CHAPTER 89

***5 MONTHS LATER***
"Someone has to stay here with you," Stella said scowling down at her.
"I'm fine, really. I just need to sit down for a moment," Shana said smiling up at her.
Ignoring her, Stella picked up the blanket and dropped it around her legs. Then she fluffed the pillows behind her and made her recline back.
As much as Shana complained about the whole fussing, she enjoyed it.
"And I don't want to see you waddling into the store till you put to bed. I never knew I'll meet anyone as stubborn as my David. Then I met you and he started to look like a saint. The man is got a steel plate for a head but you, I don't even know what it's made of."
She continued to talk and fuss around her and Shana just listened quietly. As much as she wanted to correct the impression that she waddles, saying anything would only make Stella talk her ears off.
And she wasn't about to say anything that would alert her that she was already having contractions. They were still far apart and she didn't want a worrying and panicky Stella on her hands until it was absolutely necessary.
Everything Stella said and did, reminded her of Rose.
Like it always did whenever she remembered her past, her mood dampened and Stella noticed right away. But like she always did, she didn't ask her for answers. She made her a cup of hot chocolate and finally decided to make herself scarce.
"Aren't you curious?" Shana couldn't hold in the question as Stella made to leave.
"Believe me, I'm dying to know everything but I know you'll talk to me if you want to," she replied with a gentle smile. "Quinn should be home soon enough. I'm not comfortable leaving you all alone when you could be popping that baby anytime now."
Then she was gone.
Five month ago, she had showed up on the couple's doorstep with Quinn. No questions had been asked and here she was ever since.
After the farmer dropped her off, she had realized she had no one to turn to. The realization had made her sit in a street corner and weep. She was all alone, without help with only a couple change of clothes and a phone with little money to herself.
She had turned on the phone and the only number she could remember apart from Asher's was Quinn's. She had given him a call and had promptly bursted into tears when he picked the call. He had freaked out when he found out she was the one. He had wanted to come for her but she had assured him she knew where he was and she would come to him.
A teenage boy was hardly the one to turn to for help but she had been left with no choice. When she had showed up at his part-time job, Quinn had ran into her arms, uncaring about her distraught look and he had even teased her. She had given him a watery laugh, her first in over a month.
"I had nowhere to go," she had said brokenly and without any question, he had taken her home to his foster parents.
The couple, Stella and David had taken a look at her and welcomed her into their home. Quinn had always spoken about her as long as they could remember and there had been no need to know more about her. No one even asked about the father of her unborn child.
Yes, it all seemed too good to be true and Shana was expecting it to end very soon. They could find out she was nothing but a freak and they wouldn't hesitate to turn her out. She only hoped it would be long after she had her baby and she had enough money to get her own place.
She had taken a job at Stella and David's retail store and she saved every penny she made. She also kept account for the couple, her way of repaying them for her stay.
Easing further into the comfy couch and closing her eyes, Shana moaned in pleasure and dozed off.
She heard the front door opening but she didn't rouse. It was probably Quinn. Her subconscious mind wondered why he wasn't shouting and announcing his arrival like he always did but she dismissed it and continued her nap.
It was good to see the broken child from years ago happy. Stella and David had been what he needed and they smothered him with all the love and care they had to give.
Thinking about his boundless energy made her smile in her sleep.
"Shana."
She mumbled a sleepy reply but her eyes were snapping open the next instance.
That voice, it had tormented her sleeping and her waking hour, so much so that she had prayed so hard for help to forget it.
She turned her head to look into a pair of startling blue eyes.
Then she was struggling against her protruding abdomen to get up and run.
★★★★★★★★★★
For months he had searched for her but his search had been hindered.
He had not known where to look, who to ask about her.
She had had no one and the certainty that there was no one she could turn to had killed him inside.
Shana had simply dropped off the surface of the Earth and so had his sanity.
He had turned into a madman in the last month during his search for her. He couldn't recall the number of times he had stopped a random woman on the street who happened to have the color of her hair, or her stature, just anything that reminded him of her. He saw her everywhere he went.
And as each person turned out not to be her, something that had been rekindled inside him died further each time.
He couldn't bare it anymore and so had Armando, who had taken it upon himself to follow him everywhere so he would stop embarrassing himself and calling attention to himself.
He had started to believe she was truly gone this time and he would never hold her in his arms again, until he had found a sticky note that read, "Call Q".
It had become his hobby rummaging through her things, from the littlest article. He tormented himself with memories of her as he touched them. If anyone had seen him sniffing her clothes and underwear, he would have been dragged off to the nearest asylum. He was a pervert who had no other choice.
Then, he had gone through her phone to find any name with a Q but the only saved number was his. But he had hoped she had made a call to Q with it at least once.
Armando had gotten the phone to the tech guys in his company and her deleted call log had been retrieved. He didn't care about how that had happened.
Only one other number had been retrieved. When he had called the number and a man had picked up, saying it was a hardware store, his hope had died. Maybe she had needed something and she had called a store. He had apologized and explained he had the wrong number.
But just before he hung up, he had taken a leap of fate and asked if he could speak with Q.
"You mean Quinn?," the man had asked.
"Yes," Asher had replied. He didn't care as long as the name had a 'Q'.
Then he had spoken to Quinn, who had gotten all protective and secretive when he mentioned Shana. He had demanded to know who he was and Asher had gone on to tell him he was Shana's husband whom she would probably never forgive.
The boy must have heard the torment in his voice and he had offered to help him if he could identify himself. He didn't want to endanger Shana to a stranger. So Asher had agreed to a meeting.
It was funny how Quinn had been willing to risk his own safety for Shana's, a mere boy that he was but Asher had been grateful she had someone loyal and caring in her corner for a change.
When Quinn had certified him worthy, after making him swear and promise never to hurt her, he had told him where he could meet Shana.
And there he was, staring into her arresting brown eyes, which was locked on him until she started trying to get up and out of the chair hurriedly.
But her movement was hampered by her belly, where their baby grew.
His baby.
He had to keep the amazement out of his voice to ask, "What are you doing?"
"Getting away from you," Shana said as she finally struggled to her feet.
"Wait," he said rushing to her. She looked like she was about to fall on her face.
"Don't touch me!"
She had screamed the words and the perfect condition of her own lungs amazed her. Her body had recoiling from his outstretched hands. She tried to walk past him with dignity but she knew she was waddling like Stella pointed out and that alone humiliated her.
There he was, several months later and he was still as handsome as ever, while she looked fat and bloated.
"Shana, wait. I need to speak with you."
Another contraction hit her before she got to the door and she stopped suddenly, going still and waiting for it to pass. It was stronger than the previous ones and if she was right, the interval was shorter.
"Shana?," Asher asked hesitantly from behind her. He didn't want to risk touching and distressing her, neither did he want to see the disgusted look she had given his hands.
He deserved it but it hurt nevertheless. "Shana?," he called again.
"Oh my God!"
"Shana, talk to me," he asked as he moved to stand in front of her.
"I'm having a baby," she said looking at him wide-eyed.
"Oh my God," Asher echoed her words.
He knew next to nothing about what was about to go down and he was freaking scared.