The Fine Print - Chapter 3
by yhh
Julian listened to the stillness of the mansion. He had not been able
to sleep at all last night. Although he and Eve had been able to convince
the emotionally drained Fox and stoic Whitney to spend the night. Much to
his displeasure, Eve had not.
He had tried to convince Eve to stay, but she, of course, refused. Shortly
after midnight, they heard Gwen and Ethan return and head directly to Ethan-Martin’s
room.
For the first time in years, all of his children were under one roof,
minus his newest, Endora. Julian opened his desk drawer and pulled out two
pictures. One was a family portrait taken years ago with Ivy and the kids.
His finger gently traced Ethan, his son with Eve. How could he have not
known, not sense it?
When he thought of all of Ethan’s good traits, he knew they came from
Eve. And Ethan’s inability to give up the fun and easy Theresa for the strong,
life-long lasting love Gwen had, reeked of himself. He gave up Eve for the
easy life with Ivy. But unlike with him, his Father’s intervention left Ethan
with the better woman, Gwen. That was if, his daughter-in-law could learn
to trust and believe in her husband again.
He knew he hadn’t been a great dad or even a semi-decent one. His life
was consumed by the pain of losing Eve and trying to forget it was his own
fault. But he felt like he had been making strides this year. He called Quinn
and Regan once a week, although they had been highly suspicious at first,
they were slowly coming around. Well to be honest, Quinn was coming around.
She was so much like Sheridan. Regan was still unsure. Although he mishandled
his treatment of Ethan after discovering Sam was Ethan’s father, he felt
since allowing Gwen and Ethan to adopt Ethan-Martin he’d been making inroads
to repairing the damage. Ethan was his son and a simple blood test didn’t
change that. Now with this latest discovery, hopefully their relationship
would continue to improve.
His rapport with Fox was rocky and maybe the most difficult. They were
so much alike in some ways. Though when it came to loe Julian knew Fox was
immensely smarter. Fox was committed to Whitney and wasn’t going to allow
anyone or anything stand in their way. Fox was stronger than him, he smiled
at that thought. It made him proud. All parents, including himself, wanted
their kids to be better than them and Fox was.
Julian picked up the second picture of Eve and her daughters. The girls
were about ten and seven in the picture. It had made the front page of the
Harmony Gazette accompanying a story about the annual hospital picnic. Upon
seeing the photograph, he called the photographer and bought the negative
of the photo and made a reprint. When Fox started showing real interest
in Whitney, his heart had been torn. He had always felt an affinity towards
Whitney since he’d seen her as a little girl around Harmony. The elevator
incident just cemented his feelings. He considered her a daughter.
There was an innocence and naiveté about Whitney, and underneath
the stubbornness and pig-headness Simone too, that was charming and old
fashioned, which was quite amazing considering who their best friends were.
He hadn’t wanted Fox to destroy that, but her relationship with Chad and
the subsequent knowledge that he was her half-brother, did a fine job of
that.
Who knew how the fact that Chad was no longer Whitney and Fox’s brother
changed the dynamics of everything? When he thought Chad was his son, he
had genuinely grown to care about him. Julian admired Chad’s tenacity, his
lack of excuses and self-pity due to his humble beginnings. He had recently
purchased recording studios in New York City, Nashville, Paris, London, Sydney,
Bombay, and Tokyo, so Chad could broaden his musical tastes and horizons.
He hoped they could still maintain a relationship.
Turning on the tape player, Eve’s melodic voice filled the room. With
bated breath, he waited for the love of his life to walk through the door.
Last night, they decided on an early morning confrontation- - No, he thought,
that wasn’t the right word. They agreed to talk, discuss with Ethan all that
happened yesterday. He had wanted to strike while the iron was hot, as soon
as Ethan and Gwen came back home. But Eve persuaded him to wait.
Antsy, he rose from his chair and paced, he was ready to reclaim his son,
daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. If Eve moved in and began their relationship
anew, life would be perfect. Caught up in his hopes for the future, he missed
Eve’s intense observation of him.
How could she love such a complex and sometimes devious man, she asked
herself. But she knew the answer; Julian captured her soul on that first
night so long ago in the dingy jazz club in Boston. She hadn’t known it at
the time and neither had he, but the fact remained so. Coughing, she made
her presence known. “Good Morning, Julian,” she greeted him.
With a bright smile, he embraced her, kissed her cheek, and stole a quick
kiss on the lips, though he longed to linger. “Morning, darling. Were you
able to rest at all last night?”
“No.”
“If you had stayed here, I would have made sure you got some sleep.”
Eve gave him a knowing look.
“I did say some,” he uttered with a wink.
She smiled, as she stopped the sounds of her own voice. Julian made her
smile in the midst of all of this madness and on one of the most important
days of their lives. Maybe it was time to give their relationship a true
chance and deal with the fallout from TC and Simone later. “Is everything
in order?”
“Yes. I took care of everything this morning.”
Eve noted the early hour. “Did you get any rest?”
He shook his head. “After everything is settled, then I’ll rest.”
