"Are you sure this is going to work?"

Cherry laughed when she heard Jayden's question and even more so when she saw how uncomfortable he looked. He was such a good person and perfectly innocent. Someone like him didn't deserve to be in a relationship with Cara - just like she didn't deserve a boyfriend like Nick. She still couldn't believe that Nick had dumped her as soon as he had laid eyes on his ex-wife again. Actually, it was even worse: That woman she had looked up to for years and seen as an inspiration to women was not a real "sister," but some selfish person who still had the hots for her ex. And it didn't even appear to matter to her that he had humiliated her in public! Come to think of it, why did sweet guys like Jayden always carry torches for women like Cara who just weren't worth it?

"Rest assured that when it comes to keeping up a public image (or rather ruining it in this case), I'm a real pro. And I want to be in control of this narrative," she said to Jayden. It was true: She didn't want to return to New York as the internet girl who had been dumped by Nick Gregory. She rather wanted him to become a pariah, the man who had cheated on this pretty girl from the internet. "That's why I asked you to take me to the nearest clinic because I now need to pretend that something is wrong with the baby and that I'm having early contractions."

"Right," Jayden said and handed her the hot chocolate she had requested, although nothing was all right and he was totally confused about all the things that had happened since he had arrived in Switzerland with Cara. "But you're feeling fine?"

"Of course," she said with a smile and posed for a quick selfie in front of her bathroom mirror. Yet she couldn't be totally fine because she looked as if she had swallowed a football. "Just tell me when that cab you ordered arrives."

"And you surely didn't mean what you said about your baby not being his?" Jayden asked carefully.

"That's the big question, isn't it?" Cherry replied. "My followers have been going wild over this question for hours. Now if you'd excuse me, I need to go to the toilet, like, urgently..."

He went back into the living room as she had requested, but he did so gladly because he did not like the wild look in her eyes, the very same look he had first seen in them when she had burned that bra. Her behaviour scared him. Was it possible that she was on the edge of nervous breakdown? Who would blame her, given the fact that her partner had cheated on her and that she was about to have a baby? Nonetheless, he couldn't understand why it took her two full hours to get her hairstyle and make-up right before she could go anywhere. Perhaps being a social media star wasn't as great as he had thought before.

After a few minutes, a very strange noise came from the bathroom, and he heard her call out, "Jayden, are you still here?"

For some strange reason he couldn't explain, he was alarmed at once. "Yes, I am. Are you okay in there?"

"Not really," Cherry said. And she wasn't: When he went back into the bathroom, she sat on the floor, and there was a puddle of fluid on the floor and on the dress she was wearing. Before he could say anything or even grasp what was happening, she explained, "I think we really need that cab now because this baby is on its way, and it's coming fast!"

"Okay, let me get help!" Before she could say anything, he had already bolted out of that bathroom and was running towards the reception in a state of shock.

Nick thought it was strange that the door to Cherry's suite was open when he arrived there with Cara a few minutes later. "Do you really think coming here was a good idea?"

"Yes, I think so. I want the four of us to discuss the situation like grown-ups. No more kissing incidents in whirlpools in the middle of the night and burning Christmas gifts on Christmas Day!"

"And spreading lies on the internet!" Nick added. At least he hoped that what Cherry had said about the baby was not true.

"We will sort this out, and then we can all go on with our lives as if this has never happened!"

When she had suggested that they should talk with Cherry and Jayden, he had thought she wanted to have this talk to end their relationships with other people amicably so that they would be free again and could give their relationship another shot. He was disappointed that that was clearly not on her mind: She wanted to get back together with Jayden, whose allure remained a mystery to him. Even though this was a painful question to ask, he asked her, "And that's what you want?"

"Of course. It's the best possible way we can deal with this," she said, but failed to convince herself. There was a part of her that just refused to let go of him now that she had been with him again and kissed him.

"You know that Cherry put this stuff on the internet, and if I have learned one thing from her, it's that the internet never forgets such things."

"But people can, or they can at least put their bad experiences behind them."

When they entered the suite, they quickly realised that something was off. It was strange that the door had been left open by someone who was as careful as Cherry, a woman who always worried that something she owned could get stolen. Then, they heard a strange wailing sound that pretty much sounded like a newborn baby's first cries. It came from the bathroom.

"Do you think that it's possible...?"

Nick thought the same thing, but it just wasn't possible. "Cherry is not due for another eight weeks or so. I didn't even know who she was nine months ago."

"That is if it's your baby," Cara added and began to feel sorry for Nick. He had thought all morning that he was the bad guy who had cheated on his pregnant girlfriend, and now it seemed possible that he had been fooled by her and tricked into believing the child she was carrying was his.

