Old Love

I sit down next to Brandon trying to remember why I didn’t tell him the truth in the first place. Maybe I just wanted to forget about my life, my family, and the child I lost. I grab his hand and put my head down trying to find the strength to go on. I may have just met him, but there is something between us – there has to be. I can’t go on if everything that has happened between us is a lie. There have been enough secrets the past few weeks to wreck anyone. I’m tired of the lies; I’m tired of keeping my secret from him from my family from everyone. Why is it the only person I could trust was Ali? Will she pay for keeping my secret? Will Luke ever forgive her for not letting him know about my health scare? I grab Brandon’s hand hoping just a touch will give me the strength to lay it all out for him.

“Hi there,” Brandon whispered opening his eyes.

“Hi,” Paige replied reaching up to kiss him lightly on the lips. “You don’t know how grateful I am that you are okay.”

“Yeah, me too, I’m not even sure what happened.”

“What do you remember?”

“I remember some guy waving a knife at me and telling me you belonged to him on the boat. Next thing I remember is the pain and another guy talking to me telling me to hang on. He kept saying you would never forgive him if I didn’t make it,” Brandon explained trying to sit up.

“Don’t move okay, it’s fine, everything is fine. Tony is died and Josh was right I would never have forgiven him if something worse had happened.”

“Was Tony some jealous ex-boyfriend or something? And what about the guy that saved me, Josh, you say?”

“Tony was more than my ex - he was a psychopath,” Paige hesitated then continued with the hard truth, “and the father of my baby.”

Brandon shot a look at Paige that tore into her soul. He didn’t know what to do or what to think. They didn’t talk about their pasts when they were together that night. Neither of them needed to talk, they just let their bodies melt together in harmony.

“Tony didn’t know, it happened so quickly, within forty-eight hours of finding out I was pregnant I lost the baby. At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I found out, then I realized I wanted to raise him,” Paige explained standing up and walking around the hospital room. “I could never give up my child to be raised by someone else no matter how deserving they were. My family may not have all the money in the world, but we have each other.”

“I’m sorry,” Brandon sighed reaching out for her hand. He wanted to ease her pain even though he had been the one in the hospital bed.

“I don’t want your pity. I just want answers,” Paige demanded standing at the foot of the bed. She couldn’t get any closer to him knowing that the spark between them could ignite any minute.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. It was your ex that tried to kill me,” Brandon announced confused at what Paige was getting at.

“Why are you here, Brandon? What about April? And the child the two of you share,” Paige asked finally getting the courage of finding out the truth. “Am I some ploy to get back at her? Never mind, none of it matters anymore.”

Before Brandon could answer she left the hospital room in a flash. She may have had the courage to ask the questions, but hearing the truth was another matter.

Jack was nervous for the first time in years. He had met a beautiful woman who seemed interesting and taken with his large family. Now as he wiped table thirteen and looked at the clock for the fifth time in ten minutes he wondered what he was doing meeting someone here for coffee.

“Dad, do you have somewhere to be,” Ariel asked her father as he passed by her to head into the kitchen.

“No, why do you ask,” he answered tossing the dirty rag into the small hamper that sat near the kitchen door.

“You keep looking at the clock. Oh my -,” Ariel replied suddenly realizing what was going on. “You have a date!”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jack responded dashing into the kitchen to avoid his daughter.

Ariel jumped off the bar stool following him into the kitchen. She hadn’t noticed it until now but he was clean shaven, he wasn’t wearing his normal flannel shirt over a t-shirt. And as she stepped closer to the man she could smell the hint of aftershave.

“You do too. I can’t believe it, way to go, dad,” Ariel said hugging her father. “It’s been what eight years since your last date. Well it would make sense though because of your history.”

“Ariel, it’s not what it looks like.”

“Dad, it’s been a few years for you. I know you love us and everything but if you want to have a perfect first date you don’t bring the woman here.”

“It’s not a date, it’s just a cup of coffee,” Jack commented before heading back into the dining hall.

Ariel followed him once again as he straightened up the ketchup bottle on one table and pushed the chairs in at another table. Her father was nervous that was for sure. She watched as he stopped and looked up at the dark-haired woman walk into Junipers. Jack made a bee-line for the door and Ariel watched the woman and her father talk a bit before he guided the woman to a table near the window. Her father pulled a chair out for the woman and then he began walking towards the kitchen.

“Stop right there, dad, I’ll take care of it, go back and sit down,” Ariel said pushing him back towards the table. “I believe there are some other waitresses that can help if we pick up.”

Jack realized it was too slow at the moment, yet slow enough for him to take some time with Sarah. He took a seat across from Sarah and out of the corner of his eye he watched his daughter bring the coffee pot towards them.

“Hi, welcome to Juniper’s,” Ariel said to the beautiful woman with the darkest brown eyes she had ever seen. “My name is Ariel; our special today is shepherds pie with banana cream pie for dessert.”

Ariel turned her father’s cup over and poured him a cup of coffee and turned the woman’s cup over.

