Chapter Three: Trespassing

Karen Roe ran up the front stairs of the Scott home, rang the door bell and waited patiently for her former lover and new boss to answer. Things at the office had gone off without a hitch, earning her the praises of Gary as well as several other members of the staff. She was proud of herself for being able to step up and take charge, something that her pervious boss slash fiancé had never allowed her to do.

Jimmy was the kind of man that wished to honor a woman by the act of being generous enough to take ownership of her, by taking possession of her mind, body and soul. He would parade her around the office, all kinds of charity events and parties anywhere there were people around to admire them; yes to him she was nothing more then a show piece to be put on display for his amusement as well as the approval and jealousy of his peers. She knew this, but being the foolishly naïve girl that she was she went right along with it and took great pride in the fact that a man as rich, charming and respected as James Bradley Callaway the III thought that she was worthy of his affections. And even though he wasn't the nicest person in the world she knew that deep down beneath that cold, black hearted business man exterior that he loved her. Or at least that's what she thought.

She could remember that God awful day as if it were yesterday. She had come home early from visiting her parents expecting to spend her birthday with the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. When she opened the door and took in the romantic set up of flower peddles covering the floor, fireplace blazing and dinner for two laying on the table a warm smile spread across her lips as she ran through the house in search of the man responsible for such a display, but what she found made her stomach turn.

In the bedroom that she had decorated in the house that she had turned into a home was the man she loved but now despised in bed with his eighteen year old tennis instructor with her straddling him, their bodies naked, their mouths moaning in pleasure and their fingers intertwined. She stood there for an unspecified amount of time wondering what she had done wrong to make him turn his back on her, to make him crave the body of a girl eleven years her junior. A pain formed in her chest as her eyes watered and tears slid down her cheeks, her head swimming with a million questions the most reoccurring one being why? However what would hurt her more then the act of betrayal it's self was the man's reaction to her presence.

With a cold glint in his eye he turned to her, smirked and said "As you can probably tell sweetie you've been replaced by this sexy, sweet hard bodied blond beauty"

The girl straddling him glanced over her should and laughed before continuing her earlier movements causing the man to grunt in satisfaction.

"How could you do this? I don't understand"

"It's quite simple honey, it's called upgrading. Besides Karen you and I both know that you were never meant to be a part of my world. You were never good enough"

"Then how could you ask me to marry you if you didn't love me?"

He looked her straight in the eye and smiled "Because I knew that's what you wanted to hear. I knew that you were starved for love and I needed someone smart enough to help me with all my business deals so you got what you needed and I got what I wanted so now there's no need to keep you around any more. You've served your purpose and now you can go. In fact you have exactly enough time as it takes for Candy here to finish me off to pack your shit and get the fuck out of my house. Oh and don't bother leaving the key, the locksmith is already close and on his way" he smirked adding "And so am I which means that your time is just about to run out. And by the way, you're fired"

She stood there for a few seconds in a complete state of shock. She knew that she needed to move to force herself into taking some sort of action but she couldn't. All she could do was stand there and watch the man that she loved make love to another woman, screaming out her name just as he once did with her and it tore her apart. When she finally moved it wasn't to collect her things. No everything in that place was brought for her by him and she wanted no part of it or the bastard who had just shattered her heart in a million pieces. She gathered what was left of her self esteem, her pride and her strength and walked out that place that she had called home for the past four years and never looked back.

That was five months ago and she had made a promise to herself to never let a man hurt her the same way Jimmy had. From that moment on she was going to be her own woman. One who was strong, independent emotionally as well as finically and who was as tough and unafraid as any man could ever be. And this was a promise that she was damn sure going to keep. All men be damned.

Suddenly the door flew open to reveal a very flustered Dan Scott. The poor man looked like he hadn't slept in days and was sporting something on his pants that looked like milk, fruit and ham sandwich rolled into one.

"Hey Karen, you're here kind of early. Did everything go okay at the office?" he questioned stepping aside to allow her room to enter.

