Chapter 89: Chapter 89

"Hello, brothers."

Her voice seems to trigger something in the young men seated around the table as they all stared at their long-gone sister who had left without a reason, maybe they could finally get some answers after four years without having a disastrous dinner.

Taylor can not help but marvel at the fine young men the three Js has grown to be in the last couple of years, although feeling a little sad she didn't get to be a complete part of that. Her three brothers didn't have the identical signature look they use to have as teenagers, and she doesn't feel like she is staring at the same thing in three different places anymore. Jake hair is now long and leaving on its natural colour which is now blonde, and Josh seems to be keeping an extremely low cut on his black hair and Jack's hair is now the side-blown styled and he's also keeping a pencil beard which Taylor had to admit made him look beautiful.

"What are you doing here?" demands Jack with a stern voice and gritted teeth and everyone turns to him.

"That's not a good way to welcome your sister who has been gone for so long now is it?"

"I asked the question first." he glared at her, before turning to Mycole, "this was the reason for the dinner right? We are not fools neither are we stupid, I knew there was nothing good from the dumb dinner anyway."

"Mind your language, Jack!" she orders, making her angry brother turn to her. "Can you give us a few minutes, Mycole?" he wordlessly nod and taking Abby by the hand, he leads her out of the dining.

"Don't you dare try to tell me what to do, Taylor!"

"If there's anyone to blame for these past four years, then that'll be me."

"Spare me the patriotic talk, Taylor, do you really think you would return after four years, give a petty little talk, putting the blame on yourself and all will be well? Do we look stupid?!" he raises his voice, slamming his hand on the table making the rest jerk a little.

She takes a step closer to the table, and this seems to provoke Jack even more. "I never did. I can explain everything if you would...."

Jack cuts her off pointing to her, "You have no explanation to make up for abandoning us, so spare us the lectures."

"Josh, Jake." she turns to her other brothers who have been silent, watching the outpour at Taylor, "I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. I regret what I did and no day passed by that I didn't think of you or try to be there the best way I could."

Josh brow raises as he stares at his sisters was he talking about them or someone else? He still chooses to speak calmly. "You were never there for us, Taylor, the time we needed you the most was after mom dies, and you just left, and we thought you just needed time to get yourself together, but you never returned, never bothered to look back, you made us feel like a sudden burden you had to leave behind."

"Brothers!" again she gets cut off.

Jake speak up with a calm, but gravely sore tone. "You are not allowed to call us that, you lost that privilege when you decided to bail when we needed you!" he folds his arms around himself, and stares at her like an alien. "We thought we knew you, but unfortunately we didn't. We were just not some of your many friends you could just leave behind, we were your brothers, your blood, your family, did you even think of that?" Tears threaten to spill down Jake eyes, but he blinks them back and just clenches his teeth for control.

"So much for being a big sister." hisses Jack irritably, shaking his head in disappointment. His eyes look down at the delicious meal he had been enjoying before Taylor's arrival and how it now doesn't look as pleasing as before.

"I'm sorry, guys, I know apologizing isn't going to change much-"

"It isn't going to change anything." Jack corrects immediately.

"I know." she agrees painfully, her head lowering. She didn't know any other way to reach to her brothers and explain to them her reason for leaving, she knew it wasn't going to justify her actions, but at least they would know the truth about everything.

"I'm still gonna keep trying though, because, no matter what has happened, you guys are still my brothers and I am always going to be your imperfect sisters. Everything I have done, I have done bearing every single one of you in mind. Jake, Josh there was not a day that passes that I didn't try to assistant you, Josh, I made sure you weren't left out for not making quick payment for the first years exams, so I paid up and made it seem like Mr Braun did because if you knew it was I, you would have started asking questions I wasn't ready to answer."

"Jake, I knew you had financial crises at Stanford and couldn't pay up your rent and would rather get kicked out than tell Jack you were being evicted, so I asked Keenan, to help me out, and so you got the job as an assistant manager with an advance pay even when you weren't qualified for that position."

That was just a little of the many ways she'd helped her brothers out even without their knowledge. She didn't let them know this for pride, she just needed them to know she'd done her best for them even when she was not present with them.

"So what? For the one wrong you did, you did a thousand right bravo." Jack mocks, rolling his eyes.

"Jack, I'm sorry I left you."

"I don't need your apology, I'm not handicapped." he hisses stubbornly.

"What do you want me to say!" exclaims Taylor in frustration.

"You can start by giving us the reason you left."

She stares at her brothers eagerly waiting for her answer. She knows the reason she left, she just isn't sure she wants them to know that just yet. There are so many inconveniences that would arise from this truth and she needs to avoid them at any cost.

"I just needed time brothers."

Jack folds his arms across his chest and gives her a one-sided glance, "I know you know that we don't buy that right?"

