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Rebecca Hotchkiss
Rebecca opened her eyes to a new day. She looked to her side and noticed that she was alone. Julian hadn't been sharing a bed with her for months now. She sighed at his absence. Sure, when she married him his money was always in the back of her mind, but she really did love him too. Rebecca, of course, could never be THAT shallow.
Rebecca climbed out of bed to look for Julian. "Pookie," she called out through the halls to no response. As she walked towards the stairs, she passed the room that Gwen and Ethan used to share.
Flashback
"Gwen, you have nothing to worry about. Ethan loves you, and soon the two of you will have your own child."
"Yes, mom, but don't you remember who's carrying it? Our little friend, Theresa, who always seems to be involved in our lives," Gwen said.
"True, but as soon as she delivers, she'll be gone. You get the baby, you'll have Little Ethan, and Tacosita will be left with nothing," Rebecca stated proudly.
"It doesn't matter, mom. Even after the baby is born, Theresa will always be there, because Ethan just can't get her out of his head. Every time that something goes wrong in Theresa's life, he tries to help her. I don't know how much more of it I can take."
"But remember, Gwen, he's married to you, and Ethan takes his wedding vows very seriously."
"He married me because I was pregnant. I'm not stupid; I know that's why he's my husband now. And he didn't even last one year before being unfaithful to me. And because of that, I'm not pregnant anymore, and I don't have a baby from when I was pregnant. My little Sarah is dead because he just couldn't leave Theresa alone. And now I can never have another baby. And even if I could I'm not even sure anymore that I would want to have one with Ethan. Not after what he did to our first child. He killed her, mom. Theresa was more important to him then being there with me while I was going through a rough pregnancy with his daughter. So no, we will never be rid of Theresa."
End flashback
Poor Gwen, Rebecca thought to herself. All she ever did was worry. But that was in the past. Theresa was out of her life now, and she was happy. Unfortunately, she no longer shared that happiness with her mother.
Rebecca refocused on her own life: her marriage wasn't exactly something to brag about either. She continued downstairs and noticed a light on in Julian's office. She walked in to see Julian at his desk holding some papers.
"There you are, Julian. I noticed that you didn't come to bed yet again last night," Rebecca greeted him.
"And yet again, I wonder why you waste your time acting like you're surprised by it," Julian shot back.
"Look, Julian, I know that you wish it were Eve instead of me in your bed, but please, you must remember, I am your wife, and she is only your whore…"
"Shut up, Rebecca. Do not talk about her that way ever again. You're only jealous of her because you know you could never measure up to her, you couldn't measure up to most women for that matter."
"What happened to us, Julian? You used to love me."
"No, Rebecca, I never loved you. I was just at a miserable point in my life, and you were easy."
"How dare you talk to me that way, at the risk of repeating myself, I am your wife."
"Not for much longer," Julian mumbled softly.
"What do you mean, Julian?" Rebecca asked, sounding almost worried. Julian handed her the papers he had been holding. Rebecca gave him a distrustful look than began to look them over. "Divorce papers?"
"Yes. If you take the time to read them you'll see that you are actually making out quite well. I am willing to give up a lot of money to make you my ex-wife. It would be smart of you to sign."
"Yes, Julian, I can read. The money, the cars, the beach house, the list goes on. But you forget one thing. If I signed, I would lose the title of Mrs. Julian Crane, and I don't think I'm prepared to do that. No, Julian, you married me, and now you're stuck with me. You think that I'm unhappy? That I want a divorce? I've been in a loveless marriage before; this is nothing new to me. I handled 20 years with that creep, surely I can do it again."
"You enjoy being in a marriage where you aren't loved, where you are getting nothing in return?"
"Don't get me wrong, Julian. Much to the disbelief of Harmony citizens, I do have a heart. I'm in a loveless marriage and I'm well aware of it. It is upsetting, but I always have the money as consolation. You might be thinking about another woman, but at least I have money and power to get me through those rough times."
"And by signing these papers, you would still have money. I'm offering you so much. I strongly advise you to take my offer."
"No, Julian, I don't think I will."
"It's really in your best interest to sign them."
"Why are you pushing this when you know you can't win with me? What happens if I don't sign them?"
"You go to jail."
"What?" Rebecca screamed. "Send me to jail, for what? What are you talking about?"
"I know for a fact that you made that tape long ago, framing Ethan for the attempt made on my life. I know that you had the Lopez-Fitzgerald's fired from their jobs and evicted from their house. I know that you posed as Theresa and e-mailed the tabloids about Ethan's paternity. Also, it is no secret that you have, on more than one occasion, bribed a judge to in order to have cases decided in your favor. Now I know this may come as a shock to you, but those things are illegal."
"You have no proof of any of those things," Rebecca argued.
"I don't, but I do know a person who does have proof. And this person can and will testify against you, on all of those charges if I ask her to."
"Who?" Rebecca asked.
"Gwen."
"Oh, Julian, you haven't thought this plan through very well, have you? Gwen is my daughter, she won't testify against me."
"She has already promised me that she will. I asked her a few days ago. If you don't remember, you and Gwen aren't quite as close as you once were."
