Chapter 18: Unexpected Turns

Recap: Three weeks later Natalie was looking in Liz's baby book when a piece of paper fell out. Natalie told John that she might be responsible for their son's death after reading it; then suddenly realized that her baby might not have died. She told John the story behind what she had done to Michael (the doctor, who had changed his name), and her theory that Emily might be their daughter. He had a DNA test done and they just got the results that Emily is Natalie's child. He called Bo to get an arrest warrant. Matthew was arrested and found to have a 3-week old little boy in his care that he and the nanny claimed he had adopted. Nat and John told Amber the truth and then she went home to try to deal with the truth. Meanwhile Katalina (Matthew's nanny) was revealed to be Emily and Elizabeth's namesakes' older sister. She left when Natalie got the phone call about the baby boy and she woke John up.

"I just got the call about the baby." John sat up, instantly alert. "Is he Amber's?" Natalie nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, but John—" He looked at her. "What?" Her eyes clouded over. "The lab technicians did the test for paternity too, and he's not your son." John's head spun with the revelation as he tried to process her words. "What?" She reached out to grab his hand, but he jerked it away.

"I—I need to be alone," he whispered. He must have seen the hurt in her eyes because he leaned over to press a gentle kiss to her lips. She reached down to squeeze his hand gently, her heart breaking for him. "Are you going to be okay?" He ran the back of his hand over her hair gently. "As long as I have you and our girls, I'll be fine. I just need to try to deal with this on my own right now." She nodded. "Do you want me to call Amber now or wait until morning?"

He hesitated. "Call her. She should know that her son is all right. But don't tell her about the paternity test. I want to be the one to confront her about that." Natalie nodded and kissed his cheek. "I love you." "I love you too." She gave his hand one final squeeze and stood to her feet. "I know you know this, but if you need to talk—" He stood up, embracing her and kissing the top of her head gently. "I know. And I will be taking you up on that."

She watched as he opened the front door and disappeared from her sight, sighing as she picked up the phone and dialed Amber's number. She told Amber that her son was alive, but urged her to stay at home for the moment. After hanging up, she grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat on the couch, staring at the front door as she waited for her husband to walk back through it.

She only had to wait for a few hours before the door opened. She watched quietly as he shut and locked the door, then walked over to the couch. He sat down beside her with a long, drawn out sigh. "I can't believe this," he whispered. Natalie turned his head to meet her gaze, wiping the tears from his eyes and giving him a soft kiss. "Shhh," she whispered, pulling his head to her chest and stroking his hair gently.

She felt his tears began to soak her shirt and tightened her grip as she kissed the top of his head fiercely. No matter how close she and Amber had grown, she didn't think that she could forgive her for hurting John this way. They remained entwined on the couch for hours, eventually falling asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning found the couple waking up to find that sometime in the night they had shifted their positions so that they were lying down, face to face with foreheads touching and their arms wrapped around each other. Natalie smiled sleepily at him as he raised himself on his arms slightly, leaning over to capture her lips in a gentle kiss. She felt herself melt as his tongue slowly traced her lips. He pulled back, smiling softly and brushing the hair from her face.

"How did I get this lucky?" he whispered, his hand reverently tracing the contours of her face. She smiled and had just opened her mouth to answer when a loud cry rang out from the upstairs bedroom. They both laughed. "Somebody doesn't want her daddy getting an inflated ego," she teased good-naturedly. He smiled as he stood up, yawning. He reached a hand down and pulled Natalie up and into his arms. Her breath caught in her throat at the desire swimming in his blue eyes as he claimed her mouth with his.

She moaned as he began to nuzzle her neck, and it turned into a gasp as his tongue darted out to taste her skin. "John—the girls," she protested as he lowered them back down to the couch. He chuckled lowly in his throat as his hand moved over her breast. "Just remember where we left off," he whispered in her ear, his raspy voice shooting waves of desire through her. She didn't know how she managed to get to her feet and make her way up the stairs, but somehow she did.

"Don't you think you could have mentioned something like that to me?" Amber snapped. She listened for a moment and rolled her eyes. "Maybe so that I wouldn't get so attached to that little girl in case something like this happened?" She sighed. "Yes, Natalie already called me. She doesn't suspect a thing," she said, satisfaction evident in her tone.

Five minutes later Amber was humming quietly to herself as she prepared to go get her son. Things hadn't gone quite like she had planned, but in the end she knew everything would be fine. Her husband had too many connections to stay in prison for too long.

TO BE CONTINUED