Mara went with LeeAnne in the ambulance so she wouldn't be alone, and Luke, Gary, and Drew followed in Drew's car. Ned stayed home with baby Sienna. He also kept watch for Chiara's truck so he could fill her in as soon as she came home, which she did, just as the sun was setting.

She saw Ned motioning for her to come, so she went up to the house, wondering what was going on.

"Where is everyone?" she asked, smiling at Sienna, who gave her a droolly smile in return.

Ned quickly sketched what had happened, watching the look of horror grow on Chiara's face as he explained.

"Oh my god," she murmured. "Have you heard from anyone? Do we know anything?"

Ned shook his head. "It's been over three hours," he told her.

"Maybe you should text them," Chiara suggested, taking the baby from him.

He sent a quick text, and his phone dinged almost immediately.

"Oh," he said, surprised. "They're on their way home already. She says they'll be back in about half an hour, we can talk then."  Chiara nodded. She knew that Mara got motion sick when she texted from the car.

They had tea ready when Drew's car pulled into the driveway twenty minutes later, and luckily, Sienna had just taken a bottle and fallen asleep, so they were free to talk without interruption as soon as Chiara laid her in her bassinet, which was in the lounge.

Ned looked expectantly at everyone as they filed into the kitchen, passing out cups as they sat around the table.

"She had a miscarriage in the A & E," Mara began without preamble.

And in spite of everything, the horrible way LeeAnne had treated her, the despicable things she'd said and done, Chiara's brows drew together in sympathy for the poor girl who had lost her baby  all alone, on a continent with no blood relatives to speak of, no mother or sisters to be with her.

"The poor little thing," she murmured.

Drew looked at her sharply, swallowing, his tea sitting forgotten in front of him.

"And her head? She have any other injuries?" Ned prompted.

"She had to have five stitches, but they're just inside her hairline, so the doctor doesn't think they'll show," Gary said, showing with his finger where the stitches were. "They did a scan, and they show mild concussion, nothing serious. If not for the miscarriage, they would've released her in the morning, but because of the bleeding, they want to keep her until day after tomorrow, just to make sure there's no hemorrhage." He looked over at Drew. "The doctor said that, as LeeAnne is young and healthy, there's nothing to contraindicate further pregnancies in the future, and it's possible that the fall just hastened a miscarriage that would've happened anyway because she got pregnant so soon after giving birth to Sienna."

Luke, who was sitting next to Drew, put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, mate. We're all, so, so sorry." Everyone murmured words of agreement. "I mean, I know it wasn't under ideal circumstances, but it was still your baby, your child, and you lost it tonight, and that must be just awful--"

"It wasn't."

Drew's voice was so low that at first it was lost in the general hubbub, and Chiara wasn't sure she'd heard it at all.

"What?" Again, it was Luke, the closest, who spoke.

"I said it wasn't. It wasn't my child."

"What do you mean. You mean it wasn't a child yet? It wasn't a baby yet?"

Drew shook his head. Luke was asking the questions, and the whole table was riveted on Drew's words, but it was only to Chiara that he spoke, his eyes boring into hers. Ned was sitting to his right, and Chiara was sitting on Noah's right, between the two of them, so Drew had to lean forward a bit to see her.

"It wasn't mine, darling, it wasn't. It was Noah's. She went to his room the night before he left here and seduced him, and we'd all been drinking that night. It was his first time and she waved those tits and that bum at him, and what chance did he have?" Drew threw his hands up in the air, then ran both of them through his hair as he began to cry.

Mara, eyes huge, looked around the table as she pushed her chair back, gesturing to the others that they ought to do the same. Ned nodded and began to follow suit when Drew spoke again.

"No, no, please stay. All of you have been involved in this unholy mess from the beginning, and I'm so sorry for that. You deserve to hear every sordid detail, so just sit down, unless you don't want to know?" He looked around, and the other four, who'd begun to rise, all sat down in a body to hear the rest.

In spite the nightmarish quality the evening had taken on, Chiara had to smile to herself.

Noah's baby? How? Noah was a baby, practically.

"So then, so then when the bitch and her sister finally told me what had happened, they said that while they were in London they'd seen a solicitor to 'discuss their options.' That's exactly how the cow put it, too.

"I told her that rape, which was what this was, was a serious crime in England, and she'd be tried and sent to jail for it, because he was only fourteen," Drew said through his tears. "I said fuck her options, I was calling the police." His head was on his hand as his elbow rested on the table in an attitude of exhaustion and helplessness. Chiara's heart went out to him. He'd obviously been suffering for so long, and completely alone.

"You lot must know this bit, we were shouting so loud," Drew said rhetorically. Then he continued, again speaking only to Chiara, it seemed.

