"A stripper?!" Mr. Fischer says as he gets behind the wheel of his car to drive home. This is going to be the longest ride of my life.

"A pole dancer," I correct.

"And the difference is when you're dancing at a strip club?" he asks.

"Clothing," I put bluntly. "I danced. I didn't strip. And I quit that job back around Cat's birthday." It was actually on Cat's birthday and I was not about to mention what came next, but I needed him to understand I put that life behind me.

"You understand Cat's in real trouble now because of you? Do you know what would happen if they took that baby from her?"

No. But I could imagine. "She the child's rightful mother. Liam never wanted this baby, he just wants revenge for losing Cat," I tell him. 

"Because she chose you! All of this is happening because of you."

His words hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. "No! I won't let that happen."

"How do you plan to stop it? I threatened Marcus but if he pursues this he has the resources to make it happen. He can afford the sort of litigation that wouldn't rest until that baby was in his hands."

I taste the bile that rose in my throat. Jesus, what have I done?

"I took that job to find my brother's killers. He worked there as a dancer and was brutally beaten one night on his way home. I never found the bastards. I started working there shortly after his burial in the hopes they'd try again. That maybe I could flush them out. Make them believe I was him, but I got nowhere. When Cat came into my life, I gave all that up, because she became my new priority. I wanted nothing more than to protect her."

"Well then, it looks like you failed your brother and Cat," Mr. Fischer says, pulling out his verbal samurai sword and striking me down with it.

Devastated I can only ask, "How do I fix this?"

"How do you think?" Mr. Fischer states blatantly, "She either loses you or the baby. You tell me which YOU think she can stand to lose."

This is the question he left me with as we pulled into the driveway and he gets out of the car. I don't follow. I couldn't move. My body had gone numb.

In my head, Liam's voice haunts me... in a blink of an eye it's all going to disappear.

There's a knock on the window and it startles me. Dillion is standing on the other side. I open the car door, forcing him to move aside.

"What the hell happened today?" Dillion asks.

"I... I can't talk about it. Where's Cat?"

"She's at the hospital with Olivia. She didn't expect you back for another couple of hours. So what went down at the club? It's been a long time since I've seen my father that angry, and I'm usually the cause."

I trudge slowly towards the house. 'Which do you think she can stand to lose?' The answer was obvious. It would hurt Cat to lose me, but it would destroy her to lose that baby. I don't answer Dillon's questions. I just go to my room and start to pack.

Dillion, however, not done with me yet follows. "Alex, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going home?"

"Home? As in back to your apartment?"

"Until I can make other arrangements to either move in with someone else or find someplace else to live, yeah. That's the plan, anyway."

Dillion grabs my shoulders and shakes me. "You are talking nonsense. Why would you leave now? You're leaving without Cat? What is she going to think? Oh my God... he's gotten to you, hasn't he?!"

"Who?" I ask, not moving out of out his grasp, not that I could, Dillion's grasp was like an iron vise. 

"My father! He didn't take you out there to bond. He took you out there to mess with your head. To get you to break up with Cat, is that it?"

"No. He did nothing. This all my fault."

Dillion pushes me onto the couch. "You are NOT moving from that spot until you explain!"

I stand up, and he pushes me back down. I stand up again, and when he tries to push me again, I easily evade his hands. "I don't owe you anything! Cat is better off without me. Okay? End of story."

"I don't believe that and I know you sure as hell don't believe that!"

"I do now! Now please go away and let me be."

"Uh-uh, not until you explain. Not until you tell Cat why you are doing this to her! You can't just take off like this."

"Your father will fill her in. I'm sure once he does, she'll agree wholeheartedly."

"How can you claim to love her more than life itself one moment and give her up the next?" Dillion demands to know, throwing his hands up in the air in absolute frustration. "Unless..."

I shove some more things in my duffel bag and pause, waiting...

"You're doing this to protect her. What have you done that's so terrible that you now feel you have to give it all up to keep her safe? Talk to me, Alex. I can help."

"No. You can't. That's just it. No one can. I can't be the cause of her being destroyed."

"You don't think your leaving is going to destroy my sister? My sister, Cat? The one who is utterly and hopelessly in love with you? As in love with you as you are her? You can't be serious?"

"I had to make a choice, and I made it, alright! Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"You're making the wrong choice," Dillion says with absolute certainty.

I throw my duffle over my shoulder. "Let Cat make that decision. I can't make it for her."

With that, I walked out of the room, that house, that life, called for a taxi, and left it all behind. As the car drove away, my heart ceased to beat. I just can't... I can't do this anymore; I just wanted to be numb.

I would have been great to be able to say, Cat called me the moment she got home. That she showed up on my doorstep and said she couldn't live without me, but she didn't. I guess she to saw the sense of things.

