The Secret Child (Axl Rose FanFic)

Part 42.

I ended up in the driveway of my mothers old house, a for sale sign in front as the people I sold it to were moving. I stayed in contact with them throughout the years and wanted them to meet me there today.

"Hey Lily! So good to see you again!" The wife Ashley hugging me when I arrived.

"Still haven't sold it huh?" I asked as she shook her head.

"Nah, we've had a few offers but I've declined them"

"How come?" I asked confused.

"Because there is only one person who truly belongs here and right now it looks like she needs this place more than ever" she looked at me with a smile on face before handing me the keys. Ashley was a family friend of my mothers, and knew me very well.

"Ashley...I can't just buy the house back" I tried to explain as she shook her head.

"I'm not asking you to buy the home back Lily, I'm giving it back to you. There's no price I can put on this home that would make someone appreciate it like you can" tears brimming my eyes as I gave her a hug.

"Thank you" I whispered to her as she let go.

"Don't thank me Lily...welcome home and remember I'm always a phone call away" her last moving truck pulling from the driveway as she walked to her car. My eyes scanning the front of my childhood home, the brick styled house stood tall with two levels and a lot of open space. My mother had this home custom built to look like the larger houses on the east coast, the white bricks that had recently been cleaned transitioned into grey stone on the sides of the house, the black door and shutters sitting proud with the gray shingled roof made it stand out from every other home on the street. It was distinctive and different just like her and. Memories flooding through me as I entered the original dark stained hardwood floors had been polished and the walls kept white, the chandelier we've had since I was a kid still handing in the foyer as you walked in. This was home, truly my home with 4 upstairs and 1 on the main level and 3 full sized bathrooms with a powder room as my mother would call it, in the hall as you walked in.

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply before walking to the open kitchen. The white and gray marble countertops with white cabinets and a large matching island that sat in the middle and could fit 5 barstools on one side if not more. It amazed me how Ashley didn't change anything over the last couple of years that she lived here but in a way I was thankful that she didn't.

"It's beautiful here..." I turned around at the strange voice that I hadn't heard in years.

"Dad...." My voice cracking seeing him, his hair slightly shorter and pulled back into a low ponytail and the slight wrinkles becoming prominent on his face.

"Lily" he responded, for once I couldn't control myself. My anger and frustration for him disappeared as I felt myself run into his arms with tears down my face as he cried with me.

"How did you know where I was?" I asked pulling away.

"Jake called and told us what happened this morning and that Sarah mentioned you were upset when you left. I had a feeling that you would be here. Turns out I was right about something for once..." I smiled at him softly and nodded my head slightly.

"Things have been so all over the place lately....I didn't know what else to do so I came here on impulse. Guess it belongs to me again" he smiled at me.

"You're welcome" I looked at him confused for a moment.

"When I saw the house was back on the market I bought it back and told Ashley to give it to you. All of the original paperwork is back in your name Lily" more tears brimmed my eyes as I gave him another hug.

"I'm so sorry about everything, I should have never taken you away....you didn't need help, you needed your family and I fucked up by not seeing that" I nodded my head to him as I wiped my eyes.

"Unfortunately, this is the only way I could think of to show that" he chuckled a little as he looked around the house.

"It's fine...it's over with now" I sighed out because it was, it was all done with. I walked him around the house and showed him everything before we ended up in the back yard sitting on the deck.

"So tell me about my granddaughter, I've heard from Jake that Charlotte can be the little trouble maker" I laughed and nodded my head.

"Charlotte is definitely something else...not so much a trouble maker but very strong willed and will do just about anything to get what she wants. She turns 3 soon on Christmas Eve, smart as a whip and looks just like her father" I explained to him as he smiled at me.

"I'd love to meet her soon...I think we all would"

"Yeah...I think it's about time for that. Maybe soon."

"I think that's a good idea...so you and Jake, what's going on there?" He asked as I sighed.

"I don't know....he had that whole thing with Emily going and then her pregnancy and now it's not his kid and then him and I going back and forth acting like a couple but not having a title to it. I don't know dad I really don't. Everything was fine last night and then this morning I found the nursery and photos of them getting engaged and I just shut down...I don't know where to go from here"

"Well I can definitely tell he loves you and Charlotte very much and I'm sure what he was going through wasn't easy, it's possible he just didn't think to take that part of his life away and it was easier to just not look at it. I've kept your room the same for the last few years and haven't even opened the door"

"Yeah but that's different I'm your kid I'm not someone you were engaged to and thought I was pregnant with your child"

"And what did he do when he found out about her cheating and the baby not being his?"

"He stayed with me and told me I was his world"

"Then there's your answer, believe that Lily and run with it. Don't think that he would ever purposefully hurt you because he wouldn't, he's just trying to get his life back with you and Charlotte and make up for the all of the time he missed. There's nothing wrong with that" I nodded to him because this was the talk that I needed. Not from a friend, not from a coworker but from my dad.

"So what's the plan with this house, I mean you technically have two now"

"Yes, but technically my other house is split with Sarah and I. Honestly, I was thinking about just giving her that house, she is more than capable of affording it and she'll be able to have the whole place to herself. But that would put me farther away from Jake" I explained sitting on the floor, both of us eating take out as we had been talking for hours.

"Well, why don't you ask him to move with you? It's about time your family was back together."

"I don't know how he would feel about that...he already has a house of his own"

"Why don't you ask him yourself" he said motioning behind me as I turned to see Jake walking in.

"I want to be wherever it is you and Charlotte are Lily, even if it's the fucking moon" he smiled to me, his dad and Duff walking in behind him, my eyes widening as I ran up to Duff and hugged him, laughing as he was taken back.

"Damn 4 years later and you still won't hug me" Slash chuckled out as I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up and come here" my arms wrapping around him as he stood behind the island in the kitchen.

"Ya know, I was standing right here the moment you came down those steps hungover for the first time"

"You all were and it wasn't my first time it was just the first time you all saw it. I've walked and fallen down those steps plenty of times as a teenager"

"And mine as well, don't forget that" my dad chimed in.

"How could I? You made me suffer in the studio with you guys at Slash's house without Tylenol."

"And that's also the day you met me" Jake exclaimed as I smiled.

"Yeah and it's been down hill since" I joked with him as he smiled.

Maybe this will work out after all