“Decaf or regular,” Ariel wondered before pouring the woman a cup.

“Regular, thank you,” Sarah replied.

“Would you like anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Sarah replied before taking a sip of the steaming hot soothing coffee. “I can’t stay as long as I hoped, Jack, there is an emergency board meeting in an hour I have to get ready for.”

“What is it that you do by the way,” Jack wondered hoping that the woman wasn’t working for one of the two biggest corporations in Saunders Bay – Donnelly Corp. and Reed Inc.

“I just started working for the Donnelly Corporation as vice president of public affairs last week. Before then I was working in Denver as a public affairs executive at an environmental company,” Sarah explained drinking her coffee. “I didn’t know who you were, Jack, not until I read the file this morning.”

“I’m sure,” Jack lied as his heart fell at the prospect of finally opening up to someone only to find out they worked for the enemy.

“I’m telling the truth, Jack. I spent my entire life in Denver, six months ago I would never think of leaving Colorado, but I had to. When Benjamin Donnelly offered me the job here I had to take it. It was the first offer I had in six weeks, I had no other option.”

“Why did you have to leave Denver? What happened that was so horrible,” Jack asked leaning closer to her.

“I can’t talk about it, not right now that is. Please, Jack, believe me, when I say I didn’t know. Yesterday meeting you was the highlight of my day and that’s why I agreed to meet you, don’t let my job change that,” Sarah pleaded hoping Jack would accept her offer. She was being as honest as she could with the man and she hoped he would believe her. She really didn’t have a reason to lie to him. “I could have just lied to you and told you I worked somewhere else, but I didn’t.”

The bell above the restaurant door dinged making it known that another customer had arrived. Jack looked away from Sarah for a moment looking up at the person standing in the doorway of the restaurant. He was shocked for the second time in one day as his ex-wife stood there.

“Hi, Jack,” Penelope said waving to her ex who was sitting with a woman she didn’t recognize.

Sarah turned her head towards where Jack was staring and realized that the blond woman at the door knew Jack very well. He couldn’t say anything or move for that matter on how stunning his ex still was after all of these years. Penelope walked towards the table where Jack and Sarah sat, hoping to talk to Jack privately.

“Hi, I’m Penelope Carson, Jack’s ex-wife,” Penelope announced. “And you are.”

“Sarah Preston, a friend of Jack’s,” Sarah commented standing up and shaking Penelope’s hand. Sarah took out her purse throwing a couple of dollars on the table, “Jack, I’ll be seeing you.”

“You don’t have to leave on my account,” Penelope lied yet still trying to be some what courteous.

“I have to get back to the office,” Sarah replied as she grabbed her purse and disappeared from the restaurant.

“We have to talk,” Penelope stated seconds later sitting down in Sarah’s place.

Ariel walked through the kitchen shocked at what she was seeing. Her father’s date was no where in sight and in her place was her mother. She couldn’t remember the last time her parents were in a room together, it had to be well over twenty years ago.

Charlotte pulled into the circled driveway with the rows of roses, tulips, and daffodils surrounding the area. She couldn’t believe she was doing this especially after last night. She didn’t get home until four in the morning after spending hours at Davy’s Diner sharing apple pie and pancakes and talking about their complicated families. It was a nice change to the first time together, yet it was still as magical.

“Mommy,” Ella squealed realizing where she was going. “Daddy!”

“Yes, baby girl, you are going to see daddy,” Charlotte replied looking in the review mirror and seeing her bouncing strawberry blond bundle of joy tighten her grip on her teddy bear.

Tyler had called at eight in the morning waking Charlotte up asking if he could spend the day with Ella. Charlotte couldn’t deny Tyler his only daughter no matter what they were going through.

She put her 1995 light blue Chevy Lumina in park and turned off the engine. Her car, the same one she had since she graduated high school was an old rust bucket compared to the Donnelly’s several shiny sports cars and imported vehicles. Charlotte should have known her relationship with Tyler wouldn’t work out when he never wanted to be seen in her car.

“Daddy,” Ella yelled as she knocked on the back window seeing her father standing on the steps between the two large white pillars in front of the house.

“Yes, your daddy,” Charlotte mumbled getting out of the car.

“Do you have any idea what time it is,” Tyler shouted coming up to the old rusty bucket. “I called you at eight, it’s now one. How can I spend all day with her now?”

“I thought maybe she could spend the night with you,” she said unbuckling her daughter from her blue Graco car seat. “I packed her favorite princess pajamas and some clothes for tomorrow.”

“You want her to stay here.”

“No, of course not, what was I thinking,” Charlotte retorted handing the two bags to Tyler.

“I’ll see if Frances can look after her for a bit then.”

“Did you have plans tonight or something?”

“I have a meeting later and then I have to get fitted for my tux for Caroline’s wedding,” Tyler said leading the way into his house with Charlotte carrying Ella.

“Oh yeah, Caroline set up a time for me to go to the boutique and try on some dresses,” she replied sitting Ella down in the formal living room. “Sweetie, go find Miss Frances.”

