Double Trouble 46: Confessions
 by Cariad
 

Double Trouble
~Forty Six~
Holly sat on a bench in the Crane conservatory next to Jonathan Hotchkiss, whose shoulders were slumped in defeat. “I’m sorry, Holly,” he said on a sight.

“For what?” she asked neutrally.

“I don’t know. For everything. You don’t know what kind of stress I’m working under.” Holly stiffened beside him. “Actually, I think you would if I told you. I feel like I’m trying to hold the world together. I don’t know the first thing about Crane Industries, and I’m trying to act out Alistair’s orders without knowing why. Father can barely speak, and I’ve had to deal with the board of Hotchkiss Enterprises. They don’t think I’m old enough to take over for him and constantly question my decisions. Holly, I’ve been breathing Hotchkiss Enterprises since I was twelve! On top of that, I’ve had to deal with the press every time I set foot out of the Mansion, and then with all the little feuds in her when I set foot in. I haven’t slept in the past week, Holly.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes.

Holly drummed her fingers against her thigh. “Ethan knows all about Crane Industries. He’s been groomed to be the heir until… well, you know when. Why don’t you give him a call?”

“How did you now the second victim was my ex-girlfriend. And do you know her name? I’ve had more than one,” he confessed.

“Aidan told me, and he never told me her name,” Holly said.

“Never believe a word out of your brother’s mouth,” Jonathan warned.

Holly leapt up, feeling like pulling out her hair. “You know what? He says the same thing about you?”

“Of course he would, Holly. He hates me. He thinks I’m taking over his rightful position.”

They stared at each other in silence.

“Holly,” Jonathan continued, “I didn’t ask you to come here…”

“No,” Holly snapped, “you ordered!”

“I did not…” Jonathan began, but stopped himself before he could go further. “I didn’t want to talk to you about what happened last night. Well, I do, but I wasn’t planning on there being another murder. I wanted to… I don’t know what I wanted,” he confessed. “I just know that the only time you’ve worn the ring since New Year’s was out to the funeral.”

“It gets in the way,” Holly said.

“That’s not the issue. Well, not the whole issue. I’m not avoiding you, Holly. Not deliberately. I’ve got so much on my plate right now that I just can’t deal. Alistair has called me out to these all-night planning sessions, assuring me that he still has me under his thumb. I wish sometimes that my father would die, that way it wouldn’t matter.”

“What wouldn’t matter?”

Jonathan rubbed his temples. “Up until Christmas, only three people knew this secret. Then I was told. I left that week because I wanted to find out if it was true. It is. Well, to make a long story short, only three people know the secret now, but I want you to know, Holly, because it might make a difference.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me tell you a story.”

Holly put her feet up on the bench and curled her hands around her knees. “I don’t understand you at all, Jonathan,” she said, sighing, “but go ahead. I’ve nothing better to do.”
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You got me there!” Noah said cheerfully to the old woman in the hospital bed. “Fair Juliet said she wanted me to meet someone…”
“You look familiar,” Adele interrupted. “Oh, I placed it. Bennett is the Chief of Police, isn’t he?”

“That’s my dad,” Noah said.

“He’s on my TV every so often. Wait. He was on recently. That’s why you’re so familiar.”

Noah laughed and began working his charm on Adele. Julia found herself pushed to the edge, sitting on the window ledge, her back pressing up against the cold glass. She watched Noah’s profile as he talked to Adele. The way his eyes shined as he entertained her with some snippet from some play. The way his lips moved as he spoke. The way those lips felt on New Year’s. Julia stopped the thought before it could move farther. Noah was like her brother. He was Ethan’s brother. She was supposed to be his little sister. That wasn’t a brotherly kiss he gave her!

Another part of her brain asked, why not Noah? He was handsome and in college. Weren’t those the same reasons she gave Holly for liking Johnny?

But Johnny is a Hotchkiss. You’re family would approve of a Hotchkiss. They would not approve of a Bennett.

But no one has EVER kissed you like that before!

But he’s a Bennett, not even you, Jules, would get a Bennett past Daddy. Mother, yes, but Daddy? Daddy hates the Bennetts! Besides, how would you get out then? You’d be disowned.

