It Ends with Us

Chapter Twenty-Nine
Allysa drops onto the couch beside me and Rylee. “I miss you so much,
Lily,” she says. “I’m thinking about coming back to work a day or two a
week.”
I laugh, a little shocked by her comment. “I live downstairs and I visit
almost every day. How can you possibly miss me?”
She pouts as she pulls her legs up beneath her. “Fine, it’s not you I miss.
I miss work. And sometimes I just want out of this house.”
It’s been six weeks since she had Rylee, so I’m sure she would be
cleared to come back to work. But I honestly didn’t think she’d even want
to come back now that she has Rylee. I bend forward and give Rylee a kiss
on her nose. “Would you bring Rylee with you?”
Allysa shakes her head. “No, you keep me too busy for that. Marshall
can watch her while I work.”
“You mean you don’t have people for that?”
Marshall is passing through the living room when he hears me say that.
“Shush, Lily. Don’t speak like a rich girl in front of my daughter.
Blasphemy.”
I laugh. That’s why I come over here a few nights a week, because it’s
the only time I laugh. It’s been six weeks since Ryle left for England, and
no one knows what happened between us. Ryle hasn’t told anyone, and
neither have I. Everyone, my mother included, believes he simply left for
the study at Cambridge and that nothing has changed between us.
I also still haven’t told anyone about the pregnancy.
I’ve been to the doctor twice. It turns out I was already twelve weeks
along the night I found out I was pregnant, which makes me eighteen
weeks along now. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I’ve been on
the pill since I was eighteen. Apparently being forgetful a few times caught
up with me.
I’m beginning to show, but it’s cold out so it’s been easy to hide. No
one suspects a thing when you have on a baggy sweater and a jacket.

---

I know I need to tell someone soon, but I feel like Ryle should be the
first one I tell, and I don’t want to do that over a long-distance phone
conversation. He’ll be back in six weeks. If I can somehow keep things
quiet until then, I’ll decide where to go from there.
I look down at Rylee and she’s smiling up at me. I make silly faces at her
to make her smile more. There have been so many times I’ve wanted to
tell Allysa about the pregnancy, but it makes it hard when the secret I’m
keeping is being kept from her own brother. I don’t want to put her in
that kind of situation, no matter how much it kills me that I can’t talk to
her about it.
“How are you holding up without Ryle?” Allysa asks. “You ready for him
to come home?”
I nod, but I don’t say anything. I always try to brush off the subject when
she brings him up.
Allysa leans back into the couch and says, “Is he still liking Cambridge?”
“Yes,” I say, sticking my tongue out at Rylee. She grins. I wonder if my
baby will look like her. I hope so. She’s really cute, but I might be a little
partial.
“Did he ever figure out the subway system there?” Allysa laughs. “I
swear, every time I talk to him, he’s lost. He can’t figure out whether to
take the A-line or the B-line.”
“Yeah,” I tell her. “He figured it out.”
Allysa sits up on the couch. “Marshall!”
Marshall walks into the living room and Allysa pulls Rylee out of my
hands. She hands her to Marshall and says, “Will you change her diaper?”
I don’t know why she asks him that. I just changed her diaper.
Marshall scrunches up his nose and lifts Rylee out of Allysa’s arms. “Are
you a stinky girl?”
They’re wearing matching onesies.
Allysa grabs my hands and yanks me off the couch so fast, I squeal.
“Where are we going?”
She doesn’t answer me. She marches toward her bedroom and then
slams the door once we’re both inside. She paces back and forth a few
times and then she stops and faces me.
“You better tell me what the hell is going on right now, Lily!”
I pull back in shock. What is she talking about?

---

My hands instantly go to my stomach, because I think maybe she’s
noticed, but she doesn’t look at my stomach. She takes a step forward and
pokes a finger in my chest. “There is no subway system in Cambridge,
England, you idiot!”
“What?” I am so confused.
“I made that up!” she says. “Something hasn’t been right with you for a
long time. You’re my best friend, Lily. And I know my brother. I talk to
him every week, and he isn’t the same. Something happened between you
two, and I want to know what it is right now!”