Ella walked carefully through the living room not bumping into any furniture or fragile pieces of art that sprawled across the Donnelly mansion towards the back of the house to the kitchen.

“You are still taking part in the wedding,” Tyler questioned sitting down on the white leather sofa putting his arms across the back of the couch as he leaned back.

“Yes, I am. It’s not your wedding, it’s your sisters, and she asked me to be part of it meaning that we are friends.”

“You are not friends with my sister, you are nothing to her. You never were, I was crazy thinking you could fit in here,” Tyler explained.

“No, I was crazy thinking you could change.”

“I know you are, Charlotte, don’t play coy with me. First, you got me into bed then when it didn’t work out you jump into bed with my brother.”

Charlotte jumped back at the accusation not realizing that he had known about Gregory.

“The look on your face says it all,” Tyler stated with an evil grin across his face. “You think I’m stupid or something, naïve, not as ruthless as my father? Well, you’re wrong, I’m going to prove in a court of law that you are an unfit mother and that your family and that little restaurant you run are all worthless.”

“You bastard,” Charlotte yelped grabbing the closest vase and getting ready to throw it at him then she remembered her talk with Gregory last night. “You’re not worth it. I’ll be back tomorrow at nine to pick up Ella.”

“Don’t worry about it, she’ll get back to the dump,” Tyler commented as Charlotte put the vase down and stomped out of the house.

“It’s about time you got rid of the trash,” Erica said strolling into the living room in her transparent robe revealing her barely there dark blue bikini.

“Not now, Erica,” Tyler ordered as he got up from the sofa grabbing his step-mother’s hand and leading her upstairs to his father’s bedroom to blow off some of his frustrations.

Ali walked across the leaf covered campus wishing she didn’t have to go to class today. She had already spent three hours in the most boring class she had hearing the professor lecture about probabilities and statistics. Ali was up for something a little more exiting and her next class wasn’t it. Right now all she wanted was to be in Luke’s strapping arms cuddling in his comfortable bed. This wasn’t like her; it was against everything she was bought up to believe. Now all she could think about was Luke and his well-endowed anatomy.

“Penny for your thoughts,” a young man asked as Ali stopped by the directory in the middle of campus looking at one of the posters that had caught her attention.

“Josh, hi,” Ali said noticing her friend standing beside her with his arm now in a cast. “Are you okay? How’s the arm?”

“Fine, it’s a little sore right now, the doctors said I have to go to physical therapy a few more weeks longer than at first because of yesterday, but it was worth it,” Josh explained putting his good hand on his cast.

“I don’t know if Paige told you, but I wanted to say thanks for what you did to Tony,” Ali commented looking down at her feet. “I may be a Christian woman but what he did to me and Paige, he deserved it.”

“I wish Paige saw it that way.”

“She does, she just has something else on her mind right now,” Ali replied remembering her conversation with her best friend this morning.

“You mean Brandon. Ali, tell me the truth, did you know about him?”

“I would never lie to you Josh; you’ve been such a good friend to me for years. It is hard working at Juniper’s at times knowing that no matter how hard you try you’re not really one of them. As much as all of them bicker with each other, they always fight for one another.”

“Right, being a Parker means everything to them.”

“So to answer your question, no, I didn’t know about Brandon, not until this morning that is,” Ali answered suddenly feeling sorry for her friend.

“Thanks, well I better get to class,” Josh said looking up at the clock tower realizing he had less than five minutes to get to his victimology and social change course.

Ali watched as Josh ran off and she began to think maybe Paige was making a mistake leaving Josh in the dust. He was a noble man with the same moral values as she did. He was an honest hard-working man with a good head on his shoulder, and would make any woman very happy. If she wasn’t totally in love with Luke, she would take a chance with Josh that is for sure if he only he wasn’t crazy for her best friend.

Paige walked down the burgundy colored hallway not thinking on what she was going to say or what she was going to do yet her she was. She came upon the door hoping she would find the answers she was looking for praying that she hadn’t made the biggest mistake of her life. Paige Juniper Parker knocked on the hotel door ready to enter battle with her own sister.

“Who is it,” the female voice said from the other side of the door.

The door opened and the two half-sisters stood in front of each other looking at the similarities and the small differences. They both had the long full blond hair like their mother and Paige stood just a couple of inches taller than her younger sister and they had the same light blue eyes that sparkled.

“Wow, now I see why he was so fascinated with me,” Paige stated tilting her head one way to examine her sister more.

“Brandon, yeah, he has a thing for blonds,” April replied opening the door to welcome her sister in the room. “You might as well come in; we have a lot to talk about.”

Paige walked into the messy hotel room with clothes scattered everywhere. She picked up a black buttoned wool sweater that resembled the one she had hanging in her closet. Not only did they look a lot alike and share the same taste of clothing, they also had the same taste in men.

“I guess you came to find out about Cassidy and Brandon,” April said closing the top dresser drawer then turning around to lean against the large oak dresser.

“Why is he here? Why did he come after me,” Paige asked sitting down on the bed after pushing some of the clothes out of the way.