Isn’t that the point? Not being a Crane anymore?

“Julie?” Noah’s voice said, startling her out of her mental argument.

“Huh?” she asked, chiding herself for her moment of idiocy.

“Adele needs some rest. Care to come out into the lounge?”

“Uh, sure,” Julia said, for the first time feeling rather awkward around a male. Come one, Jules, she told herself, you never get flustered!

“About the kiss…” Noah started, his ears turning red.

“I didn’t mind!” Julia jumped in.

“I’m sorry,” Noah finished. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Oh,” Julia replied, suddenly feeling rather sad.

“You didn’t mind?” Noah asked with hope in his voice.

“It was a nice kiss,” Julia said shyly.

Noah ran a hand through his hair. “Nice is an understatement. I couldn’t walk right for a week!”

Julia swallowed her nervous giggle.

“I hate to use Adele in this way, but Dad’s made it clear that none of us are to have anything to do with you Cranes. He’s really ranting about how your mother betrayed him again, using him for a fool again, how she’s chosen Julian over him again. How Julian is nothing but trouble, and how we all need to stay away from your kind.”

“But that’s not fair! Daddy didn’t do anything. Mother was just as surprised about the lack of divorce as the rest of us! She still wants to go back to your father! That’s not fair!”

“You shouldn’t call my house anymore. Not from the Mansion. We’ve got caller ID, and Dad checks it every night. It’s like we’re babies or prisoners.”

“Don’t talk to me about being a prisoner.” She looked at her watch. “I’ve only got forty-five minutes before I’ve got to go back.”

“Julie, I’m sorry,” he said. “It was all I could to convince Dad to let me go to the funeral. I’ve wanted to see you again. I still do.” He caught Julie in his arms and brought his lips towards hers.

“No!” Julia cried, pushing him away. “We can’t. I can’t.”

“I thought you said you didn’t mind!” he accused.

Julia turned on her heel so she was looking out the window. “I’m a shallow person, Noah,” she said to the window. “I don’t want to hurt you. You’re like my brother. The longest I’ve had a boyfriend is six weeks. Why? Because some better offer comes along. Because I get bored. Because I’m a Crane and I always want more. Noah, if I get attached to you, it will only end up in disaster. Look at our parents! I’d make the same choice for the same reasons, Noah. I’d choose money and family loyalty over love. Love doesn’t get anyone anywhere. Love gets you a broken heart. Look at my sister! Look at my mother! Look at Gwen!”

She saw Noah’s reflection in the window. He was coming closer. “Look at me,” he said quietly, slowly turning Julia in his arms. “I think you’re scared, Julia. I think you’re a lot deeper than you pretend to be. And I want to kiss you again.”

His lips met her and Julia knew oblivion once more, all worries forgotten in Noah’s strong arms.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, this is how my father told it to me, the best he could,” Jonathan started with hesitancy. “It seems that he was engaged at the request of my grandfather. Then all of a sudden, this pretty little red-head comes strolling along and he falls head over heels for her…”
“Rebecca,” Holly said simply. “Everyone who cares to knows about Rebecca’s stealing of your father. She never made a secret about it. It was her social coup for a long time.”

Jonathan rubbed his neck with a hand, squeezing his eyes shut. “As it turns out, they had a child about eight-and-a-half months later.”

“Gwen,” Holly declared. “Do you have a point?”

“I’ll get there if you stop interrupting!” Jonathan snapped.

Holly rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

“You were right. It was Gwen. Well, they lived semi-happily for a few years, and then Father saw this waitress. After a lot of persuasion, she agreed to see him on and off, but she wouldn’t allow things to go any farther than a couple of kisses. She said she wouldn’t give him any more unless she had a wedding ring on her finger. Father was completely enamored of her by now. I guess because he couldn’t have her. I don’t know. Maybe they were truly in love. But he had a cabin built for her out in the woods, where they would go to see each other. He promised he was going to divorce Rebecca and marry the waitress. He even started on the divorce papers. Rebecca was livid and refused to sign. Then they discovered that the waitress was pregnant. It was Father’s. I guess when he started divorce proceedings, she saw he was serious and relented. I don’t know. Father didn’t have a doubt that it was his.”

