Under My Skin

Part Thirteen

A/N Sorry for confusion over the jump in the last chapter. Hope it's all making sense now??? 

Part Thirteen

For the umpteenth time since he’d walked into the cafe Isobel found herself on the verge of tears. She was hurting Marc, and that was about to get worse. Her Aunt Maria was right; she had to be honest with him.

                “Shit Isobel! Are you really telling me...?”

She looked up and met his eyes, then gave a nod, “your brother-in-law is the abusive rapist father of my daughter. So now you know why I left.”

He began to pace the room nervously, his hands running through his hair. “Shit...I had no idea. How did this never crop up before?”

Isobel sighed, “well we’re hardly been together long term Marc, I’ve known you less than a year, I’ve never met your mother, or Claudia, if I had I’d have recognised her straight away. I mean as soon as I saw her I knew...You don’t have any photos of her or anything.”

                “Yeah I suppose...” he ran his fingers through his hair, “we never liked that bastard, none of us.” He was shaking his head trying to come to terms with all that was happening.

“There’s something else.” He looked up at her, surprised at the solemn sound to her voice.

“Whatever it is, we can work it out, don’t you see that?” The seriousness of her face was making him beg, he knew that, but he wasn’t too proud to admit it.

She still looked serious, “I can’t come back, I can’t do that, not to Taylor. But there’s...”

Fearing the worst he shook his head furiously, “NO!” he reached out and grabbed at her arm. You can’t leave me, not now that I’ve found you. He’s the one who’s wrong; he’s the one who needs to change.” She tried to respond but he was awash with emotion, “Isobel, I am not letting you walk away. I’ll work it out, really I will.” He was pulling his fingers through his hair almost manically. “He can’t get away with this.”

She shook her head, “you can’t tell him, I can’t do that to Taylor. And yet for as long as he’s part of your family, I won’t be.  We can’t win Marc surely you can see that.”

“I love you Iz, I want us to be together forever, if that means disowning my family...”

She shook her head, “you can’t do that to Sophie and Lucas, they deserve and need family, they’ve had enough trauma in their life.” She cupped his face with her flat hand, “unfortunately our kids needs go before us. That’s life. I‘ve gone through every possibility in my mind these last few months, trying to work out a way….there is none. This is serious enough for me to leave like this, and lose everything that you are to me.”

She held up a hand to stop him as he made to protest, “he can’t ever know about Taylor, I won’t let him hurt her, he’s like poison and he’s not getting close to her. If you as much as hint at that you will never see me again, I promise that.”

Taking a hand, she sighed, “I’m trying to tell you something else too.” She felt sick, no idea how he’d respond to her news, but she had to tell him. Bloody Richard. She rued him yet again as she watched Marc struggling to deal with his emotions, his body started to shake and she knew he was fighting back tears, they’d been so happy until Richard had stamped another irreversible presence on their lives.

She looked at Marc, good, caring, loving Marc, the man she felt she’d spent her whole life waiting for. She was about to deny him everything and deny herself all to run away from that bastard, the way she’d run for the last six years. She’d always vowed to never let Richard hurt her again, vowed to not let anyone hurt her again, but here he was controlling her destiny yet again. Suddenly she was angry, angry at him for changing everything jeopardising her future yet again. He’d done nothing wrong and didn’t deserve all this. In that minute she knew that she couldn’t let it happen again, couldn’t let that bastard ruin her life for a second time, they deserved a chance to be happy.  Standing up she moved across the room to him, and touched his cheek. He looked up at her.