The rest of the day seemed to happen in a blur. The police and fire trucks and ambulances arrived. After they checked Allie out, she was handcuffed and taken off to jail while Taylor, Lila, and I were sent to the hospital. Taylor and Lila both had concussions, and even though I felt fine – expect for a huge migraine - the doctors wanted to check to make sure that everything was okay with the baby. I checked out fine, and when the doctors told me that Taylor was going to be fine – once he finally woke up – I headed straight for Angelina and Heaven’s just in time to find them waking up from their slumber.

I immediately took each of the kids in my arms and held them close. I was so relieved to find them in perfect health.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Hannah asked as I held her close as tears of joy slid down my face.

“I’m just so happy to see you,” I answered. “I love you so much, sweetie.”

“I love you too, mommy,” Hannah replied.

I tried my best to explain to Heaven and Angelina what had happened on the way back to the hospital to see how Taylor and Lila were doing. When we got there, Taylor’s family met us, and I once again had to explain what had happened. Needless to say, everyone was shocked and confused by the day’s events.

“We knew something was up when Taylor didn’t show up to the studio and didn’t call,” Zac commented.

“We called the police after we went by your house and found both of your cars there, but neither of your were there,” Isaac said. “But the police said we had to wait.”

“It’s nice to know they could be of service,” I commented sarcastically.

“Are you okay, Ede?” Tracie asked as she gave me a hug. “I mean, with the baby and all?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m just tired.”

“So, you’re pregnant?” Diana asked with confusion after listening to everything.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“And this character – Seth – forced himself on you?” Walker asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Oh dear,” Diana said sympathetically as she wrapped her arms around me. “No wonder things have been so strained between you and Taylor. I wish you would have told us what was going on, sweetie.”

“I know I should have,” I sighed as one of the nurses came out into the waiting room.

“Mrs. Hanson?” she said.

Diana, Tracie, and I all looked at her, and then each other. We all shared a soft smile before I stepped forward.

“Yes?” I said.

“Your husband just woke up, and he’s asking for you,” she said.

“Okay,” I nodded. I hurried to Taylor’s room to find him looking around the room with confusion written all over his face.

I rushed over to the bed and hugged him as I sat on the edge of the bed. “What in the world happened?” he asked.

“Oh no,” I groaned. I proceeded to tell him about what had happened as I rested my head on his chest.

“So, you saved my life?” he asked after I finished explaining.

I laughed softly. “Yeah, I guess I did,” I replied. “But I couldn’t have done it without Allie’s help.”

“But Allie was Halley, Audrey’s sister?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Damn, I missed a lot while I was out,” he said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, you sure did!” I smiled. “It’s okay. It’s all over now. Autumn and Seth both died in the fire, and Allie’s in jail.”

“God, this better be over,” Taylor said, resting his head against the pillow behind him. “I don’t know how much more of this drama I can take!”

“You? I’ve been through a hell of a lot more than you!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, but you’re a tough girl,” Taylor smiled. “I’m just a big wimp.”

“Yeah, but you’re my big wimp,” I grinned as I leaned in and pressed my lips gently against his.

Allie pleaded guilty to attempted murder, but since Allie had actually helped us in the end, I spoke at her sentencing hearing and requested that she receive medical treatment. She wound up being sentenced to life in a minimum-security prison.

Even after Allie was put in prison, I was still left with a lot of questions, and of course as always, things got way worse before they got any better. Even though I loved Taylor with all my heart, our relationship was extremely strained.

I was feeling extremely vulnerable and confused just as I had after Audrey tried to kill me. And the things that Seth and Autumn had told me about Taylor and Audrey didn’t help either. I couldn’t see any reason for Taylor to lie to me about it, but at the same time, I could very much see him and Audrey as being more than ‘just friends.’

Taylor found out that I had almost had an abortion as well. It all came out when I had to talk with the police, and he was very upset with me about that. I couldn’t really blame him.

“Eden, I can’t believe you were going to do something like that,” he had said after we had come back from the police department.

“I know,” I said softly. The whole ride home had been silent, and I had known that he was going to eventually say something along those lines.

“I mean, I understand that you were scared,” he said, taking my hand as he looked into my eyes. “But this could be our baby, and you … you could have …”

“Killed it, I know,” I nodded as tears stung my eyes. “I didn’t know what to do, Taylor. I was so scared. I know that’s not an excuse, but at that point … the thought that I could be carrying Seth’s child … it just made me so sick … and I thought I’d lose you … I almost did lose you! But deep down I don’t think I would have gone through with it.”

