CHAPTER 20 Guilt

"Gwen, listen to me. I'm going down, but you still have the chance to save yourself and your marriage. Tell Teresa the truth and let her do whatever she wants with it."

"Are you insane, Mother?"

"No, Julian is holding a lot of things over my head. He was tipped off by somebody."

"Who do you think it was?"

"I don't know, Gwen."

"I cannot believe I let you get me into this, now it's about to destroy my marriage."

"He knows about the tabloid, he knows about framing Teresa for murder....."

"You framed Teresa for murder?"

"Well, we had to?"

"Who is we?"

"Ivy and me?"

"Oh my God, Teresa was right. You were out to get her. What else?"

"He found out through Alistair that Ivy is the one who pushed herself down the stairs at the Bennetts."

"But that doesn't concern you."

"I know, but it means that he is also digging for dirt on Ivy and he'll probably find out things on you too."

Gwen remained silent. She felt scared and helpless.

"He wants a DNA test done on little Ethan."

"No, he can't do that."

"But he is going to. Gwen, he won't marry me. I'm never going to be Mrs. Julian Crane and I'm going to powerless, penniless and out in the cold. I should have asked for money from your father the day I divorced him."

"I am going to lose everything because of you, Mother and you'll end up in prison for all those rotten things you did."

"God, I hope not. I'm sure Julian and I can arrive at a compromise."

"Maybe you can get Julian to back off, but Teresa won't have it. She will seek revenge on you and Ivy. We set all these events in motion. You destroyed her life and she won't rest until she destroys yours."

"I won't let her, I will stop her."

"You and what army, Mother. Don't you see, she wins. She comes out of all of these as white as snow."

"Gwen, we'll come up with something else, I promise."

"No, Mother we won't. This is done and over with. I will meet everyone and let them know exactly what's up."

Gwen hung up on Rebecca feeling scared and confused. Why would Julian start looking for incriminating evidence on her mother? She knew he didn't want to marry her, but why would he go that fire in trying to find out all these things. She picked up her son and sat in the arm chair. She gazed into his face and thought of Teresa's son who was growing up with perfect strangers.

"I cannot believe what Mother has done. Framing her for a murder she didn't commit."

She got up, put her son back in his crib and picked up the phone and called Fox. Then she went to Whitney's room and spoke to both her and Chad. She went and found Ethan.

"I would like to speak to all of you. There is something important that everyone needs to know."

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The phone rang and Fox picked up.

"How important is it?....Yes, I'll bring her with me."

He hung up with Gwen and called Paloma.

"Lomes, what's going on in Harmony?"

"I think Pandora's box is about to break open, why?"

"Because Gwen just called and told me that she had something really important to tell everyone. I felt it might have something to do with that."

"Probably. Tell me, are you and Teresa in speaking terms?"

"Yes, things seem to be back to normal."

"Great, that's good to know."

"I got to go."

They both hung up and Fox went to Teresa's room. She was lying on her bed, with her legs up the wall staring into space.

"Teresa, Gwen wants us to go to her place. It's pretty urgent."

She turned her head and looked at him.

"There are always emergencies where she's concerned."

"She sounded pretty serious."

"Is anyone hurt?"

"No."

"Then it can't be that urgent."

He sat beside her.

"What's wrong Teresa?"

"It's just that everytime I see her son, he reminds me of my own. They look so much alike, like they are brothers or something."

"Except that he is Julian's."

She closed her eyes, fighting off the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes.

"He also kind of looks like you."

"How do you mean?"

"You have Ivy's mouth and so does he."

"I know you miss him, but I'm sure my father cannot keep him away from his mother without feeling guilty."

She got up from her bed and put her flip lops on.

"This is Julian we're talking about Fox. He doesn't feel guilty about anything."

He stood up and put his arm against her shoulders.

"Don't worry, we'll get him back."

She smiled at him.

"Let's go and get this over with."