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If No One Will Listen


Guest Louise_2983

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Chapter 13

“Aden!” she called as she ran up the path behind him and he stopped, twisting his body to face her.

“Wait a minute”

“Look Belle, it’s ok. I know you only phoned our house because you were frantic about Angelica. You didn’t really want to see me so I’ll just go it’s no problem”

“No! Wait!” she gasped, her hand reaching out and clutching his wrist in an attempt to stop him leaving. Seeing him walk away she felt like she was losing him all over again and it was killing her.

As he lifted his gaze from the fingers wrapped just below just watch a flurry of hope surged through him, maybe she was ready to see him after all.

“You left your phone” she smiled weakly at him as she waved the slender, black mobile around with her other hand.

His heart plummeted instantly. She hadn’t wanted to see him at all.

“Geoff used it because his battery was dead” she murmured quietly.

“Sorry about that”

“That’s ok” he nodded with a curt smile as she handed his phone over.

“He was worried and I’m just glad she’s ok”

“Yeah me too”

“I’ll be off then” he told her softly but her hand was still wrapped around his wrist and she made no attempt to move it.

“Why was your phone at our house anyway?” she asked the question he had hoped she wouldn’t. He didn’t want to admit that he’d gone against her wishes but he knew lying to her about it would only

make things worse.

“I came to see you today, I must have left it behind” he mumbled as she gazed at him, her fingertips applying pressure over his throbbing pulse.

“I know you told me to wait for you to come to me but...I miss you Belle” he told her honestly, his bright blue eyes misty with tears.

“I miss you too” she told him in a whisper, her hand slipping down from his wrist until her palm fitted neatly inside his and he wrapped his strong hand around hers.

“I miss you so much Aden”

“But not enough to want to see me huh?” he questioned, his blue eyes like open wounds as hurt poured out of them.

“I always want to see you” she confessed in a murmur, her hand reaching out to gently caress his soft cheek.

“I just...I don’t know Aden. These past few weeks I’ve wanted to call you so many times or turn up on your doorstep but something has always stopped me”

“What happened with Nicole?” he asked not really wanting to know the answer.

“No” she shook her head slowly and tightened her grip on his hand. It hurt slightly but there was no way he would ever ask her to let go.

“It hurt I’m not going to pretend it didn’t hurt. Because it really hurt. But we weren’t together and I guess you had your reasons in the same way I had my own reasons for keeping all those secrets from

you. Not that I’m saying my reasons made sense or that it makes any of it right but if we hold grudges about everything that’s happened between us then we’ll never get past it”

“I want to get past it Belle” he told her simply.

“Me too” she nodded with a weak smile.

“There’s been so much going on recently and the only person I wanted to talk to about any of it was you. I felt...I guess I felt kind of lost not being able to”

He tugged on her hand ever so gently and led her towards her decrepit car parked a little way down the driveway.

“What are you doing?” she quizzed him, her brow furrowing in confusion as he perched on the bonnet and let go of her hand so he could wrap his arm around her waist and sit her down beside him.

He reached across with his free hand for hers again and the brief coldness she had felt when he let her go dissolved, replaced by a warm glow inside.

“Finding you” he whispered, his warm breath tickling her ear.

“If you want to talk about..anything...then I’m listening”

“I don’t deserve you” she sighed warm tears stinging her deep brown eyes.

“I push you away for weeks and then -”

“I’m always going to be here for you Belle” he interrupted, his thumb gently brushing over her knuckles as he held her hand.

“No matter how much you try and push me away it will never be hard enough to get rid of me”

“I don’t want to get rid of you”

“Glad to hear it” he grinned before nudging her teasingly.

“Because you know you’d have to resort to a restraining order and that would just get messy”

“With Angelo trying to enforce it for me?” she giggled at the mere thought as the hand resting on the curve of her stomach inched her slightly closer to him.

“Exactly” he let out a low chuckle.

“Although Charlie using her handcuffs on me wouldn’t be so bad I guess!”

“Oiy!” she exclaimed, whacking him playfully in the chest with the hand he wasn’t holding.

“Joking! Obviously!”

“You better be!” she mock threatened him with a stern expression on her face but it soon dissolved into one of uncertainty as she found herself gazing into his bright blue eyes.

“So what’s been going on with you?” he questioned in a whisper.

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“I met my Dad” she instantly blurted out without a second thought. She needed to talk to him about it, he was the only person she could tell.

“Your Dad?” his eyes widened in surprise.

“Yeah” she nodded feeling foolish.

“I tracked him down...well I say I tracked him down but it turns out all this time he’s been living in Yabbie Creek”

“Small world huh?” he smiled but the curve in his lips disappeared as he sensed her unease.