“Too bad it took Tracie losing a baby to stop you though,” Taylor said, shaking his head.

“I know,” I nodded. “I feel so terrible. I mean, so much terrible stuff has happened … not only to me and you, but also to everyone around me. Tracie lost a baby. Zac fell in love with a girl that was only using him in order to get closer to me to hurt us. Heaven and Angelina were betrayed by someone they considered a friend. They could have easily been killed right along with our children. Lila … she didn’t even know me and almost died because of me. I still don’t why they even dragged her into things …”

“Seth … or Adam, as she called him, was her boyfriend,” Taylor cut in. “She had told me about him. They were dating. He told her that his name was Adam though so that I wouldn’t make the connection between him and Seth. He was using her to find out about us too. Like when you would be alone and stuff.”

“Oh, figures,” I sighed. “So, how is Lila doing?”

“Well, she had three broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and a fractured wrist,” Taylor replied. “So, all in all, she feels like shit.”

I shook my head as I looked down at my hands. “I don’t know even know how to even begin to try to repay her. If not for her, we’d all be dead right now. She saved our lives …”

“I know,” Taylor nodded. “We got lucky.”

I sat back on the couch with a sigh as I heard the front door open. A few seconds later, Hannah and Zeke burst into the room followed by Heaven, who was holding Saffie.

“Hey,” she smiled as she walked over to me and sat Saffie on my lap and handed me a stack of envelopes. “I grabbed your mail on the way in.”

“Thanks,” I smiled as I kissed Saffie on the forehead and began to take her little jacket off of her. “How were they today?”

“Really calm,” Heaven replied. “I think they were a little scared to stay at our apartment after what happened last time, so I took them to Chuck E. Cheese.”

“I bet they liked that,” I smiled as Hannah went over and sat on Taylor’s lap.

“Did you have fun, Hannah Banana?” Taylor asked with a grin.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“What about you, Zeke?” I asked, looking around the room for him and finally spotted him laying the floor almost behind the couch fast asleep. “I think you wore him out, Heav.”

“I think they wore me out,” Heaven yawned.

“So, where’s Angelina?” I asked curiously.

“She is out with Zac,” Heaven replied.

“What?” I nearly gasped.

“He called her last night. He was, naturally, still upset about the whole Autumn thing and they wound up talking half the night, and she was meeting him for coffee this morning,” Heaven explained.

“I see,” I nodded. “So, how are you doing?”

Heaven shrugged. “Feeling pretty betrayed. I’m sure you know how that feels.”

“Yeah, I’m becoming an expert in that area,” I nodded.

“How’s the baby?” she asked.

I looked down at my rounded belly. I had just recently begun to put on a lot of weight. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t feel like doing much of anything besides sitting on the couch and eating.

“The doctor said everything’s fine,” Taylor replied with a proud grin as he patted Hannah’s back as she slowly closed her eyes and began to fall asleep.

“That’s good,” Heaven smiled. “Know what you’re having yet?”

“We just decided to be surprised like we were with the other kids,” I smiled.

“That’s cool,” Heaven said as she shifted from one foot to another. “Well, I guess I better get going. I might try to catch a nap before I have to head into work tonight.”

“Well, have fun,” I said. “And thanks for watching them.”

After Heaven was gone, Taylor stood up slowly so as not to wake up Hannah. “I’m going to go put her in her bed,” he commented.

“Okay,” I nodded as I sat Saffie down on the floor to wander around. I was surprised she wasn’t out cold yet. She had been up since early in the morning, so I figured that she would be about ready for a nap. I shrugged to myself as I watched her walk clumsily over to the toys in the corner as I began to sift through the mail.

“Bills, bills, junk, bills,” I mumbled softly to myself I looked at each envelope, but the last one caught my eye. It was addressed to me. It was from Allie …

At first I had just stared at the envelope. I was shocked that she would even consider contacting me, but then my shock turned to anger. After all that she and her siblings had done to my family, she had no right to send anything to my house.

My first instinct was to rip up the envelope and throw it away, but then curiosity got the best of me and I opened it to see what she had to say.

Dear Eden,

I don’t even know if you’ll ever read this letter. You’ll most likely throw it away and ignore me, which is probably even more than I deserve. I don’t even deserve to live after what Autumn, Seth, and I put you and your family through. I know a simple ‘I’m sorry’ won’t even begin to repair the damage, but I do want you to know how sorry I am for all that has happened. You didn’t deserve any of it, nor did your family.

