Ashley flopped into her chair, wrung out from the events of the past weeks. To her utter horror, tears welled in her eyes. It was like knocking the final stone from an already weakened dam.
Her friends stared at her in shock as she dissolved into tears.
“Oh, my God, Ashley, what’s wrong? Honey, it’s okay, you have plenty of time to get pregnant,” Carly soothed.
Tabitha and Pippa wrapped their arms around her from both sides and hugged her fiercely.
“I am pregnant,” she said on a sob.
That earned her looks of bewilderment all around. Pippa took charge, taking a table napkin and dabbing at Ashley’s tears. Her friends sat quietly, soothing and hugging her until finally she got her sobs under control and they diminished to quiet sniffles.
“What the hell is going on?” Pippa asked bluntly. “You look like hell, Ash. And you haven’t been yourself. What the hell was that last night with the weird hair and the dress you wouldn’t normally get caught dead in?”
“Pippa!” Tabitha scolded. “Can’t you see how upset she is?”
“She’s right,” Carly said in a grim voice. “Besides we’re her friends and we love her. We can get away with telling her she looks like crap.”
Tabitha sighed. “I think what they’re delicately trying to say is you just don’t look happy, Ash. We’re worried about you.”
“Everything’s such a mess,” Ashley said as tears welled up all over again.
“We’ve got all day,” Pippa said firmly. “Now tell us what’s going on with you.”
The entire story came spilling out. Every humiliating detail, right down to the disaster of a wedding night and her decision to make Devon fall in love with her.
The three women looked stunned. Then anger fired in Pippa’s eyes. “That son of a bitch! I hate him!”
“So do I,” Tabitha announced.
“I’d like to kick him right between the legs,” Carly muttered.
“You aren’t going to stand for this are you?” Pippa demanded.
“I don’t know what to do,” Ashley said wearily.
Carly grabbed Ashley’s hands. “Look at me, honey. You are a beautiful, loving, generous woman. You are perfect just like you are. The only one who needs to change in this relationship is that jerk you married. I’m so pissed right now I can’t even see straight. I cannot believe his nerve. I wouldn’t change a single thing about you and moreover he doesn’t deserve you.”
“Amen,” Pippa growled. “You need to tell him to take a long walk off the short end of a pier.”
Tabitha pulled Ashley into her arms and hugged her tightly. Then she pulled away and gently wiped at the tears on Ashley’s cheeks.
“No one who truly loves you should ever want you to change. And no one who wants to change that essential part that makes you you deserves a single moment of your time.”
“I love you guys,” Ashley said brokenly. “You can’t even imagine how much I needed you right now.”