She sighs deeply, clearly, Jack had gotten smarter over the past years and he certainly isn't going to just pass her lame excuse and so are his other brothers.

"Brother, I think you guys are misunderstanding my point." she begins to say although she knows they aren't. "Mom left me a whole lot of responsibility and I chicken out, I couldn't do it."

Grunting angrily Jack gets up and stands between them, tapping his brother's shoulder before leaning down and saying.

"I'm not staying here another minute to listen to this garbage, I'm afraid I might just decide to stab myself in the face with a fork and that won't be so pretty now would it?"

"Where are going?" she asks in panic, she can also sense he does not believe what she just said.

"After having such a wonderful meal, the last thing I want to be fed is lies!" He snaps angrily and making Taylor almost lose her cool. "You know you should thank God you are a woman, 'cause if you were a man I would have hit you hard for treating us like fools."

"Don't leave."

"Are you going to tell us the real reason you left?"

She stares at her brother's faces and they all expected the truth and she wonders if she'll be able to give them that. "I... I.-"

"Forget it, Taylor, I'm out of here." he walks out of the dining, but halt when Taylor answers.

"I left because I was pregnant." She says desperately, knowing this might be the last time she'd get them together if she keeps giving the wrong reasons.

"What?!" The three men in the room exclaim disbelievingly, their eyes almost popping out and their mouths nearly hitting the floor.

The room goes dead for a whole minute as the men regain themselves

"You had a baby?"

"You can do better than that, Taylor."

"I'm not lying, Jackson Snowfall, I left because I found out I was pregnant."

"It was Rory's," Jake says, with no trace of doubt in his voice or eyes as he stares at him.

Taylor nods, wordlessly answering his not so much of a question, "And after everything that had happened then, Rory would have never believed you." Josh adds after a brief thought and Taylor nods again.

"Why didn't you tell us," Jack asks, lowering his head on his hands that rest the table.

"Because I knew telling one would have been telling all, and if you," she says, pointing to Jack as she further explains, "knew, then Phoebe would know and even if she knew, Rory would find out and so would his mother and we all know what she's capable of."

None of them was a stranger to Melinda Gates, after their mother's burial, Melinda had approached her, telling her of her how her son was moving on and going to have a happy life with his to Paris Rory's be wife then. She told her the last thing she wanted was to 'let a parasite get in the way of that.' According to her, removing another nuisance to the society and from the Gate's way.

"I knew Reign would never be safe here unless I left, and I needed to."

"Mycole knew you were pregnant didn't he?"

"Jack-" she walks towards him to hold him, but he holds up his finger to suspend her from coming any closer to him.

"He knew didn't he?" he asks again and she nods, blinking back the tears that want to fall down her eyes.

"Yes! He saw it himself, I didn't have to tell him anything. He promises to keep you safe guys safe and that included leaving you in the dark for your own good."

Jack doesn't say anything for a while as he takes a seat close to where he's standing and when he does, he asks. "What was it?"

"A girl," she replies, a gladdening smile spreading across her face. "It a girl." Reign had been her source of joy in the past and still is.

"What her name?" Josh ask and Taylor looks at him.

"Reign."

"Nice name," Jake says from across the table with a smile, Taylor knows she couldn't have gotten a better name for the baby than the one Mycole gave.

"Brothers I decided to come back now because I know we can fight back and get back at them every one of them and I want you, my brothers to join me and make them realise they were wrong to ever treat us like we didn't matter," she announces, her hand gesturing towards her brothers. "You can stand with me or you can choose not to, but I'm gonna make them pay one way or another."

..........

"Thanks, Mycole for everything." Taylor tells him earnestly as he walks her out of the house, "and by the way I must Abby is a real beauty." she admits and from the corner of her eyes she can see him smiling widely.

"Yes, she is." He agrees with a nod, "Come here." He opens his hands and Taylor immediately goes into his strong arms and they wrap around her small form and for once she doesn't feel any difference in the years she'd lost.

"What do you intend to do now, Taylor?" he asks, as she pulls away to keep walking towards her car.

"Mycole, I.." she wants to say something but she doesn't know how he'd take it.

"Taylor." he begins to say, taking her hand into his and she stares at him realising he already knows and will probably try to talk her out of her plans.

"Mycole, I'm not going to do anything wrong." She assures him with sincerity.

He nods and kisses her hand, "Good night, Taylor, whatever you do, do not lose your soul in it, friend," he pats her hand before letting it go. He walks a little away from her towards his house then turns around to say. "I thought to tell you, 'cause you don't seem to know this, but Paris died a year ago."

She speechlessly stares at him as he walks back into the house unable to find any word to say, he was right, she didn't know that and she wonders what might have triggered her death as he walks into her car.

She now needs to find it out before tomorrow morning.