The house seemed quiet when Emrys arrived. Her thoughts buzzed and swirled in a hundred different directions after her talk with Ochre.
Toya was reading in the living room when Emrys entered.
"There were no problems then?" she asked.
"None," he said closing the book. "Your aunt's been in the kitchen making cookies with both Amy and Saffron. Nothing unusual's been said so I didn't see any point in leaving."
"Leaving? You're leaving again? Why?" Rachael asked from the door.
Emrys turned to look at her aunt. "No one's leaving Aunt Ray," she said over her aunt's talking.
"I'll leave you two to talk," Toya said standing up as her aunt walked toward Emrys.
"Coward," Emrys called around her aunt.
Toya chuckled but waved a hand as he left the room.
"Em?" her aunt's voice broke saying her name and Emrys looked back at her aunt.
She flinched at the pain in her aunt's eyes. "I'm not going anywhere Aunt Ray," she mumbled and fidgeted beneath her aunts gaze.
"Why didn't you tell me or Lean anything? Did you think we would throw you out or something?"
"No!!" Emrys exclaimed looking at her aunt, "I never once thought that. It was just complicated."
Rachael took her hands and pulled her to sit on the couch, "can you tell me now?"
"It's not just my story to tell Aunt," Emrys hesitated to speak.
"Tell me what you can then. I need to know why you wouldn't tell us," Rachael pleaded.
Emrys sighed, "It was just one night and he left right after. When he never came back I didn't want to stay here and raise my baby surrounded by memories. I didn't want to have to smile and pretend to be happy when he finally came back with someone else as his wife. I never meant to come back when I left five years ago."
"You were just going to disappear? Like your mother?" Rachael asked.
"NO! Yes. I just...I didn't feel like I could stay here and I didn't want to put you and Uncle Lean in the middle."
"What made you decide to come back?"
"I got sick. I realized I needed your help to protect the baby but by then so much time had passed I didn't think I could tell you about Ochre being the father. Everyone just assumed Ritchie was the dad and it was easier just to let everyone keep believing that."
Rachael sighed, "When you and Toya returned with a baby I always wondered if it was Ritchie or Toya who was the father. You were so accepting when he and Hunter started getting serious I didn't want to cause trouble by asking. But it was really Ochre."
"I never told him either, Aunt Ray."
Rachael snorted, "I know that. If he knew about this he would have moved the world to be with you and Amy."
Emrys turned her head. She didn't want to argue with her aunt but she had her doubts. Though Ochre's words earlier seemed to support what Rachael said.
"You don't believe it do you?"
Emrys shrugged.
"You were still too young at the time. Maybe 17, almost 18 years old, but sometimes I would see Ochre watching you. It wasn't as a brother or as cousin, but as a sim who found that special something in another, that told them this is the person for them."
Emrys looked at her aunt, "I never noticed."
"He was always careful to make some remark or other that had you yelling at him a second later when you would catch him looking."
Emrys blinked. A lot of her memories with Ochre did involve yelling at him.
"When are you going to tell Amy?"
"I don't know. Ochre wants to be a dad so we'll tell her. Can you wait until then before you start having her call you 'Grandma'?" Emrys asked.
Rachael laughed, "Me. A grandma. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to wait for Hunter to adopt or Saffron to grow up first."
Another relatively short chapter. Just moving along now....
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