Author's Note– Sorry about the long delay, everybody! With school started up again, you can expect longer periods of time in between updates. I am working on it, though! Sorry:(

Chapter Three

Gwen was a mess as she made her way back to the pool. Part of her wanted to run right back to Alistair and tell him that she'd do anything he wanted, as long as he told her where Nathan was. Yet, another, more rational part of her was screaming that Alistair could not be trusted. That part of her knew that Alistair would have her divorce Ethan and become his whore, only to never set sight on her precious baby boy.

She needed to calm down – she felt like she was going to be sick. The mother and the businesswoman inside of her were both screaming at each other, and Gwen felt like she would soon scream herself. She had a son. A living, breathing son, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever get to set eyes on him in person. That knowledge hurt her more than the belief that both of her children were dead ever had.

She had been in such a daze that Gwen hadn't even noticed that she was already at the pool, or that Ethan was now pulling himself out of the water, worry etched in every line on his face.

"Gwen?" Ethan asked. If Gwen had missed the worry on his face, she definitely would have been alerted to his emotion by his voice. "Are you okay? You look so pale!" Ethan rubbed his hands up and down her arms a few times, but, as his hands were wet, the act was kind of pointless, though thoughtful.

Suddenly, the expression on Ethan's face changed from worry to fear and anger. "Oh, my God," he breathed. "Did Alistair hurt you? Did that bastard touch you? I swear, I'll kill him-"

"Ethan, no!" Gwen cried, struggling to prevent her husband from dashing off and killing the one man that could give her what she wanted. "Alistair didn't touch me! He didn't hurt me at all."

Ethan visibly relaxed, but the worried look returned. "Then what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

The irony of his statement was not lost on Gwen, and she would have smiled inwardly had the situation been different. She longed to tell Ethan about their son, but her encounter with Alistair had made her paranoid, and rightfully so. Alistair had cameras everywhere. He could have been watching them right then. The thought made Gwen shiver.

Without thinking, Gwen threw herself at her husband, clasping her hands around his neck and leaning her lips up to his ear.

"Whoa!" Ethan exclaimed. "Gwen, what's gotten in to you?"

"Hush!" Gwen said in the most commanding whisper she could muster up. "Not here." She paused. "We need to take a drive."

A half-an-hour's time found Ethan and Gwen at the beach. Jane wriggled happily in her daddy's arms, excited by the crashing waves and cawing sea gulls. The couple walked down beach a ways, Gwen anxiously glancing over her shoulder from time to time for one of Alistair's spies. The beach was deserted, though, and unless Alistair had hidden a camera in one of the seagulls, or somewhere in the sand – which suddenly didn't sound all that ridiculous to Gwen – the two were safe.

Ethan, tired of waiting, finally asked: "Okay, Gwen, will you please tell me what's going on now? What did Alistair say to make you act like this?"

Gwen stopped, and turned to face Ethan. Taking one final look around to make sure that they were completely alone, Gwen sighed, and began to speak. "Okay, Ethan, no matter what, I need you to promise to hear me out, okay? No matter how crazy what I'm about to tell you sounds, promise that you'll listen, okay?"

Ethan nodded. "Of course, but, Gwen, that's not really a great way to reassure me about all of this."

"It's not supposed to be," Gwen replied, "because what I'm about to tell you sounds crazy, and impossible, and you'll probably think that I'm crazy again and haul me off to an institution, but I swear to you that I would never come to you with something like this if I weren't completely convinced that it were true.

"And I am convinced that it's true. Utterly and completely, because he showed me a picture, Ethan. I didn't believe him before, but he showed me the picture, and, God, Ethan, I know that it has to be true. It can't not be true."

"Whoa, whoa," Ethan said, holding his hands out to slow his wife's rambling. "How 'bout you just start from the beginning, huh? How about you tell me what Alistair told you?"

Gwen looked at the ground, and then at Jane. She held out her finger to the baby, who gladly clasped it with the whole of her chubby little fist and waved it around. Gwen had been so happy when Jane had been born nearly nine months ago. It had been like Sarah had come back to her. She'd been so beautiful. And then Theresa had ripped her away from her, and she'd just… lost it. Seriously lost it. She'd wanted to be a mother for so long, and to have that chance, that beautiful baby girl, dangled in front of her, only to be coldly and cruelly snatched away from her… it had been like a knife through her heart.

