Author's Notes: Thank you for your great reviews! There are roughly ten chapters left, give or take a couple. Reviews are greatly appreciated and encourage me to update faster.
Part 40
Age: 34 Years 7 Months
Samantha stared at the ring on Jack's finger in disbelief and exploded, "You son of a bitch!"
Furious, Samantha pushed Jack away from her. How dare he! Samantha thought angrily. She had been on the verge of surrendering to him, she would have if she hadn't seen that ring. Jack-Of-All-Trades might be sexy and she might have feelings for him, but violating her Jack's grave was beyond vile. Standing staring at Jack Samantha trembled with rage.
"Samantha?"
Moving forward, she started pounding his chest and screaming, "How could you do this to me? How did you even know where to find his grave!"
"Samantha I can explain," Jack tried to calm her as he struggled to restrain her.
"Explain!" Samantha screeched.
"Please," Jack begged as he held her in his arms trying to get her to stop fighting. "I know you're angry but-"
"How could you!" Samantha yelled and collapsed against his chest sobbing. "My Jack was the one good thing I ever had! How dare you violate his grave!"
"But Samantha-"
Looking up at him, Samantha wept, "Kill my friends, kill my past! Fine! But this?"
"Samantha, I am Jack, born Albert Jackson Newquay. You're the one who named me Jack."
"That was a misprint in the paper! How could you be so cruel?"
Pulling away from her slightly Jack laughed bitterly. "Cruel? Cruelty is your forte Samantha. And I'm not talking about the Jack-Of-All-Trades name, I'm talking about when we met in the orphanage. Remember, I wanted to call you Samantha instead of Sam, so you decided you didn't like the name Albert."
There was no way anyone could know that. But maybe Jack had guessed, she had told him when she thought he was Ed that her first love had been named Jack and died, Samantha thought. Hardly anyone knew about her time at the orphanage, but Jack Trades spent his life focused on her, so must have learned somehow. Jack-Of-All-Trades, her first husband Jack? It simply was impossible, it was time to put an end to this Jack's cruel joke at the expense of her dead husband.
"I don't believe you. You're my Jack? Prove it," Samantha challenged angrily. "Tell me something only he would know."
"At the orphanage we used to read and dance up in the attic."
"You could have tortured that out of somebody," Samantha retorted. "Is that the best you can do?"
"On our wedding night, you told me you hated me and Sofia explained things to you while Konstantine explained things to me," Jack answered quietly.
Samantha was shaking with rage as she countered, "All that means is that you probably killed that sweet old couple."
"No Samantha. After you, they are the only other people I care about on the face of this earth. When I had no one else, I had them. They attended my college graduation, not you, not my parents."
"I-" Samantha trailed off. Could it be? She wanted to believe it, but it wasn't possible. Her Jack was buried in Cincinnati, Samantha thought sadly. God this hurt, the idea of her Jack being alive and apart from her for all this time; but worse still was having him dead. Jack-Of-All-Trades was dangling her most secret wish in front of her, but she knew if she reached out for it it would dissolve like all her dreams.
Taking her chin in his hand, Jack forced her to meet his gaze as he murmured, "The first time we had sex was our wedding night and it was a disaster. The first time we made love was in our clearing with the roses all around the lake and it was heaven. In our clearing near the lake was one very large rose bush."
Tears flowed from Samantha's eyes as he continued, "Every rose I sent you as Jack Trades was from a bush transplanted from that clearing. Every one of them was sent with the hope you would recognize it and think of me."
Trembling, Samantha whispered, "Jack?"
"That was our clearing Samantha. On the very last night we had together, you cried because you missed our clearing. We were planning to take my quarterly allowance and run away to Memphis," Jack told her as his eyes glittered with unshed tears.
"Oh, God," Samantha gasped. Only she and Jack knew that. This was really-
"If it weren't for Billy Watkins, we would have gone there and lived happily. But then I fell and you left me."
"No!" Samantha cried out. "I never left you Jack!"
His voice was wracked with pain and emotion as he continued, "I'll never forget the letter you wrote when you left me."
"What letter?"
As she looked at him confused Jack choked out, "Mr. Newquay, Our marriage was never legal and I was far too young to married. I wish nothing further to do with you or your family, you and everything about you disgusts me. Consider my connection to you at an end, I relinquish any and all claims on you. There is to be no further contact between us. Signed Sam Anderson. You couldn't even bear my name!" Jack broke off as tears coursed his cheeks.
"Jack I never-" Samantha trailed off horrified. Dear God was that what he thought, that she hadn't loved him?
"Don't deny it Samantha," Jack growled through his tears. "I had the note analyzed. Years later I learned that you thought I was dead. But that doesn't change the fact you wrote the letter."
Overwhelmed, Samantha's knees buckled and she sank to the ground. Jack's Father! Samantha remembered writing it. Looking up at Jack she shook her head as she murmured, "Your Father. I wrote that note to him."
God he wanted to believe that, but how could he? Jack wondered. All those months in the hospital in Russia he'd prayed there was a misunderstanding, but why would Samantha write a note like that to his Father. Maybe she regretted it once she believed he was dead, but she had to be lying about writing it to his Father.
"And why would you do that?" Jack demanded his voice dripping with venom as he stood over her.
"I had to," Samantha sobbed.
"Why Samantha? What did he offer you to sell out our marriage?"
"They told me you were dead and they held a funeral for you," Samantha explained her lower jaw quivering. Closing her eyes as she wept, "Afterwards he told me if I didn't write a letter relinquishing any claim on your estate, that he would take me to court and take my wedding ring. I couldn't lose the one piece I had left of you and our marriage."
"I must have meant a lot to you," Jack ground out angrily. "After all you still proudly display your ring!"
"Damn you! He dictated every word of that cursed letter!" Samantha cried out in pain and anger. Pulling the chain with her Alpha ring on it out, she shouted, "This is where my wedding ring has been!"
Jack knelt down to look at it, his eyes meeting hers as she wept, "All these years, it's been next to my heart. You were dead and buried and I had nothing and no one except this ring. This is all that's kept me going for years. Memories of you are all I've had to live for! I never loved Tom or Coop, I tried but I couldn't! My life ended the day you died. When I met you in Otis and started falling for you-"
Samantha trailed off weeping and Jack wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair as he cried, "My Samantha."
"Oh Jack! Why didn't you come for me sooner, where were you!"
"For nearly four years I was in Russia in a hospital, when I got out my parents forced me into a Russian boarding school until I graduated."
Clinging tightly to him she wailed, "Why didn't you come to me then?"
"Because I thought you didn't love me. Sofia talked me into finding you. When I found you, you had just married Tom," Jack explained.
"And why did you kill him years later?" Samantha sniffed.
"You didn't seem happy and one day I saw bruises on your arm while you were jogging," Jack muttered. Talking about Tom wasn't something pleasant.
"No! I meant why did you wait so damn long?" Samantha clarified tearily.
"I don't know," Jack responded hoarsely.
As they held each other tightly, they both wept for all the years they'd been kept apart. Two decades of pain and loneliness were cried out as they clung to one another fervently. After a long time, Jack removed the necklace from around Samantha's neck and took her wedding ring off the chain. Looking at her inquiringly, he sought permission and found it.
Sliding the ring onto her finger, he whispered as if praying, "My Samantha, my wife."
"My Jack!" she cried.
Tears of sorrow, turned to tears of joy as their lips met...