"Well, I guess we should find out what is going on then," Nick said with a sigh because he was not a fool. His heart leapt into his throat as he opened the door to the bathroom.

Cherry was indeed cradling a newborn baby in her arms as she lay in the middle of a bloody battlefield that had once been the marble floor of a luxurious bathroom. When she realised that someone had entered the room, she looked up and greeted Nick with a disdainful sneer. "I thought you'd show up here sooner or later, although I wouldn't have thought in my wildest dreams that you'd bring her along."

"Are you okay?" Cara asked even though that was really a stupid question. Cherry needed to be brought to a hospital as soon as possible!

"Why does everyone keep on asking me that? And where did your ex-lover run off to when he left me alone?" Cherry asked back.

"I assume that what you said is true and your baby is not my baby," Nick managed to say. His voice didn't sound like his own when he said these words.

Cherry nodded. "I wasn't sure at first, but no, it isn't yours. There was another guy a few weeks before I met you, someone I met during a night out in town. This little boy here has his eyes."

That's when Cara realised that Nick had gone as white as sheet of paper and remembered that her ex-husband couldn't be around anyone who was bleeding. Nick would faint if he stayed here any longer. Therefore, she grabbed him and walked out of the room with him again. "C'mon, I've got you!"

"Why are you helping him? You should be helping me!" Cherry yelled after them.

Cara sat Nick down on the sofa and tried to reassure him, "Everything is going to be all right. I'm here, and you're not alone."

"But the baby isn't..." he began again, but he felt so weak all of a sudden that he couldn't even finish the sentence. His entire life seemed to crumble in front of him, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"You'd have found out sooner or later." Cara had never seen him look as desperate, distraught and vulnerable as he was now. Years ago, when his play had caused quite a stir, she had wished he would get in a situation like this. Now she realised that had been petty on her part: Watching someone struggle like this, even if you had gotten hurt by them, was not her idea of fun or poetic justice.

"I guess you're right." Nick said and hugged her. To his surprise, she didn't protest, but allowed him to hold her.

That's when Jayden walked in on them, accompanied by two ladies from the reception who looked like they could take charge of any situation.

"There we go again!" Jayden said disbelievingly.

"Jayden, let's talk about this later! This isn't what you think!" Cara protested.

"Really? I suppose you tripped last night, too, and fell right on his mouth!" Jayden retorted. "There is a pregnant woman giving birth in that bathroom, so I've got more important things to do that to listen to this nonsense! Whatever you do, whether you get back together with or not, is no longer any of my business because whatever we had is over!"

"The baby has already been born," she said to Jayden because he was right: This was neither the time nor the place to discuss whatever was left of their relationship.

"Then how come you're with him and not in there with Cherry, who could obviously do with some help?"

"Nick can't see blood," Cara explained.

Jayden couldn't believe the nerve these people had. They were not only obsessed with each other (which they refused to admit), but they also did not care that much about other people and their welfare (and that included those people whom they pretended to love). "You are serious, right? This is not some kind of a sick joke?" Before Cara could say anything, he had already joined the receptionists into the bathroom.

Cara shrugged because she didn't really know what would happen in the future. Being with Jayden had been great fun for a while, but she couldn't imagine that their relationship would ever have led anywhere. It would not have gone on for much longer anyway because they would have reached that point at which a relationship either gets serious or ends in a split in a few weeks or months anyway.

Then she realised she would have a lot of time to think about this later - while she was on that transatlantic flight she still wanted to take because staying in Switzerland now made no sense at all. Her focus needed to be on someone else right now, namely on her ex-husband who needed a friend. Without considering all the possible consequences of this, she decided that she would be there for him. They would take things from there and see what would happen. "Do you want to stay here and wait until the ambulance arrives?" Cara asked Nick.

Nick shook his head. "No, it's been quite a day. I've had enough of all this drama!"

"Then let's get out of here," she suggested.

"What do you have in mind?"

"We could still celebrate Christmas... unless you're not in the mood for this."

This made him laugh even though the laugh was still quite hollow. "I thought you don't celebrate Christmas."

"I will this year if it cheers you up," she said. "Besides, I think we both need to have some fun right now! So let's go out, sing a few carols (I mean, we can google the texts), build a snowman, eat good food and whatever else it is you do on Christmas Day... And who knows, perhaps something good might come out of this crazy day in the end. It could be the inspiration for another play!"

"Or a bad soap opera!" He put his arm around her and hugged her again. She was all he had right now, all he could hold on to because the rest of his life had just vanished into thin air. But somehow, it felt right that she should be here with him because she was really all that he needed to be happy, although they were not more than friends right now. "You know, Cara Marx, I've known you for a long time. And yet, you continue to surprise me every day."