Unexpected Happenings, Chapter 16
 
 
 

TC got up and turned on the lights in the living room, and went back to sit next to Eve.

" I…I have something to tell you."

" Ok, Honey, just tell me."

TC looked at his wife. Her eyes. She loved him. She really loved him and he knew it.

" Eve. You know that I love you. Our marriage has meant the world to me."

" I know, TC. It means the world to me too. I've thought often that we were so lucky to find one another. Nothing means more to me than our family. "

" Yes..well….well, this is hard for me to tell you. I…I never thought I would say anything like this to you."

" TC…you're scaring me. Just tell me so that I know it's not serious."

TC took a deep breath, and then looked at the floor. As he exhaled, the words came out of his mouth:

" I had an affair."
 

Julian looked out of his window, across the Crane Estate. How different things were back when he married Ivy. Alistair was in charge, and this was a command performance for him. He married Ivy because Alistair told him to. He had no choice in the matter.

Julian thought about Alistair often. He had to say that he missed his father. Just because he was his father, and Julian knew that Alistair died and Julian had never gotten his father's approval. He would always want it, and never got it. But, a bigger part of Julian was so glad Alistair was dead. Though Julian drank tonight, he realized a few weeks ago, just how little he was drinking these days. How when the telephone rang now, he didn't get a knot in his stomach.

Julian hadn't told Rebecca, but, over the course of the past few months, he had approached Ethan about forming some sort of friendship. Julian realized how much he had missed Ethan, and he had apologized to him for his mistreatment of him. Ethan said that Julian's rejection hurt, and that it had made him gunshy, but that if he had wanted to think about, he missed Julian too, and wanted him in his life. They agreed to take things nice and slow, and Ethan was even considering taking a position in Crane Industries' legal department.

Julian thought about Rebecca. For the good of the company and the family, he really did need to be the stabilizing force for the Cranes. Now that Alistair was gone, it was his responsibility, and he would be damned if the Cranes would die off with him. Wasn't going to happen. Rebecca would be a perfect Crane Wife. Not as classy as Ivy, he had to admit, but, at least this wife wanted him around, and he wouldn't have to sniff around every whore he could find. He could pick and choose his mistresses. Julian thought of Suzanne and a smile came across his face. He had arranged for Suzanne to get a job in San Francisco - he would have to look her up when he traveled there.

So, while Rebecca had her flaws, she would be a good Mrs. Julian Crane, and understood the bottom line for him, which always helped.

Julian was ready to marry again. Even though it was for the family again, it was HIS CHOICE this time, which made a great deal of difference.
 

" What did you say?", Eve asked.

" I had an affair."

Eve shook her head. " No, that's not possible. You would never have an affair. You're not that kind of man. Why would you lie to me about this, TC?"

" Eve, I'm not lying. I had an affair. Actually, it was a one-night stand."

Eve got up from the couch and began pacing in front of the fireplace. " No. This can't be happening. What? When? Who? WHY? WHY would you do this to us? TO ME?"

" I…I didn't plan it. It just…"

" PLEASE don't insult me and say that it 'just happened'! How the hell do you sleep with someone and it 'JUST HAPPENS'? What about our marriage? Our family? How could you?" , Eve said, tears streaming down her face.

TC goes over to his wife and attempts to touch her, but she pulls back from him.

" DON'T! Since you can't keep your hands off another woman, don't put them on me..EVER AGAIN!!"

" Eve…we have to talk about this. We have to discuss it."

" Discuss it. Why? What did I do, TC? What didn't I do? What was lacking that you felt you had to go out and find another woman to fuck? Was I not PERFECT enough for you? You've found a better example of PERFECTION?"

" No, Eve, you're the perfect wife and mother."

" Then, WHY? You needed MORE? What? What could you need that you would throw away over 20 years of marriage? Oh…Oh My God, you're in love with her? That's what's missing here. You LOVE her!"

TC wanted to rebuke his wife's assertion. He wanted to take her in his arms, and tell her that she was the only woman in his heart and soul. But, his body wouldn't let him. He stood there frozen, and for both of them, his silence was deafening.

" This is the part where you swear your undying love and allegiance to me, TC. It's in the male handbook, you should have read the section.", Eve said with bitterness dripping on every word. " You're in love with someone else.", Eve repeats to no one in particular.

