Chapter Three - The Scandal Unveiled

Natalie's POV

“You are pregnant, Natalie.” Dr.Patel said.

The word came to me like a fist.

"Pregnant."

It was Dr. Patel's typical calm, practiced way that one must have to use at least a hundred times a day; but in my ears, it was thunder. I could not breathe, could not move.

The sterile white walls seemed to lean a little closer, the scent of antiseptic turning sharp in my nose. Pregnant. The syllables echoed and drowned out everything else she said-hormones, options, steps forward. The pulse hammered so hard within me, it felt in my throat.

Beside me, Eddie's hand tightened over mine. I turned, searching for a solid expression in his face. The shock was evident as his mouth was clamped tight, but his eyes stayed on me, steady, worried. A flicker of anger crossed his features, but not at me. Never at me.

"Come on," he said gently, though his voice trembled. His grip anchored me, tugged me up from the fog. "Let's get you home."

I nodded vacantly. My body obeyed while my mind was still musing that one word: Pregnant. Pregnant.

-

The homeward journey bled into silence; the moment we stepped into the house, it became unbearable.

The echo of footsteps on the marble made it seem like the silence made itself all the louder. Father was out tonight; Victoria was also away. No staff was there. It was just me and Eddie with the burden of the truth hanging over us.

Eddie wouldn't sit down. He was pacing. Like a caged storm, back and forth, sneakers squeaking against the polished floor before furious and sudden spinning around to face me.

"Talk," he snapped then added more softly, pleading, "Nat, please. What happened?"

I found it hard to breathe. My fingers twisted in my lap until my knuckles hurt. The shame was suffocating but Eddie's eyes were demanding the truth.

"It was... that night," my voice was barely audible. "The Lawson party."

His shoulders stiffened. "Nat. Who?"

The name burned on my lips, but holding it inside was going to eat me alive.

"Jake."

Eddie froze like he'd been hit. His mouth opened then closed, before letting out an oddly humorless laugh. "Jake Lawson? Are you serious? Natalie - of all people - him?"

"I know," I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. "I wasn't thinking. He was drunk. I just-" I broke off, shaking my head. "I just wanted to matter for once."

Those sound pathetic even to my own ears.

Eddie raked both his hands through his hair, tugging hard at the strands. He was about to start pacing again with quick angry breaths rising and falling in his chest. "Mattered? Nat, Jake Lawson doesn't care about anyone but himself. He is a playboy, a -God, he's practically toxic waste. And now-" He stopped and looked at me, his voice dropping, breaking. "Now you are carrying his child. You dumb fucking bitch! You are carrying his child, tell me the truth, does this make you feel like you matter? Being an easy bed warmer for the one person who would never search for you even if the news announced that you were missing!”

I could not hold it in: the sob snatched itself from my throat as I smothered my face in my palms. Never have I felt smaller, weaker, or more frightened.

That was when the front door clicked open.

Eddie's head bounced up. My body tightened, in every muscle.

The sharp staccato sound of his heels scuttling across the marble floor sliced their way through the house. Victoria.

There she was at the door covering her figure in silk beneath narrow, calculating eyes cast on me. "What the hell is going on here?"

My breath constricted. Eddie cast me a sharp look, silently begging me not to give in. But Victoria's glare impaled me, similar to the way she would have scolded. She always saw too much.

I could not stop the truth from tumbling out. "I... I am pregnant."

The silence remaining was deafening.

Victoria's painted lips curved into the slow smile-not soft, not maternal, but victorious. Not much like a stepmother to me, more like a queen who'd just won a war.

"Well," she purred, her voice as smooth as glass, "that changes everything."

-

Happen before me faster than I could breathe.

She was out with that telephone at her precise fingers falling into a hole that was dialing my father, the Lawsons, or anyone with power enough to matter. Within hours, I was again uncomfortably lodged in the Lawson mansion for the harsh glare of glittering chandeliers cast at the ugliest moment of my life.

Power consumed my room, and I couldn't hold out anymore.

To the left of Victoria was my dad, white but composed, jaw tight. Across from us stood Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, a two-legged wall of wealth and influence, faces a mass of unreadable masks. And Jake- that was sprawled in his chair, legs out and did everything to make it appear that he didn't care. But I caught the panic in his eyes when they flicked to me.

Victoria did not waste time. "My stepdaughter is carrying your son's child," she immediately announced, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. "This matter will be brushed aside do not."

Jake shifted, rubbing his jaw, his voice defensive. "It was a mistake. I didn't-"

"Enough." Mr. Lawson's voice cracked across the table like a whip. His eyes pinned Jake with cold fury. "This isn't about mistakes. This is about responsibility. About reputation. Do you understand me?"

Jake swallowed hard, and a little less bravado remained. He quite simply chose not to answer.

My father cleared his throat, low, tense. "We can't allow scandal to stain either family. The press would destroy us. Whispers would soon be circling."

Victoria leaned back, smug and composed, nails tapping the armrest of her chair. "Then we do what families like ours have always done. We control the narrative."

She cast an icy glance in my direction that dropped and settled back on the Lawsons. "A betrothal. Announce it straight away. Marry,and I think Natalie is the University graduate, hence the child will be legitimate. The families benifit from it appearing unified. Our reputations remain intact."

Pitiful messages sank lead-like in my insides: engagement, wedding, a life shackled to connections with JAKE LAWSON, whom, before this atrocity, never even seemed to take a look at me.

Jake straightened immediately up, disbelieving as his voice turned into an incredulous whisper. "What? You can't be really serious with that."

"Watch us," Mrs. Lawson says unemotionally, her voice punctuated by quiet steel. Her narrowed eyes landed on him. "You will do what's required. For the family. For show. You've already humiliated us enough."

Then the room became a still picture.

I froze in that moment, trembling hands in my laps as adults shaped my future into what looked like a shrewd business contract. Proposal. Wedding. Control. But never love. Never.