Since it's been so long since I updated, you may want to read the last few chapters again to refresh your memory.


Friday was to be a special day for Joseph, he was going to bring Clarisse and his newborn daughter home from the hospital, he was going to tell Clarisse that he'd been thinking about her more than he could bare and was hoping for a reconciliation. He was going to tell her he still loved her and forgave her for sleeping with her ex-husband. Yes, it was going to be a special day for Joseph and it was up until he arrived at the hospital…

The first thing he noticed was the bed, it was bare as if it hadn't been slept in for days. The next thing he noticed was the empty cupboard, her things were gone, as were she and the baby, there was not a speck of life to be found.

He was confused.

Clarisse had asked, no, told him to pick her up at 7am sharp, but it was 6:50 and she was nowhere to be seen. He knew she wouldn't have left on her own without telling him, but then where was she and why?

Turning towards the door, he noticed a woman with a baby being wheeled into the room, he immediately thought it was Clarisse, but when he saw that the woman had dark skin, he knew he was wrong.

The midwife looked at him suspiciously, "Excuse me, what are you doing in here?"

Joseph scratched the top of his head and searched around the room, "I'm looking for my wife, am I in the wrong room?"

"This is room 402, what room is your wife staying in?"

"Room 402, this one."

"Well I'm sorry, sir, but it can't be this room, it's occupied."

"Then where the hell is she? She's supposed to be here."

"Please sir, we're in a hospital, don't use such inappropriate language."

Running his hand over his head again, Joseph became frantic, "I don't understand it, she was here just yesterday?"

The midwife looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Oh are you Mr. Vellada?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well her maj- your wife is no longer with us, she checked out about an hour ago. Now will you please leave and let Mrs. Brown have her rest? She just gave birth, you know."

Joseph apologized and backed out of the room, he knew Clarisse enough to know that she had run off, what he didn't know was where she'd gone, how she'd got there, or why she'd left. She didn't say a word.


Clarisse sat in an unfamiliar part of town attempting to silence the tiny bundle in her arms, she'd done nothing but scream and carry on ever since they left the hospital.

"Please stop crying, baby, please."

She attempted to feed the little girl, but just like all the other times she'd tried to naturally feed her, she simply wouldn't latch on, "If you don't drink you're just going to get even more upset. Please just accept my milk, what's wrong with it?"

Again, Clarisse attempted to attach the baby to her breast, but instead of drinking it, she screamed louder, causing tears to spill out of Clarisse's eyes. She felt so useless, so unneeded. Laying the child down in the pram, she wiped her face, she didn't know how to care for a child, she'd never had to before. When she was queen it was obligatory for her to give birth to children, not to raise them.

It became evident to Clarisse that her plan was not running along smoothly. The idea was that she would escape to a secluded part of the country with Serena to avoid having to face awkward situations with Joseph if by chance he came to visit, it would just make living without him more unbearable. She didn't want him to have any part of their child's life if he didn't want the marriage to go with it. Clarisse knew in her heart that he still cared for her, but the chance of him admitting it was slim to nil, therefore she would have to move on. She'd thought it over the whole week she was in the hospital and decided that it was best if they just leave. Be that as it may, Serena was quickly becoming too much for her mother to handle, she never stopped crying, she never ate, she slept rarely and Clarisse didn't have a clue what was wrong with her. It was at that stage a new plan was to come into effect.

"You want your daddy, don't you?" Clarisse asked, holding up the screaming child, "You love him more than me, it's obvious."

Serena continued to cry her lungs out, Clarisse held her and rubbed her back on a quest for silence.

"I've been selfish in thinking I could raise you by myself, I don't know the first thing about parenting."

Clarisse's voice was now crackly, "He knows how to calm you, I don't. It's obvious who you're better off with."

Letting out her withheld emotion, she cried and put Serena back into the pram, she then stood up and walked over to the telephone booth. Dialling the number she held the receiver to her ear and waited for an answer, "Rupert, I need your help now more than ever…"


Joseph had spent the whole day looking for Clarisse and Serena, he'd searched practically half the country for them, but to no avail. He wondered why on earth she had run off. He called everyone she knew, but nobody had any idea where she was, except Rupert. He told Joseph he knew where Clarisse was and what was going on, but was sworn to secrecy and couldn't tell a soul, making Joseph hate him even more than he already did. After he'd made the last frustrating phone call, he fell onto the couch and went into deep thought, so deep that he didn't hear the limousine pull up outside.

The specially selected driver opened the door for the former queen, who stepped onto the gravel with a baby in her arms. Careful not to make a sound, she carried her sleeping daughter to the front of the house and stared at her lovingly. She looked so peaceful sleeping in her arms, Clarisse wanted to remember her just like that. Kissing her forehead, she gently placed her at the foot of the door and touched her tiny nose, "I'll miss you, my darling."

Taking one last look at the pink bundle she turned her head and wiped a tear from her eye, she then picked up a large rock and climbed into the limo. The rock was thrown at the door of the house as the limo started to pull away and Clarisse watched as Joseph came out to investigate. He saw the baby, the moving car, and the two eyes staring at him through from the window, it didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on. As he locked eyes with Clarisse, his heart began to break and his legs stiffened. He wanted to run after her, to tell her the things he wanted to say, but his legs wouldn't allow him to move, he was immobilized.

Joseph remained glued to the spot long after the eye contact was broken and the car was out of sight, it was the last time he and Clarisse would see each other for a very long time.


A/N: I know it's been a long time since I updated and I know it's short and doesn't make any sense to you and seems like it's been skipped ahead a chapter, but it hasn't. I'm so glad to have finally gotten this out of the way because now I can finally move on to the next part of the story, which I promise will be more exciting. R & R please!