Under the cover of darkness, people do things they'd never do under the harsh glare of day. Decisions feel wiser, people feel bolder. But when the sun rises, you have to take responsibility for what you did in the dark and face yourself under the cold, harsh light of day.

Are the answers to the questions that have kept you awake at night, worth the pain of the truth?

Sometimes, staying in the dark is a much better option.

The weight of her indiscretions and the reality of her choices lay on her chest. Her worst fear had come true and the pain Adilyn knew she would feel slammed against her. The question that haunted her night after night now had an answer. The blank stare in her water filled eyes showed how she really felt.  

Somehow she found her way to the other side of town, on the doorstep of Trey and Ella's apartment. Her hand felt like a ton of bricks as she attempted to ring the buzzer. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain to her amazing son that he was losing someone that he loved. It was the last thing she ever wanted to do. She never wanted to involve a guy in Jaxon's life for the scene that was about to unfold. This chapter of his life wasn't supposed to happen. She had suffered long, cold, empty nights alone so he wouldn't have this chapter in his life.

She stood silent waiting on Ella to buzz her in.

 "...Come on up Adi." Ella sympathetically answered through the intercom. Her tone was obvious that she was fully aware of what just happened.

Adilyn stepped on the elevator and waited patiently as each floor stopped, picking up passengers and dropping some off. She knew she had to pull herself together. She knew that Jaxon, her beautiful son, was waiting for her. 

A young couple being lovey-dovey on the far side of the elevator started playing with their daughter. The father had a hold of her hands bouncing along with her, spinning around, before she grabbed his leg and held on for dear life.

"Dizzy baby!" he joked with her. She clung onto his leg and looked up at him scrunching her nose.

Adilyn's hands started to tremble and she held the tears up until the very moment they stepped off onto their floor. She wanted that relationship for her son. She wanted her son to know the very best of his father. She wanted that level of love and admiration for one another. Jaxon was a mama's boy, but she desperately wanting him to be a daddy's boy.

"Can't I get one ‘get out of jail free card'? Just one time..." She mumbled to the sky.

She walked out of the empty elevator, dropping her head, making sure she didn't make eye contact with anyone.

Ella was waiting for her when she got their door. Adi could see she already knew the news, it was written all over her face. Instead of saying anything they grabbed a hold of each other and started to cry. Adilyn closed her eyes, her thoughts were racing. She was hoping, wishing, and praying that she could pull herself together. She had to find the strength from somewhere to stand on her own two feet, even with the reality around her. She had always believed the day she found out who Jaxon's father was she would be happy and overjoyed with emotion but this day was upon her and she was heartbroken and scattered into a million little pieces across that big ol' city.

 Adilyn looked across the apartment, seeing her pride and joy jumping around. That little bounce in his step, was Justin. His little hand propped on his hip, head bobbing back in forth, gaining the attention of everyone around him, was Justin. His attitude, well that was all her.

She didn't need a paternity test to know that curly hair beauty was Justin's son. It explained so many questions, but also created many more.

"Are you okay?" Ella asked placing her hand on her shoulder. "Trey told me..."

"I need to get Jaxon." She confessed, changing her entire tone. "We are going to get away for a little while..." She wasn't sure where, but she knew that she needed to be away from everyone and everything.

"I can keep Jaxon if you want to go..."

"My son is my only priority. I have to be strong for him." She wiped her tears once again from her face as she walked further into the room, Jaxon took notice that she was in the room.

"MAMMA!" He expressed, running towards her.

She kneeled down, picking him up, squeezing him tighter than she ever had before.

He was her life.

"Mama cry." Jaxon says puckering up his lip.

She brushed his curls off to the side of his face, revealing more of Justin than she had ever seen in him before. His jawline, was Justin. His eyebrows, was Justin. His ocean blue eyes, was Justin. The curls she thought were hers, was Justin.

How could she have missed the details? She thought to herself.

"I'm okay Jax... I'm okay."

He had a way of knowing she was upset and lying to him. He saw through her front. He laid his head down on her shoulder.

"Adi..." Ella's voice broke. It was hard for her watch her dear friend fall to pieces.

She turned back to Ella, "Maybe it would have been best if I would have let the situation go. Maybe I should have listened to Trey, because I not only reopened the wound, I bursted it at the seams." More painful tears streamed down her cheeks. "I wanted the answers, I didn't need them. I was selfish. And now my son is going to pay the price."

"... I'm so sorry."

Adi reached out and hugged Ella. "I love you. But this is my fault. Everything about that night is my fault."

"Adi." Ella gained her attention again, "Maybe this was in some weird way, this is fate. Maybe you and Justin were just destined..."

Shaking her head, Adilyn climbed onto the elevator.

Jaxon climbed into his car seat where he found his toys he had shoved into the pouch on his car seat. She watched him in the mirror examining every detail of the gadget in his hand. His attention to detail could have come from either of his parents. They both shared that god-awful nact for details.

Adi's felt like cement blocks had been attached to her feet. She couldn't see her son and not see all the things that were Justin. How it took her so long to see it she would never understand. It never crossed her mind to even put Justin in that category. But now, she was forced to see it.

Jaxon jumped out of the car and darted for the front door. "Come mama, come!"

"I'm coming buddy, I'm coming." She lifted her stone feet and made it to the door and Jaxon, full of energy ran into the house, heading straight for his box of toys.

"Wanna play cars wit me mama?"

