Thanks for the reviews Kelly & EC Brenway! Glad you could see the humour in Pierce's lil accident and it wasn't too crude! Let's see how this chapter goes...as it may be a tad triggering...

Kelly - glad you loved the letter and are waiting to find out who gets the next one!

EC - Interesting chapter indeed - that chapter had almost everything...except our wolfy Elly or lil Aster! When will we see them again!?

The Chemistry In Darkness

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Wednesday 26th February 2025

It had only been ten minutes since Pierce had gotten Chloe's letters, telling the elated man that she was pregnant before taking everything away from him by telling him that he wasn't the baby's father and that she had seemingly left him to be with whomever had gotten him pregnant.

Pierce's bathroom accident in the privacy of his own kitchen had several towels thrown over the piss on the floor. He'd changed his jocks, pants, socks and shoes, dried himself off, but had been too incensed with his need to find Chloe before he lost her for good to anyone else, that he hadn't bothered to shower to wash away the smell of pissing himself.

Pierce stumbled back into the kitchen, ignoring the towels on the floor as evidence that his excitement of becoming a father had left him unable to control his bladder.

Pierce's only concern was finding his wife, not willing to let Chloe or his chance of being a father, even to a baby that might not be his, slip from his grasp.

Pierce immediately picked up his phone from the kitchen counter, trying to guess where Chloe might've taken off to. Hearing a noise out in the street, Pierce thought for a moment. He couldn't just go after Chloe without explanation. He needed to make the appearance of seeking help for what he was going through if Chloe had indeed left him to start a family with someone else. He couldn't just drag her home without help that he wasn't the only person she had left behind.

Pierce picked up his keys, wallet and phone, rushing out the front door of his house, knowing help was only across the road in the form of Chloe's two brothers.

And with Mark being a Detective, surely, he could legally track Chloe down within hours.

Pierce was somewhat surprised when he immediately saw that Mark was standing alone by his own letterbox reading a letter. Mark was wearing his usual suit, clearly about to head off to work at the police station.

Pierce realized he hadn't been the only person Chloe had bid farewell too and that of course, she had written to her brothers. He wondered if they had gotten the truth of her scandalous actions betraying him.

"Mark!" Pierce shouted as he crossed the street over to his brother-in-law, "Have you seen Chloe this morning? She left me a letter, I think she's taken off for a few days or so…"

Pierce wasn't even capable of telling Mark the truth that Chloe might have left him for good. But as Mark turned around, Pierce wondered if he should've been straight with Mark that his little sister had betrayed him and he was the one hurting over Chloe's lies.

Mark looked incensed with rage, Pierce had never seen this look in his eyes before, as Mark spat out, "I got a letter too. Have you been drugging my sister?"

"What?" Pierce was shocked by Mark's accusation.

Mark held up a document in his hand, that was typed up, not hand written, "This is a set of test results from Chloe's doctor. She's been drugged by fertility medication for so long her doctor can't even make out that she's eating normal nutrients in her food. Did you dose my little sister with fertility drugs to get her pregnant?"

Pierce was so thrown that he couldn't even splutter out a response.

"You're not even going to try to justify this?" Mark demanded.

"Mark, I'm as shocked as you are! Fertility drugs? I don't even know what they are. There's no need to get mad at me, I had nothing to do with this. There must be some mistake. You can't be mad at me, I didn't do anything," Pierce claimed.

Mark shifted the test results to behind the letter, "Oh, if you think I can't be mad at you, you have no idea, Pierce. The fertility drugs are not even the worst thing in this letter. I was just starting with the least bad thing in the hope that you would confess and I wouldn't even need to bring up the rest of this letter until you were already in police custody where I could get someone unrelated to Chloe to investigate the rest."

Pierce put his hands up in defense, "Mark, I had nothing to do with drugging my wife and whatever else Chloe has seemingly told you, must be nothing but lies. Maybe she didn't even write the letter? The letter I got said she was leaving me, that's not Chloe. Someone's taken her from us, Mark."

But Mark knew Chloe's writing, he knew the letter had been written by his sister and whilst her handwriting did look rushed, it didn't feel like it was from any kind of pressure from someone else that she was about to be taken.

Mark walked up to Pierce, getting in his face, asking without waiting to interview his brother-in-law at the police station, even though he knew he should, "Did you assault Chloe to get her pregnant?"

"What?" Pierce stumbled out.

Mark held up the letter, his voice breaking, "Chloe explains to me and Aaron in this letter to us that she's leaving you and has no plans to return to her family...us, not you. Because you assaulted her. She's told me here that you'd spent years trying to get her pregnant so you could have a family with her. You used to make her come to the hotel and spend your lunch breaks in a hotel room, trying to get her pregnant every time she was at a high percentage of ovulating. That you once made her do it on your desk, the one you share with Terese in your office, because the hotel was booked up. And that Chloe told you that she wanted the pair of you to take a break for a few months...after she woke up one morning in your bed, not remembering how she got there. That all she remembered was drinking a milkshake before bed because the milk always helped her fall asleep but not like this time where she passed out and woke up feeling...sore...and you told her she'd masturbated and must've hurt herself...but she didn't believe you even though she told you she did...that she has never touched a milkshake since that night...because that was the night she feared you had finally gotten her pregnant without her consent. DID YOU DO THAT TO MY LITTLE SISTER!"

Pierce cowered at Mark's rage, he was admittedly shocked Mark hadn't ripped his head off as his anger was as extreme as he could ever have imagined from Mark, "No! I would never do that to my wife. You have no proof of this!"

