Part XII

Teresa stood for a while in the warm sand with a smile on her face. She watched at Dylan hit the waves a few times on his surf board before he decided that he had had enough. He ran out of the water and went to Teresa.

"Maybe you should hit the waves with me some day."

"Maybe I'll just stay on the shore and watch you."

"You're no fun, Teresa."

"Well, I have a son, let's not make an orphan of him."

They both sat in the warm sand and didn't say anything. Every once in a while, Teresa would glance towards him and Dylan would do that same.

"Dylan, you and I haven't knows each other for very long. But you are Fox's best friend and I want to know that you and I are okay."

"I see, so you want to make sure that everything is alright between us because you are worried that it might hurt Fox's feelings?"

"No, I want you and I to be okay too. I think you're a terrific person, Dylan."

"Is that why you felt the need to lie when we were at the restaurant?"

Teresa looked down and didn't say anything.

"Look, I'm attracted to you, but I would like to know where you stand, Teresa."

"Where I stand?"

"Yes, Teresa. Where do you stand?"

"I don't know. I got to go."

She got up and walked away from Dylan. He looked at her for a few seconds, startled by her reaction then got on his feet.

"Fox was right, you'll never get over Ethan."

Teresa stopped in her tracks. She didn't turn around to face him, she didn't want to. She didn't move. She was frozen. Ethan.Ethan. The man who had been her life for so long. The person she had built everything around since she was a child, the man she wanted to be hers above anything else. The man who had made her heart beat so fast, the man she had given everything for and gave up everything to.

Ethan, the man who had betrayed her and left her broken, shattered beyond repair. The man who had hurt her beyond what words could describe.

"I walked the green mile for him. I threw myself down an elevator shaft to save his life. I went down to Bermuda to try and fix everything that I had done, I tried to get him back into the Crane family, you know. Julian that night, he got me drunk and knocked me up."

Dylan was by her side, standing in front of her, facing her, looking into her torn up face as her memories came back to her so vividly he could feel them. He saw her pain, he saw her sorrow.

"I thought that he wouldn't care who the father of my child was, but he did. I thought that he would always be there for me, but he wasn't. I confessed to a murder I didn't commit to save his life and I risked my life and my son's life for him. I was so foolish to think that he loved me the way I loved him. His love was so selfish and I'm the only one who fought for us."

Tears were now running down her cheeks. Her heart was breaking all over again.

"I'm so sorry, Teresa. I didn't mean for you to go over this again."

"Did you know he made love to Gwen the night of my execution, right after I was pronounced dead?"

Dylan shook his head.

"That should have told me how little he cared, but I kept going after him over and over and over. Gwen blames me for her baby dying, but I didn't really do anything. He came into my room and he crawled in my bed and we kissed and I didn't mean to, but it happened."

"Teresa, you don't have to tell me all of this."

"But I do. You need to understand. It's hard for me to move on. Ethan is the only thing I ever knew in my life. I spent my life in a lie, in a dream and I want to get out of it. I want to feel what it is to be really loved. I want to know what it is not to have to fit in someone's ideal."

"Someone's ideal?"

"He wanted me to be someone I wasn't. He wanted me to be this perfect person which I am not. Dylan, I make mistakes, I can't help it."

"You and everyone else, Teresa. You are human."

"He didn't want me to be human."

"Then he didn't deserve you."

"Ethan was my habit. He is what I know.

"And he is also the biggest lie of your life."

"I know. I'm trying to come to terms with this."

"It takes time, but you'll get through it. You just have to let go."

"Let go? I want to, but the past always seems to be pulling me where I don't want to go. I know that I don't love Ethan anymore.no, wait. I don't know if I ever loved Ethan. I don't know if I ever knew what love was and how to love and how to be loved. I feel like all my life, I've been waiting for this Cinderella fairy tale to happen to me and it never really has."

Teresa sat down as did Dylan. She leaned her head on Dylan and cried.

"There are people who care about you and who are there for you."

"I know."

"How do you feel about Fox?"

"I can't discuss this with you, Dylan. I'm sorry."

She got up and this time, he didn't say anything. He just watched her walk away and he knew that he didn't stand a chance with her, but he also knew that Teresa would have her heart broken again when she found out that Fox came to Los Angeles to be close to Whitney.

"You won't be so quick to go back to Fox when you learn that it's Whitney he wants."

Once again, he wondered how Fox could be so oblivious to Teresa. He was more dense than he had ever known him to be.