Ethan’s behaviour had been the principal conversation topic for the Donovans and people near them. Will was the angriest, he knew he couldn’t trust Ethan, he felt it. The fact he was the way Eric used to control Dana was predictable. Will was angry even because, if he had expressed that feeling, he could have spared his sister’s feeling from being hurt, but he didn’t and now Dana’s heard was broken. Chelsea was confused, still Ethan was a friend of hers and she wanted to hear his part too. But truly she wasn’t thinking about it much, she had her own problems. For example her constant sickness and her periods that weren't showing up yet. Will had noticed that too, at least the sickness.

“Haven’t you got anything to tell me, Chels?” “I’m as informed as you, trust me. I should take the test but I’m a bit of scared.” “The test shouldn’t be painful” “Not the test! Everything… everything else.” “Having a baby?” “Yeah! I mean, I’m an actress, it could ruin my career and you know how it is important to me, and isn’t it too soon? If I really am pregnant it means I’ll have a huge belly our wedding day and I don’t want to look at the pics and think about how fat I was” “Honey…” “And what about giving birth? Don’t talk about it! And I wanted toh ave some time for us after the marriage, but if we’ll have a baby we couldn’t…” her speech was interrupted by a morning sickness attack that forced Chelsea to run in the bathroom. Will followed her. He did understand her state of mind and he shared it partially, but he knew well that it wouldn’t be good if the both of them went nuts. And he did want a baby with Chelsea, better if it was a girl.

He opened a drawer in the bathroom and took a pregnancy test out of it. “Why do you have it?” asked Chelsea. “It happened with some girls, so I always keep one just in case. I’ve always used protection, but there’s always a bit of risk.” She smiled “Do you have any secret child?” He smiled her back “Not that I know, I’ve always been lucky. But this time I really hope the test is positive.” Will’s confidence made Chelsea feel better, her fears started losing sense. She did the test, then they waited together, in silence. The result made them happy but with kind of a sense of unreality. Chelsea had started talking non-sense again, but Will took her by the hand and brought her in front of the mirror.

“Look at use, love.” He said “what do you see?” “You and I, why?” “Two people in love that are about to get married. A child was in our life project anyway.” “Yeah, but we’ll have to make changes…” “Sure. First of all we should get marries sooner. You don’t want to get married with a baby bump, do you? What about next month?” “A month? It’s so soon, how can we organze everything?” “It’ll be a simple ceremony, we’re gonna make it, I promise” They hugged, the moment would have been perfect if it wasn’t for Chelsea’s morning sickness. And the doorbell, that kept ruining their best moments. But the worst thing was finding Ethan outside the door.

Audrey ran into Will’s arms. “Hi, uncle Will! I’ve missed you!” “That’s the effect I have on women.” One of the things Chelsea liked more about Will was how he could laugh even in the worst moments. Ethan was staring at her her intensely. “Will, love, didn’t you have to go out?” she said. He understood. “Yeah, correct, I have to go out.” “Can I go with him, dad?” asked the girl with a huge smile. “You should ask Will” “Sure you can. I’ll take her home after I’m done.”
Will and Audrey went out and Chelsea walked into the kitchen to make some coffee. Ethan followed her. “You drink this little coffee? It’s not usual for you.” “I have to cut on it. I heard it’s bad during pregnancies.” “You’re pregnant? It’s great, congratulations!” he tried to hug her, but she avoided him and went sitting on the living room couch. “Don’t you wanna hear my version? Asked him sitting next to her. “Dunno. Tell me just the same.”

You know I’ve inherited my father’s business, don’t you? Well, he didn’t leave it to me in a good state. A big part of the family fortune he spent in gambling, prostitutes or whatever, I’m not that much interested. Anyways, I tried to save it, but I couldn’t do much, I went bankrupt. And here comes Donovan like a shark, he offers me a job and, Chelsea, you’re having a baby, you can understand me if you try. I did it for Audrey. “Was your job sleeping with Eric’s daughter?” “Chelsea, please. My job was to make Donovan’s rebellious and stubborn daughter believe she wasn’t working for her father, while in fact she was. And I did it. But I found out Donovan’s daughter is not only rebellious and stubborn, she’s brilliant and wonderful, too. I fell immediately in love with her, and she fell for me, but I didn’t want to fool her, so I made up a lot of excuses. It was hard.” “So hard that Saturday night you couldn’t resist.” “What could I do? She almost jumped upon me! I’m a man, not a machine.” “Ok. I understand you, at least I want to. What will you do?” “I thought maybe you could talk to her, you’re friends, she’s gonna listen to you. I tried to call her but she doesn’t want to hear from me.” “Can you blame her? Ok, I’ll see her tomorrow, I’ll try to convince her to answer your calls. I’m not sure she’ll accept, though.” “You’re my angel.” He kissed her on her cheek and went away. Chelsea was confused, Ethan was the only family she had apart from Will, so she wanted to trust him., but she thought that cheating on Dana like this, without even know her, was plain wrong. She wished she could talk about this to Will, even though she knew he hated Ethan, as a good older brother that protects his lil’sis, but he had gone to face his father and she knew how long arguments lasted at the Donovans’.

“Where are we going, uncle Will?” “At my father’s. He’s got a huge house with a big garden, you can play there if you want, while I talk to him.” “Can’t I stay with you?” “Bad idea. It won’t be a nice chat. You see, some fathers are good, others are… not so good. My father is the second kind.” While they were talking they arrived at the Donovan’s manor. “What about those suitcases, uncle Will?” There was a lot of suitcases and packages next to the gate. “I don’t know. I really have no clue at all.” They ringed the doorbell and Lauren came to open the door.

