Author's Note: Major error in the previous chapter. With my fading memory, I said that Nathan and Lucas attended UNC when originally they, along with Megan, were at Duke. My bad! I will try to fix major typos at the end of the story... (Love ya, Beth...lol)

Deb trembled as she read the article for the umpteenth time. It was more like five but she couldn't peel her eyes away. The phone rang and it startled her.

"Yes?"

"Deb, it's me."

"Karen…"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay. I hadn't heard from you."

"I'm fine. Really, Karen. Thank you for asking. I, um, I was just reading Esquire magazine and…"

"I know. Nathan's interview. I read it, too. What did you think?"

Deb sucked in a breath.

"I don't know what to think. Karen, there are no words…"

"I can imagine how hard that must have been for him."

"It was. I was there. But I am so damned proud of him right now."

"And you should be. He's a good kid. Nathan is going to be fine."

"I hope so."

"You did a good job with him."

"I did my best but I can't help but think my best isn't good enough."

"It was, Deb. It is. And the only proof you need of that is to just take a look at the fine young man he has become."

Deb smiled, her heart beaming with pride and ease. There was a soft knock at the door.

"Karen, I have to go. Someone's at the door. I'll stop by the café later tonight. I'll help you close."

"Sounds great. Can't wait to see you and I'll have a fresh pot of coffee waiting."

Deb placed the cordless back in its holster and walked to the front door. She opened it and to her surprise it was Dan. She hadn't seen him in a while. He looked different. Still tan and taunt, he was dressed in jeans and a plain red tee shirt. His hair had grown a little long and the unshaven scruff on his face was making for a nicely forming goatee.

"Dan, wh…what are you doing here?" she asked softly.

Instinctively her hands found the bad that was housing the short ponytail pulled on top of her head. It was just Dan but even then she felt nervous in her track pants and tank top.

"I brought you a copy of this", he waved the newest edition of Esquire around. "I thought you might like to see it if you haven't already."

"Of course I have. Besides, I was there when he gave the interview."

"So I gathered from reading it."

Deb sighed. She wasn't in the mood.

"Why are you here, Dan? Huh? Why'd you even bother to come? To chastise me? To bitch about Nathan's interview?"

"Deb…"

"Well, I don't want to hear it. You have no right and no say in anything I do. Those days are long gone, buddy. And as far as your son? You should be proud. He did a very noble thing."

"I am proud."

"What?"

"You heard me in a quiet voice. I am proud of Nathan and of Lucas, too."

"Dan…"

"Please. I won't take long, just a minute of your time. If I could just sit down…"

Deb folded her arms, unsure.

"Fine", she eventually conceded. "You have ten minutes. Say whatever it is you have to say, then please leave."

He nodded and sat down.

"Thank you. Listen, Deb, I know our boy has been through a lot. I only wanted to make things better even though at times I only made it worse. But he doesn't need me. He proved that. The interview was dignified and brilliant, to say the least. It clarified a lot of things for me that, I, his own father didn't even know. I'm glad he did what he did. And I'm glad you were there for him."

"Dan…"

"Remember when he was a little boy? Kindergarten, it was. The teachers had the kids work on a special Valentine's Day project. He came home with his little Star Wars backpack so proud to give his mother the heart he had made for her in class. You remember that, Deb?"

She closed her eyes.

"I remember it all."

Dan smiled faintly at the memory as he flipped open his copy of the magazine to Nathan's article. There stuck in the crease was the tattered and faded paper heart from 19 years ago. Deb reached for it, her hands feeling the material, tears springing to his eyes. In large, sloppy letters, he had scrawled: To Mommy, Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Na-than She smiled as his handwriting had been so big back then, he'd run out of room for his name, thus having to split it in two.

"He was our sweet boy, Deb", Dan sighed. "From the moment he was first born to every minute thereafter, all my hopes and dreams have been inside that boy. I love him and I think we did a fine job, despite the mistakes. Nathan is a good man…and you're a good mother."

Deb chuckled to herself.

"Why are you in such a good mood? Did you run over some child's puppy or something?"

"I'm being genuine, Deb. You should know that. You know me better than anyone."

She looked him right in the eye.

"Maybe so but you haven't been genuine in so long I forgot you could be."

"Did you forget this?"

