Chapter 2

True to what she had said in her text to her youngest daughter, Alice arrived at the diner exactly 5 minutes after she had told Amelia that she was leaving the Register.

As she seated herself in the booth across from her, Amelia couldn't help but notice that her mother's ice-blue eyes were red and puffy which made the teen suspect that she had been crying not long before she had arrived at Pop's.

"Mom, are you okay?"

Alice knew that trying to pretend like nothing was wrong wouldn't deter her youngest from finding out why her mother had been crying before she had arrived at the diner so she just decided to tell her the truth.

"I got into a pretty heated argument with your- with Hal before I left the Register to come here, baby. I just got overwhelmed by the argument and I had myself a good cry in the car before I managed to calm down enough to drive here."

Amelia wasn't lost on the fact that her mother had referred to her father by his name when she was explaining why she had been crying before she came to the diner to meet with her but she simply ignored it for the moment. Instead, she reached across the table and took her mother's hand in her own, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze.

"Are you okay now though, Mom?"

Alice managed to give her daughter a small smile before telling her that she was okay at that particular moment which Amelia was happy to hear.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk with me about?"

Alice hesitates for a moment but then explains to her youngest daughter that she is getting a divorce from the man she has been married to for the past 25 years because she recently discovered that he has been cheating on her with none other than the mother of Jason and Cheryl Blossom, two of the most well-known and most popular students at Riverdale High.

Amelia wasn't particularly close to Cheryl who was known to most of the students as the HBIC but she had become somewhat friends with Jason during the past summer after he had intervened in an incident that had involved her being harassed by Chuck Clayton, one of the biggest bullies at Riverdale High and one of the most masochistic jerks on the Bulldogs football team.

Amelia had never told her mother about the incident because she knew that the older blonde would not only be extremely angry if she found out but also worried about her which is the last thing that she needed especially right now.

Amelia honestly wasn't all that surprised that the man she has been convinced wasn't really her biological father since she was around 10 years old had cheated on her mother.

Ever since she had first begun questioning whether or not she was truly a Cooper, she had begun to notice that Hal was extremely cruel towards her mother. Even though she had never actually seen him raise his hand to her mother, she knew that Hal was emotional and mentally abusive towards Alice.

She had been doing everything that she could do to reassure the older woman that she wasn't worthless or weak like Hal had told her so many times that she was. Amelia had always thought her mother was the best mom that she could possibly be and one of the strongest people she had ever known.

The younger blonde was pulled from her thoughts by her mother telling her that she and her soon to be ex-husband had agreed that she would get the house that Amelia and her sisters had grown up in and that she would have shared custody with him over her older sister Betty but not her. Her oldest sister Polly was in her 20s and had suddenly left Riverdale one day when Amelia was 11 for reasons that she was still not entirely sure of even to that day.

"Because I'm not really his daughter, right?"

Alice knew that the longer that she kept trying to deny that her youngest wasn't really Hal's, the worse the fallout could be once Amelia did finally learn the truth. So she decided then and there to just be honest with the teen.

"No, honey. You are not Hal's daughter. He's not your dad. That was actually why he and I got into a fight before I left the Register to meet you here. I'm so sorry that I lied to you all these years about Hal being your father. It's not that I don't want you to know who your father is, baby. I do. It's just I'm not quite to open that huge can of emotional worms right now. I hope you can understand that. Your real dad wasn't just some random guy that I cheated on Hal with. He's- he's someone who has always had a special place in my heart that Hal could never fill. I swear to you that I will tell you who he is soon though, Amelia."

"From the way you are phrasing your words right now, Mom, I'm guessing that my real dad has no idea that I even exist because you never told him about me."

Amelia knew that she had hit a nerve with her words because her mother's blue eyes began to well up with fresh tears. She quickly stood up from her seat and moved to sit next to Alice who was now biting her lower lip in an effort to stop it from quivering.

Amelia wrapped her arms around her mother's shoulders and all Alice could do was lean against the teen slightly as she struggled not to burst into tears in one of the most public places in all of Riverdale.

Thankfully though, they were the only 2 people in the diner at that moment aside from Pop Tate, the owner and operator of the diner.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I swear I didn't mean to upset you."

Alice reached up and rubbed her daughter's arm. She was all too familiar with how emphatic and sensitive her youngest was when it came to other people and their feelings. She also knew that Amelia hated making her upset.

Pressing a gentle kiss to the top of Amelia's head, Alice assured her that she knew that she hadn't meant to upset her and that she was correct in her suspicion that her biological father was not currently aware of being his daughter. She also promised her that she was going to talk to him tomorrow because he deserved to get to know her as his daughter like he should have from the beginning.

"Thanks, Mom. Do you think that my dad will be accepting of me as his daughter?"

Alice smiled at her daughter before kissing her on the head once again.

"I know that he will probably be angry at me for keeping you a secret from him all this time but I know that he will accept you as his daughter and that he will come to love you just as much as I do."

Amelia knew that her mother was being completely honest with her about how she believed her biological dad would react when he found out about her. She also hoped that her mother was right about her father accepting her as his daughter.

The 15 year old had no idea at that moment in time that the man who was her real dad was someone that she had known for years or that he had been closer to her than she had ever realized for that same amount of time.

Next: Amelia and Betty have a movie night with their mother to try and cheer Alice up. What movies do the three wind up watching together and how does one of them end up causing Alice to be reminded of one of the hardest choices that she ever had to make?

I am so happy that I finally managed to complete another chapter of this story. I'm eager to get another chapter written and posted if you guys like this one. Please drop a review and let me know if you would like me to continue this story with another new chapter.