A Place In the Sun
23
Maria flipped through a picture album that Kelsey had taken from Wildwind.
She had brought her a couple of albums of the children, but this one was of her wedding. There were plenty of pictures of her in her beautiful dress and lace veil, standing beside Edmund.
"Oh, I wish I could remember…" she said out loud.
"I love you, more than anything else in this world," she heard inside her head. She looked around to make sure there was no one else in the room. The voice sent chills down her spine.
She flipped ahead a few pages and saw herself posing with another woman, a little younger than herself.
"I know this woman…"
Maria and Julia walked out of the trauma room, in shock.
Isabella looked to them for an answer, but seeing their faces, her tears poured over.
"I'm sorry, Mama," Maria said, holding her mother.
"Mama, we did everything we could…" Julia said, hugging the both of them.
Later on, Maria sat alone with Julia.
"It's all my fault, Maria," Julia said.
"Julia…"
"No, they were trying to hurt me. It was my car. They wanted to kill me and instead Papa is the one who died."
"Julia, it wasn't your fault. The fault lies in the people who did this."
"But if it wasn't for me—"
"No, stop it. Don't blame yourself."
"Maria, you know it's true."
"No, Julia. If it's anybody's fault, it's mine."
"Maria—"
"I'm a doctor; I couldn't save him."
"We did everything we could—"
"But that wasn't good enough. Papa died, I didn't do enough to save him."
"As a doctor, you know full well that sometimes patients are gone before they even get to you."
"It's just I've never tried so hard to save someone before," Maria said, wiping away her tears.
"It is so hard to believe he's gone," Julia said, looking up at Maria with wide eyes.
Maria hugged her younger sister as they both cried.
"Julia…my sister…I've seen her," Maria said, grabbing her journal and flipping furiously through the pages.
She landed on a page from when she first came to Pine Valley.
"She's the woman from the hotel, the one who fainted when she saw me."
She turned the page in the album and found a picture of her with all her siblings.
"That's Julia…Rosa…Anita…Mateo…" she said, amazed at how she suddenly was able to pull all of those names out of her head. "Is that right?"
She pulled the picture from the book and turned it over, hoping there was something on the back. Sure enough, there it was, all the names and the date.
"Wow…"
She stood up, excited, and looked across the courtyard, hoping to see a light on in Kelsey's apartment so she could share her happiness, but it was dark.
"Gillian? Gillian Andrassy? Or is it Lavery?" Kelsey asked when she spotted Gillian at SOS.
"Kelsey? Wow, it is so great to see you!" she said, giving Kelsey a hug. "And it's Andrassy."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," she said as they both sat down. "What happened?"
"Kels, you know Ryan and I got married for all the wrong reasons. It just did not work out."
"But I thought the two of you were really in love. I mean, not when you got married, but afterwards."
"Things just are not that simple. But how about you? Jake told me you are interning at the hospital, how is that going?"
"It's going pretty well. It is a lot of work and all, but for the most part I enjoy it. I'm glad to get to work with my grandparents and Jake."
"Anything else interesting happening? Did you meet anyone in med school?"
"No…"
"But?"
"Gillian, I should know this is wrong, but you can't just get rid of your feelings."
"Boy do I know that!"
"Then I don't know what to do…"
"Who is it?"
"You know how I was married to Sam's father, Bobby, right? I think that you moved here after all of that happened." Gillian nodded. "Bobby came back to Pine Valley a couple of months ago and we have spent time together with Sam and Maddie, and I'm finding it very, very hard to be around him as just a friend."
"Bobby is married, right? To one of Mateo's sisters, Anita?"
"Yeah, but from what I've seen, they're not exactly all too happy together anymore. It's really hard for me because I really don't want to do anything that would make it look like my fault if the two of them broke up. I already got labeled as a home wrecker because of all the awful things I did to Maria and I know that was years ago but in a small town like this, people really don't forget too easily. It's great that we can still be friends after all we've been through, but…"
"You still want more? Kelsey, I completely understand. I know that I cannot be just friends with Ryan. It is too hard to go back when you have seen what it is like to have more."
"Then why aren't the two of you together? Neither of you are seeing anyone, are you?"
"No."
