CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Shawn Douglas Brady sat by his bed. He quickly placed the brown envelope inside the drawer of his bedside table.
"I must go find him now!" Gabi grabbed her handbag, picking up the envelope and the DNA results, preparing to take off.
"Gabi, NO!" Shawn grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
"Are you kidding me?" Gabi pulled her wrist away. "He has been lying to us the entire time!" The latina raised her voice.
"How sure are you about that?" Shawn questioned, "Maybe he has his reasons for not telling us."
"And why would he be hiding?" Gabi argued. "The Will I know will never do that to Arianna. The Will I know will never do that to Sonny! The Will I know would have come back to us!"
"All the more you can't just confront him like this!" Shawn dissuaded. "If you just confront him like this, he will be taking the first flight out of Salem, never to return! Plus, Ben Weston is still on the loose! If everyone knows about this, Will will be in trouble again!" he reminded.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Gabi retorted, "Let him deceive the entire town?"
"Maybe he doesn't know who he truly is." Shawn suggested. "If he himself doesn't know who he is, how can he tell you who he really is?"
"He knows about my past! He knows about JJ's past!" Gabi pointed out bluntly
Shawn quickly snatched the DNA results from Gabi.
"Hey! Give it back!" Gabi jumped on her heels as Shawn raised his hands up high, preventing Gabi from taking it.
"We can't let anyone know about this yet! Until Ben laves Salem, no one is to know about this!" Shawn pushed Gabi aside.
"Shawn," Belle sat on the bed beside him. "You look very off lately!" she offered a cup of tea. "This is camomile, it will help you sleep better."
"Oh sure, thanks!" Shawn took the cup from his wife before taking a sip.
"I heard from Roman that you skipped lunch." Belle informed.
"Oh there goes Uncle Roman…" Shawn rolled his eyes.
"You've barely eaten these few days." Belle worried, placing a hand on Shawn's forehead. "You don't seem to be sick, so I don't know what's the problem. Has something been bothering you lately?"
"Just feeling a little stressed out from work." Shawn replied.
"You sure about that?" Belle asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure" Shawn hesitantly answered.
Belle worked as the district attorney in Salem PD for a year when Aiden Jennings left. She often saw her husband feeling distressed by the amount of paperwork he had. Believing it was the pressure getting to him, Belle decided to let the matter slide.
Sami Brady and Lucas Horton froze in shock, not knowing how to react to what they just heard.
"What are you talking about?" Marlena questioned. "What do you mean by Will is alive?"
"She's… been feeling overly stressed about everything that has been going on lately…" Steve proceeded to place his hands on Kayla's shoulders.
"How long more are we going to deceive them?" Kayla pulled away. "Ben is on the loose, we need all the help we can get to protect Will!"
"What are you two talking about? Will has been gone for five years! Can one of you please explain?" John raised his voice, getting frustrating by their quibbling.
"That's what I'm trying to say, Will is not dead! He's still alive!" Kayla clarified the matter.
"Kayla no!" they heard a voice from behind them. They turned around, realizing it was Chad DiMera.
"Why didn't you stop her?" Chad came rushing forward, yelling at Steve.
"You think I didn't try to? You could have help me stop her if you were here 5 minutes ago!" Steve rebutted.
"QUIET!" Sami let out a prolonged scream, shutting everyone up. She paced forward until she was right in front of Kayla. "What do you mean by Will is alive?" She asked softly yet sternly.
Kayla stared at Sami in silence.
"Answer me." Sami ordered.
"Sami, I need you to…" Chad tried to intervene.
"I want to hear it from her!" Sami cut him off. "I want to know what does she means when she says Will is alive. Is Will really still alive?"
"Don't take it out on her." Chad stepped forward in front of Kayla. "If you want to blame someone, blame me." Chad defended. "I was the one who took Will's body out of the morgue."
That was when all the missing pieces fell into place. Sami Brady understood the reason Will's body was missing from his coffin. Will's body was stolen but not during the course of the past five years. Will's body was stolen after she and Lucas left the morgue.
