s o u t h g a t e s - s e c r e t

P A R T 8

TW rape and sexual assault.

22 years before...

it was a very gloomy night in yorkshire, alison had just finished her shift at the bakery. the smell of cheesey pastries radiates throughout the shop. as it was a saturday the bakery had stayed open later because most of there income came from drunken men coming in to buy sausage rolls and cakes late at night. it was only her to left to tidy and lock up the shop, there was a lot of customers tonight some mildy agressive but for the most part the night went smoothly.

after the bakery was safely locked up for the night alison headed home with caution. even without the time being near 2 am women always had to be cautious walking anywhere alone even in the day time. the odd few men walked by and cat called her but she had learned to get used to those comments. 

the shouts of intoxicated individuals get quieter by the second and everything begins to get distant. alisons senses widen, her skin starts to tingle, she breathes deeper inhaling the crisp air, her vision and hearing has become sharper. alison has focus. even just the feeling of being watched was enough to make her sprint the rest of the blocks to the saftey of her home. she then turns around slowly expecting her eyes to connect with a stray animal, cat or dog, no difference she just hopes she is overthinking. as she does that she is stunned to see her sexual assaulter right before her eyes.

john. he was a family friend, very respected amongst her household. although they never knew what had been going on behind closed doors. alison had been getting groped by him for a while, though he had never went that far to actually raping her that dosent invalidate the amount of trauma getting forced to do sexual things with him gave her. she had never spoke up about it to anyone because he had threatened to do worse things with her. 

alison starts to speed up and john follows suit. her split decision to start running set johns anger off. as she feels him approaching  quick, her run turns into a sprint. the burning hot feeling in her lungs as she is running as fast as she can is something she can't shake. the sound of his shoes against the concrete echoing in the alleyway makes it hard to tell if he is close or not which panics alison even more. she can tell this isn't just what john thinks is a harmful touch he plans to take this further, she screams for help praying someone will come to her aid.

 she feels calluses forming on her vocal cords as she screams hysterically. alisons turns a sharp corner as she is met by a dead end, the terror she felt as she saw the rough brick wall was something she will never forget. she accepted that this was the end when she saw john slyly turn the corner. yes, she was right this wasnt just a touch, this time he really went all the way and raped her. what alison feared the most from this awful man.

after when others would think this nightmare would end, when her rapist left, it didnt and alison knew that. the familiar lump in her throat came, her hands shook like she was in minus degrees temperature, her heart thudding out of her body, she brung her head to her chest and cried, hard, very hard, just hoping the feeling would go away. maybe the initial assumption that john was going to murder her was better than livng with the guilt of believing this was all her fault. why me? she thought, what did i do to deserve this.

a couple of months later john was convicted of raping her and got sent to prison for 25 years, 23 on good behaviour. the relief alison felt on this day was nothing like she has ever felt before but she had the pressure of wether to keep the baby on her mind aswell. alison wasnt stupid, she knew only having a little job at the bakery would not make her financially stable to look after a baby and not only financially, mentally aswell. the responsibility to have another humans life in her hands was something that scared her and after everything she went through she wasnt even stable enough to look after herself.  she knew that adoption was an option but alison felt obliged to take care of her future son or daughter.

"ill be back" was the last thing john said to alison in court. obviously this did impact her but she knew that by the time he is out she will be long gone, living a successful life, hopefully not even thinking about him. 

9 months later she welcomed her beautiful daughter into the world, her piercing brown eyes could cut through anyones skin. her mother reassured her that the worse was over and her little bundle of joy was healthy but alison knew something was up. she had the urge to push, the pain that suddenly overcame her was unbearable. as a natrual reactiom she started to push again, and to the nurses surprise another babys head was showing. they discovered that another two babys were still to come after the girl. 

alison was stunned, triplets? she had gave birth to a beautiful girl and two boys. this had her in a very sticky situation as she would hardly be stable enough to look after one child nevermind three. after discussing with her mother she came to a desicion to give the two boys up for adoption in hope they would stick together in the same family. it broke her heart to have to do that but she knew it would be unfair to put them in an unstable environment. 

3 years later she met gareth, they moved in together and soon after got married. yes, riley isnt gareths daughter biologically but he has been in her life long enough to see her as his own. 

22 years later, here riley is. a grown up, mature girl. making her parents and brother prouder and prouder as the days go by. but the 23 year mark is a bit too close for alison and gareths liking so thats why they both asked the older boys to keep an eye out for her. riley knows gareth isnt her bio father but she still appreciates him nonetheless. she dosent know the story about her real dad and sometimes wonders why the team isn't aloud to be told that she is gareths daughter as she is proud to say he is her dad after everything he as achieved. 

little does she know that will all unravel eventually...