“I might have made him a bit mad the last time we were together.”

“How?”

“I forged his signature on a fifty thousand dollar check, cashed it then skipped town before he had realized what I had done,” April explained smiling at her accomplishment of deceiving another man.

“Why you seem so proud of yourself? Was this before or after you realized you were pregnant?”

“Don’t act like you are some saint or something. I met Tony before your boyfriend shot him, he didn’t deserve die like he did. At least I don’t string the men along, I sleep with them, get what I want, then leave.”

“So what you think you’re some high class hooker because that is what it sounds like. The only difference is the men don’t realize you’re taking their money,” Paige said standing up from the bed and moving towards her sister.

“You don’t have the right to say these things to me. You were raised by a loving father in a stable environment with sisters and a brother to look after you. I only had our mother and she was no role model.”

“She didn’t make you this way. My mother, our mother, wouldn’t raise a child to be this vindictive little bitch.”

“She wouldn’t, hell; she is the one that taught me everything I know. Who do you think told me to forge Brandon’s check? I had already been with Brandon longer than mother wanted me to. She knew I was falling for him, which in our line of work wasn’t a good thing. I had also found out I was pregnant the day before. Mother and I had a huge fight that night and she told me that if Brandon found out what I had done to the other men he would leave me alone and pregnant. I couldn’t raise a child on my own with the little money mother and I had saved. So I did the only thing I could and did as mother had asked. Then mother and I moved on to the next town after we cashed the check. Cassidy was born eight months later with a hole in her heart. We knew that we couldn’t provide for her and I couldn’t tell Brandon about her or I would have gone to jail. You have to understand I did everything since then for her.”

“What about now?”

“What do you mean,” April asked not understanding her sister.

“I told him about your daughter, he’s going to want to know where she is.”

“She lives with her adopted parents in Indiana. I talk to them once a month to see how Cassidy is doing. She’s happy with them and I would prefer it stay that way.”

“What if Brandon doesn’t see it that way,” Paige wondered.

“Brandon doesn’t get a say in the matter especially since he wasn’t listed on the birth certificate. And I don’t think Brandon hooked up with you for the heck of it. He’s out for revenge and now that your ex sliced him up, he will be even more devious about it.”

“That’s like the pot calling the kettle black. And he won’t just roll over on this Cassidy thing. He will find her and get her back.”

“He never had her or you for that matter. You don’t know him like I do,” April stated looking in the large mirror next to her sister and sweeping a piece of hair behind her ears.

“Right you know him so well. I know a few things myself about Brandon Samuel Ellsworth born November 15, 1986, son of Franklin and Dana Ellsworth. His parents died when he was thirteen in a plane crash then he moved in with his grandfather Samuel Ellsworth, one of the richest men in Indianapolis. I did my homework before I came over here.”

“A little too late though, don’t you think?”

“At least I know why Brandon came to Saunders Bay. Now I just want to know why you came especially if you didn’t want to be part of our family?”

“I didn’t know about you or the others,” April admitted sitting down on the other bed. “Like I said it was always our mother and I and her little schemes then as she got older they started becoming my schemes. Once we got here things changed, all she could talk about was the family she left behind. It has always been the two of us and now it’s like I don’t exist. She only realizes I’m around when I do something to grab her attention. She thinks all of you are some sort of saints but from what I have seen that is far from it.”

“Well breaking into my house, telling my sister about my own pregnancy, and coming onto Cooper wasn’t a way to make an impression. So I guess our mother isn’t the woman neither of us thought she would be, but you know what life isn’t fair. My father had one wife and four kids until that woman took off in the night. It took him years to fall in love again then when he was set to have that happy ever after, his second wife died leaving him to raise yet another child. You think you had it tough, you had nothing compared to watching your father lose any faith about love not once but twice.”

“So we have screwed up parents,” April laughed at the irony of it all. “You wanted to be in my shoes and I wished I had been in yours.”

“I never said that, my father took care of us, looked out for us, and never let us forget how much he loved us. Growing up no one ever talked about our mother except for Ariel, and when she did Charlotte would have a fit. Charlotte was the oldest, she knew mom the best, so I guess Charlotte was right after all these years, and our mother wasn’t worth it. We can’t forgive her for the things she did to either of us, but if you did the right thing, maybe we could forgive you,” Paige explained before heading for the door. “You know where to find me and if you want to be part of a real family, you will do the right thing.”

Paige left the hotel room leaving April standing there in shock. April couldn’t believe after all she had done to the Parker family, they were willing to give her another chance. Did she want it? Did she deserve it? Did she deserve them?

“I really don’t have anything to say,” Jack said as he pushed the chair back to stand up.

Penelope reached across the table touching her ex-husband’s hand and for just a moment she felt thirty years younger. She remembered what drew her to Jack in the first place and why she had fallen so hard for the kid from Saunders Bay.

“Please, let me explain the situation,” Penelope begged looking into Jack’s charcoal colored eyes.

