Authors: Nicole Conn
Elena Undone (37 page)
“A few months later, I heard they had separated. The following spring, I was packing up to leave, getting ready to head to New York, when I got a phone call. It was from Louis. He said he was in town, heard I was leaving and wanted to have drinks for old time’s sake. When I showed up at the bar, my hope, my intention had been to win him back. Now that he was free, what was to stop him? But when I was shown to his table, Lily was sitting there, reading some contract or other. I saw Louis at the bar ordering drinks. I swear to God, I don’t know what happened, because when I sat to join them, I could have cared less about Louis. But Lily? Oh my heavens! I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Louis made small talk and all Lily and I did was gaze into one another’s eyes, until finally I didn’t know what to think.”
Elena couldn’t help but laugh. “This is too crazy.”
“Isn’t it?” Tyler laughed. “So there I am, over my man crush and here is this woman, that to me is now the only person on the planet. Lily finally turns to Louis and says, ‘You know, sweetie, I think we can take it from here.’”
“Louis was flabbergasted. He’d come for the same reason I had. To hook up with me—even if it was only for a bon voyage f— oops.” Tyler remembered the baby and whispered to Elena’s stomach, “Sorry. Anyway, he glances from Lily to me, and could see the cards on the table. When he left, Lily looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Goddamn it man, you have wasted so much of my time! I haven’t stopped thinking about you since my wedding day. And I have a lot to do. I can’t be spending all my time daydreaming when I have work to do.’ And that was all she wrote.”
“Tyler—why haven’t you ever told me this before?” Elena was still mystified by this whole new side of Tyler and Lily.
“Because I knew you wouldn’t get it, couldn’t relate to it. Until now. You have to go find out if Peyton’s the one. And, trust me, you’ll know when you see her. If she’s not, no harm no foul. If she is, then by God, Elena, you’ve got to stop wasting
your
time.”
*
Peyton packed boxes with a vengeance. She had made up her mind, and now she was going to get this done. She had kept all her mom’s old books, papers and antiquities for the past year and a half, but now it was time. Time to clear everything out. Time to start anew. Everything had to go. She moved with efficiency and speed, walked out with one of the boxes.
As she opened the door, Elena moved surreptitiously through the maze of boxes and clutter and when she turned Peyton was cleaning off some dust from her sleeveless T-shirt.
Peyton stopped, dead in her tracks.
“Elena…”
“Peyton…I—”
“Elena...what are you doing here?”
Elena glanced about the boxes, and panicked. “What are you doing? Are you moving?”
“No. I just finally went through all my mother’s stuff to go to the women’s shelter.”
“Oh…oh, I see.” Elena could not catch her breath, feeling dizzy suddenly. Why had she come here?
“Yeah, the social worker’s coming next week, and I’d like for things to look tidy…up to…” she said, and then wondered why in the hell she was explaining anything to this woman.
“Oh…yes, for the adoption, right?”
“Yes.” Peyton’s voice tightened. “Look, I’m sort of in a hurry. I’ve got to get all this stuff out of here by the end of the day.”
“Oh...okay. Can I help you with anything?”
“No!”
They both stopped short at her vehemence.
“I...I don’t think you should be lifting at this point.”
Elena was confused.
“What do you want, Elena?”
Elena stood there, empty-handed. “I just wanted to see you.”
“Why?”
Elena was hurt, not sure where to take the conversation, feeling more and more dizzy by the moment.
“Can we, at least, talk for a few moments?”
“I don’t think there’s really anything for us to talk about,” Peyton said as she returned to her packing, shoving books inside a box with vigor. “I think you should go.ink you d go.i
Elena walked up to her, took the books from Peyton’s hands and put them aside.
“I know you’re hurt. So am I. I just want to explain—”
“Elena. I don’t want to talk with you.”
“Pey—”
“Save it!” Peyton stood there, trembling as confusion turned to anger.
“Please, listen to me—”
But Peyton could only feel her rage. “
Listen to you?
Oh my God.
Why?
You lied to me the entire time we were together.”
Elena had to sit. Peyton was standing there so angry and everything had gotten so twisted. She wanted to explain, but her senses were reeling, she felt as if she were in a dream, as if she could not control what came out, “I told you, I...would never lie—”
“You were fucking him this whole time to get pregnant? God, you played me—”
“Peyton—” Elena was growing more disoriented by the second, her body suddenly feeling so heavy…
“You played me. Good for you. So maybe I’m stupid as sin, but you know what you are? You’re nothing but a whore!”
Her head spinning, she felt pummeled, assaulted. As Elena began to reach for a chair, Wave walked in.
Stopped in her tracks. “Oh, bloody hell! What are you doing here?”
Wave approached her like an attack dog. Elena could see how much the woman despised her.
Everything began to spin. And then it all went black.
“Elena!” Peyton screamed.
*
Peyton paced the hospital waiting room as Wave tried to calm her. She felt terrible, horrified to think she had caused Elena to faint. What if something happened to the baby? At the same time she was so angry with her she could not stop shaking. And then she was wondering why the hell she didn’t just leave the hospital. This wasn’t her problem. This was none of her business.
Nash and Tori dashed in at that moment. When they saw Wave and Peyton, no one knew quite what to do.
“My mom!” Nash croaked.
“She’s all right,” Wave informed them, her arms crossed. “She’s resting quietly. But her blood pressure is out of whack.”
“What happened?”
“She fainted.” Peyton spoke like a woman who deserved to be hung.
“What did you do to her?”
“She didn’t do
anything
,” Wave insisted. “I was there. The doctor’s going to come and talk with us in a few moments and I’m sure you’ll be able to see her then. But right now, we have to all remain calm.”
“Wave’s right, Nash.” Tori shook her head. “Fighting only proves to make situations like these even more gnarly than they already are.”
