Christmas Eve was just as cloudy as it had been when she'd taken this detour out of reality. Elaine's was just around the corner. Though the sign in the window bravely said announce that it was open, a sign in the window just next to it advertised.
"The New Sunset Cafe. Oceanfront dining with the taste of the new world and all the class of the old. Coming in January, 2000." Next to that was a beautifully rendered drawing of neatly dressed patrons eating on a beautiful veranda. The charm of Elaine's little shop was gone.
Olivia barely looked over the advertisement. What did it matter? What caught her eye was the logo in the bottom right corner.
Richards Development Corporation. The same as the Hospital. The bell over the door rang as she entered. The cafe was deserted. Olivia was worried the door had been left open by accident when a cheerful voice called from behind the counter.
"I'll be right with you. Just need to get the stove in order." Olivia made her way to the counter, feeling the money in her pocket. Fifty dollars was nothing. She used to watch her husband spend ten times that on a bottle of wine. But it was all she had in this new world. All she had to make it through the day.
"It's all right." Olivia called cheerfully as Francesca took the stool next to her at the counter. "I'm not in any hurry."
"Are you sure you're in the right town?" The voice from the kitchen teased as a bang and a whoosh announced that revival of the stove. "Everyone in Sunset Beach is in a hurry now. Tearing things down and making ready for the new world order."
A man's hand set a cup in front of her and filled it with coffee. "It's a wonder they aren't changing the name as well. Richardsville. Richardsbeach."
"Richardshell." Elaine emerged from the kitchen looking older than Olivia had ever seen her. Her hair was streaked with gray, and her face told the tale of a harsh life. "The sunny little paradise that looks like every other resort in the world."
Olivia could barely take her eyes off her. Elaine had been to the hell she was describing. Been there and lived there all too long. The waiter coughed on the other side of the counter. "Don't mind mom, she's just upset that Mr. Richards bought us out."
When Elaine disappeared into the kitchen, Olivia turned her eyes to her waiter. The handsome young man waiting for her to decide was Cole. He had the same smile, and the same dimples. She gasped and nearly fell off her stool.
Cole laughed shyly. "Do I look like someone you know?"
Olivia gulped. Francesca leaned in to whisper, "Without you Del couldn't steal him as a baby. He's spent his whole life with his mother."
Olivia shook her head and forced herself to smile. The poor boy looked so uncomfortable. "I knew your father once. Long ago. AJ Deschanel, isn't it?"
Cole nodded and grinned sheepishly. "I'm told I look just like him. Mom says-" He leaned in to share the secret. "You have to get her in a good mood to tell the story nowadays, but she says I look just like him and his father. That's there's a legend. My grandfather met the lady in black at sunset and fell in love. Their love built this town."
He wiped the counter off with an old but clean looking rag. His jewel-thief confidence was gone. Olivia wondered if he'd even be able to talk to a girl he found pretty. He could barely meet her gaze. "Not that there's much of that left."
Francesca elbowed her as she spun in lazy circles on her stool. "Ask him about his family."
"Why do you say that?" Olivia asked softly. She folded her hands around her coffee cup. "I'm sorry. I was in Sunset Beach once before, and it feels like it was another planet-"
Cole shrugged and his blush faded a little. "Probably was. Mom says it was a happy town once. When she's happy she tells lovely stories of my father taking her for walks up and down the beach."
"Where is he now? Your father?"
Cole's face fell. She'd never seen him look so downtrodden. "Tell you what, you tell me what you'd like for breakfast, and I'll tell you the whole story."
Olivia nodded quickly. She was dying to know about AJ.
"It's not going to be what you think." Francesca warned gently as she wandered over to a painting of the pier.
"How about an omelet? Nothing fancy, let your mother surprise me." Olivia told him with a wink. "I think she can still do that."
Cole returned and refilled her coffee. Then he settled his elbows on the counter. "When my father came to Sunset Beach, he fell in love immediately with my mother. Their affair led to my conception, but his mother wouldn't hear of him marrying someone like my mom. She just wasn't Deschanel material. My father-" Cole's eyes gleamed with pride.
"Said it didn't matter. He loved her and that was final. He left his fortune and married my mother. They built this little cafe." He trailed off and Olivia almost didn't want to ask for the end of the story.
"What happened?"
"I was just a little boy when he got sick." Cole's good cheer faded away. "We never had a lot of money, mom wanted to write to his mother and ask for money, but dad wouldn't hear of it. If she didn't want my mom, she didn't want him, as far as he was concerned."
