Title: by Mariah Carey. I thought the song really fit with the mood of this chapter, so I posted the lyrics on the bottom of the chapter and the link to the song is in my profile.
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Reflections.
Nicole had fallen asleep not long after her and Natalie's argument. She woke up a little after 8 the next morning in her father's arms. She slipped out of the room trying not to wake him and went downstairs. She had work that day so she got ready and quietly walked out the door. Her mother's car was still outside the house, which was weird. She thought her mum had gone back to LA already. Oh well, she quickened her pace wanting to escape, but it was too late. Natalie opened the car door to come face to face with Nicole. They just stared at each other for a while, not knowing what to say until Lily came out of the house.
"Nicole, you forgot your…" She stopped when she saw Natalie, "Um, your lunch and Aden's still inside, do you want to wait and walk with him?"
"Yeah, sure I'll go and get him" Nicole took one last look at her mum and brushed past her grandmother. Lily walked towards Natalie and took in her appearance.
"Don't tell me you slept in your car?" Natalie merely nodded, she looked down at her phone to see it endlessly ringing. She flipped it open and turned the damn thing off.
"You spoke to him didn't you?" Lily asked, gently touching Natalie's shoulder. Natalie told her yes and broke down crying.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
That evening Nicole had gone out with Aden and Roman had gone to the shop to get something for dinner. So that left Lily and Natalie alone to talk. They had discussed everything from what had been happening to what they were going to do now. Eventually Natalie had fallen asleep on the couch, leaving Lily to do housework. A little while after, there was a knock on the door. Not expecting anyone that wouldn't just walk in, Lily had a look outside. There was a Ferrari was parked next to Natalie's car. She yanked opened the door and stormed towards her visitor.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Lily questioned forcefully.
"Hello Lily, I'm Ray it's lovely to finally meet you. Is Natalie here?" Ray asked suavely.
"I asked you what you were doing here!" Lily shouted, losing patience.
"Well, my wife left yesterday morning not saying anything, so I just guessed that Nicole was being a spoilt princess and done something for attention again. But then I get a call this morning asking for a divorce, so I'm a little confused. Can I please know where my wife is now?"
"She's asleep and I'd rather you not disturb her, she's had a rough night." Lily replied, looking over his shoulder at a rapidly approaching Aden and Nicole. The look on her face at seeing him was proof enough that she wasn't lying, not that she thought she was in the first place. It was a look of pure hatred and…fear. It made Lily want to grab her baseball bat and beat him with it. She grabbed Aden's hand for some kind of safety. At his concerned look she nodded her head in Ray's direction. Aden's fist clenched and he pulled her closer.
"Nicole, do you know where your mother is?" Ray turned to see Nicole cuddle up to Aden and the latter swore he saw jealousy flash in his eyes.
"Don't you dare speak to her you sick pervert!" Aden shouted holding tighter to Nicole.
"Just take her inside I'll deal with him." Lily told him while glaring at Ray. When they were out of earshot Lily spoke,
"If you don't get the hell off of my property, I'll get my baseball bat and smash your windscreen! Do I make myself clear?"
"I really don't understand what is going on, can I just speak to Nat? Please." He pleaded to no avail.
"Did you really think that no one would find out? Did you just think that she'd be a good little girl and go through life harbouring that massive secret? Did you? I curse the day you were born." Lily seethed. She spied Roman walking towards the house with a scowl on his face.
"Look I don't know what she has told you, but she is a liar and an attention seeker and…" He never got to finish what he was saying as Roman forcefully turned him round and punched him in the nose.
"Never, ever come near my daughter again, you scumbag!" Roman walked over him and into the house with Lily following behind.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"I know he was here." Natalie said after an hour of Lily and Roman making awkward small talk and skirting round the fact.
"Yes, well he left." Lily stated, "And I don't think that he will be coming back anytime soon." She glanced at Roman as she said that. Natalie questioned what had happened but they just brushed her off saying that they had told him she was asleep and she didn't want to see him. She seemed to accept it for now and the case was closed.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo
Meanwhile, Aden had been upstairs with Nicole fuming. He had paced the floor so many times; Nicole was worried that he would wear a hole in the carpet.
"How dare he come here after what he did to you!" Aden shouted.
"Just calm down ok, he probably just came for my mum."
"But, how can you just sit there and not care? I mean how can you be so chilled about it all?" Aden asked.
"Because I have had to live with him for 3 years after it first happened. I learned to accept it and move on." Nicole looked away, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Yes, but you shouldn't have to accept it. It shouldn't have happened at all." He walked over to the bed and knelt down in front herself, "Why didn't you tell anyone, I mean why keep it to yourself?"
