A/N: Thank you all so much for your patience! I hope that this chapter is well worth it, because I believe that it is the longest chapter I have written for this story thus far. I'm actually incredibly proud of it. So I hope you are too.
Though Alison had reached out to Maya the same day, it took nearly a week for Alison to hear a reply. Over that same time period though, Emily continued receiving text after text and calls multiple times a day. Most of them weren't concerning in the slightest and just contained Maya's usual manipulative technique. But every now and then, Maya would become irate again at Emily's lack of reply. After realizing that Emily wasn't going to reply until she in turn replied to Alison, a text with a simple time and place buzzed through on Alison's phone.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me…" Alison muttered as she picked up her phone from the nightstand.
Hearing Emily grumble behind her, Alison turned over to stare at her wife, who was still pleasantly asleep beside her. She sighed looking at the small peeks of skin Alison could see entangled in their comforter. Despite what it looked like, Alison still struggled imagining being intimate with Emily again. Part of her craved her touched, while the other part recoiled at the thought. Since getting a new bed for their master bedroom though, they both had decided a few days earlier that the best way to attempt to build intimacy was to sleep side by side. It didn't take much convincing after receiving Maya's first set of texts to realize that living under the same roof made more sense than being separate, which pushed along their reunion much quicker than either had anticipated. But just as it was before their untimely separation, as Alison looked over at her wife, she didn't have it in her to wake her up before Olivia had even begun to budge. So Alison turned back over to delay the crushing inevitable.
As Alison began spinning back to face her nightstand though, Emily slowly began waking up as well. Her eyes fluttered awake as she reacquainted herself with being by Alison's side. A smile crept across her lips as she brushed the lightly tangled hair away from her eyes to get a better view of her wife's back. Even in her black tank top, Emily lived for the moments she could spend tracing her eyes over the intricate patterns made by the freckles etching Alison's skin. The way they powdered across the nape of her neck and cascaded over her shoulder blades in a stray yet ubiquitous pattern urged Emily to have her fingers linger over what she once knew intimately. She shook off the impulse as she turned on her side before coughing lightly in hopes it may wake Alison up from her slumber.
Alison's hand subconsciously reached behind her until their fingers intertwined. "Good morning." Emily smiled as she lifted her hand up to kiss the back of Alison's hand tenderly.
"Hey…" Alison turned over slyly, hoping to hide the news in her text message for as long as possible.
But as soon as their eyes met, Emily could tell Alison was already struggling through the day, "What happened to you this morning, Grumpy Gills?" She smiled sheepishly, reaching over to tap Alison's nose with her finger.
Alison's eyes fluttered at how adorable Emily already looked this morning, "I know that this is your tactic for helping Liv after her naps, but I'm kind of in a different boat over here, babe."
"Yeah, okay…" Emily scooted over until they were about a foot apart still on their pillows, "Tell me what's up."
"I just – my mind is racing this morning with so many things. I woke up like 20 minutes ago and can't turn everything off. Maya finally texted back."
"She did? What did she say? Are you okay?" Emily immediately sat up from the bed to wrap Alison's hands in hers with urgency laced in her voice.
"Yeah, yeah. There's a reason she didn't text back for so long though… she wants us to meet on Saturday."
"Okay, I can take Liv for the day. That's not a big deal."
"… at Liam's memorial."
"That fucking bit –" Emily's body inadvertently began spinning off the side of the bed as though she wanted to find Maya wherever she was immediately.
"Em! Emmy! Back at me, please." Alison latched onto Emily's t-shirt, catching her moments before launching after her ex. "Look, you're adorable when you're protective, but I just need help working through it. I've never been there before, not really, you know. And I know that she did this to throw me off my game, but I don't want her to be right."
"We can change it. Let me call her." Emily turned back desperately, wanting to help in some way.
"Babe, lay back down. Listen." She waited until Emily followed instruction and curled back into herself. Alison dropped her voice to continue the conversation calmly. "She wants you to call her. She wants to rattle me. She wants to rattle us. We can't cave to her, Em." Alison placed her hand on Emily's cheek to wipe her hair from her eyes. "We're going to be okay. I don't need you to protect me in this. I just need you. Here. With me. Like this. I just need you to help me figure out how to make it through Saturday."