"If Mr. Richards' new medical center had been around, do you think it would have helped him?" Olivia wondered aloud as she wiped a tear from her eye. AJ was dead but he'd been with his son. Elaine was tired, but she'd been with the man she loved. Wasn't that better than barely knowing him? Than watching Gregory try to drive him out of town?
Cole shook his head sadly. "We'd never be able to afford it. I know we'd never be able to afford competing with Mr. Richards' new restaurants. That's why we had to sell. It's not much. Mom thinks we should have gotten more but she was visiting Ricardo and I'm never been good at negociating."
Olivia could picture Gregory destroying this young man in an argument. "Where is Ricardo?"
Cole looked at her in shock. He thought everyone had heard of the trial. "He's in prison. Gabi said he raped her two years ago. The DA gunned him down and Ricardo got the maximum. Mom never believed he could have done it. She thinks he's innocent even now. Always visits him, she's even off to the prison today, on Christmas Eve."
Cole set a steaming omelet in front of her with two pieces of thick toast. "My sister never could forgive him. She transferred to San Diego and we haven't seen her much. Blames mom for taking Ricardo's side."
Attacking her omelet, Olivia nearly burned her tongue. She hadn't realized she was so hungry.
Cole winked at her. "Not bad, huh?" He filled her coffee again and gave her a concerned look as her sleeve revealed the bandage on her arm.
"What happened to you?"
"Would you believe I got mugged?" Olivia offered softly between bites of her omelet. "Lost my luggage on a plane and got mugged as soon as I landed."
Cole picked up the check he had just set on the counter and tore it up. "That's terrible. Absolutely terrible. Now I am glad I'm leaving this god-forsaken town. Let Mr. Richards build his picture perfect little village. I hope the muggers enjoy the rich bastards who come through."
Olivia's eyes widened as she set down her fork. "I can pay for this. Really I-' She pulled the bundle of money from her pocket.
Cole pushed it aside. "It's Christmas. You need it more than I do." He looked her over and suddenly looked older than she'd ever seen him. "Especially if your business in Sunset Beach takes you anywhere near Gregory Richards."
He stuffed the pieces of her check into the garbage. "Mom says if Ebenezer Scrooge was alive today, he'd be envious of Gregory Richards. No one has Christmas spirit than that man."
Olivia looked to Francesca. "Is it true?"
Cole thought she was talking to him. "You know how the poem goes. 'But I think that the most likely reason of all, may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.'"
Smiling softly as she remembered reading that to Caitlin and Sean on christmas, Olivia nodded.
"I think in Mr. Richards' case it's more than two sizes." Cole left her to muse as he ducked back into the kitchen.
"The Grinch was redeemed." Olivia reminded Francesca as she finished her omelet. "His heart grew three sizes."
"Suess is an optimist." Francesca pointed out firmly. "This is reality. Come on. There are a few more people you need to see before you tackle the Grinch."
Olivia left the counter. She started to leave, but then stopped. She couldn't just let Cole and Elaine suffer. She had to be able to do something. She bit her lip and her hand rested on her neck a moment. She was still wearing her pearl necklace. The one she'd had on last night, in her reality.
It wasn't her finest piece of jewelry, but it might get them off to a better start in their new home. Wherever it was. Olivia removed her necklace and borrowed a pen from the cup next to the register.
"Take care of your mother. And Merry Christmas to you both." She set the necklace on the note and disappeared from the Waffle shop.
Francesca was grinning at her. "How sweet."
Olivia shot her a dirty look. "They needed it more than I did."
Francesca eyed her engagement ring. "That would have been worth more."
Olivia covered the huge diamond with her hand. "Maybe I'm not ready to get rid of it yet."
Laughing softly, Francesca pointed down the street. "I think we should go to the Deep next. Learn a little bit more about Gregonezer Scrooge before we confront him."
"Why the Deep?" Olivia wondered as she passed some harried shoppers on the street. "You're probably just going to show me that Ben Evans died years ago and Gregory's taken it over."
Francesca tossed her hair over her shoulders and shrugged playfully. "Not everyone's dead like dear AJ." She danced out of the way of a man laden with shopping bags and balanced on the edge of the curb. "You're just smarting because without you, he lived a life of love with Elaine and actually knew his darling son."
"I told you the world is better off without me." As much as she argued, Olivia couldn't help noticing the signs in every shop window.