Liam Robertson's eyes widened, he wanted to leave Salem as swiftly as possible. The last thing he needed was for anyone else to find out his true identity.
"You're bluffing!" Liam challenged. "There's no way Arianna and I would have a DNA match, that's impossible!"
Gabi Hernandez took a piece of paper out of her pocket jeans and unfolded the paper.
"You still want to deny the truth?" Gabi showed him the piece the paper.
Liam took the paper from the latina and began reading it.
There is a 99.99% match between the two parties
We can conclude that Liam Robertson and Arianna Horton are father and daughter.
The blonde's heart sank, the secret of who he truly is, the secret he promised to take it to the grave, has been exposed.
"You knew about this the whole time, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?!" Gabi yelled.
Liam stood there in shock, unable to give an answer.
"Because of you, JJ risked his life." Gabi raised a finger, pointing at the blonde. "Because you were unable to tell the truth, my boyfriend, your cousin" She accented, "got stabbed by Ben Weston. If you had come clean from the start, none of this would have happen!" tears were trickling down her cheeks by then. "I'm going to tell Sonny. I'm going to tell everyone about you!" She snatched the piece of paper before heading to the entrance.
"Everyone's going to find out!" cold sweat began flowing down Liam's forehead.
"Gabi, no!" Liam ran behind and grabbed her elbow. "You can't tell anyone about this!"
"You lied to us!" Gabi pulled her arm away. "From the moment you stepped into Salem, you played all of us! You made Sonny went ballistic over you! You made me tell Arianna that you aren't her father! What kind of husband are you? What kind of parent are you?!"
"Please Gabi! You can't let anyone know about this! Please!" The blonde begged.
Gabi pulled her arm away and stomped off.
"So you're telling us," Lucas began speaking, "that the chef working in the restaurant of Hotel Titan, is our son?"
Kayla, with mascara smudged over her face, nodded her head.
"Why didn't you tell us any of this?!" It was Lucas' turn to goes ballistic.
"When I revived Will, I needed him to be my alibi. I needed him to prove my innocence. But he lost his memory. As his best friend, I begged my father to send him away so Ben wouldn't find him!" Chad began explaining.
"The first thing you should have done is to inform us!" Lucas countered.
"And let everyone including Ben know that Will is alive?" Chad countered.
"Then why didn't you tell us anything during these past five years?" Lucas raged.
"He started a new life! Ever since he left Salem, Will became Liam Robertson, successful chef, entrepreneur and he's now a culinary sensation! He found a second chance at love and life! He was finally happy!" Chad pointed out. "If anything he became a much happier person!"
"And you think that justifies everything you have done?" Lucas argued back.
"No! But I didn't want to destroy the happiness he has finally found!" Chad rebutted.
Breathing heavily, Sami decided, "I have to go see him now!" she was about to head for the entrance.
"No Sami! He just found out who he is. He's in a pretty bad shape right now. He's still trying to process everything!" Chad objected.
"You mean he already knows who he is?" Lucas questioned.
"He regained his memory recently." Chad replied.
"Will, my poor boy!" Sami lamented, "He must be having such a tough time looking at Sonny and Paul together! I must see him!"
"Hang on Sami! I will admit that this is my fault. But Will wants to take this secret to the grave. The rest of finding out will be a big blow to him. Let me give him a heads up first." Chad pleaded.
John Black stood behind them silently in a state of dilemma, over the past five years, Sonny and Paul went through many ups and downs to get to where they were. Paul had invested so much time in this relationship.
"This will devastate Paul completely!" John worried.
Liam Robertson sat by his sofa shivering.
"No, Gabi is going to tell Sonny! This can't be happening!" The blonde was scared out of his wits' end. With hands trembling, he picked up the cellphone on the coffee and began dialling numbers.
"Hello?" The voice greeted.
"Chad, I need you to take me out of Salem right now." Liam urged.
"Why the sudden urge?" Chad asked.
"Gabi secretly took a DNA test." Liam shuddered. "She knows."
"What?" Chad startled.