“Babe” he murmured not even bothering to correct himself.

“What happened? Did he not want to know?” he asked hesitantly. He could kill the man who had put the obvious pain in her eyes. How anyone could not want to know her was beyond his realm of

understanding. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her and more and as far as he was concerned anyone who didn’t was a fool.

“No” she shook her head trying to bite back tears.

“It wasn’t that. I could have handled that”

“Then what?”

“He was so...indifferent Aden. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to know me, he just didn’t seem to care either way. I was something that happened in high school, just another mistake like flunking a test or

getting a detention. Only this mistake turns up twenty years later saying “Hi Daddy!””

“You didn’t use those exact words did you?” he teased gently and his words had the desired effect as she let out a tiny giggle.

“No, I called him Mr Hart” she groaned loudly, cringing at the memory.

“Hart” he rolled the surname over his tongue as he considered it.

“So that’s what your name would have been if things had been different”

“Yep” she nodded rolling her eyes.

“Kimberly Alexis apparently”

“Hmmph” he sighed letting go of her hand so he could brush away the stray tendrils of dark hair fluttering over her face in the slight breeze.

“I prefer Belle”

“Me too” she smiled softly, his words comforting her.

“I love Belle” he murmured his lips so close to hers that she could almost taste him. She bowed her head slightly, the intensity of his gaze sending a bolt of electricity surging through her.

“I thought when I met him that I’d feel different” she confessed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

“Like part of me that was missing wouldn’t be missing anymore. But meeting him and realising that he couldn’t care less whether I ever contacted him again made me see that all along I’ve been looking

for and dreaming of something that was never really there in the first place”

“Belle, he’s a fool if he doesn’t want to know you” he whispered tenderly, his fingertips gently tracing her jaw line.

“Maybe not” she shrugged things suddenly making a little more sense to her as she looked back into his eyes, brimming with nothing but love and concern for her.

“Maybe he was right”

“I don’t understand?” he looked back at her confused.

“He was so cold and uncaring Aden. He had my eyes and his hair was exactly the same shade of brown. He gave me those things but not willingly. He never wanted to be my father, to give me anything.

Not even at my conception” she let out a low chuckle as she rested her chin on Aden’s shoulder and lifted her eyes to look at him.

“The only thing he ever gave me was a bit of DNA and I’m a lot more than that. Who I am, what I like, dislike, how I handle things... well I got all that from the people who cared enough to be part of

my life. From Irene and Amanda and Annie and Geoff and you” she whispered quietly.

“Hell even my adopted parents contributed more to who I am than he ever has”

“I don’t think I had anything to do with who you are Belle” he smiled softly.

“You were already amazing when I met you”

“Creep!” she laughed a genuine smile gracing her pretty face for the first time in a long time.

“But you did” she nodded suddenly solemn.

“You’re more a part of me than I think you realise Aden. You taught me what love really is and you taught me not to let other people’s perceptions of someone stop me from seeing who they really are”

“Then” he whispered tenderly.

“Don’t hate me for saying this but maybe you’re judging your Dad a bit too quickly. Maybe you should give him more of a chance?”

“He invited me to his house” she told him quietly.

“But I’m not going to go”

“If he invited you then maybe you just got the wrong idea about him being indifferent, he was probably just nervous Belle”

“Maybe” she shrugged his words having no effect on her stance.

“But I don’t want to find out, not right now at least. Beating this addiction is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and if meeting him has shown me anything it’s that I have to stop looking for something

that might not even exist and I definitely have to stop pushing the people I love away...the people who love me” she murmured her eyes flashing with uncertainty.

“I love you” he instantly told her sensing her need to be reassured of that.

“Yeah I kind of guessed” she teased him with a playful nudge.

“You’re not that subtle”

“I was never trying to be” he grinned, his lips inching so close to her ear she could feel them form the words against it as he whispered happily.

“I love you, I love you, I love you”

“I love you too” she told him sincerely as she gazed at him happily.

“And are you ready to let me back in?” he looked at her hopefully.

“I’m ready to try”

“That’s good enough for me babe” he smiled, leaning forward and brushing his full lips over hers.

Her hands cupped his face tenderly between them as she responded, parting his lips gently and increasing the intensity of the show of affection.

“So you didn’t tell Liam any of this huh?” he scanned her face hesitantly as they broke apart, her hands still resting on his shoulders.

“Aden” she sighed softly.

“No I didn’t and you really have to drop this whole jealously thing. If I wanted Liam well I would have had him by now!” she told him bluntly and he threw his head back and laughed at her honesty.

