Recap: 'Because it's true, Tom,' she said gazing sadly at him, 'He's my son.'

--

'What?' Tom asked incredulously.

'Brett is my son,' she said - words she hadn't used in a long time to anyone but herself.

Tom was just plain confused, 'Sweetheart, are you feeling alright? Brett is your brother's son, your nephew, remember?'

'No, no he's not,' Anna insisted.

'What?' he asked again.

'Come on, let's go talk about this someone else,' she said.

'Let's talk about it now,' Tom replied.

'Yes but not here. I don't want him to wake up an overhear anything. Come on.'

She led him out of the cubicle and they found an empty room with the word, 'Family Room,' on the door. Once inside Tom turned to face her.

'Do you want to tell me what's going on?'

She sunk into an armchair and he perched on the arm of it.

'So I already told you about that night all those years ago,'

'Yeah,' he said.

'Well what I didn't tell you is that I got pregnant from that night. The two dates on that message you saw earlier? The first was when it happened and the second is nine months later - so the second is the day my son was born.'

'But Brett is your son?'

'Yes he is.' she confirmed.

'But Brett lives with your brother. He thinks you're his Aunt. What's going on there?'

'You're probably going to think I'm heartless when you know the rest of it but you have to understand that I was only 14 years old - I was still in school - though being home schooled so no one knew about me being pregnant. I was just a kid myself, I couldn't look after a baby. I had to get an education. I couldn't raise a baby when I was only just looking after myself. The kid needed stability and I couldn't offer that. Roger, however, could.'

'So you let your brother raise him?'

'Roger was 24, happily married, had his own house, was becoming a big name in the business industry, had the money to look after a kid. We decided it would be better for he and Amy to bring Brett up as their own - better for Brett, and that was what mattered most.'

'So Brett has no idea about this?'

'No, like I said, it was just more convienient and better for everyone.'

'God that must have been so hard for you,' he commented.

She nodded, ' It tore me apart but it was for Brett's own good. I got to see him quite often though, since Roger and Amy lived nearby. Until Amy died and Brett wanted to move out of private schooling. It was me who suggested to Roger that he take Brett back to Rochdale. Roger hated the fact that I was Brett's mum. Oh he took Brett in happily enough but he hated that Brett loved me more than he man he thought was his dad. Hated that I wanted to see Brett regularly. He's afraid that I'm going to steal Brett from him. He's worried that now I'm living around him and seeing him nearly every day, that I'll try and turn him against Roger.'

'Are you going to tell Brett the truth?' questioned Tom.

She shrugged, 'I want him to know, you know? I want him to find out and be all happy and that we'll be a family, me and my son. But life's not a fairytale. We decided when it all started that we wouldn't tell Brett the truth until he was 16.'

'And now he's 16, you want to tell him?'

'I want him to know that I'm his mum, I want him to know the truth but it's not that easy, is it? He'll be mad that we've kept the truth from him. He could end up hating me.'

'But he's 16, he's not a kid anymore and he has a right to know,' reasoned Tom.

'I know but I'm just so worried that it'll go wrong.'

'You'll never know unless you take the chance. Can you really go through your life lying to him forever?'

'No, I know I have to tell him.'

'It'll be fine,' he told her, 'But you have to give it a try. Wouldn't you want to know if your mum was alive and well though you thought she was dead?'

'But he's not just finding out that his mum is alive, is he? He's finding out that his mum is a completely different person to whom he thought she was. It's big news.'

'I know, but it'll be fine.'

'I know he deserves to know but it's going to change so much for him.'

There was a moments pause until Anna spoke again.

'There was this time once, when Brett got too close to the truth.' she said in a reminisant sort of voice, 'Brett was about 10 and I was babysitting for him. It was December. We were in the attic of Roger and Amy's house, looking for the christmas decorations, since Amy had told us we could put them up, and make the house look all nice for when they got back. He was looking through one of the boxes whilst I looked through a different one. The he pulled out a piece of paper and said 'Look at this.' It was his birth certificate.'

'And it had your name on?'

'No. The place where I had him registered required parents signatures on the certificate and names inputted in to the computer system. He looked at the signature - ARJ Aspinall - mine obviously. Then he said 'I thought my mum's middle name was Jane, so why does this say her middle name begins with R and J.' So then I lied to him. I told him Amy had two middle names, one beginning with R which I couldn't remember and Jane was her second middle name. I got away with it by the coincidence that Amy's name began with the same letter as mine and that her middle name was the same as one of mine.'

'But what about his dad's name? Didn't he question that?'

'He probably would have if I hadn't distracted him by pointing to another box that I thought had the decorations in. I didn't name his dad on the birth certificate - he was a no good waster and I didn't want him named, he didn't deserve it.'

'Um... just out of interest, who is his real dad?' he questioned.

She sighed before answering with,' He was the same age as Roger I think. Lived around here with his parents.'

'What was his name?' he asked gently.

'Phillip... Philip Budgen.'

'Budgen?' he asked, 'Not...'

She nodded, 'Grantly's son, yes.'

'Does Grantly know about Brett?' asked Tom.

'No. He doesn't know that Bretts his grandson.'

'But he knows about his son assaulting you?'

'Well obviously. I took his son to court - not that it did any good - so of course he knew. You've probably noticed that Grantly seems to hate me, and that's why - he hates that I accused his son of assaulting me like that.'

''Accused'? He didn't believe you then?'

'No, he stuck by his son, thought I was making it all up.'

Tom simply stared at her, 'This is so surreal.'

Anna nodded, 'Now you know why I'm not sure about telling Brett the truth. Not only is he going to find out that his Aunt - his maths teacher - is his mum, but he'll find out that the grumpy head of english is his grandfather. Poor sod, I feel sorry for him - wouldn't you hate to find out that Grantly was realted to you?'

'Maybe you could not mention his father, then you wouldn't have to tell him about Grantly either.'

She thought about it for a moment but then shook her head.

'I don't think that would work. I mean - once Brett knows I'm his mum, other people will find out. Grantly will find out and he'll know by Brett's age that Phillip is the father and I doubt that he'll keep quiet about it. And Brett will naturally want to know who his father is won't he?'

'I guess he's going to ask questions, yes.'

'Once it's all out in the open, I don't want any more secrets. He'll know the whole truth and that's that.'

'So.. when are you going to tell him?' he asked.

'I don't really know. I guess I'll just wait for the right moment.'

'I doubt there's a right moment to tell anyone news this big, hmm?'

'Yeah, you're right. I'll tell him soon... once I've had time to think about the right way to do it.'

He leaned down and brushed her fringe out of her face

'Now you know that I'm here for you all the way OK?' he said reassuringly.

She leaned against him slightly, 'Thanks Tom. Thanks for being so... so supportive. You're the greatest.'

He smiled, 'Everything will work out fine, you'll see. It'll be fine.'

'Thanks,' she whispered nestling in closer to him.

He kissed the top of her head tenderly, 'Shhh, I've got you know.'

And it was true.

He made her feel safe.