Emilia's POV

Before yesterday, Natalie had always just been a faceless body to me. Nothing more than a name anchored with sin. I have heard of the deplorable things she had done to Ashton and have experienced her affect on him. But upon meeting her, I didn't see the horrible person Ashton and the others had described to me. If anything, I saw someone holding so much guilt and insecurity that they could hardly contain it. Like it was eating away at her. But at the same time, I saw indifference. It was when I saw Reina that everything clicked. Natalie's regret wasn't geared towards her betrayal to Ashton; it was Reina.

All it took was one look at the carefree toddler, and I lost all respect for Natalie. I hate her for keeping something as important as a child from him. I hate her for lying to Reina. I hate her for lying to everyone and saying that Nathan is the father. I hate her. But at the same time, I don't. I don't hate her as a person; I only hate what she has done. She has hurt him enough.

When I heard Natalie say that Reina is Ashton's daughter, I didn't know what to feel. Maybe it was because in my mind, I already knew. It came as a surprise but not as one that would throw me completely off guard. I'm more worried about what Ashton is going to do now.

My heart sank as he cried in my arms last night. From down in the lobby to back to our hotel room, the tears didn't stop. He fisted my shirt with each heavy gasp for air and whimper. He repeated over and over that he didn't deserve this and damned God for doing this to him before unnecessarily apologizing. During those two heartbreaking hours of consolation, it took everything just to keep from crying with him. I thought I had seen him at his worst, but nothing compared to this. He had reached his breaking point. How is anyone able to hold themselves together after not only reuniting with your ex but also finding out you're a father? I'm baffled that he didn't lose it right then and there when the words fell from Natalie's mouth. But then again, I don't think he would have allowed himself to break down in front of her. She's undeserving of witnessing him in his most vulnerable, shaken state.

When he had woken up this morning, he put on the mask that I've seen more than once and pretended as though last night wasn't relevant. I didn't dare ask how he was doing because this is how he copes. It's destructive and unhealthy, but at least he's functioning. And despite his hoarse voice and bloodshot eyes, he still managed to smile, hold his excitement for hanging out with Harry and Lauren, and appreciate my company even though he's trudging through his version of Hell.

But the question remains: what is he going to do with this newfound information? Natalie is right. He has a choice to either involve himself with Reina or drop her like she's nothing to him and allow Nathan to raise her. I can give him my opinion on the matter but ultimately he has to make the decision.

"Are we there yet?" Harry asks, poking his head over the center console between Ashton and me.

Anne allowed for us to borrow her car today when we went to pick up Harry and Lauren, and Ashton was thrilled to drive in his home country again. I've been gripping onto the handle above the passenger door ever since we started driving. It's not because Ashton is a bad driver, but the ride hasn't been completely smooth. Driving on the left side of the road and having the driver's seat switched is unsettling and unnatural, and after being in the states for a little over two years, Ashton is adjusting to the change.

"I know you're just saying that to annoy me but unfortunately for you, I have a great sense of patience," Ashton says.

"That's great and all, but that still doesn't tell me whether or not we're there yet," Harry sasses.

"Yeah, are we even there yet?" I add, receiving a nod in approval from Harry for joining in on his fun and an amused side glance from Ashton.

The car comes to a stop and Ashton shuts the engine off. "If both of you would look out your window instead of asking, you'd know we're already here."

"Where is 'here'?" I ask.

"You took us to the zoo?" Harry says incredulously as he presses his palms against the window and gazes towards the entrance. "What are we, five?"

"I wish you were younger," Ashton mumbles. "Then I wouldn't have to pay for your ticket."

"I mean, thanks big brother," he sings, wearing a cheesy grin.

"Shut up," Ashton says, jokingly nudging Harry when they step out of the car.

"Why didn't we just take the ferry over here?" Lauren asks, slamming the door shut and ripping out the earbuds she's been sporting the entire drive, most likely to avoid conversing with me. "It would have been faster."