"She wouldn't do it. She was involved in most of those crimes, she would be testifying against herself if she did. They would throw her in jail too."
"Her testimony would clear of all charges. Plus, all of the crimes were your ideas and carried out for the most part by you."
"How dare you bring her into this," Rebecca hollered, recognizing defeat. "You son-of-a-bitch, pitting my own daughter, my own flesh and blood against me!"
"Please Rebecca, you brought this on yourself. Gwen has every right to be angry with you. She didn't even need convincing. She offered to testify. So, what is it going to be?"
"I just have one question for you, Julian."
"What might that be?"
"Why have you offered me so much? Obviously, I will not choose to go to jail. You could have offered me much less money, and I still would have signed. Why are you giving me all of this?"
"Because, Rebecca, I can't help but feel a little bad for you. You see, I too have a heart. I married you, and I didn't love you. And that was my mistake. This is my fault."
"You know, I knew you didn't love me. But I didn't care. I guess that I just thought that we were so similar—that it would be enough, and that the money and the name would be enough. But I guess it wasn't"
"We were similar, Rebecca. But I've changed. I am no longer an evil, cold, and corrupted man. I've grown a heart as well as a conscience. I looked back over my life, and you know what? I didn't like what I saw."
"And now you're going to spend the rest of your life trying to right your wrongs?"
"I know that for the most part it will be too little too late, but it's worth a try, isn't it?"
"I guess it is, if that is what you really want to do. Give me the papers." Rebecca took them and flipped them to the last page. She signed on the blank line and handed them back to Julian.
"Thank you, Rebecca."
"Well you really gave me no choice did you?" she laughed. "It's been interesting, Julian."
"It has been, perhaps my most intriguing marriage yet."
"Well, I guess I will go start packing my things. Maybe I will go live at the beach house. It's nice there."
"Take you're time, Rebecca, there is no rush."
"Thank you, Julian," she said as she turned to go. "You know," she started, looking back for a moment, "you are a good person Julian. I don't think I'm even going to try to get revenge for this one. Eve would be lucky to have you." And with that, she left Julian's office.
Rebecca went up to her room where she was going to start packing. Instead, she picked up the phone and dialed Gwen's number. "Hello," came Gwen's voice through the phone.
"Gwen, hi, it's me, you're mother," Rebecca said hoping that Gwen wouldn't hang up on her.
"No, that can't be right, I don't have a mother."
"Gwen, please, just talk to me. I love you, and I want to be involved in your life."
"Well it's not your choice to be involved or not, you lost your right to have that choice."
"Gwen I'm your mother."
"Funny, because you never really were a good one. Please don't call me again. My life has only gotten better since you haven't been it," Gwen said as she hung up the phone.
"Damnit," Rebecca muttered to herself. She picked up the phone again and this time dialed a different number.
"What do you want, Rebecca?" came Ivy's voice.
"Don't sound so hostile, Ivy, I just want to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Well, like you, I am now an ex-Mrs. Julian Crane."
"You divorced him? I'm impressed, I thought you'd never do it, give up the name, I'm shocked."
"Well, it wasn't really my choice; he kind of forced me to."
"I knew it couldn't have been your idea."
"Look, Ivy. I've lost a lot of people in my life. And I just wanted to call you to say that I'm sorry for any bad blood there might be between us. I don't know what happened, we used to be friends."
"Are you asking for me to be friends with you?" Ivy said starting to laugh, "Seriously Rebecca, you are so pathetic."
"Please, Ivy, I just wanted to put our differences behind us and be friends again. I miss our friendship."
"Well you sort of ruined that friendship when you supported Julian in kicking me out of the mansion. I had no money and no where to go."
"Yes, but you ended up going to Sam's, so you see it all worked out for you. You got Sam."
"Yeah, no thanks to you. You didn't help me to do it in any way. I can't even remember the last time I talked to you—and that's a good thing."
"Ivy, when did you become so cruel?"
"I'm only like this to you. Oh, Sam is home, I have to go. Love calls! Please, just leave me alone."
"Yeah well don't get too comfortable with Sam. I know you played a major part in breaking him and Grace up. And trust me Ivy, the truth always finds its way out. So be prepared for the worst. I'm sure that this won't just end with you and Sam riding off into the sunset."
"Oh, shut up, Rebecca. I have been very careful in hiding my secrets."
"I'm just saying, I have a feeling that it will come back to bite you in the ass. So just be ready."
"Go to hell. Don't call me again. Have a nice life." And with that, Ivy hung up the phone. Rebecca would never hear from Gwen again. Nor would she ever speak to Ivy again. But she did hear things about them. She found out about Gwen finally adopting. And she heard about Ivy's secrets coming out, and how she was forced to leave Harmony. She knew Ivy wouldn't get away with what she had done.
Within a week, Rebecca was moving herself into the beach house miles away from Harmony. It was ironic she thought. She had had so much money and power. She had used it to hurt her enemies and to help those she loved. And at the time she thought she was helping them, and that they loved her even more for it. Yet, somehow she still ended up alone.