Christian
"Good morning, Chris." Tom's voice is groggy as he steps into the lounge where I'm sitting with a sleeping Sophie on my lap. I look at the clock on the wall and it's only 5.05 am "Morning. What are you doing up so early?" He stretches and yawns while walking over to the big puffy chair that's in the corner. "I couldn't sleep. That bed ain't the comfiest and between Callum snoring like a fucking dog and Jack talking in his sleep I've not had any more than three hours of sleep."
I laugh at Tom's answer, the man is not wrong. Callum has one of the loudest snores that I have ever heard and Jack doesn't shut up in his sleep, then again he doesn't shut up when he's awake either. "Why are you two down here so early?" He looks down at Sophie as she lays across my lap with her thumb in her mouth and her teddy close to her chest. "She's been having nightmares all night, I think the poor girl only had about three hours sleep herself. The other two were getting disturbed when she was waking up crying so I brought her down here."
"Oh, my poor baby. that fucking bitch has a lot to answer for!" His anger matches my own but there's a deep sadness inside of me and that mixed with my anger is making me feel completely off track. "Have you managed to sleep while she has been?" He gives me a concerned look and I know he means well but I hate it. "No. I couldn't sleep, I did try but my mind wouldn't shut off. Have you spoken to her at all...after... well you know."
"Yeah, I did. I called her late last night. I mentioned it but she didn't want to talk about it but she doesn't need to say anything, I already know exactly what she's thinking." His sad look reflects what I feel on the inside. "I don't know what I was thinking." He gives me a doubtful look and at that very moment, I hate how well he knows me. "You do know Chris, you didn't want her to leave. You finally let your feelings rule over your stupid thoughts and you did exactly what you wanted to do, exactly what you have wanted to do for ages. you know I'm right!"
Fuck is he right. Since the moment she arrived at the farm in those denim shorts and a white tee-shirt with her blonde hair tied up high in a pony while it curled loosely down past her shoulders, since the first time that she looked at me with her sparkling green eyes I've wanted to kiss her and so much more, so much more.
I shrug "None of it matters, Tom. You saw what happened and so did Jack. You both saw it with your own eyes so whatever I'm thinking or feeling, none of it matters."
Molly
"Good morning sweet girl." I stretch out my aching muscles as I leave the spare bedroom of Penny's apartment and head towards the old wooden-style table and chairs that she has by her small kitchen. "Good morning, Penny." I give her my best smile even if I feel crushed on the inside.
"Come take a seat dear. Coffee?" I give her a nod as I take a seat while she starts pouring some coffee into a cup. Holly crap the coffee is strong and just what I need this morning. "Sugar? Cream?" I nod my head while covering my mouth with my hand trying to cover my yawn. "Yes, please. Two sugar and cream." She nods quickly finishing my coffee and pushing it over to me all while giving me a concerned look.
"How much sleep did you get darling?"
"I'm not sure. A couple of hours maybe."
"And why is that?" I don't want to lie to her but I'm not sure that I'm up for a lot of questions right now. "I just couldn't relax. Yesterday was a crazy day, a hard day and I just kept replaying what happened." It's not a complete lie I have been reliving yesterday over and over but there's more to it, so much more.
She nods her head. "That it was darlin', that it was but I get the feeling there's more to your lack of sleep than just that." She's good, really good but I don't have the energy to go through it all again. "And before you try to distract me with some rubbish, don't! Im old but not dumb and I know when someone is trying to palm me off." I look at her hoping that I haven't offended her but she's smiling and winks at me letting me that she isn't.
"Honestly Penny, I wouldn't know where to start." It's the truth. So much happened yesterday and I don't even know how to work through it myself never mind telling someone else about it. "I hear the beginning is always a good place to start."
She's right it is and what harm could it do to talk through it all again Maybe she can help me straighten it all out in my brain. Maybe she can help me make some sense of it all. I spend the next hour telling her about everything that happened yesterday from my argument in the morning with Christian to us almost dying in the Tornado and me deciding to leave. I don't tell her about Kaite and the fact that she's still with Amy. It's not my place to tell her something like that and I'm pretty sure Christian doesn't want everyone to know about it and I don't blame him.
"Holy mother Mary, I knew you had a bad day but dear me darlin', that's just unbelievable. You went through more yesterday in one day than most people go through in a lifetime." She pours us more coffee while seeming to think about her next words. "This lawsuit... this woman claiming to have a child with Archie. Do you think it's true?"
I can see she's being careful with her words and I appreciate it, but it is what it is and there's no easy way to talk about it or to think about it. "I want to say no, God only knows I want to say no but honestly... I just don't know. I mean I've never met this woman before. Why would she make it up? Archie is dead and she knew that so she's bound to know that a DNA test is likely to be requested for the lawsuit. If it's not true why start a lawsuit that could just backfire on her? Why?"
I suck in a huge breath while Penny watches me over her cup as she drinks her coffee. "Was Archie ever unfaithful, as far as you were aware?" I shake my head as my heart pounds in my chest. "No, not that I know of no, but he wasn't himself for a long time before he died so maybe he was."
Penny doesn't say a word for a few minutes and neither do I. Instead, We just sit here both wrapped up in our own thoughts. "Oh, my God. Penny, if he is her dad, then that means that a little girl has to grow up without her dad. She can never know the love of a father. I've experienced that and I wouldn't want that for anyone.
"What will you do if she is Archies?" I've thought about this throughout the night and the answer came to me pretty quickly. "If the DNA test proves that she is Archies, then I'm more than happy to hand over the money. I don't care about the money, for all I care, she can have the full amount. But if she is then the money will be going into a trust fund for when she's older. I don't know her mom and I'd want to make sure she's the one who gets the money."
"You are a good woman, Molly."I shrug. I don't think that makes me a good woman. I just think it's the right thing to do. If she is Archie's child then she deserves to be looked after and I'd like to think that he would want to make sure that she is looked after even if it's only financially. But then again, I would have bet every dollar that I have that he wouldn't of ever cheated on me but if she is his daughter then I was very wrong.
"So would you like to tell me what happened last night?"
"What do you mean?" She can't know about what happened between me and Christian, can she?"
"Well, it's a twenty-minute walk from my house to here and yet it took you over three hours to get here. Now I know I'm old, but that doesn't seem to add up to me."
"Tom called you, didn't he?"
She nods her head with a gentle smile plastered across her face. "He did, but please don't be mad at him. He was honestly trying to help. He told me that you had left to come here and asked that either you or I let him know when you arrived." She takes in a deep breath before pouring us more coffee. "When you still hadn't arrived one hour later, I called him to see if you had gone back there but you hadn't and we were worried.
"I planned on fibbing my way through this conversation but she's being so good to me, so genuine and it's warming my heart. I could lie to her, but I didn't want to and I won't so instead I take a deep breath, count to three in my head and then start telling her everything that happened with Christian and him kissing me. Maybe she can help me make sense of the situation. After all, she is one wise woman.
"What did you do when he kissed you, sweetheart?"
I hold my breath for a moment bracing myself for her reaction. I just hope she doesn't think badly of me.
"I run."