New Beginnings, Chapter 2
 
 
 

" Chad Harris? Chad Harris is Julian’s son?", Sheridan asked Orville.

" Yes. He’s your brother’s son."

" How can that be?"

" It’s true. Him being named Chad Harris was what made me think that it was providence that I was there."

" How so?"

" Chad’s mother had initially asked Crystal Harris to use her father’s name- Chad, for her son. But, by the time that the baby was going to be born, she had changed her mind. She had chosen a name for the baby that had special meaning to her.

But, she was never going to get to use it.

When I saw that the dead baby had been named by the nursing staff ‘Chad Harris’, I took it as a sign. "

" How do you know that this Chad Harris was the baby that you had dealt with?"

" Because, he had the birthmark on him. I had been there, in his mother’s room, when she first went over the baby, and I remember her commenting on his birthmark. I checked this Chad Harris when he came to town, and sure enough, he had a birthmark in the exact same place.

When you’ve done something as horrible as I’ve done, it eats away at you. Wears you down. I realized that I really wasn’t fit to live in the world, and so, I dropped out of the world. But, it still didn’t help. I was still haunted at night. Wondering about that little boy. Still seeing his mother’s face, when she left the hospital without her baby, and truly without hope for the first time in her life. Images like that, you never forget.

I…..I can’t face them. I can’t even tell them that I’m sorry, because there is no way that they should even want to be in the same room with me. I know I’m going to hell, but, I wanted to make this right. I wanted them to know that I was sorry."

" Chad’s mother – who is she?"

" I can’t tell you. Your brother will know. "

" Tell me."

" No."

" You’ve come this far…tell me who his mother is!", Sheridan demanded.

Just then, Orville began to cough wildly, and nothing Sheridan could do would help him, so she ran into the hall, calling for Muriel, the nurse. Muriel rushed in, but by then, Orville was still. Too still. Muriel called out for the crash cart, and she, and some others, tried to revive them, but, it was too late. He was dead.

Muriel looked at Sheridan, " Excuse us, Sheridan. But, we have to follow some procedures."

Sheridan nodded and left the room, but, not before she picked up the tape recorder. She walked with a daze, to her locker. Removed her coat and purse, took the tape out, and slipped it into her purse. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but, she had to leave that place now.
 
 

Ivy is sipping a glass of wine, when Rebecca breezes in.

" Hello, Ivy!"

" Rebecca. What the hell are you doing here?"

" I’m here to see my fiance, Julian."

" Well, MY HUSBAND, Julian, isn’t here. "

" Where is he?"

Ivy folded her arms and smirked. " Wouldn’t you like to know. But, since he’s gone, and I’m here, I’m telling you to get the hell out of MY house!"

" It won’t be yours for much longer."

" Hell will freeze over, Rebecca, before YOU are Mrs. Julian Crane. Julian and I will NEVER divorce."

" Ivy…Ivy…Ivy….why are you fighting the inevitable?"

" Rebecca…why are you so delusional? You can sleep with Julian as much as you want. But, you WONT do it in THIS HOUSE, and it WONT do you any good? Julian’s never getting a divorce, so you better look elsewhere for a new hubby."

" I’ll be Mrs. Julian Crane."

" I don’t think so, you tacky slut. Now, I’ll count to five. If you’re not out of this house by then…I’ll have you thrown out."

" You wouldn’t dare."

" Don’t tempt me then."

Rebecca sashays herself out of the Crane Mansion.

Ivy shakes her head, and thinks about the threat of Martin that she laid at Julian’s feet.

The phone rings, and Ivy goes to pick it up.

" Ivy Crane."

" Ivy. It’s Alistair."

" Alistair. Well.."

" Julian’s told me of the threat that you made about Martin Fitzgerald. Unwise move, Ivy."

" I meant it, Alistair."

" You open your mouth one word about Martin Fitzgerald to Luis, and, I’ll make sure that YOU get a phone call. From one of those backwoods hospitals in Appalachia…telling you about how Ethan has been involved in a ‘terrible accident’. But, you and I will know that it was no accident."

Ivy felt her knees nearly give out from her, and she gripped the desk.

" Do we understand, one another, Ivy?"

" Yes.", she said meekly.

" If you find another way to stay married to Julian, I won’t give a damn. But, you threaten ‘us’ with Martin Fitzgerald again, and you’ll live to regret it."

Alistair clicks off the phone, leaving Ivy shaking. She hurries to her phone book, and makes a call.

" Ethan? How are you?"
 
