Chapter Twelve

Hope knocked on the door to Greta's house. When she didn't receive an answer, she said quietly, "Hmmm. Greta must be home. Her car is in the driveway." She experimentally tried the door handle. The door opened easily as Hope poked her head through the doorway. "Greta?" she called questioningly as she entered her house. She closed the door behind her. "Anyone home?"

Chloe called loudly in response to Hope. "We're in the kitchen, Mrs. Brady."

Hope's eyebrow arched as she heard Chloe's voice. I guess I shouldn't be surprised Chloe's here again, she thought as she walked to the kitchen door. Hope walked through the kitchen door and stopped in surprise. "What on earth…" she said as she took in Greta's ravaged features.

"Oh, Hope," Greta said pitifully as tears welled up in her eyes again. "You'll never believe what just happened here! It was the most awful thing!" Greta then started to sob tearfully again. Chloe patted her shoulders as she looked at Hope with sorrow in her eyes.

Hope dropped her purse on the floor and kneeled down on the floor, meeting Greta squarely in the eyes. "Oh, honey, what happened?"

Greta tried to stop sobbing as she said, "Colin…was..here…"

Chloe stood up from her stool and made eye contact with Hope. I'll let her talk to you privately, she communicated to Hope with her eyes. Hope nodded in understanding as she continued to sooth Greta.

Chloe leaned against the kitchen door after it closed behind her. "One day," she murmured quietly to herself, "one day has completely ruined our lives." She started away from the door, intent on collecting her bags from the top of the staircase and unpacking in her new room when something caught her eye.

"What on earth?" she asked inquisitively as she bent to retrieve the tabloid that Colin had flung furiously on the floor. She opened it curiously. Chloe's eyes widened in anger as she took in the sensational headlines. "What the hell is this?" she exclaimed angrily.

Chloe and Greta's faces were caught in an expression of complete shock at the moment Stefano revealed his news to them. The Blacks were in the background, looking on with dawning horror at the drama Stefano had enacted for all of Salem. Chloe's eyes focused on Brady's face, which showed both his anger at Stefano and his astonishment at the news. Chloe's finger traced his face lovingly as she wondered aloud, "What are thinking now, Brady? I'm too much of a coward to find out. What if you hate me now? I don't think I could live with that."

Then, Chloe's eyes traveled to the inset next to the article. "Oh god!" she breathed out as she reacted to the words above Hope Brady's face. "…As their father's ex-lover looks on."

"Oh, god, oh god, oh god," Chloe repeated in an expression of horror. She thought about the courageous Hope Brady and how much this news was going to devastate her. Then, she thought about Shawn and his father. How would they react to this piece of news, spread out in this ugly fashion?

Chloe turned slowly and looked at the kitchen door. Should she show it to them now? She wondered, weighing the pros and the cons. She closed her eyes in resignation as she realized they both HAD to know now, not later. At least if they knew about this news, they could prepare themselves to face the world of Salem.

Chloe entered the kitchen door, surveying the scene in front of her. Hope was at the stove, making tea for Greta. Greta held on tightly to a tissue, which she was starting to shred in a display of nervousness.

"That man is an asshole!" Hope angrily stated as she clanked the teakettle loudly on the stove. "He had NO RIGHT to treat you that way, Greta. None of this is your fault. Damn him!"

"In my head, I know you're right," Greta agreed tearfully. "But my heart! Oh, my heart hurts so much right now, more than it ever hurt over anyone else. Eric, Austin or Jack."

Chloe was loath to enter the scene but she knew she had to, sooner or later. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said slowly.

Both Greta and Hope turned to face her. "You're not interrupting," Greta exclaimed. "This is your home now." Hope arched her eyebrow in surprise, so Greta quickly explained. "Stefano threatened Nancy and Craig, so Chloe moved out."

"Really? The Wesleys made you leave their home over this?" Hope asked, completely misunderstanding the situation. "That wasn't very thoughtful of them."

Chloe shook her head negatively. "No, no, that's not what happened. They didn't want me to leave. I left because I didn't want them to become my father's target." She fairly spat the word "father" out of her mouth.

"Sacrifice," Greta said philosophically. "All three of us are truly beginning to understand that word." Each briefly reflected on the sacrifices Stefano had forced them to into so very recently.

"Anyway," Chloe said, breaking into their depressing thoughts, "Dr. Murphy left something here. I don't really want to show it to you, but, dammit, we all really need to see it." Chloe walked over to the kitchen counter and laid the tabloid on it for Greta and Chloe to read.

Hope's eyes widened with absolutely livid fury as she read the headlines. "Dammit!" she yelled in frustration as she realized the importance of the headline. "I canNOT believe this! Where does this rag get off printing this sh t!"

Greta's hand covered her mouth in horror at the next disaster that had come into their lives in the short manner of twenty-four hours. "My god!" she gasped as she looked into their eyes. "Who would do something like this?"

The answer came readily to Hope's mind. "That damn DiMera!" she answered, wishing he was here so she could inflict some serious bodily harm on him. "He's trying to ruin our lives!"

"He's doing one hell of a job," Chloe said. "With the rate he's going, no one in Salem will want to be seen with us, let alone talk to us. With every move he makes, he's alienating us from the people we love even more."

"I HATE that man!" Greta said emphatically as she realized the veracity of Chloe's statement.