The Atwood DITFT: Generation 2, Chapter 7
Author's Note: Yes, time for another chapter! Whoo! Miss tale_legacy is getting ahead of me, and we can't have that ;) Lol. No, if you are reading her legacy alongside mine, just keep in mind that her version of Reagan is a few years in the future from my version. So it's kind of like a spoiler ^_^ Consider yourselves lucky! (If you missed it, the second chapter featuring Reagan came out today here). K, time to read! :D
The Atwood DITFT: Generation 2, Chapter 7
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Alice shifted her weight nervously and watched the upsetting scene that unfolded in front of her eyes, unsure what to do.
She stood in Reagan’s family’s home, the sprawling log cabin that sat comfortably on their fifty-acre farm. The six Atwoods that still lived in Appaloosa Plains stood gathered around her, and none of them were happy.
“She… she ran away from the place she ran away to?” Nick asked. Alice was amazed to see just how much Nick and Marigold appeared to have aged in the past month. She had seen a picture of them once, and they had not looked so… old. They had to be pushing 60, but… still!
Alice had expected Nick to get angry, yell in her face, do something. Instead, he just seemed numb. “So she’s… gone?”
Aware that every pair of eyes in the room was fixed on her, Alice nodded.
Marigold and Rowan burst into tears. Raleigh cradled her sister in her arms, looking devastated herself, but her eyes remained dry. Nick reached out to comfort his wife, and Mason and Michael tried their best to remain stoic.
“You don’t know where she went?” Mason asked quietly. “You have no idea?”
Alice thought back to Reagan’s last request. ‘Please don’t tell them where I went… I don’t want anyone to follow me.’ She sighed. Why did you ask me to lie for you? Alice lamented. But she knew she couldn’t disregard her best friend’s last request, so she said, “She didn’t say. She left a very brief note, but all it said was to send you guys her love… and that…” Alice hesitated. She hated to bring this up, but Reagan had wanted this conveyed… “That she would try to contact you when she thought you could forgive her.”
Alice watched as the tears coursed more forcefully down Marigold’s and Rowan’s faces. A few even dripped from Raleigh’s eyes. Her triplets know what happened, Alice realized. As soon as she thought it, she knew she was right. Rowan and Raleigh had figured out that Reagan had been raped. That would ease her mind a little, to know the blame doesn’t come from every side. Too bad I can’t talk to her.
“Do you think that day will ever come?” Raleigh asked, her eyes hard. Alice watched her shoot a dirty look, unnoticed by anyone else, at her father. These girls are sharper than Reagan gives them credit for…
“The day when Reagan will believe you’ve forgiven her?” Alice asked. Raleigh and Rowan nodded at the same time. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem so good when she left here.” That was the closest Alice would get to directly blaming Nick for his actions. “And nothing really changed outwardly, between then and now. So unless she has changed her, um, outlook-”
“Are you implying that it’s our fault that my daughter is in some unknown place, all on her own, probably homeless and starving and unemployed and-?” Nick began, enraged.
Then Marigold startled everyone. “Nicholas Philip Atwood!” she shouted, turning to face her husband. There was a pause, in which you could have heard a pin drop. “How dare you? How dare you not take responsibility for what you did! ‘Our’ fault? Ha! This is your fault, and your fault alone. Do you even remember the night Reagan ran away from here? Do you remember how she told us she was pregnant, and instead of trying to help her, you screamed your head off at her until she was in tears, calling her horrible names that no girl should ever be called? Do you remember how I tried to stop you and you just shouted right over me? Do you know that she left two minutes after you were through?”
“I-” Nick started to say.
“I am not finished,” Marigold said authoritatively. “I will not stand here and let you blame this lovely woman for our daughter’s disappearance. Alice is damn brave to have come here and told us about this at all, and do you know why? Because I am certain Ray has told her all about you. I’m certain Alice was expecting this exact reaction out of you; and yet she came anyway. She obviously cares about Reagan more than you do, you despicable man, and until you can put your pride aside and act in Reagan’s best interest, not your own, I don’t want to hear another word out of your mouth!”
The room was as silent as a tomb. Marigold’s children and husband alike were staring at her with the widest eyes Alice had ever seen. It was clear Marigold had never spoken like that in her life, especially to her husband.
Raleigh ventured to speak first. “Mom?”
“Yes?” Marigold’s voice was breathless.
“Um… Thanks. For sticking up for Ray. And also… I think there’s something else you guys should all know.”
This will be fun, Alice thought, having begun to suspect what Raleigh would say. I’m glad I can be here for this little family chat.
“Reagan… She was…” Raleigh began.
“It wasn’t her fault she was pregnant,” Rowan supplied.
“Wasn’t-?” Nick only got one harsh word in before a look from Marigold silenced him.
“You guys remember Dom?” asked Raleigh. The family nodded vaguely. “Well, Reagan had impeccable taste in men… And the horrible scumbag raped her. That’s how she got pregnant.”
Another shocked silence fell over the room, the worst one yet. Alice was wondering how many of these she’d have to endure, when the sound of quiet sobs broke the spell. Alice was amazed when she realized they were coming from Nick.
“Th… I…” Nick found he couldn’t get any words out past the enormous swell of emotions he was suddenly experiencing. My sweet baby daughter… It can’t be true! But if it is… And even if it isn’t… Mar is right. I’ve been an asshole. This is all my fault! I can’t believe myself.
