2012

Denver, Colorado

Haley slipped quietly into the dark house with her sleeping son nestled in her arms.

"Mrs. Scott, can I get your bags for you?" asked Albert, one of the many hired help.

She gave him a tired smile.

"It's just one. You can put it away in the downstairs closet, next to the dining room. Thank you."

The man nodded.

"Right away, ma'am."

She began removing the snowsuit from Landon's tiny napping frame as she opened the door to the dark study. The child began to stir and fuss, upset that his slumber had been interrupted.

"It's okay, sweetie. Landon, don't cry", she tried to soothe.

"You know how cranky he gets this time of night, Hales."

She screamed loudly when she heard a voice in the darkness. The study was supposed to be empty. She and Landon were supposed to be alone. But they weren't. The shrillness of her yell had woken the tot up and scared him to death. He wailed as he and his mother's eyes tried to adjust to the new, sudden brightness of light that had just been shut on. They found themselves staring into the cold blue eyes of their respective father and husband.

"Nathan! Oh my God! Babe, you scared the crap out of me."

"I see that."

"What are you doing home? And what are you doing sitting here all alone in the dark? I thought you had another day on your road trip."

He simply nodded as his son continued to cry. Pressing one of the intercom buttons, Nathan buzzed the head nanny. In a flash she was in the study with the Scott family.

"Susie, take Landon upstairs, please", he coolly commanded.

"Yes, sir", she said, taking the little boy from his mother's arms.

"It's okay, Susie", Haley tried to protest. "I've got him."

"Susie, take Landon", Nathan repeated his instructions a little more forcefully.

Haley rolled her eyes and conceded as the young nanny carried her still weeping child out of the room.

"Nathan, he was fine. He was just cranky because I scared him when I woke him up. All he needs is his dinner bottle with a little cereal and a bath…"

"Susie knows that."

"Susie is not his mother. I am. Landon is my son, our son. I am perfectly capable of taking care of him."

The argument concerning the extreme number of staff hired to tend to the couple's mansion as well as their every need had become quite redundant in recent months. Haley was tired of preaching to a brick wall so she simply turned on her heels to head upstairs.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To get some food. I'm hungry. Then I was going to take a shower. If you're in a better mood, feel free to join me later. I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow and I wanted to surprise you with candles and rose petals and a hot bubble bath like we used to do. You still haven't told me why you're home so early."

"Something came up."

"Like? I mean, what in the world happened to make you skip a game?"

"I got a phone call about some stuff going on."

Haley frowned.

"Okay, now I'm really confused. Nathan, what is going on?"

"I think I should be asking you that same question."

"Excuse me?"

He looked right at her.

"Where the hell have you been for the last two days?"

Haley's mouth fell open. It was a question she hadn't been expecting.

"My parents. They're in San Francisco. They called and they wanted to see their grandson. You were gone and I was bored so Landon and I flew out to see them…"

"Lie."

"Nathan…"

"That's a lie, Haley."

"No, it's not", she shifted uncomfortably.

"How'd you get there?"

"We flew."

"Commercial?"

"Yeah. Look, it wasn't something that was planned and I wasn't aware that I had to call you on the road every time for permission when Landon and I leave the house. So I chartered a flight and…"

"Wait a minute. You just said you flew commercial."

Flustered, the young wife put her hands on her hips.

"I, I made a mistake, okay? I'm sorry if this third degree CIA interrogation of yours is throwing me off."

Nathan pulled out a stack of papers.

"Two days ago at 7:16 in the morning, you chartered a Cessna 310 from Western Air, a private company out of southern California. The flight came in a few hours later not to Denver International where there are thousands of commercial flights and also where our private plane is docked, but it went to the Front Range Airport over in Watkins where a taxi carrying you and our son was waiting. You boarded the flight, landed that afternoon at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, a little more low key than LAX, I guess. A car picked you up and took you to Brentwood to the residence of Chris and Rachel Keller."

