Perfect Little Lies
Chapter Four: Dinner with The Hastings
Michaela and Shay stood on the Hastings porch, Michaela extends her hand and rings the doorbell and waits for someone to answer. Her other hand is griping onto Shay's, as she takes a deep breath. "Your doing it again, mommy," Shay says putting her back into her mind and exhaling. A second later, Spencer opens the door, looking at Michaela and a little girl with her. "She's here," she lets them in. When they walk in the house, Spencer shuts the door behind them. Veronica and Peter are coming from placing food on the dining room table. "Spencer, Mr. & Mrs. Hastings," she begins to say. "I'd like for you to meet Shay," she introduces her child. "My daughter," she adds, shocking them. Peter's doing the math in his head, alongside his wife. "Isn't she adorable, how old is she?" Veronica asks walking close to her and picking her up. "She's 5," she tells them. Peter looks at her, a little worried, he can tell that Veronica is looking at this little girl features to see a resemblance. "And where's her father?" Peter asks, walking to pour himself some whisky from his stash on the counter. "Not in the picture," she informs them. "She's adorable," Spencer says, walking by her. "If you ever need a babysitter," she tells Michaela. "I'll keep that in mind," she lets her know. "Your so beautiful, you look just like your mommy," Veronica tells Shay, as she places her back on the ground. "Thank you, I hear that all the time," she says smiling. "Let's eat, Spencer why don't you go see if Melissa and Ian are joining us?" Veronica says leading Shay into the dinning room. "Come on, you can sit next to me and your mom," she tells her as they enter the room.
As soon she heard his name, she flinched. She hated Ian; she didn't want to see him. When Spencer exits the house, Peter grabs her hand and pulls her into the kitchen by him. "Please tell me you know who her father is," he tells her, commanding to know. Michaela doesn't know how to answer that. "That's one the reasons I came back, I'm going to need a paternity test," she gives him an answer. She looks at the back door to make sure no one walks in and back at Peter. "I don't want to be near Ian at all, I told you what happened, how could you let Melissa anywhere near him, after I told you…"she says upset just as the door opens and Spencer, Melissa and Ian enter the house. He lets go of her hand that he was holding onto. "Let's eat," Peter says and walks everyone into the dinning area. Michaela sits down next to Shay, who is sitting next to Veronica at one end, Peter sits at the other, Spencer sits down next to Michaela and Ian, Melissa on the opposite side. "Who's the cutie?" Melissa asks while sitting down at the table. "Her name's Shay, she's my daughter," she tells them. Ian is shocked by this revelation. He doesn't know what to say, neither does Melissa. Instead most of the dinner is silent. "This is not awkward at all," Spencer says breaking the silence while everyone's eating their salad or lasagna. Shay's picking up some lettuce with her fingers and eating it. "So, her father is in California?" Ian ask Michaela trying to put pieces together in his head. She looks at him, not wanting to answer or even look at him, but she does it anyways. "No. I found out I was pregnant not long after I got there," she tells him. He begins to count backwards in his head. "Just a few weeks along," she adds to his confusion even more. "Mommy, this is good," Shay tells her, then looks at Veronica. "Thank you so much for inviting us," she tells her. "Thank you for coming, your welcome here anytime," Veronica tells Shay. Everyone begins to eat in silence again. Until Melissa changes the subject and begins to start small talk.
After dinner and a little dessert, Spencer took Shay outside to play and Melissa and Ian went back to the barn. Michaela is getting a little heated, she hated being around Ian and she can't stand the fact that Melissa married him. She's talking to Peter and Veronica; she's upset right now and is trying to calm herself down. "I told you guys, I trusted you, and you just let him marry your daughter," she looks at Peter, her former lover, and Veronica, her motherly figure. "What could we do? She's an adult, she can make her own choices, and you're the one who said you didn't want her to know," Veronica begins to tell her. Michaela starts crying, she's upset. "I feel like you never believed me, I know I'm not your child, but you felt like a second family and I came to you guys instead of my own," she says. "I thought you would have helped me, instead you told me not to tell anyone and I did, for six years, I did," she says, Peter walks close to hug her. He embraces her in his arms, and she gives into him. She always felt comforted by his touch. "We do believe you, your back now, we can fix this," he tells her. "We should start with a paternity test," Veronica looks at her, after she backs up from Peter, Michaela wipes away her tears. "For everyone you slept with before you found out you were pregnant," Veronica adds, looking at her sternly. "Even the ones who forced you," Peter says the last words that break her heart into a million pieces. She always knew that was a possibility, but she was hoping, praying that one of them couldn't be her father.
