Thanks for your review EC Brenway - great seeing your support every chapter!

pierce quiet and up to no good! Will pierce get a chance to go after Elly?

The Chemistry In Darkness

Chapter Sixty-Five

Wednesday 26th February 2025

It was just after midnight when Pierce came to bed. It was hours later than he'd promised Chloe he would. Pierce felt that he'd finally cracked the mystery that he'd been trying to solve for over two months.

The mystery his wife didn't even know he was looking into.

About the wolf whom had almost attacked him several months ago and what was so different about Elly when she'd returned after years gone missing before she packed up with her young daughter and left all over again.

Pierce wanted to forget all about Elly after she'd disappeared once more, but even he could see that Chloe's ex had an effect on his wife in the month that she'd been back in town. To what extent that effect was, Pierce didn't know but he knew something had changed in Chloe. It had begun with Elly returning to town and got worse in the days that preceded Elly taking off again, days in which a wolf had roamed the streets of Erinsborough and even spent an evening sleeping in their bedroom with Chloe after Chloe had been so taken by the animal and wanting to give it a home for the night.

After a bungled attempt to hunt down the wolf to slaughter it, Pierce had been shot in the arm by a friend and he himself had stabbed the wolf in the side. Chloe taking the wolf to safety whilst Pierce dealt with his injury was the last time that he had seen the wolf. And yet he somehow feared it would return one day.

When Elly took off again with Aster, no one seemed to know where she'd gone, she hadn't been open enough to reveal the location as to where she'd spent those four missing years. Not even Chloe or Bea knew where she'd gone.

And with the wolf disappearing the same time that Elly did, no one else made a connection between that. Most people didn't even believe there had been a wolf in their neighbourhood and Chloe went quiet when he did bring it up.

Pierce began researching wolves without Chloe's knowledge. At first it was something he did during his spare time at the hotel. Then a few days later, Pierce came across a passage in one of his books that spoke of the traits of wolves during the full moon cycle.

The first book he was using for his research gave the notion that the full moon cycle is what caused the legend of werewolves.

Pierce had scoffed loudly as he skimmed the passage that spoke of the legend, before finding himself looking for a full moon calendar online, laughing at the mere thought the wolf he'd been seeing had appeared on those nights.

Pierce's laughter was cut short when he's discovered the full moon cycle had been the same nights the wolf had been around.

From there, Pierce was obsessed.

Pierce's research changed from wolves to werewolves as he learnt all about the supernatural being and whether or not they could possibly exist in the world. As he continued down that path, he began thinking more and more about Elly's month in Erinsborough and how different she was.

Pierce didn't know Elly anywhere near as much as his wife did but he wasn't blind to Elly's sudden confidence, ability to eat more food than he could, the expensive car that had been replaced within hours by the mysterious family that had taken her in, the rowdy couple whom he'd kicked out of his hotel before finding out they were friends of Elly's and how Chloe spoke of how fast Elly could run when the pair used to go running together each morning.

Hours before Pierce headed for bed that night, he had finally had enough confidence to believe that Elly wasn't the person she presented herself to be.

Elly was a werewolf.

The same wolf that had hung around Chloe for three nights, stalking her.

Pierce knew he wouldn't be believed, he wondered if his wife was naïve to the truth about her so-called-best friend.

Pierce watched Chloe sleeping for a moment, before removing his shirt and pants, slipping into the bed next to her. Wrapping his muscled arm around Chloe's waist, Pierce decided all thoughts of Elly needed to be left until the morning.

When he would have more clarity over whether or not his obsession over the werewolf would warrant trying to track Elly down to keep her from Chloe permanently. Now that he was sure he knew what Elly truly was and knew just how to kill a werewolf was with a silver bullet…

A few hours after Pierce had slipped into bed with her, Chloe laid there wide awake. Pierce was snoring, deeply asleep, his hand strongly gripped against her waist as she laid on her side, her back to him.

Chloe had fallen asleep for two to three hours but had awoken with the thoughts spinning in her mind unable to let her relax enough to continue sleeping.

It had taken Chloe months to get the courage to go to the hospital about her pregnancy. She was frozen with fear that she'd conceived a baby that would carry her Huntington's gene, whom would not only have to watch their mother suffer a horrible death, but then have to go through the same disease themselves without her by their side.

Whilst the Huntington's gene was still worrying Chloe, she felt like everything she knew about her life had changed in the doctor's office.

Not only did she receive the long overdue confirmation that what she'd known to be true was that she was pregnant.

But the last thing in the world she ever expected was for her baby's conception date not to line up to the last time her husband had slept with her.

That her baby was conceived at around the time that she'd slept with her ex-girlfriend, Elly.

Pregnant to another woman felt impossible to Chloe. It had never happened before to anyone, as far as she knew.

And the only thing giving her belief that the baby she was carrying could possibly belong to Elly, instead of Pierce, was that Elly's werewolf nature had made something magical happen between them the evening they'd made love to one another.

Elly had told her that werewolves could have babies, she never thought that meant a female werewolf could impregnate their female lover.

Adulterer…I cheated on Pierce with Elly…I'm not her lover…and if this baby is hers…Elly's not even around to help me cope with having our baby… Where are you, Elly?

Chloe shifted her own arm, placing her hand against her stomach, picturing the tiny baby growing inside of her.

