Eliza's POV

I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat all afternoon. I cried myself to sleep that night. I was distracted by the vision of the double bars in my head. I'm having a baby. How could I do this? How will I tell Alex? Heck, how will I tell my parents? What will I do? I had already decided a name, Philip.

There was one thing I knew for sure, I couldn't keep avoiding Alex. That would just make it harder. So, later that night, I shot him a text.

Eliza: hey. i rly gotta talk 2 u, meet me in the flower rows?

The flower rows was a large abandoned garden, lined with flowers and weeds of all shapes and sizes. It was separate from civilization, very private. On top of that, her and Alex were the only ones who knew about it.

On top of that, it was where Philip was created.

Mystery POV

I was right. the girl did what I thought she would do. When she finally left me alone, and untied my hands, I pulled off the blindfold and fixed my clothes. I looked a mess, but I suppose it was fitting, considering what had just happened. I pushed down the wooden wall. "Goodbye, Mariah." I muttered disdainfully. "Goodbye, Alexander," She sung sweetly.

I felt terrible, and I pulled up my hood over my eyes, and moved quickly down the sidewalk. My phone buzzed. It was Eliza.

Eliza: hey. i rly gotta talk 2 u, meet me in the flower rows?

Alex: yeah, be right there

Wait a minute... Eliza?? How would this affect her?? Oh, well, no time to think about that now.

Eliza's POV

He slowly walked up the hill into my line of vision. His long hair was tangled and down, falling below his shoulders. His hood was pulled over his eyes, and his shoulders hunched up, he leaned forward, attracting as little attention as possible. I had never seen him like that. He was usually so confident.

When he got close, he pulled his hood off and I could see the dark circles under his eyes, the way they squinted in the moonlight. There was something else, too. Something I'd only seen in flashes before. Terror. Not of me. Of something else. Trauma. He smiled, and I could see how forced it was, how much of a lie it was.

"What's going on?" He asked. I froze. I didn't know what to say. How was I supposed to tell him about the baby, especially when he had so obviously had some sort of terrifying situation, encounter, accident? I made my decision. "Alex, what happened to you?" He stepped toward me. There was a pause where he breathed in slowly, and I could see him holding back tears.

He was always so strong. He didn't cry. He never cried. "Nothing, you asked me to come here, what's going on?" That was when I noticed the rope marks on his wrists. And the red marks around his eyes, the mark on his lip. "Of course there's something. There's something for each of us. What happened to you?"

He finally collapsed. Literally. He fell to his knees. I matched his level. He let himself cry, for the first time I'd ever seen. "Ma... Mari..." He couldn't get the words out. "Mariah... She... She... She pulled me back... Into... The alley...." Over the next hour, I got the story out of him. "Oh, my gosh, Alex, that's terrible, I'm so sorry!" I wrapped my arms around him, trying to be comforting. He did the same. I quickly sent a text to my parents saying I wouldn't be back tonight. Alex and I stayed in the flowers until dawn, sleeping in each others arms.

Alex whispered to me the next morning, "Alright, but what happened to you?" I grinned. "I'm pregnant." "Mmm." He murmured. "It was a great day for all of us, wasn't it?" I laughed quietly. "Yep... Hang on, how will we do this?" He paused. "I have an idea."