New Beginnings, Chapter 9
 

Eve was in the doctor’s office, when she finally came in.

" Eve, I’m so glad that you came in to see me."

" The nurse made it seem important."

" It is. I found what’s wrong with you."

Eve sighed. " That’s such a relief. The not knowing is the worst. So, what isit, and what’s our course of action?"

" Well, the only course of action I can tell you is that you’ll need to get plenty of rest and eat healthy for the next seven and a half months."

" Excuse me? I don’t think that I follow you. "

" Eve, nothing is wrong with you. You’re pregnant!"

Eve looked at the doctor with utter disbelief.
 
 

" EVE RUSSELL is Chad’s mother? The…the same Eve Russell that I know?", Sheridan asked Julian with confusion in her voice.

Julian nodded. " Eve is Chad’s mother."

" But, how?"

" I thought you said that Orville told you the story."

" He said that Chad’s mother was a singer."

" Eve used to sing. She has a glorious voice. Smoky, full of life and expression. God, could she sing.", Julian was taken back to the time when he and Eve met. Sheridan could see that Julian was leaving her, and called himback.

" Julian, please stay with me."

" Sorry, Sheridan. I was in the past."

" So, I see. Eve Russell is Chad’s mother. But, Julian, TC HATES you. Is THIS the reason why?", Sheridan asks, believing that she’s stumbled onto the answer to a puzzle.

Julian shakes his head. " No, TC hates me for something entirely different. He doesn’t know about Eve and I. He has no idea about Eve’spast life. And, if he were to find out, he’d kill me."

" Julian, I know that people can get upset."

" Sheridan, believe this, if you can’t believe anything else. TC Russell hates the Cranes. The only difference between him and Luis, is that Luis WILL follow the letter of the law, and try to ‘punish’ Father and I for what he thinks happened to his father. TC doesn’t give a damn about the law. He goes by the old rules: an eye for an eye. The minute he finds out that Eve and I were together, he will come after me and try to kill me. I don’t doubt that for a minute."

Sheridan shakes her head. " So, what are you going to do?"

" For now, I can’t worry about TC. I have to worry about Chad. Sheridan, if we try and keep this secret, Father wins. Not only does he win, but, we’re giving him a window of opportunity to try and hurt Chad."

" You think he would?", Sheridan asks meekly.

Julian looks at his sister with sympathetic eyes. " Sheridan, I know that it must seem like someone just told you that there was no Santa Claus for the first time, but, this is not the time for sentimentality. If Father planned to kill an innocent baby, doyou really think that it would be hard for him to kill a grown man? A man who was a direct threat to the Crane Empire?"

" Julian, I don’t understand. How could Chad be a threat?"

" You remember Great-Grandfather Julian?"

" Stories about him."

" Well, remember, he wasn’t a legitimate Crane. He was illegitimate, and had to fight for his place at the Crane Empire, and wound up taking it over. And, he wanted it to be the same for the Eldest Crane. In his will, he has written that whomever is the Eldest Male Crane will become the Heir to the Empire. He allowed for the patriarch to skip one generation, but, that was all. Father could skip me, and put Ethan in my place, because Ethan was supposedly the Eldest Male Crane of his generation."

" But, Ethan isn’t your son. Chad is."

" That’s right. What old man Julian began, HIS son, our grandfather reinforced and had written. The clauses in the will say that Father can’t change things,but, I can , if I want to. So, Father is bound by the old rules."

" And, with Ethan out of the way….that makes CHAD the Eldest Male Crane. That makes him the Heir."

" Exactly. And, Father won’t tolerate that."

" He will, if WE don’t’ give him a choice."

" Sheridan.", Julian began, taking her hand. " Do you mean this? Will you stick by me? I’m going to admit now, that Father is going to try and divide and conquer us, Sheridan. He’s going to threaten and bully. He’s going to tell you things about me that aren’t flattering to try and turn you against me. If you don’t think you can do it, Sheridan, please tell me now. I have to know what strategy to plan."

Sheridan smiled sweetly at Julian.

" Julian, I have no intentions of abandoning you now. WE can be a family,Julian. But, I have my own conditions too."

Julian looks at Sheridan and smiles slightly. " Spoken likea true Crane, Sheridan. Let’s see if I can live with your conditions."