Ten days…I find out in ten days if you are a healthy baby that can live a full and healthy life…and if magic happened when I made love to Elly and she's your Mum…too. Ten days…I can wait that long…lying here in Pierce's arms…every night, hearing him snoring, his hand on my waist…like he needs to hold me…his abs sometimes against my back…the smell of his deodorant and aftershave still present despite showering because that's just how he smells nice…knowing deep down the only thing he wants is to wake up every morning…and make love to me every chance he can in his effort to create a family for us…

But in our hiatus of trying for a baby so we could stop putting so much pressure on ourselves for not falling pregnant…not that I was trying as hard as Pierce thought I was…I've gone and created a family with someone else.

Chloe smiled as she stared down at her hand holding her stomach. It was like acceptance had washed over her. Chloe suddenly knew without a doubt in her mind anymore that the baby she was carrying was impossibly yet absolutely her and Elly's child.

Chloe didn't need to wait for any paternity test to tell her in ten days that Elly was biologically the baby's parent. Her hand holding where the baby was sitting in her body, Chloe could feel it in every fiber of her being that she had magically conceived this baby whilst making love to Elly the day before Elly had left again.

Chloe ignored the sound of Pierce's snores, as the only thing in her mind was telling her she needed to reunite with Elly. She'd broken Elly's heart by refusing to leave town with Elly and Aster, under the belief that she was pregnant to her husband and needed to raise the baby with him. But she wasn't, her ties to Pierce felt like they could be over in an instant.

An instant that would involve her revealing that she'd slept with someone else and was carrying their baby.

Chloe didn't think Pierce could handle that news and she was prepared to protect Elly from Pierce's rage by not telling him whom she was pregnant to. And even if he figured it out or convinced her to tell him, there was next to no chance that he would ever believe she'd fallen pregnant to another woman.

Chloe worried that Elly might need the proof of the paternity test to believe her. Elly had been aware that Chloe and Pierce had stopped sleeping together to take a break from their plans of starting a family. But would she truly believe Chloe hadn't just gotten pregnant to Pierce like she'd assumed she had and would need convincing that the baby was hers.

Not to mention, how do I tell Elly that now that the baby is hers that I do want to be a family with her, Aster and our baby, but I broke her heart when I told her I couldn't be with her because I needed to raise this baby with Pierce? Will Elly think she's my second choice? That I'm only choosing her because the baby's is hers…when she should've been my choice all along…

"Ten days," Chloe whispered to herself, convinced that waiting for the paternity and Huntington's test results, would be enough for Elly to believe the baby was hers. And Chloe would just need to do whatever possible to make Elly believe how much she loved her and she would never be second choice.

And starting in the morning, Chloe would use the ten days to do everything she could to track down the cabin Elly and The Pack resided in. So, the moment she knew her baby was 100% Elly's and she had a handle on what future her baby would have with the Huntington's gene, she could reunite with Elly and Aster, for the future she never thought they could have together.

Until now.

Pierce's breathing against the back of her neck irritated Chloe suddenly and she was soon reminded of being told she'd been overdosed with fertility medication. Chloe leant back to lie on her back, twisting her head to the side to stare at her sleeping husband, his hand still gripped to her hip. She stared at his face in the dark, trying to wrap her head around the knowledge whatever she'd been eating and drinking for an unknown amount of time was covered in fertility drugs. She hadn't tasted anything wrong with her food but it had to have been the only way the drugs got into her system.

Though they weren't harmful and the only thing these drugs did do was increase the chances of her falling pregnant, Chloe felt rightfully violated by whomever was responsible.

Is it Pierce who's been doing this? He's been so desperate to have a baby with me…but is he that desperate to drug me? It can't be Pierce…it has to be our chef…right? But why? Pierce is the one whom wants us to start a family, Rene wouldn't care either way… Was the doctor, right? Am I just naïve to what my husband could be doing to me? Can I really lie here in his arms for nine more nights? Be at home with him for another ten days…questioning everything I'm eating and drinking…questioning everything I feel for my husband when the only thing I truly want is to be with Elly and Aster…if I only knew where they were…I don't think I could wait to confirm what I already know about this baby… Where is this cabin The Pack live at? Think about every time Elly mentioned it…think of any clues on how to find it…

Chloe laid there next to her husband, racking her brain for close to an hour trying to think of any possible clue Elly had said about where she had lived with The Pack at a cabin for four years. Chloe thought logically about where in a city the size of Melbourne, a cabin could be located that was within distance for them to seemingly work normal human jobs whilst also being far enough away that they kept to themselves to protect humans from getting hurt.

This is going to be a long and uncomfortable ten days…if not longer…if I don't work out where Elly and Aster have gone…otherwise there will be no reuniting with them for our baby…I'll just have to come clean to Pierce I'm having someone else's baby…move in with my brothers'…live on their couch because they don't have room…or I could come clean to Bea that I'm having her niece or nephew and move in with the Kennedy's…waiting and hoping for Elly to come back home like she promised…

Chloe sighed as she finally closed her eyes, deciding she needed to fall asleep if she had any chance of surviving whatever unknown future she would have without Elly in her life.

The moment Chloe finally relaxed and began to drift asleep, her eyes snapped back open as a memory of Elly hit her. One day after their martial arts training session at Chloe's house, when she had shown Elly the paintings she had created of both Elly and Aster, Elly had been interrupted by a phone call from one of the members of The Pack, Raven.

Elly had mentioned finding another place to live. Why, they would need another place to live, Chloe didn't know. But that didn't matter to Chloe right now, because the one thing Chloe remembered was that Elly had been holding a map when she was talking about her friends finding a new place to live. A map that was Chloe's.

Elly's on the island.

Next time - Can Chloe escape from her toxic marriage to Pierce without any damage done?