Warning: Longs walls of text will be present in this chapter. Sorry for not getting enough pictures.
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Boyd froze.
"What did you say?" he asked reluctantly. He had heard her, loud and clear, but it just couldn't be true.
"I'm pregnant." Susan said again, eyes aglow as she waited for his response.
How could this have happened? Boyd was an idiot to think he could get out of this mess so easily, especially when he had been so hopeful for a fresh start. He had a family right here, and yet he had disregarded it to chase some dream of a better life. At least then there was a chance he could be happy.
"Boyd?" Susan looked at him anxiously, afraid that the announcement hadn't been received well. "Is something wrong?"
Boyd shook his head slightly and looked up at her, "No, nothing."
Susan smiled softly at him and went to speak again, "I'm just so happy. We never really had a chance to take care of Blair, but here's our ticket to starting over. Wouldn't that be nice? A second chance, Boyd. Think about it." Susan took his hand in hers, not knowing how much those words meant to Boyd. He had a second chance, but it wasn't here. It was with Katrina. But saying that now just seemed so... cruel. Besides, what was keeping him from going back to his old life? He could say goodbye to Katrina, to the lack of money, to that drafty house that never seemed to look finished. He could raise another child, alone with his wife. However, Boyd knew that wasn't an option. Things had gone too far for that.
"Actually, there is something." Boyd said, his voice cracking a bit but still managing to get through the sentence.
"Yes, honey?" Susan said not unkindly, but it was still enough to make him hesitate in his next words.
"I...I've been with another woman these past few days." At this, Susan looked a bit startled, but that oon faded.
"Of course you have. You've been living with that one girl, Katrina, right? Helping to pay the rent?" she said hopefully, but doubt clouded her eyes as her mind grasped the possibility hat he could mean something different.
"No, no, not like that." Boyd struggled to find a way to word that awful sentence, and decided to just come out with it.
"Susan, I've been cheating on you." he looked away quickly, unable to face her in those next few moments.
Susan looked as if she were about to cry, all thoughts of new possibilities dying instantly as she anxiously stepped from one foot to the other. "Boyd, surely you're joking. We were supposed to raise this child together. We were supposed to do it right this time. How could you have done this to us?" By the end, she was practically screaming at him, tears welling up in her eyes as she did so.
That's right. Boyd had done this to them. Boyd had done this, and it was all his fault that this was happening to them. Just when Susan was going to finally do something right, Boyd had pulled the rug out from under her and she could never forgive him.
Boyd looked just as distraught, if not more so. His hands were clenched at his sides and he squeezed his eyes shut as his wife attacked him for all he had done in the past few years.
"Remember our wedding? How happy we were? I'm not so sure about you, but I'll always remember it as the best day of my life! How can you just sit there and do nothing?" Boyd really was sorry, but he couldn't do much else. What he had done was of his volition, and he would accept responsibility for it. He shouldn't have let it go on for as long as it did, he knew that, but he wasn't about to apologize for it, either.
"I don't regret it."
"Don't regret what? Betraying my trust? Cheating on me for some woman I don't even know?" Susan couldn't help it as she listed all the times he had done her wrong, and Boyd didn't realize exactly how many times that was.
"I still love you, okay?! Is that what you want to hear?! But the truth is, Katrina's more important to me!" Boyd shouted, anger causing the words to pierce more deeply than they should have. It was true, though. Katrina was more important to him than any other person her had met. He hated hurting Susan in this way, but she was a good woman and deserved better. So did Katrina. But this whole thing was just too complicated and Boyd didn't care to sort his thoughts out.
"This isn't going to work out." Susan said softly, finally surrendering to the inevitable.
"No, it isn't." Boyd agreed, his voice equally as quiet as the words sunk in. After a few moments of mutual acceptance, Susan spoke up.
"Boyd, it's time for you to leave." Susan barely looked at him as she said this, her voice distant. Boyd did as he was told, head bowed low and arms loose at his sides. What he did was awful. Boyd was awful. And at home, no one was there to hear as he wept.
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Author's Note: I had meant for there to be some interaction between Boyd and Katrina this chapter, but then Boyd and Susan's conversation got really long and I just didn't think it to be appropriate.
