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“What is going on here Wyatt?” she asked turning as he came up beside her.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Why don’t you go downstairs with Dad and let me talk to Gabby,” he suggested.
“She’s been in there for over two hours…are you having issues?” she added delicately.
“No Mom, we’re fine, honestly, let me see what’s going on inside her crazy head alright? It’s true what they say about that time of the month,” he said letting the implication linger as she headed down the stairs. He paused to get his anger under control then knocked on the door. “Gabby, it’s me…Mom and Dad are downstairs worried they’ve upset you.” He listened for movement inside but there wasn’t any and he continued on, “Come on Gabby open the door, I don’t want to break it down, think of all the explanations the repair would cause.”
The lock clicked open and he pushed the doors apart closing them behind him as she headed over to her dressing table and began rummaging through the drawers for something.
“Would you like to tell me what the hell you were thinking bursting into tears when my mother asked when we were going to start a family? Jesus Gabby, do youwantthe truth to come out?”
Gabby took a moment to respond. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself get into this mess. When her in-laws had shown up, she had been surprised but she couldn’t exactly turn them away, plus she liked them. She liked most of Wyatt’s family, just not him. The day had been tense for her to begin with, Jessica’s surgery was yesterday, and she’d been waiting for Haley to let her know how things were going. Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she was putting the last dish in the dishwasher andshe’d missed Caroline’s innocent question as she read the good news.
She hadn’t expected to burst into tears and the fact that it’d happened after her question about grandchildren had put her in a bind. She wanted to dance around excitedly with the knowledge that Jess hadn’t had a seizure since the surgery, when she’d been having them daily, sometimes, multiple a day recently, but that wouldn’t have been appropriate. So, she’d fibbed saying nothing was wrong, she must have cut her finger or something along those lines and then proceeded to race upstairs to call Haley.
Caroline had come after her when she didn’t reappear and her gentle pleadings put her in a bind. She couldn’t tell her the truth, it would put Wyatt too close to the truth about the embezzlement, and she knew she couldn’t pretend that she and Wyatt were simply waiting for the right time to start a family. She most likely would have proceeded to show her disgust at the thought, not exactly newlywed approved behavior.
She’d spent the last few hours trying to come up with anything, any lie she could use to explain her reaction away, and by complete accident she’d found it. It’d take a bit of doing but she could pull it off, she just didn’t think anyone but Wyatt would buy it initially and it’d take convincing him to convince the others.
“Well?” Wyatt asked coming over and standing behind her. He turned her slightly until he could see her face and his eyes narrowed. “Christ Gabby…you’re not pregnant are you?” he added seeing the tracks from her earlier tears.
“No, I’m not pregnant, thankfully your thoughtlessness from that night didn’t do that much damage,” she stated gritting her teeth to contain the extent of her annoyance from that question.
“Then why the hell do you look like you’ve just went ten rounds with Diane Sawyer?” he inquired.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine now.”
“So my mother’s question about us having kids upset you to the point of tears? I don’t buy it Gabby, so what is it?”
“I didn’t burst into tears because of your mom’s question…I didn’t even hear her question until the second or third time she said it.”
“Then what had you upset enough to cry? I’ve never seen you cry once, not even when I confronted you about the money. You could have used tears then but you didn’t, so tell me what the hell upset you enough that it has my entire family ganging up on me? I swear I could march down there right now and lay the whole truth out in front of them and they’d blame me for it. Somehow they’d decide it was my fault you embezzled millions from the company, tell me how you can get so many people to believe in you? Be fooled by you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she sighed.
“No? Right now, my mother is downstairs thinking that the only reason we got married was because we were expecting and now something’s happened to that reason. My sister thinks I cheated on you and got someone else pregnant…I’d like to be able to face them as well as my father who is disappointed inmebecause I’ve apparently been less than a model husband. What the hell is going on?”
“I found out some bad news,” she said starting her story. “There’d been a new post on our school’s old message board and I’d checked it while talking with your mom. That’s when I saw a previous post…”
“A posting on a message board upset you?” he said in disbelief.
“I didn’t expect it to…I don’t know why it did,” she said playing confused.
“Fine, what was it that upset you so much?”
She passed him her phone letting him turn the screen on to see the posting about Zoe’s death.
“Was she a friend of yours?” he asked scrolling down the screen with a sigh.
“A long time ago, we had a huge falling out in junior high…I guess that’s why I hid up here. I didn’t know how to explain why I reacted that way to seeing that she’d died; I still don’t. I guess I’ve been bottling everything up since the engagement party and it had to overflow sometime,” she said letting a single tear fall as she turned away from him. She saw his face change and knew he believed her. Good thing she’d gone to theater camp for three summers in a row, she was working the stage for her life right now.
“Not exactly something we can tell my parents…but it’s workable, if only my so-called sister would buy it,” he thought aloud.
“I have an idea,” Gabby said, surprising herself more than Wyatt.
“What sort of idea?” he inquired suspiciously.
“Your mother thinks I had a miscarriage, why not let them all think that?” she suggested. “I can even pretend that you didn’t know…it’d explain why you weren’t aware of why that news upset me so much.”
