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Martin Lopez-Fitzgerald

Martin woke up to the sun hitting his face from the window. He rolled over to face the love of his life, Katherine. He kissed her cheek softly and lied there next to her, watching her sleep. He could hear her soft breathing and smiled thinking how lucky he was to have her. She stirred a little and slowly her eyes opened. Her eyes met his and she smiled back at him. They had been through so much but at least they were together. "Good morning," he whispered to her.

"Good morning," she said back kissing him softly. She began to get up out of bed and made her way to the bathroom.

Martin rolled back over and lied there for while thinking about their life together. He heard the shower start and began to get up himself. He left their bedroom and made his way downstairs. On the couch he saw Paloma sleeping in front of the television. He turned off the TV. and kissed Paloma on the forehead. If only she knew how close the two of them really were. He longed to tell her, but knew he couldn't. He continued outside where he picked up the paper. He took it inside with him and went to the kitchen. He made himself some coffee and sat down at the table, unfolding the newspaper. On the front page the name Crane caught his eye. Even though the Crane lived in a different country they were still so rich and powerful that a big enough story about them could make the front page of a newspaper in Mexico. Something really big must have happened, Martin thought to himself. He read over the article in shock. Allister Crane was found dead in his office. He had hung himself. Martin read the article three times making sure he hadn't missed something.

Katherine came downstairs and saw Martin sitting at the table, his hand over his mouth, a look of surprise on his face. "What is it?" she asked quietly so as not to wake Paloma. "What's wrong?"

"Katherine," he said looking up at her, "it's Allister, he committed suicide."

"What?" Katherine asked putting her hand to her stomach.

"It's in the paper. He hung himself in his office a couple of nights ago."

"Oh my God. What happened, what could have made him do that?"

"Apparently our children, Luis and Sheridan found some evidence of some of his wrong-doings. They threatened to expose him and send him to the chair, but he killed himself before any of it came out."

"Luis and Sheridan? They…they…destroyed him."

"Yes. I just can't believe it. I just…it's so weird to think that he's…gone."

"Martin, the man who forced us to leave, the reason we ran, he's dead."

"I know. It's horrible to say, but him being dead, it's almost a good thing. Do you know what this means Katherine?"

"What Martin?"

"He's the reason we left, he's why we are here in hiding. And now he's dead. Katherine, what's keeping us here now? Why can't we just go back?"

"Martin! We could go home, we could…" she suddenly stopped, her smile disappearing. "No, Martin, our families, they could never forgive us. They would hate us for what we've done. We ran from Allister, but now we're hiding from so many other people."

"It will come as a shock to them, yes. But when we explain everything to them, they'll understand. They will have to."

"I fear they won't. Martin, they might not want anything to do with us."

"But isn't it worth a try, Katherine? You know that we'll regret it if we don't try. They may never want to see us again, but maybe they'll forgive us. Can you really sit here in Mexico for the rest of your life and see their picture in the paper every now and again, but never actually see them. It kills me every time I see a news article about something in Harmony, or see a picture of a member of my family, and to know that I may never see any of them again."

"Of course I understand that. I feel the same way; don't pretend that you have it worse than me. At least you've had one of your children here with you the whole time. You have been able to watch Paloma grow up. Consider yourself lucky. And of course I want to see them again, of course it's worth a try, but I just don't know if I would be able to cope should they tell us that they could never forgive us."

"I know, I know," Martin hugged her; "I don't want to fight with you. I have been lucky, I have had Paloma, but I just want to see the rest of them so desperately. And I know that you want to see your children as well. And it's safe now. Allister is gone, there is no more danger for us in Harmony. There maybe rejection and pain for us there, but the threat of physical danger is gone. This is our chance, it's what we've been waiting for for years. We can go back, we can see everyone that we left, and we can hope, hope for the best and just see how it all plays out. They may hate us, but I'd risk that in hope that maybe, just maybe they will forgive us."

