What Happened: That one November Night

Chapter Twenty Three: He is alive

Gwen looked up and paused before turning quickly to my sister. Her brows furrowed dexterously. My sister didn't even seem concerned, "what's up?'" her tone not changing. 

Gwen half smiled, "That photograph," she pointed across the room to one of the frames which was placed on the fireplace. A small silver frame with a photo of Tory in the long brown dress – the same one shown in the photo in my room back at Matthew's and mine flat. The photo was taken at the same time but was more natural than the one I had, before the makeup was put on, exposing her freckles and the childish features of her body.

Tory looked at the frame and then back to Gwen, "Oh that's me when I was younger, the 10-inch stretcher and everything else unholy that my parents insisted I remove."

"I had a dress really similar to that," Gwen told her with a frozen expression on her face, "like really similar to it."

She met Gwen's expression with a thinking expression, "I don't know where it's from if I'm honest. It was a gift from my ex when we were dating and it fit. That was actually the first time I wore it."

She pointed over to the boxes where the dress was that I noticed earlier, the one with grease stains and the beads falling off. "It's over there actually, I forgot to be honest, hence why it's not in one of the boxes like my other things."

Gwen looked towards it, as if she hadn't seen it before now, her brows lowered as if she wasn't convinced that that filthy dress with sequins and beads tearing off wasn't the same one in the photo. That it looked less like the one she was thinking of.

Guinevere smiled, "well-"

Before Gwen could even string a sentence, the baby started yawning and it caught her attention. My sister noticed the way she looked at the child. But t was certain that she didn't know why she reacted in the way that she did.

"I'm surprised you took your eyes off him for long enough to notice." She chuckled.

"Oh I'm sorry," Guinevere stammered, "I hadn't meant to-"

"Nonsense!" my sister wafted, "So you don't have one, you clearly want one. Am I right?"

"Sorry what?" Gwen protested, her eyes widening as she moved back to the back of the sofa.

"A baby, she stated bluntly, "a child of your own?"

Gwen tried to reframe from showing expression, almost as if she had already been thinking about it, "I think I always have. But I only just learned about my fiancé's opinions on children."

"Oh does he not want them?" my sister questioned trying to show remorse.

Gwen shook her head, the faintest glimmer of a smile showing from the corner of her lips, "he does want children. Children of our own."

"Well, I think you'd be an excellent mother." She chuckled at the end of the sentence. Then paused, "just learn from my mistakes. Be honest. Always... I lied to the father... to Jay when we first met...I told him that I was sixteen but I wasn't. He didn't know. When he found out – that's when he left. Because he realized that it wasn't legal. That's one reason why I lived with my friend for months, Rory knows very little but you could say the same for my parents, well my dad at least. That's why I wanted them to meet Chase and to have a connection with him and his dad."

Gwen nodded, "honesty. Yes."

---

I looked at my dad, "Right well when I have a list of names what then?"

He looked down to his laptop, "I am sending an email to a friend of mine. A lawyer who works on sexual harassment cases. When you have the names I can forward them onto her."

I nodded, understanding that it wasn't going to be as similar to them, "What else?"

He typed out an email, not all too long, "Ah well we will need to have Guinevere agree to this, to bring him to court. Some of the issues he has caused happened years ago, his lawyer will try to break her and that is one way that they will start."

I scratched my head, "I wondered that too. Clearly, his threat has worried her. She probably wants to avoid him turning up again."

---

She placed a hand on my sister's arm causing her to stop babbling. "Hey Tory?" Gwen started, "would you excuse me for a moment please?"

"Yeah, sure what do you-"

Before my sister could finish what she was saying, Gwen was up from the sofa. I met her eye as she came over to the door. My father's attention turned over to hers causing myself to spin around in my chair.

"What's wrong Gwen? Did Tory finally, let you off your lead?"

"Rory" my father snapped.

"I have something you need to know." She told me. Her eyes so harsh I could feel the seriousness burn into my pupils.

"Go on..." I told her.

"I know that Timothy is alive."

My father broke the tension as he grumbled from his chair, causing Guinevere tp clasp her hands together in front of her, "unless you have any evidence that this child exists we only have Travis's word to go on and that is not-"

"I know that Timothy is alive because Travis brought him to the house".