Among The Roses

Chapter 51: Ned Comes Clean

AN: A couple more chapters left, okay? And then an epilogue, probably...

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LeeAnne came home the next day and set herself up on the sofa in the lounge. She said it was "too lonesome" up in her room, too far away from everyone. It did make sense to have her closer to the kitchen, since it was so far for her to walk from her bedroom. Also, it saved her having to walk down the back stairs where her accident had occurred.

And although no one came out and said it to her face, it soon became obvious to her that everyone was upset with her, and that she wasn't surrounded by people who loved or even liked her.

"What the fuck's going on around here?" she asked plaintively when Mara had placed a cup of tea by LeeAnne's elbow and walked away without a word.

"What do you mean?" Mara asked coolly, turning around.

"No 'hello,' no 'you feeling better?'" LeeAnne gestured toward the teacup. "You just plunk it down and leave?"

"What do you want from me? We weren't friends before, we're certainly not friends now, I assume you're leaving in a couple of days, so what is there to say?" Mara demanded, hand on her hip.

"Why would I be leaving in a couple of days?" LeeAnne seemed honestly perplexed.

"You have no reason to stay, do you?" Mara sounded just as perplexed.

In the meantime, their raised voices had brought the others from all over the house, including Chiara, who'd been in the mudroom.

"I'm going to Italy with Drew, for your wedding," LeeAnne said, gesturing toward him where he stood in the doorway to the kitchen. "We're still engaged." She lifted her left hand, where she still wore the ring, for emphasis. "After that, I might take Sienna and go back to LA, if I feel like it, and if Nicholle hasn't sold the house--"

"Hold on a tick," Gary said. He was sitting on the main stairs, bouncing a smiling Sienna on his legs. "I don't know about Italy and the wedding with Drew, though I have a pretty good guess that's not happening. I do know, though, that you're not taking Sienna anywhere. You relinquished custody to me, remember? You keep the house, the car, all the baby gifts and money and that, but she's mine, you don't even have visitation, you didn't want it. 'I'll be too busy' were your exact words, if I recall correctly."

"And you're definitely not coming anywhere with me," Drew said firmly. "As you've made plain over and over and over these past weeks, everything between us is happening according to the contract we signed, and we'd better be damned careful not to break it, right? And, though I understand it was no fault of yours, you did break it when you lost the baby, so our contract is now null and void; therefore, we're no longer engaged."

"But--wait, you guys are saying not only have I lost the baby I was going to have, but you're not going to give back the baby I gave away?" LeeAnne sounded incredulous.

"Think about what you're saying," Ned responded without missing a beat. "You want Drew to stick to his contract, the one that you broke, but you don't want Gars to stick to his contract, the one that he hasn't broken? How unreasonable is that? You can't pick and choose which legal documents you uphold and which you ignore. You either--"

"No! No! This is all bollocks!" This came from Noah, whom no one had noticed in the dimly lit hallway that led to the music room and recording studio.

"Noah! What are you doing here?" Apparently LeeAnne hadn't known Noah was even on the premises.

"None of this matters, all this shite about contracts and enforcement and what's null and void? Everyone knows the truth, all of it, you bitch! That baby wasn't mine, it was Gary's, and you didn't love it, just like you don't love her--" and he gestured viciously to the baby in Gary's lap. "We all talked, and everyone knows the truth, so you can call every news station in England and spew your rubbish, because none of it matters anymore! Tell everyone anything you want, and all that will happen is that they'll all hate you, just like I do!"