The Fine Print - Chapter 5
by yhh
"How could you do it?" Ethan asked instantly upon Ivy opening her front
door.
"Ethan, it's so good to see- -"
"How could you do it?"
Opening the door wider, Ivy ushered her eldest son into her condo. She
was so happy to see him. It felt like forever since she had last seen and
talked to him. She missed him more than words could say.
"Mom- - Ivy, how could you?"
"Ethan, I'm still your mother and you will address me as such."
Tossing the papers on the coffee table, Ethan paced on the other side of
the table. "According to the DNA tests that Julian had run, you and I are
not biological related. My parents are Julian and Eve Russell." He rolled
his eyes. He still couldn't get over that. Eve Russell was his mother. Theresa's
second mother was his mom.
"Ethan, you can't believe Julian," she said, as she perused the test results.
"Why would he lie? He has nothing gain- -"
"Except a way into Eve's bed, where he obviously is already."
"They had a son already. He and Chad were developing a relationship. He
had accepted him as his son- -"
"Julian Crane would like nothing better than to hurt me for not loving
him and for daring to leave and divorce him."
Ethan paused and stared at his mother, no, not his mother but the woman
who raised him. The woman who had build her whole life around him. Did she
live in the land of reality? How could she say these things? "Ivy, news flash,
Julian never loved you either. He's spent the past twenty years mourning
the loss of Eve and their son- -" He was that son, but somehow he couldn't
say that. It seemed too foreign, too strange on the lips. "He was happy when
you left. He loves Eve. He wants to be with her. He wouldn't jeopardize his
second chance with her, by pretending Chad was their son. Alistair had them
both convinced Chad was their son." Analyzing his statements, he realized
for the first time he honestly did believe that Julian Linus Crane could
love. Over the past month, he had watched Julian and Eve together. The touches,
the laughs, the whispers, the kisses and hugs when they thought no one was
watching. They truly loved each other. They had been married to different
people. Had other families, other kids, hated each other for years, ignored
each other in public for decades, yet they found each other again and loved
each other deeply. A part of him was glad to know that his parents loved
each other and had wanted to be together. "Why did you try to pass me off
as Julian's when you knew I was Sam's?"
Ivy stared into her son's eyes. She was so afraid to lose him. She couldn't
lose him. She had already lost Sam, she couldn't lose him too. He was her
baby. She couldn't go on without him.
"Can you please answer me honestly?" Ethan laughed. He had to ask Ivy for
honesty, the woman who supposedly loved him, yet the woman who didn't know
him was always honest with him when he asked her questions about her past.
Regardless of how hard it was. Or how shamefully it was. Until he asked
this question of Ivy, he never realized how much he appreciated that honesty.
His whole life had been a lie, it was nice to finally hear the truth. He
didn't have to wonder if he was hearing a version of the truth or part of
the truth or an outright lie. Even as crappy as a father as Julian had been,
he had always been reliable to give the unadulterated truth. He still remembered
when Julian shattered his and his friends dreams about having sex for the
first time. Julian's no holds bar answer about sex had turned him and his
friends off of sex for a few extra years.
Maybe after all the lies, it was time to tell the truth the full truth.
"It was a different time back then Ethan. While we were past the "women should
be seen and not heard" era, we weren't far past it, especially in my station.
And heaven forbid you had pre-marital sex." Ivy shook her head, remembering
how things used to be. "Times were more conservative then. In the upper
echelons of society, girls were still having their marriages arranged, all
for the good of daddy's business. I loved Sam. I wanted to marry Sam. I
would have run of with him, but he was to upstanding for that. He wanted
to ask my father for my hand in marriage. But my father would have never
allowed it. His only daughter, only child was not going to marry someone
from a working middle-class background. So I gave myself to Sam the only
way I knew meant something. I never once thought about getting pregnant."
Ivy laughed softly. "How naïve I was, but when I found out I was thrilled
about the life inside of me, for the rest of my life I was going to have
a part of Sam with me."
Ethan studied Ivy's face and eyes and saw the truth radiating from them.
