Chapter 3 - I Lied About Everything

"Did I ever tell you girls about Henri-Michel?" Taylor asked her three daughters. The four of them were sitting on Ryan and Taylor's bed enjoying this last night of Claire being an Atwood.

"Who's that?" Amelie gave her mother a confused look sitting up in the bed.

"That would be my ex-husband." She told them confidently. All three girls gave her a strange look that only made her giggle.

"You were married before you married Dad?" Claire spoke up.

"I can't believe I've never told you girls about this! Anyway he was this French guy and one thing led to another and poof I'm married." She said animatedly. "Which is also the reason your father and I got to together the first time." Taylor sighed remembering those days back in Newport.

"Wait, so you've been married twice?" Sunny sat up quickly in the bed.

"Yes, but Henri wasn't really much of a husband since we weren't married for too long. Plus, I didn't love him."

"So, why'd you marry him?" Claire asked her.

"I don't know, I suppose it was the wine. Who knows, it just happened." She shrugged.

"If you and Dad were together that first time, what happened? I mean you two had to break up for him to marry Sadie." Claire questioned.

"Life happened. I can't really explain it, we just drifted apart I guess. I don't regret that time though, when we weren't together. We wouldn't have you or Noah and I wouldn't have had Gavin." Over the years it had become easier for Taylor to talk about her first son. She had found a way past it all.

"Hold on, are we talking about the same Henri-Michel that wrote that book?" Sunny cut in.

"How do you know about that book?" Taylor turned her gaze towards her daughter suddenly feeling nervous.

"Obviously it is." Claire laughed.

"A Season For Peaches. It's like over 30 years old now but people are still praising it."

"You didn't happen to read that book?" Taylor looked down at her hands.

"Well, yeah. It was…well a little…" Sunny started to blush.

"Oh no." Taylor's hand went up to her face.

"What?"

"Peaches, yeah well Peaches is me…" She spoke slowly.

"What?" Amelie's eyes widened.

"You read it too?" Taylor directed her gaze now to her other daughter.

"Sunny emailed me and told me about it. I was interested so I read it. Oh my God, I read an erotic novel about my mother." Amelie's face paled a little.

"All of that stuff didn't really happen…right?" Sunny choked.

"No, not all of it." She shook her head.

"I'm really glad I didn't read it." Claire laughed at her sisters.

-

"Hey, uhm, Mr. Atwood can I talk to you?" Brad wiped his hands on his pants nervously trying not to meet Ryan's face.

"It's Ryan and yeah." He nodded walking over and pulling a chair out at the kitchen table in his daughter's apartment. Brad nervously sat down across from him. "Look, kid, you don't have to be so nervous."

"You scare me…" Brad gazed down at the table.

"I scare you?"

"Well, yeah. The first time I took your daughter out you told me you used to kill people for a living." The twenty-seven year old brunette said to the table.

"I was only joking." Ryan shrugged cracking a smile.

"I know but actually that's not what I wanted to talk about…I uhm wanted to…uhm…ask you how did you know that you wanted to marry your wife?" Brad finally looked up.

"Shouldn't you have asked me that before you got engaged to my daughter?" Ryan leaned against the table looking sternly at the guy in front of him. Brad instantly looked away.

"Well, I don't know but…"

"I don't know, I just knew." Ryan interrupted him. "Are you serious about marrying her, Brad? Because if you aren't…"

"No, no. I am serious about marrying Claire. I love your daughter more than anything, I was just wondering." Brad said confidently. "I wasn't even thinking about marriage…not until Claire. It just all clicked and I can't imagine life without her. I'm just scared I won't be good enough for her."

"I felt the same way but sooner or later you have to let that go. Honestly, she picked you so you are obviously good enough."

-

"Your father and I have officially been married for twenty years." Taylor smiled glancing at the clock on her bedside table. She then looked back at her daughters and realized Claire was the only one with her eyes open.

"Are you going to call him?" She asked.

"I'll see him later, your father's getting old I'm sure he's sleeping." Taylor grinned. She watched as Claire chuckled.

Taylor couldn't believe her life. She couldn't believe the way things had turned out. She was married to the one guy that she had never seen herself fall for all those years ago.

But, she had fallen. Some days it seemed that she was still falling for him. The little things he would do would just brighten her day.

-

"You called." She sounded surprised.

"Of course I'd call." He spoke into the phone.

"Ryan, there's something I need to tell you. I haven't lied to you, ever. I'm not going to start now…"

"What's going on?"

"Well, I lied when I said I was just out. I actually went for a follow up with my doctor, Ryan, they found something." Taylor's voice was so low Ryan wasn't sure he heard her correctly.

"Found something as in…"

"I have breast cancer."