“Are- -“
A little voice cried out, “You can’t catch me, Mommy.” Ethan-Martin dashed
into Julian’s office and hid behind a chair.
Seconds later, Gwen flew in in her silk rope. “I’m going to get you,”
she declared. Then suddenly noticing, Eve and Julian, she apologized. “I’m
so sorry. I didn’t know you were in here.”
“No, Gwen, it’s okay. Actually we were waiting for you and Eth- -“
“Gwen? Ethan-Martin?” Ethan called out as he stepped into the office.
“Am I interrupting anything?” he asked curtly.
“Eve and I wanted to talk to you,” Julian informed him.
“I can’t- -“ he started.
“Great- -,” Gwen replied.
Gwen and Ethan stared at each other for a moment, silently communicating.
“Okay,” he finally complied.
“Mommy, you haven’t found me?”
Gwen ran behind the chair, grabbed Ethan-Martin, and picked him up. “I
gotcha,” she said with glee.
Ethan-Martin laughed and laughed, totally oblivious to the tension in
the room.
“Baby, why don’t you go to the kitchen and have breakfast with Tina while
Daddy and I talk? Then afterwards, we’ll go to the park,” Gwen said.
“Yippee!! Are you coming too, Daddy?” Ethan-Martin asked from the security
of his mother’s arms.
“Of course, I’m coming,” Ethan smiled with a smile that didn’t reach his
eyes. Lifting his son from Gwen’s arms, he kissed Ethan-Martin’s cheek and
planted him on the floor. “Go eat, so you’ll have enough energy for the park.”
With a quick goodbye and a wave, the pre-schooler raced out of the room.
Closing his office door, Julian moved his chair to sit across from Gwen
and Ethan. “Shall we sit?” he suggested.
Eve sat next to him and to his utter delight reached for his hand as soon
as they sat down. He reminded himself to savor this moment later.
They all stared at each other for a few awkward moments before Julian
began.
Eve clutched Julian’s hand harder to keep herself from leaping out of
the chair and embracing Ethan like she would never let him go. Julian gave
her a reassuring squeeze back.
She consciously reminded herself not to stare too much or too intensely
at him, she didn’t want to make this situation any more stressful than it
was. But all she craved was to soak in every little bit of him, like she
had Chad all those years ago. She was dying to talk to him, to find out all
his likes, dislikes, his thoughts and feelings.
Had she ever had a real conversation with Ethan? In all the years, she
knew him, she didn’t think so. Ethan, over the years, was always the mannerable
and polite son of Julian and Ivy. And unfortunately in recent years, he became
the indecisive man who toyed and gave false hopes and promises to her Resa.
She felt like she stepped into an episode of the Twilight Zone. Directly
in front of her, sat her grown son with his arm wrapped around the back of
his wife’s chair as he listened to his father. Ivy's and Resa’s obsession
was her firstborn.
Wiping the stray tears from her eyes, she realized she missed the beginning
of the conversation. Eve instantly tuned in.
“Who will be performing the tests then?” Ethan inquired.
“A Dr. Robin Scorpio-Sword will take the necessary samples, this afternoon
from you, Ivy, Sam, Eve, myself, and Ethan-Martin,” Julian answered.
“Ethan-Martin?” Gwen questioned, puzzled.
Julian hated to be the bearer of more bad news to this sweet young woman,
but better safe than sorry. “In light of the charges against Theresa, I thought
it prudent to run another DNA test on him.”
The meaning of Julian’s statement was crystal clear. Gwen quickly tried
to mask her feelings as she felt her husband’s arm tightened around her.
Ethan leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I love you.”
Gwen gave him a faint smile.
“Dr. Scorpio-Sword will be accompanied by her husband, Adrian Sword, a
security expert. They will meet Robin’s aunt, Dr. Alexandra Devane-Merrick,
who will perform the test in a state of the art facility in Zurich owned
by Stefan Cassadine. Once the tests are completed, Alex will send us the
results on a secure line,” Julian concluded.
“How is Dr. Devane-Merrick related to Dmitri Merrick?” Ethan inquired.
“She’s his wife,” Julian paused and looked at everyone in the room, “Is
this an acceptable course of action?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good, then once that’s settled you can do away with this Winthrop nonsense,”
Julian informed his newly reclaimed eldest.
“Fat- - Julian, it wasn’t nonsense. It was the best solution. I felt I
couldn’t keep the Crane name and I didn’t feel comfortable taking Sam’s.
So claiming my mother’s maiden name was the best option.” Ethan countered.
Instantly, Ethan realized what he said. “I’m sorry, Eve. I didn’t mean to
be insensitive.”
Eve shook her head. “No, it’s okay. It will take us all a while to get
use to everything. And Ivy is your mother. She was the one who raised you,”
Eve said gently.
Julian snorted and Eve slapped his hand.
“She has been there for you and always will be,” Eve took a breath and
continued, “None of this is anyone’s fault, except Alistair and I hope he’s
burning in hell right now.”
“Here! Here!” Julian cheered.
“Now that all the official business is out of the way, do you have any
questions, Ethan? Are you curious about anything?” Eve asked, hoping she
kept the nervousness and anxiety out of her voice.