Gwen loved Jane like her own child, true, but she hated the constant fear of Theresa or Alistair snatching the child away from her. There would be no fear like that with Nathan. He would be hers, and Ethan's. But what if Ethan didn't believe her? What if he thought that Alistair was lying? Or what if he believed her, but they never found Nathan? What if they spent their entire lives searching for Nathan, only to never set eyes on their precious baby boy?

The fear was enough to clam Gwen up, to make her keep the knowledge of Nathan's existence buried deep within her. But she couldn't do that. This was her little boy. If she had to die trying to find him, she would.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen dropped the bomb. "Alistair told me that Nathan's alive, Ethan. He said that our baby boy is alive."

Ethan reacted like he'd just been hit by a ten-ton truck. His knees gave way, and he slowly sank down onto the sand. Jane squealed at the unexpected elevator ride she was given, unaware that the nice boy she'd shared her mother's womb with was alive, somewhere. Meanwhile, her stepmother worriedly dropped to her knees.

"Ethan! Sweetie, are you okay?" She took Jane from him, afraid that he might drop the girl.

Ethan nodded, his breathing fast and shallow. Color slowly began to return to his face. "Are you sure? How… I – I don't understand, Gwen."

Gwen nodded, smoothing Ethan's hair. "When Theresa went to go have the procedure done, instead of sacrificing Nathan, Alistair had the doctors save him. He went to a hospital somewhere, where he was in NICU for several months, but Alistair said that he's fine now." Gwen smiled. "I saw a picture of him, just after he was born. He's beautiful, Ethan." Tears began to form in her eyes. "He's got your eyes. And your mother's nose."

"Really?" Ethan asked hopefully. But then he shook his head. "Why would Alistair save our son? It makes no sense! He hates me. He hates my entire family, for God's sake!"

"I don't know," Gwen responded. "Why does Alistair do anything? I assume he wanted Nathan as some sort of an insurance policy. Maybe he just got some sort of sick pleasure out of taking our son away. I have no idea."

"An insurance policy…" Ethan mused. "And what would Alistair need an insurance policy for?" Gwen looked down at her sandaled feet, pretending to be absorbed in her chipped pedicure. Ethan groaned. "Oh, God, Gwen, what does Alistair want? You haven't done anything for him already, have you?" The panic rose in Ethan's voice with each syllable.

Gwen continued to look at her feet before replying guiltily: "No… Alistair… he wants me to divorce you, Ethan."

Ethan made a triumphant noise and threw his arms up into the air.

"Ethan, please, don't be like that," Gwen begged. "I was like that, too, at first, but Alistair showed me a picture, Ethan, and this baby, he just has to be ours, Ethan! He has to be!"

Ethan sadly cupped his wife's face with his hands. "I'm so sorry, Gwen. I know how much losing Sarah and Nathan hurt you, how much it hurt you when you found out that Jane wasn't yours. But don't you see? This is just a trick! Alistair's trying to get you to leave me so that I'll be free for Theresa."

Gwen was crying now. "Ethan, please, don't say that!" she begged. "I saw a picture of him, Ethan! He's got your eyes, and your mother's nose, and my chin! He has to be our baby, Ethan, he just has to be!"

Ethan shook his head. "Our baby's gone, Gwen. Both of them. We lost both of them," he said, his voice choked by blossoming tears.

"You don't believe that!" Gwen cried. "Please, Ethan, look me in the eyes and tell me that you believe that!"

Ethan looked away for a moment, and Gwen nearly sighed a breath of relief before Ethan met her gaze once more. "I believe it, Gwen. Nathan alive… that I can't believe."

Gwen began to sob, her fears realized. "Can't," she gasped, desperate not to lose control completely, "or won't?"

Ethan just stood up and stormed over to the shoreline, angrily flinging seashells into the ocean. Gwen clutched Jane tight to her body and sobbed harder, fat tears splashing onto Jane's soft, dark hair. She sobbed for a few more minutes before having an epiphany of sorts. She pulled Jane away from herself and wiped her tears away.

"You listen to me, Jane, okay?" Gwen asked, still struggling to wipe her eyes dry. Jane just grinned that baby grin of hers. "I am going to find your big brother for you. I am going to find him, and bring him home… and we'll be a family together, okay? I promise."

She pulled Jane close again, but her eyes remained dry this time. If Ethan didn't want to believe her, that was fine. She wasn't Theresa fucking Lopez-Fitzgerald, who needed a man in her life to survive. She was Gwen Hotchkiss Winthrop, former businesswoman extraordinaire. She had single handedly taken down hundreds, maybe thousands of men in her day. She was strong. She was determined.

She would find her son, or die trying.