"That's not true, now is it, Gilli?" Ray said, inviting himself to their table and sitting down.
"What are you doing here? I want you to leave."
"Can't do that. Well, unless you're coming with me."
"Gillian, who is this?" Kelsey asked. Gillian shot her a look.
"Who's the blonde?" Ray asked.
"She's a friend."
"Did I approve her?"
"Ray, I am not with you anymore. We do not live together and you do not control my life. Now, I want you to leave," Gillian said, her voice getting progressively louder.
Ryan heard her and crossed the room to her table. "She said she wanted you to leave, so go."
Ray laughed. "You must be Ryan. So, we finally meet."
"Ryan, you don't need to protect me, I can handle him by myself."
"If you won't leave, I'll have to go call the police," Ryan said. Ray didn't move from his spot beside Gillian, so Ryan turned and went towards the back room.
"So you two aren't together, huh? Guess you haven't told him. It's about time he finds out."
"Ray, please, don't."
"Oh, I won't, it'll be much better for you to break his heart," Ray said, leaving.
Gillian wiped her eyes furiously, even though there were no tears there, but she was shaking violently.
"Gillian, are you okay? Oh, gosh, of course you're not," Kelsey said. "Who was that? What was he talking about?"
"I've got to get out of here," she said, picking up her things and bolting outside.
"Where'd she go?" Ryan asked, returning.
"She left," Kelsey was still staring towards the door that Gillian had exited through.
"Not with Ray…" Ryan looked terrified for her.
"No, no, he left first."
"Good…I've got to go find her, though."
"No, Ryan, I think that's the last thing she needs right now. I'll go, where's she staying?"
"Myrtle's…Kelsey, something's going on with her, maybe you can get through.
"I'll try, Ryan."
Bobby stood on Opal's doorstep waiting for her to answer. She wasn't really expecting him as he had told Anita.
The door finally opened. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes."
"Opal…could I talk to you for a little bit? I didn't know who else I could talk to you about this, and well, we're sort of family."
"Come on in, come on in. Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm fine, thank you."
"So, what is it that's botherin' you? Trouble in paradise?"
Bobby nodded, "Big trouble."
"That bad?"
"Opal, you've got to promise you won't tell anyone about this."
"I promise," she said, seeing his look of sincerity.
"It's about Kelsey."
"Is that little vixen causing trouble for you again? Why, I ought a call Joe and Ruthie up right now and they'll set her straight."
"No, no, Opal, it's me. See, Anita and I have been having problems, since a little before we left Chicago, and things have only gotten worse. We fight all the time, about the stupidest things."
"All couples go through that, son, you'll work things out."
"But that's just it. I don't know if I really want to."
"Huh?"
"I've spent a lot of time with Kelsey because of Sam, and, well, I really enjoy being with her."
"Boy, have you totally lost our mind? Thi s is Kelsey Jefferson we're talking about, right?"
"I know it's crazy, Opal."
"Bobby, do you remember all the tricks that girl pulled? She's nothing but trouble!"
"Haven't you changed a lot since you were a teenager?"
"Well, yes, of course, I'm light years away from those times now."
"Well, maybe it hasn't been quite as long for Kelsey, but she has changed, a lot."
Opal's expression said that she didn't quite believe him, but she wasn't objecting either.
"Anita and I…it really feels that we've grown apart. When we moved up to Chicago, we both enrolled in school. Now here I am with a law degree, and what's she got? Nothing. Our priorities are different. I'm starting a career and she's still working a part time job whenever she feels like it, which isn't often. I'm ready to be an adult, buy a house, start a family. She still has the agenda of a college student who only wants to have fun. Maybe we got married too young, maybe if we would have waited, things would be different."
"Have you talked to her about this?"
"I've tried! But whenever I try and have a serious conversation with her, she just tries to shut me up by getting me into bed!"
Opal didn't say anything; she looked deep in thought.
"So, what do you want me to say?" she finally asked.
Bobby shook his head, "I don't know. I guess I just wanted to get all of that off my chest."
"Do you think if you weren't with Anita that you would be going after Kelsey now?"
"Even with our history….maybe."
"And without it?"
"Definitely."
"Well I guess that says something."