Chapter 7

Ella didn’t want to leave her home, scared of meeting Tim and Dan again. But what could she do? She cannot hide here forever, as others might get confused about her strange behavior. She needed to get herself together, make things seem normal. Dan and Tim both knew her well. They might already be suspicious about her current job. She would have to make some kind of excuse.

Her daughter broke her train of thought. Ella got Lilly ready and left her with Tinsley.

She was driving around to the cafe, which was an almost thirty-minute ride. After she left Lilly, she needed to run some errands, so now she had to drive for half an hour to reach her final destination. Suddenly, she saw two figures arguing on the sidewalk, and she stopped impulsively in front of them.

Dan was shooting daggers at Tim and was yelling at him for his careless attitude when some cars stopped in front of them. The window rolled down, and both of them were surprised to see Ella.

“Ella! You are my savior. My knight in shining Armor.” Tim exclaimed dramatically.

“Um, is everything okay? I didn’t know you two were arguing.” She said. Confusion was clearly written on her face.

“Well, you see, we kind of forgot to book a car...” But Dan interrupted him.

“Not we. It was you, Tim. Only you.” He glared at him.

“Okay-okay. I forgot to rent a car so that we could drive around, and now we are here helplessly standing on the streets waiting for a cab.”

“Well, I can give you two a ride if you want?” Ella asked them hesitantly.

“You are the best,” Tim said, shoving Dan in the passenger seat, and he took the back seat.

“Um, so where to?” Ella asked after both the guys were sitting comfortably in her car. She was nervous with Dan sitting beside her.

Tim gave her the address. “It is not out of your way, is it?”

“No, don’t worry. It is on the way to the cafe,” she said while hitting the gas.

“Cafe reminds me, why are you working there?” Tim asked.

Ella was expecting this eventually, but she hoped for later. She pursed her lips and said, “Well, it is an amazing place, and I love working there.” She tried to answer diplomatically.

“You wanted to be a doctor, Ella. We know that. You even got accepted to your desired hospital for residency, then why?” Dan pointed out. He was sitting there quietly listening to her and Tim’s conversation intently, but he knew that Ella was beating around the bush.

“Well, how did you know if I got accepted or not?” She asked in confusion.

“Your mother told us. She told us that you left the states to study there.” Tim answered her.

‘That bitch,’ she murmured, hoping no one heard her, but Dan did.

Ella was furious. She knew that her step-mom knew she got the acceptance letter from her dream college and chose to hide it from her. If it weren’t for the call that she got from the institute, she would have never known about it. As it is, it wouldn’t have mattered as she left the aspiration of becoming a doctor when she got to know that she was pregnant.