The day before Luke's twenty-second birthday, Jody went to his place bearing gifts. Or rather, just one gift, but one she was proud of because she'd made it with her own two hands. Unlike last time, she was let in straight away, by her brother himself, and the apartment seemed to be clean and in order. She nodded in approval as she stepped into the kitchen, more to herself than to him, before carefully putting the box containing the home-made cake down on the kitchen table.

"Oh, Jody, you didn't have to buy me a cake," he said, appearing to be almost embarrassed.

"I didn't," she answered, rubbing her hands together and jumping on the balls of her feet. "I made you a cake. I couldn't afford one, anyway."

Luke's eyes widened in either surprise or awe—she couldn't quite decipher which. In any case, he thanked her in a strangely gravelly voice before ushering her into the living room. She sunk into the armchair directly across from the small TV, shooting Luke a tense smile as he sat on the edge of the adjacent sofa; the atmosphere was welcoming enough but it was hard to relax when she knew the vile woman carrying her niece or nephew was likely in the bedroom just down the hall.

Speaking of her nephew or niece... "So, how's the baby?"

"Good, good," Luke replied, smiling more brightly than she'd seen him do so in a long time. "She's seventeen weeks along today."

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?"

His smile faltered, and he shook his head. "She didn't want to find out, so..."

Irritation welled up in Jody, and she refrained from rolling her eyes. As always, the only thing that seemed to matter in this household was what Millie wanted, and as ever, Luke was happy to just sit down and take it. When was he going to grow a pair and stand up for himself? When his kid went off to uni?

"What about you?"

He looked startled, as if the thought had never crossed his mind. "What about me?"

"Don't you want to know if you're having a daughter or a son?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why didn't you find out when you had the chance?" she asked, crossing her arms. Who gave a hoot what Millie wanted? That baby was (hopefully) just as much Luke's as it was Millie's and he had a right to know the sex if he wanted to.

"Well, the sonographer did offer to put it into an envelope for me," he said, rubbing the stretch of skin behind his ear, "but I know Millie wouldn't have been happy with that. She'd feel like a fool if I knew and she didn't."

"Did she tell you that?"

"No, but I know her. I know what she likes and dislikes, and I don't want to hurt her when she's in such a delicate condition."

So Luke could apparently read Millie's mind now. Well, she'd heard stranger things. What she didn't understand was Millie. How could the woman be so insecure as to get hurt over something insignificant one second but then manage to push Luke around and dominate him the next? If she was that emotionally weak, Luke should've been able to wear the trousers in their relationship with ease. He really had to be a total doormat... There was no other explanation. At this rate, he'd have little to no say in his child's upbringing despite living in the same house as her or him; in all likelihood, he was destined to be nothing more than a financial crutch. Maybe Millie wouldn't even bother returning to work after the usual maternity leave.

She wrinkled her nose, not wanting to think about her brother's girlfriend any longer lest she lost control of her emotions and gave the 'delicate' bitch a piece of her mind. After all, she didn't want to risk hurting the baby. She'd have time enough to treat Millie the way she deserved later—eighteen long years, to be exact. She felt sick just thinking about it; she needed to change the subject.

"So, what are you doing for your birthday?" she asked, looking around the room. It was then that she noticed that the apartment wasn't decorated for a party. Odd. In the TV shows and movies, people Luke's age were always throwing mad house parties with plenty of booze and loud music.

"Nothing," Luke replied, stretching his arms. "It's just going to be a typical Sunday."

She raised an eyebrow. Her brother had always been on the shy side but had never passed up the chance to party with friends. Not before going off to uni and getting a personality transplant, anyway. "But why? Didn't you have a party last time?"

"Yes. Millie threw me one at her parents' place, but she couldn't this time."

"What about your mates? The ones you were so close to in uni. Haven't they planned something?"

Luke pursed his lips. "I wouldn't expect them to. We've sort of drifted apart, lately."

