4 (jaylor) gleaming twilight and an infinite afterglow

chapter eight.

Taylor felt herself freeze as she heard his name fall from her daughters lips. She sighed, trying to compose herself. Now wasn't the time to talk about that - and she had to talk to Joe about it first.
"We'll talk about it later, okay? We'll talk about it after you get back from seeing Aunty Selena." Taylor wished that Thea had never heard his name, that she didn't want to know who he was.
"But-" Thea was going to protest, but was cut off by Joe and Selena, who called out her name.
"Are you ready to have lots of fun?!" Selena asked, and Thea smiled. Taylor hoped that maybe she'd be so distracted by the fact that she was getting to stay with Selena that she'd completely forget about it.
"Yes!" She stood up, running over to Selena.
Taylor pulled her feet out of the water and finally turned around to look at Joe. She was trying to tell whether he was annoyed at her for shutting herself off like this. If she'd hurt his feelings.
They had so much they had to talk about - and Taylor was almost one hundred percent sure that she would look at her phone and find several missed calls from Tree. She had to respond to them, and now that she felt that she could at least move, she knew that she'd better get onto it.
Taylor waved goodbye to Thea and Selena as she stood up. She felt bad for feeling relieved that they weren't going to have to worry about Thea for the afternoon. They weren't going to have to speak in hushed whispers, or worry that she might overhear what they're saying.
Taylor looked over at Joe, and sighed.
"I'm sorry," she murmured softly, and he came over to her.
"Are you alright if I hug you?" Joes asked her, and Taylor felt herself melt. She really appreciated the fact that he would often ask her if she felt like being touched - when the sparkle had left her eyes. She appreciated that he cared so much about not wanting to hurt her, or send her spiralling deeper into that darkness. Most of the time, she was fine with being touched, there'd only been one or two times that she'd not been able to let him, and both of those were in the day after a horrific nightmare about it.
Taylor nodded, leaning into him. "I'm sorry for letting myself shut off like that..."
Joe didn't say anything for a few moments, before gently pulling away and then cupping her cheeks. "You never have to apologise for that, my love. Never." He paused, softly pressing his lips to hers. "You know that there's been days where I've found it hard to get out of bed, and you've never once talked to me the way that I know you were talking to yourself." Joe told her, and she sighed, because it was true. "You've always been there to tell me to be kind to myself, love. You've always told me that it's alright to have days where nothing falls into place, and you have to listen to the words that you keep telling everyone else." He leaned in and kissed her forehead, and her eyes fluttered shut. She loved him so much - and she was so sure that it was always him that kept her glued together. Taylor sighed. It was so quiet without Thea around - they'd barely ever spent time apart, and Taylor's life honestly felt so empty without her running around her legs. "Do you want to have a look at everything together? Your phone has been ringing non stop for the last couple of hours - should we see what Tree has to say?"
Of course she didn't want to. Of course she just wanted to sit by the pool and spend the afternoon without all of that worry. But she didn't have a choice. Sometimes you couldn't hide from the real life problems, sometimes there was just no choice but to face them.
"Thea asked about him," Taylor told him slowly. She didn't think there'd ever be a day where she wouldn't tear up at the fact that her daughter knew the name of the man that had hurt her so badly. She knew too well that one day, she'd have to face the conversation about why she had scars on her arm. Taylor just hoped that she and Joe would be the ones to tell her, that she wouldn't find out through someone else.
"Did you talk to her about it?" Joe asked quietly as they headed inside.
"No, I told her that we'd talk about it with her tonight. I didn't want to talk about it with her until I'd had the chance to talk to you about it..." Taylor picked up her phone of the kitchen counter, and wasn't surprised when she saw that she'd missed six calls from Tree. She felt bad - usually she was so good at responding to phone calls. She was going to beat herself up about it, but realised that if it were Joe that hadn't replied to phone calls, she wouldn't be cruel - not even for a second. So she let it go.
Joe rested a hand on her back, and Taylor looked up at him with a smile. She leaned against the bench, before she called Tree back.
"I hope that it's nothing that we can't shut down," Taylor said as she but her lip. "And I swear to god, if it's anything about-"
"Taylor!" Taylor heard Tree's voice through the phone, and sighed. "Thank you for calling me back."
"I'm sorry," Taylor spoke, putting the phone on speaker. "I'm here with Joe."
"Hey, Joe. I'm surprised Thea's not trying to sing to me like she did last time," Taylor could hear the smile in her voice.
"She's with Selena, so that we can sort this out." Joe gave Taylor's hand a squeeze, as Meredith climbed up onto the bench behind them.
"That's probably for the best," Tree answered.
"How bad is it?" Taylor asked quietly, absolutely dreading her answer.
"It could be much worse... your fans are doing a pretty good job at shutting it down for you," Tree told them. Taylor smiled, because she knew that her fans would do anything for her. She couldn't help but feel so relieved that they had been fighting whatever they were being told. She heard Tree sigh before she continued talking. "Basically, Adam's mother has come out with a long list of... what do I call it? Basically, she's composed a list of the things that you supposedly did while you were in a relationship with her son, calling you - and I quote - 'a lying, manipulative, deceitful woman,' and continues to list things that you did that the world doesn't know about." Tree told her, and Taylor felt herself feel sick.
"Like what? What's on the list?" Taylor asked, trying to stay calm.
"We've done a good job at keeping it from the public, but we haven't been able to get rid of every single copy of it. But I'll send it through now," Tree told her, and Taylor rummaged through her bag to find her laptop. What sorts of things were going to be on this list?
"I'm going into it now," Taylor spoke breathlessly. She didn't want to know the sorts of things that were being dragged up again - and there were so many things that she still hadn't faced.
It was literally a list, with thirteen points. That really fucking annoyed Taylor.
"Are you looking at it now?" Tree asked. "As you can see, I've made little notes about what we can say about each point. But there is also the option to ignore it - because your fans truly have gone above and beyond to prove that none of these points are true, and for the... longer points, they've supported you regardless of how true they may be. It's effectively blown up in her face, because now she's been cut off from all social media because so many people reported her account." Taylor was hardly listening, she was too busy skimming through the list.
Number one - Taylor Alison Swift is a lying, manipulative, deceitful woman, who had tried to distract the world from this with her accusations against my son.
Number two - Let's not forget about the fact that she has accused my son of being an abuser, something that he simply is not. Adam would never hurt anyone, and her relationship with him was a happy one - trust me. They were even looking at marriage,