“But he’s sleeping in your bed still right?”

“Yes he is” she told him with a cheeky smile before adding on the extra bit of information he needed.

“And I’m sleeping in Irene’s”

“You could have just told me that to start with”

“And you could have trusted me to start with”

“We’re both as bad as each other aren’t we?” he laughed as she pulled his arm further around her and snuggled into his side.

“Yep” she grinned against his black t-shirt.

“And that’s why this just might work”

***

Nicole had felt like a fraud the entire way through the service. She had sat quietly playing with Angelica’s tiny fingers, rocked her close when she had got a little distressed and threatened to disrupt the entire mass and now, as Geoff approached the front of the church to talk to the minister and the rest of the congregation filed out of the church, she stared at the crucifix above the altar as though God

was judging her.

Balancing her daughter on one arm she used the other hand to tug at the hem of the longest skirt she owned. Even then it still seemed too short. She was beginning to think she should have let Geoff

come alone but, as her daughter gazed up into her eyes, she knew she couldn’t have spared a single minute with her.

Instead of watching Geoff and the minister converse she concentrated entirely on the beautiful baby girl snuggled close to her. She whispered sweet words into her tiny ear and breathed in her fresh

scent, relishing the weight of her daughter in her arms as her heart overflowed with love.

So absorbed was she in her beautiful little girl she failed to notice Geoff slide back into the pew next to her and it was only when he coughed a few minutes later that she looked up and saw him.

“Well?” she asked hesitantly. A ball of nervousness knotted itself in her stomach. She knew how important this was to him and by default that made it important to her.

“He said that we should do what we think is right. That God doesn’t judge people for making the wrong choices if they do it with the right intentions”

“Do you think this is the wrong choice Geoff?” she whispered not sure she wanted to hear his answer.

“All I know” he smiled softly reaching over to tenderly rub the soles of Angelica’s tiny feet.

“Is that I love her...and you...and we have to focus on what’s best for our baby girl”

“So, we’re really doing this then?”

“Yeah I think we are” he nodded pressing a kiss to Nicole’s temple before resting his head against hers and gazing down at the product of their love.

“I...I don’t know how I’m going to do it Geoff” she murmured tears suddenly streaming down her face.

“I know it was my idea and I think it’s the right thing, I really do. But when it comes to actually doing it...”

“I know” he nodded tears welling up in his own eyes, stinging at the very back.

“But I’ll be there with you” he promised, his hand covering hers as she turned her head to look at him.

“I love you too” she whispered certain for the very first time that when she said those words she truly meant them.

“Does that mean that you want to be together?” he asked her, his blue eyes hopeful.

“I don’t know” she shrugged.

“I feel like I don’t know anything anymore Geoff. I don’t know if we can ever work or if I want to try it again but I do love you and I need you to know that”

“I do know that” he smiled softly.

“And I’m glad that in the end we dealt with this all together and that we stopped fighting long enough to realise what was best for our daughter”

“Me too” he nodded tickling Angelica gently. She let out a tiny giggle and in response a heavy sob slipped over Nicole’s lips.

“Hey” he soothed wrapping his arms around her and their daughter.

“Just because it’s right doesn’t mean it’s easy” she sobbed against his chest.

“I know” he told her biting back his own tears, she needed him to be strong in that moment.

“It’s hard for me too Nic” he sighed before glancing at his watch.

“We need to go” he told her hesitantly.

“They’re expecting us in 15 minutes”

“What do you think they’ll be like?” she asked as she gazed at her baby girl and wondered if anyone else would ever be good enough.

“They’ll be ready” he told her softly knowing those were the words she wanted to hear.

“Another time, another place” she sighed regretfully.

“And maybe I would have been ready”

“I think you’re more ready then you’ll ever realise Nicole” he whispered tenderly.

“You’re doing what’s right for her. Exactly what a mother should do”

“I hope she understands that one day”

“I’m sure she will” he reassured her.

“Do you think she’ll come looking for us one day? Like Belle came to Summer Bay looking for Amanda?”

“I don’t know” he shrugged.

“But I’d like to think so and who knows maybe she’ll even find us together?”

Nicole leant forward and pressed her lips against his tenderly before smiling softly.

“Well stranger things have happened”

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:wub: :wub: perfect!!!!!!!!

firstly Adelle.. that talk was so so so good! and beautiful... just what they both needed, to be honest! and the bit about Aden finding her... *sigh* where can i get me one of those?

am soooooooooooooooooooooooo happy they're back together!!!!!!!!!! :D

secondly Nivole and Geoff.... am glad they've come to a decision they both agree with... i just hope they dont regret it!

Fantastic update x

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