"Yes everything's fine Dan, calm down" she giggled as she walked into the family room where a very sleepy brown haired boy laid wavering between dream land and watching cartoons.

On the other side of the room sat one very angry blond boy which she could immediately tell was Lucas. He sat with his arms folded his eyes squinted as if he were trying hard to make himself disappear. He seemed as if he were mad at the world and he wanted nothing more then to take himself out of the equation. As if feeling her eyes upon him he looked up and tilted his head in her direction.

At that moment Karen could feel the boy telekinetically drawing a bull's eye on her forehead. It was painfully obvious that she was trespassing on his territory where she was not welcomed. The look in his eye told the story of a lost child that was hurting and was in no mood to hear anything from any woman other then the mother that had recently been taken away from him. Karen just hoped that he would give her a chance and not give her too much trouble.

"Lucas, Nathan this is my new assistant Karen. Do you boys remember her? She came to visit us last summer"

"I do. Hi Ms. Karen"

The small shaky voice came from Nathan who waved his tiny hand just a little before dropping it and turning back towards the TV.

"Hello Nathan I hear you're not feeling to well"

"No. I have a tummy ach and I threw up on Daddy by mistake"

Karen couldn't help but smile, Nathan was just too sweet.

"I'm sure he knows that it was an accident" she giggled looking over at Dan who shrugged and took off his suite jacket.

"And how you doing today Lucas? I heard you got into a little trouble at school today"

The boy, who never took his eyes off of her deepened his stare and spoke in a low growl "Whatever. And why do you care anyway? You'll be gone in a week just like the others"

"Lucas Scott you apologize right now. You have no reason to be rude to Karen"

"It's okay Dan"

"Not it's not, Lucas apologize right now or go to your room and stay there for the rest of the night"

The blond stood up walked over to the woman looked her up and down before continuing on up to his room and slamming the door shut behind him.

"I'm so sorry Karen. Lucas has been so angry and hostile since Deb's been gone. I don't know what I'm going to do about him. That kid would never listen to anybody but his mother"

"Well he misses her Dan and that's not going to change. He won't be the Lucas you remember for a long time. I guess all you can do is wait and do what you can until he comes around and if he doesn't, then you're going to have to get him professional help"

"Yeah I tried that already"

"What happened?"

"Let's just say that Dr. Walters was singing soprano for a week"

"Ouch"

"Yeah that's what my wallet said too" the man replied with a boyish grin.

Karen smiled too. She had missed Dan a little more then she remembered and it felt good to laugh with someone she loved as a friend and knew she could trust.

"Well you better go get cleaned up before the meeting. You don't want to go in there smelling like a garbage truck.

Dan's cheeks reddened.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot about that" he said heading up the stairs.

A few minutes later Dan returned, giving her instructions on what to do for Nathan and what to give Lucas for dinner. Thanking Karen again Dan headed out the door. When Karen turned around she was shocked to see that Nathan had fallen asleep. Turning off the TV and heading into the kitchen she saw Lucas standing at the top of the stairs watching her.

Seeing him staring a hole though her like that made her nervous.

"Hey Lucas, listen I know that we got off to a bad start but if you come down stairs and help me make dinner then we could get to know each other and maybe we can even become friends"

"I don't want to know you and I already have enough friends"

"Well that's not very nice. You don't even know me"

"I don't need to know you to know what you want. You want my dad and you can't have him because he belongs to my mom"

Karen was taken aback by these statements and even more so by the fact that it came from the mouth and the mind of an eight year old boy.

"That's not true Lucas. I knew your mom and your dad before you were even born and I was good friends with them both before your mother died"

"DON'T! Don't you dare talk about my mom! Just stay away from my dad and my mom's house. You don't belong here and I'm going to make sure that you go away and if you don't I'll punch you hard just like I did Tim so you better listen to me Karen"

Before she had the chance to respond the boy had stormed off and slammed his room door for the second time in an hour. Karen walked into the massive kitchen, sat down at the center island and sighed.

This was going to be a very long night.