Richards Development Corporation.
The little shops, the quaint stores for which the Sunset Beach had been known in her world, were all shutting down. Clearance signs were red in every window. The shopkeepers, some of whom she had known for years in another land, were saddened as they waved their patrons out into the sunshine.
"I doubt that is true for anyone." Francesca waved at a little girl who for some reason knew enough to smile at her. "We all change the world in a thousand ways beyond our knowing."
Olivia snorted. "When did you become a philospher?"
Francesca stopped grinning at the toddler girl and titled her head seriously for a moment. "Death changes a person. Your darling ex-husband saw to that."
Jogging to catch up to her invisible companion, Olivia caught her shoulder and turned her around. Oblivious to how strange it much look to the people on the sidewalks around her. "Don't you resent him for ending your life? Or me for failing to-"
"To what?" Francesca smiled that cryptic smile. "To stop Gregory?" Her deep eyes grew sad for a moment. "You have been one of the few who could at least make him halt his hand. Perhaps for that alone you should live."
Olivia looked away. Life was still too bitter for her taste. "At least here my children didn't suffer from my faults."
"Didn't suffer at all really." Francesca observed as she made her way through the throng. A woman crashed into Olivia, taking her from her feet without so much as a whisper of apology. Knocked back hard, it took her more than a moment to regain her equilibrium. No one would have dared collide with her in the world she had left. She had been the Queen of Sunset Beach. The woman who commanded as much fear as she did respect. Now she was nothing. A stranger in borrowed clothes.
The hands that caught her arms were strong and caring as they brought her back to her feet. "You should be careful ma'am No one's as polite as they ought to be anymore." Her rescuer's eyes were kind, but like everyone else she met, that light shone from an exhausted face. Casey Mitchum, the sweet young man who called Alex his mother, made sure she was clean and unhurt before he released her.
"Thank you Casey."
He paused, genuinely confused she knew his name. He looked all right, well dressed and clean, but the exhaustion had crept into his face as well. "I'm sorry. Have we met?"
Olivia licked her lips as she tried to correct her error. "I know your mother." Alex was a bright spot in the old world, certainly she was that here as well. Perhaps without her Alex had even married Gregory. Were Sean and Caitlin her children then?
"My mother?" Casey paused for a moment. Then sorrow shadowed his face. "I'm sorry, you must not have heard, I hate to be the one to tell you-" His left hand brushed a quiet tear from his eye. "She died two years ago. Mr. Richards-" His tone grew strained by his effort. "Tried to find her the best doctors he could buy. I think, out of all the peple in this world, she was one of the few he really cared about."
"I'm so sorry." Alex too was gone then. What hope she had that Gregory had found any peace in this world sank cold into her stomach. "I didn't know-"
Casey lifted his bundle of flowers from the street at his feet. His hands were bare. He too was alone in this world. "It's all right. I'm off to see her today. To tell her she still doesn't have a grandchild, but perhaps-"
"You're young yet." She felt her lips curl in a grin. "I think you still have time for that."
He blushed. His heart was still light enough for that. "Perhaps in the next city."
"You're leaving?" Olivia felt a surprising pang in her chest.
He shifted the bundle of lilies in his hands, freeing some of their sweetness into the air. "I have no place here. I'm going to travel, visit some of the places mom loved, maybe I'll find her there." He pulled a lily from it's paper and handed it to her with a shy smile.
"Merry Christmas." His wishes were heartfelt. "I hope you find what you're looking for."
"Thank you." The flower was sweet as she held it up to her face. He nodded and made his way through the crowd. The people moved slightly to allow him through, but when he was gone, loneliness settled over her. Even Francesca's at her side held little comfort. If Casey was alone, that woman, Meg's sister must have never come to Sunset Beach.
Francesca read her mind. "Meg Cummings is married, with a child at her feet and one on the way. Without her love for Ben Evans, she had no reason to leave her home."
"What about Ben?" Olivia wondered as she searched her mind. She would have given anything for Bette's knowledge of gossip and the goings-on. "What horrible things has Gregory done to him?"
Her bitterness brought a chuckle to Francesca's full lips. "Look around you. See with more than your eyes."
Olivia glanced upward. The blue neon sign for the Deep was just flickering to life. It was the first building she had seen without one of the ominous little signs. No mark of Richards Development Corporation was anywhere to be seen. The front door into the brick building was open. It allowed her in. Curiousity drew her around the corner and there, in the center of the room was a beautiful tree.