"So she said to go ahead and call the police, that she wasn't worried, but we should be. Noah's name would be in the British tabloids for months, and he'd be known forever as the boy who fathered a child at fourteen, the parent of the half-sibling of Manderley Dreams' womanizer Gary Pillsbury. He'd be the sex-crazed teenager who couldn't keep his hands off brand new mum LeeAnne Marcum who was recuperating from giving birth at his brother's country estate or some such bollocks." He looked at Chiara with streaming eyes.

"You see how she could make the story about anything she wanted? There's no way it comes out okay for our Noah? Who would care that he's just a baby, a child? He's the man, they always make the man out to be the aggressor." He stared into Chiara's eyes as though willing her to understand. "Who would believe that he used to crawl into bed with me just two years ago because he was frightened of the thunder? Or that he would dress William Wallace up as a superhero for fun on the odd Sunday?"

Chiara smiled, picturing the huge Noah doing these adorable things.

"Noah is the very best of us, the very best of our family. I'm just a nice face with an okay voice who got lucky," Drew said, hitting the table with a fist, making Chiara jump in surprise. "Noah could have it all, but not with something like this hanging over his head, not after that cunt got through with him. Oxford, the United Nations, Houses of Parliament, he could kiss all of it good bye. And my poor mum, dumped by my asshole father, raising both of us alone, finally able to have a nice life, only to be pitched into this mess?" Drew's voice was helpless and hopeless in equal measure, his posture one of abject surrender, shoulders slumped in defeat.

"But then LeeAnne told me that she didn't even want Noah, that he really was a child, and she didn't want to spend her life tied so some boring old barrister anyway. No, she wanted glitz and glamor, diamonds and destination vacations. She didn't want a quality life with a classy fellow." He raised his head and looked at Chiara again.. "She wanted me, can you believe it?

"She wanted all the silly, stupid trappings of my idiotic life, the travel, the planes, all the shite I was trying to get away from when I met you, darling. She said that obviously Noah would know the truth, because he knew that he'd slept with her, and he knew when it happened, but she didn't want anyone else to know, not our mum, not you, not anyone. Anyone."

He shrugged, staring into space across the table. No one was even breathing, it seemed.

"So I agreed," he said, his voice barely audible. "What else could I do? As much as I love you, and I do, love you so much, so much," and his voice broke on these words," my first responsibility is to my brother and my mother, you understand? I promised them I'd care for them when my no good dad left us with nothing, no house, no money, no car--we had to go on the dole to afford the worst food in the shop, it was awful, so shameful. And I couldn't let them go through what she was threatening.

"If I did what she wanted, well, performers, entertainers, rock stars, we do this sort of stupid thing all the time, don't we?" For the first time, he looked away from Chiara, over at Gary. "No offense, Gars."

Gary shook his head gently, with a small smile.

"I mean, not to compare myself to the Great One, but Mick Jagger has about a million children by a dozen women, you know? And it just doesn't matter. We live frivolous, silly lives, surrounded by money, insulated from everything. I could do that for mum and Noah, couldn't I? All I'd have to give up was--you."

He reached for Chiara's hand, and Ned finally thought to switch places with her, so Drew could reach.

Chiara reached out to stroke poor Drew's hair, and he leaned into her hand, closing his eyes, which caused more tears to spill over.

"I thought I could," he continued. "But it was so hard." Drew was getting hard to understand as he began to cry harder. "And I want you to know that nothing happened between me and LeeAnne, not ever. Not ever."

And again, the others tried to stand and leave, but Drew again waved them back into their seats. "Why bother now?" he said through his tears.

"Even on the nights when she insisted on sleeping in my room, I'd wait until she was sleeping, and pull the chaise over by the window and sleep where I could see your window at the cottage," Drew told Chiara.

"And I want you to know that Noah didn't want to do this," Drew told Chiara. "He hated it, and now he hates me for doing it. He threatened to leave school, and he's threatened nearly every day to just tell you, darling. Only knowing that we've already signed that sodding agreement, and that mum would be hurt has kept him quiet until now, I think.

"And oh, god, someone has to tell him what's happened," Drew said in a quiet voice.

"Why not wait until tomorrow, mate?" Ned suggested. "No harm can come from just sleeping on it, don't you think?"

Everyone around the table nodded agreement.

"Just trying to figure out where we stand is doing my head in, so I think you're right," Drew agreed. "I'm knackered."

He looked at Chiara. "I just need to say that I'm so very sorry for everything I put you through," he said softly. "You'll never know how sorry I am for all the suffering I've put you through."

Chiara nodded. "I know you well enough to know how true those words are, Andrew. I believe you."

She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Let's get some sleep."

Gary took the baby, and they all went to their respective bedrooms.

Chiara called out good night to everyone before pulling the French doors closed and heading to the cottage.