"What do you mean he won't hurt her? Who has my wife?" John demanded Antonio tell him. John looked at the picture and saw his face scratched out on it. He saw Antonio pause before he went to open up his mouth and then Antonio looked towards the door as Jess and Bo walked in. John turned Antonio's head abruptly with his hand and made him look at him.
"Tell me who has her and why?" John demanded as Jess and Bo walked closer wanting to hear this themselves.
"She's with her husband" Antonio said and he saw the anger start to build up inside of John.
"You're not making sense. I'm her husband," John told him and Antonio knew how hard this was for John, he knew how hard the decision he had made last year was for him, for his mom, and for Chris. But he really did think they were doing the right thing.
"I'm sorry John, but you aren't her husband, her husband, my brother, he was never killed in Vegas. It was a cover up." Antonio told John and then looked at Jessica and mouthed an "I'm sorry" to her. John took a deep breath and motioned for him to continue.
"Before Vegas Chris wanted to give Natalie everything, everything she ever dreamt about and he knew he could never financially compete with the money she had. So my pig headed little brother started gambling, gambling a lot. He lost a lot, he owed a lot of people money, big money and if he didn't pay up somehow they were going to make him pay. I didn't know about any of this till after Vegas but I'll get into that again later. He had no where to turn, he had no way of paying them back all the money he owed them so when they made him an offer he was in no position to refuse. Since he was a Santi half by blood they offered to take him into their dealings and operations so he could pay off his debt." Antonio was interrupted when Jessica spoke.
"You mean to tell me Chris, our Chris, was working for the Santi's when he married my sister? And none of us knew about it?" Jessica asked and Antonio continued.
"I didn't even know, Chris didn't say a word to anyone especially not Natalie, he knew if he told her she would be disappointed in him and he knew she deserved better than to live a life with him, see, once he had that lifestyle he became greedy, he lost all that was important to him, so he let it go, all that was important to him that is, Natalie. He thought it better she think he was dead than find out what he became, became because of his stupid pride. So the Santi's set up the Vegas sting, Natalie was already involved with pool and agent Fisher was already on the take."
"So, you mean to tell us it was a fake, Christian getting killed in Vegas was staged?" Bo asked as he saw John start to pace back and forth across his living room floor.
"Yes, it was staged and very well I must add. I fell for it, and Natalie even fell for it. It looked so real, the gun shot, the blood, it was all fake so that he could leave Natalie thinking what a wonderful man he was and so Chris could go on working for the Santi's with a clear conscience." Antonio told all of them
"A clear conscience! Are you kidding me? He lied to her and pretended to be killed. Did he ever think of the pain she would go through, go through after supposedly seeing him shot and taken away from her, or was that the plan, the plan to make it so impossible for her to want to love again because of all the heartache and pain. It would've been so much easier for her to get over him if he just left her, even just left her at the alter but to fake being killed, and fake it in front of her, he wanted her to grieve for him and not move on with her life. What an manipulative son of a bitch!" John said as he angrily said the last part into Antonio's face.
"Hey, I understand your hurting here but don't talk about him that way! He loves her, he always did and he always will," Antonio said as the two men glared at each other
"So why come back now then, why? He's so wonderful, he did it for her, bullshit he did it for him. He's taken her now because you must have told him about me, about her getting married and being happy again." John continued as he still was in Antonio's face.
"He wasn't the one to tell him, I was," they all turned to see Carlotta walk into the house.
"You knew too?" John asked as he walked closer to Carlotta
"I was the one who told Antonio after Vegas, Chris came to me and told me it all, all of it and I prayed it wasn't true but it was, all of it, she's with him now and I'm not sure if she wants to be or not. His plan was to come back and tell her the truth, tell her someday when he was free of that life but he hadn't freed himself in a year and I'm not really sure he wants to anymore. I spoke to him today, earlier when I saw Natalie at the hospital, I told him to leave her be that she was happy with you, that she was remarried and that the two of you were expecting but I guess it just made him m--"
Carlotta tried to finish her sentence and John cut her off.
"What do you mean we are expecting?" John asked as he looked at her
"Oh, My, I'm so sorry, you don't know yet, she didn't get a chance to tell you, I'm sorry," Carlotta said as a few stray tears fell down her cheeks
"Do you mean my sister is pregnant?" Jessica asked as she looked at John while asking Carlotta the question.
"I think, I..I..I overheard she and Dr. McBain talking about it. I'm so sorry John, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault, it's all my fault," Carlotta kept saying over and over again.
John walked out of the room and into the kitchen for a minute to regain himself, were these people crazy, he thought to himself. They supposedly love her so much and all they do is lie to her, cause her pain. Her dead husband is alive, she's not really my wife, he thought, and she's having my baby. This should be a happy thing but right now John couldn't think about anything but getting her back and if she would want to come back, come back to him, of course she would, he thought, they were each others destiny, they were meant to be, I would never lie to her the way these people have, I would never hurt her the way they have" she's my wife damn it! And she's having my baby. "John said to himself out loud in the kitchen and then he shook off his anger and fear of losing her and walked calmly back inside to the living room.
"Did you tell him about Louie and that she was kidnapped?" John asked Carlotta as he walked back into the living room.
"Yes, I told him all of it, he told me a few days after Natalie was back that he was the one to take care of Louie." Carlotta answered as she continued to be sorry for her part in keeping the secret.
"Do you have any idea where he has her?" John asked Carlotta as the others found it best not to interrupt them from speaking.
" Yes, I know where they are but I think it's best you're not the one to go get her" Carlotta said to John and she along with everyone else saw the rage in his face.
"You think it's best I don't go get her, you people should be ashamed of yourselves. Lying to her all this time, making her suffer like she did, you have no right to tell me what's best for her since I'm obviously the only one here that truly loves her. Now tell me where she is or I'll have you arrested," John said looking around the room at everyone, nobody dared say a word to John and Carlotta gave him all the information he needed.
"Natalie please come out, I won't hurt you, I love you" Chris said as he again tried to get her to come out of the bathroom. She had been in there for a good hour and he had tried to explain things to her thru the door, he had explained why he did what he did and how he went about doing it. She stayed silent the whole time.
Natalie sat on the floor of the bathroom with her back to it, she listened to every word he said and she just wanted to go home, go home to john, to their house, have their child and live happily ever after, she didn't want him in her life, she didn't care why he thought he needed to do those things for her, yeah, she was enraged that people who swore to love her so much could do these type things, and do them to her but it didn't matter right now, all that mattered was getting back to John and feeling safe in his arms.
"I want you to let me go. For good this time. I don't love you anymore" Natalie said finally speaking thru the door.
"Natalie I know you do" Chris said so sure of himself as he continued to stand outside of the bathroom.
"No, Chris I don't, I never did, not the way I love John, He and I are meant to be, you and I were never suppose to be long term." Natalie told him as she got up off the floor.
"I'll let you go if you prove it to me, prove you don't love me anymore, make love to me one last time"
