Chapter Twenty-Five

A crisp breeze blew in gently through the backyard, bringing a slight chill to everything it touched. The breeze was an announcement that the summer was nearly over and the cooler weather of fall would soon be approaching the town of Salem. Brady shivered involuntarily in response to the breeze while he jammed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans before he started to head towards the back porch of his house. His thoughts were on a subject other than the cooler weather, a subject that rarely left him.

Brady brooded morosely about Chloe, his lost love, during his path to his house. It had been over two months since their aborted wedding, and still no sign of his diva had been found. Anywhere. She had completely disappeared, without a trace, under the sneaky manipulations of Stefano DiMera. "Damn you, DiMera!" Brady cursed suddenly as he halted nearby the steps to the back porch, which overlooked the huge backyard.

He placed his hand on the railing and then paused before he went up the stairs. His eyes traveled over the horizon off in the distant, knowing that Chloe was out there, somewhere, but he had no idea where. Ethan had analyzed both answering machine tapes from the night of Chloe's disappearance, the one from the penthouse and the one from Brady's house, but the results were negative. Brady now had possession of both tapes. In fact, he listened to them every night, tormenting himself with the sweet sound of Chloe's voice.

Brady also worked very closely with Ethan, who he believed was the only reliable agent in the ISA. They had followed up every possible lead, no matter how tiny or insignificant. They came up with nothing, time and time again. Ethan had even hooked up with former informers and interrogated them endlessly, hoping they would provide some useful information on DiMera's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the information they received never panned out. DiMera had hidden himself and Chloe in a very secure, unknown place, one that no one seemed to know about.

Brady's face reflected his continuing despair as he sighed deeply. His eyes narrowed while he contemplated his bleak future without Chloe, the love of his life. He could not adjust to the possibility that she may not come back. "I'll never give up, Chloe," he promised as he faced the horizon unseeingly. "I will do whatever it takes to get you back in my life."

Brady was so engrossed in his heart-wrenching thoughts that he didn't hear the front doorbell ring cheerfully, again and again. "Hmm," Greta said to Hope as she looked back in the driveway, checking once more to see if any vehicle other than Hope's car was parked in it. "Brady's jeep is here. I wonder if he went for a walk?"

Hope answered her friend with a wink and a sly grin as she suggested, "Let's try the door, see if it's locked or not." Her hand went to the doorknob. It turned easily in her hands, causing Hope's grin to widen. "Come on, Greta. Let's go in." She opened the front door halfway and stepped one foot through it.

Greta looked in shock at Hope as she exclaimed, "We can't just go in here, Hope! Brady's not exactly expecting us, you know." She chewed on her bottom lip nervously as she gazed at the half-opened door. They were both concerned over Brady and visited him often, but he was not anticipating a visit now. Greta and Hope had decided to surprise Brady with a visit after shopping together at Salem Place.

Hope waved the brown paper package she held in her hands in front of Greta's face. "Dammit, Greta, I know you are just as curious as I am about this package we found sitting all alone here on Brady's front steps. Look," she continued, pointing to the small amount of writing on the package, "it doesn't have a return address, postage, or anything. Very compelling and intriguing!"

Greta gave the package a look of longing as her eyes widened in indecision. Indeed, she wanted to discover exactly what it contained. And, unfortunately, there was only one way to do that. "We'll call out from the doorway, see if Brady answers our greeting. If he's not here, then we'll simply leave. Okay?"

Hope shot Greta a satisfied look, pleased that her friend had overlooked proper etiquette in favor of her curiosity. She was the one who had decided that they should visit Brady today, to see for themselves how he was doing, and to offer any possible support they could. The unexpected loss of Chloe had completely consumed him. He continued to mourn and grieve for her while he buried himself in work and his continuing search for any clues that could eventually lead to his soulmate.

Hope turned the package over in her hands before she murmured under her breath, "It's very mysterious, Greta. I mean, it was sitting here, plain as day. I can't help feeling that this package is important, It may tell us something about Chloe. Good or bad."

Greta shivered in response to Hope's ominous statement. She hadn't considered that aspect. She eyed the package again, this time with considerable less curiosity and more wariness. "Maybe I don't want to be around when Brady opens it, Hope. If it's from my horrible father, Stefano DiMera…" she let her voice trail off, her eyes showing her fear plainly to her friend.

Hope ignored Greta's worry and pushed the front door open. Her eyes searched through the hallway and living room. "Brady?" she called out, stepping into the hallway. She walked through the hallway and into the living room, Greta a few nervous paces behind her. "Brady? You home?" Hope asked loudly. She stopped suddenly in the living room.

