David Clarke stood before Emily. Alive. After all this time, after everything she had sacrificed for his 'legacy' he was breathing. He was wearing regular clothes, just jeans a plain t-shirt and a jean jacket. It was as if he had been pulled straight out of a memory, only a few extra wrinkles and a different hair cut showed that time had passed.
Emily had begun her search for the man that killed Conrad. She hadn't been sure what she would do if she found him, send a bouquet of flowers, maybe hand him over to the police. All she really wanted to know was why? It was a loose end. She had never thought that it would lead her to David Clarke.
"Amanda, my dear…"
Emily screamed. She had felt rage all her life, it had always simmered beneath the surface waiting for her target, but this was different. It felt like someone had taken a knife to her heart, but no matter what happened she wouldn't bleed out, the stabs just kept coming. Everything in her life had been in the memory of this man. She had devoted everything to him!
Aiden, Amanda, Declan the names of everyone she had watched fall in the name of her revenge. All so that she could honor her father. A man she thought was a hero. Instead it seemed that Victoria may have been right, she never knew her father at all. The fact that Victoria might have been right was adding insult to injury.
"I know you must be angry, but please let me explain…" David began, hoping that perhaps his daughter would be willing to give him a chance, especially after all she had done in his name. There had to be hope.
"A chance to explain! I have spent my life trying to avenge you! I spent my life believing that you were dead!" Amanda yelled.
"I had to keep away, I had to keep you safe." David said, stepping forward, he was so sure that he could make her understand.
"Keep me safe huh? I think you failed miserably!" Emily raged. She didn't know what to do? Why was she standing here.
"I thought that if a stayed dead the Grayson's would leave you be." David kept talking, even though his daughter looked at him with such disgust. "I left you a fortune, I wanted to give you a life worth living."
Emily looked at David's face. She started laughing. The man standing in front of her believed it! At least on some level he thought he had done the right thing!
"Amanda" David began now a little worried. This was not the laughter he remembered. This new laugh was cold and empty.
"I would have given up a fortune to be with you!" Emily yelled.
Emily took a deep breath. "But since you seem to be calling me Amanda, let me fill you in on what happened to that girl." Emily began bitterly.
David wanted to open his mouth, but he had never seen such cold fury on someone's face before.
"Amanda Clarke was shipped out right after her terrorist father was arrested, she was emotionally abused, and conditioned to hate you!" Emily roared, for the first time in her life she wished it had worked. She wished she had never forgiven him. "After that fun little adventure, Amanda Clarke was shipped off too foster homes, some of them so crowded she couldn't find a bed to sleep on, other's she was beaten or belittled. Finally she was forced to defend herself and she got stuck in Juvie for her trouble!"
"I thought..."
"You thought about yourself!" Emily yelled before he could defend himself. "Then came Nolan Ross, he told me your fake sob story, I thought you were a hero." Emily wondered what part Nolan played in this. Did he know? Had she been his pawn?
"I felt so guilty! How could I have disgraced my father's memory, how could I believe he was a monster! I planned and plotted, changed my name, my whole world revolved around avenging you!"
"There is more to the story!" David began.
"Did you blow up that plane?" Emily asked.
David didn't say anything.
"DID YOU BLOW UP THAT PLANE!" Emily was losing control. Her mind was spinning.
"There is more to the story!"
Emily heard enough. Her life had been wasted, but that ended now, she wasn't going to waste another minute on this man.
"David Clarke died from a stab wound in prison. His daughter Amanda died on a boat in the Hamptons, the Clarke family is no more." Emily said swiftly.
"Now wait. Conrad had tricked me. It wasn't the..."
"The Clarke family is dead!" Emily shouted again, she turned around and headed to her car.
David stood in front of her car. "Don't leave."
Emily gave him a love tap, it showed him she was serious. And just like that Emily drove away determined to forget about this whole ordeal, perhaps truly start over.
She just had no idea how hard that was going to be. She had no clue who she was now.
She couldn't be Amanda Clarke, but Emily Throne was just as much of stranger too her.
Author's Note: I thought there reunion could go something like this :) Happy Reading