It was the first sign of Christmas she'd seen that brought light to her heart. Though the streets were beautifully adorned in wreathes and lights, this was the first tree that had been put up with care.
"I'm sorry. We're not ready for the Christmas party yet-" The young woman behind her was sweet and apologetic. Olivia turned and it took her a moment to place the face smiling gently at her. Had she been at her wedding? "This is a private celebration."
That was it. She had been there.
"Then I am sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." Olivia smiled sadly. Her heart was heavier in her chest than it had been on the pier.
"Mommy, mommy!" A small child ran over to Maria's legs, peering out from behind her skirts. "Who's this."
Maria reached down to rub his dark hair and sighed indulgently. "I don't know Benjy."
"Is she lost?"
Olivia had to laugh. "Yes- Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm terribly lost."
"Perhaps we can help you." Ben Evans appeared from the door to the kitchen, his daughter in his arms. "I can unfortunately claim this town as my home."
Benjy ran to his father and then to the table set beside the tree. "I've been lost."
"Yes you have." Ben agreed with his son as he handed the little girl to his wife with a kiss. "I think we all have."
"It's a shame to be lost on Christmas." Maria's face glowed with sympathy. The accident. That horrible boating accident must not have happened.
Francesca clarified as she studied the wings of the angel at the head of the tree with envy. "Gregory wouldn't give him the time off. It's a long and complicated story." She pulled herself up on the counter and watched as Maria settled her daughter into her high chair.
"Doesn't he have a brother?" Olivia whispered under her breath. "An evil one?"
"Derek." Francesca offered as she stretched out along the top of the counter. "But with Gregory undermining his confidence at every turn, Ben's only a moderate success who lives in the shadow of the might of Gregory Richards. There's nothing for Derek to covet. Ben's one of the few who can make the payments on his mortgage, but only just. He bites his tongue at work and does his best to support his family."
"He seems so happy." Olivia's voice was almost too loud. Maria and Ben both turned to her.
"I'm sorry. I just said you seem so happy."
Maria found the comfort of her husband's arm. "It's a miracle he got the day off. Mr. Richards was threatening to make him come in all week."
"Who are you going to see? I'm sure I can give you directions." Ben took a napkin and a pen from the bar.
"Gregory Richards, I'm afraid."
Ben's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I didn't think he had any friends."
Maria fetched another chair from a table nearby and pulled it up. "You'd better have dinner with us. You're going to need the fortification before you take on that man."
Benjy giggled and shook his sister's rattle until she clapped her chubby fingers. "That man..." He mocked his mother. "That man..."
Ben kissed his son's head. "That man is entirely right. You should join us. Even an old friend shouldn't brave the Lion's Den on an empty stomach."
Leaving Ben's little family was more difficult than she imagined. The baby Sabine had the same innocent smile Caitlin had had as a girl. The same impish giggle when her cheeks were tickled. Watching Ben bounce her on his knee reminded her of Gregory. He'd loved being a father with the same passion that burned in Ben's eyes now. Olivia couldn't help wondering what a strange guest she was at their table. The woman in borrowed clothes. She still had her earrings. The wild pearls Gregory had given her surrounded by tiny diamonds.
Maria's eyes were quick, and before Olivia had been careful to keep her hand back by her glass, she had seen her rings. Her wedding band was simple enough, but her engagement ring was obviously far beyond the price of her clothing. It was out of place.
"How do you know Mr. Richards?" Maria asked as the coffee went around the table past the children. "Are you in business with him?"
Laughing as she wiped her mouth politely with her napkin, Olivia heard Francesca chuckling as well behind her. "Oh no, no. We met a long time ago. So long ago it feels like another world entirely. I haven't seen him-" Her eyes stung unexpectedly. She hadn't seen Gregory since he'd knocked her out. The last thing between them before his death was when he'd pushed her away. He'd thrust her aside and went on without her. He hadn't gone very far. Here he was alive. Perhaps it wasn't too late. His heart couldn't be as cold as she feared.
"In what feels like forever."
"And you choose Christmas Eve to visit him?" Ben wondered as he stirred his coffee. "What of your family?"
Maria passed a plate of cookies, careful to keep Benjy's hands from most of them. "Your husband?"
Olivia couldn't keep her grief buried. She wondered if her pain was as etched on her face as it was on her heart. "My husband is dead."