Emily leaned forward, tucking her finger under Alison's chin for a kiss. Emily sighed into her lips, hoping that just her touch would influence Alison's capacity to make it through. Alison allowed her body to relax under her touch, moving her hand from Emily's face to her hip. Clutching the curve of her waist, Alison traced her finger along the dimple in her wife's back. It was fascinating to her how easily they had the capacity to melt back together, as though there was no pause. As if all Emily knew how to do was please her wife. As if Emily's embrace had been reserved for her all along.
"Does that help at all?" Emily asked, pulling away with a grin.
Alison laughed, "It doesn't hurt." For as good as she felt in Emily's arms, she knew their conversation was far from over. "But I have something else on my mind too, Em."
"Of course. I'm here." Emily exhaled, wrapping her arm around her wife's shoulder to pull her into her chest.
Alison readjusted herself to be comfortable, allowing her hand to rest gently on Emily's stomach, "I don't want this to come off as seeming stupid or anything, so I want to make sure I'm saying this the right way. Going to Liam's memorial sucks and is so petty and intentional from her, but – and I know we've already discussed this a bit – but I'm still unsettled by the fact that she will always be your first love."
"Al –"
"No, let me finish. Because we talked about this when we were dating, Emily." Alison voice rose to display a light harshness in the crook of her words. "When I was falling in love with you without warning and without ever having experienced it before. And I was scared that with the multiple people you had dated previously, that loving me wouldn't be unique. As though loving people was the same for each person. Do you remember?"
Emily kissed the top of Alison's head, knowing what was happening, "Yeah. I do, sweetheart."
"So then you remember what you said?"
"I told you not to worry." Emily closed her eyes, the echo of her words from over half a decade earlier coming back to haunt her.
"You told me that you and your ex's were completely over. That no one loves different people the same way. That you loved Paige like only a confused teenager could. That you loved that girl from study abroad like only an inquiring backpacker could. That you loved Maya like a scared and lonely high schooler – "
"I told you that I loved her without understanding how my words and feelings and actions could impact others. Or how in turn, their words, feelings, and actions could impact me."
"Exactly. You told me that I never needed to worry about being fearful because you loved me so differently. You called it – "
"All-consuming… I remember." Emily inhaled unsteadily, causing her chest to shake. Alison looked up and placed a singular kiss on Emily's jaw.
"You know where this is going, don't you?" Alison asked as Emily nodded against her, tucking her fingers further around Alison's upper arm. Clinging to this moment in attempts to escape from the conversation Alison was retelling. "You called our love all-consuming. You said that it took you over from head to toe. That no matter where you were or what you were doing, that your love for me was forever in the back of your mind. You said that even though Maya was your first love and would always be special that it was nowhere near your best love. You told me that night that I was your best love, Emily. That for as important as Maya and Paige and everyone else you dated were to shaping who you are, that –"
"The way I loved you was more than that. That all I had with them was the past, but that you were my future."
Alison wrapped one of her feet toward the inside of Emily's right ankle, her thumb continue to brush just below Emily's breasts. "I told you I loved you for the first time that night, Em. We made love for the first time that night. And then looking back, it was a fucking lie." Alison's voice wasn't harsh or resentful or angry. She knew that she was being factual and so her voice remained steady and calm.
"It wasn't a lie, Ali." Emily spoke as earnestly as she could.
"Then what was it? Because what you had with Maya obviously wasn't in the past, and I wasn't enough of your future to prevent that. You knew it was an insecurity of mine and yet, the first moment you could, you went backward."
"Alison, this situation wouldn't be any better if I came home and was dating someone you didn't know. You have every right to be pissed, but me dating Maya had so little to do with the conversation we had years earlier."
"But you had to have thought about it, Emily. You had to have realized the first time you fucked. The first time you retold her that you loved her. The moment she stepped foot into this home. You had to have thought about that conversation."
Silence filled the space once again as Emily grasped for the right words to say. But Alison gathered the courage first.
"You had to have thought about me. That's all I want to know. You had to have thought about me." Her voice cracked for the first time since they had started talking. It was the first moment of weakness Emily could sense. All Alison wanted was to be wanted. To be desired. To be loved. To be needed. To never be forgotten.
"Yeah. Always, Al."
"Then, what the fuck? How am I supposed to face someone in your defense, in defense of our relationship when the forever thought of me in the back of your mind didn't fucking prevent you from going back to her."