Jody tried hard not to come out with 'I told you so', but she'd just known from the beginning that Luke's friendships with the swanky lot would never last. Friendships based on lies never did. If only Luke could get rid of his last remaining link to uni too, but who was she kidding? Millie would actually have to loosen the leash a little first, and that was something she would never do.

"Well, why don't you just do something with me instead?" she suggested. She couldn't throw a party fit for a man in his twenties but a lame night in was better than nothing. "I already made you a cake, so we can cut that, and maybe we can order in a couple of pizzas or something like we used to."

"We used to have such a laugh, didn't we?" Luke asked, before smiling small and looking down. "At least until Kingsley went and ruined it like he always does."

"Who's Kingsley?"

Jody turned her head so fast she got whiplash, looking right up into Millie's dangerously narrowed brown eyes. To say she was surprised was an understatement; she hadn't heard the bedroom door click open down the hallway, nor had she heard footfalls approaching the living room.

Millie continued her line of questioning, totally ignoring Jody's presence as usual. "Wait. Isn't Kingsley your father's name? Didn't he walk out when you were seven?"

"He did," Luke answered, trembling. Jody's eyes widened at his reaction.

"Well, then how did he manage to ruin pizza for you and your one-year-old sister?"

.:. QK .:.

Luke and Millie's conversation had, of course, escalated into an argument the moment the former admitted to having an older brother, and Jody had got to see with her own eyes just how badly Millie took Luke keeping secrets from her. For once in her life, she'd even sympathised with Millie; she couldn't believe Luke hadn't got 'round to telling his own girlfriend, the mother of his child, about such a significant detail of his life. It was then that she'd finally understood how Tyler must've felt when she'd kept her run-in with Gray from him for months.

Once Millie's voice had reached the point of screeching, however, Jody's sympathy had run out and she'd retreated to the bathroom. She could've just as easily told Luke she'd see him later before running back home but that would've been cruel. At least on his birthday (or rather the day before, because he was working on his actual birthday), Luke deserved to stare at a face other than his sadistic girlfriend's.

Before her (internet) search(es) for answers behind Amabel's plight, Jody had thought that there were only two types of abuse, which often went hand in hand with one another: physical and sexual. The discovery of verbal and emotional abuse had taken her by surprise, making her lose what little remaining faith she'd had in humanity. She should've known better because Denise had emotionally neglected her, which was a form of abuse in and of itself, but she hadn't. Perhaps she was just naive.

In any case, once she'd started reading about the signs of emotional and verbal abuse, especially in relationships, her eyes had been opened to the horrible reality of her brother's relationship. Millie wasn't just a woman with a mean streak, but an abuser; and Luke wasn't just a doormat, but a victim. Finally, Jody could say that Millie was a bad person as a matter of fact, not mere opinion, and others would agree with her. Well, every other person but Luke, who was too beaten down to see reason. Her only consolation was that he hadn't yet asked Millie to marry him. Hopefully, he never would.

The booming of Millie's voice abated as suddenly as it had begun, and Jody proceeded to unlock the bathroom door. As she stepped out into the hallway, Millie strode past her without so much as a glance in her direction. Regardless, Jody shot her (or rather her back) a nasty look before going to the living room, where Luke was still sitting in the same spot, rubbing his forehead.

"Do you wanna go out instead?" she asked from the doorway, alerting him to her presence. "I know I said we could order a pizza, but it always tastes better when you eat out."

That was a lie, of course; pizza was served best on a winter's day when the whole household was snuggled up on the sofas, wrapped in blankets and fluffy dressing gowns. But Luke needed some form of escapism in his life, especially since he was going to be tied down indefinitely in around five months, and this was going to have to be it.

Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be in the mood; he politely declined her offer, proceeding to stutter lame excuses as to why he couldn't go. She sighed, shaking her head. During the argument, had he been asked, or rather ordered, not to celebrate his birthday with her or something? Was that why Millie had walked into the living room in the first place? Somehow, the idea of Millie pressing her ear against the door and then deciding to intervene the second she heard something she didn't like didn't seem too far-fetched.

