Complications // A Falice story

Chapter 53

After Abigail led Alice into the living room she went to make some coffee for the both of them. Abigail knew that day would come and if she were honest she wanted it to happen sooner. Michael told her everything just a little while after they started dating and ever since Abigail wanted him to reunite with Alice.

When Abigail came into the living room with the coffees Alice was looking from where she was standing at a picture of Abigail, Michael and their two children. "That's from a few years ago when we went to Hawaii." Abigail said handing Alice her coffee.

"You look happy in that picture." Alice took her eyes off of it and looked at the woman sitting close to her on the couch, but not too close.

"We were, we pretty much always are." Abigail smiled at Alice and she nodded as she took a sip of her coffee.

"That's great." Alice said after a short moment of weird silence between them.

"Would you like anything-"

"Look Abigail-" Alice cut her off because seeing her struggling to make things less awkward was not a nice view. "-you don't have to do this. I can even go back to the hotel and find another time to talk to him. There's no need to get everyone involved."

"The kids know, I know, it's not a problem." Abigail gave Alice a sweet smile, she was too nice for it to be true or so Alice thought. "I just really don't know what we could talk about so we both feel comfortable."

"I like to read." Alice shrugged her shoulders and after that affirmation the conversation between them was easy and both women went on and on about certain books.

Alice started to feel more comfortable around Abigail and it was the same the other way around, but soon Michael and his kids made their appearance.

When the three of them walked into the living room Alice fought her urge to stand up and instead she just looked at them with a small smile on her face. David and Joanna both seemed to be nervous and excited around Alice and it was then when Alice remembered that she was actually pretty famous.

"H-hi, I'm Joanna." Joanna slightly waved at Alice and Alice smiled widely at her.

"And I'm David." Joanna's brother said just as nervous as his sister.

"It's nice to meet you both." Alice said slightly nodding her head before she looked at Michael.

"How about you give us a few minutes and later maybe you can talk to Alice if she wants." Michael said looking at Joanna and David before he looked at Alice.

"I'd love to." Alice said because even though she was upset with her father she didn't have a problem with her half brother and sister, not even with Abigail who seemed genuinely sweet after they've spoken for a while.

Joanna and David nodded and they walked upstairs while Alice, Abigail and Michael remained in the living room. Abigail offered to leave them alone, but Michael told her that she could stay and before she decided whether to stay or not she looked at Alice and asked her if she was ok with that. So when Alice said that she had no problem Abigail was a bit more relaxed in her seat.

"So-"

"Why didn't you come to see me?" Alice cut him off and put her empty cup on the table. It had been empty for a while but she just forgot about it while she talked to Abigail.

Michael was silent, he was trying to think of a good reason why he didn't contact Alice and a few came to mind, but he knew the moment he let them out those reasons would sound completely ridiculous.

"You can't think of why." Alice said more to herself than the others in the room. She bit the inside of her cheek slightly, but she stopped. She hasn't done that ever since she was little and she was forcing herself not to cry. "That's because there's never a good reason for abandoning your children."

"I'm sorry." Michael eventually spoke from where he was and Abigail had to turn to see him.

"Jacob was yours too, wasn't him?" Alice had to ask about him too and her suspicions stopped being suspicions when Michael nodded. "He killed my daughters, you know?" Alice asked and she knew Abigail was beginning to be a little uncomfortable but she didn't care at that point because it wasn't about Abigail.

"Yeah." Michael breathed out and Alice closed her eyes for a bit.

"You didn't look for him either." Alice said simply and something just occurred to her. "If you did, maybe if you talked to him and helped him..." But she stopped, she just had a bad feeling.

"Maybe if I did that what?" Michael asked curiously even though he had pretty much an idea about where it was going.

He asked again when Alice didn't answer and he just pushed her because otherwise Alice wouldn't have ended that phrase. "If you had taken care of him and if you had helped him my daughters would still be alive."

Abigail was caught in between them and it was like she saw on slow motion how the look in Michael's face changed, but when he spoke it seemed so sudden Abigail was surprised, especially because of his tone. "You were supposed to take care of them, I took care of my kids." Abigail's jaw dropped when she heard him say that.

As for Alice, she felt like her heart sank. She swallowed hard taking in the pain that was settling within her. "I'm not sure what I hoped I'd get by coming here-" as she spoke Alice couldn't even recognise her own voice "-but being blamed for my daughters death wasn't it." And that wasn't all that Alice wanted to say because practically Michael just said she wasn't one of his children.

Alice slowly stood up and she walked towards the door. Michael didn't say a word but Abigail followed her. "I'm so sorry for what he said. He wasn't thinking."

"Oh, I think he was." Alice said putting on her jacket and thinking if there was anyway she had something else lying around. "You're nice." Alice said when Abigail opened her mouth to speak. "Joanna and David too. Here, save your number." Alice handed Abigail her phone and Abigail did as told because she didn't want to fall out of touch. "I'll stay a little longer here, I'd love to have lunch with the three of you."

"Your hands are shaking." Abigail said as she handed Alice back her phone. "Are you sure you can drive?" She asked her and Alice looked down at her hands.

"I'll be fine." With that said Alice was out the door and only when she was there and the sun hit her she was able to take a deep breath. In that moment she just wished FP was there to hug her and tell her that she was actually going to be fine, but he wasn't and she had to deal with that.

Only when the wind blew a little Alice realised she had tears on her cheeks. She closed her eyes and wiped them away before she let out a loud sigh. "I'll be fine."