When It's All Said and Done,  Chapter 1
by Poetic
 
 

When it’s all said and done

Gwen watched as Ethan invaded Theresa’s bachelorette party. She watched him do a strip tease for her as the tears began to cloud her vision. He does love her and even if she exposes Theresa for the scheming bitch she is, would she really want to be the love of her life’s second choice? Could she live each day with him knowing she was his second choice, a mere after thought. She loved him heart and soul, unconditionally and what did she receive in return? Nothing but heart breaks, nothing but lies. What was she doing just now? What had she been doing since he chose Theresa? Stalking them, pining away for a man who did not love her. A man who led her on for months and then to worsen the blow dated the both of them to make his decision. She walked away from the window chuckling to herself with out humor.

"Ethan you pimped me. You had it made. The indecisive man had his choice of two women. Shared days of the week with us."

She realized she allowed it, she fell for it hook, line and sinker. She wanted to be with Ethan so badly she had forgotten who she was and who she did not want to become, her mother. Did she not deserve better than she had been given She sat back on the bench in the gazebo she allowed her back to relax against the cool surface and her shoulders to droop for once. She had always been told to stand up straight and to keep her shoulders back. It was mind boggling to face the truth all at once and yet it was also liberating. She deserved better and she never realized it. She realized a lot of things but denied it but she never believed there was anything better than Ethan He was her life and not it was time to get on with her life without him. When it was all said and done he made his choice and it was not her and it had not been for quite some time.

Gwen rose from the bench and exhaled the fresh air. "To hell with all of them. Harmony and it residents will not e my life.

On the plane Gwen knew her mother would be angry at her choice but when it was all said and done her mother hadn’t truly been happy in years. She sure put on a phasad of happiness to everyone else but Gwen knew better. She remembered a time when her mother wasn’t so bitter, so callused. She had allowed a man to wear her down. To take away her happiness, her self-confidence, to make her love herself less because she thought she could never satisfy him. Always left wondering why she was never enough. She loves her father but she would never be the girl who married her father.
 

Flashback:

Gwen came in on from her date with Ethan floating. She heard muffled cries coming from her mother’s room. She knocked on the door and received no answer so she let herself in.
"Mother?" Rebecca was lying across the bed with her hand over her face.
"Mother what is it did something happen to father?" Gwen asked thinking the worse in her naivete.
Rebecca laughed.
"Hs carnal urges happened but this time they were not so carnal." Rebecca sniffed.
"Mother what are you talking about? You are not saying?"
"That is exactly what I am saying." Rebecca sat up and looked at the glow that radiated from her daughter’s face. At that moment she envied her. So young and in love oblivious to true nature of men. Yes Ethan loved her but he was a Crane after all and it was most certainly in his nature. Yet he did love her and it forced her to wonder if Jonathan ever really loved her during the years they had been together.
"Gwen darling you can never truly trust a man. Especially where another woman is concerned. When a man has your heart completely he has got you."
"Ok mother I am really lost now" Gwen rubbed her mother’s shoulder.
"You remember June don’t you." Rebecca dabbed her eyes. Gwen nodded.
"She is your father’s mistress. I know he has had others before but he loves this one and he told me he would not give her up. Ethan is a good catch dear but he is a Crane and like any other man it is in his nature to give in to those carnal desires. He may fight them at first but eventually but it’s inevitable especially when the man is rich and powerful."
"Mother I don’t believe that. Ethan loves me and he is my soul mate. He is nothing like Julian and I cannot believe father and June." Gwen shook her head in disgust and anger. She had to find her father.
She hugged her mother before excusing herself claiming she was giving her mother time alone.

End flash
 

This was one apple that was going to roll as far away from the tree as she can Gwen thought.
She would be damned if she ever played anyone’s fool again.