A Place In the Sun
42
Kelsey slowly pulled away from Bobby and put another log on the fire.
"What happened?" he asked, rising to his knees.
Kelsey sighed and sat back down. Bobby rejoined her on the floor in front of the fire.
"His name was Seth," she started; hesitantly she added, "Bobby, you don't want to hear all this. It's in the past."
"Yes, I want you to tell me; I want you to trust me. And obviously its not completely in the past because it's keeping us apart now," he told her, looking directly into her eyes.
She broke his gaze and then sighed as she began again, "His name was Seth and I met him while I was in grad school. About a year after we met we were spending a lot of time together working on a big project. I could feel we were growing closer; we'd always have these long conversations at a coffeehouse we'd stop at late at night on our way to our apartments. We fit so naturally together. I felt like I'd known him all my life. Then one night he kissed me. I had spilt my coffee and he was helping me clean it up and as we went to sit back up, our lips met. Before I knew it, I was head over heels in love with him. And I was sure that he felt the same way. We would talk about marriage and I thought he was going to propose to me," she paused for a moment. "But now that I think back to it, he never told me he loved me," Kelsey said, pulling her blanket higher up around her neck. Bobby moved closer to her as she continued. "Then one day I saw him in the campus center with another girl. One of my classmates was with me and she told me it was his fiancée. I didn't want to believe her at first but she was right. They'd been engaged for a year and a half, longer than I had even known Seth. He had lied to me for months telling me I was the only one for him while the whole time he had been planning to marry his high school sweetheart." Kelsey hiccupped as she tried to hold back her tears.
Bobby pulled Kelsey into his arms and gave her a gentle kiss on her lips and then lower on her neck. "I promise, I am not lying. There is no one else. You asked and I told you: this is real," he said, running his fingers through her hair.
"I know, I know," she said. "I do trust you, Bobby."
"Thank you," he told her. "Now I understand why you were pushing me away.
……….
Gillian came downstairs into the living room and saw Maria holding the piece of paper that had been in the mail.
"What is that?" Gillian asked, sensing that it was something important.
"It's from Ray," Edmund answered uneasily as Maria read the note.
"What does it say?" Gillian turned to Maria.
"Money. He wants five million dollars," she reported. "Maybe I was wrong."
"No," Gillian said. "He originally followed me here for money. I told him I did not have any, which is the truth." Gillian sat down on the couch and took a deep breath, trying not to get upset again.
"Don't worry about the money," Edmund reassured her. "Dimitri and I started on putting together a large sum as soon as I spoke to him. We wanted to be prepared for this if it this came."
"Thank you," she said as Maria handed her a glass of water. "What else does the letter say?"
"It says that this is 'part one' of getting your daughter back," Maria said as she read the end of the letter. "I guess part two isn't that hard to figure out."
Gillian looked at Edmund and Maria with fear in her eyes.
……….
A cab dropped Tyler off in front of his apartment and he saw a light burning inside: Julia was still there. He opened the door and that she was asleep on the couch. Tyler went into the kitchen and poured a cup of lukewarm coffee from the pot Julia had apparently started earlier. He sat down at the table with his mug in front of him and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.
"I waited for you to come back," Julia said, looking at him over the back of the couch.
Tyler did not answer her. Instead, he took a drink of his coffee.
"Why'd you run out of here like that?" she asked. Still silence. Raising her voice and standing up, she asked, "Will you at least tell me where you went?"
Finally, Tyler made eye contact with Julia.
"I was at SOS. Ryan was there. He really helped me figure something out."
"What?" she asked, joining him at the table.
"Well, I found out where my brother has been all these months."
"Where?" she asked, looking puzzled.
"My brother, R.J., is better known as Ray Conley around here. He has been right here in Pine Valley the whole time."
……….
"Which way?" Ryan asked Tracy as they drove from town after going to the police station.
"Take a left at this next street," she told him.
They rode for a while in silence. Ryan focused his eyes on the road ahead him, hoping desperately that Tracy could lead him to where Ray was keeping Katalin.
"You did the right thing, Tracy," he reassured her.
"Take a left," she said.
"I mean it, Trace."
"It's my fault that he was able to get to her, Ryan," she said. "Please don't try to make it seem like this isn't all on my head. I led Ray right to your daughter."
"Yeah, maybe you did. Or maybe he would've done this even if he didn't have any help. Either way, what's done is done and now what we have to do is get out here and try to find Ray and Kata and get her back safely. But stop beating yourself up."
"We're going to find your daughter," Tracy told him.
"I know," he said firmly.
"But Ryan," she hesitated. "This is where I stopped following him. I don't know where to go now."