“I know everything, Penny,” Jack replied remembering the nickname he had given her.

“You’re still the one person I let call me Penny. Remember why you gave me that nickname; you said I was your good luck charm just like a penny you find on the ground. Remember how much fun we had at the beginning.”

“Not really, I remember you disappearing for hours at a time leaving my sick mother to watch the kids. I remember coming home from working all day and finding you sleeping on the couch while Charlotte took care of her sister. I remember the day you left for good, that’s what I remember.”

“You have every right to be angry. I never called or wrote the kids, I didn’t show up when your mother died. I’m sorry for that, for all of it,” Penelope admitted putting her head down in shame.

“I can forgive a lot of things, Penny, so many things you have done I can forgive. What I can’t forgive is you hiding April from her brother and sisters. These kids, our kids, might bicker like crazy but they also look out for each other. There is nothing they wouldn’t do for each other, even when they don’t agree with what the other is doing.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I should’ve bought her to town after she was born.”

“No, you shouldn’t have left in the first place. You didn’t have to leave; you could have stayed here in town. All you did by running away was cause the kids heartache thinking their mother didn’t love them enough.”

“What about you? Didn’t you miss me,” Penelope wondered hoping that her ex still felt something for her.

“I got over you long ago, Penny, and I don’t plan on making the same mistake again,” Jack told her as he pulled his arm away and left the table walking past Ariel.

Ariel stood there as her mother looked at her. At that moment Ariel realized she had spent too long on dreaming that her family could be together again. She finally realized that her mother would never stay, that Charlotte had been right all this time – Penelope Carson would never be the mother Ariel dreamed of. Ariel turned away from her mother wanting to go find her father and tell him how she loved and admired him. As Ariel got to the doorway to the kitchen she turned to see her mother walking out of the restaurant without even a goodbye once again.

“Some things never change,” Ariel told herself before pushing the swinging double doors into the kitchen. She knew that one of these days her mother would disappear in the night like she did some twenty years ago. Ariel just hoped that this time she left she would not take April with her because April had a family now. Ariel knew April had a lot to deal with before she joined any of the Parker family dinners and such, but maybe one of these days once April got over her issues.

“Ariel, how about you take off for the day, Charlotte should be back soon enough,” Jack said as his daughter entered the kitchen.

“I love you, dad, and I’m sorry,” Ariel replied hugging her father who was beginning to cut some vegetables for the chicken pot pie that was the special for the night.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, sweetie, now get lost,” he stated kissing his daughter on the top of the head.

“Thanks,” she shouted as she took her apron off and ran out of the kitchen. Ariel knew what she had to do next and it had nothing to do with her mother or sister. Ariel had to find that one moment from her past that caused so much heartache. She didn’t want to be like her mother so that meant fixing that one moment in her past that she should have corrected long ago.

“Did everything go okay,” Gregory asked his date as she sat down across from him at the table.

“Your brother decided to start a fight with me in front of Ella. I should go get her later because I know he won’t watch her, maybe having her spend the night wasn’t a good idea. He will make Frances watch her the entire time,” Charlotte explained picking up the menu at the bar in the Wexler Hotel.

“If that is what you want we can go get her right now, although I know Frances won’t let her wander off,” Gregory replied as he took a sip of his wine.

“But it’s not Frances job to watch after Ella, its Tyler’s.”

“I know that and you know that, even Frances knows it, but Tyler doesn’t realize it. I may have not been around for the past ten years but Tyler wasn’t ready to be a father. Even when he was younger, he tried to defy our father, then two seconds later he would change his mind. It’s like Tyler scared of the old man.”

“You’re not,” Charlotte asked leaning into the table closer to Gregory. She wanted to know what made Gregory tick and why he was so different than his brother and the rest of the Donnelly family.

“I saw what a bastard my father could be the morning my mother died. Neither of them knew I had come home early from class that day; I stood in the hallway watching my mother confront my father about the money he was embezzling from the stockholders retirement fund. He told that he would divorce her and leave her with nothing, and make sure that she would never her children again,” Gregory described as he closed his eyes for a moment going back to those moments in time that changed his opinion of his father forever. “She admitted to sending the proof she had found to an attorney she knew. He slapped her across the face and told her she would pay for turning her back on him. He came out of his office and I hid behind the stairs.”

“What happened,” Charlotte wondered hanging on every moment hoping there was some way to bring Benjamin Donnelly down.

“I confronted my mother and told her I heard everything. She told me everything would be okay and I believed her. Later that night the brakes went out in her car when she was heading to one of her charity functions.”

“What about the proof she had on your father? What happened to that? Why wasn’t he ever prosecuted?”

“The proof was never found, whoever the lawyer was, they never came forward. My father paid off enough people in town to make it look like an accident. Don’t you realize, Charlotte, that my father has most of the police department in his back pocket? It took me years to find anything that could bring him down.”

“Is that why you came back to Saunders Bay,” she asked wiping a tear away.

“I thought it was, now I realized I came back for something even more variable,” Gregory commented taking Charlotte’s hand in his. “I want you to help me bring my father down then we can see where this takes us.”

