by Helen Cooper
“Ella,” her voice cracked with excitement and the stress of the last hour.
“Oh Sophie. What’s wrong?” Ella took in her friend’s appearance and noticed her bleak eyes, unkempt hair and worry lines. She looked like she had aged a few years in a few weeks. She wondered if Sophie knew about Alexis; she could kill her brother for taking Sophie down this road and then she saw the baby. “You had the baby already?” He voice dripped with shock and her eyes bulged out.
Sophie looked at her and then back down at the baby and started laughing. “Oh Ella, no. No, I didn’t have the baby already.” She couldn’t stop laughing and tears fell out of her eyes. “I just barely got pregnant.” She continued laughing and ushered Ella into the apartment. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She giggled.
“No problem.” Ella grinned. “I guess I didn’t think about that rationally.”
“It’s okay.” Sophie sighed and smiled at her friend. “It’s just really good to see you El!”
“I’ve been an idiot. Sorry, Sophie.” Ella hugged her friend and stepped back quickly so that she wouldn’t smother the baby. “But who is this baby, Soph?”
Sophie sighed and looked at Ella in extreme sadness. “He’s Max’s son, Ella. He had a baby with Alexis.”
“Oh my God.” Ella looked at her in shock and ran her hands through her new pixie cut. “I can’t believe it. Oh my God.” She looked down at the baby that was sleeping in Sophie’s arms and lightly stroked the warm fuzz on his head. “I guess that is why I just saw Alexis and Max leaving?”
“What?” Sophie looked up at her sharply.
“Oh shit.” Ella sighed. “I guess not then.”
“I haven’t seen Max since this morning.” Sophie’s voice held a tinge of anger. “And you just saw him leaving with Alexis?”
“Maybe an hour and a half ago.” Ella confessed. “I went to Crumbs and got us some cupcakes instead of coming right up, I wasn’t sure if I should tell you.”
“Oh Ella.” Sophie looked at her friend reproachfully.
“I know, I know. I was likely going to tell you. I promise.” Ella crossed her fingers behind her back. “So how did you get the baby?”
“I’d rather find out why Max is with Alexis.” Sophie’s voice was angry as she handed the baby to Ella. “His name is Jacob.” She sighed as Ella cooed at the baby. And then she paused, was this a good time for her to ask Ella about the pregnancy test that she had seen? She bit her lip and walked to her phone. She knew she was being selfish but she couldn’t deal with one more thing that evening, not one more thing. She picked up her phone and saw several missed calls and a voicemail from Max and just stared at the phone. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. As long as she didn’t speak to Max and she didn’t listen to the voicemails she could pretend that everything was a mistake. That Jacob wasn’t really his kid. That Ella really hadn’t seen him with Alexis. What if he wanted to tell her he was going to leave her for Alexis. That he needed to be with her and the baby. What if he tried to take her baby away from her? She wouldn’t know what to do with her life. She couldn’t survive. She looked across the room at Ella playing with the baby and she frowned. It looked as if Ella had already fallen in love with her nephew. Jacob was her blood, no matter who his mother was. Sophie knew that at the end of the day blood came before water.
She placed the phone back in her bag and walked back to Ella. “I’m just going to go out for a bit. Will you be okay with the baby?” She saw Ella look at her in concern but she didn’t want to talk anymore at that moment. “I’ll be back.” She hurried to the door and left the apartment. She wasn’t sure where she was going but she just knew that she had to get out of there; she needed some fresh air and to think. She needed to decide whether or not she wanted to marry Maxwell anymore.
Chapter 5
Ella
Jacob cooed up at Ella and she felt her heart melting. She knew that she shouldn’t be so happy to see him but something about Jacob set a fire in her belly. She knew that she loved this little baby already. There was something so precious and innocent about him. This was a baby that would one day grow up to be one of very few men she trusted and believed in. The only other two men that she believed in right now were her father and Max and even then she didn’t know how much she would trust Max if he weren’t her brother. Something about holding the baby reminded her of all the times she had thought about getting pregnant to keep one of her boyfriends when she first started dating. She didn’t understand why she felt so starved for love but holding Jacob made her feel whole and warm inside.
She sat down on the couch with Jacob in her arms and turned on the TV. She was worried about Sophie. She had looked so distraught and upset, she could only imagine the sort of pain she must be going through. It didn’t seem quite fair; they’d only just seemed to have gotten it together but already Sophie and Max were going through another crisis. Ella sighed. She really didn’t know if they were going to make it. Max had really screwed up this time. It took a pretty amazing woman to take care of someone else’s child. For a second Ella wondered if she should ask to take Jacob off their hands—but she knew that she couldn’t manage to take care of him by herself. She knew less than nothing about babies. And she knew that she was too young to take on that responsibility. She was twenty-two; she had the world to conquer first. She jumped as she heard someone banging on the door.
“Sophie, Sophie, let me in.” Max’s voice rang out as he continued thumping the door.
“Gosh dangit, Max.” Ella jumped up and walked as quickly as she could to the door without waking Jacob. “Shut up, Max.” She glared at her brother as she opened the door. He looked a wreck and she felt her heart go out for him. It seemed like neither of them could get it together in love.