“Hi Will, it’s nice to see you! And isn’t this cutie-pie Ethan Shermann’s daughter?” “Lairen, why are you wearing a fur coat in June? And what about those suitcases?” She took a look at the girl and said “Honey, why don’t you go play in he garden while Will and I have a talk?” The girl went and the adults went in. “Your father and I are divorcing.” Started Lauren “I can’t stand him anymore, he ahs a horrible behaviour. Sorry to have to say that, you’re his son.” “You can insult him as much as you want and I’ll agree with you. I don’t know why you married him at all!” “Yes, me too. Will, why are you here?” “I have to talk to him. He can’t handle Dana’s life like this. He stopped doing it with me so he started with her.” Lauren bit her lip and stopped walking. Will looked at her “What’s up?” “Will… he’s actually handling your life too. I should have told you before, I’m sorry.” “What?” “Three months ago a woman came and Eric gave her a lot of money. She was six months pregnant.” “Oh my God. Black hair, dark blue eyes, tall?” “Yes.” “Emma! Why didn’t she told me? She went to my father to buy his silente, didn’t she?” “You’re smart.” Will went into the pool room where his father was. Eric handed a cue. “A game?” “Not now! Why didn’t you tell me anything about Emma, what right did you have?” “Play, Will, and I’ll explain everything. You start.” Will took the cue, but that didn’t mean he had given up on the argument.

“You’re a public person, Will, want it or not. You’re my heir. When I’ll die you’ll have to take care of the family business, it’s a six generations long tradition and I don’t accept excuses. You have to keep your image clean. A player, that’s fine, but not a player with illegitimate kids around. By the way, what kind of father you think you would be? You’re immature, you’re physically adult but you’re a teenager in your mind.” “How can you know that? How? I can’t even remember the last time we spoke, what do you know about me? Maybe it’s true, I’m not a serious and well-behaved man, what about that? Do you know Chelsea and I are getting married? And she’s pregnant, too? Yes, I’ll be a father and maybe I don’t know how to be a good father, but I definitely know what to do not to be a horrible father, because my father has been horrible!” “You don’t know what you’re saying.” “I do, very well! You never showed affection towards me or Dana, do you think it’s normal to forbid your kids to call you dad?” “It’s a useless and soppy word. I wanted you and your sister to be a different kind of people, balanced and professional.” “You did a great job! Anyway a parent-kid relationship shouldn’t be like this, it should be… a parent-kid relationship, damn!” “In what way are you entitled to talk about this?” “Talking to you it’s useless. Where can I find Emma?” “No clue. Not interested.”

“Well, I’ll find this out by myself.” While he was going out Eric told him “When you’ll finally grow up you’ll understand I’ve done it for a good reason.” “Shut up!” Lauren followed him. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you before, I don’t know why…” “It’s ok, you weren’t the one who had to tell me. But I do appreciate the fact you’ve told me now.” “You know? It’s a boy.” “It’s a shame I won’t see him. I don’t think Emma still lives where she used to, not after Eric bought her silence.” “You don’t know anyone who knows her?” “No. Wait, there’s that guy…” “Which guy?” “That friend of her, the one who slept with Chelsea. The idea of the two of them together… I’d kill him!” “But you weren’t an item at that time! And if he has some information about your son I think you should put your non-sensical jealousy aside.” “Yeah, all right, but I’ll have to ask Chelsea for a contact and this means I’ll have to tell her about all this too, how will she take it? She’s normally melodramatic, if you add pregnancy! I can’t imagine.” “She’s gonna take it in a bad way, but she’ll get over it. She loves you and she’ll appreciate the fact that you want to find your baby. Oh, and congratulations!” “Thanks. Consider yourself invited to the wedding, you can be sure Eric won’t be there.” “I’ll definitely come.” Lauren’s taxi had arrived, Will helped her with her luggage, found Audrey and, after dropping her at her father’s, went back home to speak with Chelsea.

Chelsea didn’t take it very well. She wasn’t angry, she was shocked, the only thing she could do was drinking coffee over coffee. “Honey, I don’t think caffeine is good for the baby.” “Whatever. When it grows up I’ll tell it I had a caffeine overdose because he’s father hung around impregnating other women.”

“I’ve… impregnated Emma before our story began. And definitely it’s not something we wanted, I can assure you I’ve been careful, but it happened, like it happened with you too. Chelsea, it’s my duty to find this baby. He’s my son.” “What if he’s not your son? Maybe she said so only for the sake of taking your father’s money.” “Maybe, but I don’t think so. I can’t explain you why, but I’m sure it’s my son. I’ve got to see him.” “I don’t want to lose you, I don’t want you to get back with her. You’re such a sweet guy, you could do that for the happiness off the baby.” “I can’t see how having two parents that are a couple even though they don’t love each other could make a baby happy. I want to stay with you, I want to marry you, I want to have kids with you, but I can’t ignore the existence of another son of mine.” “You’re right. Sorry, I’m kinda confused.” He hugged her gently.

“It’s all right. It’s been an hard day for everyone, I understand you. But I need your help. Do you know how to contact that friend of her, that disgusting guy?” “You say so only because I’ve slept with him, but you’re right. I know where he lives.” “Great! We’ll go there tomorrow”
They spent the night watching a movie lying on the couch, not having the strength to do much else.