Chapter Fifteen: When She's Gone
The divorce was easy. With the aid of a mediator, Nathan agreed to Brooke's terms, tried to get her to accept his money and let her keep the wedding china. To replace the elegant apartment he bought a new one in a similar area on the upper east side, right on the park. A perfect place to raise a family. He was in serious denial.
To avoid gossip, Lucas and Brooke left for Florida. Nathan stayed in New York, the object of everyone's sympathy. Daily he called Haley on her cell phone, weekly he called Taylor to entreat her to inform him of Haley's whereabouts. He didn't completely believe she didn't know. He didn't want to believe it.
Karen sympathized with her son and Dan internally rejoiced. He'd never believed that Brooke was good enough for his son. He'd always thought they'd married too early. He was smug even when he found out that Brooke had been impregnated by his less favoured son. Karen had been properly horrified.
Similar opinions had been made of Natalya. Nathan had loved the girl like his own, recognized her blue eyes, but had never dreamt that she was in fact his child. He wondered why Haley had lied to him. If she'd told him earlier, Brooke would have told him about her own child, and they could have been together. But Haley had no way of knowing that.
Defiantly he hired a new secretary. She was blonde, buxom, and extremely flirtatious. Somehow she was hotter than Haley, though less beautiful, and she didn't interest him remotely.
The days passed monotonously for Nathan, but for Lucas and Brooke, each one was treasured. They learned how to live with each other. They made love constantly, they bought things for their baby and for their new life. They booked a wedding date, six months after the birth of the baby, when they expected the divorce to be finalized. It was a bit crude, perhaps, to plan a wedding when one was still married (like Henry VIII. And look how that ended.) but Nathan wasn't one to begrudge them happiness.
On some nights, it seemed as though Lucas and Brooke were the only happy people in the entire city.
"You seriously have no idea where she went?" asked Peyton of Taylor for the thousandth time. Every day of the year they were an oddly matched pair, together only because of their respective relations with Haley.
"No. She came home, I told her what I'd told Nathan and basically she said she'd once promised herself that she would never ruin their marriage, and she didn't want Natalya hurt like she had been. So she just left. I tried to stop her, but…" Taylor shrugged helplessly.
"She's stubborn as hell, I get it. I never thought she'd leave like that. Why California?" wondered Peyton.
"Because she needed to get away, I guess. And she really, really didn't want to be found. I'm still surprised though. Even when we were little, Haley wasn't impulsive," remarked Taylor.
"Except with Mr. Scott," said Peyton.
"Sort of. God, I can't believe Natalya is his. He's such a fox," said Taylor.
"At least we know your mind's on topic," said Peyton sarcastically.
"Rich, too. Haley did well," said Taylor.
"Except for the fact that he's married. Or was," added Peyton.
"I can't believe she didn't tell us," said Taylor. Cautiously she leaned her head onto Peyton's shoulder. Despite what she felt about what Haley had done, she did miss her.
"No. All those jokes about her mystery man-I thought they were just jokes. I didn't really believe it. I thought she slept with some guy while she was drunk, along came Natalya. I didn't think she was actually in love…" said Peyton.
"Yeah. But there were all those times we set her up on dates and she was so uninterested. It sort of makes sense," said Taylor.
"Yeah. Jake says that everyone at work is talking about it," said Peyton.
"Must be. So you're still with him?" asked Taylor in surprise.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Well the fact that you're in love with Lucas could get in the way…" began Taylor. Peyton grabbed a sofa cushion and whacked Taylor over the head with it. They giggled until they guiltily remembered Haley's absence, and sat carefully back down.
"I even miss Natalya. I love her but she's just so loud, you know?" remarked Peyton.
"Yeah. Makes it harder to bring home guys, too. I miss her, Pey," said Taylor.
"Me too. I wish she'd just call, so we knew she was still alive," said Peyton.
"I wish she'd just come home," said Taylor.