CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

Amanda relaxes in her office reading over the monthly report, the first minor break she's had all day. After the four hour board meeting this morning, she had hoped to slip away before two, but it wasn't looking hopeful at all, her telephone buzzes.

"Yes Sara?"

"Mrs. Bennett, Ms. Harrington is here."

"Send her in." she says, surprised at her arrival. I wonder what's up!

As she disconnects Chaise walks into her office solemnly.

"Hey, I thought you were taking a few days off." Amanda says curiously.

Chaise walks over to the chair in front of Amanda's desk. As she takes a seat, she responds, "I did… I mean I am. I need to talk to you Mandy? Can you spare some time?"

Amanda places the report on her desk, "You okay? You look terrible, like you've been crying."

Tears suddenly fall from Chaises eyes from merely hearing the concern in Amanda's voice. Amanda walks around her desk and takes the chair right next to Chaise as she grabs her hand and hands her a piece of tissue. "Honey, what's wrong. Is it Dominic?"

Chaise lowers her head as she continues to sob softly. "Sort of."

"Tell me. I'm here."

"Mandy I'm pregnant." She mumbles.

Amanda continues to hold her hand, although the words that she just heard were shocking. "It's okay. Honey!" She sighs deeply. "Oh….I know it isn't ideal to conceive the child before the marriage, but we all make mistakes. I mean, you'll be married next month. So it's okay. Just ask God to forgive you and Dominic, and marry the man you love, and raise your precious gift, because it is a gift sweetie and nothing happens by chance." She smiles at her instant solution. Oh Dear Lord! She thinks. Bless this child, please!

Chaise continues to sob softly. "It's not that simple Mandy."

"Chaise, honey, it's not the end of the world. A child is a gift from God whose obviously meant to be here. And while He would have rather you waited to consummate your marriage after the actual marriage, He's a forgiving God honey. Just repent, and it'll all be okay."

"Amanda everything doesn't have to do with God and what He wants or does." She snaps.

Amanda releases her hand and sits back in her chair. "What's going on Chaise?" she questions.

"It's not Dominic's baby."

"What?" she says surprisingly.

"You heard me. It's not Nicks baby."

Amanda lets out a loud sigh, "Whose baby is it." She questions uncertain of the answer.

"It doesn't matter."

"Oh, I think it does. Whose baby is it Chaise?"

"Kyle's!" she whispers softly.

"Kyle! What! Oh my goodness." She lets out a deep breath as she walks over to the window. "Oh Dear Lord! Forgive them please Father!" she whispers softly. She turns to face Chaise who continues to sob. "Chaise, how did you let this happen? When? Kyle?"

"I didn't mean to get pregnant Mandy."

"You didn't mean to get pregnant. But you meant to sleep with him. What? I don't understand this at all! I don't understand." She babbles frantically.

"I made a mistake. I was just so attracted to him since the first day I laid eyes on him. And when we spent time together I wanted to keep seeing him."

"Chaise, you're marrying another man next month. My goodness, what were you thinking?. Do you know how many lives this news will interfere with. Do you know what position you've just put Cody and I in. Dominic is his best friend. Kyle is my brother. Oh Chaise!" Amanda walks back to her seat, sits down and drops her head in disgust.

"This has nothing to do with you and Cody." She voices loudly, her faced flushed, eyes red and filled with tears.

"How can it not? You're my best friend. That's my brother. Dominic is my husbands best friend. It's a tangled web of deceit."

The room falls silent for about 30 seconds.

After taking several deep breath, she speaks. "Who have you told?"

"Just you." Chaise wipes her eyes with the tissue Amanda had given her.

"My Lord, give me strength." Amanda walks back over to where Chaise is now sitting quietly.

"I'm sorry Mandy. I never meant to hurt anyone."

"I know Chaise." She says as she takes hold of her hand again. "Okay, pointing fingers, isn't going to change the facts. The first thing you have to do is tell Dominic what you've done. Then you have to talk to Kyle so the two of you can decide how you will raise this child together. You do realize that the likelihood of a marriage taking place is very slim. Although if that's what you want, I'll pray that he can forgive you."

"I don't want to marry him. I don't love him Mandy. I never have."

"What?" she shouts, stunned by another shocking revelation.

"The only reason I agreed to marry him was because no one has ever asked me before. I was caught up in the moment. I didn't think anyone would ever ask me again, and I figured I needed to cease the opportunity not to be alone for the rest of my life. He's a good guy. I just don't love him."

"You love Kyle?" Amanda questions out of utter confusion.

"No! I lust for Kyle. I know that's all I am to him. Sex!"

Amanda's eyes widen as she again sighs deeply. "You've got to be honest with these people Chaise. No more games." Amanda grabs the telephone receiver from her desk and dials a number. She hands the receiver to Chaise. "Tell him now."

