Chapter Seven

She stood at his door, watching him. It was amazing that he hadn’t saw her yet, but she couldn’t help but stare at him. He was reading a book, from what she could see it was some sort of baby book as he relaxed on his bed. He looked like the guy she had fell in love with, in his simple white t-shirt and ragged jeans. It had been so long since she had saw him dressed so plain, so Miguel. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever love her the way she loved him. All she could do was hope, and try to be herself, because that was the person he cared about.
"Good book?" She smiled walking in the room as he looked up at her.
His eyes were tired as he looked up at her, the stress of the last month had wore him down. "It’s nothing." He sighed. "Just a book of Theresa’s, follows the months of a pregnancy."
"And your reading it?" She asked arching her eyebrow amusement on her face.
"Kay, I want to know as much as possible." He frowned sitting up as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Well, would you rather read that book or watch a game with me?" She smirked.
"A game?" He grinned. "A football game or this book? Do you even have to ask?"
"Well I wasn’t sure, its been awhile since we watched anything together." She frowned.
"Yeah." Miguel lowered his head. "About that, Charity stopped by today."
Kay suddenly felt weak, she felt a knot fall in her stomach as she swallowed. "Charity, stopped by?" She mustered trying not to look him in the eyes. She couldn’t bare to see his face as he talked about sweet Charity.
"She was angry with me, wanted me to hurt." He spoke. "I don’t know, I think it just hurt her more. Kay, I told her about the shower, I told her a lot of things today and I don’t know how she’ll handle them."
Kay let out a deep breath. "You told her about the shower?"
"Yeah, she was pushing me to tell her the truth about things, and I did. I told her that with you I can be myself, and with her I never was. It was strange, saying all those things to her."
"Because you still love her?" Kay whispered fear taking over as she closed her eyes for a moment.
"Kay, there’s no easy way for me to answer that." Miguel sighed.
Shaking her head Kay moved closer to him. "I know you do Miguel, but I also know you care about me. We’ve always had something special Miggs, and even though we lost it once, we’ll get it back." She spoke forcing a smile.
"You seem pretty sure of that."
Kay shrugged. "I am." She knew she was lying to Miguel and herself. Of course she wasn’t sure, how could she really know how Miguel felt? "I saw your sister today, she offered to buy my wedding dress." Kay spoke hoping a change in subject would do them both good.
"My sister can’t afford to do that, she’s not a Crane anymore."
Kay frowned. "Your mother didn’t tell you?" She questioned. "Oh this isn’t good."
"Tell me? Tell me what Kay?"
"Your sister ran off and married Chad, something about him being the Crane heir. They just up and did it, I guess Pilar just didn’t want to worry you with it."
"My sister did what?" Miguel yelled. "Did you just say she married Chad?"
"Luis told me." Kay nodded.
"Has she lost her mind? Is she crazy? What was she thinking, how could she do something, so, so stupid?"
Kay smiled. "She’s Theresa, besides it could be worse, Chad’s a good guy."
"So why did he marry my sister?" Miguel fumed. "He knows how she is."
"Maybe that’s why he married her." Kay shrugged. "Miggs, Theresa is a grown woman with a son. You and Luis have to realize, she’s going to do whatever she wants, that’s who Theresa is. You just have to be there if she falls, but let her go, she seems pretty happy with this."
Miguel rolled his eyes. "The voice of reason." He frowned. "You and Theresa have never liked each other, why are you defending her?"
Kay laughed. "Trust me, I don’t question the things your sister does. I think she’s down right crazy, but she isn’t a child. When I saw her today, she was different, she bailed me out of a tight spot instead of rubbing it in my face."
"Tight spot?" Miguel asked.
"Mom saw me looking at those wedding dresses. I was just standing there staring at this beautiful white gown and mom came in and jumped me for it. She started in on me, because I’m not pure and white, well that’s only for those sweet pure girls." Kay frowned lowering her head. "Your sister saw her and offered to buy me any dress in the store."
"Kay, I’m sorry your mom did that." Miguel frowned touching her arm. "She had no right saying those things to you."
Kay moved away from Miguel, "I’m use to it Miguel, its okay really."
Miguel let out a huge sigh, taking Kay by her shoulder he turned her around on the bed. "Kay, you don’t deserve your mother’s treatment to you."