" I’ll give you my support where Chad is concerned, if you’ll give me your support where Luis is concerned. I love him, Julian. Shouldn’t I have love?"

" Father hates Luis, Sheridan. I can’t promise you what Father won’t do, but, I can promise you from me, that I will not interfere where you and Luis are concerned. Besides, I might need Law Enforcement before it’s all over."

Sheridan kisses Julian. " Thank you, Julian. So, what areyou going to do."

" First thing is that I’m going to secure and recheck all my private accounts;those out of Father’s reach. And, I’ll do the same for you."

" I don’t need the money if I have Luis."

" Sheridan, stop being ridiculous. You can give it all away, if you want. But,I’ll make sure you’ll have the money Mother wanted for you."

" I thought I only got it when I married."

" Another lie. Half of it was made available when you turned twenty-five, but,Father never wanted you to know. "

" I’ll be.."

" I know. "

" But, how will you get it away from Father."

Julian smiles. " It seems our Mother never trusted Father either. I’ve been overseeing it ever since she died."

" You?"

" Yes. And, if I say so myself, I’ve been pretty shrewd with it. A lot of it was high-risk investments, but, they’ve paid off handsomely."

" How handsomely?", Sheridan asks curiously.

" Oh, to the tune of two hundred forty- seven million dollars, last time I checked, a few months ago."

Sheridan looked at Julian in shock.

" You’re kidding me."

" Sheridan, you know me. I NEVER kid about money."

" But, that’s beyond what the officials investors have done with my trust."

Julian smiled. " I know. I’m very proud of my investing saavy."

" Julian, if you have that kind of money, then why…"

" Why have I been willing to be father’s virtual slave? Never underestimate greed, Sheridan. Only someone born like we were, could think that a few hundred million ‘is not enough’. I mean, why ‘settle’ for a measly few hundred million,when Father dangled the Crane Billions in front of me like the enticing carrot it is."

" What about now? Father will still dangle that carrot, Julian."

" I know, Sheridan. But, now, he doesn’t have a choice. If he can’t separate us, he’ll have to deal with us. He’ll have to deal with me. He’ll have two choices for Heir: Me or Chad. What’s the likelihood that he’ll choose Chad?"

Sheridan giggles just thinking about it. " Oh, Julian, he’s going to be furious."

" Pissed off is the term I think people use."

" Livid…..Julian, will it work?"

" It HAS to. But, we have to be shrewd, Sheridan. We have to be prepared. Fatherwill blow up a windstorm, but, when all is settled, he’ll be forced to deal with us. He’ll be forced to sit down and take us seriously. We have to protect Chad, though. "

" I’ll do whatever I have to."

" Good. This is between us…for now. Once all the finances are straight, and I have some legal paperwork drawn up, then I’ll tell Chad who I am. Promise me, you won’t tell anyone,Sheridan. Not even Luis."

" I promise, Julian."

Julian kisses his sister on the cheek. " Very few people have had faith in me like you just did, Sheridan. How did you know that I wouldn’t tell you to keep quiet about Chad and forget about what you found?"

" I wanted to believe in you, and I was going to tell you that if  YOU didn’t welcome Chad into the family, I WOULD."

Julian laughed.

" Where DID you get that spirit from? You know it annoys Father to no end?"

Sheridan laughed. " I think that’s why I enjoy it so much."

Julian and Sheridan got up off the rocks, and began to walk back to their cars. They both knew that they had turned a corner in their relationship, but, were unsure of what was going to happen next…..yet, they would face it together.
 

Chad and Theresa were walking in the park after their dinner. They were enjoying the silence, when Theresa asked Chad,

" What are you thinking about?"

Chad was taken offguard by Theresa’s question. He couldn’t tell her that he was thinking about how right it felt to be walking here with HER. What about Whitney? He thought THEY had something special. Yet, in the moonlight, looking into Theresa’s eyes, ‘damn, a man could get lost in them’,he thought.

So lost……

Chad didn’t even know what he was doing when he began to kiss Theresa. He was pleasantly surprised when she responded.

Chad pulled away from her, and looked at her.

" I don’t know what I’m doing.", Chad said, and walked away from Theresa.

Theresa looked up at the sky and said to no one in particular, " I do, Chad. You’re falling for me. I’m going to become Mrs. Crane after all."