"Oh, Martin, I'm so scared. But if we don't go back, you're right, I will regret it. As scared as I am, I know what I have to do. We must go back. No matter what might happen, we have to go back. For their sakes, your family deserves to know what happened to you, they've wondered all these years. And Sheridan and Julian deserve to know the truth about their mother. I do want to see them. We do have to go back."

"Of course we do. And we will. We'll get on the first plane to Harmony. We can start packing now," he said excited at the thought of seeing his family. He began up the stairs stopping for a moment and looking back down at Katherine. "This is the right decision, we have to do this. It won't be long now before we see them. We can take Paloma with us. I have hope."

"Take me where?" Paloma sat up on the couch. She looked back and forth between the couple, wiping the tiredness out of her eyes. "Well is one of you going to tell me? Where are you going to take me? What are the two of you talking about?"

Martin looked at Katherine thinking about what to tell Paloma. He decided that the only thing he could tell her was the truth. "We want to take you back to Harmony."

"What?" Paloma asked, anger coming to her voice. "You know my feelings on that idea. I will never go back to the people who abandoned me. They didn't want me, and I don't need them."

Martin couldn't take it any more. He was tired of listening to Paloma go on about how horrible her entire family was when there was only one person to blame. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself, but he couldn't help it. The words just started pouring out of his mouth. He loved Paloma, but finally he was going to put her in her place…make her understand. "They didn't abandon you, Paloma. They love you, they all love you…"

"No…" Paloma began to interrupt, but was cut off my Martin.

"Don't interrupt me Paloma," his voice roared above hers. She stopped talking in shock and listened for once. "They love you, that is why they sent you here. You have had such a wonderful life here, a life you never could have had there. You spend so much time blaming your mother and you siblings, when there is only one person that you have any right to blame. And that is your father. He left and then there wasn't enough money to take care of all of the children. You were the only child who hadn't started school yet. That is why you were the one sent over your other siblings. Antonio was almost to high school, Luis was about to go into middle school. Theresa and Miguel were both in elementary school. They had already established themselves there. Theresa already had a best friend in Whitney; your mother didn't want to tear them apart. Miguel had found a best friend in Kay; your mother couldn't tear them apart either. You were the only one who hadn't started school yet, you also weren't old enough to have any real ties to Harmony yet. You were the best choice. You could come here and start school, and your life would be here. You would make your first friendships here. You were too young to really even remember Harmony. They loved you though; it was the hardest choice your mother ever had to make. She didn't want to do it, but she had to. Stop blaming them. I know you resent what happened, but you must believe that they didn't want to do it, they loved you, they still do. Your mother hated herself for what she did, but she had no other choice."

"How do you know all of this?" Paloma asked softly, tears forming in her eyes.

Martin took a deep breath and began talking in a much calmer voice. "A lot of it I found out from Maria. She told me about why Pilar chose to send you away."

"But you know all of their names, you talk about them as if you knew them. You know the names of Theresa and Miguel's best friends. You know who Whitney and Kay are. How do you know that?"

"Because Paloma, it's me. I'm the only person you have a right to blame. I'm your father."

"What?" Paloma asked looking at him in disbelief, "no you're not, you can't be."

"It is me. I've had plastic surgeries to make my appearance different, but I am. I can tell you Luis' best friend is Hank. I remember them trying to do this one project for school together when they had to collect bugs and bring them into class. They had so much fun with that, they would scare your mother and Theresa with them. I know Miguel has a scar on his knee from when he slid into home plate during a baseball game, and I remember him being safe, he was so happy. I remember Theresa always trying to dress you up and do your hair when you were really little. You were like her own personal doll or something. I remember when I got a call from the principle of the school, saying that Antonio had gotten into a fight with a kid who had been bullying Theresa. I remember all of that. And I've tried to keep up with them. Sometimes they are in the paper, of I find out things about them. I heard about Theresa and Luis' double wedding, as well as how it was ruined. I heard about Miguel finding the love of his life, a girl named Charity. I would love to meet her, she sounds like such a wonderful girl. I heard about Luis and Antonio falling in love with the same woman. And about how Theresa is a mother now. And most recently I heard about Antonio…" here Martin hesitated for a second, not able to say the word, "…dying," he finally finished. "I know about all of it, because I am Martin Lopez-Fitzgerald, it's me Paloma."

