*Clears throat* Yeah... thank you for the reviews.

Sooooo... things aren't great. And it has been two weeks since the bitch did that... how well are they both taking it and is Melissa going to own up to what she has done (I think most of you can guess the answer to that now).

Why Do You Get To Be Happy?

Philip knew something was up. He hadn't missed the way that his auntie or uncle-to-be were. Something had happened and everything pointed back to his mum, who had suddenly been very busy over the last couple of weeks for him not to be able to ask her. It was why he was up insanely early for a Saturday to try and catch her out.

"What have you done?" Philip said as his mum walked into the kitchen.

"What do you mean?"

"Rachel and Eddie?"

"I've done nothing."

"Mum, don't lie to me."

"I'm not."

He might have only slightly believed her if it was for someone bashing on their front door and pressing the doorbell.

"Melissa!" Eddie shouted through the door.

Philip didn't even look at his mum as he made his way to the front door. She called after him, telling him not to answer it but the angry face of his uncle-to-be said it all. His mum had done something.

"Is your mother in?" He asked.

"Kitchen. Eddie…" Philip started when he pushed past him.

There was nothing else that Philip could do other than to shut the front door and to follow Eddie into the kitchen. Maybe he would find out what was going on.

"Are you happy now?" Eddie shouted.

"I don't want you here."

"Funny that. I didn't want what happened two weeks ago to happen, but it did."

"Not my fault."

"Yes, it is. Completely and utterly your fault. Rachel hasn't spoken to me for two weeks. Not even for work. She would rather speak to Max than me. Do you not know what you have done?"

"And coming around here and shouting to me is going to make things better?"

"No, you taking some bloody responsibility and owning up to what you did will."

"What if I have nothing to own up to?"

"You are ridiculous. You know, I thought both Jane and Sally were making up how bad you really can be. I thought it was just Jane's hatred of you but it isn't. You have no sense of responsibility. How the hell you ever raised a kid is beyond me?" He paused. "No offence mate."

"None taken," Philip said.

"How the hell did he end up being a decent person when you… I am still trying to work it out."

"What?" Melissa said.

Eddie nodded. "Oh he does, doesn't he? He has you wrapped around his little finger. All of Rachel's past boyfriends. What did he offer you for you to tell them about Rachel?"

"You aren't making any sense Eddie."

"Danny. What the hell did Danny offer you to keep ruining Rachel's life?"

"I bet she told you about the drugs. About the ones she found on me when we were younger. She never let me explain why I had them on me. I was hiding them from Mum and Dad. But she just saw what she wanted to see. She saw me with the drugs and thought the worst. Because she always thought the worst of me. She is just jealous because I was always closer to Danny than she was."

Eddie raised his hands and dropped them again as he huffed.

"You're right. Coming around here was pointless. Why did I think that I could appeal to your better nature? I could say a load of things now that you will never believe. But Danny has always had you wrapped around his little finger. He must have offered you something in return for constantly interfering in Rachel's life. And because you can't seem to see that he is a horrible person, it can't have been for the same reason he wanted Rachel."

"Wait, what the hell do you mean by that?"

"Didn't you know that you weren't Danny's favourite?"

Philip had never really seen his mum speechless before but there was something in Eddie's words that stopped her in her place. He knew that his mum thought that she was Danny's favourite. It was the reason that, whenever Danny was about, she welcomed him into their home with open arms. Philip knew that Danny was using her. But he also knew the reason why his mum would do anything that he said. Because he promised, time and again, to help her out with her little mess and he never did.

"Is it finally clicking Melissa?" Eddie said. "I just hope you are very happy."

Philip didn't want to let Eddie just leave like that. He wanted to know what had happened. But the front door slammed close before he had the chance to say anything.

"What have you done?" Philip said.

"Phil, you are meant to be on my side."

"Your side? Mum, I begged you not to do anything stupid."

"You don't know everything I've been through."

"No. Because you won't tell me. Rachel has done. Some of it anyway." Philip shook his head. "This is the last straw Mum. I… I can't be with you any more."

