Fanny practically pounced on us when we arrived late the next afternoon. "What the hell took you so long?" she demanded, tugging on Oliver's arm to try and disengage his hand from mine. "You promised to take me to Brighton tonight."
Oliver rolled his eyes and gently disengaged his arm from Fanny's grip. "A) you can't swim," he told her, "and b) Charlie and I got held up in traffic."
"So?" Fanny said dismissively, latching on to his arm again. "You and I can still hang about in ... what the hell is that?" she demanded, releasing her death grip on Oliver's arm and seizing his hand instead. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed in anger as she forcefully grabbed my hand - my left hand, to be precise. "What the fuck did you do?" she demanded, giving me a hate-filled glare.
"Got engaged," I said, smirking. "We stopped at a Tesco on the way home, saw one of those capsule machines, and decided to try our luck." I grinned as I showed off my rather cheap £2 ring. "It's not much, but it's better than those ring pops." Oliver had, surprisingly, agreed to wear one as well, even though guys didn't normally wear engagement rings; I hadn't asked him to, and I'd probably kissed him for a good long while after he'd put his £2 ring on. Hence our delay in getting back to Roden Vale.
Fanny's glare deepened. "You are not marrying him," she said, her voice low and cold. "I won't let you!"
"There's no laws against it," Oliver told her. "Besides, Charlie and I are legitimately in love, so getting married is the next logical step. We will have to wait a little while, but..."
"No," Fanny said angrily. Then she smirked. "I guess you didn't tell your fiance of your role while you were in St Albans, did you?"
"I did, and I said I wasn't going to do it," Oliver said firmly, crossing his arms. He may or may not have made his engagement ring a little more prominent, just to really drive the point home, and I honestly couldn't have loved him any more than I did right then. "I won't spy on Charlie's doings," he went on. "Even if I wasn't head over heels in love with her, I'd never stoop so low as to put her through even more abuse. It's not her fault she's her mother's daughter, and the sooner our stepdad gets the hell over himself, the happier we'll all be."
Fanny raised an eyebrow. "We'll see what Mum says about this," she said. Her smirk turned truly nasty. "I am willing to keep my mouth shut, if you do something for me in return."
"That's a bald faced lie, and you know it," I said. "Besides, Sally's in a bit of trouble herself, isn't she?"
"What do you mean?" Fanny said crossly.
Now it was my turn to smirk. "I"m just spitballing," I said, "but the day before I left, I noticed a used pregnancy test in the toilet. Now, call me crazy, but since you're only interested in my fiance, and aren't likely to sleep with anyone else while you believe you've got more than a snowball's chance in hell with him... How far along is she, Fanny? And who's is it?"
Fanny went sheet white. "You wouldn't dare," she said.
"I would, and I will," I said. "I've had all I can take of your behaviour, and if this is the only way to finally get even with you, your bitch mum, and my arsehole dad, then I'll gladly do it every day of the week, and twice on fucking Sundays!" My voice rose a little at the end, and Fanny went even whiter, her pupils dilating in shock. Even I was surprised at my anger, but I supposed more than a year of abuse was bound to make a person snap sooner or later.
Finally, though, Fanny relented. "You're a bitch," she snapped. "Fine. But I'm not going to tell you who the father is. And besides, vastectomies can sometimes fail, right?"
I rolled my eyes in disgust. "You're a bitch," I told her. "I can't wait for the day when I'm finally fucking quit of you and your bitch mum."
Fanny's eyes narrowed, but she did nothing more than spit contemptuously at my feet before turning and storming upstairs. Seconds later, the door slammed with enough fury to make the windows rattle. I sighed and buried my face in my hands, shaking as the adrenline faded, glad for Oliver's secure warmth as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly. "Is it true?"
"It was a wild guess," I said, my voice muffled as I buried my face in his chest. "But Fanny's reaction seems to be genuine."
Oliver kissed my hair. "Well, you know how the saying goes," he said. "They cheat with you, they'll eventually cheat on you."
I nodded. "Dad is going to hit the roof when he finds out," I said.
"Let him," Oliver said. He tightenened his grip. "Besides, it serves him right for all the hell he put you through. I do worry about our half-sister/brother, though."
"Maybe his reaction might strip the blinkers from Sally's eyes," I agreed.
But as we retreated upstairs for a snuggle in Oliver's bed, I feared things were about to go from bad to worse, not just for Sally and her unborn child, but also for Oliver and I. Fanny wouldn't let this latest altercation slide; despite my threat to expose Sally's infedility, Fanny would spill the beans on Oliver and I's relationship upgrade. And since Oliver had "failed" in his duty to report on my doings, there was going to be even further hell to pay.
But I shoved my worries to the side; for the moment, I had Oliver in my arms, right where he belonged, and as we lay there in a tight embrace, I prayed I might be able to keep him there for as long as was permitted, before our newfound happiness was snatched away from us.
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