William is helping me pack up my apartment. Spring break is almost over. Cat will be coming home soon, so I know I can't be here when she shows up. William agrees to take me in for a little while until I find a place. All my stuff is moving into storage. There are just a few things that I will take with me.

"Is this everything?" William asks. He has this perpetual look of worry on his face every time he glances over at me.

"Yeah, that's the last," I tell him. I glance at my phone. The truck should be here soon. I flip to my calls. No recent calls, no texts, no missed messages. It was the same every day. Why should today be any different?

William grabs the box of my belonging I'm keeping with me and left to put them in his car. I lay across the couch. I'm exhausted. My eyes burn from lack of sleep, the dreams are getting worse. I cover them with my arm, trying to relieve the ache. 

The couch is mine but I'm leaving it for her, along with most of the furniture, knowing she wouldn't have a lot to start with. The lease is in my name, but I'll work that out with the landlord later. For now, as long as the rent is being paid, he won't care who lives here.

I hear William come back in. "Just five more minutes? I'm not ready to go just yet," I beg.

Something heavy lands on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me, when I hear, "Really? You couldn't seem to leave fast enough when you left my house."

"Cat?!" It was William who said this as Cat's suitcase made it impossible for me to speak at the moment. I push it aside and scramble to sit up. Damn that hurt. 

"Cat," I cough out. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here from what I last recall unless that's changed too?"

She looked so beautiful, even when it was obvious she is furious with me. I want nothing more than to grab hold of her and ask her... no beg her to forgive me, but I didn't move.

"You do, I'm... I packed my stuff. I'll be out of here as soon as the truck comes to take my things to storage. I'm leaving you all the furniture and I've covered the rent until the end of the school year. I know this place might be hard to afford for on your own, but if you wish to stay, I'll see what I can work out with the landlord after that."

She's just staring at me in complete disbelief. "After nearly a week, this is what you have to say to me? That I'm getting the furniture and the apartment in as some sort of post-settlement package? Well, screw you, Alex Bragin! You can keep all your shit and this apartment too! I want nothing from you!"

I knew she would be mad, but she's being downright bitchy. My tired state of mind is corrupting my mouth, I realize when I say, "Don't you get it? I'm trying to help here!"

"Help?" she lets out this strange strangled giggle. "That's rich. Help? Your kind of help I don't need. Your kind of help landed me back in the hospital this week. Scared to death for the baby when my blood pressure shot through the roof. Why would you do this to me? How have I come to mean this little to you in such a short period of time?"

"Hospital? What?! When? Why didn't..." I knew why I didn't get a phone call. Her parents chose not to tell me but surely Dillion... but then again I told him if Cat wanted me back it had to be her decision still... or maybe he now that he learned the truth he agreed with his father. 

"So, you really didn't know?" Her expression softens a little but then became guarded. 

"Of course I didn't!"

"Would it have mattered?" 

I was about to answer her but then she posed another question, "Would you have bothered to come?"

I didn't know how to answer that last part. I would have been out of my mind with worry, but would I have shown up, knowing I shouldn't? I just couldn't say. 

There is a honking sound outside. The moving truck has arrived. "I'll go stall them," William says and shuts the door, leaving Cat and me alone.

Her hands are on her hips and her foot is tapping impatiently as she waits for me to answer. 

"I don't know." My words sound as empty as the silence that filled the room. 

Her brows raise, her lips press together. I can see she is fighting back tears. She nods her head. She goes into the bedroom. I don't follow. I wish I had the words to make this right, but I don't. She comes back out carrying the stuffed animals her brother bought her and the baby. I couldn't help but notice she left the one I gave her behind. 

She puts something down on the coffee table and picks up her suitcase.

"Where are you going?" I stop her from leaving by grabbing her wrist, she looks at my hand and her face tells me she expects me to let her go but I can't. 

"I'm moving into the sorority house with Olivia. I'll pick up the rest of my things later."

"You can stay here. There is no need for you to leave. This is your home."

"Not anymore, it's not."

Her words make it hard for me to breathe. I look over to the coffee table and I see the necklace and my engagement ring sitting in the middle of it. So... she made her choice. It hurt like hell but I can't find fault with her decision. It's the right decision. I release her wrist, but there is something I have to say before she gets away. 

"I know you believe I don't care. I'm sure you'll convince yourself that I never loved you, and I can only pray you don't hate me, but I can't..." My phone rings, distracting me. It too is sitting on the coffee table. I'm dumbfounded by the image that flashes up on the screen. As I reach for it, I hear the door slam shut. I turn back and Cat is gone. I guess my ignoring her to answer the phone was the last straw, but it insisted I pick it up. 

I swipe to answer. "Mom?"