Going Home.

Chapter 3

My head is screaming at me.
Ryker has a child. Ryker has a child and he didn't tell me. Ryker has a child and no one told me.

I stop running and slump down on the closest bench I see. I'm sobbing now. I feel like such a fool. Everyone would have obviously known about this baby but no one told me. Why did they all lie to me. My own family, my own blood never told me.

I can feel it building inside of me, I start to get angry. I want answers, how long have they all known. I finally look at my phone and see that my messages have gone haywire. The first one I focus on is from Ariel. I then see that she is trying to ring me. I look around at where I am and realise that I am two streets away from her apartment.

"OMG Mia, Thank goodness you answered. I'd just gotten home and Roo was ringing to tell me that you had taken off. Are you ok? Do you need me to come and get you?" Ariel says. For someone who should be panicking, she has the ability to sound like she is having a conversation with a solar panel telemarketer.

"I'm near your house, can I come and stay with you?" I ask.
"Of course. I will pull out your gear. Do you need me to come and get you?" Ariel replies.
"No, I will be there soon." I reply as I hang up.

####

As I near her place I can see that all the lights are still on. I knock on the door and hear her call out "it's unlocked", so I enter her place.

Ariel is sitting at the table, she gets up and offers to make me a coffee. I sit at the table and put my head in my hands and stare at her.

I can tell that she has been stressing, her usually tidy red hair is pulled up in a messy bun and her face looks tired and pale. Her usually emerald green eyes are glassy and dull. Ariel can never understand how we all know when she is stressing as she does not realise it but by looking at her, I can always tell straight away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask her as she turns around and puts the coffee in frount of me.

"Ryker told me that he had told you. He told Carrie the same thing." Ariel replies. "Carrie told me that it would not be appropriate for me to bring it up until you mentioned it first as it maybe a touchy subject and she was worried that you would get really mad at us."

"He never told me." I say as I take a sip of my coffee.

Ariel plops down in her chair and just stares at me.
"Ryker told me a lie?" She whispers as she stares at her cup.

Next thing she gets up and goes to her phone. She makes a call.

"Your a two faced lying son of a bitch!" She yells into the phone. I take one guess and I knew who she had rung. Her facial features change from a scowl to a straight face.

"Yes she is here." There is a pause. "Yes she is upset cause she just found out about Jae."  So, the baby has a name. There is another pause. "No you can not come over. If you turn up here, I will cut your balls off." In a huff, Ariel hangs up.

She goes and dials another number.
"Carrie, everything is ok. Ryker lied to us." There is another pause. "Yes Mia is here." There is longer pause. "Ok, I'll pass you over. Love you too. Mia, Carrie wants to talk to you?"

I take the phone from Ariel and she leaves the room. I'll comfort her in a minute, as much as I was mad at her, I am sure that she is more mad at herself for missing the fact that Ryker has lied to her cause I never knew.

"I am so so sorry Mia, Ryker had told us that he had told you the whole story and that you were both having some space while you finished your course and he worked out what to do. He told me that it was best to just let you go about your time and that when you needed us, we were here for you. I've never questioned it as Ryker has never lied to me. I'm such a fool Mia, I should have prodded you more." Carrie sounds like she is bawling. I hear Slater in the background trying to console her and then I hear the phone drop.

"Ah Mia, I'll get her to ring you tomorrow." I hear Slater say. "Tell her it is OK and I'll talk to her soon. " I say. He says goodbye and hangs up.

I leave her phone on the table and make my way to the lounge room. Ariel is sitting on an arm chair with her head in her hands. I sit on the arm and start to rub her back.

"Stop it Mia, it should be me consoling you not the other way around." Arial says "I feel like such a fool, why didn't I think to say anything. I should have said something. I used to think after we hung up how weird it was that you never mentioned it but Carrie said that maybe it was how you were processing it all."

"Don't worry about it. I am just a little shocked. We all know what Ryker can be like." I say as I go and pull her up in a hug.

Ryker is the most charismatic person I've even met. He can charm the pants off anyone and just knows all the right things to say. It took me a year to be able to call him out on it but there are times when he would say just the right things and I was putty in his hands.

As we are sitting there, a loud banging comes from Ariels door. She jumps up and heads over to see who it is.

"Is she in there?" Comes a british accent from the door. I remember Ryker and Roo talking about a new guy who patched up called 'Blaze' who was from England.

"And what if she is, your not coming in." Ariel replies.

"Look, you need to just get out of the way. They need to talk and work this out and by her hiding here, its not working anything out" Blaze says.

"That's lovely champ, but I said that you are not coming in. Mia needs some time to process this. When she is ready, she will contact him." Ariel says in a calm voice to Blaze.

"Look Love, I don't know what you don't understand here but they need to talk, so Mia needs to come back to the clubhouse and have a sit down with Ryker." Blaze seems to be getting angry now.

"I don't know what part of 'No' you are not getting, but if you push on my door one more time I will knee you in the balls." Ariel replies.

Next thing I know, Blaze has tried to pull the door and Ariel is moving forward. All I hear is a loud thump and then Blaze yelling out in pain. I jump up and look over Ariel shoulder as she starts to kick his legs out her door. Blaze is sprawled out on the path, holding his nuts and rolling around in pain.

"I warned you. Now run along and tell Ryker that if anyone shows up here I will dish out the same punishment that I gave you." Ariel slams the door and locks it. I go to the window to watch Blaze stumble out the gate and hop on his bike. He is wincing in pain and I chuckle thinking how he is going to ride back to the clubhouse.