#30 (Alison confronts India about what happened in Paris...)
Alison Farrell Montgomery laid by the outdoor pool at the Montgomery Estate as the humidity clung to every inch of her toned body. She pulled her sunglasses tight against her face as a shadow cast over her. “Move.”
“You do know how to speak,” snapped India. She folded her arms while her mother sighed and rolled over to her side. “Mother, I’m speaking to you!”
“I’m trying to have a few moments of peace and quiet before I meet my friends for dinner.”
“You’ll look like an old weather-beaten suitcase,” clucked India, ruefully. “You haven’t spoken two words to me since you arrived from Paris.”
Alison sat up, removed her sunglasses, and gave India a terse stare. “India, I don’t want to talk to you. In fact, I think it would be better if you stayed out of my way.” With that, Alison grabbed her robe, sunhat, and started for the main house.
“Why?” called India as she ran towards Alison. “Mother, please! You can’t ignore me! I’m your daughter!”
“India, will you please leave me alone?!? My god! I can’t have a moments peace without you demanding every spare second of my time!”
“But you always have time for Billy! It makes me sick!”
“I have time for Billy,” began Alison, “because he didn’t have an affair with my boyfriend and then accuse him of trying to force himself on her!”
India stood in absolute silence, like the world had stopped without any intention of every resuming its usual hum of the last four billion years. “That’s not true,” insisted India. “I never even looked at Count Andre du Renault!”
“You used to be a much better liar,” spat Alison. “I know all about it. Andre told me what you did to him!”
“What I did to him?!? Mother, I didn’t do anything to Andre. He’s lying! He always tried to come on to me, but I stopped him. He would tell me how he wanted someone more nubile…more experienced… Mother, you have to believe me that I never tried to have sex with him!” exclaimed India.
Alison grabbed India by the arm. “Keep your voice down. You sound like a common guttersnipe.” She dragged India into the pool house and slammed the door. “Now you listen to me, India, I am not your father. I see you exactly for who you are. I have since you were a child. I’ve seen the essence of who you really are and always have been. You’re a mean, spiteful, vindictive woman with no regard for anyone around you. It’s anathema to who you really are.”
India’s eyes narrowed in horrified anger. “You have no proof…”
“Very few people know of the lengths you went to in order to get Connor for yourself. The lies you told… The people you hurt…” Alison folded her arms with fury in her eyes. “India, what Count Andre told me you did to him tracks entirely with what you did to Connor. It was like listening to an old record.” She looked India once over. “You disgust me.”
India stood in absolute silence before saying, “You’re just jealous. He wanted me, Mother. That’s not my fault.”
“You accused him of drugging you and trying to sleep with you, India! Have you any idea how damaging that could be to his life if it ever got out?!?”
“I don’t see how that’s my problem,” simpered India. “He never told me to stop.”
Alison let out an exasperated cry. “You’ll never learn, will you, India?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You have to stop this! What you did to Connor and Andre…”
“They both wanted me!! It’s not my fault that Connor was desperate to have me, just like Andre. Men find me sexual. They want to be with me, Mother! Connor doesn’t love Billy and Andre certainly didn’t love you!”
Alison’s hand stung from the slap she’d laid across India’s face. “You have no concept of the meaning of love!”
India rubbed her throbbing cheek. It had been years since anyone had hit her, but she wasn’t going to cry or give her mother the satisfaction of seeing her in pain. “If I don’t have a concept of love, it’s because you ignored me during my childhood while you were off being a slut in Europe. You made me this way, Mother. I’m not to blame for my behavior; you are.”
Lisa Davenport Collins sat in the examination room when Dr. Shearer entered the room followed by her husband, Jackson Collins. For Lisa, the last few days had been a special kind of hell. After four miscarriages in the last eight years, Lisa had given up all hope of every having another child and, now that she’d made peace with her present, the future was turning out to be an unkind little stranger. Jackson took his wife’s hand as Lisa said, “What is the result, Dr. Shearer?”
“Mrs. Collins, you are pregnant…”
“Wow,” muttered Jackson. “It happened, Lisa.”
Lisa watched Dr. Shearer’s face. It was a stony mask which told Lisa all she needed to know. “It’s not good is it,” she asked the doctor.
“Lisa, you’re pregnant! This is a wonderful thing,” interjected Jackson.
“Dr. Shearer,” began Lisa, “please tell me what’s wrong.”
Dr. Olivia Shearer quietly said, “Our transvaginal ultrasound has detected that you are having an ectopic pregnancy. That means…”
“I know what it means,” Lisa said, ruefully.
“Due to your age…” began Dr. Shearer, “there are…”
“I don’t want it.” Lisa felt like the world was beginning to lose its color. She felt numb. She felt cold. She felt dead. “Do whatever you have to do to get rid of it.”
Jackson turned to his wife with grief written all over his face. “We need to discuss this, Lisa. Dr. Shearer, it’s possible this could be a viable pregnancy, isn’t it?”
“Due to Mrs. Collins age and other factors, it may not be as viable as we would hope it to be. I’ll give you two time to talk this through…”
“I don’t need time,” said Lisa, gravely. “Tell me when I can come back for the surgery. I will find time in my schedule.”
Jackson waited for Dr. Shearer to go before saying, “Lisa, you can’t just end your pregnancy! We should be able to talk this through.”
Lisa turned her face away from Jackson. She knew he was hurting because she was hurting on a level she never knew existed. The mere fact that she had become pregnant was a miracle, but God was playing a horrific joke on her. She and the doctor knew her odds of carrying this pregnancy to term were unlikely. The thought of growing attached to…and loving…a baby which may not survive crushed every bit of Lisa’s soul. “I’ve made up my mind, Jackson. I can’t go through with it. I won’t…”
In our next installment, Lisa rejects Sheila's help...
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