They already know who the number one person was to test: Peter. The second two: Ian Thomas and Garrett Reynolds. It's taken years for her to forget about that night but every time she thinks of Ian or Garrett, it comes back. Lastly, the one person who she really loved, who didn't deserve what she did to him: Jason DiLaurentis. Every time she makes that list in her head, she felt like a slut. Even though two of them wasn't her fault, she still felt that way. "Someone knows," she remembered the message she received last night and tells them. "They messaged me, basically saying they know, and they knew I had her," she pauses for a second and looks at Veronica. "Did you tell anyone?" Veronica looks shocked as Michaela asked her that question. Neither one of them has told a soul. "I haven't told anyone. No one knows about this, none of it," she tells them both. But someone did know, and they threatened her.
Spencer walked in the house with Shay and when she saw her mother, she ran by her. "Mama, I had a good time with Aunt Spencer," she tells her mother, who picks her up and holds her into her arms, and she lays her head on her mother's shoulder. "Are you tried honey?" she asks her, and Shay nods her head tiredly. "I should get going," she tells them, and the looks at Spencer. "I have a date this Friday, do you want to watch her?" she asks Spencer, who was about to agree when she remembered the Noel thing. "I have plans this Friday, but any other time is good," she tells her, still remembering when Spencer was younger. "Chaela, I'll call you tomorrow about setting up…" Veronica tells her as she heads to leave, Michaela knowing want she was talking about. "Ok," Spencer opens the door. "Good night you guys," Michaela tells them. "Good night," Shay says, and they tell them the same thing. Spencer then looks at her parents, her mother in particular. "Are you going to help her find Shay's dad?" she asks her mother. "Yes, I am," Veronica says, then watches as Spencer leaves the room and heads upstairs. Veronica turns to her husband. "Look what happened from your affair," Veronica begins to confront him. He snaps back at her. "Don't forget what happened with yours…" he says, and before he walks off. "We don't know if Shay is mine, there's 75% chance she's not," he grabs his glass of whisky and takes a sip and then storms out of the room.
After putting a sleeping Shay in the guest bed in Hanna's bedroom, she decided to have a talk with her mother. She needed to tell her about Peter, she knows that this could ruin her relationship with her mother, making her beyond pissed at her but she had to get it off her chest. She waited until Hanna went upstairs to bed, because she didn't need her sister knowing this either. She was sitting at the kitchen sipping at a glass of water, telling her mother how dinner went without the little drama with Ian or Peter. "Mom," she says grabbing her mother's attention from the glass of wine she's sipping on. "Yes," she says. Michaela doesn't know how to start this off, the words are vacant from her mind, but she takes a deep breath and exhales, tears forming in her eyes. "I need to tell you something, I don't think your going to love me anymore," tears fall out of her eyes. "There's nothing you can do, that can make me not love you, your my child, I love you with all your faults," Ashley tells her, letting her daughter release the emotions that she has inside. "My senior year of high school, I…" she takes a moment. "I had an affair with Peter Hastings," her mother looks at her with shock and a little disgust. "Cha… Chaela, you were sleeping, with your best friends' father?" she asks her, confirming what she heard her daughter admit to. "I didn't mean to fall in love with him, it just happened, it wasn't anything serious," she tells her. "You just said you were in love with him," Ashley thinks about Shay. "Is he, her father?" she begins to question that. She looks away, ashamed of herself, tears pouring out of her eyes. "I don't know," she's so upset with herself and Ashley can tell, she hugs her child. She comforts her the best she can. "It's in the past, right? You didn't come back to be with him, did you?" she needed to know the answer to that question, she doesn't need her child to be a home wrecker. "No, mom, I didn't come back for him. I came back for her. She needs to know who her father is, I need to know," Michaela starts drying her tears, as her mother holds her, making her feel better. She feels bad, but there was nothing she can do about it now. "Does anyone else know?" she asks her daughter, wanting to make sure that her secret is safe. Michaela looks at her mother, with dry eyes. "Veronica knows, but she's not going to tell," she informs her mother. Ashley looks at her daughter, concerned about this, and ask her what she needed to know next. "Are you sure about that?" Michaela looks at her mother. "Not if she doesn't want me to reveal her secret," as soon as she says that, Ashley knew what she was talking about.
After dinner and doing her homework Spencer sat on her bed reading To Kill A Mockingbird, it wasn't her first time reading the book, but she had to refresh her memory to be able to write a paper on it. She's in the middle of the book and a group message with her friends. Emily's complaining about the breaking and entering her and Spencer need to do Friday night and Aria isn't really complaining that much about going out with Noel. She hears a beep and looks at a new message.
Unknown: 'Poor little Spencer, your family tree is about to be torn up by the roots. With my help, it can be done quicker. Or should I tear up another family secret? Mommy's hiding something from you. -A'
Shock runs through her, what the hell is A doing to her. What the hell is her mom hiding from her?