"Then I'm gonna get some...because I have no doubt the hotel is going to have booking records or CCTV footage of you taking Chloe to one of the bedrooms in the hotel and I will do everything possible to bring my sister home so that she can give evidence to a jury that you forced yourself on her when she was unconscious," Mark threatened, resisting every urge to knock his brother-in-law out, instead pulling out a set of cuffs, "Pierce Greyson, you are under arrest on suspicion from a doctor at Erinsborough Hospital for drugging and overdosing Chloe Brennan with fertility medication. You will also be questioned in relation to the accusation that you sexually assaulted Chloe Brennan without her consent. Anything you say or do, can be used against you in the court of law. If you can't afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand your rights?"

Pierce nodded then refused to hand over his wrists to be cuffed, forcing Mark to restrain him instead, knocking him to the ground, until Mark could lock the cuffs around his two wrists then drag him back off the ground, "I didn't do this, Mark, you know me."

"I know the man who married Chloe wasn't good enough for her, I never knew how much of a monster you were otherwise I'd have gotten Chloe out of that house years ago," Mark raged, angry at himself for leaving his sister in a horrific relationship.

"You don't know anything," Pierce claimed, as he slumped his shoulders as he realized Aaron and Hendrix had been standing at the side door of their house, from their expressions, having watched Mark accuse him of some horrible things and arrest him, "I didn't do this, Hendrix. You know me, son, you know I'm innocent."

Pierce watched on as Aaron placed his hand on Hendrix's shoulder, clearly supporting the young man, yet there was no sign Hendrix was going to come over to him. Pierce shook his head at his mistake for thinking Mark or Aaron would help him find Chloe, when he didn't need them to in the first place.

As Mark led Pierce to his car and opened the back door, Pierce turned to him rather than got into the car, "I never did any of this. Chloe has taken off and she is lying to you to distract you from going after her to find her. Don't you see that, Mark?"

"We'll see about that when we get to the station and my colleagues grill you to get to the truth about what Chloe has said in this letter to us," Mark countered, then placing his hand on Pierce's shoulder, "I just want to ask one question off the record."

"What's your question?" Pierce asked confidently, feeling invincible to any proof being found of what Chloe had written about.

Mark shook his head in disgust, "Why the fuck do you smell like piss?"

Pierce opened and closed his mouth, any confidence he had disappeared at feeling like the little boy that had wet himself earlier.

Mark shoved Pierce into the back of the car, telling Aaron and Hendrix to come down to the station when they were ready so he could explain everything that had just happened since Mark had opened his mail and found Chloe's letter inside.

Pierce growled out in frustration, desperate to locate his wife to fix things with her, find out the truth about her pregnancy as well as seek revenge against Elly, positive that she had helped Chloe hide the truth from him. But he had no idea just how long he was going to be spending at the Police Station answering questions in relation to Chloe's accusations against him, wishing he had ignored his instincts to go to Mark or Aaron in the first place as he should've gone after Chloe on his own.

Much later that day, when Pierce was still been hounded by question after question by Mark and a fellow Police Officer, Chloe stood awkwardly alone on a deserted street by a pay phone. She checked her watch, it was nearly 3pm. She'd been gone from the place she called home for 12 hours now. And still hadn't made it to the Island.

Chloe breathed with relief when she spotted the car coming towards her was being driven by the person she was hoping for.

The driver lent over to the passenger window, winding it down to reveal Hetty, her martial arts instructor, behind the wheel, "Chloe, what in God's honourable name are you doing out in Geelong?"

Geelong was an inland town more than an hours' drive west of Melbourne and it was in the opposite direction of the Island, which was nearly two hours' drive away from Geelong.

"I'll explain on the way," Chloe answered, before slipping into the passenger seat next to Hetty.

As soon as Hetty took off with the car travelling at a faster speed than Chloe expected, the blonde looked at the woman she admired, "Confession...I actually didn't know if you still drive when I called you..."

Hetty huffed, "I'm only eighty years old, Chloe, I can still drive...faster than most...what have I got to lose?"

"Me, in this car with you," Chloe teased, before settling in to explain, "I need you to take me to Pierce's Island...or well to the shore across from it where I can hire a dingy to get across."

Chloe then gave Hetty the directions so she knew which highways and roads to take.

"How'd you end up in Geelong with no phone, calling me from a payphone, hoping that I actually have a car because you weren't even sure I drive and need a lift to your husband's Island?" Hetty asked quietly.

Chloe began rambling, "I took an Uber to Anson's Corner, then I got a taxi to the city, then hitched a ride back to Erinsborough with a kind girl I met, I'd thrown away my phone in the city after the girl offered me the lift, then I got cash out at the ATM and called a taxi from a payphone there that took me out here to Geelong...I had some lunch out at one of their cafes...paid cash and...I spent the entire day running around in circles and ditching my phone and making sure I have cash because...I didn't want anyone to find out I was going to the Island...except you...even though I know right now Pierce won't have a chance to follow me for at least today after the truth about my marriage that I left to Mark and Aaron to know."

"What's worth all that trouble to get to the Island?" Hetty asked, already sensing she knew the answer.

"Elly," Chloe smiled as she answered, "I left Pierce. I'm going to the Island to win Elly back."

Next time - All that's separating Chloe from Elly is a body of water between the shore to the Island...after dark - can Chloe get across to the Island on her own or will she need a helping hand?