"Because I was the same little girl, Alison… When you left, when we separated, when I was alone. I was a different person. I wasn't the woman you fell in love with. I wasn't your wife. I wasn't Emily. I was back to being the same scared and lonely 15 year old that was taken advantage of and manipulated. I was a shell of the woman you made me. I don't know how to earn back everything I took away from you. But I wasn't lying back then, and I'm not lying now. Of course, I never forgot about you or the words we shared or the love we made. I – I mean, you have forever been all-consuming, Alison. I spent years of my life consumed by you." Emily's voice trembled behind Alison. Tears building in her eyes streamed down in a loss of control. Emily inhaled again to keep it together, which only caused more tears to escape as she continued. "You have been etched into me since the day we met. Fuck Al, I have never been me without you. I had never been seen or heard or touched until I found you. Until you found me for the first time. I don't know how to describe it."
"Take your time." Alison said passively. She wasn't letting Emily get out of saying all she needed to.
"What was I supposed to do in a world with nothing when you are my everything? How was I supposed to take a step forward when my entire purpose for living was behind me? It's no one's fault. I know that. But for as shitty as everything you went through was… you left me. And it wasn't your choice or your desire for us, but I went from the top of the world with you to feeling like the entire fucking world was on top of me. And so yeah, I reverted backward. I went back to what was comfortable before all of this mess occurred. I fucked up. I destroyed your trust and the entire framework our relationship was based on. But I want you to know that I'm coming back to who I was when we initially had that conversation. I'm coming out of this with a new-found look on life. I just – " Emily stopped to take a breath. From Alison's position, she could feel her wife's heart racing. She could tell that Emily was attempting to keep it together, so she stayed silent. She let Emily gather her thoughts. "You'll always consume me, Ali. I don't know what else I can say, except that even lying here, you fill me with extraordinary amounts of hope for my future. You love me profoundly without even trying. You give me a glimpse of what I was missing the first 21 years of my fucking life and what I've been searching for the past two years. I don't deserve you defending me or defending us, but I also never asked you to. Ali, I'll go talk to Maya if you need me to or if that'd be more comfortable. All I can do is keep being this person, this Emily lying next to you right now. And who I am today and what I feel today is the same way I did 7 years ago in your apartment. You'll always consume me, Alison. You'll always be my forever love."
Alison tucked her chin into Emily's chest, trying to prevent the tears on the brim of her eyes from spilling over. It had taken weeks, but Emily had found the words that Alison had been waiting to hear. Words she didn't know that she even needed to hear. But it was enough to flip the switch her head.
She wiped her eyes on Emily's shirt before looking up at her, "Okay… That's a start."
Emily crashed her head down into her chest as she earnestly chuckled, "A start? Alright, babe. Whatever you say…" Emily reached her left hand up to Alison's chin once more before pulling her head up to face her own. "I love you. I'm right here. And I love you."
"Yeah, I know that now." Alison replied, kissing the tip of Emily's chin again before cuddling back into her chest. It wasn't what either of them wanted to hear. But like Alison said… it was a start.
Thirty minutes before they were scheduled to meet, Emily and Alison pulled up across from the memorial.
"Okay, so even though our car will be covered by the trees, you can see from here that I can clearly see you on the corner over there." Emily pointed to her left where over half of the memorial was visible.
"Yeah, I see that." She took a shallow breath trying to gather enough air. "Do you think it was the right choice for us to not come by ourselves earlier this week for me to get a lay of the land?"
"I mean, you made the choice, Al. I told you I would support whatever you wanted. I think that you being a little shaky may catch Maya off guard. It may be an advantage. She's going to expect you to come with notecards of facts."
"Well, I plan on this taking no more than 5 minutes. This conversation shouldn't even be needed as grown fucking adults. But if it's what it takes for our family to be safe, then I'll do whatever I need to do."
"You have your phone set up to record, right?" Emily looked over her shoulder at her wife. The fear in Emily's eyes gave insight into how she lived in this relationship for the past 10 months. There was a nervousness with Maya that wasn't replicated by any other part of her life. And as Alison began preparing for this meeting, she had slowly started seeing that fear come out.