Adilyn bent down to his level. "We are gonna go on a trip? You wanna go?"

His eyes light up. "Me go! Back to car!"

"How does a plane ride sound?"

His hands flew in the air, spread out like wings. "Plane! Plane!"

He jumped into his mother's arms and she began to sing to Jaxon the way she has countless times before. She loved having him tiny arms wrapped around her neck, she loved to watch his face when the sound of her beautiful voice would sing to him. "God gave me you for the ups and downs... God gave me you for the days of doubt..." Emotion filled tears streamed down her face. She slowly caressed the side of his face, swaying back and forth.  "For when I think I've lost my way, there are not words here left to say, it's true, God gave me you... He gave me you."

Jaxon's arms wrapped tighter around her body, whispering "I wuve you Mama."

That's what she needed to hear. His head on her shoulder reassured her that somehow they will stand on their own two feet again.

As she places his tiny feet on the ground and he runs to his little bag, shoving toys into his bag. "Me need these for plane."

"You can't take them all buddy."

"Ugh." He crinkled his forehead, "Fine."

Laughing for the first time she sees her stubborn son still trying to shove things into his bag, he got his packing skills from his mother. She had always been an over packer, which she was currently doing. Item by item she places each into her oversized suitcase. She was packing enough clothes for a month.

Hearing the front door open and shut, she stepped into the hallway and started towards the living room.  She could only assume it was Trey and he was coming to try and rescue her once again. Any other moment in time she would have fought him to the end, only this time she was ready and willing for him to rescue her. But when she rounded the corner she saw who was placing his keys into his pocket and walking in a daze that she herself has become accustomed to today. She quickly turned around and headed straight back to her bedroom.

Justin approached the door of her bedroom to see a suitcase placed on the bed, open and nearly full with clothes. "Where are you going?"

 "I'm taking my son out of this mess..." She selfishly admitted. "I'm going to take him somewhere we can just be alone. My son deserves..."

"Our son." He admitted interrupting her.

"Justin..." She said annoyed.

"Adi, don't shut me out. Don't run from this."

"Why not? You knew for a total of thirty seconds that you were a father and ran."

"I made the wrong choice. I screwed up." He took her hand, "I'm here now."

She pulled her hand slowly out of his, her motherly instincts kick in. "My son doesn't deserve someone that runs from him."

"Our son. That is my son as well." His facial expression changed looking across the hall, seeing for the first time, his son. He had seen Jaxon countless times, but it was different then, now this was his flesh and blood. He was no longer looking at his girlfriend's child, he was looking at his son.  "I have a son." Justin felt the instant pressure and responsibility of those words.

"USTINN!!!" Jaxon bolts across the hallway bouncing up and down.

Justin knelt down to his level, braces his knees on the floor. "Hey buddy!"

"I miss you." Jaxon expressed wrapping his tiny arms around him. "Where you go?"

"I had to work buddy." Justin smiled, "I'm not going anywhere anymore... I promise." His words spoke clearer.

"Justin..." Adilyn snapped at him.

Justin turned to look back at her, "Adi."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He stands up, "Adi, I love you. I love him. I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't want you to love me because of..."

He cut short her words, "I love you Adilyn Belle... I've always loved Jaxon as if he were my own, now... now it's just official." His long arms reached out and spun her around, pulling her back into his space, "My heart just races when I'm next to you..."

Her eyes locked with his, but she turned away from him. Her heartbeat picked up at a quick pace, she felt it as well. He was whisking her off her feet but her wall was back up. "Quoting yourself from something you've made public about someone else doesn't make me want to have you sweep me off my feet."

With a stunned look on his face he manages to say, "What?"

"Justin, your words, your lyrics may work on millions of women but they don't work on me. I have too much in my life to worry about then to have some uber famous pop star singing my praises."

"Adi, I..." Justin watched the pain in her eyes. He knew that this wasn't easy for her, but she was trying to be a mom. She was trying to protect her son. But Justin was determined to show her that she doesn't need to worry. "This is a lot to take in. Everything about that night needs to be figured out but we can take it slow, work out all the details... together."

"I won't involve someone in my son's life that is going to just disappear. I will give up my life, my career, my dreams, my world for him. My son is..."

"Our son..." He interrupted her again. "You keep saying your son like I'm not standing here."

"I just..."

"You're scared... you're worried... you're panicking... you're being a mom, that's your job. But it's my job to be there through all of this. It's my job as that little guys father to be the best dad I can be for him."

She stood silent, she didn't know if he was just saying the right things or was he really interested in being the father Jaxon deserved. "Anyone can be a father... it takes a real man to be a dad."

He took her hands into his, "I intend on doing everything humanly possible to be the best dad that little guy could ever have. He deserves that." He pulled her back into his chest, wrapping his arms around her, resting her head on his beating heart. "And I intend on being the best boyfriend to you as well."

Tears started to stream down her face once again. He was saying all the right things. She wanted to believe him.

He pulled her face back into his view, wiping away her tears, kissing her forehead ever so gently. "Let's go. Let's get away..." He smiled.

In the pit of her stomach, she only felt emptiness. The day was filled with so much emotion that she didn't know how to feel about his offer. She wanted to get away alone. She wanted her own time to think though the events of the day. But there was something that kept her from running away from him and maybe if she had the strength, she wouldn't have uttered her next words. "Let's go."

The sun sets from the harsh light of the day.