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Chapter 702  I Need Me

As expected, Lucy's name was mentioned in most of the commentsl sections. Some speculated that she was the reason Tom had not married Kimberly the whole time and she was causing problems between the couple hence the family had decided to step in.

Others said they knew it would never work out between her and Tom since he was way out of her league and Kimberly was more suited to him than she was.

Some others talked about how Thomas Hank who was had always kept a low profile had become so exposed to the public because he got involved with the likes of Lucy who was beneath him, and if he had stuck with Kimberly all the way he would have been able to maintain his low profile.

Sonia looked up from her phone to Lucy when a fat tear drop fell on her hand and she realized that Lucy was crying.

Lucy shook her head as she rose, "I'm sorry, Sony, but I really think I should leave. I don't want to deal with all this mess," Lucy said as she rose from her seat.

"This is a mess you're going to have to deal with as Tom's girlfriend. Following this news all eyes is going to be on you. You are the confirmation they're all going to need. If you take a step away from Tom, everyone is going to assume it is because it is true. No one is going to care that something else happened behind closed doors. Besides, you are not like the ignorant fools who wrote this article or the idiots commenting on what they know nothing about. You know the truth. You know better…"

"Yes! I know the truth and that is why I want to leave. I want a break because I know better. If I had thought only about myself and had been selfish from the start to leave when this whole Kimberly and Tom thing started out as a prank, I wouldn't have thought about stepping in to cause so much trouble within the family and Tom wouldn't be blaming me either for trying to stir things up…."

Sonia shook her head as she cut in, "No, Lu. All of this is unrelated…."

"Is it? Because I don't think so. It is all Tom drama. Tell me what I'm expected to do right now? Sit around here and do what while I'm being talked about this way by people who know nothing about me? I told you already that I'm not getting involved in Tom's business anymore. I see no reason why I should be here when we are mad at each other," Lucy said and Sonia sighed as she rose and placed both hands on Lucy's arm.

"Tom needs you…"

"I need me! I need myself too, Sony! I'm not happy about any of this. I'm not going to lie to you or pretend otherwise. I'm not happy. As much as I love Tom, there is just too much drama surrounding him, and his attitude right now isn't helping matters. And before you think about reminding me that I had my drama with the scandal and Tom stood by me, I'd like to remind you that I would never have had that scandal in the first place had I not been involved in a relationship with him. Anita would never have picked on me to do what she did. All of that happened because of my relationship with Tom. We've barely been together for two months yet the drama is more than what most people experience in a lifetime of relationship. I have been doing my best, Sony. Heaven knows that I have been trying. And you can attest to the fact that I've been working on myself too. I've come a long way from who I was when I moved to Ludus, and some times I can't even recognize myself. Everyone is always quick to want to point out how good Tom is to me and how he is trying, but you all seem to forget that he chose all of this! I didn't! I didn't want any of this until he showed up and forced himself into my life. Call me selfish, but I was minding my business on my own when he came into my life with all of this drama, and now I'm being made to feel like I'm the bad person who wants to ruin him and tear his family apart. I'm emotionally drained and exhausted! I'm going to step back and let them handle everything their Hank way. I don't think I can keep doing this. Who knows what other drama is going to come up after this or how I'm going to be dragged into it?" Lucy ranted as tears ran down her cheeks, while Sonia teared up.

Jade, who had been searching for Sonia and Lucy because she had gone to the bedrooms to find them so she could leave Dawn with them for a moment but had not seen them, stood away from the balcony with the kid as she listened to Lucy's rant.

"Do you really think leaving now would make you feel better? Will leaving change the public's opinion about you. Do you think you will worry less about Tom and all of this business even after you leave? If you think it will make you feel better, then feel free to leave. But we both know you love him too much for that. And yes, I agree that you've come a long way from the person you were months ago, but you still have a long way to go. We all do actually. Tom is your man, Lucy, and you might both be mad now, but you won't always be mad. Couples have misunderstandings all the time but what matters is how you deal with each other in such times and how you choose to fix it. Talk things through with him again when you're both calm and resolve it. Don't pack up and leave in the middle of a misunderstanding. That's never the best thing to do, unless of course physical violence is involved, which I know that's not the case. I will advise you both should be mad together under the same roof than for you to leave," Sonia said as she brushed off Lucy's tears and embraced her.

Jade sighed as she looked down at the kid who was yet to say a word to her but seemed like she was also listening to what Sonia and Lucy were saying.

"Seems like we are stuck together. Everyone else is busy," Jade told Dawn as she led her to her bedroom instead. She had hoped to leave the kid with Sonia and Lucy so she could go back to follow up the conversation with the rest of her family, but that was obviously not going to happen now.

Downstairs, the Hanks looked at Kimberly as they waited patiently for her to compose herself and tell them what her parents had said.

Evelyn walked over to the dining and picked up the box of tissues there which she handed to Kimberly to blow her nose.

"He doesn't want me to bring Dawn back home with me," Kimberly explained after blowing out her nose.

"Well, that's an expected initial reaction. Any parent would be angry and disappointed," Desmond said but Kimberly shook her head.

"I know my father. He means it. How can he ask me to choose between them and my daughter?" She asked tearfully.

