloody scale by one.

        Matthew pulled out the nightie I had put in and handed it to me. I knew he didn’t want to do anything I wasn’t going to be comfortable with or anything which would make me unhappy. Any other day would have been fine but, when I was about to give birth to his daughter, I wasn’t in the mood for him being a gentleman.

        ✖✖

        “Where the fuck is my husband?” I shouted as the pain tore through my body for the fifth time in the space of a minute. I had been in pain for nine hours now. Nine hours I had been waiting for my daughter to decide she was ready to come out and my husband was nowhere to be seen.

        “Hasn’t anyone told you?” the nurse asked. It was her words which caused me to stop walking around the room. I was told it would sped up the delivery but, after half hour of aimlessly walking around, I was beginning to think that was a lie.

        “Told me what?” I snapped.

        “Your husband was escorted off the premises. He punched some guy who said he was your father and was here to see you,” the nurse replied. I could tell that she was doing her best to stay away from me. That was definitely the right decision given the circumstances because I probably would have strangled her had she come too close to me.

        I don’t know why my father decided to turn up now or what he wanted, but neither did I really care at that moment. All I cared about was that Matthew wasn’t in this room, holding my hand and telling me that he was there for me. He was supposed to be here and he was supposed to be making me feel better while I threw as many insults as him as I possibly could for getting me into this position in the first place.

        “I want my fucking husband,” I shouted as tears fell from my eyes. I was never getting pregnant again. If I ever had to go through this pain again, then I would end up murdering Matthew for not remembering to put something on the end of it beforehand.

        “I am sorry Mrs Jenkinson. There’s nothing we can do. He isn’t allowed in here.”

        “Look here missy,” I snapped, walking over to where she stood and grabbing hold of her uniform so that she looking me square in the face. “I don’t care that Matthew hit my father, he shouldn’t have been here in the first place, what I do care about is that he isn’t in this room right now. I don’t care what you do or how you do, just get my husband in this room and get him here now!”

        She didn’t waste any time in practically running out of the room, fear on her face. I would apologise to her when this was over and done with but, right now, I wanted Matthew to be here with me. I wanted him to be here when his daughter was born and to hear her when she cried for the first time.

        “Chloe. I have just seen Nurse Jones running out of here in tears. What did you do to the poor woman?” I looked up to see that John was now in the room, wearing his doctor’s coat as he pulled my charts out and looked over them quickly. I had given up with the walking round the room and had now resorted to sitting back on the bed with my knees bent and my head on the top of them.

        “Nothing. I simply told her that I wanted Matthew.”

        “He punched your father.”

        “Not my problem. Pete shouldn’t have been here in the first place,” I shrugged because I really didn’t care. I only hoped that Matthew had hit him hard enough to leave a mark. That should be enough to remind him that I was serious about never wanting to see him and that he was never going to be able to see his granddaughter.

        The doors opened again and the nurse I had threatened walked in, followed by a doctor and some woman who was going to deliver my baby. She had told her name, but I wasn’t really listening when she told me. I just trusted that she was going to get Amanda out safely and that there weren’t going to be any trouble with the birth.

        I continued looking at the door as it opened again and Matthew walked in, Vivienne following behind with a smile on her face. She pushed her son towards me, the son who looked like he was just about ready to faint. He put his hand in mine, a decision he would live to regret as I squeezed it to the point it turned to red just to get over the pain; only this one seemed worse than any I had experienced before.

        “Argh. I fucking hate you,” I shouted at Matthew. He looked at me shocked while both his parents just chuckled at my choice of words.

        “Chloe, it’s time to push,” the woman who was poking around between my legs told me. “I need you to take a deep breath in and, when I tell you to push, I need you to push as hard as you can.”

        “Air. I need air. Where’s the bloody air gone?” I shouted. Nurse Jones walked over and handed me the mask back which I had been using since I was brought into the room. It didn’t help, but it was better than doing it with absolutely nothing like some brave women out there.

        “C’mon babe. You can do this,” Matthew whispered in my ear as he placed a kiss on the top of my head, his hand still wrapped around me.

        “Push,” her voice called out and I did as she said, the room filling with the sound of my screams as I did what she told me to. This is like trying to pull your fingers out of a bowling bowl when you’ve used one which is far too small for the size of your fingers.

        “Push,” he voice sounded again. I mentally reminded myself that I was never getting pregnant again because there was no way in hell I was going through all of this again for the sake of a brand new human life.

        “You’re doing well Clo. A couple more,” Matthew continue to whisper proudly. I could feel the sweat rolling down my head and cheeks as I gave another push, giving myself a pat on the back for getting this far without having blaming Matthew for this. I would have do that when this was all over and I had a clear head.

        “That’s in Chloe. The head is out,” she beamed and I took another breath in pushing on her command. I was sure she said something about one more push and then it would all be done, but I couldn’t really hear what she was saying because I was too focused on getting her the hell out of me.

        “I can’t do it Matthew. I can’t do it.”

        “Yes you can babe. One more push and then we can finally say hello to our little girl.”

        “No. I don’t want to. It hurts,” I muttered as the tears rolled down my cheeks. I had been told that it was on the final push when woman felt the urge to give up because it was just too much, the pain wasn’t going away and it was too much to deal with. Those people weren’t lying.

        “Clo. You’ve dealt with so much shit that this is nothing. One more push. For me?” Matthew whispered, his mouth close to my ear as he spoke the words and it was the last part which gave me what I needed for the final push.

        “Ready. And, push,” the woman shouted and that’s why I did, I pushed for England and seconds later the sound of Amanda’s cries filled the room. The sound brought more tears to my eyes, just knowing that she was finally here and I was the one who had brought her into the world with my husband at my side.

        “Say hello to your daughter,” John grinned as he handed her over to me. Her blue eyes were the first thing I noticed and the blonde patches which covered the top of her head. She looked just like me when I was a baby which was rather scary. I didn’t want to imagine that she would grow up and actually look like me.

        “You did it babe. I’m so proud of you,” Matthew smiled as Amanda wrapped her tiny hand around his larger finger. “Hello baby. Daddy loves you so much.”

        “She looks like you Chloe,” Vivienne smiled as she walked over to the bed and looked at the little girl who was in my arms. She was, as cliché as it sounds, completely perfect. “She is going to be a heartbreaker for sure.”

        “She’s only just been born. Please don’t start talking about things which I need not worry about for another eleven or twelve years,” Matthew said seriously. She was going to have a tough time growing up with Matthew and I as parents. He was going to interrogate every single guy she brought home while I would give her constant lectures on the practice of safe sex.

        She would grow to hate the both of us for smothering her and not allowing her to have a life. It would only be to protect her, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her and Matthew would die before he let some player break her heart.

        “We’ll give you two some time alone,” John said, patting his hand on Matthew’s back with a huge grin on his face. “She really is gorgeous. Grandpa loves you.”

        “Granny loves you too,” Vivienne smiled as she kissed the top of Amanda’s head and followed her husband out of the room. I never realised how excited they were to actually be grandparents until that moment. The moment they got to see Amanda for the first time. They fell in love with her immediately, just like I have done.

        I love my daughter already and I would do anything to keep her safe.

        “Granny and Grandpa may love you, but they will never love you anywhere near as much as I love you and mummy.”

        “I love you so much Matthew,” I practically whispered. My throat killed from all the shouting I had done over the course of the last nine hours.

        “I love you too Chloe. Always.”

        The story which can be found in the external link this time is my new story called "The Milionaire's Bet" and it's something a little different which I will be working on once I've done with the sequel to this book. The cover is to the side.

        Enjoy. Love El xox