Author's Notes: This is a sad chapter and we're getting into some angst, there will be a happy ending, but there is some pain first. I really appreciate when my readers take the time to review and it does inspire me to keep updating.
Part 45
Age 34 Years 7 Months
Samantha's heart raced when Jack pulled his mouth from hers and he smiled at her. It felt absolutely criminal to be doing this. If only Jack hadn't been injured and sent off to Russia, they might have made a life together in Memphis. On the other hand, he might not have survived without treatment and his parents wouldn't have given him help in that case. Either way, the bitterness of his parents deception had cost them both a great deal and now it was time to let Jack know just how much had been stolen from him.
Looking at her former husband, tenderness and bitter poignancy filled her heart and thoughts. My poor Jack, your only real crime was to love and now I will destroy that love. What will happen to you when I am gone? Even though I don't deserve your love and you will hate me from this day forward, I hope that one day you'll realize I really did and always will love you.
"Ready?" Jack queried breaking her reverie.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she answered.
"Don't cry love," Jack told her when her eyes started to water. "We'll put the past behind us together. It can't hurt us anymore, can it?"
The lump of emotion and pain swelled in her throat until she could scarcely breathe as she replied, "I wish that were true."
As they walked, Samantha felt her heart grow heavier with every step as she lead him towards their destination. She felt like her heart would explode from her chest as Jack held her trembling hand and allowed her to guide them. To an outside observer they were another couple going to pay their respects, but to Samantha, she was on her way to the gallows. When they approached the grave, Samantha positioned herself so he wouldn't see the grave beside his until she was ready.
As the looked at the stone with Jack's name on it, Jack murmured, "Roses. Why are there fresh roses on my grave?"
"I've paid the groundskeeper to put flowers on your grave, twice a week, every week since I remembered you."
"Remembered me?" he asked in confusion.
"After your death I could think of nothing but you. I wished I was in the ground beside you and considered killing myself. In fact I tried to by laying down on your grave in the snow and freezing-"
"God no!" Jack exclaimed and grabbed her and holding her tightly. "Oh my poor Samantha, to think that you would try such a thing. Thank heaven you failed."
"After that I was taken home to Atlanta. For six months I stayed with my Aunt and then I left."
"You ran away?"
"Not exactly," Samantha replied. Struggling for words she continued, "I sold my engagement ring and took a bus to Memphis, but Sofia and Konstantine were in Greece and I then took a bus to Maryland."
"Maryland? Why?"
"To see your Mother."
"Why?" Jack demanded. He didn't like the idea of Miriam anywhere near her.
"I needed help."
Laughing bitterly, Jack told her, "That must have been a disaster, I imagine she was no help at all."
"You have no idea how much I wish she hadn't helped," Samantha interjected. Tears began to flow from her eyes as she spoke, "When you died, I wanted to die with you and when I tried to kill myself they put me in the hospital afterwards. While I was there I found out-"
"Found out what?" Jack demanded, his mind jumping ahead and suspecting what her next words would be.
"That I was pregnant. We never-"
"Used any precautions," Jack finished, his face inscrutable.
"My Father was so angry about our marriage that I didn't tell him and my Aunt was fanatically religious. So I sold my engagement ring and went to Sofia. I thought maybe she would let me work for her and that she would help me, but she wasn't there and wouldn't be back for two months. I had hardly any money left and no where to turn-" she trailed off and began to sob.
Nowhere to turn except to his Mother, Jack thought in horror. His Mother who had nearly killed him, had she abused her grandchild. Was his child in an institution somewhere because of Miriam? Perhaps she'd convinced Samantha to give the baby up for adoption? Anger coursed through him as he waited for Samantha to continue, whatever his Mother had done she would suffer for.
Earlier in the year he'd had her declared legally dead from an accident to avoid having to explain to society why he'd arranged to have her locked up. She'd killed a servant and done it sloppily so she would have gone to prison. While Jack didn't care about the fate of Miriam, he didn't wish to risk her discussing anything about his gunshot wound and raising suspicions that he was Jack-Of-All-Trades.
"Samantha, whatever happened it's not your fault."
"Yes it is! Oh God forgive me, it's all my fault! I thought she would help, all I wanted was a place to stay until after the baby was born, I would have stayed in the servants quarters. I didn't want any money from her. When you died she was upset and I thought she would want to be involved with her grandchild, " Samantha sobbed.
"What did she do?" Jack swallowed closing his eyes in fear as he held onto her.
"She let me stay for a few days and then she and your Father flew with me to Cincinnati. Y-your Mother told me that they were setting me up in a place to live and I believed her. I-I-I w-wanted the baby to be near you," she wept.
"What happened?" Jack growled as his anger rose.
"They said the place wasn't ready yet and checked us all into a suit in a hotel. I came to visit your grave and I remember I was so tired all the time. Then my Father showed up when I was one day shy of seven months. And-" Samantha trailed off and blew her nose in a handkerchief Jack had handed her.
After pausing for a moment, she continued, "They had the doctor that treated you at the hospital come too. He gave me an injection, some sort of sedative. When I woke up I wasn't at the hotel anymore. I was lying on a surgeon's table and I couldn't move, I was strapped down and they had given me a local anesthetic. I remember screaming at them. I begged and begged!"
Daddy! No! Her screams echoed in her mind still. How could he do that to her?
"They injected me with something which made it hard to move. And that's when-"
As Samantha sobbed, Jack tried to absorb what she was telling him. Whatever happened, it wasn't good. Anger coursed through him that she had born so much pain alone. There would be blood shed and suffering for this affront. God himself wouldn't stop Jack from extracting vengeance.
"What happened to our child Samantha?"
"Your parents watched while my Father and the doctor, took our baby from my body. And- Oh God! Jack I begged them not too! I've thought and thought how I could have stopped them! Why did they do it?"
Jack grabbed her arms painfully and demanded, "Did what!"
Samantha moved to the side and Jack's eyes fell on the gravestone beside his which read, Jack Konstantine Newquay. Numbly he moved towards the grave. He'd had a son. His Samantha had given birth to his child and that child was lying in the ground.
"W-Was he born dead? Or did h-he die a-after?" Jack choked out as tears fell from his eyes to the ground below.
Moving beside him, Samantha hugged her arms around herself and trembled as she confessed with a sob, "He was alive, they didn't tie the cord off and our baby boy bled to death not five feet away from me and I couldn't stop them. Oh God Jack! I heard our baby cry, he drew breath and I couldn't-"
Jack sank to his knees before his son's grave and traced the letters on the headstone with his fingertips. Tears were streaming down his face as he looked upwards and with and inhuman cry screamed, "NOOOOOOO!"