“Where’s Sophie?”
“She left.” Ella’s voice was cold. She was still mad at Max for having never told her that he loved Sophie.
“Oh my God.” He fell back against the wall, his voice anguished and his face contorted in pain.
“Don’t you want to see your son, Max?” Ella held Jacob to him and he stared in her eyes and laughed bitterly.
“Way to turn the knife, Ella.” He stared down at the baby in her arms but felt nothing but numbness. “He looks like a Van Harkel.” He laughed uncontrollably and Ella looked at him in concern. “Or a Phillips.”
“Oh Max.” She touched his arm. “I’m so sorry.”
He looked at her bleakly and smiled. “No sis, I’m sorry. How are you?”
Ella hung her head and stared at Jacob. “I’m getting better thanks.”
“I could kill Joseph,” Max muttered.
“It wasn’t all his fault.” She sighed. “I was a fool.”
“He took advantage of you, he was older and knew better.” Max grimaced. “I should have noticed.” He sighed.
“It’s not your fault, Max.” She looked at her brother lovingly. “You know that right. You can only protect me so much.”
“I’ll protect you your whole life, Ella.” He smiled down at her lovingly. “You will always be my younger sister.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “And you’ll keep scaring the guys away.” She laughed.
“That’s the idea.” He paused. “I guess I should look at my son.” He took Jacob from her arms and held him gingerly. “So Sophie left as soon as you arrived?”
“I don’t think she’s gone forever, Max.” She studied her brother’s face and spoke carefully. “It’s a lot to take on, Max. She’s had a rough few months. You’ve really put her through the wringer.” She paused. “And she didn’t have a brother to beat you up for playing with her emotions either.”
“Because I was the one who was meant to play that role.” He sighed.
“Well you can’t be her brother and boyfriend.” Ella grinned at him. “That’d be gross.”
He laughed at her and shook his head. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.” He walked over to the couch and sat down carefully, making sure that h
e held the back of Jacob’s head for support.
“So you really didn’t know Alexis was pregnant?” Ella questioned him curiously.
He sighed and looked at her with pained eyes. “I had no clue, Ella. But I wasn’t really with it when we were together. I wasn’t with it for a lot of things.”
“Oh.” She knew he was talking about the drugs. She had heard her parents whispering about it, anxious and worried.
“Those were dark days, Ella.” He paused. “I’m a different man now.”
“I know.” She smiled weakly, hoping that it was true. “Why did you turn to drugs, Max?”
He looked up at her and she saw the lost look in his eyes, turning them from a sky blue, to a thunderous purple. “It was a mix of things. I was lost. I was rich. I was in love with someone who I felt I was forbidden from loving. I wanted to get lost in another life, another place. Alexis provided me with an escape and we dragged each other down a deep, dark and dirty hole.”
“Why Alexis?”
“She was beautiful, she was there, and she was willing.” He sighed. “And she let me do whatever I wanted to do.”
Ella stared at him with wide eyes. She wanted to know exactly what he was talking about but felt weird asking her brother about his intimate life. “So did you love her?” she asked him anxiously, she knew that would be the one thing Sophie would never be able to get over.
“No.” He laughed bitterly. “There’s never been anyone for me but Sophie.”
“Good.” She stood up. “Let me try calling her to see if she will come home.”
“Please.” Max’s eyes lit up.
Ella sighed as the phone went straight to voicemail. “No answer.”
“That should make me feel better, that she isn’t answering your calls but it doesn’t.” He shook his head. “God, I hope she is okay.”
“Look at that, a billionaire asking God for something.” Ella laughed.
Max rolled his eyes at his sister. “Help me put Jacob down, please.”
“Okay.” She took the baby from her brother’s arms. “Go and find me as many blankets as possible and bring them in here. You’re going to have to buy a crib tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” He looked at her with wide eyes. “Sophie already had one picked out I think, I guess we can just get two instead.”
“Yeah.” Ella’s voice was soft. She felt sorry for her brother but he was the one who had gotten himself into this situation. Why didn’t men think sometimes?
***
Ella left thirty minutes later and Sophie still hadn’t arrived back at the apartment. She wasn’t worried as she could only imagine what Sophie was going through. She must be devastated. Ella knew that she wouldn’t have handled it half as well as her friend and she promised herself that she would stop being selfish and would be there for her friend. Heaven knew that Sophie was going to need her more than anything right now.
She walked into her apartment and sighed at the musty smell resonating from the kitchen. She hadn’t tidied up in ages and it smelled like she must have left something old out, which was now rotting. She looked at the fruit flies flying around and bit her lip. She knew that she needed to clean up but she was just so tired and stressed. She had tried to be upbeat and happy so that Max wouldn’t feel bad but she was still pretty devastated and heartbroken. No matter how she tried to tell herself that Joseph was bad news, she just couldn’t stop thinking of the way his eyes lit up every time they were together. The way he had made love to her slowly and gently and the way he told her he loved her, and that he wanted to be with her, that she was the one for him. How they’d laughed watching ‘The Simpsons’ on TV and taken turns trying to imitate Bart’s voice. She’d believed him when he said he was leaving his wife and wanted to marry her. She’d believed him when he’d pledged his undying love for her. But it had all been a lie. What a fool she had been. She looked in the kitchen one last time and walked slowly to her room. She’d deal with the kitchen in the morning.
