"Wait...Mommy." Sixteen year old Elizabeth Cooper began on the right side of her mother's bed. "You're pregnant?"
Alice sniffled, still holding tight to both Betty and Chic's hands. "I am." She nodded.
"How did this happen? You just got divorced." Betty looked at her mom with question and she received a look of awkward guilt from the owner of the house. "Oh." The younger blonde put two and two together...realizing her father was not the new baby's father. "So...who?" She wondered aloud. "Oh...wait...Do I wanna know?"
"Actually....." Alice began. "You probably don't....but you'll learn eventually, so I might as well..."
"Is it...?" Chic interrupted, holding his mother's hand in two of his own.
She sighed. "It is." She couldn't hold back the large grin that grew upon her face, no matter how difficult this was or how complicated.
"It is?" Betty's eyes shifted back and forth between her mother and brother, as if trying to read their minds. "Who?" She finally decided that she needed to know.
"Betty." Alice turned her body a bit more to face her youngest. "Don't freak out, okay?" She sighed. "There are a few things that you don't know about me and about my past and unfortunately about my present....Now...the secrets I've kept from you in the past were to appease your father's wishes and the secrets I've kept from you recently were just to protect certain people that I care about."
"Okay?" Betty's eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she listened intently.
"You know that things have been a little shaky since the Black Hood stepped foot in this town and anyone who does any type of wrongdoing could be in danger, so....I have kept my current relationship....with the father of this baby....a secret in case the Black Hood decides to kill any of us for having a child while unwed or for..." She paused to let out a long, dramatic sigh. "...adultery."
"Adultery?!" Betty asked with absurdity. "You cheated on Dad? And he cheated on you with Mrs. Blossom? What has Riverdale come to? Why are all of the parents cheating?!"
"No, no, no. Elizabeth, honey. I did not cheat on your father. Yes...he cheated on me. Yes...there are other married people in this town, I will not name any names, who have committed adultery, but Betty Cooper, I can assure you I am not one of them." She tilted her head to the side. "Well....not intentionally." When Betty raised a concerned eyebrow, Alice tried her best to cut to the chase. "It happened after the divorce. I was home alone and he came over looking for Jughead and I invited him in for dinner and old feelings from high school came crawling back and I just-"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Betty interrupted again. "'Looking for Jughead?' You mean....Mr. Jones?! You and FP?!" She looked to Chic on the other side of their mother and she squinted when he seemed untouched by any of this news. "What do you mean old feelings came crawling back, Mom?"
"I mean, Elizabeth, that in high school, FP and I were in love....We still are. We always were. But things back then were a bit shaky for us and well...the ripple effect happened and we both ended up with different people...At the time we thought we were doing the right thing, but it only resulted in two very unhappy marriages, the habits of an alcoholic, and the lifestyle of a very lonely, very hard-headed bitch. The only good thing that came from that decision was you kids. But FP and I realized that even after all these years, we never stopped loving one another. So...that night after the divorce, he and I....well, let's just say we started things up again. That was not my intention, I promise you, but I told him about Chic and-"
"Wait...What about Chic?" Again, Elizabeth looked to her big brother, hoping to see some sort of a reaction, but she didn't detect a single hint of one.
Alice let go of Chic's hand in order to hold Betty's in both of hers. "Betty...The reason your father and I argued about Chic back then....was because Chic isn't his." Betty ripped her hand out of her mother's grip. "It's okay, Betty. FP and I discussed it. You and Jughead can still be together. Neither of you share ANY of the same parents, so it's okay. Sure, it may be a little weird at first...especially for poor Chic." She giggled, hoping to lighten the situation. "I mean....two of his half siblings are-"
"Mom, Mom!" The sixteen year old, stood from the bed in a state of both shock and panic. Anger and frustration seemed to accompany them. "This isn't funny, okay? This is....this is weird! I'm gonna have a little brother or sister who is almost twenty years younger than me? And they're gonna be Chic's full sibling apparently? And Jughead and I will have, not one, but TWO of the same half siblings? How is this funny? How is this okay? How is ANY of it okay?" She slightly paced back and forth. "This should count as a form of child abuse or something."
"Okay. Don't be so dramatic, Elizabeth."
"So the adultery, that's because of Jughead's mom?" The smart teen figured out. "All this time I was afraid the Black Hood would target you for your incessant nagging and gossipping or for all of the snooping you do when you're writing an article or when you're just...well, just being you....But no! I should've been worrying about you getting pregnant by my boyfriend's married dad." With that, she turned to run out of the master bedroom, heading to her own.
"Wait, Betty." Alice quickly stood to chase after her. Just when she thought she caught up on time, Betty's bedroom door was slammed within an inch of her nose. "Elizabeth?" She attempted to turn the door knob, but failed. "Elizabeth, unlock this door, please? We need to talk about this. Just...Please open up?" She turned to look at Chic standing down the other end of the hallway. He sent her a supportive smile before she knocked once more. "Betty....I'm really sorry. I know this was probably really hard to hear, but it's not the end of the world. The complete opposite, in fact. This is more like a um....a reboot of our family. I know it's not traditional....but almost no one has traditional families anymore." She waited a long while for a response, but never received one. She spoke again, her voice even more quiet and broken than before. "Well...I know you're upset, but I'm gonna go to the hospital tomorrow and make an appointment for my first ultrasound. I'd love it if you would come with me." She sadly put a hand on the door. With a sigh, she pat her hand on it and turned to walk back to her own bedroom.
