Jack, Troy and Gabriella looked at the little girl. Taking in everything from her tiny fingers, blonde hair, green eyes…green eyes? The three looked at each other smirking. Troy whispered something to his lawyer who nodded in response
"Your Honor, these are Troy's children. This is Daniel who is six." Daniel ran over to his dad and scrambled onto his lap. "And this is our daughter Lily who is seven months old. Note the eye colour." The judge looked at the two children and saw the blue shining through; there was no doubt that these were Bolton's.
"So the chances of your next child having blue eyes is almost 100?" the judge asked.
"Erm…actually no because we can't have anymore children, but if we could then it would be."
"Sorry about that…well we will take a break and we will meet back in here in 30 minutes minus the children."
Everyone left the room, unsure about who was winning this case, each hoping they were on top.
With Troy and Gabriella during the break
Gabriella and Troy sat at a table in an old canteen with family and friends around them. Troy was starting to worry. It was peculiar that the baby had sparkling green eyes but maybe they took after Angela. He had no idea. All he knew was that he was tired and he wanted today to be over with as soon as possible.
They were all silent. Lucille was nervous. She was going in instead of Jack for the rest of the day. She had never seen Angela before and she had no idea what to expect. Part of her pictured her as a small fragile woman who needed help, yet another part of her saw her as a vindictive woman who knew what she wanted and how she was going to get it. But all her suspicions were answered a few moments later when Angela walked into the canteen. Her heels making gentle taps a they hit the floor. Lucille gasped. She recognized her instantly. It was from the hospital the day of Gabriella's accident. She was talking to that Doctor. The one that was with her now. But what were they saying. All she could remember was something along the lines of 'make sure the results show she's a Bolton.' Maybe that wasn't what they had said word for word but that had been what they meant at least. She remembered that she was going to ask Troy about all of this, but soon forgot it with all the drama that had been surrounding their family at them time with Gabriella and Lily.
The conversation began to flow back to her. Cogs began working away in her head, piecing together all her evidence. She sat deep in thought only to be disturbed by her son.
"Mum? We need to go in now." They all walked back to the courtroom, but before they went in Lucille grabbed Troy's hand.
"Troy there's something I need to tell you…it's about the case." Troy stopped instantly and looked into his mother's eyes. He was given electrifying blue eyes by his father, his mother gave him the most amazing smile while her own eyes shone a chocolate brown, just like Gabriella's.
"What is it?" Troy was so nervous. He wanted anything he could get to help him win this case, so to him. Every single small print detail could be held accountable.
"The day that Gabriella had the accident I saw Angela in the waiting room talking to the man she's here with today. I didn't hear the whole conversation but she said something along the lines of, 'make sure the results show that she's a Bolton.' Troy she's faking it!" His mother said excitedly. Right then he could have kissed her. No he really did kiss her. He was so happy he really didn't know what he could say to anyone.
Everyone was watching this but hadn't heard the conversation, which had taken place in hushed tones. They were astounded at Troy's sudden change in behavior but before they could question him he had pulled Gabriella and his mother into the room.
Ten Minutes Later In the Court Room
"Ok everyone. We are going to have this settled today and the decision of who wins this case will be me. So first of all Mr. Bolton. Do you have anything that you would like to say?" This was the part of the court where they were not allowed lawyers and now had to represent themselves to the judge.
"Yes I do your honor. My mother witnessed something about six weeks ago at our local hospital between Angela and Doctor Thomas." Troy smiled triumphantly. He retold the story the way his mother had and when he was finished he noticed the faces of the two people on the other side of the table. Their jaws were hanging wide open as if they were trying to catch flies. Obviously neither of them had thought that Troy would ever figure out what had really happened.
"Is this true?" The judge asked in a cold and harsh voice.
Angela remained silent. She couldn't find the words to speak. Her mouth hung open as Doctor Thomas's head hung in shame. Their body language told the judge everything he needed to know. She opened her mouth to speak but the judge beat her to it. He had made his decision.
"Well then. Angela, I am ordering you to pay a compensation of $2000 to Mr. Bolton and his family. You will also do 24 hours of community service." He scribbled something down in his records. "And Doctor Thomas. You have breached the code of medical practitioners. You will be suspended from you post, effective immediately until further notice. Thank you all for attending today and we are now done."
