Chapter 49- Woman of the Year

After everyone ordered their meals, the magician headed to the front and began doing a few tricks. One trick, he held out a bunch of playing cards and had Myrtle draw one. She showed it to their table, and it was the Queen of hearts, then handed it back to the magician. He handed Greenlee a pair of scissors and had her chop the cards into pieces. He held out his empty hat for everyone to see, then had her drop the pieces into it. Skye glanced around the room and noticed that Sage wasn't in her seat and JR looked forlorn. She turned her attention back to the magician who was now shaking his hat. He held it out for everyone to see the pieces of the cards missing from it.

"How are you enjoying your drink, Mrs. Fargate?" he asked.

Myrtle lifted her glass. "Cheers!" She looked down to find the Queen of Hearts where her glass was. "You sneaky man you!"

As he moved on to his next trick, the waiter arrived with their food.

Monica leaned over and looked at Alan's lobster. "Mmm, that looks good. I should've ordered the lobster."

Alan eyed Monica's plate. "And your roast beef looks good. I'll trade ya."

They swapped plates and Skye started to cut up her chicken breast and noticed that Sage returned to her seat.

Kendall completely ignored Erica and only spoke to Myrtle, while Erica kept muttering under her breath as she ate her meal.

"Isn't this so much fun?" Stuart asked, who was sitting on the other side of Skye.

Skye nodded and looked across the table as John fed Rae one of his popcorn shrimps and then kissed her. "Eeew… do you mind?"

John and Rae broke apart and began laughing. Then she was equally disgusted when she saw Alan peck Monica on the lips. But what was worse, was when she noticed Sage leave the hall again, and this time JR followed a few seconds after.

Alan reached for Monica's hand and squeezed it.

"Okay!" Skye slammed her serviette onto the table. "If none of you are going to get a room, I need a break from this love fiesta." She got up and left the table.

"My apologies," Alan said. "I should have saved that for later. I'll go find Skye—"

"Oh, nonsense!" Myrtle said. "That girl is just a drama queen. There's nothing wrong with a small peck and holding hands. She just wants to be the centre of attention all the time. Don't feed into that."

Rae looked over as Monica looked red in the face.

"Alan…" Monica groaned. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

Alan wrapped an arm around her and placed a hand on her forehead. "Monica, you're burning up."

"Can we go, Alan?"

"Of course." He helped her to her feet. "Rae, please apologize to Skye. I will call her tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Fargate."

After they left, Erica made her way to the front and held the microphone and grinned widely as she spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am so pleased to have you all here tonight. Bianca and I have worked so hard to make this such a special evening for Myrtle, who is like a mother to me." She placed a hand over her heart.

Rae's heart sank.

John whispered in Rae's ear. "That woman has the gall to take all the credit for this after she's been badgering you day in and day out about every detail of it?"

"And I want to take this opportunity for a very special presentation," Erica continued. "If everyone could please turn their attention to the screen…"

"I'm going to give this woman a piece of my mind…" John said.

"Don't…" Rae whispered. "She must have done a slide show for Mama…"

A man appeared on the screen and spoke, "As director of the Television Arts Guild Awards, it is my pleasure to announce the latest nominee for Woman of the Year! She was the winner of the Woman of the Year award in 1996. A loving and devoted mother and cosmetic empress, Erica Kane!"

Rae gritted her teeth and exchanged a look with John.

The camera zoomed in on Erica crying. "Oh, this is such an honour. Even just to be nominated… again. It has been such a busy year. Between being there for my daughter and running Enchantment… to falling in love with my soulmate Jackson again. And of course, keeping up with my busy friends Opal and Myrtle. But no matter the drama in my life, I will always… always put my two babies first: Bianca and Enchantment."

Everyone turned to Kendall, who was now in tears, and watched her flee from the hall.

Once the presentation was finished, no one applauded, and Erica returned to the table.

Myrtle rose from her seat and slammed her fist down on the table causing Erica to jump. "Erica Kane, you are an absolute disgrace! Not only did you manage to make my birthday party completely about you, but you took all the credit for planning this! I know perfectly well that Rae has been helping you plan it. That's right, I just pretended to be surprised. And as horrible as you treated my daughter, I am not the least bit surprised. What I am surprised about is how you could sink this low to treat Kendall that way."

Erica gawked at her. "How was I supposed to know that Kendall would show up uninvited?"