He made his way up the stairs and into his bedroom as quickly as he could, sliding across the latch that he had placed there to get some privacy. He could hear his mum calling his name from the other side of the door but it did matter. He couldn't live there anymore and listen to her lies.

"Where are you going?" Sally asked.

There were three answers to that question. The place Rachel wanted to go (the pub), the place she should go (Eddie's) and the place she had decided that she was going to (Melissa's).

"Mel's."

"Is that because Jane isn't here to tell you what an awful idea that is?"

"I've heard Eddie's side. Maybe I need to hear Melissa's as well."

"Rachel, you know that isn't a good idea. She will say that he came onto her."

"You heard Eddie." She said as she looked up at Sally. "Do you believe him? As a copper. Would you believe him?"

"Yes."

She looked back down at the worktop. "You are not just saying that because you think it is what I want to hear."

"Rachel… It is fine if you have already forgiven him. You just need to tell him that sooner rather than later. Because he might start to think that he has lost you for good."

Rachel sighed as she grabbed her keys off the side and left. Sally's words played over in her mind as she drove and she knew that she was right. Rachel already knew that Melissa was going to be feeding her lies. Because the more she thought about it, the more what Eddie said sounded like the truth. Maybe she just needed to confirm to herself that Melissa was just going to lie about everything, to make forgiving Eddie the right thing to do.

She parked up on the drive and made her way to the front door, ringing the doorbell once before waiting patiently.

"What do you want?" Melissa said as she opened the door.

"I came to see you."

"Would have thought him upstairs had asked you to get him."

"I haven't spoken to Philip. Mel…"

"Don't Mel me."

Rachel shook her head as she followed her sister into her house. She shouted a hello to Philip up the stairs before she entered the kitchen. Bearing in mind Melissa didn't stick at one job for long, she never knew how her sister always managed to get these nice houses. Although she suspected that Danny had something to do with it. Probably lending her some money. Probably in return for ruining her life.

"What do you want?" Melissa repeated.

"The other week. You and Eddie. What happened?"

"Honestly, Rach, he could not keep his hands off me. I said that I wanted to leave and there he was, pressing me up against the door. I tried to stop him but he is a guy after all. Then he started pulling me towards him. I think he wanted to turn us before we reached his desk and he misjudged it. You can't be keeping him satisfied if he comes after me."

"He is a guy after all," Rachel whispered with a shake of her head.

"Maybe it is a good thing it happened when it did. He isn't the sort of guy that you would want to marry."

"Why is she right?"

"Jane?"

"Sally, for a change. The person you have just described is not Eddie."

"Maybe you don't know the man you proposed to. You must be doubting that yourself if you haven't spoken to him in two weeks."

"How…" Rachel started.

"Eddie came round earlier. Shouting at her for whatever she did," Philip said as he joined them in the kitchen. "Rach, can I come back with you?"

"Of course."

"Phil, love, can we talk?" Melissa said.

"No, Mum, this is the last straw. I can't take any more of this. I don't know why Rachel does it but she keeps letting you back in her life just for Danny to show up and for you to, in turn, ruin Rachel's life. She was happy with Eddie and you and Danny knew it. Eddie was right. You have planned this with him. Why couldn't you just leave it alone?"

"Why does she get to be happy?"

Up until that moment, Rachel had started to become uncomfortable with the argument starting between her sister and nephew. But, for her, Melissa's last question made a whole lot of sense.

"Sorry?" Rachel said.

"Why do you get to be happy? Jane as well. You two think that you are the most hated people in the family when you are not. Do you know how much grief Danny got because he was almost arrested? He was only in that brothel because he was trying to get you out. He had to lie low because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh, Melissa," Rachel whispered.

"You had ruined our family name. Do you want to know what happened to our parents because of you? Because you have never asked."

"Because I didn't care."

"That is obvious."

"Melissa, they knew what I was doing to keep their addiction going. They knew but they didn't care because they were too worried about their next fix. And you certainly weren't complaining either. If I remember correctly, you loved all the extra money and you loved spending it."

"Because I didn't realise that my sister was pimping herself out."

