All Chapters of Beauty & the Alpha: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

[Valerie]My parents were elated by my decision to go back. I must admit, I didn’t have enough pleasant memories linked to this place to give me real joy about coming back. But the hand holding mine firmly gave me the courage I needed to walk through the dean’s office with my registration forms.Layla had reason to accompany through those doors. She had asked for a transfer to Hillside College, on the basis that she wouldn’t want a pregnant woman left alone. I was glad she was here with me, and her having a dorm room meant that I had a place to crash on the odd weekend when I needed some fresh air.I had told Layla what had happened. It had been three days since I last saw Alexander, and since then I hadn’t heard a word from him. But I had my best friend - who was quickly becoming more like a sister to me - to keep an eye on me while I completed the last semester and got my degree, hoping that greener pastures awaited me on the other side.

[Valerie]The beige cashmere dress Layla borrowed me hugged my belly like a second skin. I hated showing off my growing pregnancy, not because I was ashamed of my child, but because I didn’t have the answers to the questions about who or where its father was. In the few days I resumed college, I noticed the stares every time I took my coat off, and didn’t appreciate the whispers that drifted to my ears. Even those who were rather friendlier with me now grew suspicious when I didn’t have the answers to their questions, so I was hesitant to go to this party they were throwing in my honor.“You are beautiful, Valerie,” Layla peeped out from the bathroom, steam from the shower she just had seeping out from behind her.“Hm, I’m not sure,” I mumbled as I turned before the full-length mirror, “I mean, don’t you think it’s a bit too tight?”“Nonsense!” she shot, padding into the room with

[Valerie]I woke up to the sound of bleep-bleeping, my ears and mind waking up before my eyes did. I blinked frantically, adjusting my eyes to the unfamiliar brightness of some room I was in.A sharp pain seized my temples, and when I shut my eyes again only to regain some semblance of stability, I opened them again to find that I was laying down on what seemed to be a hospital bed. I confirmed it when I tried to shuffle into a seated position, and the restraints of a thin tube that disappeared into the top of my hand made it difficult. I followed the pipe with my eyes to where it was hooked up to a drip stand and realized I was in a hospital.The clothes on my back were not my own. All around the shirt were little blue circles bearing the hospital name, and I lifted a piece up to my eyes to read what that name was. San Ramon Medical Cen. I was in Danville.Groaning, I sat up on my elbows, feeling the way my throat was dry. On the bedside table was a sealed bottl

[Valerie]As soon as I learned that Alice was carrying twins, I felt a spark of hope. Not because soon after her story ended in tragedy, but because the journal didn’t end in empty pages. There was hope.Our stories were hauntingly familiar, so the thought of ours ending the way theirs had, did scare me. I had just finished the last bit of her entries tonight and turned to Alexander to question him about what happened next.He was where he’d been most of the day - sitting on that chair next to the hospital bed. Sometimes he’d drift off into the deepest, soundest sleep, and I’d get to watch him, just as I did now. If there was no threat of us being found out - or me being found out - I would have chosen to spend the rest of my life watching him sleep like this, his face becoming near-angelic, his lips parted ever-so-slightly, and his thick, dark lashes fanning his cheeks. He must have sensed that I was watching him, and his lips curled into a sm

[Valerie]I guess you could say I was more excited about Layla coming over than I was looking forward to Alexander’s visit tonight.It wasn’t because I wasn’t excited to see him again. In fact, we’d just seen each other the night before, when he urged me to read my mother’s part in the book.---We’d been sneaking around for almost a week. Between classes and when my day ended, we saw each other. We could barely keep our hands off each other, but the best part? We couldn’t keep our eyes off one another. It was those endless gazes, those silent moments, those featherlight grazes of our fingers on each other’s skin, that curled my toes and left butterflies in my tummy. With every day that passed since the day he asked me to marry him, we were finding it harder to stay apart.It wasn’t until last night when he promised to come over to see my parents, that he urged me to finally get around to reading the rest