Looking up at him Kay felt warm tears fall down her face and she frowned. "Why doesn’t my mother love me?" She whispered her blue eyes glazed over by tears. "When did I stop being special to her Miguel? When did I stop being special to you?"
Miguel felt a lump in this throat, the truth was staring him in the face. He could see the pain in her eyes and he knew that he had hurt her deeply. She had spent the last few years trying to be special to him again. He had ignored her just like Grace had, both hovering over Charity instead. Slowly he took Kay in his arms, feeling her cries against his chest as he held her. "You are special." He whispered. "Do you hear me Kay? You are a special person, a beautiful woman."
"But I’m not Charity." She whimpered.
"I don’t want you to be Charity. Charity doesn’t get me like you do. I can tell you anything and you won’t judge me for it. Charity isn’t like that, she sees things differently. Its all black and white to her, good or bad, no in between."
"But you love that in her."
"Kay, I want you back." Miguel frowned taking her face in his hands. "I want the Kay Bennett back, that wasn’t afraid to be herself. You remember her don’t you? The girl who had no problem stomping me in a game of baseball, the girl who refused to laugh at my jokes if they weren’t funny. Give me that Kay back, because I know she’s still there. I miss that person, and I can tell you miss her too."
"I just wanted to be the person you liked."
"You are Kay. You are." Miguel whispered.
Miguel relaxed against his pillow as Kay rested her head on his chest. Wrapping his arm around her waist her held her next to him. For the first time in a long time, Miguel didn’t feel confused, he felt settled, calm. Looking down at Kay he smiled as she slowly closed her eyes. This was his life now, his future was in his arms and he knew he could make it work.
~*~*~*~
Theresa stood by the fire place in her bedroom a smile planted on her face as she stared at the pictures she held in her hands. Chad had excused himself and took Eve to the study to sort things out, so that left Theresa alone, ready to close the book on her love for Ethan.
"Ok so he looked stupid in that picture." She snickered throwing a picture of Ethan in the fire. "Oh my gosh what was I thinking wearing ‘that’?" She groaned as she looked at herself in a bright pink dress, Ethan by her side with a goofy grin. "In to the fire it goes." She smiled ready to toss the picture. Frowning she let out a sigh, carefully she ripped herself from the photo. "Much better." She laughed as she tossed the remaining part of the photo in the fire.
"Theresa! What are you doing?" Ethan’s voice shrieked.
"Did he always sound so girlie?" Theresa muttered to herself as she whirled around. "Ethan what are you doing here?" She questioned crossing her arms. "Julian kicked you out remember?"
"I left a few documents here." He frowned.
"Documents?" Theresa smirked. "You mean Gwen left documents here. We both know you have no job, and no need for documents."
"Yeah, well anyway." Ethan frowned. "Your burning our pictures! How can you do that Theresa? Those are photos of our love, of what we mean to each other."
"Meant Ethan, meant to each other. And I’m burning them because I have no need for them. We are no longer together, and I don’t want those pictures."
"But Theresa." Ethan sighed. "You love me."
"No, you love you Ethan. I told you, I have moved on from you. You should do the same, marry Gwen and raise your child."
"You must be playing some sort of game." Ethan frowned. "All you’ve ever wanted was to be my wife."
"Things change." Theresa shrugged. "Some people actually grow up Ethan, why don’t you give it a try?"
"What if I told you I was only marrying Gwen because she’s having my child? Would that change anything?" Ethan asked actually smiling as he stepped toward Theresa.
Theresa rolled her eyes, why hadn’t she saw it before? Ethan was more that a idiot, he was a low down sorry excuse for a man. "Listen to yourself Ethan, your pathetic. I don’t care why your marrying Gwen, what we shared is over!"
"We’ll never be over Theresa, not in our hearts!"
"Ethan, drop it." Theresa frowned. "Just go get Gwen’s papers and go."
Theresa turned her back staring down at a picture of her and Ethan right before their ‘almost’ wedding. "I look so young, so naïve." She whispered to herself.
"You look so in love." Ethan spoke over her shoulder. "Just like I do."
"And then life happened." Theresa answered back. "I had a baby, I grew up Ethan. I married Chad, and we are going to be the ‘right’ kind of Cranes. Don’t you see Ethan, Gwen getting pregnant was the best thing that could have happened to me! I’m going to have the life I always wanted, a beautiful son, a college education, my life its going to be good, without you."
