TOGETHER FOREVER
"You can't be serious, Ethan."
Ethan met her pleading gaze with a look of determination and finality never before seen on that man's handsome face. "I am, Theresa. And for once in my life, I'm going to be firm. We will never be together."
Theresa's face crumbled as hot tears spilled down her dark cheeks. "But I wasn't the one who sent the e-mail to the tabloids!" she cried. "It was Gwen and Rebecca. They confessed!"
"I know they did," Ethan admitted, looking down at his brown leather shoes. "Gwen and I talked about that, and we came to an understanding. She was hurt, and angry, and has regretted her decision every day since."
"But you're divorcing her!" Theresa wailed.
Ethan looked down at his shoes once more. "We," he began slowly, "talked things through, and we made a mutual decision to end our marriage. This was not decided by either of us alone."
Theresa took Ethan's hands into her own. "Then why won't you be with me?" she whispered, glossy lips quivering in anguish.
"Because I can't trust you!" Ethan cried, shoving his former lover's hands away. "You knew the truth about my paternity all along, Theresa, and you were planning on revealing it until I proposed to you."
"But I didn't! Gwen and Rebecca did! They're the ones who ruined your life!"
"And you are the person who didn't so that she could have her slice of the Crane fortune." Ethan shouted, voice reverberating throughout the mansion's numerous, endless corridors. "You are the person who lied to me about marrying the man I once believed to be my father. You are the person who tried to hide her pregnancy by said man from me even after I specifically told you not to keep any more secrets from me."
"I was scared!" Theresa cried, grabbing Ethan's shoulders. "I couldn't lose you! I can't!" Lowering her voice, she whispered, "Please, Ethan. Jane is our daughter. She deserves to have her parents married to each other."
"Jane," Ethan spit out, voice dripping with animosity, "deserves to be raised far away from the woman who raped and nearly murdered her father."
"But you said that you knew it was me, Ethan!"
"Yes!" Ethan shouted, making the young woman jump. "Yes, I knew it was you! Yes, I wanted you! But if you hadn't drugged me, I would have never have given in to you. I would have resisted, and my son would be alive!"
"But you love me, Ethan!"
Unable to meet her eyes, he began, "No. I thought I loved you, but I've realized that I never truly did. Gwen was the only woman I'd ever really been with, and then you came along, and you were... different. I thought I wanted you. I yearned for what I couldn't have. But now that my marriage to Gwen is over, now that I'm free to be with you, I'm realizing that you're not what I want. I never wanted you the way that you wanted me."
Theresa collapsed to the floor at those words and put an end to any previousattempt to hold back her tears and wails. After a few moments of silence punctuated by Theresa's great, gasping sobs, Ethan added, "Look, I'm tired of arguing. It's too late to do anything tonight, but tomorrow morning I'm moving out of the mansion, and I'm taking Jane with me."
"Ethan!" Theresa wailed, throwing herself at her one true love. "Please don't leave me!" She wrapped her arms around his legs like child, anchoring his feet to the ground.
"Get off before I call Crane security, Theresa," Ethan growled. After several minutes of shaking and pulling and tugging, Ethan was free, and half-ran, half-hustled to his bedroom before locking the door.
Theresa remained a crumpled heap on the floor, wailing Ethan's name.
She'd lost him. She'd lost Ethan for good. That bitch, Gwen, had brainwashed him, poisoned him against her. She had seen it in his eyes - Ethan was determined to get away from her, and when Ethan was determined to do something, nothing could stand in his way - not even Mrs. Alistair Crane.
It wasn't fair! Fate had decreed that she and Ethan belonged together! They were supposed to be living their happily ever after right now with Little Ethan and Jane. Now, all Theresa had was an incapacitated husband who was three times her age and a little boy who was destined to become his clone.
Ethan was the only person who could save them. And he would, Theresa knew. He would save them both, because he was a noble man. But she also knew, despite her deepest desires, that it would take a miracle to bring Ethan back to her for good.
And suddenly, Theresa knew what she had to do to get her happily ever after.
"Mommy, why is everybody so sad tonight?" Little Ethan asked, looking up at his dark-haired mother.
Theresa looked down at her little boy with a doleful expression, and explained, "Uncle Ethan and Aunt Gwen have decided that they aren't going to be married anymore. Mommy thought that would mean that she and Uncle Ethan could get married, and that he'd become your daddy, but he says that he doesn't want that."
"Oh," the child whispered, saddened by these two new pieces of information. "I'm sorry, Mommy."
"No, sweetie, it's all right. Mommy knows how to get Ethan to come back to us."
"How, Mommy?" Little Ethan asked, brow wrinkled in confusion. "You just said that he doesn"t want to be a family with us."
"It's complicated," Theresa answered, fiddling with one of Jane's pale pink pillows. "But I promise that you'll understand everything in the end."
"In the end of what, Mommy? What's going on?"
Theresa lovingly cupped her son's face with her hands. "You are my precious little boy, you know that?"
"Yes, Mommy," Little Ethan answered, "but I still don't understand - "
Theresa's hands abruptly interrupted the boy mid-sentence. She forced her child down onto the nursery floor, and with great anguish, forced the pink pillow over his angelic face. Little Ethan struggled for several minutes, kicking and emitting muffled shouts, but slowly, slowly, his efforts became weaker and weaker until he moved no more.
Lifting the pillow to reveal her child's corpse, Theresa allowed a tear to roll down her cheek. Pressing a kiss to his forehead, she whispered, "I'm so sorry, baby. But everything is going to work out fine in the end. I promise."
