Two Worlds Collide

Knowledge is Power?

Reba had gone upstairs to take a shower, brush her teeth, and head to bed. So much was happening all at once and it felt like she couldn't keep up with it all. Her eyelids were heavy as she laid her head down on her pillow. Sadly her dreams would keep her anxiety high.

"Honey...! You need to come here!" Reba called our from the bathroom.

"What is it? Are you okay?"

"I-...I'm perfectly fine. Actually..." Reba began, holding up a pregnancy test. "...I'm pregnant."

"You're what...?"

"I'm pregnant." Reba smiled, happy tears forming in her eyes.

"I knew we should have waited. I told you we should have waited."

Her heart felt like it was being crushed. She was happy about it. Why couldn't he be?

"Honey we're having a baby. Can't you be happy for us? For me...?" Reba pleaded.

"I'm really not happy about it Reba."

A lump formed in Reba's throat and her happy tears began to turn to those of sorrow.

"But...if you're happy...then I'm happy."

Reba nodded and crossed her arms in front of her. She soon felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her close.

Little did she know this was just the beginning of a new kind of deception. The gears were turning in his mind. The plotting had begun.

Reba awoke with a start, her eyes flying open. She turned to see Victoria at the side of her bed, her face only illuminated by the screen of her laptop. "What are you doing up...?" she asked groggily.

"How could you...?" Victoria asked, her voice cracking.

"Could I what...?" Reba squinted and glanced over to her clock before reaching up to turn on the light. "It's three in the morning. You're gonna have to lay it all out for me."

"This is my father, isn't it?"

Reba looked over at Victoria's laptop, which she had turned, to see a picture of someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Charlie Battles." she said softly then sighed. "Sweetheart...as much as I want to-..."

"Don't sugarcoat this for me." Victoria spat, venom lacing her voice. "Tell me. The truth."

Reba sat up and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "He isn't your father Victoria." she told her. "If you really want to know...I can show you."

She took Victoria's laptop and her keystrokes filled the eerily silent room.

"Now you have to promise me not to go looking for him. Promise me that you won't get involved." Reba told her, a serious expression on her face.

"I can't promise that. Just show me." Victoria said.

Reba sighed and began to turn the laptop around. "Alright."

When the laptop was facing her, she couldn't believe what she saw.

"Narvel Blackstock..." Victoria said softly.

"Steel guitar player turned manager turned husband. Now ex-husband." Reba explained.

"But wait...it says you weren't married until 1989." Victoria thought aloud, trying to put the pieces together.

"You're right. We weren't." Reba said softly.