"Don't let her get you down, Luke," Jody said, placing her hands on her hips. "She doesn't own you." Luke released a deep breath, hanging his head in his hands. She blinked in concern. "What's wrong?"

He lifted his head, looking up at her with sad, red-rimmed eyes. "I just feel like I should be the one telling you these things, not the other way around. I wish I was more like you."

She couldn't help but scoff. "Me?"

"Yes, you. You know how to stand up for yourself, you don't care what anyone else thinks... I could do with a bit of that. Everyone could."

He was wrong. She did care what other people thought, just not what all people thought; she couldn't care less about the opinions of the cashier down at the corner shop or Jess and co. from the gym, but what Tyler, Mike, May-Li and her other friends thought of her mattered more than anything. She didn't deserve his praise. She felt almost embarrassed by it.

But he didn't seem to notice, his eyes downcast as he continued to voice his self-pity. They had that in common. "I'm in way over my head here. I'm nowhere near ready to be a father."

Jody shifted awkwardly. If Luke was nowhere ready to be a dad, she was nowhere near ready to tell him that he was. She'd thought he was way too young for fatherhood right at the beginning but had kept that thought to herself to avoid causing upset. However, the uncomfortable parallels between their family and this new one hadn't escaped her; Millie was a blonde bitch like Denise, unfit to be a mother, and Luke was around the age Gray must've been at the time of Kingsley's birth. She couldn't see this family situation working out too well in the future.

Still, she couldn't just stand there like a lemon and say nothing. "You've still got five months to figure it out. Who knows where you'll be by then."

"I won't be doing a disappearing act, that's for sure," he said, straightening his back. "Whatever happens, I've got to be a part of this child's life."

"Whatever happens?" she repeated, a sick sense of excitement surging through her. He sounded like he was on the verge of leaving the kid. Leaving Millie. "Are you leaving? Because if you are, it's abo—"

His eyes snapped back to hers, stopping her cold in her tracks. She promptly closed her mouth, and he opened his own. "I could never leave, Jodes. This baby needs me. No one's ever needed me before."

What about her? She'd needed him, once, but he hadn't been there. He hadn't even cared. Ironically, he'd been off ignoring her for people who didn't care about him, including Millie herself. "Really?"

"Yes. Children need their fathers just as much as they need their mothers, and I never want to be like ours, you know? Proper fathers don't just up and walk away from their children, even if their relationship with the children's mother sours."

"So it's just better to stay together and raise the kids in an unhappy home?" Like Amabel's parents? "You can't seriously think that. We're from an unhappy home, and not because he left Mum." Luke pressed his lips together in a thin line, but Jody continued, "You know, leaving doesn't have to mean walking away completely. You could still see your kid."

So, she didn't know anyone whose parents had split up and made the co-parenting thing work, but there had to be a success story out there somewhere, right? Whether Millie would cooperate long enough to achieve that was another matter entirely.

"He didn't leave her."

She was taken aback by his sudden interjection. "What?"

"Dad didn't leave Mum."

She stared at him as she fell into the armchair she'd occupied earlier. Millie's abuse had finally driven him mad. "Uhh, yes he did...?"

"No, he didn't," he insisted. "Dad did walk out but it was us he left, not her."

"What's that supposed to mean? If he left us, then he obviously left her. He didn't half-leave."

"No, Jody. To leave her, he would've actually had to have been with her in the first place."

"But he was. We"—she gestured towards him and then herself—"are proof. Well, at least you and Kingsley are. He's not on my birth certificate."

"Yeah, there's a reason for that."

Her ears perked up at this. She'd been humouring him thus far, but now he'd piqued her interest. "What?"

"He didn't want his name on it in case his wife found out."

Out of all the possible answers, she hadn't expected this one. Gray had had a wife at the time of her birth? How was that even possible? "I don't get it. Was he going through a divorce or something?" she asked, but then paused. "No... that doesn't make sense. He would've had to have been married before Kingsley was born..."

