Chapter 12

Samantha didn't answer Ej right away; she wasn't sure what she was supposed to tell him. She couldn't just tell him everything while he was driving, but her silence was driving him crazy. Ej knew Samantha better then she even knew herself, if she was being quiet then there was a reason.

"Why don't we talk about that when we get back to the mansion, lets just enjoy the drive."

"You're scaring me, what aren't you telling me?"

"When you're not driving, don't start fighting with me already. We haven't even been married 20 minutes!" Samantha said and just turned back to the window. Ej floored it the rest of the way to the mansion, he wanted to know exactly what was going on and didn't want to wait any longer. Samantha was hiding something and he knew that it had to do with the wedding. As soon as they walked in, he closed the door and stood there looking at her.

"Alright, out with it!"

"You really are persistent. Fine Lucas and me finally admitted something that has been there for a long time. Our marriage was out of convenience more then anything else. I never wanted to be married to Lucas, it was just easier to go back to something familiar then to deal with losing you on my own."

"There's more, go ahead." He said and headed into the living room to have a seat on the couch. She curled up next to him and continued.

"The love was gone and we both knew it. I didn't have to tell him about the affair, or that I had been hiding this in a book for 6 years." She said and pulled out the creased photo she had left from when they use to be together. "He already knew."

"So he just gave you a divorce, just like that?'

"Basically, we finally are back to the way things were. Before anything ever happened between us, we were best friends. Kind of the way you and me were. It was just easier to talk to him then anyone else and now, finally, we're at that place again. Even Will has realized how happy we have been over the last week."

"Wait, this has been going on for a week?"

"Ya, he's been gradually moving out over the last few days, he's letting me keep the house since the girls love it so much. He was actually routing for us to get back together, he may not like the family you came from, but he knows you make me happy and he said that's what he's always wanted."

"Ok, so you and Lucas came to an understanding, but what about the twins?" He said and that's when Samantha got up and headed over to the desk. She couldn't be next to him when she told him; she was scared of what he would do.

"I should have told you this before the wedding, but everything was just happening so fast."

"Samantha." He said and she knew she needed to tell him. If they were ever going to work then they needed to be honest with one another, always!

"He gave me soul custody; he said they should be with their parents."

"But Lucas is…" Ej stopped; he already knew what she was trying to tell him. The look on her face told him he was right. "Their mine?"

"Ya, apparently my doctor was wrong, about the time I got pregnant with them."

"But…"

"But nothing, that last night we spent together, the night you held me until I fell asleep and everything was so perfect. That was the night they were conceived and not a week later like I thought."

"So you never had a test done?"

"Why, the doctor gave me a date and I knew that was when I was with Lucas."

"You never suspected?"

"Suspected what Ej? Suspected that the love of my life that took off for England, was the father of my kids? That the man who left me after I yelled at him had walked out of my life and now could be the twins' father? Of course I thought about it, part of me even wished it were true, but according to the doctor it was wrong. But then you came back and Lucas knew he needed to know for sure, especially after Alice started talking about racing."

"So they're really mine?"

"Yes, they're yours. You have two beautiful little girls, and I know that you will love them just as much as you love me. But, I did promise Lucas he could still be in their lives, not as their father but still there. He did take care of them for years like they were his own."

"I'm not going to cut out the guy who cared for my children as if they were his own for 5 years!"

"Good, because I know that would be the one thing that could cause a war between us and I don't want that." At this the two met in the middle of the room and Samantha had a look of complete and utter devotion in her eyes, for the man in front of her and for the life she was about to have with him.

"I finally have everything I ever wanted."

"Me too." She said and as the two kissed, he pulled her back on the couch, Ej sat and Samantha curled up under his arm and played with his tie.

"I guess it was a good thing I jumped in after that ring."

"What?"

"I figured Tony told you when he showed you the ring, I went to get rid of it once in Italy. I threw it into a fountain, but the prospect of leaving it there and leaving you behind was too much, so I jumped in and got it back."

"Tony never told me a lot about the ring and you jumped in a fountain?"

"Yep, I always jumped through hoops for you, why not a fountain?" He said with a laugh. "You know, I was a coward when I left, I just couldn't stand you not talking to me."

"I hated that I did that to you, but I just couldn't talk to you then. I was so angry at you for lying to me, that I needed space. I never thought you would really leave, but then you did and I knew I had to keep my promise to marry Lucas, I had no out. I guess I thought you would come and stop my wedding and whisk me away. But you didn't so I just sat and cried at night for days, hoping I didn't wake Lucas."

"I'm sorry I put you through that. But I couldn't stop your wedding, you always had someone stop your weddings and I didn't want to do that. Did you want me to stop it like you stopped mine?"

"Ya, you know I did have another plan."

"Oh really, what was that?"

"The same way my Uncle Bo stopped my Aunt Hope from marry someone else, kidnap you!"
"He kidnapped her?"

"Yep, stole a cops motorcycle and kidnapped her from the church and sent someone else up the aisle in her dress."

"This family is very special."

"No, we just love with all our hearts and don't let the ones we love get away, even if it makes us look ridiculous."

"Yeah, love makes you do that. But Samantha, if Tony didn't tell you about the ring, then how did you find it?"

"I found it when I searched your room!"
'You searched my room?"

"Well, I needed answers."

"And searching my room was the only way to get them?"

"Well I couldn't talk to you now could I! And I didn't know how else to find what I needed, but I had a feeling that I would find my answer in your room and I did. When I seen the ring I knew that it couldn't have been for her, the box was too old and then when Tony told me you bought it seven years ago it all made sense. We were both holding on to something that never really ended, I belonged with you, in my past in my present and in my future."

"So when did you get the ring? I looked at it on the day of my wedding, I tried to say goodbye."

"Tony stole it for me after you left and gave it to me. Told you I had help, I knew that if you still had it then you still loved me and I had a chance at making you admit that!"

"I'd always admit that, but you really are trouble."

"You love trouble!" She said and kissed him, with that he decided it was time he finally got to make love to Samantha, not as an affair and not as a goodbye, but as the love of his life and as his wife. He carried her upstairs to the bedroom that he never shared with anyone else. Even the entire time he was with Brandy, he always went to her place, he couldn't bare to have anyone else in the bed he shared with Samantha.

Ej had forgot what it was like to hold her, to wrap her in his arms and know there was no place he'd rather be. For the first time in years, he felt complete and like everything was finally as it was meant to be. In Ej, she found the one thing she was always missing with Austin and with Lucas she found completion, not contentment.