“I would like that a lot,” she stated on both aspects.

Seconds later the waiter arrived and they ordered dinner with Gregory’s hand still holding Charlotte’s across the table. When the waiter left Gregory pulled his hand away as soon as he seen the Italian beauty with dark olive skin and dark auburn hair walk into the bar with his sister, Caroline. He couldn’t believe it as he stood up and began walking towards the bar leaving Charlotte sitting at the table alone. Gregory thought he had left his past behind him and now there she stood right in front of him.

Charlotte watched Gregory hug his younger sister than give a quick peck to the stunning woman with beside Caroline. Charlotte noticed the woman put her arm on Gregory lovingly as if they were intimate. She didn’t know what to do as all three of them began walking towards the table. She started fidgeting and tearing at the napkin in her hand. Charlotte swept some of her frizzy hair behind her ear realizing that no matter how hard she tried she could never look like a knockout like Caroline or the woman with her. Their beauty came from years of being pampered and having people wait on them at their beck and call. Charlotte knew she looked like she had worked all her life with her nails cut down to the cuticles, her hair which needed a haircut badly, and the clothes that she had bought on clearance at Sears last year. She looked her part, and it wasn’t the same as Caroline and her friend.

“Charlotte, what a wonderful surprise,” Caroline said wearing an electric blue and white dress that clung to her body.

“Hi, Caroline,” Charlotte replied looking like a plain Jane in her black slacks and white blouse.

“I didn’t realize you knew Greg,” Caroline said turning over to her brother while the woman in the sexy purple one-shouldered dress that clung to her every curve whispered something in Gregory’s ear.

“We met last week when she came in for a drink,” Gregory pointed out looking over at Charlotte. “Actually it was the night I arrived; I was sitting over at the bar having a drink when this blond bombshell walked in.”

“Please,” Charlotte sighed knowing that she was nothing compared to the two women standing before her.

“Gregory, dear, are you going to introduce me to your date,” the young woman asked putting her hands around Gregory’s arm.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte Parker, meet Arianna Esposito,” Gregory introduced the women to one another.

“Arianna is a dear friend of mine from Italy. We met when I did a fashion show in Venice a couple of years ago, then I introduced her to my brother, here,” Caroline explained. “Six months later they were engaged.”

“Oh,” Charlotte replied feeling like a fool even more than she had before.

“Both of us decided we weren’t ready for marriage, so we called off the engagement,” Gregory corrected sitting back down at the table.

“Yes, it was for the best,” Arianna stated. “We better go, my friend, before your fiancé sends out a search party. I still have to check in.”

“You’re staying here,” Charlotte asked.

“Yes, yes, I am. Caroline says this is the best place in town, is it not,” Arianna questioned looking at her close friend then down at her ex.

“Yes, it’s the best,” Caroline agreed. “We better go, maybe tomorrow we can meet for lunch, Charlotte.”

“Ooh, I could go for a spa day. And I’m sure you could use one too,” Arianna chimed in looking at Charlotte.

“Maybe some other time,” Charlotte replied before the women walked away.

As soon as Caroline and Arianna were out of the bar Gregory and Charlotte’s meals had arrived. Both of them sat there in silence as they ate not sure on what to say or what to do. Charlotte didn’t want to show Gregory how jealous she was of his ex, and Gregory didn’t want to think about his past with Arianna.

“She’s pretty,” Charlotte stated taking a bite of her grilled tuscan chicken with rosemary.

“I left Italy for a reason, Charlotte, it was over a long time ago between Ari and I.”

“Is she one reason you left though?”

“No, it was time I came home and face my father. It’s time he pays for his crimes.” Gregory stated as he ate his dinner. “I’m not like them, I don’t need the money and the power to make me happy.”

“Yet you live in a hotel,” Charlotte replied, “you’re not working, you’re not making a living, you’re just living off your mother’s inheritance.”

“You are right, maybe it’s time I get a job,” he agreed as he finished his dinner. She was right in every aspect, he hated being a Donnelly yet he was living like the rest of them. It was time he went out in the real world and got his own place and a job. It was time for the world to get to know the real Gregory Donnelly.

Ariel turned into the entrance of the Cedar Creek Apartments on Jefferson Street. She drove down the long driveway towards the old apartments with the chipped green paint coming off the buildings. Ariel knew she had made a mistake driving her convertible to the apartments as she drove past a group of teenagers watching her intently. The apartments hadn’t been renovated in decades and it looked it with the weeds growing in front of the apartments, the chipped pant on the banisters. Everyone knew the only people living in these apartments were either on some kind of state aid, ex-felons, or those that just didn’t care. She parked her car in front of building C and sat there wondering if she had a mistake coming here. It had been years since she had seen him and from she had heard he needed some kind of intervention. He had been her rock in high school, her saving grace, and now she would be his.

