"Chloe is my daughter. She needs to know me. I haven't been in her life, but I want to be now. I want to soak in every moment with her and pay for my absenteeism," Andrew went on, and Lisa broke down despite her resolve not to.
She was to blame for the mess they were in, though she had done it with good intentions. No mother wants to see her child suffer.
While in high school, she was secretly seeing Andrew, who was from a poor family.
She knew her parents wouldn't approve of that relationship because her mother constantly sang of wanting a rich son-in-law to help them move up the social ladder.
That's where Martin came into her plan. She chose the same subjects as him and answered more questions during lessons to make him notice her, and he eventually did.
She loved Andrew but took advantage of Martin's status to be among the crème de la crème in school, and it worked well, so well that Martin didn't ever suspect her, or maybe he did but didn't bother because he knew they wouldn't last.
Andrew was in the loop of the plan all through, and as long as Lisa didn't sleep with Martin, he was okay.
Since no one knew of Andrew's and Lisa's relationship, they were good to go. In fact, no one knew Lisa wasn't a virgin that's why Martin had been dared by his friends to sleep with her.
That graduation night, though Martin had forced himself onto Lisa, she didn't conceive as she had led Chloe to believe.
She could still remember the look of hate and despise on Martin's face when he discovered she wasn't a virgin.
Their union was rough, and at the end of it, they both wished they hadn't done it and shouldn't ever meet again.
She had hurriedly showered and Martin led her outside and closed the door behind him. He texted all his friends about his experience with Lisa, and to say Lisa was embarrassed would be an understatement.
She got depressed and was suicidal, and for days, she didn't go to her parents since she knew she could easily be found there. She stayed by Andrew's, leaving her parents sick to their stomachs with worry.
She couldn't tell whether Andrew allowed her to stay because of love or pity. Looking back, she knew that Andrew really loved her.
It's at Andrew's that she conceived, and she only found out two months later when she missed her periods and when Andrew was away on a summer job.
Her only fallback had been Martin, and she was prepared to stick to him like a tick sticks to a cow, and strangely, he had warmly received her without any skepticism, and for so long, they were okay.
They didn't leave together, but Martin supported her even though he had a string of women. None of them ever talked of their relationship before Chloe, who hadn't even known Martin existed until Andrew came back into the picture and Lisa started pushing away Martin, making him forceful.
Xxx
"Hey," Amy said when she caught up with Steph in the evening as she was heading to the parking lot.
"Hey," Steph answered back in a sad tone, and one look at her and Amy knew things weren't okay.
"What's up?" Amy asked compassionately, and Steph looked around to see Camila and Dylan walking towards them.
She looked at Amy in shock and asked through the eyes if she had seen them, and Amy answered that they were dating.
"Since when?'
"Since that day at Ms. Hill's office. Can we just ignore them? Also, I don't want to talk about them," Amy said in disgust as she rolled her eyes.
Dylan and Camila were just two steps away from them, and there was a lot of tension and awkwardness felt.
"I can see the new favorite in-laws got you a new car," Camila said with despise as she looked a few meters away where Steph's new car was parked.
Amy followed her gaze and hid her shock at that revelation.
Steph sighed deeply and looked at Camila from head to toe.
"Well, it's not my in-laws, actually. It's Vera. She tried messing around with us and ended up coughing millions of dollars to get me this new baby. I know she won't do it again, just like I know you won't mess around with us," Steph said as she pointed at herself and at Amy.
Colour drained from Camila's face as it did for Dylan, and they stormed away angrily, leaving Steph and Amy laughing their hearts out.
"What was that?" Amy asked, still laughing hysterically.
"I was just pulling her leg, but I can see it wasn't a bad idea. Vera paid for the repairs, and I thought of painting the car, which by the way, is my dad's," Steph said as she continued laughing.