Ch. 10 – Torn in Two
A week later...
Anna continued her dates with Roman at the Salem Pub. She continued to live on clam chowder and beer. She continued to search the pub every day for some sight of Shane Donovan...reasoning that wherever Kim was, her ex-husband was sure to show up eventually. Those two were as inseparable as...well, as she and Tony used to be.
Finally, Anna's patience paid off one night as the handsome English spy showed up, complete with tweed jacket and trench coat.
She faked a big show of surprise and waved him to come and join them at their table.
"Anna Dimera..." Shane Donovan grinned, kissing her hand. "Still as lovely as ever, I see!"
"And you're still a charmer!" she flirted back. "It's so nice to see you again, Shane."
"Glad to be back."
"Great to see you, pardner..." Roman smiled, standing up to shake his hand. "Although I'm sorry about the reason you're here."
Shane's smile fell.
"Ah...I see Kim told you about our little holiday fiasco."
"Yes..." Anna continued anxiously. "And about your MIA wife. What is her name again? Phyllis? Felicia?"
"Phoebe."
"Oh, yes, that's right."
"As a matter of fact, Shane, I was going to suggest you to come down to the police station," Roman offered. "Maybe if we combine our resources, we can figure out where she might have gone off to."
Anna's heart pounded. If Roman or anyone else in Salem found out that Renee and Phoebe were one and the same, her plan would completely go down the drain.
"No, thank you, Roman," Shane answered. "This is sort of a personal matter...which frankly I find a bit embarrassing."
"I understand."
Anna breathed a sigh of relief. Shane obviously had his own reasons for keeping up Renee's charade as well. Funny, she had been so caught up in her own plotting that she had not questioned Shane's motives. Surely, he knew that he was really married to Renee. After all, he had worked on bringing Stefano down during the Three Prisms plot. So what was his role in this game?
Oh, well. What did she care? As long as Renee got her hooks out of Tony, that's all that mattered.
"Any woman who would run off and leave a catch like you is a fool, Shane Donovan!" she said. "And when you find her, you can tell her I said so."
"Why, Anna, I'm flattered!"
Anna couldn't help but smile flirtatiously at the handsome English man. He was extremely attractive. Why did Kim let him go? And how did Renee manage to get him?
"Seriously, Phoebe's had a bit of a hard life," Shane explained. "The best thing to do is just to find her and get her back home as quickly and quietly as possible."
"Do you at least have a picture of her?" Roman offered. "We could make up flyers or..."
"No, absolutely not," Shane refused. "I don't want a fuss made about it."
"Well, I can't wait to meet this mystery woman once you find her," Roman said.
"Neither can I," Anna said, holding back a delicious grin. "Neither can I."
Shane politely smiled. But Anna sensed that it was obvious that Shane had no intention of introducing 'Phoebe Donovan' to anyone. Suddenly, his eyes glazed over as he spied someone.
Turning to look at where he was staring, Anna saw Caroline and Kimberly coming into the main pub area from the kitchen. They were both laughing over something, even as they were both covered in flour and fish.
"Excuse me..." Shane said abruptly, leaving them to go join Kimberly's side.
"Those two just can't stay away from each other, can they?" Anna mused. "Even when Kim looks like she just came from a fishing boat, Shane looks at her as if she was the most gorgeous creature on earth."
"That's love," Roman nodded. "Sometimes, even after marriages end, the feelings still last for much longer."
Anna squirmed uncomfortably in her chair as Roman began to look at her with those mournful big brown eyes of his. He was going to get all serious about her again. She could tell. And after having her heart ripped out by Tony, she was in no mood to get into anything heavy again.
"Roman..." Caroline came over to their table, handing him an engraved invitation. "This is for you. Sorry, I hope I didn't get flour on it! I have one too. It looks very fancy. I wonder what it's all about."
"Sounds like one of those darned formal affairs," Roman grimaced. "I wonder who it could be from. Can't think of anyone getting married these days..."
Roman set down his beer before ripping open the envelope.
"Guess I've got to get the old monkey suit out of the back of the closet again again," he complained after studying it.
"A formal affair in this dull burg?" Anna quipped. "Do tell."
Roman hesitated.
"Come on, Roman..." she urged, her curiosity peaked. "I'm dying of suspense."
"Promise you won't make a scene?"
Anna widened her eyes.
"Of course not!" she said indignantly. "What do you think I am? A kid?"
"Tony's throwing a party at the mansion."
"WHAT!?" Rudely, she grasped for Roman's card, almost tearing it. "LET ME SEE THAT!"
