"That's when I was at the bistro with Eliza, Hank and Mimi." He said.
"Yeah but they've conveniently cut Eliza and Hank out of the shot." She complained, "This just gives Marcus more ammo to fire at you."
"You shouldn't have put us in this position." She yelled slamming the newspaper down onto the breakfast counter.
"Honey, it was just lunch. I didn't realise there was any paparazzi there." He reasoned, "You know that there is no truth to this story."
"I do, but everyone else in town thinks its true. You know how they are they feed off this garbage, our lives are just a soap opera to them." Charlie complained.
"I know you're right but it's not easy Finn when everyone in town thinks I'm some doormat who let's her husband get away with having an affair."
"I'm sorry. I'll speak to Don today and ask him to draft a press release, people will read our side of things and know that we are telling the truth."
Finlay sighed, he knew she was frustrated the past two years had been tough.
Since Marcus had quit he had tried to sabotage Finlay at every turn, and now he was running against him in the upcoming election putting even more strain on his and Charlie's marriage.
But Finn had to believe that he was doing the right thing by staying in the race and trying to rise above Marcus's petty tactics.
************************************************************
By the time she had reached high school she was already used to people gossiping about her, everyone knew that her Mom and Dad weren't married and how her Dad had made some big speech about not being ashamed of her.
Until she had read that she hadn't thought of herself as something to be ashamed of but now she wasn't so sure.
She had gotten used to the nasty comments but her younger sisters were experiencing it for the first time.
"What?" Ivy queried.
"Sarah Cline said that Dad is having....." she looked around nervously before whispering, "sex with that woman."
"Eww." Replied Ivy, "So gross."
"Yeah so gross." Iris agreed, wondering if her sister knew what "sex" was. Iris wasn't dumb she knew that when a man and a woman loved each other very much they had "sex" and then a baby came out of the woman's tummy, somehow.
"Or even worse maybe a brother!" Ivy guessed, screwing up her face.
"I guess." Ivy shrugged.
"Everyone is talking about Dad." Iris complained, "Is he in love with that woman in the paper?"
Hope rolled her eyes, "You know that it's just a story right?" She asked.
The twins looked blankly back. "It's just something that someone made up, you know like in English class when you read a book, it's fiction, it's not real." She clarified.
"Then why are people saying it?" Iris asked.
"Are you staying over tonight?" Ivy asked.
"No I'll be there at the weekend guys OK?" Hope said forcing a smile and ushering them both toward the school bus.
She waved the twins goodbye and turned to see Narelle and Conny continuing their little gossip session.
"Forget it, they aren't the only ones." Hope said dismissing her friends concern.
"Watch this." Neriah said laughing to herself.
She sneaked up behind Narelle and yelled at the top of her voice making the other girl jump out of her skin.
"Quit bitching with your dumb friend about Hope." Neriah lectured before stalking away.
Hope regarded the scene playing out in front of her, which was made more hilarious with the knowledge that Neriah and Narelle Belle were twins.
"That might shut her up for about five minutes." Neriah laughed, "How you holding up?"
"I'm fine." Hope insisted, "I stopped listening to girls like that a long time ago, it's the twins I'm worried about."
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"Hey don't knock it." Cherry retorted, "When you've had three kids you'll need to workout everyday too."
Hope tutted in disgust at the sight of her.
"Can you feed the girls for me please?" Cherry asked.
"Mom i have homework to do." Hope whined.
Annie and Brooke had come along to disrupt her world two years earlier, which had meant that her Mom and Don definitely couldn't afford to move to a bigger house. This left Hope sharing a bedroom with the two babies.
She retrieved her school books and closed the door to her room firmly, enjoying the peace and quiet of having it to herself.
She opened up her history text book and began the quiz on Henry the Eighth her teacher had set.
Why she needed to learn about some old dead British guy was beyond her but she started reading through the questions anyway.
Not five minutes had passed when the bedroom door was flung open and Don walked in carrying Annie.
Hope threw down her pen in frustration, was it too much to ask for a little alone time to do her homework?
This would never happen if she was allowed to live with her Dad full time, at least he bothered to knock before coming in her room!
"Do you mind, I'm trying to study." Hope said through gritted teeth.
"Your Mom needs help with dinner." Don said.
"Then why don't you get out of my room and go help her?" Hope asked.
"I told you I'm putting the girls to bed, come on Hope help out please?" He begged.
"OK Hope calm down." Don said.
"No i won't calm down, I'm sick of this place!" She yelled before storming out of the bedroom and past her mother who was drying off after finishing her workout.
"Hope where are you going?" She called.
"Anywhere but here!"
************************************************************
"What are you doing? Hope said we should go straight home." Iris protested.
"I've got a better idea." Ivy confided, "Hope says that the story about Dad is made up, but everyone else thinks it's true right?"
"Right." Iris agreed cautiously.
"Well i say we find out for ourselves."
"Come on don't be such a wuss." Ivy coaxed, "If we're gonna get a new sister then we need to find out."
"OK but what are we going to do?"
Ivy sported a large grin at her sisters question, "Follow me." She challenged.
The pair of them headed away from the school on foot towards the City centre.
"Ivy, do you know where we are?" Iris asked after they had walked around for what felt like hours.
"Oh yeah!" Iris said, recalling how they had been forced to camp out there several times while Eliza was babysitting.
"Look, that's her!" Ivy said pointing at the woman from the paper walking out of the building.
"How did you know she'd be here?" Iris asked.
"Duh! The paper said she worked here." Ivy retorted, tutting at her sister.
"She's going to the subway, come on!" Ivy said.
"Well maybe we shouldn't be listening to what Dad says." Ivy replied, "Maybe everything Dad says isn't true."
Ivy started running towards the subway calling out "Come on scaredy cat!"
Iris sighed, she couldn't let her sister go into the dangerous subway all alone, she reasoned, she had to follow her.
"Wait up Ivy!"
Although the subway wasn't the most pleasant place they had been, and it did kind of smell like a drain, they managed to stay away from any danger and made it to the next station unscathed.
Once again they trailed the woman until she came to a stop outside an apartment building.
"So what?" Iris asked, "This doesn't tell us anything."
"Shh!" Ivy said dramatically placing her finger over her lips and grabbing Iris's wrist, "Look!"
They watched as the woman greeted a boy, who looked to be about their age.
"Who?"
"Our new brother!" She replied.
As the woman headed into the apartment building the boy noticed the two girls watching him.
Chapter3.12(Part1)
4 comments:
Oh, the girls are so cute.
There's a lot of suspense building up!
Hope is gorgeous!!! xxx
Aw thanks, all the girls are really very pretty it's gonna be a tough choice for the next heir I think!
Finn's girls are all so pretty.
Marcus trying to defame Finn, they have to put up with a lot there.
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