"Yeah, babe. You don't need to worry. We've discussed this a hundred times." Alison leaned forward placing Emily's face in the palm of her hands. "The recording is just in case a threat is made that we can use. I have to get her consent first to record. If she doesn't consent, I will tuck my hair behind my left ear, and you will know to get Spencer on the phone to discuss what you can see with her. Breathe for me. You are okay. I grew up with Jessica and Kenneth DiLaurentis as parents, Em. They invented gaslighting and manipulation. I will not be swayed. You are safe. You are safe with me. In this moment and in every moment."
Emily nodded trying to be reassured. "I know. It's hard for me because I didn't know that I was at risk until a month ago. I didn't get it, so I don't understand how everyone else around me can see it so clearly."
She continuously brushed her thumbs underneath Emily's cheeks as she spoke, "Because we're outside of it. We weren't living it every day. You can't blame yourself for someone taking advantage of you. Would you blame me for the things my parents took away from my childhood?" Emily shook her head, "Yeah, you never would. You aren't blameless, but I would never blame you for her bullshit."
"Okay…" She exhaled as Alison let go of her face and took hold of her right hand.
"I'm going to go sit over there now, okay? I will be alright and once I get this settled, we can continue on with our lives. I'll be back soon." Alison leaned over to place a kiss on Emily's cheek before getting out of the car, tucking her hands in her oversized coat pockets, and walking to the intersection that started it all.
Alison hadn't really faced the scene of her crime firsthand. She looked right up the small hill she careened down before flipping into the now-replaced stop light. She looked left toward the hospital she spent many nights at prior to being released after the crash. As the wind blew against her skin though, she knew Liam was with her. Though she had never met him personally, Alison would forever be spiritually connected to her son. She smiled into the breeze as a calm covered her from head to toe and sent her right back to Emily's first pregnancy.
After a long day working around the house, Alison sunk into the bathtub with a sigh. They had decided to forgo professionals doing the flowerbeds around the house to instead spend time together making parts of their home their own. It was a passion project for the two that definitely was taking more time than either could have expected. But in their first few months of marriage, it was a welcomed change of pace. Alison's muscles screamed out their aching as she allowed the steam to combat her continuing spring allergies. It was a continued peace to her day that she embraced with open arms, never knowing the next time the other shoe may drop.
Alison opened her left eye to look into their master bedroom as she heard Emily coming in after her. Peering out of her peripherals, she still admired the subliminal beauty of her wife. The simple way that Emily walked registered in Alison's mind as perfection. She watched as Emily pulled her hair out of its ponytail to shake out the tension from their exhausting day. Emily walked around the bed toward their closet to discard of her clothing, making her disappear from view as Alison closed her eyes once more. She smiled into her soak as she faintly heard Emily singing off-key from their closet. It was these moments that Alison embraced more than any other. It was these moments that Alison continually filed away as a reminder for every tiny and simplistic thing contained in Emily's being that Alison craved.
Sitting up to wash her hair, Alison reopened her eyes just in time to see Emily walk back to reach into the bathroom to grab her silk robe for covering until it was time for her bath. And as her silhouette passed by, Alison saw it for the first time.
"Emmy! Emmy!" she called in a perceived panic.
Emily laughed as she tucked her head into the bathroom once more, "Yes, my love?"
"I need you to take off your robe and come in here right now."
"Ali…" she groaned, "I'm not really in the mood. I mean, we just came from outside and I'm going to have to wash this robe because anything I wear is just sticking to my bo –"
Alison threw up her arms, "No, not that. Trust me. Please?"
Emily turned toward her, relatively perturbed, "This seems completely pointless, and quite frankly, taking advantage of my svelt figure for your own ogling seems a little out of line." She continued speaking as she dropped the robe to the floor.
"You're beautiful, baby. But turn sideways. Mhm-mmm. Now walk for me." She clapped in excitement as Emily walked in front of the tub. "I can't believe it! You're finally showing!"
Emily jumped, spinning around to face the mirror, "What? Why didn't you say something? Are you serious? Can you really tell now?" Alison watched as Emily admired her barely protruding stomach. She smiled in pride at her body's ability to create life inside itself. Alison propped her head on her fist as she looked lovingly her way.
"Come here, sweetheart." Alison prompted as Emily walked over to sit on the side of the tub. Pushing herself up out of the water temporarily to meet her wife in a kiss, Alison settled back into the tub before reaching her left hand out to settle it on her stomach. "It's our little man."