Convinced or not, they backed into their separate quarters of the waiting room.
“I’ve left like a kabillion messages for Poppa Bear...I have no idea where he is. No one can find him.”
Peyton shook her head. Great.
What seemed hours later, a doctor came out to speak with them at nearly the same time that Tyler and Lily arrived.
“Everyone, she’s going to be fine. Her blood pressure’s dangerously low. But we’re running an IV...giving her plenty of fluids and some extra vitamins for the baby.”
The doctor looked at his lab report, then at all of them as if trying to configure the relations within their highly diverse group. “She says she wants to speak to a…someone named Peyton and the baby’s father.”
Peyton glanced around. Barry wasn’t present.
“Bloody hell,” Wave muttered under her breath.
Tyler walked to Peyton’s aid, offered his arm.
“I’ll take you in.”
“Uhmm…thanks,” Peyton agreed in a daze as Tyler escorted them into Elena’s hospital room.
When they entered, Elena turned to face them.
“Sweetie pie,” Tyler said, “you can’t be scaring Tyler like that again, you got that?”
Elena forced a bleak smile.
“Elena...I’m...I’m sorry.” Peyton spoke up. “I was...but I shouldn’t have upset you.”
“You had every right.” Elena’s voice was soft and low. “But please, just give me a chance to set the record straight.”
Peyton glanced at her, confused. What was there to explain?
idth="1lign="justify">
“I
am
pregnant,” Elena confirmed, “but it’s not because I was sleeping with Barry.”
Peyton glanced from Elena to Tyler to see if she had heard correctly.
“Barry has still never touched me since...since you and I began.”
Peyton was now completely mystified.
“It’s Tyler.”
Peyton was now even more baffled.
“Tyler is the father.”
“And trust me, we weren’t sleeping together either!” Tyler insisted. “Lily wouldn’t stand for that!”
“But I don’t understand.” Peyton was entirely lost.
“After all those years of infertility hell, Tyler offered, and I accepted.”
“My greatest contribution to mankind,” Tyler proclaimed.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. But Tyler, Lily and I agreed that no one would know about this unless and until it took and the pregnancy was safe.”
It was finally seeping in. Peyton was finally beginning to feel the heaviness lift from her chest, feel the depression edging away, and to suddenly realize all this had been a terrible misunderstanding.
“Ty...can you give us a few minutes...” Elena asked. “And then send Nash in.”
Tyler made a graceful bow.
Peyton got a chair, moved to Elena. Peyton dropped her head. She felt nauseous thinking of all the terrible things she had said to Elena that had caused her to be here.
“Why...why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena shook her head as if trying to make sense of it all.
“I had so many things to take care of. Ending my marriage of fifteen years. Nash and I had to go to therapy, we had to deal with Barry and I had to make changes. After I started my divorce, I was so sick my first trimester that I really couldn’t cope well. And, Peyton, I must have called you a thousand times...and after a certain point, even I knew that I had hit a wall.”
Peyton nodded. “Elena…I just couldn’t do it anymore. I shut down at the end. And after you sent the e-mail that said you knew the relationship wasn’t fair to me, well, I just had to cut every tie to you I had. For me it had to be black and white. I couldn’t risk going any further than I had already gone.”
“Look, I don’t blame you.” Elena looked inu sna lookto Peyton’s eyes. “I needed some time to pull myself back together. But there was never any question in my mind about how I felt about you. How I still feel about you, Peyton.”
Elena reached a hand to Peyton’s arm. The ring. Peyton saw the ring she had given Elena, saw that she had been wearing it all this time, and realized how she had completely misjudged the time they had been apart.
Peyton touched the ring, looked at Elena, and tears began to fill her eyes. “God, Elena, I’ve been such a fool…I said such hateful things. I...I’m so sorry, Elena.”
“I would have said them too if I had been in your place.” Elena felt Peyton’s guilt and humiliation and needed to stop it. “Peyton. Look at me.”
Peyton slowly lifted her eyes.
“I need for you to know...none of it...not one second of what we had together was a lie... It is the truest thing I have ever known.”
Peyton smiled. A tear fell from Elena’s eyes.
At that moment, Nash walked in.
Peyton glanced at Elena. “I...I guess I should…”
Nash walked over to them both, turned to Peyton. “It’s okay. You don’t need to leave.” He smiled at Peyton.
Peyton looked from son to mother and placed a hand on Nash’s shoulder. “That’s okay. I’ll give you a few moments with your mom.”
Nash, unable to hold back a second longer, dove into his mother’s arms. She held him tight. He held her just as tightly, crying...
“It’s all going to be okay,” Elena said with solid assurance. “Don’t worry, baby. It’s all going to be okay.”
Nash finally got up, walked around the hospital room, and then returned to his mom’s side. “You know I’m okay with this, don’t you?”
“Yes, sweetie. I do.”
“Good, because I want you to be happy, Mom.”
She held out her arms. This was the last piece she needed. Now everything would be okay.
Epilogue
A Sunday a year later.
A glowing peach-hue sunset dappled the beautiful grounds of the park where a picnic lunch was laid out on a blanket on the grass. Tori was curled up against Nash, Lily’s head lay on Tyler’s lap, Wave was happily ensconced in Tea’s arms and between Elena and Peyton the adorable Alexandra bumpled her way on a b0" r way oaby blanket.
Elena picked her sweet little girl up into her arms, and Peyton offered her the teething biscuit, over which Alexandra made a screwed up face. Everyone laughed.
This was a family that was meant to be, every part of it belonged. Elena looked into Peyton’s smiling face, so deeply in love with her it almost hurt, and when Peyton caught Elena’s eyes, the unwavering love between them coursed across the picnic blanket like an electric wire.