"Emmie doesn't know if she gets seasick or not, so I didn't want to risk it," Ashton explains.

She rolls her eyes. "How thoughtful," she says, throwing a forced smile our way. Ashton smiles sympathetically to me, silently apologizing for his sister's behavior.

After declining my offer to split the admission cost, Ashton pays for our tickets and we pass through the gates. Given a pamphlet with a map by one of the staff members, I gawk at the massive area of land occupied by the zoo. I've been to the local zoo back home, but in comparison to that, this place trumps it. It's a good thing I wore comfortable shoes to walk in.

Immediately, the foul scent of manure mixed with humidity infiltrates my nostrils as we begin following the trail. A cacophony of animated chatter from other visitors and indiscernible animal cries fill the air. A variety of plants, flowers, and trees canopy the trail, birds of all species resting on branches, squawking at those who bypass.

"Where should we start?" I ask, stopping at the fork in the path.

"The reptile exhibit is closer if we take the path on the right," Harry says, leaning forward and studying the map with me. "I wouldn't mind seeing the Komodo Dragon."

I cringe at the thought of reptiles and their scaly skin and intimidating eyes. I don't mind when they stand still or if I see a picture of them, but when they start moving and slithering their tongue, I'm out.

I shake my head. "Uh-uh. Anything but reptiles," I plead.

"You're not scared of a little lizard, are you?" Lauren taunts with a mischievous smirk. I think that's as close to a smile I'll get from her.

"You're one to talk, Laur," Harry says. "Remember that time when we came here with Mum and you screamed and cried when the zoo keeper let you hold a snake? It wasn't even poisonous!"

"It hissed at me!" she shouts; her cheeks flush a crimson shade.

"I guess that makes two of us who don't like reptiles," I say, but Lauren ignores me.

Ashton takes the map from my hands and traces a certain trail with his finger, mapping out a route. "Okay, reptiles are obviously out," he says. "I guess we're going left."

Without telling us what we'll encounter by going left, Ashton guides us down the trail, keeping his hand locked with mine as we weave through the crowd of children and adults standing idly in our path. Lauren and Harry trudge behind us, separating from us momentarily before having to politely shove people out of their way to catch up and walk ahead of us.

"Even though they're teenagers, I find it funny how we're keeping a close eye on them," I tell Ashton. "Like parents keeping watch over their kids."

"Yeah," Ashton says flatly.

I mentally slap myself. Now's not the time mention kids or parents in general. It wasn't wise of Ashton to choose a place where more than half the number of visitors are under the age of ten and accompanied with their guardians. However, he had this planned, and when Ash has a plan, he sticks to it.

"Sorry," I mumble and he dismisses my apology with a squeeze of my hand, smiling softly. "Lauren has been somewhat nice today. She hasn't insulted me or anything so I take that as a good sign."

"And you have something in common," he adds, sarcasm dripping from each word. "I can already smell the friendship blossoming."

I playfully nudge my shoulder against his. "Shut up."

He laughs, but it's not the usual melodic sound that I love to hear. "She has been acting better than last time, so I guess you're right. Just try making small talk with her. Maybe you'll get a full smile from her before the end of the day."

"That's what I'm shooting for." His hand slips from mine and reaches around to caress the side of my head. My hands instinctively wrap around his torso and his kisses the corner of my forehead.

"Guys," Harry yells, beckoning us over, but we continue with our short strides. "Less PDA and more walking."

"I'm a multi-tasking," Ashton shouts back, the corners of his lips twisting. "You should learn how to do it someday; it comes in handy in many situations."

"Oh, God," I say, groaning in embarrassment, but I brush it off when I feel the vibrations against Ashton's chest as he giggles.

As we walk the trail we encounter several exhibits of various animals native to Australia. When Lauren catches a glimpse of the koala exhibit, she actually reveals her softer side as she grins widely at the zoo keeper cradling one of the koalas in captivity while the rest of us gaze at the wombats on the opposite side. Pulling Ashton away, a man and his family asks him to help take a few family photos of them, leaving me alone with his siblings.

