Can her marriage survive when Arthur learns she has lied to him about her past?

In "Never Hold Back" I touched on Ariadne's past. She always told Arthur her mother committed suicide and that she was estranged from her father.

I've done a lot about Arthur's past, but not too much on Ariadne's.

Takes Place after the event's of "Ariadne's Birthday", "Arthur's Ghosts" and "Ariadne's True Love".

Ariadne's Secrets

1.

~ Ariadne woke up to shouting and screaming. The voices of grown ups coming from the other room. Her father, was mad at her mother again and he was shouting. Ariadne curled into a tight little ball as she felt the cold of the room she was in.

She didn't have a bed and her mom had made a bed pallet to sleep on telling her not to complain. She was old enough now to understand this was not how normal people lived and to feel a kind of resentment to her parents for allowing their children to exist like this and do nothing about it.

She felt someone in the bed pallet shift and a small hand go around her waist.

"It's okay, Sammy." Ariadne said to her little brother. His small, willow thin body seeking hers for warmth.

It was winter time, and there was snow on the ground. The heat was shut off because her parents never had the power turned on. The power wasn't on because her parents couldn't afford it.

The family never had money. Everything they saw, was something they couldn't have. The past year, however, had been a good. Despite having no power, they had found and small house to live in. The landlord taking less rent in exchange for work that was promised to be done around the house. The work never got done and the small rent never scarped together because her dad had started drinking again.

Her mother telling Ariadne and her brother that if they had behaved and didn't make so much noise, their dad wouldn't drink. Ariadne, her mind sharp even at a young age, felt otherwise. Her dad was never home enough for they kids to bother him. He came home late and yelled at their mother. He was passed out by the time Ariadne dressed herself and Sammy for school.

"I'm hungry." Sammy said.

"Shh." She hissed back at him. She was hungry to and the cold was seeping under the thin blankets the pair were wrapped in.

Their mother had given them nothing to eat after they got home from school, and they had learned not to even ask. Dinner and after school snacks, that was for other people. Not them. They had gotten the free lunch and breakfast on school days, but the long hours until it was time to go to school again stretched out painfully.

Ariadne liked school. Despite her worn and poor fitting clothes, she belonged there. Her teachers adored her. Her tattered school bag filled with homework decorated with stickers and praise. Sammy, by contrast, struggled. He was placed in the special needs classes because he couldn't concentrate and didn't talk to anyone but his protective older sister.

But he liked school to. It was a safe place where he could eat hot food and it was always warm. Peaceful, until his sister came to get him and they walked home to a cold house full on angry adults.

Ariadne jumped when she heard her mother scream. She knew her dad was hitting her again. A fear that he might come into their room and start hitting them too took hold of her.

"Sammy, get up." Ariadne said pulling the blankets off them. The thin little boy shivering as the cold bit at them with sharp teeth.

"Why?" Sammy asked in a whining tone. More screams and cries came from the other room as her father was now in a full drunken rage.

"Put your shoes on, Sammy." Ariadne hissed to the little boy as the children shrugged on coats over their thread bare night clothes.

Sammy followed her instructions trustingly and dressed as best he could for a 7 year old. Ariadne, 2 years older, helped him zip up his too small coat.

"Come on, Sammy." She whispered as the sounds of their parents fighting grew worse.

It was still night as the children crawled out of the window and fell into the snow.

"Can we play in the snow?" Sammy asked.

"No." his big sister hissed as she pulled him along.

"Where are we going?" Sammy said as it started to snow again.

"School." Ariadne told him.

~The school yard was haunting in the dark. It was strange to see it empty as the two of them played on the swing sets.

"I'm cold." Sammy complained.

"I know. Me to." Ariadne said as she shivered under her inadequate clothes.

"Mom is going to be mad we ran away." Sammy said worriedly.

"We didn't run away." Ariadne said. "We went to school."

"Why do you always talk about running away?" Sammy asked sadly.

"I don't."
"Yes you do. You show me pictures of all the places you want to live. None of them are here." He said.

"I want to see those places." She said simply. "There's more to the world then this place."

"Can I go with you?" Sammy asked.

"Of course. You and me always." Ariadne said pushing her brother higher on the swing.

Sammy's big brown eyes looking scared.

Ariadne screaming and screaming until she wasn't able to scream, cry or talk anymore.

18 years later...

~ Ariadne woke to a little girl screaming.

"Mama! Papa!" Darcy sang out as she jumped into their warm, comfy bed. The happy child crash landing on Arthur who grunted out of a sound sleep.

"Wake up!" Darcy said to them. "Wake up!"

"Darcy!" Arthur said as the little girl with too much energy made to climb over Ariadne. Arthur shifted and moved a protective arm over his wife's body, blocking Darcy's advance. The shock of Darcy's surprise attack had made him more mindful of his wife's delicate condition.

"Darcy, never jump on Mama like that again." Arthur told the little girl harshly.

"She didn't jump on me, Arthur." Ariadne said gently as the Architect was roused out of sleep. She leaned down and kissed Darcy on the forehead.

"Are you ready for breakfast?" She asked the girl with the curly blond hair.

Darcy smiled and nodded.

"I know she didn't land on you, she landed on me." Arthur said fitfully. "The one day we get to sleep in." He grumbled.

"What are you complaining about?" Ariadne smiled as she crawled out of bed. "Your not the one who was up at 5am every morning for a month with morning sickness."

Arthur smiled as his eyes caught the sight of her abdomen. She was too early for the pregnancy to reveal itself yet, but they had just yesterday gone in for her three month exam.

"Are you still mad it's another boy?" He asked with that self satisfied smile he got when even he was particularly pleased with himself.
"Yes." Ariadne snapped, but smiled at him. "I have to take all the pink baby stuff I got back. Some of it was really cute." She shrugged and pretend to think. "I guess I could always dress him up in it anyway." She mused.

"You most certainly will not." Arthur said forcefully. The Point Man sitting up out of the nest of warm coverings. Ariadne laughed as her husband embraced her.

"I better go check on Dominic." She whispered as he was kissing her in a way that showed he wanted something more.

"Alright. Better go and make sure my other son is alright." He said proudly.

She shook her head as she left their bedroom and went to pick her one year old little boy out of his crib. Dominic was awake and waiting patiently for her to get him changed, dressed and started on his breakfast. It was the nanny's day off and no one in the family had to be anywhere. It was a day where everyone stayed in their sleep clothes and watched TV, movies, played games and did as little as possible.

~ Arthur was fixing Darcy her breakfast as Ariadne came back with Dominic, the baby cooing happily in her arms.

"Mama, I don't want another boy." Darcy complained. "I want a little sister."

Her child like belief that her parents could control such things at her whim.

"Well, so did I." Ariadne said sadly as she placed Dominic in his high chair.

"Ariadne!" Arthur laughed in mild shock.

His wife shrugged and smiled at him.

"Not a nice thing to say." He scolded as Darcy and the baby started eating their breakfast.

A knock on the door disturbed the blissful family.

"I'll get it." Ariadne said as the Point Man made to stand. "I'm already up."

She could hear Darcy singing and Dominic mimicking her in his baby talk as she answered the door.

A man stood there. One she didn't recognize. He was older and worn looking. His cheeks hollowed and his eyes sunken in. His dark haired peppered with gray and covered with an worn baseball cap.

"Ari?" He asked peering at her.

She looked him over curiously. No one, not since she was very young had someone called her that.

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"I should say that you better." The man said in his American accent. "Ari, it's me. Your dad."