Behind My Sister's Back

Chapter 24: Telling Dennis

Chapter 24

-- Ali's POV --

                “Who is this other guy?”

                Summer pursed her lips, remaining silent.

                “Tell us, sis,” I said smoothly, a delicate smile stretching onto my face as I placed my hands on her shoulders. “We just want to help...”

                We were trying to get my sister to spill the beans. According to her, there was about a two week difference between the... two occasions... and from that, she had now figured out who was (probably) the father to her unborn child. Gina and I were desperate to help, but she refused to tell us who it was. I, in particular, was curious. My heart was determined it wasn’t Dennis, but my mind was more open to the possibility.

                “Talk!” snapped Gina, and both Summer and me jumped when she slammed her fist down onto the table. I gave her a wide-eyed look but she just ignored me. “We’re letting you live here, kid, so start talking or you’ll be out on the streets. Got it?”

                The look in her eyes was fierce. She leaned down onto the table, her fiery hair falling into her face, and she looked exactly like a police officer who was trying to get information out of the suspect. I suddenly realised our roles: Gee was bad cop, I was good cop.

                She raked a hand through her hair and then stared straight at me. “It’s better you don’t know.”

                I swallowed nervously. What did she know..? It suddenly dawned on me and I had to look away from Summer so she wouldn’t see my reaction. She knew...

                She knew... about Dennis...

I bit my lip. How, though? How?

“Ali?”

I turned around. “Yeah, Sum?”

“It’s –“ she fiddled nervously with her fingers, “It’s – it’s Dennis.”

My heart stopped.

**

                I stared sadly at Summer as she spoke calmly to Dennis on the phone. She was incredibly patient, since I could hear, from quite a distant away, him shouting from the other end.

                I still didn’t want to accept it. There was no way Dennis and me could be together now, not with Summer and her baby. I knew how it would end up: at first, he would tell me we could still be together but then, gradually, he was start to drift away from me, and probably would end up getting back together with my sister, and it was likely that that was partly her intention in all of this, and they would live happily ever after as husband and wife, and I’d be back to square one... life is shit.

                My thoughts wandered back to Ian. What would he do if he were in Dennis’s situation? Would he leave me and give it another go with her, or would he fight for me? From experience, I already knew the answer – of course he wouldn’t fight me, he didn’t do it the last time.

                “Okay,” said Summer, taking a shaky breath, as if she was about to cry and clutching the phone to her ear. “I know... yes, I’m aware of that – Okay, okay, enough! There was a reason I called – don’t you take that tone with me! Oh, no, no, no, you aren’t innocent in all of this, Dennis, you drove me to it!”