Later that afternoon, the unexpected meeting came about. Natalie was out with her kids taking them for a walk through the park, and Ashley was doing the same with Christopher and Arielle. Penny had walked away at some point without saying anything to her, and all of a sudden out of nowhere Ezra asked her " Where is Penny, mom? She was right here a minute ago."
Natalie looked all around her in fear. " I... I don't..." She started to scream out for Penny as she rushed around the park, trying to find her.
Penny had made her way to the water's edge of the river that was right there, and was throwing bread in for the ducks nearby. Ashley saw her and grabbed her before she could go into the water any further than she already was. " You shouldn't be that close to the water's edge, sweetie. You could fall in and that wouldn't be good."
" But the ducks are hungry. I'm just trying to feed them." Penny told her, trying to wriggle free from her grasp.
" I know that. But the river could pull you under." Ashley took her hand and led her away from the waters edge. " And I bet you left your mom wondering where you are too. She is probably running around scared, trying to find you."
Penny nodded her head. " Probably." She looked around the park, and didn't even see her mom. " I... I left her around here somewhere. She wasn't that far from me." She started to cry, wondering if her mom left her there.
" Calm down. We will find her." Ashley told her, and they began to wander around the park. Arielle and Christopher helped look around for Penny's mom, running around together trying to find someone who seemed desperate to find their little girl.
About ten minutes passed before Arielle found someone who was calling out for her little girl, and she led her over to her own mom who still held Penny's hand in her's. Natalie rushed up to them, and gave Penny a big hug. " Don't you ever walk away from me again, Penny. You scared me half to death."
Ashley let go of her hand. " I found her at the river's edge, trying to feed some ducks."
" Penny! Don't you ever do that again! The river is such a dangerous place for you to be near." Natalie exclaimed.
" I'm sorry, mom. I won't do it again. I promise." Penny hugged her mom tightly. " I'll stay by your side from now on."
" Thank you for finding my daughter and for returning her. It means a lot to me." Natalie looked from Penny to Ashley
.
" Your very welcome." Ashely smiled at her. " My name is Ashley by the way. I just returned to town a few days ago. I used to live here a long time ago, and then..."
" Wait a minute." Natalie interrupted her. " As in your the girl that my husband used to date. You... your Taylor's ex girlfriend?"
Ashely nodded her head slowly. " Yeah. And I know that you and him are very happily married with a family."
" Yes, we are." Natalie told her. She looked from her to Arielle. She could see a resemblance to Taylor in her. " You never did get rid of your baby with him, did you? After all this time, you've... you have..."
" Natalie, I can fully explain about..."
" Right. Just get out of here, Ashley. Thank you for finding my daughter. It means the world to me, but leave now. Do not bother even trying to contact my husband. If you can keep it a secret from him at all, you can continue to do so."
Natalie took Penny's hand, and stormed away. The rest of her kids followed close behind as they started heading back home.
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Arielle looked at her mother with confusion as she watched them walk away. " What is going on, mom? Who was that?"
Ashley sighed, and looked at her daughter. " Honey, it's... a very long story that I will tell you later. Let's just get some lunch."
" No! I want to know now, mom!" She exclaimed. " I want to know why she took one look at me and went off on you about some baby. What baby is she talking about?"
" Arielle, just leave it alone right now and let's go." Ashley reached for her daughter's hand, but she pulled away from her.
" Come on, Arielle. I want to get some lunch. I'm hungry." Christopher complained.
" I'm not going anywhere until mom tells us what is going on." Arielle sat on the ground, and leaned against a tree. Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked up at her mom. " I want the whole story, mom. Who is Taylor and what baby was she talking about?"
" Let's just leave her here, mom. I want some food." Christopher looked from his sister to their mom.
Ashley looked down at her daughter, standing there impaitently as Christopher continued to complain about being hungry. After ten minutes passed, she realized that Arielle was really not going to move until she told her everything. Sitting down across from her, she told Christopher to sit down and listen to what she had to say. " This isn't going to be easy for me to say, but... you two... you aren't full sister and brother. You have different dad's."
" And let me guess... the Taylor that she mentioned, he's my dad? Is that what your saying?" Arielle asked.
Ashley nodded. " I met him when I was nine years old, and had such a crush on him. A few years passed, and we went on our first date when we were twelve. To make a long story short, things grew hot and heavy with us and... I got pregnant with you when I was fourteen."
Christopher looked at their mom sadly. " Why didn't you tell us before, mom? Did you really think you could always keep it a secret?"
" That's what I would like to know. Mom, I deserve to know who my real dad is! I deserve to get to know him, don't you think?" Arielle jumped up from where she was sitting, and stared down at her. " And he deserves to know me! How could you do this to me?" She screamed at her.
" Arielle, I'm sorry. I..."
" I'm going to find him, and without your help. Goodbye mother." Arielle ran off, not even bothering to look back. She just kept on running as her mom continued to call out to her, trying to get her to come back.
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Later on the evening, Kate and Zac decided to take their kids to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. They had called to invite Natalie and Taylor along with their kids, but had gotten a no out of them. It was obvoius when talking to Natalie that something was up, but she insisted she was fine. Deciding they would figure it out later, they left.
Zac ordered a
smokehouse barbecue burger and fries with a Rockin' Rocky Road drink that had knob creek, godiva liqueur and ice cream with almonds, chocolate chips and marshmallow's in it. Kate ordered a chicken parmesan sandwhich and french fries with a strawberry milkshake spiked with vodka and disaronno amaretto. The kids had mac and cheese with strawberry smoothies.
It was during their meal that it decided to start storming outside, and it started to down pour out there. The sky got dark fast, and tornado sirens started going off. The manager started rushing everyone into a safe place to hide when Arielle came rushing into the restaurant soaking wet. They quickly rushed her to safety as well, and little did she know that she was standing next to her father's brother Zac. He looked at her, and saw how she was shivering. Kate nodded at him, and he slipped off his jacket. Putting it around Arielle's shoulder's, he smiled. " You look like you could use this more than me right now."
Arielle smiled back at him. " Thank you so much." She fully put the jacket on, and gave Kate a smile too.
Their son looked from Kate to Zac. " I'm scared." Kate put her arms around him and whispered to him he was fine, kissing him on the cheek.
