Thank you all for reading and for taking the time to comment. Here's chapter seven as promised.

Chapter seven

It was now a week after Andrea's heartbreaking revelation and Miranda had been avoiding her ever since. At least she had avoided face to face contact. She hadn't forbidden her twins to spend time with her she just hadn't taken them up on their request to join them because she was sure that she was the last person Andrea would want in her house. But since she hadn't forbidden the twins contact with Andrea they came home almost every night with stories about her. Like last Wednesday they had told her about how Andrea had drew them a picture and was an incredible artist which made her Cassidy's new hero since she was very interested in all things art or like just yesterday were they had bragged about what a good cook Andrea was and how they had gotten to help. It was impossible for Miranda to forget Andrea since her twins brought her up every ten minutes, but even without that kind of reminder Andrea would have still been on her mind 24/7. The woman lived right across the street for gods sakes. It was impossible to get away from her and on some selfish level she didn't want to. She had replayed their conversation over a thousand times in her head and had spent a lot of time contemplating and dissecting her own actions. This had lead her to come to some long overdue conclusions like how she had blacklisted Andrea because she felt hurt and how she had felt hurt because she cared for Andrea. But she hadn't just cared for Andrea, no it had gone much deeper. She had loved Andrea, scratch that she still loves Andrea, but since she had helped destroy the woman's life Miranda is quite certain she doesn't stand a chance and she had only herself to blame for that. Then she had scolded herself for thinking that she would have had a chance to begin with. Andrea was and still is a beautiful young woman while she herself may still qualify for the beautiful part, she certainly wasn't young anymore and she was a woman so there was no way that straight, young, gorgeous Andrea would have seen something in her on a romantic level even before what had happened in Paris. God she should have just took Emily with her to Paris instead of Andrea, maybe the Andrea would still be working for her and wouldn't hate her like she undoubtedly did now.

Andy felt like crap. It had been a week since she had told Miranda absolutely everything. Something she hadn't been planning on doing since she hadn't even told Nigel or Doug or Lilly the entire truth but the last two had guessed it by now. In fact she hadn't told anyone really. She hadn't needed to since everyone knew. Sophia found out from a doctor who violated her privacy as a patient for which she was grateful in the end, her former shrink had already known and her parents had found out from Sophia so she hadn't need to tell anyone. But now she had told Miranda and the older woman was avoiding her like the plague even since, something Andy would have thought she preferred. Andy was convinced that she didn't care anymore, that nothing Miranda Priestly did could hurt her but she was wrong cause now she was being avoided and it hurt and she couldn't help but wonder if Miranda was avoiding her because she was disgusted by her and by the idea that she had been raped. Did Miranda think of her now as something filthy? Something that one should ignore and hopefully it would go away. Andy didn't know but she did know that thinking like this was hurting her and that it wasn't a good sign. She hadn't thought like this or felt like this in years and thought that perhaps she should consider therapy again since obviously she hadn't dealt with things as well as she had thought. She sighed. Then again she would probably never go back to being the Andy she had been before and she just had to accept that people who knew would most likely view her as something dirty and damaged. Her friends, parents and Sophia hadn't reacted that way, but they were probably the exceptions that proved the rule. She would just have to resign herself to the fact that Miranda would now avoid and ignore her and that that kind of treatment would hurt like hell.

Cassidy and Caroline were worried. They had thought that everything would have been okay after Saturday. That Andy would have told their mom the truth and that their mother would have apologized and that they would have made up or even kissed and made up. But they had done no such thing instead her mother had fled and was apparently avoiding Andy. Now the question was why was she avoiding Andy?

"Maybe Andy didn't tell her. Or maybe she didn't believe it." Cassidy suggested.

"No, if that was the case mom wouldn't be so down and she would never allow us to go within ten feet of her. I think she told her and mom just feels too guilty to talk to her," Caroline stated.

"That's just stupid. She should be trying to make it up! Adults can make simple things so bloody complicated!"

"I know, especially mom. Maybe we should convince her to go and apologize again since Andy is sad now too," Caroline suggested because even though Andy had spent a lot of time with them doing really cool and fun stuff she was still feeling sad and everyone had noticed including Ally.

"That's a good idea. Come on," Cassidy replied dragging her sister with her downstairs to their mother's office.

"Mom, we need to talk to you," Cassidy said not having to knock because the door had been open.

"Yes Cassidy, what is it?"

"You should really go and apologize to Andy cause she's sad and I'm pretty sure it's because of you and it's gotten so bad that even five year old Ally noticed! So would you please go over there and make it up to Andy."

Miranda blinked trying to process if she heard all that correctly and then blinked again trying to comprehend what had just been said.

"How old did you say Allison was?"

"She's five. Why?"

"No reason."

"So will you go and talk to her?"

"Yes I will Bobsie."

"Promise?" Caroline cut in.

"I promise," Miranda sighed.

After the twins had left Miranda was trying to process everything she had just learned. Apparently Andrea was sad, but she doubted that had anything to do with her absence, but also Andrea's daughter Allison was five which could mean. God if that was the case then everything Andy had been through was a lot worse than Miranda had imagined. Apparently it hadn't been enough for Andrea to be brutally violated since a pregnancy had been piled up on top of all the problems. But there was a chance that it wasn't as horrible than Miranda thought it was. Hopefully it was Christian's or even her cook boyfriend. God now their was something Miranda hadn't ever thought. Now she was happy that those two men, who in Miranda's opinion weren't even good enough to clean Andrea's shoes, had been able to touch her Andrea while she wasn't allowed to do so.

She sighed. It was obvious that Miranda still hadn't gotten the whole story and she wanted to know it all. She needed to hear every little detail Andrea had to suffer through completely alone because of her stupid assumptions. It would be another difficult conversation, but she couldn't just let it rest. She needed to know. Her feelings of guilt were already overwhelming her, but she wanted the whole story nonetheless. Andrea already hated her, of that she was sure, so she didn't have anything to lose. And on the bright side she wouldn't have to break her promise to the twins that she would go and talk to Andrea.