 

Theresa had been driving almost like a mad woman, and she didn’t even know where she was going, until she realized that she was at the Russell House.

She went up the back stairway to Chad’s apartment and knocked on the door. Chad opened the door.

" Hey, Theresa. Whazzup?", Chad asked, motioning her into the apartment.

" Not much."

" You sure? You don’t look so good. Something looks like it’s bothering you."

Theresa looked at Chad. " If you only knew", she said to herself. Theresa couldn’t believe it. Julian Crane was Chad’s father.

" You hear from Ethan?….Theresa? Theresa?"

Theresa turned to look at Chad. " Huh?"

" I asked if you were upset because you had heard from Ethan. I got a letter from him this morning."

" Then that makes THREE more than I’ve gotten.", Theresa says, with bitterness in her voice.

" Theresa, give him time. He’ll write."

" Time? TIME? He needs ‘time’. I’ve got nothing BUT time since Ethan dumped me.

I loved him SO much, Chad. Why wouldn’t he forgive me?", Theresa asks.

Chad looked at his friend. He felt bad for her. Even though he had warned her, in his heart, he truly had thought that Ethan and Theresa’s love was strong enough to weather the storm. But, it hadn’t been.

Once Ethan found out that he wasn’t a Crane, his life went into a tailspin. He had hung onto Theresa like a liferaft. Having to have this rock of ‘truth’ in his life. He wanted to get married right away, and they had been planning a small wedding in the Lopez-Fitzgerald Living Room.

[FLASHBACK]

Theresa was in her bedroom, and had just put on her wedding dress, when Ethan barged into the room.

" Ethan! You shouldn’t be here. I’m in my wedding dress. We can see one another in a couple of hours."

" A couple of hours? Oh, I don’t think so. "

" Ethan, what’s wrong?", Theresa said, getting nervous.

" Were you EVER going to tell me the truth? Or, were you going to continue to let me believe the lies."

" Ethan, I don’t know.."

" I KNOW, Theresa! I KNOW! I KNOW that you knew who I was."

" What? Ethan? Huh? What?"

" I know that you KNEW  that I wasn’t a Crane. I KNOW that you had my mother’s private papers. That you scanned them into your computer, and just left them there."

" That’s not true!"

" What’s not true? That you DIDN’T know I was a Crane? That you DIDN’T have my mother’s papers? That you DIDN’T tell me? Which part am I unclear on, Theresa?"

" Ethan, it wasn’t like that. I…I…"

" Simple question, Theresa: DID YOU KNOW THAT I WAS SAM BENNETT"S SON?…..Well?"

" Yes.", Theresa meekly answers.

" Ok, simple question #2. DID YOU HAVE MY MOTHER’S PAPERS IN YOUR COMPUTER?"

Theresa nods.

" I don’t hear an answer.", Ethan says coldly.

" Yes.", she mumbles.

"So, the answer to my simple questions has given me all the answers that I need. "

" Ethan, you don’t understand…I did it because I love you."

" Because you LOVE me? What the HELL do you know about Love? We were going to be MARRIED, Theresa? What the hell kind of marriage can you have when you BEGIN it with LIES? Julian and Ivy’s? As IF I wanted that for myself."

" I want to know WHO told you this?"

" You want to know WHO? Just like you to try an confuse the issue. It wouldn’t matter if Satan himself had told me it. The thing that’s WRONG is that YOU, and YOU alone, LIED TO ME – your fiance. The man you were vowing to spend the rest of your life with. Don’t blame this on whomever told me. I’ve dealt with them too."

It was true. Ethan couldn’t believe Gwen’s confession to him just an hour ago. She told Ethan that she was sorry for hurting him. That she had meant to hurt Theresa, and him, for hurting her. She apologized for turning into someone that she didn’t even recognize, and that she was leaving town at that minute, on her way to the airport. She hoped that one day Ethan would be able to forgive her. At first, he hadn’t want to believe Gwen: not that she would hurt him that way, or that Theresa could  be lying to him. But, he knew, looking into Gwen’s eyes, that she was telling the truth. He had felt like the ultimate fool. He wanted to yell at Gwen and lash out at her, but, for the first time, Ethan really looked at Gwen, and realized the depths of her devastation, and that he had caused it. He had been oblivious to Gwen’s pain, because, he was a Crane, and whatever was important to him was all that was supposed to matter. He had been raised in that since birth. Now, he knew that it wasn’t true.

He had to get over to the L-F house to confront Theresa. It was the last straw for him.

