Fake Family

Chapter Seven

        

"I can't do this" Sarah ran her hands down the burgundy knee length dress.

Marissa clipped the light brown belt into place "oh honey don't worry, everything will go amazing. Robin Roberts is a close family friend".

"Your family is friends with Robin Roberts?" Sarah asked.

"Of course, she is a wonderful cook" Marissa clipped on a thin gold chain necklace and helped Sarah into knee high brown boots. "Now listen its going to be very simple. You'll go on stage with Andrew and you guys will sit down at the table with Robin. She'll have some kind of food ready that you guys will sample and then you'll just talk for about ten minutes. Andrew is going to explain why he kept you hidden and you're going to introduce yourself. The idea is to show the public who you are. After that Andrew will leave and you're going to cook with Robin. Today the topic is children's lunches. So talk about your kids and talk about what kind of lunches you pack".

"Sounds easy enough" Sarah said taking a deep breath. A backstage hand came to hook Sarah up with a microphone.

"Are you ready babe?" Drew walked over to Sarah.

"I think so" she stood and locked arms with him.

"You'll do amazing" Drew smiled and walked her out on stage. The audience cheered and clapped for the couple as they walked out together.

"Welcome!" Robin shook Sarah and Drew's hands and also gave them each a kiss on the cheek. She led them over to the table set up with three chairs and a tray of brownies.

Andrew pulled the chair out for Sarah and then sat next to her. He grabbed and brownie and started to nibble on it.

"So the whole world is buzzing about your relationship" Robin poured them a cup of coffee "now tell me, why did you keep it a secret for so long?"

Drew smiled and cupped the coffee mug in his hands "well honestly it was my idea. When I met Sarah I was in my first year of college. We started to date and we fell in love. But you see Sarah isn't from the type of family I am. She wasn't raised in the public's eye and I was worried that suddenly being center of attention would upset her. Plus when we had kids I wanted them to have as normal of a life as possible".

"What was your family like Sarah?" Robin took a drink.

Sarah gasped a little; she wasn't expecting a question like that. When she caught sight of Andrew's face she could see his confusion, which wasn't good. He could create anything in his mind about their non-existent marriage but he didn't know a single thing about her family. There was no way his mind could have made something up. So before Andrew could question why he didn't know anything about her family she had to cover it quickly.

"My family dynamic wasn't the same as what Andrew's is" Sarah said, "we didn't have a lot of money, I grew up with just enough. No more and no less. But that isn't the only difference between us. Andrew's family is very close and mine wasn't. We all kind of did our own things. When I got pregnant they kind of disowned me. But Andrew's family didn't, they took me in" Sarah explained.

"Oh so you guys got pregnant before you were married?" Robin looked between the couple.

Sarah bit her lip, this was getting deeper then she thought. Andrew wouldn't know the answers to any of this. At this rate he would find out the truth within minutes.

"You can tell them honey" Drew reached over and took her hand "we have nothing to be ashamed of". Sarah nodded but didn't say anything; she couldn't bring herself to talk. "We did get pregnant, with our son Brayden, before marriage. But that didn't mean we loved each other any less. After Brayden was about-" Andrew frowned he couldn't think of a year because there never was one.