Troy and Gabriella hugged each other tightly before welcoming Lucille into the embrace. They left the courthouse that day without so much as a glance back at Angela. That night everyone was celebrating. For this group of people, drama seemed never ending. But for once they felt like they could live a normal life. They were all together and for this moment in time and it was all that mattered. They were fully aware that anything could happen next, so they enjoyed this perfect moment to the full, in fear of never being able to have this feeling again.
5 Years Later
You would think that by now we would have a Mrs. Bolton. But there wasn't. Troy and Gabriella were still engaged. Their wedding plans had started two weeks ago and they thought that they were finally going to do what they had been longing to. But this was Troy and Gabriella that we were talking about, and nothing went smoothly for them. Something was always going to get in the way and there was nothing that they could do from preventing it from happening…
Daniel was now nine years old and looked more and more like Troy every single day. He was on his schools basketball team and was on of the best players they had, with Nathaniel being next in line. Taylor and Chad had twin girls who were now three years old. They were best friends with Lily who was now four and was now in Troy's class at school. By now everyone was married with children, and Gabriella and Troy were the only two that had yet to walk down the aisle.
So far they had decided on the venue and had managed to book it for six months time. They had wanted to wait a while until Lily was old enough to take part and understand what was happening.
Today was Friday and as usual Daniel was spending the night at the Danforth's. Gabriella, Troy and Lily were also going over for a meal before leaving their son there for the night. Gabriella was laid on the sofa when Troy came home from work with Lily. She had been sick all week and she was not feeling any better.
"How have you been today then?" Troy asked gently as he moved her now shoulder length curls away from her pale face.
"I felt bad…then good…then bad and now I'm just tired." Gabriella complained.
"Well maybe an early night will put you right. I'll go and start the kids tea." He kissed her on the cheek and went into the kitchen.
Gabriella sighed once he was out of earshot. She knew full well why she was ill, but she was too afraid to tell anyone, in case she was wrong. But it wasn't something she could hide forever. Two days ago she had found out she was pregnant. I know what you're thinking…Gabriella can't have anymore children right? Well that was exactly what she thought. She cried herself silently to sleep praying that it was true and it wasn't about to be snatched away from her with the next test she took. But after the twenty sixth tests she had finally faced the facts. She was expecting another child with Troy.
Part of her wanted to shout out with joy but another part of her wanted to hide away. She felt like if she lost this baby then she would upset Troy, but there was no way around not telling him. She felt guilty that everyone else already knew except him. She had confided in the girls and Lucille, which had then lead to all the other men finding out…except Troy. She promised herself she would do it tonight, after all, they were going to need to cancel the wedding venue as soon as possible if they wanted to get their money back.
After they had been fed, Gabriella took the kids over to Taylor's and told her that she was going to tell him tonight so not to expect the couple over. With that she headed next door into her own house and sat on the sofa, waiting for Troy to make her something nice to eat.
He came out a few moments later with two bowls of noodles, Gabriella's favourite. She gladly accepted the bowl and began to clear its contents almost as quickly as Chad would normally do.
"Gab's you sure you want to eat that fast? I mean you have been being sick for the last few days…" Troy said gently. He was trying to offend Gabriella by saying something wrong. But instead she put the bowl down and moved closer to Troy. "What's wrong?" He asked with his bright blue eyes gleaming with concern.
"Troy I'm only going to tell you if you promise not to faint or shout or do anything stupid like that." Troy looked like he wanted to laugh but held it in when he saw the serious look across her face.
"Promise."
"Troy…I-I'm pregnant." Gabriella looked down, avoiding eye contact. Telling Troy about their last two children hadn't been so successful and she had no idea how he was going to react to this.
Troy just stared at Gabriella's head. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to do. He hadn't been expecting this. He opened his mouth to speak but found it empty of the words he needed so badly.
Gabriella lifted her head. She couldn't take the silence anymore. Troy was watching her…
One more to go then I'm done! lol
I have two new stories started but I'm posting them one at a time...
So one more chapter then I'm done...
Next story is 'Do we always know best?' - Gabriella meets a boy online...but is he really who she thinks he is...is he even who he says he is?
Love
Hann
xxxx