However, I’m not writing this letter to empty my regrets to you. I am writing because I know that this is a long shot, but I’d really like to see you and speak to you face to face. There are some things that I need to tell you that need to be said out loud instead of on a sheet of paper. And I’m sure there are probably many questions you have to ask. I hope you will come – not just for me but for yourself as well.

I sat down the letter slowly. My mind was reeling. Who did she think she was asking me to come and see her? What would make her think that I would want to see her face again? I had given her my pity before the judge and requested that she get help, but that by no means meant that I ever wanted to speak to her again.

I looked up when Taylor walked into the room. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I sighed, closing my eyes and resting my head on the back of the couch. “Allie just wrote me a letter.”

“Why the hell is she writing to you?” Taylor asked immediately growing angry.

“She wants me to come and see her, so we can talk,” I replied, opening my eyes slowly.

“Well, you’re not going,” Taylor said firmly. Then his expression softened. “Are you?”

I shrugged.

“You mean you’re actually considering visiting that crazy bitch?” Taylor exclaimed, looking at my as though I just grown a second head.

“Did I say that?” I replied rolling my eyes.

“No, but you didn’t say that you weren’t either,” Taylor said pointedly. “So, you aren’t going to see her?”

I sighed. “I don’t know yet,” I replied honestly.

“Ede, why are you even considering it?” Taylor asked as he sat down on the couch beside me and turned to look into my eyes.

“Because, Taylor, I want some sort of closure to all this,” I replied.

“Well, Autumn and Seth are dead, and Allie’s in jail. That seems like closure to me,” Taylor commented.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, we thought that everything was over after what happened with Audrey, but look at how well that went,” I pointed out. “I’m not saying that I am going to see her, but I do have a lot of questions, and I’m pretty sure Allie has some of the answers.”

Taylor looked at me with a pained expression. I knew that he really didn’t want me to go and see Allie. I didn’t even really want to go see her, but there were some things that needed to be cleared up, so it was beginning to look like I was going to have to go.

“I just want this all to be over, so we can move on with our lives,” I commented as I took Taylor’s hand in mine.

“So do I,” Taylor nodded. “So you do whatever you feel is best. Just be careful, okay?”

“I will,” I nodded as I leaned over and kissed his lips briefly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he replied as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I leaned into him and closed my eyes as I inhaled the faint scent of his cologne. I let out a sigh of contentment as Taylor combed his fingers through my hair gently. As I was settling myself into his arms, I felt the baby kick and jumped.

“What’s wrong?” Taylor asked with concern.

“Oh, nothing,” I smiled as I settled back into his arms. “Just the baby kicking.”

Taylor rested his hand on my belly as the baby kicked once again. He laughed as he looked at me. I could see a twinkle in his eyes. “It looks like we’ve got another soccer player in the family.”

“Sure feels that way,” I smiled as I looked down at my rounded belly. I couldn’t believe how quickly my stomach seemed to be growing, but then again, I hadn’t been getting much exercise.

“So, do you think it’s a boy or a girl?” Taylor asked curiously.

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Which are you hoping for?”

Taylor grinned and gave me a sideways glance. “No comment.”

I knew that Taylor wanted another son, and I suppose that it was only logical that he would be leaning that way since we already had two girls and only one boy.

“What about you?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” I smiled. “As long as he or she is healthy.”

“That’s what you always say,” Taylor laughed.

“I know,” I smirked.

--

Nearly two weeks later, I finally worked up enough nerve to go visit Allie. At first Taylor had tried to talk me into letting him tag along, but I felt like this was something that I needed to do on my own, so I set out early in the morning to visit the prison.

I looked around nervously as a guard led me through the white halls and finally into a room that resembled many of the rooms they show in movies. There was a glass in the middle with seats on either side.

“She’s at the end,” the guard commented before I took a deep breath and slowly walked to the end of the room before looking through the glass and coming face to face with Allie.

“Wow, you’re really starting to show,” Allie commented I slowly sat down in the chair. I was surprised that you could just talk right through the glass opposed to using those ridiculous phones on either side. “How much longer have you got?” she asked.

“Two months,” I replied.

I found myself staring at Allie with pity. She had changed so much in such a short time. Her hair fell limply around her shoulders, and her skin was pale. Dark circles were under her dull eyes, and she had obviously lost weight.

“Thank you for coming,” Allie said after an awkward moment of silence.

“Well, like you said, I have questions. You have answers,” I replied.

Allie nodded. “Where should we begin?” she asked.

I shrugged. “You said you had some things that needed to be said face to face,” I commented.