"Anna, calm down..."
Reading the invitation, she sniffed haughtily. What was Tony up to now? And she was sure that Renee was mixed up in this party somehow.
Shane Donovan and Roman forgotten, Anna grabbed her purse and stormed out of the Brady Pub.
--
An hour later...
Tony looked lovingly at the beautiful engagement ring he had picked out. A lovely and rare jewel...just like his adored Renee who had come back to him against all odds. After their night of lovemaking, he felt like a new man. He could look in the mirror and see a hero, not a victim. He knew that marrying her was the right thing to do. They had their lives stolen all of those years ago. It was his responsibility to make it all right again. And as for his need for freedom, she had the same needs. Having also been imprisoned for so long, she was a kindred spirit.
Quickly, he shut the velvet-encased box and put it in his suit pocket as he heard a lot of ungodly commotion out in the waiting room of Dimera Advertising.
"What is going on here?" he demanded, storming down the hallway.
"I WANT TO SEE MR. DIMERA RIGHT NOW!" Anna screeched.
"Anna..."Stephanie protested, trying to bar her entrance. "You can't go in there."
"It's all right, Stephanie," Tony said calmly before addressing Anna. "Well, what do you want?"
Anna hurled one of the party invitations in his face, almost knocking off his glasses.
"What's that about, Tony? Please explain it to me!"
Roughly, he grabbed her by the arm and led her to his office, shutting the door firmly behind him.
"Unhand me, you brute!!"
"I will thank you to act professionally when you're at this office," he scolded. "This is a place of business, not a playground!"
"You never used to complain when we would 'play' at the office before," Anna reminded him, that familiar sultry look in her eyes. "And you liked to play pretty rough as I recall..."
"I believe the operative word in that statement is 'before', Anna," he replied, turning away from her. Despite his love for Renee, Anna could still act on him like the most erotic aphrodisiac. "Times have changed."
"I don't believe that."
"You can believe what you like..." he shrugged.
"So everything we meant to each other...all the passion and excitement and love? All that you're going to throw out the window because of Renee?"
Tony paced about nervously. He hated emotional scenes like this, but he supposed this particular conflict was inevitable.
"Our problems started long before Renee and you know it," he sighed. "I'd never deny what we felt for each other, Anna. But our differences can't be solved with sex, don't you see that?"
"And I suppose that your relationship with Renee is much more meaningful and profound?" Anna cried out in a mocking tone. "Yes, I saw how pure and chaste your love for her was the other night when you were all over her. I can't believe that you're throwing away a twenty-year marriage away over a woman you had a fling with back in 1983!"
"Renee was no fling, which you well know. And we weren't married for 20 years. We were married all of a month or two before Stefano stole that from us. And we barely even got a chance to really know each other. I think that is why we've had such difficulties now. Because we never had a normal life together."
"And this relationship with Renee, the woman who you thought was dead, the woman who you once thought was your sister...that's normal?!"
Tony had no answer for that one.
"How can you be so cruel to me, Tony!" Anna asked pleadingly. "Why are you doing this to me? Making me stalk you at your office like some pathetic...wretch? Surely I deserve better than that."
Tony swallowed hard at the tone of her voice. Most of the time, when Anna was upset, she could sound like a petulant little girl. But this time, she truly sounded deeply wounded. And he knew that he was losing not only a wife and a lover, but one of his best friends as well...no matter how much she could enrage him.
Just Anna's presence in the room reminded him of all that they had been to each other once.
For the first time, he began to have his doubts about his decision to propose to Renee. Was he just being a nostalgic fool, trying to turn back the hands of time? And would he ever really get Anna out of his system, the woman he had once considered the love of his life? Was it fair to ask Renee for a commitment when he was so confused?
"You broke it off with me, remember?" he asked, fighting to keep his own voice calm and even. "I was condescending and mean, taking you for granted. That's what you said."
"Well, you were..." Anna nodded. "But I never meant for it to turn out this way!"
"You meant for me to change and do exactly what you wanted, correct?"
"Well..."
"You can't blame me for moving on with someone else. You practically kicked me out of your life."
"But I always loved you..." she said softly. "Always..."
Tony sighed sadly. Anna wasn't making this easy for him. He had no right to expect her to make it easy. And some small voice inside of himself said that he deserved all of the agony that she could dish out to him...that he was truly being a villain for treating her this way.
"You gave me an ultimatum, Anna. One that I wasn't ready to accept."
"What ultimatum?"