She got out of her car and hit the alarm button on her keychain hoping that her baby would be safe in this neighborhood. Ariel walked up to the building passing the kids toys scattered in front of the building and the sidewalk. She noticed the door to the secured apartments was wide open realizing the security in this place was lacking and walked into the building and inside. As she climbed the stairs to his apartment she got nervous for the first time remembering that he was her first in everything. Thomas Crawford Carmichael was her first love, her first sexual experience and her first heartbreak and now she was going to relive it all.

Standing in front of apartment C4, those moments of joy and sorrow flashed before her eyes, and she caved. Before she could even get the courage to knock on the door she turned away realizing it was a mistake coming here. She turned down the dark hallway back towards the front entrance. When she stood at the top of the staircase she saw him standing at the bottom staring up at her.

“What are you doing here,” he said climbing the stairs towards her.

“I thought I would come see you,” she replied noticing his greasy blue jeans and his torn black Guns N Roses t-shirt.

“Lucky me,” he stated sarcastically pushing past her towards his apartment.

“I’m sorry it’s been so long, Tommy,” she admitted grabbing his arm pulling him back to her.

“I bet, it’s only been seven years, six months, and twenty-two days since you disappeared in the night,” Tommy said opening the unlocked door to his apartment.

“I didn’t disappear in the night and if I had known you would have been so heartbroken, I wouldn’t have left,” Ariel commented following him into his apartment that was covered with empty beer bottles.

His small apartment had an old brown leather recliner in a corner and a tan worn-down couch against the wall. They place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months with pizza boxes and a months worth of unopened mail sitting on the table. Ariel could tell he spent most nights on the couch with two flat pillows on one side and a blanket on the floor. As Ariel walked farther in she noticed some clothing on the floor that definitely wasn’t his.

“So I guess you’ve been keeping busy without me,” Ariel said picking up the blush pink lace trimmed bra.

“You would have left anyway, Ariel. You never once thought of me when you were out traveling the world and my sex life are none of your business,” he said as he went into the tiny kitchen grabbing a beer out of the refrigerator.

“I already know about Hope,” she replied throwing the bra on the table. “The two of you must have hit the sheets right after I left.”

“Get out!”

“No,” Ariel said sternly sitting down on the recliner. “I want to help you, Tommy, this isn’t you. What happened to the intelligent, ambitious, boy I fell in love with so long ago.”

“He grew up and got a life,” Tommy commented sitting down on the couch and turning on the twenty-two inch television to the local news.

“What if I told you I could get you a new place to live and a better job,” she said not really knowing how she would pull it off if he agreed.

“I don’t need your pity, Ariel. I’m doing fine here.”

“Yeah, your place is so sheik.”

“Not all of us can have a condo in downtown Chicago,” Tommy commented slugging down his beer and putting the empty bottle on the coffee table.

“It wasn’t a condo and it wasn’t downtown just off Michigan Avenue. None of that matters, Tommy, you’re better than this. What happened to your dad helping you out?”

“My dad, that’s funny. Shows how much you know, he moved to Omaha with this third wife two years ago or was it his second wife three years ago, I can’t keep up.”

“Your dad wouldn’t leave you,” Ariel said as she moved to the edge of the chair. “He loved you.”

“I remember hearing those same exact words from you once. I don’t have time for this,” he told her as he turned off the television and got up from the couch grabbing the hammer off of the coffee table, “I have work to do.”

“Sure, fixing garbage disposals and unclogging toilets and making what six bucks an hour. You’re better than this and you and I both know it.”

Ariel didn’t let him get the last word in as she left his apartment leaving him standing there shocked, frustrated, and aroused by the woman he once loved. She was right though and he knew it. He walked down the hallway towards his bedroom remembering the feeling of emptiness he felt when she had left just days after their high school graduation. Tommy opened the door to his bedroom which looked nothing like the rest of his apartment. The room was organized and tidy with the full size bed neatly made and the dresser filled with pictures from his past. He picked up the five by seven picture frame with a photo of Ariel and him at their Senior Prom with him in his tuxedo with the cobalt blue bow tie and Ariel in her matching cobalt blue short prom dress. They looked so happy together, it was only six short weeks later that she left him in Saunders Bay never to be heard from again.

“I’ve missed you,” Tommy said to himself remembering their times in the back seat of his black 1972 Chevelle.

He picked up the next picture on his dresser of Ariel on the hood of his car with her arms wrapped around his neck and some of their friends surrounding them. One of those friends in the picture was Hope Johnson someone Tommy was sort of fond with these days. He did find Hope very attractive but she really wasn’t his type. She was always around when he got into trouble and she wanted him which made him feel good.

“Yeah, there,” Hope said standing in the door way of his bedroom. “Wow, why is it we never do it in here?”

Hope started to undo the buttons of her blue blouse and sat on the bed bouncing a bit to feel the firmness of the mattress. She never once looked at his face as she patted a spot next to her hoping he would join her on the bed.

“Not now,” he said walking out of the bedroom leaving her sitting there. He wasn’t in the mood to be with anyone right now; all he wanted was another drink something to make the pain of remembering the past go away.