"I have to know," Harry starts, leaning against the guardrail in front of the wombat exhibit. "What did my brother do to get a girl like you?"

My eyebrows draw together. "What do you mean a girl like me?"

"I didn't mean it in a bad way," he assures. "You're just beautifully average, and I think that's pretty awesome."

I smile. Harry reminds me of a miniature Ashton just from his speech. "Thanks."

"So what did he do?" he repeats eagerly.

"He bumped into me, spilled a drink all over my white shirt, and then he was annoying and wouldn't leave me alone."

He shakes his head in amusement. "That sounds like Ash, all right.

"If he was annoying you, why didn't you just ask him to go away?" Lauren interjects. I hide my excitement of her willingly speaking to me with genuine interest hidden behind a hostile side glance.

"I thought about it," I admit and observe Ashton as he coaxes the little boy with his family to smile up at the camera. A smile spreads across my face when Ashton tells the family to say "cheese" and he grins along with them, his expression unwavering when they thank him. "But I didn't want him to leave. I wanted to be selfish and keep him around. His persistence made the choice easy."

"That's kind of adorable, to be honest," Harry says.

"What's kind of adorable?" Ashton asks, reuniting with us.

Harry huffs. "I'm trying to get to know your girlfriend and you just have to butt in."

"Well, she is my girlfriend and butting in comes with the job of being her boyfriend. What were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing important, really," I say, wanting to keep the short bonding session between me and Harry (and partially Lauren) between us only. "Just how you can be annoying sometimes."

He quirks an eyebrow. "And that's adorable?"

"Only when good comes of it." Like right now, and every other day I've spent with you clinging to my side.

His smile slowly fades when Lauren clears her throat. "Let's go guys," she says. "We've barely made a dent in this place."

Taking her discomfort as a hint, we continue following the trail. Ashton urges me to practically hover around Lauren as we stop at the different attractions while he catches up with Harry, laughing loudly at each other's jokes and enhancing the formidable silence between me and Lauren. All I want is for her to show any emotion unrelated to bitterness or hate. She's only sixteen, and I'm practically cowering from her, glancing over at distance as though she might attack at any moment.

"Can I help you?" Lauren snaps. "You've been staring at me and it's getting weird."

"Sorry, I just noticed how similar your eyes are to your mom's." The light blue hue brightens her pale complexion and naturally softens the annoyance beaming from her eyes. "They're pretty."

She opens her mouth to argue but quickly closes it as she realizes my compliment. "Err, thanks, I guess. Yours are too." She mumbles the last part and takes one last survey of the lemur exhibit before turning around. Her eyes scan the building crowd. "Where's Ash and Harry?"

I whip my head from side-to-side, searching for the mop of curls that bounce with every step Ashton takes, but even as I stand on the tips of my toes, my height puts me at a disadvantage as I can barely see above the shoulders of visitors scrambling parallel to us. I try to call Ashton's phone but there is no signal in the area.

"Crap," I mumble under my breath. "C'mon, they probably went farther up the trail to avoid the crowd."

"We're supposed to stay where we are so they can find us," Lauren argues. "That's like the first rule of being lost."

"And what if they do the same? We'd be standing her for nothing. We'll have better luck looking for them." She hesitates, looking back towards the crowd before following me down an alternative trail.

This is just great. It's one thing to be separated from your group when you're familiar with the area, but I am in a different country at a place that I've never been to with the one person who doesn't view me in the best light. It forces me to talk to her, but it doesn't help that she only responds with three-word sentences. I'd rather help out the idiots who come into the library back home than torture myself in this aimless search.

"Why don't you like me?" I blurt, catching a short glimpse of the orangutans before we pass the exhibit.

"I never said I didn't like you," Lauren says, her pace quickening.

"Then why do you act like you do?"