"Danny was pimping me out."

"Not that again."

"Christ. He does have you wrapped around his little finger."

"Get that one off Eddie."

"Go on then. Tell me what happened to our parents."

Melissa seemed to straighten herself out at that point, glad that she knew something that Rachel didn't.

"Dad died of an overdose. Had to have a new supplier because Danny was gone. He was happy to try any substance that would be close enough to Danny's. It was a mix that killed him." She paused to let it sink in. "After that, Grandma and Granddad thought that it was best that I lived with them while they sent Mum away. I still don't know where she is or if she is still alive. You tore us apart. And you know how Granddad could be at times. I couldn't wait to get out of there."

Rachel tried to stop herself from feeling guilty but she couldn't. She did tear them all apart and she tried to tell herself that it wasn't her fault but she knew that it was. Because it was one phone call to the police that had caused all that. She shook her head to try and stop everything from rising in her.

"Can't handle it?" Melissa asked.

"So what has this all been about Melissa?"

"Like Jane found you and helped you, Danny found me and helped me. You might have been still pimping yourself out but I was in some real trouble."

"What trouble?"

"Your first husband," Philip said.

"Sorry?"

"Is that what he constantly holds over you? He sorted or will sort out that if you do what he says. For God sakes Mum. You can't stand it, can you? You can't see Rachel be happy. And you can't see someone standing by her for once. Just because you can't find anyone that will stay with you, doesn't give you any right to stop Rachel from finding that. Rachel deserves happiness for always putting everyone first. She put you first all those years ago."

"Phil." Melissa started.

"You do know that… maybe if you sort out your bigamy problem yourself, then you might find a guy that will stick around."

Philip's sentence hung in the air and Rachel tried to stop herself from instantly offering Melissa her help. If she knew what trouble her sister was in, she would have helped her. Whatever Danny had offered her had obviously backfired a few times, no matter what Melissa had done.

"You had to go and do that, didn't you?" Melissa said, breaking the silence.

"Can we go Auntie Rachel?"

Rachel only nodded at him, making a mental note to ask about the bigamy thing later. She thought that she would have been more surprised when he grabbed a bag from the bottom of the stairs and his coats that were hanging up. That was something that she did ask about when she had started the drive back to Jane's.

"What is all this about?"

"Jane told me ages ago that I could live with her when I'd had enough of Mum. I'm taking her up on that offer."

"Phil."

"I know you don't like me talking bad about Mum but Jane is right. She is a bitch. I really like Eddie, Rach. I have liked him for you ever since New Years 07. That party… Jane told me about how you were when talking about him and that is why she sent me to you with the homebrew. Because she wanted to get me drunk for mum to deal with for the next couple of days but she also knew that you would take it off me, because you could leave me with him rather than Jane and Sally.

"He stood there and joked with me and we spoke about you and… Rachel, I was happy. He wasn't like anyone else you had been with and I was happy for you. Jane told me to keep Mum away and that was what I was doing. Then she heard about the fire from Danny and was sent to the hospital. I wanted to come with her but he wouldn't allow me and then he pushed her to go for the job at Waterloo Road. Rach… I feel awful because I could have stopped some of this."

Rachel shook her head. "No, you couldn't have. Philip, you are 15. Firstly, you are a child still. You do not need to be getting involved in this. And secondly, this mess is older than you are. Maybe I have never wanted to see Melissa as the selfish person that she is because she is and will always be my little sister that I am trying to protect from everything."

"What are you going to do about Eddie?"

"I don't know."

"Are you going to forgive him?"

She knew that she had been thinking over his question for too long, not because he repeated it but because he looked over and she couldn't stop the tears from falling. What had she done?

"You know that the ball is in your court," Sally said as she entered the kitchen.

"Just." Rachel started before she stopped.

"Just what? You've got your answer from Melissa. And maybe Jane is right. Maybe it is time to cut her out of your life permanently." She paused for a moment. "Personally, I would go with a hyacinth. Preferably a purple one."

Rachel blinked for a few moments before she grabbed her laptop and started to research purple hyacinths and wondered where she could get one from.