________________________________________________________________________

Dominic is in his office with his feet propped up on his desk while having a conference call with Nate, Cody and Jasmine.

"Let's go to Bronco's tonight guys." Nate says.

"I can't I'm swamped." Jasmine replies.

"You're always swamped these days." Dominic states jokingly. "You can't tear yourself away from the presses for a few hours?"

"What about you Cody?" Nate ask.

"I've got tons to do myself. I'll be in the office for most of the night."

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was something or someone at that office keeping you occupied these days." Dominic laughs out loud.

"What have you heard?" questions Cody jokingly.

"Let's see, my sources said you and Jazz had a thing going on." He burst into a hysterical laughter. Nate joins in.

"Oh come on, that was funny as hell. You and Jazz." He continues to laugh.

"Oh yeah, they get busy and Jazz'll be like. Right there damn white boy. I told you white boys can't screw." Nate includes as his burst into laughter increases.

"Hell yeah!" says Dominic as his line buzzes. "Hold the line one second, let me see who this is."

He connects his other line. "Yeah."

"Mr. Martin, I have Chaise on line two for you."

"Oh, okay, put her through." He connects back to his friends. "Don't hang up, this is Chaise. I'll be back in a second." He reconnects to find Chaise.

"Hey baby. I'm glad you called. You wanna go to Bronco's with me and crew tonight?" The line is silent. "Hello! Chaise Harrington. The future Mrs. Martin, are you there?"

"Dominic, we need to talk." She says sadly.

Dominic notices the sadness in her voice. "What's wrong baby?" He questions lovingly.

"Not over the telephone. I'm in Mandy's office. Can you come here?"

"You're in Amanda's office. How long have you been here?" he questions, surprised to here she's in the building. He'd thought she had taken some time off.

"Can you come up her and talk to me. Please?" Dominic hesitates for a moment. "Dominic. Please?" she yells.

"Yeah! I'll be right there." He says as he disconnects from Chaise and returns to his friends. "Hey, I'll call you back later." He says slowly.

"What's going on?" ask Jasmine.

"Chaise is in Amanda's office, and needs to talk to me. I don't get a good feeling about this."

"Why? Maybe her and Mandy got some ideas about the wedding." Cody responds.

"No….that wasn't an I've got news about the wedding call. That was an I've got some serious shit to say to you call."

"What do you think it's about Nick?" Nate ask.

Before Dominic could respond, Jasmine intercedes. "Go see what she wants Nick. I'll come by your house later. Okay?"

"I thought you had to work Jazz?" Cody questions.

"This is more important than Work tonight Cody." Jasmine responds sternly.

"Fine! I'll be by too Nick man." Cody mumbles.

"What the hell is going on with you two, damn. Nick man, go see what's up. Hit us back." Nate says as he disconnects.

"Okay." Dominic hangs up the receiver.

________________________________________________________________________

Upon arriving at Amanda's office. Dominic notices that her secretary Sara isn't around. Which is highly unusual. If Amanda is here, Sara is here. He decides to knock on the wooden door before entering. He'd only done that when he and Amanda had first met, but over the last two years they'd gotten closer. And they'd sometimes sit in her office for hours laughing and talking about Cody, their son, about life, about God. He loved spending time with Amanda. And he'd hadn't felt nervous about entering her office in a very long time. Only, today, he's experiencing a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, like a child would feel when they know they've been caught by their most stern parent. But he hadn't done anything inappropriate. He would never do anything to jeopardize his relationship with Chaise, so why is he feeling like that kid that's been caught. He stands outside the door for what seemed like several minutes before he decided to actually knock on the door.

Amanda opens the door before he could reach it, as if she'd known he was out there trying to get himself together. "Hi!" she says as she steps aside. Her smile was slight, but pleasant. "Come on in." Dominic walks into her office and finds Chaise sitting in one of the two chairs that were placed in front of Amanda's desk. He notices that she's been crying. He walks over to the chair beside her and takes a seat. Amanda remains at the door, "I'll leave you two alone." She says as she tries to escape.

"Mandy no! Stay! Please!" Chaise looks up and ask before she could leave.

Amanda shuts the door. "Okay honey." She says as she walks back over to her desk and takes a seat. "Is that okay with you Dominic?"

"Yeah! I mean, I don't even know what's going on." He says as he looks over at Chaise who continues to cry. He grabs her hand, "Baby what's wrong?" Chaise takes a deep breath as the tears fall down more rapidly now. Dominic takes his other hand and tries to wipe the tears away gently. "Tell me, whatever it is, we can fix it." He says lovingly.

"Nick!" she sobs more.

"What is it?" he says anxiously.

"Nick I'm pregnant!" the tears stream down her face even harder, she looks up into his eyes as she notices him starting to smile, and says, "It's not your baby!"