Her lips press into a hard line as she ignores the question. "You should be helping look for my brothers not interrogating me."

I keep my composure. "I wouldn't have to interrogate you if you didn't blow up and call me the next Natalie when you don't know a damn thing about me."

She stops in place and stares harshly, almost intimidating but also offended. "You're Emilia Anderson. You're twenty-two. Your parents died when you were a teenager. You go to university with Ashton and his friends. Ash loves you, and you make him happy." So she does know a few things about me. "Mum talks about you a lot and I've overhead some of Ashton's calls," she adds.

"Oh."

"Now are we done? I'd like to find my brothers." She strides down the path, creating a short distance between us, which I quickly fill as I jog to catch up.

"How close were you with Natalie?"

Her eyebrows furrow, confusion etched within each crease on her forehead. "She was like an older sister to me," she surprisingly answers, her face hard. "I had known her practically my whole life, and then she had to go and screw my brother's friend and ruin everything. You don't understand how crappy that is. She was someone who I trusted and talked to about everything. I thought she was my friend but then she went and betrayed not only Ash but me too. It's like she was never the person I thought she was."

With my response in mind, my attention diverts towards the approaching animal exhibit. "Oh, look!" I shout. "There are the elephants!" I jog towards the exhibit and lean against the railing overlooking the enclosure.

Two adult elephants stand side-by-side, their trunks brushing against each other, almost playfully. Hiding beneath the smaller one of the two is a baby elephant; its body concealed by the massive legs of what I assume to be the mother. The baby's forehead nudges against the mother's leg before fully revealing himself in front of her. The mother's trunk wraps tenderly around the baby's torso, caressing it in a way. The dynamics of their nonverbal form of affection is awe striking; their natural compassion and empathetic nature displayed so effortlessly. It's beautiful.

"Was it necessary to run off like that?" Lauren berates, glowering at me. "We're supposed to be looking for Ashton and Harry."

I continue to admire the intelligent creatures, playing with the pendant dangling from the chain around my neck. "You're wrong."

"What? That's literally what we were doing before you went crazy when you saw the elephants."

"No, not that. You're wrong to think that I don't understand what you went through with Natalie because I do understand. I had this friend back in high school who was like my rock. I trusted him with my entire being. He helped me through a hard time and made me happy at one point in my life. But then he hurt me, and it sucked because he had me fooled the entire time. I found out that I never really knew him at all." Chills slither up my spine, the hair on my skin rising as I think back to Jared's hurtful actions towards me.

Lauren's face softens and lowers her gaze from mine. "We should probably keep looking."

I don't move. "Do you want to know something?"

"Not really."

"When Ash and I started dating, we struggled with ourselves. In the back of Ashton's mind, he feared I would leave him, and I was fearful of growing close to him because I was still traumatized by what my old friend did to me. We were both scared because we didn't want a repeat of our pasts."

"Why did you two start dating if you were both scared?"

"Because we trusted each other. We proved that we're not the person the other felt haunted by. We helped each other overcome our fears. We hold each other up. We make each other happy, and that's our driving force. I helped him believe in love again and he showed me what love is. I'd never do anything to ruin that and neither would he."

Lauren's gaze dangles between me and the elephants, her once stone-face now relaxed. "I don't want my brother to get hurt again. He and Natalie were great together and I was really excited when they got engaged because Natalie was going to make me one of her bridesmaids. I could picture everything from their wedding to them having a few kids in the future and me becoming an aunt." If only you knew. "But she made him leave home. Sure, I didn't see him much because he was in college, but we still managed to stay close. Then he left; all because of her. What would he do if things don't go well in your relationship? Would he move to another country? He's far away as it is.

"I actually like you and it's annoying because I wanted you to be a bitchy person who wouldn't be good for Ash, but you're not. You're great for him, and I want to get to know you because I know you're nothing like Natalie. I'm still angry with her for what she did and I took it out on you. I didn't mean what I said back at the house. I'm sorry."