"You’re doing this to make me jealous." Ethan pouted.
Theresa let out a laugh. "If I wanted to make you jealous, I would date someone, not marry them Ethan! This isn’t about you Ethan, for the first time in your life, something isn’t about you! Marrying Chad was for me, for my son, it had nothing to do with you or Gwen or whatever kind of relationship you two have."
"But Theresa."
"Stop it Ethan, just stop it!" Theresa yelled. "Don’t you get it? Its over, you ended it when you proposed to Gwen. You wanted to marry her and raise your child, so go do that. Go be a father to your child."
Ethan gasp as he watched Theresa turn and walk away from him. "No, she can’t be over me, can she?" He whispered to himself turned to head upstairs.
"Ethan." A soft voice cried. "Why can’t you just let her go?"
Ethan swallowed as he saw the face staring back at him. "Gwen."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Chad you can’t do this! You can’t allow yourself to be like these people. You’re not like the Cranes." Eve Russell frowned looking up at the young man she was proud to call her son.
"You don’t get it." He sighed. "Its not like that." He rested against the desk as he watched the sadness fall in her eyes. "I don’t like what the Crane’s have done, I hate it."
"So why become one?" Eve cried.
"To pay them back." Chad answered simply. "To make them pay for hurting both of us, for ruining our lives."
Eve opened her mouth. "What?" She breathed. "Chad, what are you talking about? Revenge?"
"You don’t think they deserve it?" Chad questioned. "This is about paying Gramps back for what he did." Chad sighed. "Theresa hates him as much as I do, and we are working together. We’re going to change things, make things right." He explained. "I could never be anything like the Cranes, they’re so cold. "
"Chad." Eve frowned. "Julian isn’t a monster, his father on the other hand is."
"I realize Julian has his good points, he actually supports this idea in a strange, twisted way." Chad smiled. "He even told Ivy and Rebecca to get out of his house."
"He kicked them out?" Eve gasp. "I can’t believe that."
"He told them he was in love with you." Chad smirked. "Your the only woman he’s ever loved."
Eve quickly lowered her head, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Julian had boldly stated that he loved her? That he never stopped loving her. Her heart raced quickly as she looked back up at Chad. "I’m sure he didn’t mean it." She whispered. "Julian isn’t capable of that kind of love." She excused.
"I believe him." Chad answered back. "And I think you do too."
"Chad, no." Eve shook her head. "I came here to talk you out of this craziness, not talk about the silly things Julian says."
Chad watched as his mother changed the subject quickly, "You still love him." He stated shocked at his words. "Oh man you do."
"No, no I don’t." Eve refused. "What I shared with your father, with Julian, it was a long time ago. I was young and stupid."
"And you loved him." Chad forced. "I can see it."
"This isn’t about me." Eve frowned. "This is about you getting in too deep. You can’t take on the Cranes. Your grandfather, he’s too powerful. He’ll hurt you, he’s a cold, heartless man and he’ll take you down before he lets you hurt him Chad."
"I can take care of myself."
"And Theresa? What about her?" Eve asked. "She doesn’t know what she’s doing either."
"You’d be surprised just how far Theresa has come. We can pay him back, I know we can."
"You’re still young and foolish Chad. You don’t see what Alistair is capable of."
Chad shook his head. "I do see, I know what that man did. I know he ruined my childhood, took me away from you. I know first hand how low he’ll go, and I know I can make him pay."
"By doing what Chad? What are you and Theresa going to do to Alistair Crane that will make him pay for all he has done?" Eve cried. "There is nothing you can do that will pay him back for all the pain he has caused. Nothing!"
Chad shook his head. "There is something we can do. We are going to bring him to his knees, using the one thing he actually loves, his company. I am the Crane heir now, which means that company goes to me. Theresa and I plan to take the Crane money, and the company he holds dear and turn it into something good. It’ll take work, but we can do it. If we’re lucky Julian will help us."
Eve sighed. "If Julian actually helps you, it will make it much harder for Alistair to stop you. The only thing is, I doubt he’d be willing to work with you."
Chad arched his eyebrow, "Oh I think he’d help, if you talked to him that is." Chad smiled. "Will you do it? Will help us pay Alistair back?"
~*~*~**~