He turned to the next page and there was a bigger paper heart. It was just as old but the penmanship was slightly neater. Below the inscribed date, it read: To Deb, my Valentine today and every other day of the year and hopefully the rest of our lives. Thank you for being a wonderful wife and mother. I couldn't ask for anything better. You're the love of my life…you and Nathan are my whole world. Love, Dan

She remembered. She remembered very well. They had been so young back then. Nathan was still in elementary school and the dealership had just taken off. Deb remembered that time most because it was one of the happiest of her life. They were a family then, a real family.

"You kept that?" she managed. "All these years?"

"Of course, I did. Deb, I'm not the heartless monster you think I am, even though along the way I must admit I wasn't always the husband I should have been. I can't apologize enough and I suppose actions would have spoken louder than mere words."

"Dan, I do remember the day you gave this to me. I remember the man who gave it to me…and it's not you. You haven't been that guy, the sweet boy I fell in love with, for years."

"What do you want me to say?"

"What can you say? It doesn't matter anyway. We're done."

"I know", he sighed. "I respect your decision. I know I haven't given you much choice in the matter. I'm sure you've already notified a divorce attorney…"

"I haven't yet…but I will."

"Very well then. I won't put up a fight when you do. You deserve your independence after all these years and who am I to keep standing in the way?"

"Fine…"

"I guess I'll be on my way then."

"Okay…"

"Deb", he stopped before standing up.

"What?"

"Just do me one last favor. Please…"

"What is it, Dan?"

He smiled a real and sincere smile.

"Just remember the good times. Please let me have comfort in knowing that it wasn't all bad. I tried my best and I did…I do love you. Think about us as a family in the front row videotaping Nathan's second grade, play, you know the one where he played the Pied Piper. And take time out to remember our anniversaries…glorious trips, lots of laughter, lots of lovemaking. Just remember our talks or the times when we just held each other and said nothing at all. Remember the time when we were a family and when we were happy and when you loved me."

Tears fell down Deb's cheeks.

"Why? Is this another part of your sick game? More manipulation? How dare you come here and do this and be this way!"

He sighed and walked to the door.

"Because after the quest for power, money, control and success, which I all have, despite all that…I have ended up exactly what I was most afraid of. I am a bitter, frightened, lonely, alienated middle aged man…and most of it is at my own hand. Because they say you never appreciate what you really have until it's gone…and boy am I learning that lesson the hard way. And finally because…well…I love you, Deb. I still do very much. Always have and always will. I'm sorry I hurt you so. I'm sorry it didn't work out."

She couldn't stop crying. She did remember that man she had married so long ago. And she had prayed so hard for God to touch his now cold and brittle heart. Even in the bad times she had loved him. And she had understood him in a way no one else had. She did love him with all her heart. He was her husband, the father of her only child. And besides…the nights were lonely for her as well.

"Dan, wait…"

She shut the door and stood beside him.

"I do love you but you have to know, I can't be around that horrible ogre of a man you have turned into."

"I know…"

"I want to be happy, I would love for us to be happy together but you have a lot of changing to do…"

"I understand that, Deb. I am willing. I will do whatever it takes. I promise you."

"How do I know this isn't bullshit?"

"You don't…you just have to trust me. You have to take a gamble on us…on me, on our love. Nathan's interview and all his pain, losing Yoanna, gaining Jamarah…it has all taken such a toll on us. It has changed everything. It changes me. You guys are my family and I love you very much. I need you. This is the one thing I can't afford to mess up."

He tenderly stroked Deb's tear stained face.

"I want so much to believe you. I want to take that chance but…God have mercy on your soul if you're lying to me again. My heart can't take much more."

He raised his head to reveal a set of his own darker but moist eyes.

"Neither can mine."

She gave way to sobs and collapsed in his strong arms as he embraced her. All the while he gingerly kissed the top of her head and whispered sweet nothings of comfort to her. It was a relief. God have given him, them, another chance. He hadn't lost everything after all. He had his wife back.

"I love you, Dan."

He held her close and slowly, methodically his warm smile transformed into his all too familiar sickening smirk. He had done it and it was cake…just like taking candy from a baby. He had talked his way back into her heart and her bed. Was there ever any doubt? She was coming home back where she belonged. Hadn't he called it? They always came back…eventually.

"I love you, too, Deb…"