Jonathan reached for Holly’s hand, playing with her fingers as he continued. “I’m a bastard Holly. I’m the son of a waitress.”

Holly pulled her hand away and leapt off the bench, pacing around the koi pond. “What did you hope to accomplish?” she asked. “Am I supposed to like you more because you’re a bastard? Like you less? What difference does it make? Ethan’s a bastard! How am I supposed to react? How is that supposed to make a difference?”

Jonathan strode to the other side of the bench. “I thought you would understand!” he shouted across the greenery.

“Understand what?” She snapped back. “That your father had an affair? Hell, my father’s slept with half of New England! I probably have siblings all over the place! I probably have some more here in Harmony!”

“That’s not the point!” Jonathan roared. “The point is, I don’t even know who my mother is!”

“So?” she asked. “And how do you think it’s a big secret. Surely the hospital staff knows. Surely they’ve got records!”

“No, they don’t,” he replied in a defeated tone. “I wasn’t born in a hospital. I was born in the Hotchkiss cabin. After they found out the waitress was pregnant, Rebecca got an idea. She hadn’t conceived since Gwen, and she was going have another child if it killed her. So she told the world she was pregnant, went up to the cabin because it was a delicate pregnancy, and told my mother that she had no intentions of giving up my father. Rebecca took great care of my mother and me, holding my father’s need for an heir—like your Grandfather, he believed only a male could truly inherit—over his head, until I was born. I don’t know what happened to the midwife. I don’t even know my mother’s real name or anything about my mother’s family. I didn’t even know that Rebecca wasn’t my mother until Christmas.”

Holly stopped her pacing, examining him as if for the first time. “What about your birth certificate?”

“Has Rebecca’s name on it. I think your grandfather got a hold of the midwife. I don’t know.”

“But why does it have to be a secret?”

Jonathan sighed. “Because my father would have it so. If he were dead, it wouldn’t matter. I’d get through somehow. But as your grandfather so kindly explained, if the Board of Hotchkiss Enterprises finds out, they’d have a reason not to ratify me as the next Chairman and CEO. They’d second-guess all my decisions. The board is made up of people like your grandfather, always looking for a reason to cut down the next man. The board would find me unacceptable. They’d question if my father was really my father, and that would kill him! I can’t do that to my father!”

Holly twisted her hands together. “But…” she started, not knowing the words. “This is going to come out wrong,” she said carefully, “but if the your board would find you unacceptable because of this, why would my grandfather insist that you marry into our family?”

“Because I’m controllable,” he spat almost before Holly finished. “He can control me. I have to do his bidding no matter how distasteful.”

Holly’s lips formed a silent ‘O’.

“But that’s not the reason I told you,” he continued, pacing with nervous energy. “I told you because I don’t want any secrets between us. I want this relationship to work.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed. “What about my way out,” she demanded.

“That still stands,” he said quickly. “I mean it, Holly, I want this relationship to work. I’ve seen too many things destroyed because all the cards weren’t out on the table, so I’m laying mine down. I don’t want to end up like your parents or like mine. Or to stand here in front of you and know that Gwen is my sister and we’re not related at all.”

Holly’s eyes widened, and her hands flew up to her mouth. “Eight-and-a-half months!” she whispered. “I wouldn’t do that!” she insisted in the next breath. “I know what’s expected of me!”

Jonathan sighed and sat once more. “I’m not saying you’d do that. But I know what that did to my father. I know what secrets did to Ethan and Gwen. I know what they did to your parents. And I don’t want to have a cycle of revenge, Holly. What can I do to make you happy, Holly? I want to make you happy.”

She stared at him for a long moment, recovering her reeling senses, her mind whirling. “Nothing,” she said finally. “You can’t do anything to make me happy,” she continued defiantly. “I will find my own happiness. I won’t have it thrust upon me! God, Jonathan!” she said, her tone changing to exasperation. “I’m eighteen. I don’t even know what I’m going to major in at college, and you want to know what will make me happy? What will make me happy right now is for my father’s name to be cleared. What would make me happy is to have the murderer arrested and rot in jail for the rest of his life, and then to bring him back to life and have him rot another lifetime!”
 
 
 
 

Chapter 47
Chapter 45
Site Index