"You messed up, and naturally your parents will need time to come around," Desmond said sympathetically but neither Tom nor Bryan were feeling the least sympathetic towards her.

"For the time being we have to send your parents the paternity DNA result which Tom conducted in order to clear any doubts they might still be having of Tom being your daughter's father. That way we can ask them to make sure to take down everything they've put out there," Evelyn said and Kimberly nodded as she passed her phone to Evelyn so that they could copy out her father's details.

Tom walked over to them and once he took her father's phone number, he forwarded the link of the DNA result to her father so that he could access it the same way he had accessed it.

After Tom had done that, Desmond waited a couple of minutes before dialing the number on his phone and he excused himself and walked away them to go into his study, but Evelyn and Tom followed him.

The call connected on the fifth ring, "Hello! This is Desmond Hank," Desmond introduced himself politely as he placed the phone on speaker for Evelyn's benefit.

"I believe you received the text from my son, and my call shouldn't come as a surprise to you considering the false information you put out there about my son," Desmond said when Kimberly's father said nothing after he introduced himself.

"You have some nerve calling me to say that considering how your father and son used my daughter…"

"I beg your pardon?" Desmond asked in disbelief.

"You heard me right. How shameless can your family be? Your father violated a girl young enough to be his granddaughter and your son used her as well when she was in a vulnerable state. Unless you are calling to take responsibility for this mess your family has put mine into, I don't want to have any business to do with your family. And for all our sakes I suggest you keep the little girl and release my daughter back to me," Kimberly's father said bitterly before hanging up.

"What does he mean take responsibility for the mess? Why do we have to do anything about this nonsense when it's all his daughter's fault?" Evelyn who had listened to the conversation asked irritably while Desmond looked at his phone in disbelief.

"This is all grandfather's fault! If he had not decided to play such a prank in the first place I wouldn't have had to be drawn into all of this mess," Tom said in annoyance even though he had not heard the whole of the discussion because he hadn't been standing very close to his parents.

"You wouldn't have been dragged into this mess if you zipped up your pants and didn't have anything to do with her in the first place," Desmond said with disapproval.

He really wished his father was alive and here so he could give him a piece of his mind for all of this.

"No, please. Let's not do this. Now is not the time to pass blames. We need to fix this quickly," Evelyn said with a concerned frown.

"How can it be fixed when her father so obviously thinks we are to blame here? Getting all the blogs and news sites to take down the false information is going to be next to impossible because of the influence of the Moore family. The way I see it, I only have two options. It's either I sue them for this or I just ignore it, and I can't just ignore it. My reputation is at stake here, and there is Lucy as well," Tom said, feeling even more upset at the thought of Lucy seeing the news.

It was bad enough that they were upset at each other already. This was going to make things worse. He knew how much she hated drama.

"We should leave it to Kimberly to handle it now that her father is aware you are not the kid's father," Desmond said and Evelyn sighed.

"What about the kid? You heard what her father said," Evelyn reminded Desmond and he sighed while Tom walked out of the study back to face Kimberly.

"I hope you are happy that you're messing up things for everyone. This is all your fault! I still can't believe that you had the guts to even request that I pretend to be your baby's father!" Tom said angrily, not minding that Kimberly was still weeping.

"Tom, you need to calm down," Bryan said with a sigh since he was the only one who had remained in the living room with Kimberly.

"Would you be calm if you were in my shoes? How can I stay calm when my name is all over the internet this way?" Tom asked, facing Bryan angrily.

"I'm sorry. I never knew things would get to this," Kimberly cried.

"I think you should go home to your parents and resolve things with them. You created this mess by not being honest with them from the beginning and only you can fix it," Desmond said as he joined them in the living room again.

"What do I do about Dawn? I have no where to take her. My parents won't see me if I take her with me. I know them well enough to know they won't let me anywhere close to them with Dawn," Kimberly said tearfully and Evelyn looked at Desmond.

"You can leave her here with us for the time being and go back home to your parents. I'm pretty sure your parents would come around soon enough and would ask you to bring her back. She is their granddaughter after all and they're bound to miss her," Evelyn said, and Tom raised a brow as he turned his disbelieving gaze to both his parents.

"Is that what you both agreed on? Do you realize that leaving the kid here and doing nothing about the rumors would make everyone believe she is truly my daughter and that the rumors are true! How is this any different from me claiming to be the father?" Tom asked incredulously.

"This is different. We have to handle things delicately. No one has to know the kid is here with us. She is your grandfather's daughter and we all agreed to take responsibility for her, remember? I will take care of her and after Kimberly resolves things with her parents, we can all decide on whether or not to make an official statement about the child's paternity," Evelyn said reasonably.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean by decide whether or not to make an official statement? This is my reputation we are talking about and I won't be a part of whatever this is. I won't sit around here doing nothing and wait for you all to make such a decision. Since her parents started this madness and do not want to take down the news, I'm going to issue an official statement to refute the rumors and release the DNA result to prove that she is not my child, but grandfather's child. Let's all deal with that scandal together after I clear my name. You can do whatever damage control you want to after that, but it wont be at my expense or that of my relationship," Tom said before walking away to give Harry a call.