Paloma was silent for a few seconds letting all of it sink in. She looked at the man before her, the man she thought she knew. Her emotions were running so fast. It was her father. After years of uncertainty, here he was in front of her, he wasn't dead, he was alive and well. But he had left them, he had left his family, why had he done that? And here he was, with another woman, who wasn't her mother, who wasn't his wife. He had been unfaithful to the one woman who loved him more than life itself. All of these thoughts raced through her mind and at the end of them all she was only left with questions…and anger.

"I know it's a shock, I know it's a lot to take in, I've wanted to tell you all of this for so long, I'm so sorry," Martin's voice cut through the silence.

She didn't want to hear his apologies. The sound of his voice made her sick to her stomach. "So I was sent here, I was sent away from my family, because you ran off with another woman?" Paloma screamed at him.

"Paloma, please don't jump to conclusions, I can explain everything, you have to listen, you don't understand. I didn't leave your mother for another woman, there were reasons, but that is not one of them."

"Don't lie to me. You've done enough of that," she said bitterly. Her words made Martin's heart sink to the floor. "You left her, she loved you so much, and you ran off with some whore."

Katherine winced at this remark, but continued her silence. It was not her place to try to explain anything to Paloma. This was Martin's daughter and the two of them needed to talk.

"Don't call her that Paloma, she is not a whore," Martin answered.

"Oh, don't defend her. You two, for years, acted like an aunt and an uncle to me, you lied to me all these years."

"Please listen to me, I didn't run off with another woman. She is from Harmony as well. This is Katherine Crane."

Theses words stopped Paloma for a moment as she remembered the name. "Allister's wife?"

"Yes," Martin answered hoping that Paloma would listen now. "The two of us had to leave Harmony, Allister was trying to kill us. He used to abuse Katherine, and he would try to rape her. I worked at the Crane mansion; I saved her from Allister's wrath on many occasions. He hated me for doing this, and he threatened the two of us. We had to leave or he would have killed us. When we did leave he made up a story that Katherine had died, and said that I ran after being caught stealing. He made those things up to protect his pride, and in the meantime he searched everywhere for us. We changed our appearances, our names, we fled the country."

"But you two are together, did you cheat on Mama?"

"No, Paloma, I loved your mother, and all of my children. And leaving all of you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It was after we had left, the two of us were just always together, and feelings began to grow. And we did fall in love, and we are together now. But that doesn't mean that I don't love Pilar. She is the mother of my children, and I could never forget about her. It's just that romantically, I've moved on. But I was never unfaithful to her."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"We couldn't risk it. We couldn't tell anyone because then it could get back to Allister. When we first came to this hotel we only planned on staying for a few nights. But then I saw you, I recognized you in a second, and I discovered that you were here permanently, and so our short visit turned into a much longer one. I wanted to tell you so badly, but if I did, I would have had to run from here, I would have had to leave. I couldn't leave you twice, I just couldn't."

"Papa," Paloma whispered. She ran across the room to him and embraced him. "I can't believe it's you. But wait…" she began as a thought came to her. "You couldn't tell be for risk that you might be discovered by the wrong person. So why now, why did you tell me now. Oh no, oh no, you're going to leave me aren't you. You finally tell me, I finally know the truth and now you're going to leave," she choked out tears flowing down her cheeks.

"No, Paloma, I am not going to leave you. I will never leave you again. Just this morning I found out that Allister Crane is dead. There is no more threat for Katherine and me in Harmony now. It's over. We can stop running. We are going to go back. And we want to take you with us."