Haley closed her eyes. Busted! Busted wasn't even the word. After months of secret excursions to L.A. as she had covered her tracks so well, she had been caught by the very man she had so desperately tried to keep the secret from.

"Nathan, I…"

He folded his arms.

"You what?"

"I, um…"

"You owe me an explanation about what the fuck has been going on behind my back for the last few months? Yeah, that's a nice start!"

"Please do not raise your voice."

"Why? You want me to be calm? Quiet? Fuck that, Haley and fuck you too! What the hell is going on? Why are you sneaking around behind my back? Why in five months have you made eight secret trips out to California with our son? And what the hell are you doing with Chris again?"

"Okay. Yes, I was with Chris but…"

"Of course you were with Chris. I've got times and dates on every single one of these little trips you scheduled when I was playing away games and you covered them up pretty well!"

"I saw Chris last year when you guys beat the Lakers. He wanted to do something after hearing me sing the National Anthem so we decided to record a few songs and…"

"And we talked about that and we agreed you were done pursuing the music stuff, at least until Landon is older."

Haley bit her lip and fought back tears.

"No, Nathan. You pretty much decided it for me."

"Haley…"

"I starting writing songs again. I have notebooks full of them. And they're good, Nathan. I'm proud of it. Chris liked them. He put music to the words and it sounded really awesome so he let me go in the studio again and I love it."

"Haley!"

"I know you don't like him and I know we all have a past together but he is a brilliant producer and musician with a lot of pull and connections with labels and the industry."

"So?"

"So, I'm gonna need all the help I can get if I want my comeback album to be taken as something other than a big, fat joke."

"Comeback album? Hales, are you serious?"

"It's something in the works. Nothing is set in stone. We're not rushing."

"But you are planning?"

She shrugged.

"Well, yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Haley sighed.

"Because I knew you wouldn't like it and I knew you wouldn't understand and I knew a big fight would start sort of like the one we're having right now."

"I can't believe you…" he shook his head.

"What? Nathan, you know how much I love music. I love our family too and I won't let the music come before that this time but I can do both. It's a little side project that makes me happy. Chris helps me. And you know by now nothing is or was ever going on romantically between us."

"What about our family? What about Landon? What about me?"

"I'm a mother and a wife first. Nothing is going to change really."

"No, Haley, you're wrong. Everything changes. I thought we decided you'd wait a few years before you started with the music thing again but if you want to sing that damned bad, then whatever. I'll deal with that. But I can't deal with not trusting you again."

"Nathan, of course you can trust me!"

"Then why were you sneaking off behind my back? Why didn't you tell me about recording with Keller again? And why did you go to great lengths like taking cabs and using the smaller airports and all that devious, underhanded crap?"

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to deceive you but I didn't want to upset you. Nathan, I was going to tell you, I swear."

"And were you gonna tell me about the birth control?"

Haley stopped cold in her tracks.

"Nathan…"

"We had talked about having another baby. You seemed okay with that. Now I find out you have an IUD?"

"Oh my God. How did you…"

"How did I find out? Obviously not from my wife. Here, I'm thinking we can try for another kid and then I find out in addition to you sneaking out to California behind my back every chance you get, you had a doctor shove a piece of plastic inside you that keeps you from getting pregnant and you didn't even bother to tell me."

A tear fell from her eye as she reached for her husband's arm. He quickly jerked away.

"Nathan, I am so sorry."

"Is it true?"

She nodded slowly.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because as much as I love being a mother, Landon is still in diapers and I wasn't ready to have another one just a year after the first one."

"But we said we wanted our kids close in age."

"I know but I don't want another baby right now or next year or the year after that. I'm sorry, it's just how I feel. I tried to tell you but like everything else that you don't want to hear, that doesn't go your way, you just tuned it out."

"Hales…"

"And I feel like you don't really want another baby now either but it's like you're in some big rush to get me pregnant again because in your eyes, that keeps me here. The more babies, the less time I have for anything else."

"That's not true. I wanted more kids because our life is great and I love our son and I thought we were happy. I wanted a real family. I thought you felt the same way, too."