Greta plowed into her friend, not expecting Hope to stop her furious pace through the living room. "Hope!" she complained to her friend, glaring at her slightly.

Hope placed her finger over her lips, telling Greta to be quiet. When Greta complied with a look of slight scorn, Hope whispered, "Look!" She pointed to the sliding glass doors that led to the outside porch. Greta followed Hope's order and gasped. Brady was leaning against the railing to the porch steps, his profile to them. Even from his profile, they could witness the torment and anguish on his face, the unbelievable amount of pain and heartbreak he was experiencing because of Chloe's continued disappearance from his life.

Hope pulled Greta's arm and backed them out into the hallway. Neither of them were used to seeing such a naked display of emotion on Brady's face. "Wow, he's really hurting," Hope whispered to Greta as they neared the front door. Greta thought that they were going to quietly leave until she heard Hope yell extremely loudly from the hallway, "Is anyone home?"

A few seconds later they heard footsteps walking through the living room and into the hallway. Brady's face was composed again, hiding the pain and unending heartbreak that they had just witnessed without his knowledge. He smiled slightly in greeting as he saw the two women standing in his hallway. "Hope, Greta, this is a surprise," he welcomed them, placing his hands on his hips.

"Not really, Brady," Hope answered, taking the initiative and approaching Brady. Her heart cried even more for Brady after seeing the true amount of torment he was experiencing and hiding from everyone who cared about him. She held the package securely by her side as she continued, "The two of us always visit you." She playfully punched the younger man in his arm, forcing a slight grin on her face.

Brady's smile grew a little more as he met Hope's compassionate gaze. It was true. Hope and Greta did visit him a lot, trying their best to help him heal over the unhealable wound that Stefano DiMera had caused. He appreciated their efforts, even though he knew that they were useless. After all, the only way his wound would heal was if Chloe came back into his life, whole and unharmed. "That's true. Would you like something to drink? Soda, tea?"

"Ahh, definitely tea," Greta said as she closed the front door behind them. The two women followed Brady into his kitchen, where he immediately began the motions of making tea for his guests.

Hope placed the package carefully on the table as she said to Brady, not wanting to bring up the painful subject of Chloe now, "I talked to your father earlier. He's very pleased about the recent sales for Notorious. Ever since we merged with Basic Black, the sales have skyrocketed, right through the roof. They have yet to plateau and even out, which was the general expectation."

Brady looked over his shoulder at Hope while he took two teacups down from a cabinet and placed an herbal tea bag in each of them. He refused to let himself remember that the herbal tea belonged to Chloe, that she used to drink it to sooth her voice after a session with her voice coach. Instead, he gratefully focused on Hope's conversation. "Basic Black can't take any credit for that, you know. Your magazine brought us more business. It's tough for me, Dad, and especially Kate to admit, but it's the truth." Brady laughed slightly as the kettle started to whistle. He mechanically took it off the burner. He made the tea and brought the cups over to Greta and Hope, who were sitting at his kitchen table. "Here you go," he said, offering the teacups to the women. He sat down across from them and noticed the package sitting on the table. His brows drew together as he gestured with one hand towards the package. "What's this?"

"We don't know," Greta answered with a small laugh and a shake of her head. She took a small sip of her tea before admitting to Brady, "We found it on your front steps when we came up, a little while ago."

As Brady stared at it intensely, Hope started to laugh at his lack of response, verbal or otherwise. "Well, aren't you going to open it? It has your name on it, you know." She picked it up again and playfully pointed out his name to Brady. "Brady Black" was scrawled across the right-hand corner of the package in large, bold letters.

Brady summoned up a small laugh at Hope's playful attempt, but he had an uneasy feeling about this box. He stilled a slight tremble as he reached across the table and took the package gingerly from Hope's grip. He focused his complete attention to it as he turned it this way and that, noting the lack of postage and return address. The only words on it were "Brady Black." "You found this on the front steps?"

Greta answered in the affirmative. "Yeah. Nothing else was with it, only the package. We thought it was weird, how there wasn't any postage or return address. Someone obviously left it here, without using the postal service." A thread of worry laced her words, which Brady and Hope picked up on quickly.

"That's what I was thinking," Brady agreed thoughtfully as he turned the package over, examining it carefully. He slid his fingers underneath the brown paper at the bottom of the package, slowly easing it off. A plain white box was revealed under the brown packaging paper.

The three of them stared at the white box for a long moment, an eerie silence entering the kitchen. Hope broke the silence with a nervous giggle as she prompted Brady, "Well? You've come this far, Brady. Let's see what's inside this box."