DAYS’S GWEN TO CHAD: I’M KEEPING THE BABY
■ Abigail informs Chad that Gwen might be pregnant and is getting a blood test to confirm it. “He’s a bit in shock,” says Billy Flynn (Chad). “But I think he’s gotten older and matured a little bit and he wants to come from a place of, ‘Listen, I know this is terrible. I didn’t want this. It’s my mistake and I own that. But if Gwen is pregnant, then I need to support that child, not her.’ ”
Abigail adds that she suggested that Gwen terminate the pregnancy to avoid complicating everyone’s lives. Chad feels that’s Gwen’s decision to make. “He’s coming from, ‘This is my mistake, I have to own it and I’m not going to manipulate her into taking some way out just to benefit me,’ ” explains Flynn. “He’s focusing on the disappointment that Abigail would bring that up because it just doesn’t seem like her. It’s almost like Chad would have brought that up first, so then when Abigail does, he’s like, ‘That’s not you, what are you talking about?’ But Abigail is already kind of slipping. When you see the person you love becoming the one thing you feared her loving you would turn her into, the revenge and the vengeance and the hate in her eyes, through all the stuff that she has suffered, now to be dead set on wanting this abortion, he’s like, ‘Why?’ I think Chad’s really confused as to who is standing across from him.”
Later, Gwen confirms the pregnancy via a blood test that Kayla administers. After, she stops by to see Chad and shares that she’s keeping the baby. “He’s not choosing Gwen; he’s choosing to own a mistake and any repercussions that come from that,” notes Flynn. “And Gwen says something about love and he tells Gwen something like, ‘We did not choose to have this baby out of love. It’s a baby out of spite, and although I have to be there for the child, I am not going to be there for you,’ type of thing.”
Not surprisingly, Abigail isn’t as on board. “Abigail doesn’t see it that way; she just sees it as Chad taking Gwen’s side, or choosing Gwen’s child over their children,” explains Flynn. “Dealing with someone who has struggled with mental illness, over time, it’s almost forced him to make more moral decisions in situations like this. He’s been so overwhelmed and so forced into this position as a caretaker but I don’t think it suits him. Abigail is in a place where she’s so mad, and on top of the mental illness, she doesn’t know which way is up. But Chad understands that she doesn’t seem like herself, so if he just talks calmly and keeps things level, maybe she will see her way back.”
“He’s not choosing Gwen; he’s choosing to own a mistake.”