Thanks for the feedback on the last chapters of
Schemes of Deception, this chapter starts part
two! Hope everyone enjoys, now that part one is
over it should move along faster!

Both couples had driven home in uncomfortable silence,
not sure what to think. They were all thrilled for
Eve, but Whitney's words had stunned everyone- what
if there was a possibility that Julian was not the
father?

Eve and T.C. had needed a moment alone, to try to
figure out how to soften the blow when breaking the
news to Simone, hoping that she would not handle this
the same way Whitney had.

Julian sat on a bench at the wharf, and buried his
face in his hands.

"How can this be happening?" Julian asked. He began
to remember several of his past mistakes, affairs,
and times when he had let others convince him to
make bad choices, causing him to get into situations
that he couldn't get out of, and he had hurt others
trying to keep secrets, having the truth come out at the worst moments,
but back then, he was Julian Crane, the coward. He let Alastair talk him out of
marrying Eve, and marrying Ivy Winthrop instead, and
being miserable with her. He took Rebecca, because
she had been desperate for the Crane lifestyle, and
threw herself at him. He had began to cheat on her,
and still hadn't told anyone that he was the father of
Tabitha Lennox's baby. He had let Rebecca blackmail
him about taking orders from Alastair, and causing
the boat explosion. That was when he began to realize
that he had made a huge mistake in abandoning Eve, as
a result of not being there for her, not even knowing
that she had been pregnant, Alastair had been able to
step in and have their son taken away, and to this day, they still didn't
know where he was. Without the Crane money and resources,
the search seemed next to hopeless. Julian wasn't going to give up, and he
was going to keep looking.

A realization hit Julian, and he felt like he had been punched in the stomach.
He felt like he was being punished for the things he
had done in the past. He had got up the nerve and
stood up to Alastair, not letting it change his
mind when Alastair disinherited him, without a cent,
all he had been left with was the money he had access to in the mansion.
He had used a portion of that money to buy a house for him and Eve, they had barely
been there a day, and the house had gone up in flames. They
had moved into the Russells, and things
had been going great for both couples. Things had
started to turn out for the best, but just when
things were going well, Alastair had sent the tape of
Rebecca sending Ivy's love letters revealing that Ethan was Sam Bennetts son,
and gloating about Theresa's destruction. They had managed to sort
everything out, and realized that Alastair had tried to set Rebecca up, and try to start fights between
the couples. He felt bad for Rebecca, when she was
finally starting to adjust and get her act together,
Alastair tried to pull something like this to try to
ruin her relationship with T.C., one of the first real relationships she had,
if they hadn't realized who the tape was from, Alastair could have easily
provoked Rebecca into going back to her old ways, and she could have
lost her relationship with T.C.

After they had gotten that straightened out,
she had found out that there was
a possibility that T.C. could be the father of Eve's
baby, since there had been enough time before the couples had split up.
When he was still Alastair's heir, he could
have locked himself in his library, listening to his
tapes, but now, he actually had to deal with these
situations instead of putting them off, trying to keep people from finding
out about them. Julian just
hoped that he was the father of Eve's baby, he badly
wanted the life that Alastair had taken away from them.

"Simone should be home from Tabitha's any minute,"
Eve said.

"I just hope that she handles it better than Whitney did," T.C. said.

"Sometimes I feel like I don't even know Whitney anymore," Eve said,
picking up Whitney's picture after winning a tennis match off of the stand
besides the couch. "I hope that Kay is with her when she comes home,
it might not come as much of a shock if she has someone who could try
to calm her down," Eve said. Eve wished that Julian were here right now,
but she knew that it would be easier for their daughter if not as many
people were around when she was told.

"Simone always takes everything so hard," T.C. said.