The mistake that made us

Ashley POV

"Where are you coming from."

My father was already waiting when I walked through the front door. Not a question. An accusation.

"Sophie's. We lost track of time and I—"

"You lying little b*tch." Lizzy stepped forward.

Her eyes moved over me slowly, looking for something to use. "God knows how anyone found you worth the bother."

"Lizzy—"

"There are marks on your neck, Ashley."

My hand flew to my throat. I hadn't checked. After everything I hadn't even thought to check. My father started walking toward me. Slow and deliberate. My stomach dropped.

"Is it true."

"I don't remember last night." I needed him to believe me.

"I remember being at the hotel bar with Luke and then I woke up in a room I didn't recognise. I don't know what happened to me."

"So your story," Bianca said from the doorway, not even looking up from her nails, "is that someone carried you unconscious into a hotel room. How convenient."

"Something was done to me." I looked straight at my father. "I would never embarrass this family. Please just listen to me."

"You are engaged to Luke Harrington," he said quietly. "Do you have any idea what people will say about us."

Not me. Us. "I didn't do anything wrong," I said. My voice cracked and I hated it. "Someone did something to me."

The slap came out of nowhere. The sound was loud and flat. Then the pain hit and the room tilted and I pressed my hand to my face and stared at the floor.

"Just like your mother," he said. Four words. He always knew exactly which four words. "Get out of my sight."

I didn't run. I kept telling myself that on the walk to my room.

I closed my door and sat on the edge of my bed and only then did I let myself cry.

When I looked in the bathroom mirror I barely recognised myself. Swollen eyes. Red cheek. Marks on my neck and collarbone.

I peeled off my dress and there were more below. I got in the shower and turned it cold and sat down on the floor of the tub and let the water run over me. And that was when I let myself think about last night.

The hotel bar. The first drink, cool and sharp. Luke sitting across from me, relaxed, easy, the way he always was in public.

The second drink. A third. And then nothing. A complete blank. No fuzzy edges, no half memories.

Just nothing, and then waking up in a room I didn't recognise with a ceiling that wasn't mine and something warm pressed against my back.

A stranger. I had looked down at myself and I already knew. The marks on my collarbone. The soreness. The cool air against my skin. I hadn't needed anyone to explain it to me.

I had gathered my clothes from the floor one piece at a time and walked out without looking back. I hadn't seen his face. I still didn't know his name.

I pressed my forehead against my knees and stayed there until the water ran cold enough to hurt.

Luke had been the last person I remembered. Luke who I was engaged to. Luke who had handed me that third drink without me asking.

I didn't let myself finish that thought. Not yet.

Two months later.

The kitchen smelled like coffee and something was cooking and I felt fine right up until I didn't.

I made it to the bathroom just in time. When I came back Kim was leaning against the counter with her arms folded.

She had that look on her face. The one that meant she already knew.

"Ashley," she said carefully. "When did you last have your period."

I opened my mouth. Then closed it. "My cycles are irregular," I said.

"I know. When was the last one." I thought about it. I counted back. The number I landed on made my legs feel weak. "Two months ago," I said.

Neither of us said the word out loud. We didn't need to.

"Don't jump ahead of yourself," Kim said gently. "Go to the hospital. Then we know what we're dealing with." I nodded.

I wasn't hungry anymore. The hospital waiting room was the kind of place where everyone was waiting for news they weren't ready for.

I held my ticket and tried not to think. What if I was pregnant. What would I tell my father.

What would I tell Luke. And underneath all of that the question I had been avoiding for two months. Whose baby would it even be. The doctor was warm and calm.

She walked me through everything without rushing and told me to wait. I stared at the wall and felt sick.

When she came back she was smiling.

"Congratulations," she said, and handed me the result. My hands were shaking. I read it. Then read it again. Two months pregnant.

I don't remember walking out of the examination room.

The next thing I knew I was outside on the pavement with the paper still in my hand.

