A gay story: Against All Odds Ch. 16
Riley’s heart pounded as he raced through the hallway. Cassie’s words echoed through his mind, but he couldn’t focus on that now, not when he had so much to tell Noah. Bursting into Noah’s office, Riley stopped abruptly, panting and out of breath.
“Noah!” He blurted out, his voice urgent. “I need to tell you something, it’s important.”
Noah held up a finger then nodded to the open lap top on his desk.
“Yeah, David, I’m still here.” He spoke into the microphone attached to his headset. “It’s looking good. Run it through a couple simulations and then update me on the progress.”
Riley stood, waiting patiently as Noah finished with his video chat. He’d nearly forgotten in all his excitement that Noah was in a virtual meeting with his development team. Riley took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, eager to tell Noah all that he had learned.
Noah finally signed off then took his headset off and set it aside before standing. He walked around the desk to where Riley stood and looked him over, concern etched across his face.
“Riley, what’s wrong?” He asked, taking the omega’s hand in his and squeezing gently. “Is the baby alright?”
Riley nodded, finally able to catch his breath. “The baby’s fine.” He assured Noah. “We’re both fine but, I’ve learned something that, well, I just can’t believe it.”
“Just take a breath, calm down and tell me.” Noah said as he placed both hands on Riley’s shoulders in an attempt to settle him a bit more.
Riley nodded and did as Noah suggested. He took a deep breath and then willed his frazzled nerves to calm down. He could do this. He’d rehearsed it in his head, what he was going to say, how he was going to say it, even down to Noah’s reaction to the news. Things didn’t quite turn out as he’d imagined them though. For starters, he’d been panting so hard that he could barely get a clear word out.
Finally, after he’d calmed himself enough to string together a coherent sentence, he blew out a breath and spoke. “Noah, you might want to sit down for this.” Riley told him. “What I have to tell you is going to come as quite a shock. I know it’s going to sound a little crazy, but trust me, you need to hear this, and please, keep an opened mind…”
Noah sat down and Riley began by telling him about hiding El’s diary after his confrontation with Lilian. Noah wasn’t too pleased to learn that Riley had gone back to the third floor after he’d promised not to but he decided to save the scolding for after Riley was done. It seemed too important to him to get out whatever it was that he needed to tell Noah, so, Noah sat quietly, listening to him, taking in each word that he spoke and growing more concerned with each passing second.
Riley told him everything. From learning that Eric was his father to his theory that El was actually Noah’s biological mother. He explained how El’s entries were becoming more desperate and how she wanted nothing more than to escape from Reaney Hall with her child and make a life for them, free from Stephen and Lilian’s oppressive influence. Riley told Noah how he felt that El’s spirit had reached out to him specifically for help. This revelation opened an entirely new can of worms though.
Riley wholeheartedly believed that El was dead and that her spirit haunted Reaney Hall. What shocked Noah the most though was Riley’s insistence that Noah’s parents had something to do with El’s death. He didn’t come right out and accuse them of murder but he hinted at the possibility. This did not sit well with Noah. His mother was a lot of things but he couldn’t bring himself to even entertain the notion that she was a murderer, and Riley had never even met Stephen. All of his information was being fed to him from a diary written by a woman who, by all accounts, was mentally ill and under Stephen’s care at the time of her pregnancy.
Riley couldn’t accept this though, insisting that El was being held against her will and that Stephen and Lilian were using her and manipulating her just to get their hands on her unborn child, a child who Riley now apparently believed was Noah himself.
“What you’re saying makes no sense.” Noah finally said, “These claims against my parents, they’re ludicrous. They did nothing but try to help El. Riley, El wasn’t stable. She’d had a mental breakdown and that’s why she came here, for help. Anything you’ve read in that diary well, it’s just not true. She was delusional.”
“I just can’t accept that.” Riley sighed, shaking his head. “If you would just read what she wrote, if you could feel her desperation.”
“No, Riley. I’ve heard enough.” Noah stood and walked around to Riley, standing before him, looking down into his dark, brown and beautiful eyes. “I’m not going to read that diary and I don’t want you reading it anymore either. You’re becoming obsessed with it, Riley. You’re becoming obsessed with El and it’s not healthy. You need to stop. The only thing you should be focusing on right now is our child. You need to be healthy for the sake of our baby.”
“I am focused on our baby.” Riley argued. “But I can’t ignore what happened to El either. Noah, something isn’t right here, can’t you feel it? The way Lilian acts towards me, the way she so desperately wanted that diary. She’s hiding something, something that terrifies her. I can see it in her eyes when ever El or the diary is brought up. The more I read, the more questions I have and the only way that any of those questions are going to be answered is if I finish the diary.”
“Or, we can just ask.”
Riley narrowed his eyes. “Ask? Ask who?”
“The one person still living who was actually there. Someone with first hand knowledge about El and what happened to her, my mother.”
“You can’t be serious?” Riley took a step back. “Noah, there is no way that Lilian is going to tell us the truth about anything. I mean, come on, she hid the fact that she knew my parents. She probably has known who I am since the moment I arrived here and yet she’s said nothing. Why would she lie about that?”
Noah shrugged. “Maybe she never made the connection. I don’t really know. The only way we’re really ever going to find out is to ask her and I think she’ll be honest. I’m sure, if she did lie, she had a good reason for it. If nothing else, she should have the chance to explain herself before you go around accusing her of kidnapping and murdering her own sister-in-law.”
Riley sighed, feeling defeated. Noah had blinders on when it came to his mother. Unless she flat out admitted to what she had done to El, Noah would never see the truth. Riley reluctantly agreed to speak to Lilian though deep down, he knew it was a mistake. All Lilian was going to do was manipulate and twist the truth to her own benefit. She couldn’t offer him the truth that El’s diary held but still, he trusted Noah and if Noah thought confronting Lilian would bear some positive results then, he at least had to try. He was right in part. Lilian had to be given the chance to do the right thing and tell them the truth about El. Riley just didn’t have the faith in her that Noah did. Maybe she’d prove him wrong, though he seriously doubted it. Riley’s faith in Lilian Reaney was non-existent at this point.