"Little Ethan!" Theresa looked up to find Ethan standing in the doorway, a suitcase for Jane's things under his arm. He dropped it instantly and rushed over to his godson, fumbling with the boy's small wrist to find a pulse.
"Stop it, Ethan! He's gone to Heaven now!"
"Theresa, what the fuck is wrong with you? This is your son!" Ethan forced the young lad's mouth open and began CPR. "Come on, damn it! Come on!"
"Stop it, Ethan! Stop it!" Retrieving the pistol from its earlier hiding place in Jane's bureau, Theresa cocked the gun and pointed it at Ethan. "Stop it!"
Ethan looked up at Theresa with expressions of shock, awe, and disbelief all mixed into his handsome features. He stood up and away from Little Ethan and began slowly making his way towards Theresa, hands out in front of him.
"Come on, Theresa. You don't want to do this. Just put down the gun. Just put it down." He was inches from her now, and the barrel was nearly touching his chest. He wrapped his fingers around it. "Just put it down, Theresa."
She saw his eyes widen in astonishment and agony first; she only heard the gunshot after. Ethan fell back to the floor with a thud, and once there he did not stir. His eyes lay open, unseeing, the gaping whole in his chest all the explanation anyone would need. Theresa crumbled to the floor beside him and pressed a kiss to his forehead, too.
"I'm so sorry, Ethan. But it's for the best. You'll see. We'll be together again very soon. It's fate."
Standing up and straightening her clothes, she brushed the hair from her face and took a deep breath. She was almost done. This nightmare was almost over.
She picked up the pale pink pillow off of the floor and made her way to Jane's crib with shaking legs and trembling hands. She stroked Jane's pale cheek and leaned in, whispering, "It's going to be okay, baby. I love you. And now no one will ever be able to take you from me again."
Theresa pressed the pillow into Jane's little pink face, and the baby instantly began to fight. She flailed her tiny feet and fists in the air, but, at only a year of age, she was no match for her twentysomething year-old mother. Slowly, her efforts began to taper off, and a smile spread across her mother's face. It was almost over. They would all be together in Heaven now. It would all be over so soon...
"What the hell are you doing?" came a woman's cry, and Theresa found herself thrust from Jane's cribside to her closet door, where her head made impact with a sickening cracking noise. Dazed, her vision swimming, Theresa looked up and was able to make out Gwen's blurred form cradling Jane in her arms. "She's alive!" Gwen gasped, her elation supremely evident, and Theresa could see Jane's little legs wriggling in proof. She had failed.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Theresa?" Searching the nursery floor with her hands, Theresa heard Gwen's anguished cry as she finally took note of Ethan and Little Ethan's still-warm bodies laying lifeless on the floor. "Ethan!" she screamed, falling to the floor, desperately checking for a pulse while struggling to support Jane's weak, oxygen-deprived body. "Little Ethan? Honey, wake up. Wake up, sweetie!" The truth dawning in her stunned mind, she turned on her enemy. "Theresa, what have you done?"
Theresa answered by thrusting the gun in her face. Gwen began to tremble, and protectively shielded Jane with her arms. "What have I done? Me? You forced me to do this, Gwen!" Theresa screamed. "You brainwashed Ethan against me! We were supposed to be together. It was fate! But because of you, this is the only way that can ever happen now!" Theresa's hands shook with insurmountable rage, and Gwen closed her eyes tight, unable to respond, only able to wait for the piercing bullet that would end her life.
Theresa slowly and deliberately pulled the trigger, eagerly anticipating the blonde's demise. She waited for that same look of agony and astonishment that had appeared in Ethan's eyes to force Gwen's stunned eyes open, but it didn't come; the silence-shattering sound of the gun was not heard, either. With dawning realization did Theresa remember that she had loaded only a single bullet in the gun – she had thought that the meager number would be satisfactory.
Gwen's eyes fluttered open several seconds later as she realized that her chest was still heaving, blood still pounding in her ears, and Theresa threw the useless implement against one of the nursery's pastel-painted walls. Turning her attention back to her youngest child's stepmother – former stepmother, she reminded herself with delight – she was aghast to find that Gwen was standing in the doorway, still cradling Jane's oxygen-deprived body, screaming for someone to come and help. The young Latina could hear the sound of rushing footsteps pounding their way across the marble foyer and up the endless staircase, and she knew that it was too late – Jane was lost to her forever.
When Gwen turned her attention back to the brunette, the small dagger was already in her hands, unsheathed. The low light of the nursery glimmered from the dozens of gems – diamonds and rubies, mostly – set into the hilt, and shone from the long, crystal clear blade. It was mesmerizing, a thing of beauty, and Theresa knew that Gwen was equally transfixed by its elegance.
A frightened look appeared in Gwen's eyes as Theresa lifted the dagger high above her head, and the other woman screwed her eyes shut and attempted to shield the babe from her mother's path of destruction. With one last look of animosity for her rival, Theresa plunged the blade into her own left breast.
It was pain beyond any that Theresa had ever experienced before. Her face twisted in agony as her knees buckled, forcing her into a kneeling position on the floor. For several moments more she let out gasps and moans and cries until her punctured heart gave way, and Theresa collapsed flat on the carpet by Ethan's side.
Satisfied, she allowed her eyelids to droop shut, a soft smile spreading across her face. She would go to Heaven now, and Ethan would be waiting for her with open arms. They'd be together forever.
It was fate.