Author's note: This is a sequel to the story 'Two Lives' I posted some time ago. I recommend reading it (including the epilogue) before starting with this story to be able to understand where this one starts from.

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. Only Lynnie - she's my very own fanfiction character ...

This is an evolving story, so I appreciate your comments and input. Enjoy!

1

"Happy Anniversary, Darling!"

Tony welcomed Angela at the front door after another long working day for both of them.

Angela had had a tough meeting with a client whose campaign didn't obtain the expected result, namely a respectable increase in sales figures. He blamed it all on the insufficient marketing strategy of The Bower Agency he paid a lot of money for. Truth to be told, his product, a sugar sweet and very colorful soda, just didn't meet the demands of today's customer for healthy and low-calorie nutrition. But she had sold Guacamunchis, Mr Ping's tasteless rice cakes, and a disgusting sports drink from France called 'Le Fiz', she would eventually sell this stuff too. She just needed to work a littler harder for this one, which also meant reassuring her client that the boss herself dedicated a lot of her time to this account. Angela was tired, both mentally and physically, but being welcomed by Tony in the evening made her always forget the day's hardship in an instant.

"Hi, Honey," she replied, "what anniversary?"

Tony's day had been equally tough. After Angela had made him enroll again at Ridgemont all these years ago, he had finished the remaining two classes he needed to be able to graduate. His first job had been that of a substitute teacher at an elementary school, which had been okay to start his new career. About a year later, Ridgemont College had offered him a permanent job as a history teacher, and he had become a tenured professor somewhat later. Last year, he had been promoted to co-principal of the Department of Philology. He liked the job very much, but it also meant extra paperwork and administrative tasks. So he usually spent more hours on campus than before.

Today, after lecturing various classes, the weekly meeting with his staff, and a teacher's conference in the afternoon, he was as worn-out as Angela. But despite his tiredness he wouldn't forget their anniversary, though they had never celebrated that one before. They had celebrated the anniversary of his move-in with Samantha for many years; right up until he had moved out to marry another woman, ... They had celebrated the anniversary of the founding of The Bower Agency, and their respective birthdays. They had never celebrated this particular day, although it was one of the most important days in Tony's life.

"Exactly ten years ago from this day we had a wonderful ride on a lawn mower together in Central Park, my Dear," Tony reminded his beloved.

"Was that already ten years ago?" Angela seemed surprised.

"Yes! Do you remember?"

"Sure! How could I forget? We're a couple ever since, and you've made me very happy every single day."

"Yeah, it sure is a ride I love thinking back to." Tony enfolded Angela in his arms and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I love thinking back to what happened after the ride. When we parked that lawn mower in the garden shed," Angela answered, pressing her body to his, winking coquettishly, "if you know what I mean, ..."

"How could I forget?"

Thinking back to the first time they had made love always turned him on. Very much so this time. But he wanted to ask her something very important, so he brought his desire under control with all his will power in order to continue with what he had planned. Unfortunately, Angela engaged him in a passionate kiss, so his will power was put to a tough test. But he managed somehow to pull away from her soft seducing lips. He could resume kissing and caressing her later, after what he had proposed what he wanted to propose.

"How about if we marry?"

Angela disentangled herself out of Tony's embrace and stared at him. If it hadn't been so out of the question, Tony would've sworn he could read horror in her eyes.

"What?"

"I want you to marry me," he amplified softly. As if what he had said before had been so ambiguous that a further explanation was necessary.

"But when we first got together you said that as a divorced man you couldn't marry again!"

"I talked a lot to my father confessor back in Brooklyn lately, and he finally gave me his blessings."

"What about Aunt Rosa? You were afraid she might come over from Italy to bash you over the head with her rolling pin if you got married again."

"She's over 80 now, Angela! She won't go through the hardship of an intercontinental flight just to give me a lesson in Catholic morality." Tony grinned boyishly. "Come on, after ten years it's about time we tie the knot!"

"Why?"

Tony wasn't exactly prepared for this kind of reaction. Somehow he had pictured her saying 'yes' overjoyed. During the last ten years, Angela had always insisted that it didn't matter to her if they were married or not. She said that as long as he promised to love her until death did part them she was fine. She called herself self-sufficient and financially independent, not in need of a husband who provided for her. She kept reassuring Tony that their time together was perfect the way it was, and so full of love that she didn't miss not being married. For Angela, their wonderful relationship was a reward for the difficult and painful way back to one another. But that actually only applied to her. To Tony, a spoken and written commitment was finally called for, as their unspoken one hadn't worked so well back then in the first run.

