Wow thanks for the reviews everyone!

Sara: Thanks to you my next story will be 'The Life of Paint...From Liquid to Chips' :) hahaha thanks for saying that though, quite possibly one of the best compliments I have ever recieved!

Annara: Thank You Thank You!

Liz: Great reviews as always, even if they are in the early hours of the morning :)

Tipper: Hmmm the best? I don't know, there's this one 'Olivia' perhaps you've heard of it...lol. I thought I had a problem with Passions, I look on her everyday after school "Did she update, did she did she!" lol Thanks for your review, it was very VERY kind of you. Hope you like Cal's POV in this chapter...lil butthead. :)

Chapter 38

When we arrived back at the suite George was sitting at the desk with a pile of books in front of him. He was so engrossed in what he was reading that he didn't even hear us come in. I walked over and tapped him lightly on the shoulder and he turned around, startled by my action.

"Oh you're back?" he replied.

I nodded, "They took a recess."

"Perfect timing if I do say so myself, old men like me aren't equipped to keep up with these young people." Grandfather spoke up as he sat down on the sofa.

"If you'd like to lie down, you may use my room, Grandfather."

Grandfather sighed and thought for a moment before he answered, "That sounds like a fine idea, George. That university is only enhancing your intelligence." he got up and started for the bedroom that George was using, "Wake me in about an hour."

George nodded and Grandfather went into the room and shut the door behind him.

"Where's Aunt Ruth." I asked as I looked around the room and realized I hadn't seen her at all today.

"Grandmother put her up in a room down the hall; she was beginning to test all of our patience."

"She still hasn't spoken to anyone?"

He shook his head, "She's a mean old woman, but I actually find myself feeling sorry for her."

I nodded, "I feel the same way. She has said some really horrible things to me and to you for that matter, but I don't think anyone deserves to lose someone they love, especially a child."

"I always wondered why she hated us so." he replied, getting up from the desk chair and going to the sofa, "I don't recall ever doing anything to her, do you?"

I shook my head and went to sit down next to him.

"What are you reading?" I asked, turning back to him.

"Oh, it's about the human anatomy." he said, turning back to the book and opening it for me to see.

"You have to know all of this to become a doctor?" I asked as my eyes studied the images and medical terms on the pages in front of me.

He nodded. "Well, if I was a doctor and you were my patient wouldn't you want me to know as much as possible about the human body?"

"Yes, I suppose that I would; it just seems like so much."

"It is, Sissy, that's why I'm studying." he teased.

"Oh hush." I replied as I wandered away from the desk and over the window. I passed by Nan's bedroom door and looked at it with guilt. "Is she still in there?"

George looked up and at me. He then nodded when he realized what I was asking, "Don't worry, she's probably napping. She wasn't that upset with you."

"Are you sure?"

He got up from his seat and came over to me, "Yes, I'm sure. She could never stay mad at you. Remember when you were 6 and you walked on the Persian rug in the library with muddy shoes. Twenty minutes after she yelled at you, you were in her lap cuddled in her arms reading 'Through the Looking Glass'."

I smiled as I remembered that day and he laughed. "See, you have nothing to worry about."

From his standpoint that may have been true, but I knew that I had more than my fair share of worries. He was my brother, and he didn't have to hear me say these words to know that something was indeed wrong. His eyes, so much like my own, read every word written on my face, and he slipped his arm around my shoulders.

"Do you want to talk?"

"Yes." I surprised myself by saying without even waiting for a second to pass between his words and my own.

"Come on let's go."

I smiled and let him lead me out of the room and out into the freedom that hotel corridors offered.

Sometime later…

Going into Cal's POV for a spell…lol, this should be interesting.

At first when I knocked on the door, I thought no one was there and was about to turn around when Hailey herself opened the door.

"Cal, this is a surprise, please come in."

She opened the door for me and I entered her suite and immediately went to the sofa to sit down. She followed me and sat in the high back chair across from me, "George isn't here, dear. He took Sarah downstairs." she told me.

"I actually came here to speak with you, Hailey."

"Oh?"

I cleared my throat, giving off the impression that I didn't know where to begin when in fact I had rehearsed this all last night and just a few moments ago before I left my room.

"It's about Rose."

She leaned over and patted my hand, "Oh, you sweet man, don't you worry about a thing with the funeral arrangements, I'll make sure you're a part of everything. You were her fiancé after all, and nearly my grandson-in-law."

Her ignorance was just what I wanted, she was doing exactly what I had planned for; pitying me.

I faked a grateful smile and wiped some false tears away from my eyes, "As obliged to you as I am for that, I actually wanted to talk about something else."

"Well don't let me stop you, please go on."

I began my tale. My long twisting tale of Rose's quest to make me look like the biggest idiot on the face of the planet and all in the name of lust for some scum, who was so poor he couldn't even afford a steerage passage on the Titanic, he had to win it through a "lucky" poker hand.

Hailey face changed rapidly as I told her my tale, she seemed shocked, as I expected she would be. But when it was all over and done with, she looked at me with reluctant gratitude.

"So she stayed on the ship to be with this…young man?"

I nodded, "I thought it best that you know what really happened."

"Does Ruth know?"

"Yes, she does."

She sighed and rested her chin on her hand, keeping her posture straight and sturdy in the chair, "That was a very selfish thing for her to do, but what's done is done and we can't change that now. I'm sure your ego has been bruised Cal, and for that I am sorry, but you will go on and in time you will find another girl, one who respects you the way Rose should have."

"Someone like Sarah perhaps?"

"Sarah?" she smiled down at me as if I were a small child, which infuriated me, but I kept my head level with my eyes on the prize. "Oh, Cal. Sarah isn't for you."

"I'm not saying her, for definite. Although she and I have gotten to be very close since the whole catastrophe happened."

"I can imagine so, and now that you have brought up the subject I should probably tell you that I already have someone in mind for her, someone you would approve of, your brother, Taylor."

"Taylor?" I spat, and then remembered myself; I wasn't too losing my rationality under any circumstances, "Taylor is a child himself."

She nodded, "Yes, you're right. Obviously the marriage is a few years off. He will finish school soon and I'm sure will start working for your father, and she still has so much to learn, she's actually just now starting to notice men, but your father and I have discussed it and hope to have them married within the next few years."

"Father knows about this?"

She nodded. "Oh, yes. It was his idea actually. When the plans for your wedding to Rose were starting we began to discuss it. They compliment one another so well, and the children would be absolutely beautiful. The union would be powerful and attractive."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing; this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. She was supposed to feel pity on me and know that her favorite granddaughter couldn't have a better husband than I. What had gone wrong?

Father. That's what had gone wrong. Having both of his sons married off to Hailey Montgomery's granddaughters would bring him more admiration and respect than he could ever wish for. The woman was more powerful than most men in our circle and when Rose was first introduced last spring there were lines of men all waiting for her, but I had gotten her. And the lines for Sarah were already forming; little did they know though that she was no longer the virgin girl they thought she was. I was nearly tempted to tell Hailey that myself, but held back. I had decided last night that the perfect time for her to know was going to be soon and I must wait or I wouldn't get near the result that I was hoping for.

I wasn't going to let Hailey, my father, or Taylor get in the way of this. She was going to be mine, one way or another. That scum Lowe, would find that out soon enough as well. What Sarah saw in him I'll never know, and how she could give herself to him was beyond my train of thought.

I should have been the first and made her mine forever. She was tainted now, but I didn't care, I had stolen before and I could do it again…