Paloma smiled at this. Her family was to be reunited, she was happy at this. She forgot for the moment that she had to grow up apart from her family. She was still hurt by that but she had her father back, that was all she could think about now. He was back, and now she would go back to the rest of family, the family who didn't abandon her, and who loved her, and who hated themselves for having to send her away. "Papa, I am not happy that you left our family, but for now I'm glad to know the truth, and to have you back. And of course I will go to Harmony with you. I can't wait to see everyone. Finally they will know the truth too. I think I'm going to start packing now," Paloma said rushing upstairs to her bedroom.

Katherine crossed over to Martin. He looked at her and for the first time in a long time could not read the expression on her face. "What is going on in that head of yours?" he asked.

"Oh, Martin, I'm just nervous about going back."

"Well, look at Paloma, she was shocked at first, but once I explained everything to her, she was fine."

"Martin, I'm so sorry, but I don't think Paloma is fine. At the moment I think she is blinded by having you back and by knowing the truth and by the idea that her family didn't abandon her. She's just so overjoyed by those things that she has temporarily forgotten about how you left her, and that you're the reason she grew up without a family. And I mean temporarily. Soon the joy will pass and she'll remember the resentment that lies deep within her heart, something that can't be erased even by knowing the truth or forgiving the rest of her family. She'll hate you for it. I fear that the rest of our families won't be forgiving even for a little while, but will feel only anger towards us. I know you said to have hope, Martin, but honestly, I don't see how this can go well."

Martin sighed realizing that what Katherine was right. There was only a very slight chance that his family would forgive him. But he had already told Paloma so he couldn't change his mind. He had to go through with it.

Martin had bought plane tickets for a couple of days after the day he had told Paloma the truth. They passed quickly. They hadn't called anyone in Harmony, no one knew of their plans. The three of them packed and tried to prepare themselves for what they were about to do. Soon they were at the airport. Paloma was excited; she couldn't wait to see her family after all of these years. She knew they would be so glad to see her, and to catch up with her. Martin was so happy at the idea of seeing the rest of his family. Paloma was still caught up in her "temporary" glee, and the two of them had had a lot of father-daughter bonding time over the last couple of days. Katherine, however, could not help but have a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew that their families would not be quick to forgive. They would probably never forgive them. She felt so alone, she was the only one of the three facing reality. Martin still had hope because of how close he and Paloma had become so quickly. She saw everything for how it really was, and she was terrified for how Martin would react when he finally faced the truth as well. But for now, there was nothing she could do. She knew they couldn't go back. From the second that Paloma asked where they wanted to take her she knew they could never go back. She had seen it in his eyes. She knew, maybe before Martin himself even knew that he was going to tell Paloma everything. And once that happened, there was no way of stopping the following events. It was all just the inevitable now. They would arrive in Harmony, and they would soon be forced to leave again when there families cast them aside, despising them for what they had done. She feared all of it, but there was nothing she could do. Time just kept speeding up taking them faster and faster to their doom. The plane landed in Harmony. It was such a bittersweet feeling, coming home; if she even had a right to call this place home anymore. They got a cab and began their ride to Pilar's house. They would start there. There was a good chance that Sheridan might even be there, so that was the first place they'd go. They arrived in what seemed like seconds. They got out of the car and saw all of the cars in the driveway. Everyone must have been home. In a matter of seconds they would see Pilar, Luis, Theresa, Miguel, and maybe even Sheridan and Charity. They walked up to the door. The feeling Katherine had grew stronger, she began to even feel physical pain at what she knew was about to happen. Martin took one more look at Katherine, their eyes meeting. This was what they had thought about doing for years, and now that they were here it was just so hard to do. Martin rang the door bell. And they waited. All of a sudden that time that had been flying so fast began to crawl by so slowly. Katherine could hear movement inside, someone was coming to answer the door, but it felt like she was standing there for an hour in wait. Finally the door opened and standing on the other side was Pilar. Paloma was behind Martin, so Pilar could not see her. Katherine suddenly found it hard to breath.

"Pilar, it's me, it's Martin."