"Say what you want about independence...but the truth is you were angry because I didn't propose to you again. You can't force a marriage, Anna. I would have thought after all of these years you would have learned that lesson, at least."
"How dare you bring up Las Vegas to me..." she bit back. "Aren't you ever going to forgive me for that? Maybe you're more like Stefano than you let on, holding grudges and vendettas for so long that no one even remembers what they were about to begin with..."
Tony shook his head bitterly.
"You should leave here, Anna. You see, this is no good for us. We are only saying hurtful things to each other. And I don't want that. Despite everything, I would still like us to be friends."
"Friends..." Anna sneered bitterly. "Friends?! God, what a cliché! You've only been with Renee for a short time now, and you've already begun to sink so low..."
"She needs me..." Tony said, quick to defend Renee. "She respects me. She has never tried to fool me or manipulate me..."
"No, she only killed our child!" Anna cried out. "Why is Renee entitled to forgiveness and I'm not?"
"You have my forgiveness, Anna. But that doesn't make us right for each other."
"And you think Renee is right for you? If she really doesn't remember anything or have a clue of what's going on, then she's only a shell of the woman she used to be. But maybe that's what you've always really wanted."
Tony didn't want to hear anymore...and yet, curiosity got the better of him.
"What do you mean?"
"Just like that little jungle princess on the island..."
"Who?"
"Jasmine."
"Oh, yes."
"You may have forgotten all about her but I haven't. That little innocent native that you wanted to mold into the perfect Stepford wife until Alex got hold of her. And now you're doing the same thing with Renee. But once you have the wife who always does and says the right thing,...who never throws temper tantrums or makes you jealous or stands up to you when you're being a creep...do you think you're going to be happy? You'll be bored out of your skull within two minutes!"
Tony almost wanted to laugh.
"You don't even know what you're talking about," he said scornfully.
"Is Renee going to be at this party?"
At first, Tony wanted to lie. His instinct was to shield Renee from all of the hurt that Anna could do her. But then he thought better. If Renee could survive Andre's attack and twenty years of isolation, she could survive anything Anna would dish out to her. And he would not be responsible for more lies and deceit.
"This party is being thrown on her behalf."
"Really?"
"Yes. I imagine you've been talking about her to anyone that will listen."
"That's not true..."
Tony knew she was telling the truth. And again, he felt sick at hurting her.
"Regardless, there are people in Salem who know of her existence and will start to talk...if they haven't already. So we're going to face all of the controversy head on and formally announce her presence back in Salem."
Anna smirked wryly at the idea.
"You think it's all going to be just as simple as that?"
"Yes."
Anna was silent for a while. She even had a look in her eyes that worried him somewhat. She was up to something, he was sure of it.
"I wish you well, Tony..."
Her sudden acceptance of the situation made him even more wary.
"I hope you mean that."
"Of course."
After Anna left, Tony miserably sat at his desk alone with his own tortured mind. He prided himself on being able to compartmentalize. Business was business. Love was love. He hated it when everything got all mixed up and complicated. Even so, he sat there uselessly, not knowing it if had been for minutes or hours...
"Tony?"
There was a tentative knock at his office door.
"I'm sorry to bother you."
Renee stood there before him, a beautiful vision in a blue dress.
"What are you doing here?" he growled angrily. "What if you had been seen?"
"I was careful," she said with an easy smile. "EJ brought me. And I waited for Stephanie and Chelsea to leave first. I've done this before, you know."
"I see."
Tony rubbed his eyes wearily. He felt so exhausted, physically and emotionally.
"Is everything okay? You seem upset?"
"It's nothing," he said morosely, shaking his head.
"I hope I'm not bothering you," she said with an impish grin. "I just missed you so much that I couldn't wait for you to come home."
"Then don't wait..."
Grabbing Renee's wrist, Tony pulled her upon his lap and kissed her senselessly, roughly. She squirmed a little bit in shock at first. He had never treated her with anything but the utmost tenderness in all their prior lovemaking. Even so, she seemed to melt in his arms, responding to his brute force with a playful vitality of her own.
Tony's angst quickly turned into hot passion.
"Tony..." she whispered breathlessly. "You're such an animal today. I think I like it..."
She was so sweet and simple and sexy. No demands or ultimatums upon him. No expectations.
The perfect Stepford Wife.
Was Anna right, after all?
God, his heart was torn in two!
Renee looked at him with such love and hope and trust. How could he hurt her when she had been left alone and abandoned for so long...mostly because of him?
And he truly loved Renee. He was certain of that.
If only he didn't still love Anna as well...