Glancing from his birth mother to his birth father and back again, a billion
questions screamed to be asked inside his head. “Did Julian get you hooked
on drugs?” he inquired, with a look of contempt in his eyes pointed at Julian.
“No,” Eve replied emphatically, “I did that on my own.”
Ethan looked at her with sheer disbelief.
“It’s true. You have to understand; I was a young woman on her own, living
a life of sin, as my aunt called it. I was on my own for the first time.
I was young, naïve. I had no one. I was the youngest person in the club.
Sometimes the band members had parties and the drugs would flow and I was
desperate to fit in, to be like them. The first time, I took drugs,” Eve
said, looking directly into her son’s eyes, “your Father was appalled, but
he masked it. He knew, I was running away from a judgmental family, so all
he asked was that I never drink or do drugs without him present. I think,
he thought if he couldn’t stop me, he could at least control how much or how
often.”
Eve paused and turned to Julian. “I never thanked you for that or for
diluting my drinks and for making sure my drugs weren’t the purest.”
“You knew about that?” Julian asked surprised.
“No, not then, but in medical school it clicked. Thank you.”
Reaching up, Eve tenderly caressed his face with her hand.
“Love, no thanks is necessary.”
Ethan stared at them. These were his parents. He, of course, heard the
rumors about Eve's and Julian’s relationship. One filled with sex, drugs
and rock n’ roll. Looking at them now, he wondered how much was true. Was
Eve telling the truth?
Julian stilled Eve’s hand and held it within in his own.
Gwen was touched by Julian’s gesture. The love between the two was very
apparent. She had never seen Julian this happy before. If Eve and Julian
overcame all the hardships of their relationship, and based on the rumors
around town and now Eve’s own confession, they were a lot, and endured over
twenty-five years apart, then there was hope that she and Ethan could overcome
Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald.
“Did you love her?” Ethan asked.
Julian gazed at his eldest son and replied firmly, “Yes. I love your mother
more than anything in the world. I always will and always have, even when
I didn’t act like it.”
“Then why did you abandon her when she was pregnant and alone, Julian?”
“Son, I was weak. I will forever be sorry and try to make it up to Eve.
I thought these trappings,” Julian gestured to the room and the furnishings,
“were something I couldn’t live without.”
“Julian, you graduated from Harvard Law, top of your class, your business
acumen is second to none. Anyone in the world would have been overjoyed to
have you in their employ. Hell, you could have started your own company,”
Ethan finished, frustrated.
Julian nodded. “Everything you said is true, but I was a coward, afraid
to start all over. Power is addicting. I had a taste of it- - Ethan, there
is no excuse for my behavior. All I can do is apologize and vow never to
do anything like that again,” he stated passionately.
“Did you love him?” Ethan asked Eve.
“With all my heart. I love him,” she replied.
Julian and Eve gazed at each other.
Watching them Ethan felt the stirrings of a headache, his mind rattled
trying to process all of this information and his tumultuous emotions. He
was on sensory overload.
Eve noticed that Ethan had had enough. He was close to the breaking point.
“Ethan, we don’t have to sort everything out right now. Just know that you
can ask us anything, at anytime,” Eve assured him.
“You may not always like the answers, but they will always be truthful,”
Julian continued.
“You too, Gwen,” Eve added.
“Thanks,” Gwen said.
“Mommy,” shouted Ethan-Martin, running into the study.
“Ethan-Martin Winthrop, did you knock?” his mother asked.
He shook his head.
“Go back and knock,” Gwen commanded.
The pre-schooler walked out of the room, closed the door, and knocked.
“May I come in?” he asked in a rush.
“Come in,” Julian answered.
Ethan-Martin entered and ran to his Grandfather. “Hi, Grandpa.”
“Hello.”
“Do you have any candy?”
Julian reached into his coat pocket and handed his grandson some peppermint
candies.
“Julian, Ethan-Martin, you just had breakfast,” Gwen reprimanded.
“It’s for later,” Julian responded, with a wink to Ethan-Martin.
Eve watched her love and her grandson. Oh my gosh, she had a grandson.
She was someone’s grandmother. Her heart overflowed with joy and sadness.
Joy for all that the future held and sadness for all they missed out on.
Seeing his mother hold her arms open, Ethan-Martin leapt into them.
“Ethan-Martin,” Gwen started, walking over to Eve, “I would like you to
meet your Grandma.”
“Hi, Granma,” he replied guilelessly.
Eve was speechless. This innocent little boy called her Grandma. Her baby
had a baby. “Hi,” she finally managed to say with a voice chalked full of
emotions.
“Are you going to the park with us?”
Eve shook her head with regret. “No, I have to do some things with Grandpa,
but next time I’ll, we’ll go with you,” she quickly added.
He nodded.
“Well, let’s go get dressed. Julian, what time should we be back?” Gwen
inquired.
“2PM should be fine,” Julian answered.
“See you then,” Gwen replied and the former Winthrop family left.
Eve fell into Julian’s arms and cried.