As Hope got up from the bed she noticed the pictures on the dresser. All of the months they had been together, she had never been in his bedroom and now she knew why. She knew exactly what she was to him and she would never measure up to his past with Ariel. She slammed the Prom photo, the last photo of Ariel and Tommy together, down on the dresser shattering the glass. Hope did everything she could to erase Tommy’s memory of Ariel; she made love to him night after night, and cleaned up after him. She even got him a job when he would get fired for showing up drunk or not showing up at all. Yet, she couldn’t stop herself from running to his aid.

Tommy walked out of his apartment building praying that someone or something would make the pain go away. He climbed into his red 1987 Ford Ranger with the unopened beer in his hand. He knew what he had to do and it had nothing to do with Ariel Parker or Hope Johnson.

“Hey, Tommy,” a short Latino woman yelled coming out of the same apartment building. “The washing machine won’t fill up again.”

“Marisol, I have to go,” Tommy replied to the woman he had known for years and lives in the apartment below him. “Please, Tommy, Hector is taking his nap now and I need to get Jimmy’s laundry done before he gets home from the shop,” Marisol Bauer begged in her Michigan State sweatshirt and gray sweatpants and no shoes.

“Call maintenance,” Tommy told her as he tried to start his truck.

“You are maintenance. Come on, I need to get this done before Jimmy is back so I can go to work,” she said opening the truck. “And you can’t go anywhere with that beer in your hand.”

“She’s right, Tommy,” Hope stated coming up behind Marisol. “Why don’t you go fix the washing machine and I’ll order you some dinner.”

As much as Tommy wanted to forget his problems he knew Marisol needed him. Marisol Bauer and her husband, Jimmy, had a three year old son and both of them worked hard for the little money they had coming in with Jimmy as a mechanic and Marisol a cashier at the supermarket on the outskirts of town. Marisol had known Tommy and Hope during their high school days as Marisol had been one grade below them and her husband Jimmy graduating three years before she did.

“Fine,” Tommy said turning off the engine and getting out of his truck. “Just go home, Hope, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hope stood there in shock at Tommy’s comment as he walked past her and headed back into his building. He didn’t want to deal with Hope tonight instead he would deal with his past once and for all.

Paige looked out into the calm blue waters of Lake Michigan wondering where her life had gone wrong. She didn’t know what to do these days. Her mind drifted to the moments in her life that made her the person she was today and some of those times made the tears come.

“I’m glad you called me,” he said as he came up beside her at the pier. The cold October air made him shiver as he pulled his jacket around him tighter.

“I am not sure why I’m even here. Everything has been so messed up lately. I don’t know what to do anymore,” she cried wiping the tears away hoping that confessing her sins would make the pain go away.

Looking out into the lake the skies were dark moving to shore at an intense rate. Paige just wanted to swim into the rigid water and swim as far away into the darkness as she could. She didn’t want to be here anymore. She didn’t know if she could ever be forgiven or if she wanted to be. The man beside her knew she wasn’t the same, he could tell when he looked into her eyes or when she tried to smile. The young woman beside him had been through so much and hidden so many secrets he wasn’t sure if she could find her way back.

“You can tell me anything, I hope you know that,” he said leaning over to her. “I will always be here for you no matter what, and I’ll always love you.”

“Maybe I don’t deserve your love. Maybe I don’t deserve to be forgiven,” she mumbled reliving the moment that began this downward spiral.

“Nothing you could do would make me stop loving you.”

“I wish you hadn’t said that,” Paige stated wiping the last of her tears away. She turned to look him in the eyes for a brief second than turned her head back to the water. She couldn’t admit the truth to him looking in his eyes; no she had to pretend he wasn’t here. The one man she wanted to please more than anything was standing beside her and she would confess her deepest darkest secret – the secret that got Tony killed. “I was pregnant with Tony’s child. I knew I couldn’t take care of the baby and neither could Tony. I didn’t know what to do; I couldn’t tell you or anyone for that matter. I thought I had everything under control and figured it out when I lost the baby. I couldn’t tell you, I was so ashamed of myself. After I lost the baby I pushed Tony away not wanting it to happen again. That’s when he started getting physical with me and started sleeping around. I caused his psychotic break; he attacked Ali because of me. Josh got shot protecting me, Brandon got stabbed because he was involved with me. All of this happened because of me, I’m the one that killed Tony. All of it is my fault, daddy.”

Paige turned to her father not being able to hold it in anymore she broke down crying. He pulled her into his arms holding his baby girl. Jack Parker couldn’t fathom what his daughter was feeling but he knew she was hurting.

“Sweetheart, it will be okay, everything will be okay,” he assured her not knowing whether it was true or not.

He knew his daughter wasn’t to blame for anything but he couldn’t tell her that. Jack knew his daughter wasn’t her normal self and remembered the moment she had began pulling away not just from Tony but from everyone. He would be there for his daughter no matter what and love her like he always had yet he knew she wouldn’t get over this guilt by herself. Paige Juniper Parker would need more than just her family, she would need professional help before she hurt herself or someone else.