Record of Wrongs

Chapter 8.

Arielle

I waited there patiently in the studio as I waited for Gemma's return. I knew that she was on her way back from talking to Donna because Wendy showed up a few hours ago. I wasn't surprised that Wendy was the easier piece of Gemma's plan, because of the way my relationship with Donna had ended.

Donna didn't see me as a safe person anymore because of the lie that was told to her. She would believe Opie over anything, and a part of me wondered how Gemma was going to pull this off.

From what she told me, Donna recently had a baby boy, only a few months after I left. Donna was a very protective mother, and I knew she wouldn't want to do something that she believed would put her children in harm's way. Getting her here would prove to be a problem, and I was worried that she'd inform Opie if she thought it was for the greater good.

"She's absolutely beautiful Ari," Wendy said as she held Olivia and bounced her gently in her arms. "She looks so much like you."

"So I've heard," I said absent-mindedly. I was hardly paying attention to her, because my mind was focused elsewhere. "Were you able to get close to Abel after I was gone?" I asked changing the subject.

Wendy looked slightly annoyed, "No, Jax warned me to stay away. He said I would just confuse Abel by being around."

I rolled my eyes and scoffed, "Of course he did." I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Jax still didn't want Wendy to get close to Abel, but I was still bothered by it nonetheless. Especially since he had complete faith in Tara to take Abel to Oregon without either of us there. I was hoping that he'd at least allow Wendy to have supervised visitation since she had gotten her act together, but I was clearly mistaken about the man that I'd married. I was practically seeing red as I thought about him, and I could see Wendy becoming visibly uncomfortable with my anger.

She approached me slowly right after putting Olivia down. I could see her hesitation as she approached me, and I found her fear a bit comical. "Ari?"

"Hmm?" I didn't turn my attention towards her, even when she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"I know this is going to come off like a dumb question, but are you okay? Like really okay?"

I slowly turned to look directly into Wendy's eyes to see if she was serious about asking me that question. I'm assuming Gemma left out a bit when she was debriefing her about my situation. I guess it makes sense, Wendy was usually kept on a need-to-know basis. She didn't do well under pressure, and her conscious didn't allow her to keep too many secrets.

I faked a smile, "Couldn't be better."

I could see from her face that she didn't believe a single word that I was saying, but she wasn't able to question me any further on the matter because Gemma and Donna walked into the room.

I could tell by the look on Donna's face that she wasn't expecting me, and I glared at Gemma who didn't meet my eyes.

"Gemma, what is this?" Donna asked with a shakey voice. I was taken aback by her sudden apprehension, and a bit offended that she thought I was going to hurt her. We'd been friends for years before this, and I'd never done anything that would warrant her being afraid of me.

"Donna hear me out," Gemma began.

"No, you never said that she would be here. Isn't she supposed to be in Mexico?!" Donna raised her voice at Gemma, and I found myself getting angry at her words.

"You would just love that wouldn't you?!" I barked at her. "Everyone else screws up and I pay for it, while you guys act like nothing happened!"

"Ari," Wendy applied more pressure to the hand that she had on my shoulder to hold me back, but I pulled away from her while I continued to yell at Donna.