I Am Not Yours

Tough Decisions

November 1913

Henry had fallen asleep to the sounds of crackling fire in his lounge, a book left open on his chest in the green chair. The sounds of the fire were soon interrupted by an impatient knocking at his front door. At first, he hadn't heard them, assuming they were a part of his dream until soon, his body jolted awake and he realized they were real.

"Henry?!" He heard Abigail's muffled tone outside of his mansion. "Henry!" She shouted again.

The exhaustion on Henry's face quickly turned to confusion and soon, curiosity as he forced himself to stand with a yawn. Setting his book down on his coffee table. He stretched a bit while he walked down the hallway to the door. He took a deep breath to wake himself up a bit more and to prepare for whatever new thing Abigail would yell at him for before he pulled his Navy blue door open.

What he had expected to see on Abigail's face was definitely not what he had received as he first saw her on his doorstep that evening. "Abigail?" He said with an actual hint of concern in his tone when he noticed her eyes were red and puffy. "How can I help you?"

"This-...this was a mistake." She forced a pained smile as her eyes already seemed to well up with tears again.

Henry had seen her movements in an attempt to turn around and leave his front porch, but he quickly stopped her. "What is it?" He tried to get her to stay.

She hummed, thinking about staying before shaking her head no. "Nevermind. It was foolish to come here and bother you when you've got more important things to worry about. I don't even know why I-"

"You want to come inside??" He asked her, stepping aside to give her room to enter.

"I-...I-" She hesitated before seeing the look in his eyes and she felt as though her thoughts were right in needing to come here of all places. She slowly stepped inside, passing the mayor as he closed the door.

"Need to sit down?" He asked, realizing she really just needed someone to be kind to her right now and he decided that he would try to be.

"Yes...Thank you. That would be lovely."

Henry led her into the lounge, gesturing toward his sofa. The seemingly broken woman took a seat, smoothing down her lavender skirt as she did so. "Is that your favorite color?" Henry asked her as he sat diagonally across from her in his green armchair.

"I'm sorry?" Abigail said, not fully hearing what he had said.

"That purple?" He pointed at her skirt. "You wear it a lot. Is it your favorite color?"

"Oh!" Abigail looked down at her lap, smoothing out the fabric that covered it. "Lavender...yes. It is....No one ever noticed that before. Do I really wear it that much?" She asked him, having not even noticed so herself.

"Yes." Henry replied without hesitation. "It suits you."

"Oh, thank you." Abigail weakly smiled, her burden of why she had come here popping into her mind again.

"What's the matter?" Henry decided to break an involuntary silence.

"It's...Cody and Becky."

"The kids you look after." Henry said, having heard about them from around town, though in his attempts to avoid Abigail after their....discretions...he had never met Becky or Cody himself.

"Yes...." Her eyes welled up with tears again, the glow of the fire causing them to sparkle in her eyes. "Their Aunt...She has come to take them away from me. To Davenport."

"Nice city." Henry noted. "And you don't want them to go."

"No." Abigail almost whined as she answered him and a tear fell down her cheek. "I have grown to love them as if they were my own and I-...I know that this might sound selfish...but I need them here with me."