"I'm sorry." Ben's apology hung in the air.
She nodded politely and swallowed the threatening tears. "It seems Gregory and I are both alone this Christmas."
"Hopefully you will not be alone together." Maria's voice held traces of her mother's wisdom. Old wisdom.
"Christmas is the season of hope after all." Olivia stood, pushing in her chair as she smiled. "And I've imposed on you long enough. Thank you for your dinner and your hospitality."
Maria smiled warmly. "It's always nice to host a stranger on Christmas Eve."
Ben took the time to kiss her forehead as he led Olivia to the door. "The Richards building is the center of town. The tallest, brightest, most important looking building in town. Impossible to miss."
Olivia pulled the zipper on her sweatshirt higher to her chin. The air had a new chill in it.
"Will you be all right?" Ben's concern was sweetly comforting.
"Though he's a monster, he's a monster I know." Hope was more difficult to conjure than a smile. "I'll be all right. Merry Christmas."
Francesca slipped through the door just before Ben shut it. "Do you think you still know him? That his heart is not so changed that even you won't recognize him?"
"I love him." Olivia walked faster, hoping Francesca hand't heard the slip in tense.
"You love." Her arm went around her shoulders. "Not loved I see." They turned the corner and it was before them. The mass of steel and glass that was the wicked heart of the town.
The gate was high in front of them, barring the street from the compound beyond. The sun was starting to creep beneath the ocean. Far away, past the end of the pier, Christmas Eve was coming to a close.
"I'm running out of time, aren't I?"
Francesca shrugged off the question. "Time is what you make of it. What you can do in the time you are given is far more important than worrying about how much time you have." She settled on the edge of the sidewalk. "I'm curious how you expect to get in."
Olivia reached up to her ears, removing the pearl earrings as she approached the security officer. "What gift do you think he has for his wife when he works on Christmas Eve for a man like my husband?"
Francesca's eyes widen and she watched in amusement as Olivia worked her trade. The little door to the side of the gate opened. She floated past the guard admiring the earrings.
Olivia's quiet smile held a trace of amusement. "He asked if I was going to kill him."
Francesca tossed her hair back over her shoulders. "And?"
"If I meant to do that, he would have let me in for free." Olivia looked up at the dark tower. High at the top a light gleamed against the dying sunlight. "Who is he? Ben was his protege and here Ben barely tolerates him. Ben worked for him because he had too. He had a family to think of.
"He is what he would have been without you, nothing more." Francesca paused before her lack of a reflection in the perfect glass.
"But how does one person make so much of a difference?" The brass handles of the doors opened without a whisper. The marble floor of the lobby echoed Olivia's lonely footsteps.
"Gregory had his hands in every part of Sunset Beach in your world as well." Francesca waited patiently for the elevator. "His hands are just a bit kinder there."
The light chimed on above them and the elevator doors opened. Olivia tried to sort her mind, but it whirled in too many strange directions.
"He told you once that you taught him to open up. To say what was on his mind."
Olivia could smell his cologne in the car as he reached for her cheek. SHe closed her eyes against the memory but it came anyway.
"Without you, he never learned. His feelings went so deep within him that he forgot they even existed. They festered and fouled his heart until it was as twisted and black as his inner demons believed it to be." The elevator came to a halt before the upper office. Francesca slipped behind Olivia as the doors opened. She'd been looking forward to this encounter.
She swept into the elevator like the force of a storm. Her cell phone was plastered to her ear. She mashed the button to the lobby and groaned in frustration as the elevator continued up instead of taking her down as she wished. Olivia recognized the cut of her suit. It was imported, custom fit.
The woman turned on her like an angry cat. As if it was Olivia's fault she hadn't been paying attention to the indicators above the elevator. "I suppose you're headed all the way up, aren't you?"
Raw fury had no place in this woman's voice. At least not as Olivia had known her. Shock opened her mouth, but the woman had already made her judgement.
"No eleventh hour plea, even on Christmas Eve will save your parent's house, or your husband's business, or whatever paltry little business you intend to inflict upon him." She brushed an imaginary strand of hair out of her face. "You should just turn back now. Whatever you have to say will surely make it worse."
Olivia just stared. The face was familiar, but her voice, her manner, the way she stood like a Queen forced to examine something terrible, none of it was right. Of all the people she had encountered. All the heart's Gregory's miserly ways had hardened, this was the most shocking.
"Bette?"