"Why? What do you mean 'why'?" he repeated bewildered.

"Why all of a sudden? I thought you were happy."

"I am happy. But what's so weird about me wanting to marry you?"

"What would it change if we were married?"

"Change? We would be husband and wife and not only lovers."

"Only?" Angela shrieked.

"Angela! What is the matter with you? I know you well enough to be able to tell that your excuses are nothing but pretenses. What is the real reason for you to be so reluctant?"

Angela held her breath and didn't say anything for a moment. Talking about what was on her mind obviously caused her uneasiness. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Tony, she came out with it, "I'd be you third wife."

"I know it sounds a bit as if I was a Hollywood celebrity, disposing of my wives like some kind of accessory." It was supposed to be funny and Tony gave her a slight chuckle, but from where Angela was standing it obviously wasn't very amusing. Her face remained frozen, her body stiff.

"You already had two," she tried once more, her voice flat and her eyes empty.

"Yeah?"

"Marie gave you Sam, and ... uh, ... Kathleen gave you Lynnie."

"Yeaaah?" Tony still didn't understand what Angela was getting at.

"I can't."

"You can't do what?"

"Give you a daughter. Or a son." She swallowed. "Not anymore. I'm too old. My childbearing years are long over."

"You gave me Jonathan."

"That's not the same. You know what I mean."

"This is all that is bothering you? Having more children is not the reason I want to marry you," he tried to explain, being alarmed now by the troubled and very sad expression on her face.

"I'm afraid 'bothering' isn't the right word, Tony. It doesn't simply bother me. It's more like ..." Angela turned away from him when her voice cracked.

"Sweetheart, come on, tell me!" Tony grabbed her shoulders to make her face him, but she took another few steps away from him. Then she turned at the spot and looked him in the eye. It seemed as if she needed the physical distance between them to get the following off her chest.

"Tony, when you told me in Jamaica that you couldn't make love to me 'until' or 'unless' we were married, and that you needed time until after your graduation to find out what would happen to our relationship, I thought it was just a matter of time until we ended up together. I told you I understood that you wanted to wait. And I did! What I didn't understand of course was why you had to get involved with another woman almost as soon as we got back." She interlaced her fingers in front of her chest to work off her tension. Something she hadn't done in a long time. "At the beginning, I pictured it as a short affair, as something you had to do in order to get clear about us. Then you stayed in that relationship longer than I had hoped and expected. But I remained patient. I was willing to wait for you until you made up your mind. I still imagined us starting a family after your relationship with Kathleen. My house of cards didn't collapse until you told me that she was pregnant and you would marry her."

"You know that I wanted to break off with her the day she told me she was pregnant."

"I do, and that makes it even harder for me to accept, because with tricking you she actually stole our future from us. She took you away from me because she wanted to have you all for herself. And when she finally let you go, time had run out for us to have a baby. I would've loved to carry your child, Tony! We raised Samantha and Jonathan together. We took care of baby Clint, and Billy. It would've been wonderful to raise our own kid. Have you never thought about it?"

"I have, Angela, believe me. Many times," Tony answered sincerely. "We would've made gorgeous children, and I would've preferred to have a whole bunch of them around the house. Beautiful girls like you, and daring boys like me." He swallowed hard, then said with a vacant expression, "But it just wasn't meant to be, ..." his voice trailing away.

"A child is such a special connection between a man and a woman, Tony," Angela continued. "It's so much stronger than a marriage. I know, because although Michael and I are divorced for so many years we're still connected through Jonathan. And part of me will always love him for having given me my son. I dreamed of having a connection like this with you for a long time, actually until I saw Lynnie in your arms for the first time. The way you admired her tore my heart apart. I could see the love in your eyes for your newborn, and I was happy for you. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like if she was ours. But she was Kathleen's, and at that moment I realized that you would never rock my baby to sleep."

"Angela, Sweetheart, I never knew this burdened your heart so much."