"Yeah, baby. It is." Emily looked down at her wife who stared straight ahead. Even with her hair in a messy shampoo-wrapped bun on the top of her head, she was the picture of everything Emily had dreamed of. Someone so enamored with their life that the smallest of moments were her victories and triumphs.
Without breaking contact with the bump on Emily's belly that was no bigger than if she had eaten a few big meals, Alison kept talking, "Do you think we made the right choice to only use the male embryos? Should we have been less choosy?"
"Ali, we talked about this. We both envisioned our family starting with a little boy. The other embryos are frozen for whenever we're ready, babe. Little Liam will be loved without a doubt…"
"Hey?" Alison's question shook Emily out of her haze while she was still speaking, fading off. Emily reconnected her eyes with Alison's. "Where'd you go there, Em?"
"Just imagining him being here."
"Get in with me."
Emily blushed, "What? Alison, I already told you. I'm not in the mood."
Laughing, her wife replied, "Why must you always act like I'm trying to put the moves on you? This is a big moment, and I'm in the damn bathtub. Join me. Come on. You can sit all the way over there. I promise; I will only attempt to play footsie."
"If it will get you off my case, then fine." She rolled her eyes as she lowered herself into the warm water.
"Feels good? Right?" Emily's body drifted into the water in bliss, her eyes closing as Alison continued rinsing out her own hair. "You falling asleep over there?"
"I'm growing a life, lay off!" Emily smiled back at her wife, her eyes still closed.
"Spin around then. Come lean against me. I'll wash you off and let you relax."
She opened her eyes in protest, "Alison…"
Alison picked up her hands in innocence, "I swear to you. No funny business. I can't just take care of my loving wife without being harassed?" Emily laughed as she spun around into her wife's chest, relaxing into her touch as Alison's hands fell delicately onto her thighs. "See? It's not so bad over here. Let me take care of you, babe."
Emily sat up so that Alison could run her fingers through her hair and scalp with shampoo before covering her face with her left hand while she poured water over her to rinse.
"I'm going to wash your back and stuff now, okay? My hands are going to be on your body. They are not coming onto you. They are just trying to –"
"Oh, shhhh." Emily protested, "The quiet was so peaceful."
Alison continued by soaping up a washcloth to tenderly clean Emily's torso. Delicately, she scrubbed her back and neck before moving to the front of her body. Emily's body quickly gave way to the care, allowing herself to rest against her wife's chest without protest.
"Sit up for me again, Emmy." She whispered to her wife. "I gotta make sure to clean behind your ears."
"You're such a dork." Emily chuckled, complying to her wife's request.
"Don't act like you didn't know it when you said 'I Do'." Alison kissed just below Emily's ear as she leaned back again in the tub.
From underneath the water, Emily found Alison's right hand before lacing the two together. A silent acknowledgement of appreciation. Alison embraced her wife with her left hand, allowing it to rest on her now barely protruding stomach.
And for the first time since they said 'I Do.' For the first time in the months they had been married, Alison felt a calm sweep over her entire family that prevented any lingering thought from intruding. A quiet sense of peace that ran through each of their veins to form a perfect union between the three of them. It was a calm that not Alison and Emily could provide alone. Because now forever intrinsically between them would be Liam. He was the calm. He would always be the calm they both were searching for.
Alison reopened her eyes on that corner block to find the WALK sign aglow. The calm from the breeze all she needed in tow, as she wiped the lone tear from her right cheek as she reached the next corner to wait to cross. She looked to her left back toward Emily's car. Her wife was staring faintly at her through the window. Alison picked up her finger, licked it, and held it up to the wind, smiling.
Emily rolled down her window and repeated the motion before mouthing, "Liam…" Their forever unused nickname for their son. William, meaning 'resolute protection', forever being represented through the wind. Forever protecting his mothers and now baby sister. Alison placed her hand over her heart as she walked the other stretch of walkway to his memorial.
She took a deep breath before stepping from the usual concrete sidewalk, to the stained concrete of the memorial. She looked up to look at the statue for the first time. A taller young man that Alison immediately recognized held hands with a younger boy to his left as they ran, their clothes appearing to lightly blow in the wind.
"Chance." Alison whispered, looking for the first time at a 3D representation of the life she took away. She had only ever seen his photo in the newspaper or in clippings of photos his mother sent from various ages when he was younger, but Alison recognized him immediately.