She walked straight to her laptop and turned it on. She paused for a moment before typing in reallove.com quickly. The bright cheerful website beckoned her to create a profile and meet her soul mate. Photos of happy and gorgeous couples told her of their perfect relationships and urged her to also sign up to meet the love of her life. She laughed at the irony of the fact that here she was Ella Van Harkel, beautiful and rich socialite about to join an online dating site. People assumed she could have every guy she wanted and that her life was perfect but that was far from the truth. She figured she had nothing to lose by signing up, even if she only met losers. That wouldn’t be different from any other guy she had met in real life.
“Hmm, a name, a name,” she mused to herself. “What should I call myself?” She didn’t want to put a name that would let people know it was her but she didn’t want to be off the track either. “Princess-to-be?” she thought out loud. No, no, that sounded like a little kid. “Columbiagrad?” she thought. No, that wasn’t even true. She hadn’t even graduated as of yet. She sighed; this was going to be a long arduous process if she couldn’t even think of a name. She wished Sophie were here, so that they could sit back laughing and drinking wine as they filled out the questions. She sat back and remembered that Capri had given her her card, before she could stop herself; she pulled her phone out and called her.
“Hello?” Capri’s voice was friendly and welcoming.
“Hi Capri? This is Ella, we met earlier today at the park.” Ella’s voice was hesitant.
“Oh of course. How are you, Ella?” Capri sounded genuinely happy to hear from Ella and she smiled.
“I’m good. Well I’m just okay.” She laughed self-consciously. “I’m actually signing up for reallove.com and was wondering if you could help me?”
“Oh that’s awesome.” Capri laughed. “Sure, I can help. What did you need help with?”
“Everything.” Ella laughed. “I’ve never done this before and I have no clue what to do and how honest to be.”
“Oh I felt that way when I first started as well.” She laughed. “Can I call you back in ten minutes? I can put Leroy to bed and then we can go through the process.”
“That sounds great.” Ella laughed happily. “I would really really appreciate that.”
“No problems. I’ll call you back on this number?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Ella hung up and sat back suddenly feeling light. She was happy that she had made what she felt was going to be a good friend in Capri. And Capri had no idea that Ella was rich. And she still liked her. It felt good to know that she could make friends that were real and sincere and liked her for who she was. She supposed that was why she and Sophie were such good friends. They’d been friends for so long that Ella knew that Sophie was not interested in her money or status. Not like the girls in high school. Who’d only cared about comparing holiday homes, designer handbags and trust funds. Aside from Sophie, Ella didn’t really have any other good friends. Ella sighed because she knew the same was true for Sophie. Ella had monopolized her time and friendship and Sophie was nothing if she wasn’t loyal. She had no one either. She was most probably off somewhere by herself crying and devastated with no one to talk to. She pulled her phone out to call her friend again but it went straight to voicemail. She closed her eyes and prayed that her friend was okay. She would never forgive herself if something happened to Sophie.
On the other side of town, Capri was sending a text message to her contact. “Ella called and she’s joining the dating site. I’ll send you her screen name as soon as I get it. Please make the deposit into the Chase account. Thx.” Capri stared at the phone in her hand and felt a moment of guilt but then she saw Leroy’s bed in the corner of her room and she knew she didn’t have the money to feel guilty. She had a job to do.
Chapter 6
Sophie
It was nighttime but all the lights made it seem like it was early afternoon to Sophie. She had a love-hate relationship with New York City. There were times when she
felt like she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to live in this wonderful happening city. But there were also times that she just wanted to leave. Times when the lights annoyed and the constant crowds of people made her feel invisible. What a feeling—to be surrounded by so many people but to feel completely and utterly alone. She watched some German tourists cross the street excitedly pointing at a yellow cab. She laughed to herself; she had been excited to see the cabs when she first came to the city as well. It seemed to be such a long time ago now. She decided to go and sit in the park to think. It’s the place that she and Ella had always gone when they wanted to distress.
She walked and sat on an empty bench that was overlooking some friends throwing a Frisbee. They looked like they didn’t have a care in the world. She stared at them and realized she envied them. She’d always had a heavy heart, her parents’ death, stress that her aunt and uncle couldn’t afford to take care of her, worry that her grades wouldn’t be good enough to get into Columbia with Ella who was a legacy, anxiety over loving Maxwell secretly and now confusion over the fact that he had a child with Alexis. She thought she was too young for all this turmoil in her life and laughed out loud.
“A penny?” A man’s voice interrupted her hysterical laughter and she looked over at him. A handsome young man who looked like he was in his late twenties had joined her on the bench. He smiled at her warmly, “Or a dime if the joke is super funny.”
“Just a dime for a funny joke?” She smiled at him. “My jokes are worth at least a dollar.”