"I did tell someone, and we sorted it out by ourselves. It was never meant to be mentioned again." Nicole told him. He looked shocked but didn't press further.
"And, what did you mean yesterday when you said 'she told you'?" He asked.
"My mum." He gasped but motioned for her to continue, "I told her exactly what he did to me and she just told me to stop it."
Flashback-2006.
"Hey, mum can I speak to you for a minute please." A 15-year-old Nicole walked up to a flustered Natalie.
"Sweetheart, can't it wait? I'm in the middle of organizing the party of the season, you know that some of Ray's clients are coming and I need everything to be perfect." Natalie continued ordering people around, telling them where to put things.
"But mum this really can't wait, it's more important than your stupid party."
"Okay fine but make it snappy." Natalie replied.
"Can we go somewhere a little less open?" Nicole asked, gesturing to the kitchen filled with workers. Natalie nodded and led her into the study.
"Right, mum I need you to know that I love you and I never wanted to hurt you. That is why I kept it quiet for so long."
"Can you just spit it out please darling, I am so late for picking up my dress."
"Fine, well two years ago when you were away on one of your many business trips, Ray came into my room and he…he raped me." Nicole whispered the last part so quietly that Natalie barely heard her.
"He what? I couldn't have possibly heard you correctly. You are accusing my husband, my faithful, wonderful husband of abusing my very under aged, liar of a daughter?" Natalie questioned.
"Yes, and I'm so sorry, I never wanted this to happen, and I never wanted to hurt you."
"What, you expect me to believe you? Where is your proof?"
"Well I don't have any proof, but with you being my mum and all I guess I just assumed that you would believe me over that sleaze." Nicole told her.
"That 'sleaze' as you so kindly put it is my husband and he has never lied to me, whereas you, well I can't even count how many times you have lied to me. I can't believe you could make up a lie so vicious and spiteful. In fact I wouldn't put it past you to try and seduce him, you always were jealous of us, and we all know how much of a tease you are. I honestly try to keep on loving you Nicole but you just make it so damn hard! You try and sabotage everything good in my life. Do you hate me that much?"
"At this moment? Yes I do!" Nicole screamed and ran out of the room.
"Where do you think you are going? You are grounded young lady!" Natalie shouted, but it was no use. Nicole was gone. From then on no one could control Nicole and Natalie was past trying.
"And that is what happened, she was so desperate to hold on to him that she ignored me. It was from then on I realised, she needed a man so badly in her life that she would always put that need above me." Nicole finished her story after God knows how many tears. Aden just held her and let her cry. He now had no sympathy for Natalie; she brought all of this on herself, and unfortunately dragging Nicole with her. He didn't understand how someone who claims they love you could hurt you so severely, even his dad, in his drunken stupor would have never said such hurtful things to him or his brothers.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxo
"And I really, really need to speak to you. What have I done? Is it even to do with me, is it Nicole, or your insane mother? If it's Nicole, I would really want to know, she's my daughter too, well to me she is anyway. Please Nat, just call me or come and see me, I'm staying at the East Cherry Inn down the road. Call me please darling. I love you." Natalie finished listening to the voicemail on her phone and made a decision. She was going to meet Ray and listen to his side of the story. She did feel for him, she up and left the other day over a call which she never told him about and suddenly isn't answering his calls. So she would fill him in on what has been going on and then give him a chance to explain. She got up from her spot on the couch and went to get ready.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
After ten minutes she came back downstairs, dressed and a face full of make-up.
"Going on the pull so soon?" Nicole asked snidely, walking into the lounge.
"Actually I'm going to talk to Ray." She told her daughter, not wanting to lie. Although watching her daughter's reaction, lying may have been a safer option.
"Oh my God, you still don't believe me do you?" Nicole whispered at Natalie's shake of the head she continued, "I bet you still think I'm just a tease don't you? That I came on to him, and I plotted against you and this was all just a ploy to ruin your life. Because everything revolves around you doesn't it?" Nicole ranted. By now everyone was in the lounge room listening.
"No, that's not true" Natalie told her, "I believe you, I do and I never should have said that, I know that now. I was blinded by my love for him."
"You mean blinded by his love as oppose to your love for me?"
"You told our 17-year-old daughter that she was a tease?" Roman asked, truly shocked.
"Yeah, when I was 15." Nicole answered him.
"Look, I'm seeing Ray to tell him what is going on, he at least deserves that." Natalie stated with finality.
