A month without Daddy-dearest and poor Chuck is still off the rails, not even his long-lost Mummy could set him straight. Just when Mama Bass leaves town; we hear Chuck has one of his lackey's looking into her sordid past.

Hold on just one minute... is that a skeleton in the closet I hear?

Dare I say it... but could there be another Bass-tard out there?

Stay tuned gossip-mongers. This is where my job gets easy.

X-O-X-O

Gossip Girl

1: My Life Changed

Abigail set her guitar down and wiped the sweat of her brow. She shouldn't get so into the last track; it always got her sweaty for the rest of her shift. It was a trade off, her playing up on stage while she waited the tables at Earl's Bar & Grill.

"Abby!" Earl called to her from behind the bar, slinging a checked dishtowel over his shoulder as he wiped clean the wine glasses fresh from the dishwasher. It had been a slow night; as always, which often meant Earl could get a hell of a lot of cleaning done. If nothing else, the bar was always up to code with Health and Safety regulations.

"Yeah?" Abby replied as she approached her boss, pulling her tangled mess of dirty blonde curls into a scrunchie.

"There's a man here to see you." Earl nodded to the end of the bar.

Abby gave this strange man the once-over. She wasn't used to seeing people like him. He was tall, handsome, and wore a suit that looked like it cost a fortune. He had a brown leather briefcase and was carrying a trench coat slouched over one arm. He looked like a high priced city lawyer; not something normally seen in Abby's hometown of Memphis, unless someone had died or something.

"Abigail Clark?" Abby nodded. "Gregory Price." The man extended his hand to Abby. "Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

Abby shook his hand but didn't answer; Earl managed to do that for her. "Take my office." He said with a cheery grin.

"Sure, okay," Abby directed Gregory to the room behind the bar. "This way..." Confused as she led the way, she wondered why the heck this guy was visiting her. Everyone she knew was already dead or in good health; and no one was rich enough to have a lawyer or someone like this represent them anyway.

"I take it you were not expecting my visit." Gregory said as he sat in the chair across from Earl's desk.

Abby took Earl's comfy desk chair for herself. "Nope." She shrugged. "Never seen you before in my life... no one died, did they?" She chuckled, but stopped short when Gregory didn't ease her concern by smiling and telling her she was wrong. "Oh my God; who?"

"Miss Clark; do you happen to know a man by the name of Bart Bass?"

Abby frowned; she'd never heard the name before and told Gregory as much. "Who is he?"

"According to his will," Gregory set his briefcase on the table and opened it up, removing a thin, cream, sealed envelope from inside. "He's your father."

Abby just stared at Gregory; eyes open and her eyebrows so high she thought they might have met her hairline. She'd never met her father, and only barely knew her mother. Her birth mother, that is. She had been adopted, she'd always known, and it had never really bothered her. On the few occasions she'd spoken to her birth mother, Evelyn, she had never spoken of her birth father, just that after many mistakes she had had to leave him. Abby was so content with her adoptive family, she didn't really mind. Her life was good; she didn't really care about her past.

That was, until now.

"My father?" Abby repeated after a long silence. "My birth father?"

"Yes," Gregory said gravely. "He was killed in a car accident a month ago. I do apologize for the delay; but finding you proved very difficult, there was only one mention of you in his will and no one in the Bass family had known where you were – or even who you are."

"Huh..." Abby glanced down at the envelope in front of her. "What is this?" She asked, flipping it over.

"I don't know. It was sealed." Gregory explained. "Mr. Bass made a note that you were to receive it if he was to pass away."

Abby opened up the envelope and poured out the contents. On top of the stack of papers that slid out was her birth certificate; she'd never seen it before. Not her real one; just the one with her adoptive parents' names on it. Smiling; she looked down at her birth parents names, it was nice to have a memento of them. Then her eyes travelled down to her own name, Abigail Elizabeth Bass. There was another piece of paper stapled behind it, and turning it over Abby realized it was another birth certificate. At first she thought it was just a copy; but her eyes drifted to the GENDER section and saw that it most definitely said MALE. And in the name, Charles Bartholomew Bass.

"I... have a brother?" She realized; her voice croaking.

"Yes." Gregory smiled, but a tense, forced smile that only a lawyer could give. "He is the one who sent me to find you."

Abby was still pouring over the birth certificates. Something didn't added up; all the information was the same; except for the time of birth, Abby was born at 9:30 AM, and Charles at 9:23 AM. "The info here... is all the same... how can that..." Her brain clicked into gear like it had been given an electric shock. "He's my twin brother?" She stared, open-mouthed at Gregory.

"Fraternal twin, obviously." Gregory replied. "But yes."

"But... why..." A million questions were running through her head. She had a brother? A twin brother? Why had they been separated? Why hadn't her birth mother told her about it? Or her adoptive parents, for that matter, did they know?

"I'm sure you have a million questions to ask," Gregory said as he packed up his briefcase, pulling en envelope from inside his silk-lined jacket. "Your flight leaves tomorrow evening at six PM."

Abby jumped to her feet. "Whoa!" She said loudly as if settling down a horse. "Flight? And just where the hell do you think I'm going?"

"Your brother asked that you be flown to Manhattan as soon as possible."

"Manhattan?" Abby repeated, eyes bulging. She'd never been out of Memphis, at least not by plane. "As in, New York?"

"Yes," Gregory was obviously in a rush to leave. "I do apologize but I have the Red Eye to catch to Hong Kong on other matters. Chuck assures me there will be a car to pick you up at the airport."

"Chuck?"

"Charles. Your brother." Gregory checked his watch. "I must be off; thank you for your time." And in a whip of his trench coat he was gone, leaving Abby standing there with her birth certificate in one hand, and her twin brothers in the other.

Earl came into his office just after Gregory left. "Abby? What was that all about?" He could tell that she looked concerned. "What's happened?"

"Earl," She said through a scratchy voice. "I'm gonna have to cancel my shift for tomorrow night."

xxx