"I invited her!" Myrtle shouted. "But even if she wasn't invited, you should have held back in playing that video knowing full well that she was here! Well, you've ruined my party. I hope you're proud of yourself, Erica. I am leaving." She turned to Rae. "Thank you for all of your hard work, dear. Let's go home and let Erica clean up herself."

"Wait, Myrtle," Erica called out to her. "You can't just leave. The night is still young…"

Myrtle glared at her in response.

The waiter hurried into the hall and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, everyone. I hate to interrupt. But we've just been informed that a guest was taken to the hospital due to food poisoning. The food has been recalled and we need to close early. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Rae turned to John. "I bet that was Monica…"

FargateFargateFargate

After wandering through the building trying to find JR and Sage, Skye made her way to the bathroom and paced back and forth. "Ugh… maybe I'm overreacting. I just had the worst feeling about that twit."

She looked up abruptly when Kendall stormed into the bathroom crying.

Skye cleared her throat awkwardly. "Uh… you okay?"

Kendall gripped both sides of the sink and leaned forward. "I hate her! I hate her!"

Skye raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"My mother…"

"Erica? Well, she is an easy woman to hate."

"She hates me too."

"Well, my mother and I used to hate each other too," Skye said. "Though my mom isn't Erica Kane. And Mom didn't know I was her daughter back then."

"She's just never going to change. She's never going to accept me."

Skye rolled her eyes. She wasn't used to being the comforter… "You don't know that."

Kendall laughed. "Then you don't know Erica Kane."

"She used to be my stepmother. Unfortunately…"

Kendall regained her composure and turned to her. "You said your mom didn't know you were her daughter. So, she didn't raise you?"

"No. I was kidnapped when I was born. It's a long story…"

"Oh." Kendall frowned. "So, your mom wanted you. Mine didn't. All I am is a reminder of my father. That's all she sees when she looks at me or even thinks of me."

Skye raised an eyebrow. "And your father is?"

"Her rapist."

"Oh…" Skye lowered her gaze. "I had no idea. That actually… makes my life seem less complicated. Sort of…"

"I never should've returned to town… I don't know how I possibly could've thought that after all these years things would change. I wish I never found out I was adopted. Even though something never felt right… at least my parents didn't hate me. They really did love me."

"Something never felt right when I was growing up either," Skye said. "Except Daddy and Mother never really loved me."

Kendall held her head high. "Well, I'm going to go through with my plan."

"Which is?"

"I'm going to start my own cosmetics company that is going to drag Enchantment through the mud."

"So, the way to get your mom to stop hating you is by competing with her?"

"No. I'm going to get back at her for not loving me. And I'm going to show her that I can make myself bigger and better than her. Then she'll regret throwing me away like yesterday's trash."

"Interesting…" Skye said. "That makes those articles I wrote about my mom seem like child's play."

"Kendall! Kendall!" The door opened part way.

Skye scrunched her face. "Junior?"

JR crept in with a hand over his eyes. "I know I'm not supposed to be in the girls' bathroom… but I saw you headed this way. I know you're Bianca's sister and our parents used to be married—"

Skye yanked his hand away from his eyes. "There you are, you little brat! I've been looking all over for you!"

JR's face lit up a little. "Skye! Even better. I didn't want to go back to the party and make a scene if I asked you to leave with me—"

"Why were you looking for me?" Kendall crossed her arms.

"I need help," JR said. "And I saw you, so I thought I'd take a chance and ask you."

"Stop beating around the bush and get to the point, Junior!" Skye said.

"Well, you see, the girl I brought tonight… Sage. I was only pretending to like her."

"Why?" Skye asked.

"Because I know she helped kidnapped Jamie and Colby."

Skye's mouth dropped slightly. "Hayley said a teenaged girl with long brown hair stabbed her…"

JR nodded. "And it's all my fault. All of it."

"Who exactly is this Sage?" Skye asked

JR frowned. "She's the daughter of my lead drug dealer."

"You do drugs?" Kendall asked appalled. "You can't be older than ten!"

"I'm thirteen! And I'm trying to wean off." He turned back to Skye. "I overheard her on the phone a little while ago… I know where Colby is. Maybe Jamie is with her."

Skye stepped closer to him. "Keep talking."

"We can't delay anymore… will you come with me?"

"Yes. Of course… but, we need to go tell John."

"No! Just us. Please…" JR begged. "There's no time. We're delaying enough as it is."

"You go. I'll go tell the cops," Kendall offered.

"No! No cops!"

Skye sighed. "Junior…"

"Please… Please just come."

"Fine!" As Skye and JR headed out the door, Skye turned back to Kendall and mouthed, "Go tell John."