"She blames me for JJ getting stabbed." Liam continued, "She said if I came clean earlier none of this would have happen! I need you to stop her!"
"I have some equally awful news for you," Chad prepared to announced, "Your parents, they have just found out too."
Liam dropped his cellphone, unable to say anything.
"Hello, hello? Will?" Chad raised his voice, checking if he was still on the other line.
"I need to go see Gabi now!" Chad rushed off.
Gabi had was rushing through Horton town Square on her way home.
"I have to tell Sonny!" Gabi decided. "I still can't believe he fooled us this entire time!" She was about to text Sonny to come home immediately when Chad called.
"Hello, Chad?" Gabi answered.
"Gabi, I need to see you now!" Chad urged.
"Chad, this isn't a really good time right now." Gabi declined.
"I need to talk to you about Liam!" Chad asserted.
Gabi's eyes widened.
"Regarding Will's true identity, I know." Chad confessed. "I know everything about it."
Gabi was speechless.
"Come to DiMera mansion and I will explain everything." Chad hung up the phone.
Liam heard the doorbell rang, followed by banging on the door.
Liam broke into cold perspiration one again. "Has Gabi told Sonny already?" he lumbered towards the door, took a deep breath before opening it.
He opened the door, saw the blonde lady and a brunette man standing right before him. Liam took a step back. His parents were right in front of him.
"Will?" Sami called out.
"Mom." Liam replied before turning to Lucas, "Dad?"
"Come here, son!" Lucas and Sami rushed towards their son in a fierce group hug, sobbing uncontrollably. The three of them were reunited again under one roof, the son of Sami Brady and Lucas Horton has returned.
"Hey Gabi?" Chad greeted "Would you like to have…"
"Chad, tell me what do you know about this?" Gabi cut him off. "When did you know about this? How did you come to know about this?"
Chad inhaled a deep breath. "This is going to be a long night."
"So you didn't suspect your identity, even when you realize that you were able to speak German?" Sami questioned.
"I didn't know, I couldn't remember anything. I wouldn't think I would be a journalist before I lost my memory." Liam shrugged his shoulder.
"That doesn't matter now. What's most important is that you back home and you're with us now." Lucas grabbed his son's wrist from across the circular dining table.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sami asked.
"Now that I have found out who I truly am," Liam took a deep breath, "I have decided to return to New York."
"What?" Sami questioned. "Will, no! You can't do that! What about Sonny? What about Arianna? You're can't just abandon them!"
"I don't want to, but I have to." Will replied dejectedly.
"What do you mean by you have to?" Lucas was appalled. The son he knew would never abandon Arianna. "Sonny's your husband! Arianna's your daughter!"
"Why should I return to a family that doesn't want me?" Liam raised his voice. "Why should I return to a husband who pines after someone else? Why should I come home to a daughter that barely recognizes me?"
Sami and Lucas were stumped.
"If I return, what's going to happen?" Liam stood up, "I divorce Sonny so he can be with Paul? Arianna will despise the father who left her five years ago? What?" He said in a frustrated manner.
Sami and Lucas looked at their son, trying to fight back his tears. Their hearts ached for him.
"I won't go back." Liam made his stand clear, "I can't go back!"
"So you see, if you want to blame it on someone? Blame me." Chad insisted. "
Gabi finally understood the entire situation. Guilt started creeping up her veins as she felt awful about lashing out at Liam earlier.
"Gabi, you can't let anyone know about this." Chad pleaded. "It's not just Will that is at stake. Abigail will also be implicated."
Gabi turned her head to look at Chad. She was caught in the middle.
"Now what am I supposed to do?" She wondered to herself.
A/N: Hey guys! I want to apologize for not updating this on the regular. My school semester has been really hectic and I've been trying my best to make time for updating this fanfic.
So what do you think? Who will be the first to get to Sonny? Who will be the first to get to Paul? Gabi? JJ? Marlena? Sami? Lucas? John? Theo? Belle? Shawn? WHO WHO WHO? REVIEW! :D
Thanks for reading! I promise to upload another chapter this week and I promise not to leave you hanging… for the next few months at least.