“Yeah,” Allie nodded, taking a deep breath. “Well, first of all, the most obvious thing that I wanted to say is that I’m sorry.”

I just stared at her and watched as her eyes started to fill with tears. She looked up at me. “Actually, sorry doesn’t even begin to cover how terrible I feel about all of this - everything that’s happened to you and your family. You didn’t deserve to go through any of that.

And I’m not asking for your forgiveness by any means because that’s far more than I deserve, but I do want you to know that I regret ever agreeing to go along with Autumn and Seth’s idea. I don’t know what I was thinking. They just made things sound so logical.”

“Logical? How?” I broke in.

Allie looked strained as though she were looking for the right words. “They said that it was your fault that Audrey died. And I guess I knew deep down that it wasn’t, but I was angry that she was gone. See, when we were little before we got split up and sent to different places, Audrey was the one who took care of all of us. And when Autumn and Seth found me and said that they were going to try to find Audrey too, I couldn’t wait. I just wanted to see my sister again. And thank her. If not for her, I probably would have died because our mom was so unfit. She couldn’t even take care of herself. Audrey took care of all of us.

“Then we got here and met Audrey’s adoptive mother and found out that she was dead. I felt so crushed,” Allie stopped to catch her breath. “Autumn and Seth were mad too. They went to the library and looked up every article they could find about it. It became an obsession for them. Then they came to me with this crazy idea. They wanted to split you and Taylor up.

“I don’t know why I even went along with that, but I guess I just wanted to make you hurt because you were still alive, but my sister was gone, and I’d never get to see her again, so we spent months planning all this and as time progressed it went from splitting you and Taylor up to hurting you any way possible.

“We wanted to make you suffer, so we concocted the plan for Seth to work his way into your life. He was supposed to make you fall for him and sleep with you. Then we were supposed to taunt you with phone calls until you couldn’t take it anymore and confessed to Taylor. The fact that he got you pregnant was only a bonus. Only me and Autumn didn’t know that he raped you. He told us that it consensual and that you freaked out afterwards. But the pregnancy made the whole thing even better.”

“How did you even find out that I was pregnant?” I interrupted. That had been a question nagging in the back of my mind.

“Seth was keeping tabs on you. Wherever you went, he went,” she replied. “He followed you into the store when you bought the home pregnancy test and told us about it, so I stole the key to your house from Angelina and made a copy. Then when you and Taylor were gone, me and Autumn snuck into the house. We went through the trash to find out the results. I finally found it stuffed in the bottom of the trash in a black bag,” Allie replied.

I felt a chill go down my spine. Seth had been following me and I hadn’t known it? And Allie and Autumn had been snooping around my home while I was gone. Those thoughts made me uneasy. How could I have not known that they had been in my house? And how was it possible that I never noticed Seth following me? Was I that blind to my surroundings?

“So how did you know that I was going to go to the abortion clinic?” I asked curiously.

“Well, we anticipated that you might decide to have an abortion considering the circumstances, so Seth kept close tabs on where you went,” she replied.

“But how did you know that I would go on the day that I did?” I asked.

“Angelina and Heaven mentioned that you asked them to watch the kids,” Allie replied. “I told Seth and Autumn, and we all figured that if you were going to try to have an abortion, then that would most likely be when you’d have it done, so the night before Autumn managed to talk Zac into stopping off at Isaac and Tracie’s house. I don’t know how, but while she was there, she made small talk with Tracie and found out that she was going to the grocery store the next day. Seth was supposed to cause an accident with her,” Allie explained.

“But how did you know that she would call me?” I asked curiously. I didn’t know how they managed to guess the actions and reactions of myself and my family.

“Actually, we didn’t,” Allie said softly. “After he caused the accident, Autumn was supposed to call you – disguising her voice, and let you know that something bad had happened after Seth called her and let her know it was done, but before she could even call, you left the clinic. I was watching,” she replied.

I sighed softly and shook my head. “So, you guys wanted so badly for me to keep my baby that you caused Tracie to lose hers?” I questioned as tears filled my eyes. “That is just sick.”

“I know,” Allie nodded, wiping away her own tears. “I never meant for things to go that far. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”

“But you did!” I pointed out. “You helped kill Tracie and Isaac’s child! And you killed the police officer that shot Audrey!”

“I didn’t even know that Seth killed that cop until I saw it on the news!” Allie exclaimed loudly, but quickly lowered her voice when the woman at the next window glanced her way. “I didn’t know anything about that, I swear!”

