Author's note: A bit of irony here. Thorston Kaye once played a character on OLTL that was a love interest for the college student mentioned below.
Chapter 8
Kendall blinked. "The owner of The Sun is a rapist? Really?" Zach nodded. "I would have thought you'd know that. When I moved to town, I looked through newspaper archives and saw tons of articles about his rape trial. This was about….a year ago." Kendall put the last dish on the drying rack. "That would explain why I didn't hear about it. Ever since Michael raped Bianca, I avoid reading any articles about rape. So why isn't he in jail?" Zach went into the living room and stoked the fire. "The charges were dropped. It was his wife who had accused him of rape. Turns out she had some sort of brain tumor that made her confuse rough sex for rape." Kendall stared at him. "Freaky. Well I guess they made up if they're going at it again up here in the mountains." Zach shook his head. "That wasn't her. His wife was a beautiful blonde woman."
Kendall sat on the sofa. "So if she dropped the charges, why did you call him a rapist?" Zach sat next to her. "Because he had a prior conviction. When he was in college he led a gang rape against another student." Kendall closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "And of course he isn't paying for it. He's living the high life instead." Zach rubbed his chin. "From what I've heard, Todd Manning is filled with a great deal of self-loathing for what he did." Kendall rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he's crying all the way to the bank each day."
Zach stared into the fire. Kendall narrowed her eyes. "I know what you're thinking. If Michael had lived, would he ever have felt remorse for what he did? I can tell you that the answer is no. I don't know anything about Manning, but I can bet you that Michael was probably a lot more like my father than him." Zach's mouth tightened ever so slightly. "I am afraid that I agree. Michael turned into an opportunist who twisted ethics and morality to justify whatever he did. A true Cambias – the sort of life I have been trying to spare Ethan." Kendall started laughing hard, hugging her arms to her stomach. Zach stared at her. "Suddenly you find this amusing?" She shook her head. "Do you even realize the irony of your words? You act like you are so noble trying to save Ethan from The Cambias Curse, and yet you are doing the very thing you just described – twisting morality to justify the fact that you denied your own son."
Not laughing anymore, Kendall stood up and started pacing. "Do you know that Ethan came very close to blowing off his legacy just because he didn't want to face the idea that his own father didn't want to acknowledge him?" Zach stood up also. "I would have very much loved it if he had blown off his so-called legacy. Then instead of my son being eaten up by all that power, it would be your precious Ryan. When Ethan becomes a money-hungry fanatic, assuming of course that he is found innocent of shooting your precious Ryan, I hope you can all be happy that you did The Right Thing."
Kendall stopped pacing. "Why do you keep calling him 'my precious Ryan'? I'm with Ethan, now." Zach gave a short bark of laughter. "No matter who you are with now or in the future, Ryan will always be the only one that matters to you. One of the many reasons why I want you the hell away from my son." Kendall walked up to Zach so that she was one inch from him. "Well, we don't always get what we want, do we?" Zach stared into her eyes, his half-smirk almost identical to hers. He wondered if he should pull her to him and kiss her. His demon told him that it was too soon, he didn't want to show his hand yet. Zach had a feeling that if he did kiss her, more than his hand would be showing. Instead, he opted to caress the line of her jaw with his finger. "You know a lot about that, don't you, sweetheart?"
Resisting the suddenly powerful urge to let his hand continue its path to her glorious hair, Zach turned and began shoving the coffee table against the wall. Kendall frowned. "What are you doing?" Zach tossed the sofa cushions on an adjoining chair. "I'm making up the sofa bed. Its been a long day and I'd like to get some sleep." He stopped and looked at her in a challenging manner. She assessed him through narrowed eyes for a moment, then walked to the stairs. "I'll go get those linens I never found earlier." When she was out of sight, Zach released the death grip he had on one of the cushions. This sudden attraction he was feeling for Kendall would not do - not do at all.