The younger boy next to him appeared to be about 5, and despite not being a perfect replication, he looked like Emily's father at a young age. His straight hair flew softly behind him as Alison sat at the bench directly looking at him. Add short curly hair and Emily's lips and she would be staring at her daughter. Alison closed her eyes in the breeze once again as she embraced the feeling of standing on solid ground in the place where she once had ripped the ground apart. She dropped her head as she opened her eyes to look at the plaque placed into the ground.
For Chance Andrew (23) and Liam Charles (unborn). May this ever be a testament to their lives.
"Fuck…" Alison whispered as the tears she had been trying to hold back forged their escape.
"I thought this might be your first time coming here." She heard in front of her. Maya walked up to sit on the opposite bench. "How does it feel?" She was relishing in Alison's discomfort and grieving as she crossed her legs and smirked looking forward.
"Cathartic." Alison replied, wiping her tears away before pulling out her phone. "Thank you for making me come here; I might not have ever taken this step otherwise."
"Sure." Maya coughed, thrown off-guard by Alison's reply.
Alison held up her phone before pressing the record button, "Do you mind if I record our conversation, Maya? It's for both of our protection to make sure that this conversation stays safe for all parties involved. We're in a two-party consent state, so just say the word, and I'll make sure it stays in front of you so that you know I'm not recording."
"No, it's fine." The words left Maya's lips before she could consider otherwise. Alison's thank you still shaking her intended steps for this conversation.
"Okay, great. Please just let me know if you want me to stop. Thanks." Alison smiled up at Maya as Maya half-smirked back. "So we have to talk about Emily and the text messages and phone calls she's received throughout the week."
"I'm still surprised that she sent you as her representative."
"No, I'm here as her wife." Alison readjusted herself without breaking eye contact. The tension between them lingered in the breeze.
"Her wife…" Maya pushed her bangs behind her ear, tucking them into the beanie she was wearing in the cold. "Makes sense that she would immediately move on to the next thing she could find warmth under."
"I'm not playing this game with you, Maya. I'm here to tell you to leave Emily the fuck alone. Stop calling. Stop texting. I know you may have had hope in getting back together, but I'm here to tell you to step out of this."
"Interesting. It's almost like we're back in that waiting room in high school."
"You can make that comparison if you'd like. But this isn't high school. Real lives and a real marriage are at stake here. This isn't a game for you to fuck with."
The lingering smirk on Maya's face remained plastered, "You know, I don't think Emily was concerned about your "real marriage" when she was fucking me just weeks ago."
Alison gulped, clenching the hand that was behind her back into a fist, "Once again, I'm not here to discuss what you would like to. I am here to get your confirmation, on recording, that you will leave my wife alone. It is her request that you remove yourself from her life."
"And she's not here because?"
"You know exactly why." Alison leaned forward as Maya slowly started getting under her skin.
"Oh, that part got you too." Maya leaned further back in her seat enjoying that Alison was showing evidence of cracking. "You getting angry now?"
"Not angry. Frustrated… you're a child."
"I'm excited to watch the judicial system's anger management courses at work. An exemplar prisoner now out in the world putting their course into practice. What does it take for you to…" she paused. "Crack?"
"That wouldn't happen." Alison crossed her arms attempting to get back in control.
"I'm sure that's what the courtroom thought before the day they questioned you, Alison. But it turns out that too many questions kind of set you on edge. Don't they? There's no bailiff to hold you back out here."
"This is pointless." Alison groaned, standing up and beginning to walk back to the crosswalk.
"I thought you were here for Emily. And at the first test of an entire conversation, you choose to leave. Is that what Emily can expect during this marriage of yours?"
Alison turned around incensed, but held her voice steady, "You are despicable. You are a manipulative narcissist who does not care who she tramples in the way to what she wants. The fucking issue with people though, Maya is that it's a two way street. They have to want you back. I'm not sure what damage you did to my wife while I was gone, but she wants nothing to do with you. So do us a favor and get the fuck out. It's not that difficult. Move on to your next prey because I am not the person you want to fuck with."
"Ooh. Is that a threat? On record?" Maya stood intrigued.
"The only threat I have for you is that I will sue your ass into next year. My name has more power and fame and money behind it than St. Germain could ever dream of having. I will find every ounce of baggage I can muster from the depths of the crypt you rose from and use it against you until something sticks. I will sue you for petty issue after petty issue until you either give up or go bankrupt. But I'm giving you the option to get out now. Remove yourself now, Maya."
