Author's Note: Flashback scene and dialogue taken from One Tree Hill, Season 1, Episode 22, "The Games That Play Us".
Flashback sequence written in Italics...
"Deb, make sure you clear your calendar tomorrow. We have plans", Dan announced as he loosened his tie and kicked off his shoes after a long day at the dealership.
"Dan, the café has been extremely busy lately and we're short handed on help. I have to cover tomorrow."
"Just tell your little girlfriend, Karen, that you're busy", he ignored her. "Besides, this is more important than a few measly customers at a hole in the wall diner. Tomorrow you and I are having dinner with our son and daughter in law."
"Nathan and Megan?"
"No, Ashton and Demi. Jesus, Deb. What other son and daughter in law do we have?"
"I…I had no idea they had called and invited us."
"We're family and family needs no invitation."
"Dan!"
"What? It's pre season and the Bobcats are looking good this year, thanks to their savior, Nathan."
"So the contract negotiations went through okay?" Deb asked, putting down her book.
"Of course just like we knew they would. Sure the Good Old Boy network tried to hold out on the salary but Nathan's agents and attorneys wouldn't take no for an answer. Finally our boy is making the millions he deserves. And not to mention the merchandising and endorsement deals that are pouring in. Nathan is definitely in the money. Luke is getting there too but he's not quite as savvy as his younger brother. But if everything goes as planned this year, soon my boys will be the most popular and highest paid stars in the NBA."
"You always have a plan, Dan", she sighed.
"A little planning never hurt anyone, my dear."
"And neither did calling ahead. Dan, it's not a good idea. I have a bad feeling about all this."
"Nonsense."
"No, it isn't nonsense. I just…"
"Just what, Deb? Go ahead. Spit it out."
"I just worry about Nathan and Megan."
"They're fine", he brushed her off.
"Are they? I just egt the sense that they're having troubles. Maybe…maybe Nathan isn't happy."
"Happy? Of course he's happy. 15 million a year, stand out starter? Trust me, Deb. Nathan is very happy."
"There's more to life than a game and money."
"Really?" Dan smirked. "Like what?"
"Family."
"Nathan has family. He has you and me and his brother and now Megan."
"There's something else, Dan…something you don't know."
"I know everything."
"Not this. Meg…Megan is pregnant. Almost three months."
Dan looked over at his wife.
"Pregnant, huh? Well, that is a surprise. They are a little young but they will manage. Hopefully Meg will come to her senses and quit her job so she can take care of the kid while Nathan is busy with ball. And in 20 something years, we'll have yet another name to add to the Scott sports legacy."
"Is that all you can think of? Dan, frankly I'm worried sick. I don't know if they are ready. After everything that happened this year…"
"You mean the return of that trouble making trollop? Thank God, that's all over with."
"Is it? Is it really, Dan? Because more than the money or the fame or the career or any of that, I just want Nathan to be happy. He's my son and I love him."
"Like I said, he's happy."
"You think? Or are you just looking at the situation through designer rose colored glasses? Because I see a troubled, confused young man on a desperate downward spiral. I've only seen him this out of control twice…once right before he took the drugs in high school and collapsed and the other time when Haley left him."
"Nathan is fine. Everything is fine, Deb. I'm fine and you're fine. Everyone is fine."
"I don't feel fine. I just want more for his marriage than his last one…and ours now."
Dan stared coolly at her.
"What is that supposed to mean? Are you not happy?"
"No, I…I don't know. I love you, Dan. You know that but things are so different and they have been for years. Ever since I filed for divorce…"
"We did have a few problems here and there but I thought we worked through them, especially after my heart attack."
"After the heart attack you changed. I liked it. It reminded me of the sweet young man I fell in love with all those years ago. But just when I was getting used to and falling in love with the 'new' Dan, the old one came back and with a vengeance. Whether you admit it or not, we lost Nathan a very long time ago back when he was in high school. Now I feel like I've lost you too. It hurts. It makes me feel empty inside. I have friends and the café and my charities but for the most part, this is not how I envisioned our life together."
Dan sighed.