"He wasn't going through a divorce. He got married way after Kingsley was born. A couple of years after I was born, actually. I don't know how he managed to meet someone like her, much less marry her, but he did."

"Someone like her?"

"Well-off," he answered, and she couldn't help but blink in surprise. He quickly shook his head. "She wasn't rich, or anything, but she had more money than Mum and Dad both. Enough to easily support two people. He moved into the wife's house after the wedding."

"But you said he didn't leave Mum."

"He didn't. She's the one who told him to go and marry a woman with money so that he could give some of it to her. Benefits alone didn't cut it, I guess. Anyway, that's what he did. He took money from his wife and carried on with Mum behind her back. He was at ours whenever his wife went to work."

Jody's gut churned as she realised her entire life had been a lie. Denise hadn't been the victim of her partner's infidelity with another woman like she'd always made herself out to be. In fact, she was the other woman, sleeping with a married man, and Jody was the product of that dirty affair. She couldn't believe she'd actually felt sorry for her mother. She should've known better than to think Denise Jackson could ever be a victim of anything.

"So Mum was his mistress?" she asked, feeling sick to the stomach. "And that's why she called me an accident? Because I was never meant to be born?"

"Yes, but I'm sure we were all accidents, especially Kingsley. Why else would two people in their twenties who can barely feed themselves ever have a child?"

She gave him a pointed look, and his eyes widened in a sheepish manner. She shook her head in amusement. "So why did he leave in the end? You said he left us, not her. Did he get tired of us? Of being a dad?"

"You could say that," he said, nodding. "He had another accident the year after you were born, only this time, it was his wife who got pregnant. Mum was so pissed off. I still remember hiding behind the door when she told him to, and I quote, 'fuck right off'. It was the last time I saw him."

Well, that ruled out Amabel who was seven months younger than her at most. Then again, she'd known for quite some time now that Amabel wasn't her sister. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment she'd figured it out, but she was glad all the same; she didn't want an abusive father. But she didn't much like the sound of the one she'd once had either.

"How do you know all this, anyway?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "You were too young to know about cheating and all that. And it's not like Mum would've told you when you got older."

"You're right; she wouldn't have. Kingsley's the one who told me. Unlike us, he was old enough at the time to understand what was going on."

That didn't sound right. "He was eleven. And since when did you start believing what he says? He's a liar, like Mum. How do you know he was telling the truth?"

"Oh, he's a liar alright," he agreed wryly, "but I believe him about this one. It adds up with what I remember. Anyway, he was kind of drunk when he told me. Drunk people don't lie."

Drunk people didn't remember details all too well either, but it wasn't as if she was ever going to ask Gray for his side of the story. She could either take Kingsley's story or leave it, and was inclined towards the former, even though it meant that Denise had lied to her about her father until the very end. Something still didn't quite add up, though.

"How come Mum didn't go after him for child support? She loved money."

Luke furrowed his eyebrows. "She did. I'm pretty sure she took him to court for me and Kingsley."

Jody blinked slowly. "But not for me?"

"She couldn't have, could she? His name's not on your birth certificate."

"She could've forced him to get a paternity test."

He shrugged. "Maybe she couldn't be bothered. He did move away from Birmingham pretty quickly." He cleared his throat, slapping his hands down on his thighs. "I think we should go and grab a pizza, after all. I'm hungry. I'll just go and tell Millie."

She nodded, watching him literally flee the room. She was no fool. He knew why their mother hadn't fought to get Gray's name on her birth certificate and, deep down, so did she.

Who was she?

Jackson?

Gray?

Or something else entirely?

A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

Charlie—Honestly, I also wonder if I can finish this thing in another three chapters (yikes!). I think I'll be keeping Amabel's relationship with her father open to interpretation. Uni has certainly hit me hard; five months of not writing essays or studying will do that to you. It's funny how I can write swathes of fanfic but only manage about 30 words in an answer to a uni-level question. Hope you're settling into uni well.

yourfire—Chapter 55 was probably different because it was the first (and probably only) single-scened chapter. I'm glad that the story keeps ya thinking.