"Nathan…"

"Don't fucking touch me, Hales. I mean it. I am beyond disgusted with you right now."

"Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to hear that?"

"Not half as much as it hurts me to say it. I love you. You and Landon are my life, you know that. And I thought our marriage was solid. I thought all the bullshit was in the past but the trust thing keeps popping up. You know, that's the one thing I can't handle."

"Nathan…"

"Just leave me alone right now, okay? I don't feel like talking anymore."

She tearfully nodded as she headed for the exit on the verge of a breakdown.

"How…how did you find out?" she turned and asked one last question.

She got her answer but not from her husband. Haley looked up and saw her best friend and brother in law standing at the foot of the steps.

"I've got a plane to catch", he stated stoically. "I'll talk to you later, man."

Nathan didn't even look up.

"Yeah…later", he mumbled.

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Haley had to grab on to a nearby table for support. She could hardly believe it but the pieces of the puzzle began to fall in together painfully.

Lucas had always been her best friend. She had always trusted in and confided in him. Never once had they betrayed each other. She had even kept his HCM secret for years, the secret that could have cost him his life and almost cost her friendship with Brooke, the secret that had raised trust issues in her own marriage.

But when she began secretly talking to Chris Keller again, it seemed as if Lucas was the only person she could tell. Of course he didn't agree but he didn't judge either. Instead he provided her with that quiet, brooding understanding just like always. Technically she was doing nothing wrong so she had told him of the frequent hush hush trips to record in L.A. and how she had pulled it off without Nathan managing to find out. And when she had felt the enormous pressure from her husband to have another baby while their first child was just a year old, she had cried and confided that to Lucas as well. He had held her and dried her tears, even offering advice. And when she made the decision to have long term birth control inserted in her uterus without the knowledge of her husband, Lucas had simply hugged and told her it was going to be alright. She had trusted him…and he had betrayed her.

"Lucas Eugene Scott!" she marched over to him.

He turned around and it was like looking in the eyes of a stranger.

"Haley, I'm gonna be late…"

"I don't care about that", she cried. "Did you?"

He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah."

He was so casual and cavalier about the entire thing.

"Why? How could you?"

"Marriage is sacred, Hales. A husband and a wife should be straight with each other on everything always. I don't trust Chris Keller, never have. The dude is shady. And when you hang around him, you become a different person. Last time around you were kissing him and running away on tour. Now you're lying about wanting to have a baby with Nathan. It isn't right. I was just trying to help."

Haley could barely find her voice.

"Help? Help? Are you crazy? Lucas, you have quite possibly ruined my marriage forever! And you betrayed my trust and confidence!"

Lucas looked right at her.

"I don't know what you want me to say about that."

"You son of a bitch!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"Sorry? Who the hell are you? I feel like I don't even know you anymore. Is Dan possessing your body or something? This is so low I don't even think he would have pulled it."

"Hales…"

"No! Don't 'Hales' me. Don't touch me or try to talk to me! You did this on purpose! How could you? You know, I've always been there for you through thick and thin, whether you were right or wrong. That's what real friends do for each other. I loved you and I trusted you. And you just shit all over that love and trust, not to mention a 16 year friendship. For the last two years now, I've watched you drift to the dark side and become this evil, miserable, hurtful, bitter shell of a man. You treat everybody like crap. I felt sorry for you and I tried so hard to defend you but now I'm done! This is it, it's the last straw! I will never forgive you for this, Lucas Scott, do you hear me? We are done! Get the hell out of my house and the hell out of my life!"

He left without word or further ado as she slammed the door and collapsed on the floor in a tearful heap. She hadn't meant for everything to get so screwed up again but it had and in an instant life had changed forever. Looking across the way, her beloved husband gave her an ice cold stare before simply shutting the door in her face. Haley felt like she was losing it, falling apart. In times of crisis there had always been one man, one friend, one brother she could always turn to and count on. But no more. The very person Haley had always trusted with her life had in a millisecond, without warning or reason, turned on her and become the man who would destroy it.