"What is all this about? Do you want a new car, Deb?"
"What?"
"Or how about some new clothes or jewelry or a nice island vacation?"
"Dan, this is not about any of those things. Don't you see? It's about you and me. It's about our son and his peace of mind. It's about being happy. It's about the things that truly matter."
"Deb…"
"Look at him, Dan. I mean it. Really look at him. Our son is lost."
"Spare me the melodrama. Nathan isn't lost. He's fine right now, a lot better than most. Everyday he gets to wake up and go to a job he loves. He can look in the mirror and know that he is better at that job than most people. People adore him. He's like the freaking Messiah. And he is married to a beautiful girl from good North Carolina stock. Now he's going to be a father. Why would anyone be unhappy about all that? It's the American dream, Deb. And on top of that, the kid is a millionaire at 23."
"It's not always about money, Dan. Money can't buy happiness or can't you tell? If you're having trouble, just take a look in that mirror over there."
Dan grinned as he poured himself a shot of whiskey.
"Famous saying, that is. Money can't buy happiness. I imagine whoever said that didn't have any. Money can buy anything, Deb. You know that. Don't be a fool, sweetheart. Always remember that. Money talks and bullshit walks and everybody…well, everybody has a price."
He took a sip and laughed that evil laugh of his, the one that gave her goose pimples…and not the good kind. Deb stared at a man she had loved and been married to for almost 24 years. A man she had adored since she was a girl of 18.
They had started out as the perfect couple. Beautiful, successful, rich…happy. Almost overnight they had lost their way so fast it was almost impossible to pinpoint exactly when it all fell apart. For Deb, it was a number of things. The drinking, the metamorphosis into Tree Hill's most dominant villain, the way he had callously treated one son and rode another until he broke. Al those things had been factors but there was one incident that stood out more than anything…
She sat at the table staring at the papers. Anxiously she had awaited their arrival and now that they had come, she could only look at them. The pen had been in her hands for hours but she couldn't force herself to sign them.
"Really, Deb, tears. On the eve of our divorce?" he smirked as he let himself into the home they had once shared.
That attitude, that awful demeanor and heartless approach snapped her quickly back into reality.
"No, actually, I was sitting here having second thoughts. Until I considered what a hideous monster you've been for most of our married lives."
She signed her name without hesitation or apprehension.
"Well since we're frolicking down memory lane, let's take a stroll back to the campus the night you told me you were pregnant. You know I came to you that night to tell you I had made a decision. I was leaving school at the end of the semester."
"Because of your fictional knee injury?"
"No. No, Deb, that's just what I told you. I was leaving because there was a girl I left behind. A girl who was carrying my child. And a girl that I loved very much."
She felt her heart skip.
"Karen…"
"But when I told you I was leaving you told me you were pregnant."
Deb was flustered. Confused. Disoriented. Heartbroken, even.
"I didn't know you were leaving for Karen."
"I know. All you knew is that I would do right by you and Nathan which is something I've tried to do every day since then. And if that makes me a monster… then so be it."
She heard the words like they had just been spoken. She knew that conversation from beginning to end. That's because the words had played in her head every single day since then. He had loved her but he had loved Karen more. He had chosen her but not out of love. It was more out of duty and a carefully and strategically thought out life plan, one where her parents' money would come in quite handy in financing a certain automobile dealership.
The words had been sobering. They had also hurt. She was affected deeply in a way she never had been before. Deb had never looked at him the same way since.
Now she couldn't stop looking at him. The wildly successful, ruthless tycoon she had shared her life with. Her husband. The father of her son. The man who at 42 years old was still just as handsome and toned as he was the day they married nearly a quarter of a century before.
A man time had transformed into a money and power hungry, shrewd, cold blooded, unfeeling dictator of a human being. A man seemingly lost in his own pain. A man blinded by his own ambitions. A man rarely seen without that trademark glass of watered down liquor in his hand. A man who had made a life altering choice out of duty and responsibility…not love.
Deb closed her eyes for a few seconds of clarity. When she opened them again, she gasped. It wasn't her husband she saw but instead her son.