Oh. My. Lord. You guys have NO idea how ecstatic I was this morning. I woke up to 25 emails saying I had new reviews or new follows or new favorites and I swear to God I almost cried. It was insane. Thank you all SO MUCH for reading this. It means the world to me. It's actually not my best writing, and I'm never really happy with how the chapters turn out but I love getting feedback, even if it's really harsh or whatever. So THANK YOU for reading it.

I normally wouldn't do this because all of you reviewers each deserve a shout out, but I need to call out one person. A guest who called herself/himself (sorry that I don't know :/) Lalalala reviewed every one of the chapters so far, and each one was longer than any other reviews I've gotten (not that I care about the length, a simple "good" is amazing to read) but she actually told me what she thought and everything. So, I just wanted to tell you that it meant a lot :)

Now, I'm sorry that I keep leaving off at sorta cliffy parts. Yeah I'm warning you now it's a bit of a cliffy. So...yeah sorry about that. I'll try to update again soon, but I can't promise anything.

Mimi seemed frozen in her spot. Arynn was looking frantically between me and the man whom she just found out was her father. I could feel that awful gaze of his, the one full of hatred and disgust, zeroed in on my face. I took a deep breath and turned to face him.

The one thing I didn't expect to be there was the hurt. His eyes were clouded over, but it wasn't just hatred and disgust and betrayal, it was pain. He looked like he was physically in pain, seeing my face.

It almost brought tears to my eyes, but I didn't want to cry in front of him. Or Arynn. I took a deep breath and answered him, "I had something to discuss with your mother, that's all."

"And what was that? You wanted to fix your reputation for her? Didn't want her finding out what a sl-" he was about to say an awful word, so I quickly spun around and clamped my hands over Arynn's ears. No way in hell was I letting him ruin her image of him. I could think all the bad things I wanted about him, but he was her father. And hearing nasty words come from his mouth would not help anyone here.

I guess he hadn't noticed that Arynn was here. It was strange, how he looked at her. His eyes found hers and the matching eye colors were so noticeable I was surprised he didn't notice. His entire face softened, though I could still see the tenseness in his shoulders and the way his hands shook ever so slightly. I uncovered Arynn's ears and stood back just a little in order to give her space to process things.

"So…" Austin started awkwardly, "Ally's your mom, huh kiddo?"

Arynn nodded tightly. She looked over at me, concerned, but I nodded to show her it was okay to go on. I could tell she didn't know how to continue. You could almost feel the tension returning, the tightness in the air that had us all standing on our toes.

"Yeah. She's the best mama ever," she stated it like it was a simple fact and again, I found myself almost tearing up, "she raised me all by herself 'cause my daddy," she glanced at me as if asking if it was okay to say something. I had no idea what she would say about her father, but I didn't stop her either, "my daddy doesn't know about me." She looked at him like she was trying to clue him in to our secret. Mimi covered her mouth to stifle a gasp and my eyes widened just a little. Maybe I should have stopped her after all.

Austin's eyes hardened immediately and he tensely glanced at me. I could see wheels turning in his head, questions being asked that I couldn't answer in front of everyone. I couldn't take my eyes away from his face. Watching as the emotions rolled across it in waves, I didn't notice Mimi pulling Arynn to the side. Austin turned on his heel and I almost went after him. Suddenly Mimi spoke up.

"Ally," she started, "why don't you…take a walk. I'll keep an eye on Arynn and try to calm Austin down. I think he just needs a little space."

I looked over at Arynn and she smiled at me, grabbing hold of Mimi's hand. We both looked a little shocked at her innocent action, but I understood. I turned around and left, not sure what I would be coming back to later.

I didn't do much at all. I just walked around the neighborhood. I stopped by a park and sat at one of the benches, but then a family came over and I worried they'd be weirded out if I stayed by myself and just watched them play. I wandered over to some trails and followed one a little ways, then turned back, worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back.