Alice watched these thoughts and more cross Nick’s face, and felt a mix of emotions herself. She was glad to see that Nick accepted the truth in the two triplets’ story, and his own responsibility for Reagan’s disappearance. In fact she almost felt bad for him-almost. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to forgive him for the pain he’d caused Ray.
“I had no idea,” Marigold breathed. “She never… She should have said…”
“She should have, but she didn’t,” Raleigh snapped. “And she never actually outright told us, either. We figured it out.”
“Why would she keep something like that to herself?” Mason demanded. “I know that little asshole, Dominic. He was two grades younger than me-I could’ve beat the living shit out of him! I would’ve, too, if Reagan had-”
“We both would have,” Michael added in. Both boys looked livid. “I don’t care that I’m a scrawny sophomore, I’d have-”
“Believe me, if we’d known…” Raleigh began.
Rowan continued, “…we would have-”
“We’d have called the police!” Marigold exclaimed. “In fact, we still should! It doesn’t matter that it’s been a year; we can press charges and-”
“It’s too late.” Alice’s words stopped the outpouring of heated discussion that had erupted at the two triplets’ announcement. Every gaze was once again fixed on her, as if she had all the answers, as if she really knew what the hell she, Reagan, or any of them were doing. “He’s gone,” Alice said. “I looked him up, as soon as Reagan told me what had happened.” She left out the fact that this had only been once Alice read Reagan’s journal, the night Ray had left. “Wherever he is, it’s not the Plains. We can look, but I’m sure he’s covered his tracks well. Justice won’t come easily.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Nick said. It was the first time he’d spoken since Marigold confronted him. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. “We can’t waste our time searching for this dirtbag Dominic. Alice is right; we probably won’t find him. But he doesn’t matter. We just have to get Reagan back home.”
There was a general murmur of assent, which was interrupted by Marigold and Alice speaking at the same time. “No.”
A light smile touched Alice’s lips. “Why do you say that, Mrs. Atwood?”
“Please, call me Marigold. And I say that because, as Miss Alice knows, the last thing Reagan wants right now is for her family to call a search party on her. She didn’t run away so that we’d find her. She ran away because she couldn’t stand us anymore. Nick, honey, I’m sorry I yelled at you, but it needed to be said. Still, it’s not entirely your fault. The rest of us are to blame, as well. I saw how you boys, and eventually even you, Raleigh and Rowan, shunned Reagan because she refused to work on the farm. And I’m not excluding myself, either; there are so many ways I could have shown Ray that she was loved, valued, wanted, long before the night she left. Maybe that would have changed the way things are now.”
“But we can’t change what’s already happened,” Nick said. “We can only choose to act better now because we’ve learned from it. I see your point, Mar; we should let Reagan alone. Wherever she is, she’s probably infinitely happier than she ever was here.” There was regret and resignation in his voice.
“Don’t say that,” said Alice. “I know her teenage years weren’t the greatest, but Reagan always talked with fondness about her life as a kid on the farm. I know for a fact she loved all of you guys very much.” She thought Nick’s pain might have eased a little at her words.
“I have a question,” Mason cut in suddenly. “Where’s the kid?”
“What kid?” Michael and Raleigh asked at the same time, bewildered.
“What kid?” Mason scoffed. “The kid! Are we forgetting that Reagan was pregnant when she left here? Where is the child she gave birth to?”
Alice smiled sheepishly. “That, I can answer with certainty. You see… I adopted her from Reagan.”
Everyone in the room gasped. Alice had to admit that, were the circumstances less emotionally charged, she would have found a lot of entertainment in the reactions of her audience.
“It’s a girl?” Marigold said excitedly. “I have… a granddaughter?”
“Can we meet her?” Raleigh and Rowan squealed.
“You don’t have a granddaughter, Mom,” Mason said sharply. “The baby is Alice’s daughter, not Reagan’s.”
“Always my family-oriented boy, aren’t you?” Marigold said affectionately. “Yes, you’re quite right. Thank goodness-I’m too young to be a grandma anyway!” She laughed. “I’m sure your daughter is beautiful, Alice dear.”
“Thank you,” Alice said graciously. “She does take after Reagan a startling amount, though. I don’t think there’s a drop of Dominic in her.”
“That was very kind of you, to take the baby in like that,” Mason said.
“Oh, it was just the natural choice,” Alice replied with a smile. “Reagan has been like a little sister to me for years. Besides, neither of us wanted to put the poor kid in foster care; and I’ve wanted to be a parent for as long as I can remember.”
“Family is a wonderful thing,” agreed Mason, smiling back.
“Until they desert you when you need them most,” Raleigh said. It was hard to tell if her tone was one of anger, regret, blame, or just sadness. Probably, Alice thought as Rowan rested her head on her sister’s shoulder, a mixture of them all.
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Well, there you have it! I guess not a lot happened this chapter... Besides that they decided not to go searching for Reagan :P But hey, Nick finally realized he was being an ass, which is always good xD What did you think of Raleigh and Rowan as young adults?! I think they are so beauuuutiful <3 Well, make sure and let me know what you thought :D Another chapter should be out as soon as I can get all the simming done -- I'm finally caught up posting all the stuff I have played through, lol! Thanks for reading, everyone! <3