She was telling him the truth, finally. How different life would have been
for her, for Julian, Eve, and Sam if the parental figures in their lives
hadn't allowed power, class, race, and money enter into the factor. How different
would his own life have been. But what was done was done, they couldn't
change the choices they all made. They now had to move forward and deal
with the consequences. "Did you really hate Julian and I so much that you
would let us both think he was my father?"
"Darling, no," she cried. She wanted to go over and touch him, but she
was afraid of being rejected so she stayed where she was. "No, I could never
hate you. But telling Julian the truth would have meant ruin for my family.
You know this Ethan. You know how it works. Or else you would be with Theresa
instead of Gwen."
His eyes widened. Had he heard her correctly? "I love my wife."
"No, you don't." If she was going to lay her cards on the table, then she
was going to lay them all out. She was not going to be made into a villain
here. "A man who loves his woman lets nothing and no one come between them.
Every time I turn around you're by Theresa's side. If I see and notice it,
what about Gwen? You've never placed her first in your relationship since
the day you hired Theresa to be your wedding planner or whatever she was
doing. Ethan, everyone in the mansion, knew that foolish girl was in love
with you and that you were just asking for trouble. I tried to warn you,
but you ignored me."
He did not want to hear this. This wasn't why he was here. She was confusing
the facts. Trying to confuse him.
"I loved Samuel Bennett with all my heart and when I married Julian I gave
him up. I didn't try to sneak and call him or visit him at the police station."
Though she had wanted to so bad and had to stop herself many, many nights
from doing so. "I loved him enough to let him move on with his life. It
killed me to see him marry that nobody Grace. Then to have Noah, Kay, and
Jessica. My heart broke. But it wouldn't have been fair to him to constantly
make him choose. But you haven't done that. You're still wavering. I'm surprised
you haven't been to the county jail to visit her."
"Mother!" How could she say that to him? "Do you know what she did to me?
How she drugged me? How is she bound and gagged our surrogate- -"
"Ethan, really. You were so drugged, you mistook that half-Latin girl for
Gwen. There's no wig in the world good enough to make those two look anything
alike."
She didn't believe him. She honestly thought he chose to sleep with Theresa.
He didn't think it was possible for her to hurt him any more than she had,
but he was wrong. "Ivy, if I had wanted to cheat on my wife then I would
have. I wouldn't have let Theresa drug me so I could have an excuse. You
are so sick and twisted. You have an easier time believing I faked being
drugged so I could cheat with no consequences. Who are you? Where is the
woman who raised me and loved?"
"I'm still here. I'm right here, son." She took the chance and approached
him. Touching his hand, she pulled it into her own. "I love you. I adore
you. From the moment you were placed in my arms, I knew I had found heaven.
I'm not trying to hurt you, Ethan Winthrop, I just want you to understand
the circumstances. You know what it's like to be pulled between love and
duty."
Is this how everyone saw him as a man with Gwen because of her last name?
Did they think he was stuck with Gwen while he pined and longed for Theresa?
Was that what his actions were showing people? If Ivy thought that way,
then- -
"I love you, Ethan. But we're all in this position because of love and
the choices we made because of it. I wanted a piece of the man I loved with
me forever so damn the consequences I made love to Sam and it brought me
you. I don't care what those tests say, you are my son. You always have
been and you always will be. And I loved Sam enough to let him go. And as
far as fathers go, I knew Julian was no Alistair so you were better off
than Julian and Sheridan had been- -"
Stepping away from Ivy, his mind roared with thoughts and issues he had
never contemplated before. "But what about Fox, Fancy, and Regan? Didn't they
deserve your love and attention too? Or did the Crane genetics make them
unlovable? How ironic, you spurned the Crane children because they were Cranes
and all the while you were loving and adoring the one Crane that wasn't even
yours. I've got to get out of here." Ethan raced to the front door with Ivy
right on his tail.
"Ethan, I love them. It was different. You were my link to Sam- -"
"But I wasn't and it wasn't their fault. We were all just innocent kids-
-"
"So was I, but I was forced to marry a man I didn't love. We were all innocent-
-"
"I can't hear any more," Ethan said, running out of the door and getting
into his car.
"Ethan! Ethan!" Ivy yelled, as tears rolled down her face as she watched
her son once again race out of her life.