"$2 million."
Alison couldn't help but laugh aloud, "Of course, this is about fucking money for you. Is that why you sought her out again? Because Emily Fields had access to the DiLaurentis Trust?"
"Just happened to be a perk. I'm entitled to the money Emily was set to earn in your divorce."
Alison took a step forward, "A screw is loose up there, Maya. You aren't entitled to shit. You are scum. Do you hear that? Scum. Agree to walk now or you will receive a restraining order for both distance and any form of contact tomorrow while my lawyer draws up our next course of action."
"You're bluffing." Maya stepped forward, putting them only a few feet from each other.
"Try me, bitch."
"$500,000."
"Never going to happen. Say it. Into my phone." Alison extended her arm forward, the microphone facing Maya, "Tell me that you will leave my wife and family alone."
"$100,000." Maya crossed her arms, unwilling to look Alison in the eye since she turned around.
"I will stand here all fucking night. Either you leave and I make your life hell with lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. Or you tell me to my face and into this phone that you will stop. I'm here for Emily. I will not leave until her safety is settled."
Silence. Maya swayed back and forth working out her options.
"You know, what? Fuck you." Alison began speaking again. "Because the fact that I'm here right now for my wife's safety is bullshit. She was engaged to you. She loved you and for months she had no idea that she was unsafe in your hands. That she was in harm's way. You are the harm. Take a long hard look at yourself in the fucking mirror tonight because there is woman in this town who questions safety in my fucking arms because of your bullshit. Her safety, Maya! Her wellbeing! Do it for her, please. If you love her at all, let me take care of her. Let me make sure that she's okay. If you had even one ounce of care for her in high school or now, understand that your relationship with her wasn't healthy. Allow me to help. Let me keep her safe. Let me keep our family safe."
Maya drug her foot back and forth on the concrete, directly on the plaque for Chance and Liam.
"Please get your foot off of their names. Respect Emily's son."
Maya stomped on it while staring directly in Alison's eyes waiting to see her flinch. But she didn't. She stood. Her arm still extended while her other hand rested on the side of her own neck. That was all it took.
"Yeah. Okay. You win." Maya sighed.
"Say it."
"I will stop contacting Emily and your family."
"In what ways?"
"Phone calls. Text messages. Driving past your home."
"Thank you. And I just want this part saved as well. Maya, any violation of this audio, which will be filed with my lawyer will constitute an agreement to the option you did not select this afternoon. As mentioned, the restraining order along with your first charges of harassment and stalking will be filed at first breech of this audio being violated. Understood?"
"Crystal." Maya smirked again as Alison turned around.
She looked over her shoulder as she walked away, "And once again, get your fucking foot off of Liam's name. If I never see you again, it would be too soon."
Alison stood at the corner as she watched Maya kick her foot in the air before turning around to walk toward the opposite side of the town square. Finally removing her hand from her neck, she lifted her phone camera to see the damage. A nail sized nick carved into the side of Alison's neck had held back her temper long enough for the time she need to speak calmly.
She sucked the blood off of her finger as she faced the street, "The fucking judicial anger management system at work, my ass…"
But it was over. She got what she needed. Maya might have believed that their conversation was the end. But for Alison, her confirmation was only the beginning. Because from now on, any and all contact violated a verbal contract. And that was all Alison needed to own Maya's ass.
And it was the first thing Emily needed to finally feel safe again.
A/N: Eep! During editing, just reading it all out loud got me excited/nervous again. I hope you all enjoyed and are excited for some fluffy chapter for the next little bit. I know that I am :) Thank you again for all of your support. It is overwhelming and such a bright spot in my life.
This story is getting me out of my head living in America right now. I would like any readers of mine who are people of color to know that I support you wholeheartedly. The systematic racism entrenched in our society cannot continue. This isn't the time for any of us to sit back and wait. It is time for us to progress and take actionable steps towards seeing and making a change. I will never understand your pain or your experience, but I am dedicated to learning all I can to work alongside you to end these acts of murder and injustice. If any reader is inclined to learn more, please feel free to message me, and I will connect you with any and all resources you may need. #blacklivesmatter Please let me know if there's anything I can do to support you and Black community further with this platform.
I appreciate you all.
Read. Review. Favorite. Pass Along.
Yours,
secretpen28