Chapter Thirty-Six -The Return
Lexie entered the lavishly decorated living room, laughing with extreme delight. "Oh, Chloe!" she called out, addressing her sister who had just sat down in front of the chess board with their father opposite her. "That was, hmmmm, that was fantastic!" Lexie crossed over to her sister and father, flopping herself down on the comfortable sofa near the chess board.
"Referring to her first meeting with the Blacks, Alexandra?" Stefano inquired, a large smile crossing his face. The meeting couldn't have gone better if he had engineered it himself.
"Of course!" Lexie exclaimed exuberantly. "It was such a pleasure, Chloe, to watch you square off against Brady Black and defending our father. Brady Black deserved everything you said to him. And John, well, he was just plain speechless!" She laughed again in pure satisfied pleasure.
Chloe ran her hand over the queen from the chess set, in true DiMera fashion. She smiled slightly in response to Lexie's recount of the recent scene. "I didn't know it was the Blacks, Father, until the very end." Her eyes narrowed when she recalled how insistent Brady Black had been about her past with him. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
Stefano frowned when Chloe hesitated. "Go on, dear. I can see that there is something bothering you. What is it, Chloe, darling?" He knew that Chloe would be confused after meeting with the people from her past and he wanted to deal with it now, to set aside any concerns Chloe had about the former people in her life.
Chloe spoke stiltedly, while she began to voice a few concerns about Brady Black. "Father, there are some things I just don't understand. For one thing, why did Brady Black accuse you of kidnapping me? And right before I was supposed to marry him? Honestly, Father, it doesn't make any sense to me. Why would he say something like that?" Chloe put the chess piece back on the board and turned her confused gaze on her father, imploring him for the answers to her questions with her eyes.
Stefano reached across the chessboard and held onto Chloe's hands. He was prepared for any questions Chloe could have when it came to her past in Salem. He merely had to manipulate Chloe's stolen past to his advantage. "Chloe, darling, first you need to remember who we are dealing with here. The Blacks and the Bradys. Our enemies. Their main objective in life is to cause the DiMera family unhappiness."
"You shared that with me in Ireland," Chloe interrupted, wanting desperately to understand the statements Brady Black had revealed to her. She began to recount the part of her life that Lexie and her father had shared with her after the car accident robbed her of her memory. "I know that I lived in Salem with you and Lexie for awhile, that I did know all of these people at one time. But I can't remember any of them because of that car accident in Ireland, which, unfortunately, took away my memory. I'm relying on you, Father and Lexie, to help me with my past here in Salem."
"And we will help you," Lexie answered her sister soothingly. She gazed intently into Chloe's eyes, searching for any sign of remembrance for her life in Salem. Lexie breathed out a sigh of relief when she correctly read confusion in Chloe's eyes.
"That's right, Chloe. Put your trust in us. We will assist you in your dealings with the lovely inhabitants of Salem. And we will help you sort out the lies and deception that some people will cruelly share with you." Stefano paused effectively, waiting for Chloe to draw the necessary conclusion herself.
"Lies?" Chloe pondered, lowering her eyebrows in concentrated thought. She drew the conclusion quickly. "So, I didn't almost marry Brady Black. And you didn't abduct me from my wedding. But, Father, why on earth would that man accuse you of such a horrendous act? I still can't comprehend his motivation in insisting that we were to be married."
Stefano hid the gleam of satisfaction from his eyes. He squeezed Chloe's hands once and then let them go before he began his own twisted explanation. "Chloe, you know that the Blacks are our enemies. Brady Black blatantly lied to you in the foyer, deceived you cruelly. That is very obvious. A Black would never marry into the DiMera family and vice versa."
Lexie chimed in, throwing in her own question to make Stefano's explanation more believable to Chloe. "We all agree with you on that, Father. But, I think I can safely say that Chloe and I still do not know the reasons why Brady would lie so horribly to Chloe." She looked sympathetically over at Chloe, who nodded in agreement.
Stefano shared a look of approval with Lexie. "Alexandra, I can easily understand why you and Chloe may be a little confused. I am confused myself," he lied blatantly, while he allowed a perplexed look to cross his face. He paused for a moment and then continued slowly, "I can only reason that John and Brady Black have come up with some type of a plan, a plan to try and divide our united family."
"That could be it," Lexie agreed while she chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. "Maybe they know about Chloe's car accident and her memory loss and have decided to use that knowledge for their own advantage."
"Exactly!" Stefano said emphatically, snapping his fingers sharply in the air. "And, Chloe, darling, after that altercation in the foyer, I believe that they may be trying to manipulate your past here, in Salem. Fabricating lies about your past, making you doubt the honesty within your family."
Chloe broke in slowly, interrupting her father again. "You know, Father, that is despicable. How could anyone be that heartless, that cruel, to play around with an innocent person's past like that? God, I wish I had given Brady Black more than a slight slap on the cheek now that I understand his motives." She glanced back at the foyer, her cheeks flushing slightly with anger.
Lexie was very pleased with Chloe's reaction to their explanation. "Chloe, darling?" Lexie said softly. She waited until Chloe looked at her. "I fear that it could only get worse. It may not be just Brady Black who is playing this sick, twisted game with you. There could be more people here, in Salem, who may claim to know things about you. There is the entire Brady family to consider, as well as our other sister, Greta Sinclair." Lexie waited expectantly for Chloe to respond to the name of their other sister.
"Greta may be related to us but she is not our sister. Lexie, both you and Father have explained to me before we came back to Salem how she refused to acknowledge us as her family. I won't believe her or any of the others," Chloe vowed quickly and insistently. "I'm a DiMera. The only people I trust in this world is here, in this very room, with me right now."
"They may have some very convincing arguments," Stefano cautioned after nodding curtly at his daughter's stated loyalty to the family. "Anecdotes, pictures, that type of thing. You know, evidence that could easily be manufactured. Whatever they have, though, is fake. It's not true, Chloe."
"Chances are, they will try to deceive me again," Chloe interpreted, thinking back to Brady Black's behavior in the foyer. "But I won't let them come between us, Father. I promise you that. I know who will tell me the truth."
"Oh, darling!" Stefano exclaimed. He stood up from his chair and walked slowly over to Chloe. When he reached Chloe, she stood up. He brought her gently into an embrace and hugged her tightly. He met Lexie's gaze and winked at her in celebration. Lexie nodded in satisfaction. Both of them were pleased with Chloe's response to their explanations. Stefano pulled back slightly from the embrace and smiled at his youngest daughter. "You have made me very proud, Chloe DiMera, very proud indeed. Let me know if anyone in Salem harasses you, all right?"
Chloe agreed to her father's request immediately. "Of course, Father. Hopefully, though, the people of Salem will leave me alone and let us be a family." She leaned in once more and hugged her father quickly. "You know, Father, after all of the events of today, I don't really feel like playing chess right now. Would you mind horribly if I asked for a rain check?"
Stefano tenderly caressed his daughter's cheek. "No, not at all, darling. Why don't you go to your room and rest? I know that the stress of the encounter with Brady Black wasn't good for you. You are still dealing with your memory loss." He looked at his daughter with sympathetic eyes, even though he was the one who had shamelessly taken her memories away.
Chloe slowly left the living room and headed towards the stairs. She stopped halfway up the stairs and looked down at the foyer. The recent scene between her and Brady Black replayed itself in her mind. "He really seemed sincere in his happiness to see me again," she whispered to herself. She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "It must have been all an act, just like my father and Lexie said." She glanced once more at the foyer and then continued up to her bedroom, trying to forget about the emotional encounter between her and Brady Black.