Aftershocks | Calum Hood

21

An: ANOTHER double update??? Who am I??? Y'all thank Sprinting_Ginger  for this! Read all her stories!

17 weeks

Mackenzie stood red eyed and puffy faced in front of the apartment door. She had hoped when she did this her news would be different. She had wanted so badly for the baby's father to be Calum.

She let out a long slow breath and knocked, trying to prepare herself to tell him. Tanner opened the door a moment later, he startled slightly when he saw her appearance.

"Hey Kenzie, what's wrong?" He asked, grabbing her wrist gently and pulling her through the door way, concern etched on his face.

"We um, we got the paternity results back." She said solemnly, searching his eyes for a sign she should continue.

"Oh, okay." He said, meeting her gaze and looking for answers. "And?" He questioned.

She sighed, having to admit the truth for the first time. "It's your baby, T." She said quietly.

Silence descended and after a moment she garnered the courage to peer up at him. She expected to find a look of excitement or fear, but instead she saw a dark, malicious, glare.

"Oh, this is rich." He said with a dark laugh as her face fell. "You left me at the alter, you tried to erase our whole history and now you're here. I assume you want me to take you in. Give you a roof over your head again and agree to let things go back to the way they were and raise a happy little family together."

She didn't know that she would have taken it that far but with the way he had reacted once finding out she was pregnant and when she'd gathered the sample she had thought he would at least be interested in his child.

"That's not going to happen." He spat, bringing her focus back to the current conversation. "I have no interest in you or the baby. Run off back to Calum, just like you did on our wedding day." He said, his voice cruel. "Or has he deserted you too?" He seemed to take her silence as an answer. "Oh this is even better than I could have planned it." He said, reveling in her hurt and disbelief. "Guess this means you're on your own." He said nonchalantly stalking past her, throwing the door open and looking at her expectantly.

Her mouth hung slightly open, as it had since he had began to let his facade fall. Her feet carried her forward though she didn't seem to be in control of them, her body determined to carry her away from whatever this had been. She opened her car door and took a seat, she stared straight ahead through blurry eyes for a long while, shell shocked from the entire encounter.

Calum had walked away, now so had Tanner.

"I guess it's just me and you little one." She whispered as her hands rubbed over her small, still barely noticeable bump.

She grabbed a Kleenex from her console and blew her nose, using another to wipe away her tears. A determined frown on her face as she set the car in drive and headed towards the only place she knew else to go.

She let herself in to Harper's small rental home with the key she'd had since the day Harp had moved in. They were as close as sisters and before Tanner or Calum had been around she'd spent many a night crashing in Harper's guest room. She hoped her best friend would be okay with returning to that arrangement. She shot her a text, it was mid-September and her friend has returned to her job as a high school science teacher a few weeks ago and she didn't want her coming home to find the absolute mess she had become unprepared.

She flung her two small bags, the remnants of everything she owned and carried them inside. Once within the refuge of the house, the front door locked behind her she felt the walls she'd built around herself crash to the ground. The dam broke. Her body shook with sobs and she let herself fall into a heap on the carpeted floor.