"I know, and that's the problem. The thing is, you have a life-long connection with Kathleen through Lynnie. A connection the two of us will never have. And I'm having difficulties making my peace with it. I can't forgive Kathleen that she got pregnant just to hold the upper hand over me and bind you. Don't get me wrong, Tony, I love Lynnie. I love her as much as I love Sam. She's a great girl, and I'm so glad she lives with us. But she's Kathleen's daughter, not mine. And each time you discuss something about her with your ex-wife, or when she comes here and picks her up for the weekend, it reminds me that I'm left out of this, that this is something you share with Kathleen, and with her only."

"And this is why you don't want to marry me?"

"People marry to start a family."

"Not necessarily! I married Marie because I was young and crazy and madly in love with my childhood sweetheart. It was a spontaneous idea rather than a well-considered act. Starting a family was way out of my mind at the time, I can assure you that! I had just turned 20. ... I married Kathleen because she was pregnant and I felt it was something I had to do. Had I known that she had cheated on me with birth control, I might have decided otherwise." Tony stepped up to Angela and gently cupped her face. He made her look at him, he tried to connect with her on an emotional level, because he didn't want her to get this the wrong way. "You, my Love, I want to marry because you're my best friend, ... my life companion, ... my soul mate. I love everything about you. All your curves and edges, your strengths as well as your weaknesses. I love you for the way you've forgiven me my indiscretion with Kathleen, and that you've taken Lynnie into your heart. You're perfect. You are my perfect match! I've never loved a woman the way I love you. The years I spent with you have been the best of my life, and I want to spend the remaining years with you as well. That is why I want to marry you."

Angela's eyes started to well up with tears. And when the first fell and her shoulders started to shake, Tony couldn't take it any longer. He brushed away the tears from her cheeks, kissed her forehead, and offered, "How about we don't decide anything tonight? There's no rush. Thanks for telling me what's so heavy on your mind. I just wished you had told me earlier. I can't believe you've been struggling with this for so long."

"Oh Tony," Angela threw herself in Tony's arms. "I'm so sorry. I don't want to turn you down."

"Shhh, Baby, no need to apologize. Let's put the topic on hold until you feel like dealing with it again, okay?" Angela snuffled and nodded. Tony pulled her close and kissed her hair. "Good. And now, would you like to have a glass of wine? We could make ourselves comfortable on the sofa and watch a movie. What do you think?"

"Wine's a good idea, but no movie. I'd prefer to huddle up against you. I'm too upset to concentrate on a movie. How about we listen to some music?"

"Whatever you want, Angela. Sit down. Here, let me wrap you in a blanket. Don't go away, I'll get the wine." With this, Tony made his way in direction to the kitchen. He had just reached the door frame and nudged the swinging door open, when Angela called after him, "Tony?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." And with a weak smile on her face she added, "Love you."

"I love you too, Angela."

Whereas the tension downstairs in the living room was abating slowly, an unmeasurable turmoil of emotions kept developing upstairs.

Lynnie was sitting on the floor at the landing with her back pressed to the wall, unable to grasp what she had just heard. Eavesdropping on her father's proposal hadn't been her intention at all; he had taught her it was an intolerable behaviour. She had left her room when Angela's car had pulled up the driveway because she had wanted to ask her for a ride to the train station on the following morning. When Tony had proposed she had wanted to retreat, but then she had been curious why Angela wasn't accepting. Only when she had started to talk about making love in Jamaica, Lynnie had decided to finally leave them alone. Shortly before she had closed her door, her mother's name had been mentioned.

What Lynnie had learned about her mother during the past ten minutes turned her world upside down. She knew that her parents hadn't gotten along very well towards the end of their marriage, but somehow she had thought that they had been happy at the beginning of their relationship. That her father hadn't married out of love but out of obligation was a nasty shock, and that her mother had set out a trap to bind him appalled her completely.

Had she really only become pregnant to outdo Angela? Lynnie hadn't known that Angela was suffering so badly because of something her mother had done to her. Angela, the woman who had saved her life with paying for her cure after her plunge off a tree at the age of four. Angela, the woman who had invited her with open arms to live in her beautiful house. Angela, the woman who made her father so very happy. Angela, the woman whom she shared more mother-daughter-like moments with than with her own mother.

Lynnie didn't want to believe that her mother could be that devious and mean. There had to be something she didn't understand right! She definitely had to talk to her about it. She had to get to the bottom of her parents' marriage. She had to know how they had met, how they had fallen in love, and - most of all - how, and why, she had been conceived!