I finally decided that if I waited any longer it wouldn't change anything. If they were to make any progress with anything, then they would have done it by now. So I started walking back to Mimi's house.

Well, I didn't hear yelling and Mimi wasn't waiting by my car with Arynn already buckled in…so I guess nothing awful had happened…probably.

I didn't bother knocking. I just walked in. I didn't hear anything so I continued into the kitchen, where I overheard Arynn talking.

She was telling the story that I always told her. The one about the princess and the prince. And she was just getting to the end, when the princess finally runs away and decides to handle the 'present' all by herself. When she finished the whole room was silent. I waited just outside, trying to gage the reactions of the people inside. After about two minutes, Arynn continued.

"That's what mama always told me when I asked about my daddy. And she would always tell me that even though daddy didn't know about me, he loved me. She said even if daddy didn't love her, because she left and everything, he would love me no matter what happened."

There was silence again, until I heard an almost inaudible huff. I decided to push open the door and was shocked at what I saw. Arynn must have run into Austin's arms. She was curled up into that perfect area where his neck met his shoulder and I could see her shoulders shaking. My instinct was to go over to her, to comfort her, but I saw that Austin was trying to help. His eyes were huge, bewildered and almost scared. They were also filled with an absolute wonder and love that I always dreamed would be in his eyes when—or if—he found out. He was stroking his hand down her long, tangled, blonde hair that was so like his. I could tell that he didn't know what to do, but I could also tell that he really wanted to do it for himself.

He didn't notice me for a while. I just stood there watching as he comforted our daughter. I had no idea if he actually knew it was our daughter. For all I know, it could just be a "I got stuck watching this kid and she told me this story and now she's crying so I have to do something" sort of thing, but my instincts told me that he knew. And I honestly had no idea what to do about that.

When he finally did notice me, his eyes hardened slightly, but nowhere near as much as before. In fact, they held a little of some emotion I wasn't sure about. He kept his arms around Arynn and stood up with her in his arms. She finally pulled away from him and noticed me, but only smiled a wet smile. She didn't go running into my arms like I might have secretly hoped. I suddenly realized that if Austin knew about her…I might lose her. She was everything to me, my whole world for the past four years and nine months. I did everything for her, and now I might lose my privileges as her sole caretaker. What if he wanted to take me to court?

I guess that my facial features when I got super stressed and worried hadn't changed much since back then. I could see it register in his mind as he saw the frantic light in my eyes. He sighed and bent to put Arynn down. She walked over to me and grabbed my hand, her face still a little red from crying. She brushed away one last tear on her cheek and smiled up at me.

"I told him Mama," she said, "and you were right! He said he loved me!" she was so absolutely ecstatic about it. I can't imagine what it must have felt like, having that confirmation after four years of uncertainty. I looked up at Austin and he nodded tensely.

"Baby," I started, "why don't you go visit with Mimi? I think I need to…talk to your daddy alone."

She squealed and ran up the stairs screaming "Grandma!" all the way. I smiled sadly as I watched her.

Turning to face him was one of the hardest things I'd ever done. I couldn't imagine what his face looked like. I didn't want to wreck that image I'd had in my head of him completely embracing Arynn and I when he found out about her. I knew it wasn't possible. All these awful images of him were running through my head and I couldn't turn around. I just couldn't. That is, until he said my name.

"Ally."

I slowly, slowly, turned toward him.

Well at least he didn't look angry. In fact, he looked pretty calm. But I could see questions in his eyes, endless questions. I only hoped I was ready to answer all of them.

Yeah. A bit of a cliffy. I was just going to leave it without the last paragraph, but I figured that that would be a little mean. At least now you know that he isn't angry! I think I'm making Arynn seem too old...but she was raised by Ally, so I'm assuming Ally would raise her daughter to be caring and kind and everything. Anyways, I would really love feedback or anything, but all I really care about is that people are reading this.

I want to thank all the silent readers too. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I appreciate you guys just as much as anyone else! Thanks!

Everyone be safe :)