[ 30 ] 2013

"Arthur is my son." Claire said.

Harley just watched her in shock. She let a brief minute go by without saying anything until a laugh escaped her lips. "You're kidding, right?" She asked through her breaths. Her laughing came to a bitter halt when she realized neither of them was laughing. "If Arthur is your son, that would mean you and I are related. And since you're Calum's grandmother, that would mean I'm related to him as well..."

Ashton shook his head and she had to admit there was a hope in her eyes that she would soon find a relief to her fear. "Claire is Arthur's mum, Harley." He said, and just as he was about to continue, Harley interrupted.

"I am so fucking confused." She admitted. "I just don't understand how she went from being Calum's grandmother to being mine. I thought Arthur didn't have a mum. He was adopted, at least that's what he said." But now that she thought about it, Arthur was very secretive and was known to keep things from people.

"Claire and I were engaged." Ashton started after taking a deep breath. Harley nodded. She was aware of everything up to about that point. After a short pause, he continued, "Let me know if I lose you in this whole mix-up, doll."

Claire snorted. "Doll. Why don't you call her kitten, like you did with me?"

Ashton ignored her words, but he rolled his eyes. Claire could not see it because his back was turned to her.

"Oh my gosh." Harley gasped, bringing her hands to her face. "Don't tell me you're Arthur's dad, Ashton. We kissed."

Shaking his head frantically, he attempted once more to explain. "I am not Arthur's dad. After I died, Con and Claire got married. They had their own kids and Claire raised Richard as her own."

"And he was an ungrateful little snot." Claire hissed.

"Apparently some time after, Claire took Bobby from Hayley." The hazel eyed boy said.

Claire made another rude comment, "Hayley Reid was a jealous bitch, but I showed her. Bobby left her for me in a second. Hayley was left to find consolation in that loser Thomas Davis. And I probably could have taken him from her too if I wanted to." She said the last sentence proudly. Thomas Davis and Hayley Reid. Those names stuck out in Claire's words because Harley knew those names. They were her grandparents, the parents of her mother.

Horrified, Harley came to a conclusion. "So my mum and Arthur were this close to being siblings?" Had Hayley married Bobby and not Thomas, there would have been three possible outcomes: her parents may have been related, Arthur would have never existed, or Harleen may have never existed.

"Don't tell me you're Hayley's granddaughter too!" Claire whined. "I hate her."

"She hated you too." Ashton pointed out, earning him a glare from her.

"Whatever." Claire shrugged.

"So..." Harley started hesitantly. "Is Calum her grandson or not?"

Ashton shook his head in response. "Richard, who was Calum's dad, was Anne-Sophie's son. That means you and Calum can't be related."

"And what happened to Anne-Sophie?" Harley wondered.

Claire shrugged her shoulders and spoke in the most nonchalant way. "Once Ashton was out of Con's way, I needed to get Anne out of the way. So I poinsoned her. That was one of my other reasons for my affair with Bobby. He was onto us and I needed to keep him distracted."

"You killed Anne?" Ashton gasped. Though truthfully, he knew he shouldn't be surprised. Both Con and Claire were truly horrible people.

"Don't act so surprised." Claire scoffed.

Harley heaved a sigh in frustration. She couldn't believe the woman standing in her bedroom was her grandmother. But what shocked her the most was that she had been able to kill someone without any kind of remorse. Harley needed some air, she needed to get out of her bedroom. Getting her cellphone out of her pocket, she searched her contacts for Calum's phone number and typed out a message for him.

harley: i'm so done with claire rn. will you take me away from here?

A response from him came minutes later while Ashton and Claire argued, but she tuned them out. she didn't want to deal with Claire, so she would let Ashton deal with her.

calum: i'll be there in five minutes.

-

When she saw the headlights of his car on the curb, she grabbed a jacket from her closet and headed for her balcony. Her parents were likely in the livingroom watching television and she didn't want to tell them she was going anywhere. She climbed over the railings and grabbed onto the vines securely. All the while Ashton watched her.

"Where are you heading off to, doll?" He asked, curiousity in his hazel eyes.

"I'm going out with Calum." Harley said simply. "Claire said she wanted to talk to you and I honestly don't want to be anywhere near that woman."

Claire's jaw dropped upon hearing her grand daughter's words. "Ungrateful little girl." She gasped. "If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't even be here right now."

"Just call my name if you need me." Ashton told her, and she could see the hurt in his eyes.

She wanted to tell him she wasn't leaving because of him. She was leaving because of Claire. Instead she climbed down the vines and tip toed down the cement driveway towards Calum's waiting car. She opened the passenger side door and climbed in. "Thank you for picking up." She told him the moment she strapped herself in.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked her as he drove down the street. 

His eyes shot a glance at the house he used to live in with his family and he swallowed the lump in his throat. The police had closed it down to look for evidence, but hunters were very skilled at what they did and they found nothing. Calum knew there was nothing they could have done to help him. Rohan, the man who had murdered his family, was already dead. And jail time would never have been enough to avenge their deaths anyway.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Harley replied, "Anywhere. I just wanted to get away from Claire. She's a monster."

"What did grandmum do now?" He rolled his eyes. He knew she wasn't his grandmother, but he was so used to calling her that. It was like an implulse.

"Turns out she's my grandmother." Harley said with no enthusiasm in her voice.

"Oh." Was all he said. He added after a short pause, "You know."

"You knew?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

He nodded, "I only found out recently. She let me believe we were related for a good couple of days. It was a nightmare."

"Well, having her as a grandmother is the real nightmare." Harley countered.

"More of a nightmare than a grandmother who laced cookies with poison and locked you in a basement?" Calum joked, reminding her of the time Michael almost died at the hands of Harley's grandmother Hayley Davis.

"She was trying to kill Michael." Harley pointed out.

"Still."

"Right." Harley smiled, suddenly excited, "Where are you taking me?"

"Why don't we..." Calum started, a hopeful tone in his words. "run away to Mexico, and change our names to Raúl and Consuela? We'll live in Mexico City and I'll be a pizza delivery guy."

Harley laughed. "You sound like you've been planning this for a while. But..."

"What?" He eyed her.

"I heard pizza delivery guy is one of the most dangerous jobs in Mexico City." She said, a smile played on her lips. "And also, you don't speak any spanish."

"Neither do you." He pointed his index finger at her with a grin.

"So learn Spanish," Harley said in amusement, "Learn Spanish or die."

"Maybe Paul can teach us." Calum suggested.

Harley laughed once more and Calum smiled. He was glad that he was able to make her laugh after she got into his car looking so  upset. And her smile was contagious. It caused a smile to form on his own lips.

-

"What have you come to propose, Claire?" Ashton asked, wanting to get the conversation over with.

"It has to do with Calum and Harley." She began to explain. "You love Harley, but Calum is in your way. Am I right?"

Ashton raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't think I like where this is going."

Claire ignored his words and continued. "I want you to help me kill Calum, then get Harley to send me into the afterlife with him. With the two of us gone, you can get Harley. Unless you want to get back with me. Then you and I can get sent off together. What do you say?"

-

update!

tomorrow is chile vs bolivia (lets go chile!), and mexico vs ecuador (vamos seleccion mexicana!) on twitter i love how chilenas and mexicanas have united. we ship each other. there's this tag called #chexico. 

but anyway, i hope you all like the update!

and if you're from chile, i'm from mexico, and i ship us ;) bahaha.

question of the day: i know i have asked this before, but where are you from? i'm from usa (i was born here), but my parents are mexican. thus, i am also mexican. when it comes to football (or soccer, as we americans call it), i cheer for usmnt and seleccion mexicana. but mostly seleccion. so yeah