"Trust me, baby, you're better off without her. It's lucky you got out when you did."

It was mid-afternoon on what should have been the first day of his honeymoon, yet here he sat letting the anger and resentment build. By now word had spread throughout Salem of what had stopped this wedding short. Many still found it incomprehensible that Sami was not the one at fault.

Except in Kate Roberts's opinion, because apparently he was not capable of doing wrong. Lucas rubbed the back of his neck as the tension continued spreading. The more his mother went on with her Sami-ranting, the harder he was finding it to believe that she wasn't responsible for this mess.

But, that was ridiculous, right? She had been behind the wedding as much as she could be, considering who she was. She definitely wouldn't hurt him that way. And, if nothing else, she would have made Sami come off as the bad guy in any scheme she had.

Oh, how he wished she would just leave. This situation was tearing his heart out, as it was, especially knowing that everything was a set-up. His mother was not helping him at all. He needed a plan and there was no way he could ask her for help.

Even before he had to formulate a plan Lucas had to get Sami to listen to the facts, as he knew them, a feat he still had not accomplished. First things first, though, his mom had to leave.

………………………………...

"Poor, Samantha, she has lost the other half of her soul. If it is not repaired soon, her destiny will be forever altered."

"Please, Mom, leave the psychic babble for another time. She probably drove Lucas to it. He deserves better than that shrew."

"Lexie, darling, things are not always as they seem."

Sami tried to sink further into her seat as she caught yet another snippet of a conversation about her life. Lexie and Celeste were talking about her. Over in the corner Mimi and Rex could be seen glancing her way every couple minutes. Everyone else seemed to be staring.

Why was her pathetic life so interesting?

She'd lost another man, which was nothing new. At least this time it hadn't been in front of everyone in the middle of the ceremony. That was always the worst. So what? She had been disappointed again. It was no bigger than the other incidents.

Slowly, Sami deflated in her seat. She couldn't even convince herself of that. The only thing keeping her from becoming a huddled mass of tears on the floor was the fact that Will was upstairs and she needed to be strong for him.

Grandpa Shawn brought a steaming bowl of chowder over to her corner table. It wasn't doing a very good of hiding her, which is why she chose it in the first place, but what could she do?

She wanted to leave, but Will was supposed to meet her in a few minutes.

But, by the apologetic look on her grandfather's face she knew he wasn't ready to come down. Yesterday she had let him stay with Grandpa Shawn because she wasn't ready to face her son's questions. Now it seemed he wasn't ready to face the world.

"He's not coming, is he?"

"The poor lad finally fell asleep an hour ago. I don't have it in me heart to wake him."

Sami offered him a weak smile, "I understand. God knows I wish I could fall asleep for a few hours."

"I've some of me pub's famous chowder. Sit for a spell, darlin'."

"No thanks, Grandpa. I think I'm just going to go home."

She grabbed her purse and made her way out the door. The whispering started again as soon as the patrons of the pub discerned the defeated set of her shoulders.

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He was in front of her door when she got there. Just sitting against it waiting for her as if he had all the time in the world. With a lurch of her heart, she saw how drawn and pale Lucas looked. It made her want to put... no, she wouldn't think like that anymore.

"Lucas," she paused for a second, searching for the best way to continue before finally deciding to avoid the situation for as long as possible, "Could you get up? I need to get to my door."

He got up slowly, cracking his back as he stood, "I hope you realize I'm not leaving."

Sami studied him for a second before responding dryly, "I guess that would be too much to ask for."

She unlocked the door and, sure enough, he came in right behind her.

"Can't you even give me a chance to explain?"

"You mean explain why you cheated on me."

Lucas cringed for a second. It was understandable for her to doubt him right now, but it stung all the same, "I didn't cheat on you."

"Do you really expect me to buy that?"

Her matter of fact tone belied the outrage of her posture.

"Just listen to me. That's all I'm asking."

He had been trying to put together a speech that covered everything for hours, but his progress had amounted to next to nothing. As he saw Sami weakening, the little bit he did have planned flew out of his head completely.

Finally, she sat down on a chair, instead of the couch, making it clear that she would not allow any physical contact at all, "You've got my attention."

"Okay... alright... okay,"

Reluctantly she let a small smirk pass her lips at his nervous rambling. It was too hard not noticing how cute he was, "You might want to try another word."

"Right. I guess I should start at... well, at the beginning. My mom called me the other night to keep her company. She said she was missing Roman, so I went. We talked about nothing and we got drinks. I had a club soda, Sami. There was nothing alcoholic about my drink.

'The girl who was in the room was some model Mom knew and they just talked for a few minutes. My head was feeling weird, and then that's it. I don't remember anything past that point. I'll swear to that on a stack of bibles if I have to."

Sami looked at him with an unwavering gaze as he waited for a response. His body language was showing his nerves, but his voice was firm and steady. She didn't know which one to believe.

"So... you want me to believe what exactly? That your mom set you up?"

"I'm not saying it was my mom, I just know that nothing happened."

"And based on this alone, I'm supposed to take you back?"

"Look, I know this isn't enough to prove that I didn't cheat, but there has to be something. We could look together. All I need is for you to be open to what I'm telling you. I need you to trust me, just a little bit."

Damn it, he had almost gotten through to her. It was just a breathaway from happening. He could see her starting to believe him, but he had to use that word. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"Trust you? You want me to trust you. I did that already and all I got out of it was another broken heart. Leave. Now, I mean it."

She couldn't believe she had almost been pulled in. He had just looked so... sorry. No one could pull off the tortured puppy dog look quite like Lucas. He seemed to believe so much. And the look he gave her as he walked out the door. It wasn't fair. She should not be physically aching to comfort him!

If anyone was going to stop the wedding it was obvious they would have set her up, not him. Sami was always the evil doer; there was no reason for anyone to change that now.

But, there was no way anyone would think that Lucas would be the one to be set up. By his mother no less. That could mean that everything he said was true.

Could she risk not knowing? Why did this have to be so confusing?

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He sat in the dark of his apartment letting the mistakes he made in that one conversation run over and over. How did he always manage to screw things up?

There had to be a way to get around this. He just had to think. He could do that, Lucas was good at thinking. Sometimes he was too good at it.

He had already come up with a sketchy plan that he wanted to use with Sami's help, but she probably wouldn't...

A soft knock on the door blew all his thoughts away. He knew that knock. It was Sami's knock.

She came in with her eyes downcast, but her stride was determined. She sat on the coffee table across from him without meeting his eyes.

"I'm not saying I believe you, or that this changes anything. I just... I don't want to find out that you were telling the truth months from now and know that I gave up for no reason," she lifted her head to meet his slowly, "I want to know the truth."

Lucas felt the crazy hope building inside of him. All he needed was a little time and they would get back on the right track. No problem.

Just to make this clear, I'm not trying to say that I think Sami would have been more understanding than Lucas was. This is the way I would have wanted the storyline to go, no matter who was set up.