" Ethan…we can talk about it. We can get through this. We love one another."

" Love? What do I know about love? I don’t know anything about it? Nothing real. Everyone who has ever said that they loved me, outside of Sheridan, has done nothing but lie and betray me. Love isn’t real. It’s definitely nothing that I believe in anymore. I would have told anyone…ANYONE that tried to tell me anything bad about you, that I KNEW that I could trust you implicitly. That I KNEW that our love could withstand anything, because it was built in truth and honesty. What a fool I was.", Ethan says bitterly.

" Ethan, it’s not true. I Love you. I was only trying to protect you."

" Protect me? From what?"

" Because, I knew how much being a Crane meant to you."

" If you knew that, then why did you have the documents in the first place?"

" Well, remember, I thought you had chosen Gwen. That you were using me."

" So, you got them for REVENGE? The most devastating news of my life, and you were thinking REVENGE?"

" No. I never used them!"

" Only because I came to the plane. What was going to happen, Theresa, you’d get to some foreign place, and then you’d send off the documents?"

" No! I would have never done that to you!"

" And I’m supposed to believe this because…."

" Because you know me!"

" Correction, I thought I knew you……OK, if you weren’t going to use them on me, then why did they stay in your computer."

" I…I had to make sure that you would choose me!"

" WHAT?"

" I was going to tell you if you had chosen Gwen! Because, I knew that you would only choose her because you were a Crane, and you thought that was what your family wanted!"

Ethan shook his head. " I don’t believe this! You had no intention of telling me, UNLESS, I had decided  that I had wanted Gwen. It had NOTHING to do with me having a better family life with the Bennetts…it was all about YOU getting ME? What the hell?"

" No, Ethan. Can’t you see? I love you! I’ve always loved you."

" How can you call love’s name? How can I for that matter. You were willing to destroy my life, as long as I wound up with you. That is NOT love."

" You’re twisting everything around. You’re not understanding!"

" For the first time, in a LONG time, I’m understanding everything. You’re a liar. I can’t believe that I was actually thinking that I was better off without my family, because I had you. What a crock."

Ethan turns to leave, and Theresa grabs his arm.

" Ethan…we’re supposed to be married today."

" Married? I never want to see you again, let alone marry you."

Theresa followed Ethan to the door pleading with him.

" Ethan, please….we love one another..please…please..please..", she cries.

Ethan leaves the L-F House, and Theresa slinks to the ground, on her knees, right at the front door of the L-F House.

" Ethan…please don’t go. Please don’t. ", she cries out to no one in particular.

Pilar and Luis came in from the kitchen, with the last of the dishes that were to be served at the reception. They heard Theresa’s sobs, and they rushed to her.

" Theresita, what’s wrong?", Pilar asks. Luis looks on in deep concern. " Theresa."

They lead her back to one of the seats set up for the wedding. Pilar is stroking Theresa’s hair. " What’s wrong?"

" E….Ethan was here. The wedding’s off."

" WHAT? The wedding’s off?! I KNEW he would hurt you. I’m going to kill him!", Luis says, going towards the front door.

" Luis, NO! NO!", Theresa yells. " This has nothing to do with you. This is my fault. All my fault. You have no right to say anything to Ethan.", Theresa says, tears streaming down her face. Theresa walks around the room, and looks towards the Altar of flowers that she had helped design. " Today was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. And, now, it’s the worst."

Theresa runs towards her bedroom, and Luis wants to go after her, but Pilar stops him.

" No, Luis. Let her deal with it on her own. We have things to do. I have to begin calling people, and you have to start taking down all of these decorations. " Luis nodded to Pilar, and he began to fold the guest chairs, and put them back into the organizer that came with them. Pilar began making her phone calls, the first to Father Lonigan.

[ END OF FLASHBACK]

That was the last time Theresa had seen Ethan. He had volunteered for a legal aid progam in Appalachia, and was on his way the next morning. He had told Chad that he had to ‘find himself, and a sense of purpose for his life’. And basically sort through everything that had happened.

Chad had tried to tell her that Ethan would eventually come around, but, Theresa knew…in her heart, that it was over. Ethan had written Sheridan, Chad and even Ivy. But, not her. She knew it would never come.

Theresa looked over at Chad. A secret that she had kept, had cost her love. She would never make that mistake again. Chad was one of her good friends. A friend who had given her terrific advice, and hadn’t abandoned her when it all blew up in her face. The least she owed Chad was the one truth he had been seeking since he showed up in Harmony.

" Chad….I have something to tell you."