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Chapter 14

Nicks eyes shot open when he heard the phone ringing. He jumped up from the couch where he had fallen asleep and walked into the kitchen where the phone was sitting. He streached and yawned before reaching for the phone.

"Hello?" Nick answered.

"Hey Nick," Alex responded. "I was just calling to see how things went."

"How do you think things went?" Nick answered.

"Maybe this is a good thing. You'll be happier."

"You know, I thought that too, but now I'm not too sure. I never meant to hurt Erin, I feel really bad that I did."

"Nick, I have no idea what to tell you. Personally, I would not have stayed married as long as you had if I felt the way that you did. In the beginning I might have been able to go along with it but there was no way that I could have done it for as long as you did. I would have fucked up somewhere."

"What am I going to do about the kids? How am I going to explain all of this to them?"

"I think they're old enough to understand. Just tell them the truth, that's all that you can do," Alex replied. Nick sighed.

"And what if they don't understand? What do I do then?"

"Worry about those things when you come to them, and I don't think that you will. You've got great kids Nick, I'm sure if you are truthful with them about everything they'll understand why you did what you did."

"Are the guys heading back home?" Nick asked, wanting to talk about something else for a little while.

"Actually they're going to be here for another few days. We still have time to get to together and hang out," Alex explained.

"Yeah, I'd like to do that. Why don't you get in touch with them and we can meet up at my house," Nick suggested.

"You sure cause we can wait a little while if you need the time."

"I'm fine, honestly. Come on over and we can catch up like we were supposed to do yesterday, but this time there'll be nothing crazy happening." Alex laughed.

"Alright, we'll see you soon okay?"

"Yeah, see you," Nick replied as he hung up the phone.

"Dad, can I talk to you?" Grace asked, causing Nick to look in her direction.

"Of course," he answered. "Come on, lets sit down," he continued as he sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter and Grace sat next to him.

"I'm sorry about the pictures," she started.

"Don't be. You had nothing to do with them. I needed to see them, you did the right thing by showing them to me," Nick answered.

"I know," she said softly. "But you didn't have to lie to mom like you did..."

"Grace I didn't lie to her," Nick interrupted. "Everything I said yesterday, I meant. You don't know what I went through before your mom and I got together."

"So you only married mom because she was going to have Clare?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was engaged before I met your mother. Her name was Samantha and she was the love of my life. We were going to have a child. We were going to have a family, but she died. That's about when I met your mother. I felt so empty Grace, I can't even tell you how bad I hurt. When I was about to break up with your mom and move on to some other girl, she told me that she was pregnant. I was happy. I really was. The baby was going to take my mind off of Samantha but I knew that I had to marry your mom because I wanted to be a good guy."

"You didn't have to marry her if you didn't love her."

"I wanted my child to grow up in a normal family. That's why I married her. I wanted life to be as normal as possible for Clare."

"What about me and Chris?"

"I love you guys and you two gave me even more to live for. I wouldn't trade you guys for anything," Nick answered honestly.

"What's going to happen now?"

"You're mom and I are going to get a divorce, which I think will be the best thing for the both of us at least then we can be with who we want to be with and be happy. After that, who knows."

"Why did Clare leave?"

"Because she got into a fight with your mother. She thought that it would be better if she left for a while," Nick explained.

"Oh." Nick looked down at his watch.

"She's home now. You can give her a call if you want. If it would make you feel better." Grace smiled at her father.

"That's okay. I just wanted to know why she left," she replied. "So does this mean that Chris is going to be leaving soon too?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Nick answered. "It's just going to be me and you from now on, kid. That is unless you want to go stay with your mom."

"Not after seeing those pictures."

"Grace, your mom wasn't a bad woman," Nick stated. "I really can't blame her for cheating on me. She must have known deep down inside of her heart that I wasn't being completely honest with her."

"Why didn't you say that to her?"

"Because when I saw those pictures, I got so angery. I wanted her to be as mad as I was so I told her the truth. By then it was too late to say anything nice to her. I was afraid that it would make her think what I had said was a lie. I didn't want her to go through all of this again."

"Are we ever going to see her again?"

"You can always give her a call. She's at your grandmothers house. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you," Nick answered.

"I'll do that."