"That ass doesn't deserve anything." Lily said. Natalie just shook her head and walked out of the door.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxooxoxoxoxo
Natalie arrived at the East Cherry Inn a few minutes later and asked what room Ray was in. When she got to room 132 she hesitated before knocking. Was she ready to face him? Well it was too late now, so she raised her hand and knocked. She heard a rustling behind the door and then it opened, revealing the man she loved with all her heart, but hated with her entire soul. She never fully understood the saying; 'There is a thin line between love and hate' until now.
"You came." That was the third time Ray had said that.
"Yeah, I did." Natalie replied.
"Sorry, I just don't know what to say, and I don't want to say anything that will upset you."
"Do you want to get a coffee?" Lily asked, feeling uncomfortable sat in his motel room. He smiled brightly and held out his hand for her to take. She looked at it for a few seconds before standing and walking past him.
"I know a nice place." She told him while walking out of the door. They were only a few blocks from the café so they decided to walk, leaving a substantial amount of tension between them. He had tried to make small talk but Natalie was non-responsive, not knowing what to say and feeling like she was betraying Nicole. Natalie had suggested Macy's because it was where she had spent a lot of her childhood. Her best friend, Lola's grandparents had owned it and they would come home from school and get hot chocolate and a cake and just hang out. Back in the day before she discovered the pleasures of boys and alcohol. Thinking of her adolescence made her wonder how she ever punished Nicole for her follies when she had been 10 times worse. At Nicole's age she was pregnant and living with her grandparents, for her parents had kicked her out. She had hated her mum for the longest time after that, but then she went and did the same to Nicole. They weren't lying when they said 'Like mother, like daughter.'
"What do you want?" Ray asked, noticing that far away look in her eye as when she would flit back and forth from past to present. He knew that wasn't a good sign. She usually only got like that when her mother or Roman was mentioned, and now here she was living with both of them.
"Um, I'll have a double shot espresso please, I didn't sleep much." She said and went to grab the booth by the door, her and Lola's favourite. Being back had brought an unusual feeling of nostalgia that she never felt in Hollywood. It was never really home, neither was Sydney.
"So, are you going to tell me why we are here then?" Ray asked handing her the coffee.
"Well, you're the one who rang me." Natalie reminded him.
"Ok, let me phrase that differently, what was that phone call all about?"
"What are you talking about?" Natalie feigned ignorance.
"Well, I'm assuming that is what this is about. You got that phone call, rushed out of the house and then ignore my calls and refuse to see me. Then I get mouthed at by a boy snuggling up to Nicole, and then punched by her father. Has she told you a lie about me or something?" Natalie noticed the hint of jealousy in his voice as he spoke of Aden, and that was what made her not feel remotely sorry when she noticed the big black eye.
"Why don't you tell me, you know, give you a chance to redeem yourself."
"Um, I really have no idea what you are talking about. Can you just cut the games and fill me in love?" Hearing him say the little things like love and darling used to make little shivers run up her spine, now they just make her nauseous.
"How about you tell me why you had sex with my daughter?" She said loudly enough to turn a few heads, but surprisingly enough she didn't care.
"Don't tell me we're on to this again, I already told you she's lying, I never touched the girl." She spotted the hesitation in his voice, it's funny how much you miss out on when you trust someone. Or maybe she had just wanted to believe it so much that she had ignored it. That thought made her feel sick to her stomach, she knew subconsciously and just chose to ignore it, what kind of mother was she?
"If you would have told me that a few days ago, I'd of believed you without hesitation, hell I did believe you, no questions. But now I know without a doubt in my mind that you abused my baby girl, and you are going to jail for that." She stated with conviction.
"Just let me talk to her, I can convince her to stop telling these awful lies. I will be willing to forgive her, I…" Natalie cut him off, fuming:
"You'd forgive her? Are you kidding me? You touch her up and you're doing the forgiving. You really are mentally screwed in the head." She got up and stormed out without turning back once.
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Reflections of your love have come to wither
I thought I'd done my best to memorize
A picture face of you and I together
I haven't come to terms with how we said goodbye
Did you really care
Care at all for me
Did you really care
Did you care at all for me
A displaced little girl wept years in silence
And whispered wishes you materialized
She pressed all night and they took keep of living
And tried so many ways to keep her soul alive
Did you really care
Care enough for me
Did you really care
Did you care at all for me
If I'm not quite good enough
Or somehow undeserving of
A mother's love
You could've had the decency to give me hope
Before you gave me lies
Don't you even care
Just the slightest little bit for me
Cause I really need to feel you care
Even once upon a time for me
I need to believe
In my heart of hearts of hearts you cared for me
I need to understand
Why you left me there so helplessly
Don't you even care
Care at all for me
Oh...
Reflections of your love have come to wither
I thought I'd done my best to memorize