“Why should I believe you?” I asked. “Why I should I believe a word you say? After all that you, Seth, and Autumn did me and my family, I have no reason to trust a word you say.”

“I know you have no reason to believe me! I don’t blame you if you don’t listen to a word I say, but I am sorry,” Allie said tearfully. “But I, honestly, never wanted anyone to die! And when Autumn and Seth gave me the rat poison to put in the kids’ food, I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t hurt Hannah, Zeke, or Saffie. I loved them. You made me feel like a part of your family, and I felt so guilty for what I was doing to you. I wanted out, but I felt so trapped.”

“You say that you didn’t want to hurt anyone, but what about when you gave Hannah that candy? She could have died!” I pointed out.

“I know, I know,” Allie said, shaking her head. “Autumn kept telling me that everything would be okay, but I was really worried about it. I kept a close watch on Hannah though. As soon as she ate the candy, I acted like I found the wrapper, and we hurried to the hospital. I swear I would never intentionally hurt any of them.”

I looked at Allie with apprehensively. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not, but I decided that I would have to hear the rest of what she had to say before I could make up my mind.

“So, why did you guys bring Lila to the apartment?” I asked.

Allie sighed. “I asked Seth and Autumn the same thing when we were planning out the events for that day. I couldn’t understand why they wanted to have Lila meet Seth there,” she commented. “She was only supposed to be another way to find out more about you and Taylor. Seth started dating her. He told her that his name was Adam just to be safe so that Taylor would never connect the dots that Seth and Adam were the same person. But Autumn was really adamant about the idea of making you believe that Taylor was cheating on you. I don’t really know why. I think she just wanted you to feel hurt and heartbroken like we were over Audrey’s death.”

“So, Taylor and Lila were never …” I trailed off. I had been wondering about that for some time. Taylor had told me that he had never cheated on me, but with all that had happened, my mind was jumbled and I couldn’t help but feel somewhat confused by what was fact and what was fiction.

“No,” Allie replied firmly. “He wasn’t sleeping with Lila.”

I looked down at my hands. “How can you be sure?” I asked.

“Lila was sleeping with Seth. She even went as far as to tell him that she loved him,” Allie replied. “Seth liked to gloat about it. He thought it was funny that he was using her just to get information and managed to make her fall for him.”

“What about the letter from Audrey?” I asked reluctantly before looking up slowly and meeting Allie’s tired eyes. This was the one question I had been waiting to ask, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the answer. I had kept going over it in my mind. I had reread it several times looking for anything that would help me decide if it was real or fake, but I couldn’t be sure. The way that it was written sounded every bit like Audrey.

Allie swallowed hard. “Fake,” she answered simply. “Completely made up.”

I gasped with surprise. I had been almost completely certain that it was real.

Allie shook her head. “I don’t know how Autumn did it, but it was almost like she crawled into Audrey’s head somehow and was able to write and sound just like her. She even had me fooled for awhile.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Seth read some entries from Audrey’s diary to you, right?” Allie asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded slowly.

“Seth read them to me too,” Allie replied. “I thought they were real too, but then he told me that Autumn wrote them.”

“Those were fake too?” I nearly gasped. They had sounded so real.

“Yeah, that diary he was reading out of wasn’t even Audrey’s real diary,” Allie confessed.

“It wasn’t?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope,” she sighed. “They bought a diary that looked Audrey’s, and Autumn wrote those entries to read to you. The rest of the book was blank.”

I let out a soft sigh of relief. Hearing that those journal entries weren’t real brought me a sense of relief. “So, Taylor and Audrey never slept together?” I asked uncertainly.

“Never,” Allie confirmed.

Knowing that Taylor wasn’t fucking Audrey all afternoon before he left for LA set my mind at ease. Taylor hadn’t been lying to me about Audrey. I felt foolish for ever doubting him.

Then a thought crossed my mind. “If the diary that Seth was reading from was a fake, where was Audrey’s real diary? And how did you ever get a hold of it?”

“Eveline gave it to me and Autumn when we went to visit,” Allie replied as a guard walked over to her.

“Times up,” he commented taking out his handcuffs.

Allie reluctantly stood up as the guard grabbed her arm to take her away. “Audrey’s real diary is in a safe deposit box at the First National Bank,” Allie replied. “The key to the box is in my room by the window. Lift up the carpet and you’ll have a loose board. There’s a key in a box.”

I stood up slowly as the guard started to pull her away. “Eden, I really am sorry for all of this, but thank you for coming,” she called as she was being led away.