My hand moved to my stomach on its own. I pulled it back fast. I called Luke. He didn't pick up. I flagged down a taxi.

The doorman at his building recognised me and waved me through.

I stood outside his door and tried to find the words. Luke, I need to tell you something. Luke, I think you.... the door was already open. Just slightly ajar.

I pushed it open. Clothes on the living room floor. A heel. A jacket I recognised but couldn't place. Something felt wrong but I didn't know why yet.

I walked further in. Sounds from the bedroom. Unmistakable. I pushed the door open.

My hand flew to my mouth. Luke. And Lizzy. Together in his bed. So caught up in each other they didn't even hear me come in.

My heart dropped straight through the floor.

"Luke." He froze. Turned. Panic crossed his face. He scrambled for his clothes.

"What are you doing here—"

"That's what you're going with."

"Ashley—"

"I just walked in on you and my sister and the first thing you say to me is what are you doing here."

He couldn't look at me. Behind him Lizzy sat up and pulled the sheets around herself. She didn't look ashamed.

She looked like she had been waiting for this.

"You were not supposed to find out like this," Luke said.

"So there was a better way you planned to tell me."

"It has been almost a year," Lizzy said flatly. "Since you are here you may as well know everything."

"Lizzy—"

"She has already seen us Luke. What are we protecting?" She looked straight at me. "Almost a year Ashley. And it was never going to stop." I felt sick.

I had known somewhere deep down that I didn't love Luke the way I was supposed to.

But I had believed he was safe. I had built everything on that and now it was gone.

"I thought you loved me," I said.

It came out small and I hated that. Lizzy laughed. Not cruelly. Casually, which was worse.

"What man do you honestly think chooses you? You have gained weight. You dress like you have given up. You walk around like you are apologising for existing. Luke didn't choose you. Our father arranged you. There is a difference."

I let the tears fall. I was done holding myself together in front of people who had already decided what they thought of me.

"Is that true," I said to Luke.

"You only agreed to the engagement because of the families." He looked uncomfortable.

"My family wanted the alliance. And after your mother died you were going through so much. I felt—"

"You felt sorry for me." He didn't deny it. I wiped my face.

"Two months ago. The hotel. Did you set that up." The silence was its own answer. Luke sat down on the edge of the bed.

"We needed grounds to end the engagement without the fallout landing on my family.

Photos of you with someone else would have been clean. No scandal. But you ended up in the wrong room and by the time we found you there was nothing usable." Nothing usable.

"It wasn't personal Ashley. It was—" I left.

I didn't say another word. I didn't slam the door.

I just walked out and kept walking until the elevator doors closed and I was finally alone.

They had drugged me. Put me in a room with a stranger. And when their plan failed they had moved on like it meant nothing.

And I was pregnant with that stranger's baby. I ended up at a children's playground.

I don't know how. I sat on a bench and cried harder than I had since my mother's funeral.

Around me kids ran and screamed and laughed and the world carried on like nothing had happened.

When the tears stopped I got up, found a taxi, and gave the driver my address. The taxi turned onto my street.

I saw them before I understood what I was looking at.

Cameras. Microphones. A crowd pressed against the gate, and the moment one of them spotted the taxi the whole mass surged forward at once.

The gate was crowded with cameras.

I stepped out of the taxi and they surged forward all at once.

"Ashley, who's the father—"

"Can you confirm the pregnancy—"

"There she is—"

I stopped. "Where did you get this."

A woman shoved a microphone toward my face.

"Someone saw you leaving the gynaecologist's office. Can you confirm you are pregnant?"

The doctor with the warm smile. Of course. "I have nothing to say." I put my head down and pushed through.

"We understand your fiance has never been intimate with you—"

"Sources say the engagement is already over—"

I stopped hearing them. I just kept moving until I was through the gate and inside the house and the door was shut behind me.

My father was sitting on the couch. He had a belt in his hands. Lizzy was already there, settled beside Bianca like she had been home for hours.

The small satisfied curve of her mouth told me exactly how she had spent tha