I must look like an idiot standing with my lips parted as I try to absorb her apologetic confession. I don't know what prompted her to lay everything out on the table but I couldn't be happier because this is the level of trust that I want us to be on. Sure, we may not be hugging everything out or frantically sympathizing with each other, but we're comfortable.

"I've overheard the way Ash talks about you whenever he calls Mum," Lauren continues. "He never talked about Natalie the way he talks about you. It's like you're not real and he has to profess everything to affirm your existence. Of course I'm happy for him, but it scares me because you're his reason to stay in America."

"I'm not keeping Ash away from you," I say, placing my hand reassuringly on her arm, but then dropping it when she gives me a look that says "we're not close enough for that yet." I'm new to this, sue me. "He's your brother and family means more to him than anything else."

"I just don't want you to do what Natalie did. He really loved her and I don't want to see him break again."

"Here's something to know about me: I have values and morals. Cheating on Ash isn't an option for me because it's downright wrong and I never want to hurt him more than he already has. Unlike Natalie, I'm satisfied with what Ash has given me. To ask for more would be selfish."

A smile tugs at her lips and her attempts to suppress it fail. "As much as I admired Natalie, I'm beginning to like you more."

"You may not have made the best first impression, but I've always liked you."

"Seriously? I was kind of a bitch."

Might as well take advantage of this moment and tell the truth. "Okay, maybe I didn't like you at that exact moment, but overall, I like you."

"Here's something to know about me: I don't sugarcoat things."

I chuckle softly. "I've noticed."

"I knew I'd find you here," a familiar voice says breathlessly behind me. Ashton is hunched over, his palms pressed against his knees as he catches his breath. "Harry, pay up."

Harry groans and pulls out a black wallet from his back pocket and hands Ashton a colorful note. Australian currency fascinates me. America needs to step up their game and get on board the colorful dollar game.

"Were you guys betting on where we would be?" Lauren asks.

"We ran around almost half the zoo looking for you guys, so I asked Ash where he thought Emilia would most likely be and he said by the elephants, but I said she seems more like a lion person so we made a bet to see who was right and now I'm tired and five dollars less rich," Harry explains in a single breath.

While Lauren scolds Harry for conjuring up the bet, Ashton rests his hands on my shoulders and eyes me up and down. "Are you all right?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say. "We tried to look for you, but I got distracted when Lauren and I started talking."

"You two were talking?"

"She got some things off her chest and apologized."

"And you two are okay now?"

"She's smiling, so I think it's safe to say we're on good terms. All it took was getting separated and lost."

"Yeah, let's shoot for better circumstances next time. My legs hurt from running around trying to find you two. I need to get back into shape." I didn't know he was out of shape. His body could fool me any day.

"You didn't have to run."

"I'd always run to you."

_____

A/N: Well this took forever to write. School starts this coming week so do not expect weekly updates like usual. I'm going to have a lot on my plate and I'm not going to have a lot of free time to write for leisure. I know I will try to find time anyway, but I just want you guys to know in advance that updates might be slow. It won't be like weeks without an update because not even I could handle that, but it'll be delayed here and there.

I'm dedicating this chapter to my best friend who had her birthday recently and was hoping that I'd update, so here it is! She's always been a great supporter of my writing and always gives me great advice and suggestions when I'm stuck. She puts up with all my fangirling and I repay her with pictures of Luke :P That's true friendship right there. Love you, Steph!

Back to business! Lauren and Emmie are okay now! They're not bff's or anything but at least Lauren isn't comparing her to Natalie anymore. That's one issue out of the way, only a thousand more to go through. Thank you all for sticking around and I hope you will still keep this story in your library even when updates slow down. My goal is to finish this story by the end of the year and I hope I can meet it and have you all stay along for the ride.

Love you! –Rebecca xoxoxoxo

P.S. Don't forget to vote for PYW and POC in the 5SOS awards!