" I…I didn't mean for this to happen."

" WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU MEAN, THEN? Do you have ANY idea of the sacrifices that I've made? Do have any idea of what I've done in order to be in this relationship? " Eve begins to laugh.  " The oh-so-righteous Thornton Chandler Russell. His morals always in check. A man above reproach. Walking the straight-and-narrow. What a FINE example of manhood. "

"Eve.."

" WHAT? What do you expect me to say? If ANYONE had told me that you COULD hurt me this way, I would have called them a liar. Not MY husband. TC would NEVER hurt me this way. I literally would have bet my life on it." Eve begins to cry again. As TC approaches her, she raises her hand.

" NO! I need nor want any comfort from the man who would destroy our family like this. So tell me, TC. Who is she? Who is the whore that you find so appealing that she's worth throwing away over 20 years of your life."

" It doesn't matter."

" The hell it doesn't, mutherfucker. You stand here, and tell me that you've cheated on me, and you don't think I should know WHO she is? Oh yes, I wanna know who she is. I wanna know, if only to spit on her when I see her walking down the street. So, who is she?"

" We shouldn't get into that."

" Oh no, why not?"

" Because, there is more."

" More? What the fuck do you mean, MORE? It isn't enough that our marriage is in the toilet. That you broke your wedding vows and took a sledgehammer to our family. " Eve picks up a picture of the 4 of them and smashes it to the floor. " THAT is what you did when you slept with that BITCH! You shattered everything that I THOUGHT we were trying to teach our daughters. You say that there is more. Outside of you breaking your vows, destroying this family, and telling me that you love the whore, what else could there be?"

TC was silent, and Eve looked down to the picture. " Oh my God, she's pregnant? THAT is what's worse?" TC's silence infuriates Eve to the point where she takes the poker from its place near the fireplace, and begins to swing it wildly, smashing anything that comes in contact with it.

TC finally yells out, " Yes, she's pregnant."

Eve stops for a minute, and then begins around the room again, only stopping when it looks like there is nothing left to break. She weeps as she holds the poker in her hand.

" You've reduced us to fodder for a cheap talk show. I hate you for that. I HATE YOU."
Eve throws down the poker and walks towards the door, but before she leaves, she turns around and looks TC in the eye,

" I told you. I want her name. After 20 years, you OWE me that much."

TC stared at his wife, and decided that it couldn't get any worse, so let all the truth be revealed.

" It's Grace."

Eve stared at her husband for a few moments, and everything was so still, that when she came at him, it was as if in slow motion. But, quicker than he could respond, she had knocked him to the ground, and was beating him on his chest, clawing at him. He had never seen that kind of rage in Eve, that poured from every fiber of her being, as she yelled at him.

" You fucked MY BEST FRIEND? The two most pious and self-righteous people that I know cheated on me and destroyed my life? I HATE YOU!"

Eve slapped TC with one hand, and clawed him with the other, drawing blood. She got off of him and ran out of the house, grabbing only her keys.

TC slowly sat up, looked around the room, and began to cry.
 

" I had an affair….I had an affair….yes, she’s pregnant…..it’s Grace."

These sentences kept going round and round in Eve’s mind. She wanted to will them to get out of her mind, but she knew that they were true. It was no nightmare. Her husband had betrayed her with her best friend, and gotten her pregnant. And, Eve couldn’t forget TC’s non-answer when she had asked him if he was in love with the other woman. Don’t ask, don’t tell doesn’t work in this situation. His silence was a damning confirmation.

Eve wasn’t thinking as she was driving. Between the heavy rain, and the tears forming like puddles in her eyes, she could barely see. She had no sense of direction, where she was going was irrelevant; the only thing she wanted to do was to get as far away from Harmony as possible. She couldn’t believe that the life she had fought so hard for all these years had disintegrated in a matter of minutes. Her picture perfect world gone, and the irony was not lost on her that after everything SHE had done, it was TC that had destroyed their relationship.

" How could he? How could he?", was all Eve could say as her tears grew heavier. She didn’t see the road sign warning her of a sharp turn, and therefore, she didn’t see the tree until it was too late.