Chapter 17

In the court room at Phillips trial. The judge looked down at Phillip and Beth. "Is the defense ready?"

Beth stood. "Yes your honor. I'd like to call our first witness." Beth nodded to the bailiff. He walked out and came back with Emma.

Phillip stood and went to Emma. "Oh no, no, no, no, no this is not happening," He knelt in front of Emma. "Sweetheart you're not supposed to be here today."

Beth leant over close to his face. "Phillip, Phillip, she called me and asked if she could testify."

He turned to face Beth. "I don't care Beth. I don't want her here."

"I wanted to be here. It's my turn to help you daddy." Emma said.

The judge looked down at the scene. "Mr. Spaulding."

Emma looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please? I want them to know I love you."

He exhaled a breath and kissed the top of her head. " I love you sweetie."

Emma was directed to the witness stand and sat down.

Lizzie and Bill walked into the top deck and sat down to watch the trial.

Beth began to speak with Emma. "So when you saw your father earlier today, what did you talk about?"

"He just helped me with my math."

"Did he try to take you anywhere?"

"No, he just talked to me and then my babysitter took me home."

"Emma, how do you feel about your father?"

"He's my daddy. I love him."

"No further questions."

Doris stood and walked to Emma. "Emma it's very brave of you to come here today."

"Thank you."

"I'm just gonna ask you a couple of questions. Is that okay?"

"Sure."

"Emma when you look at your father are you afraid?"

"Yes. Afraid that I'll lose him again. And I would hate that."

"No further questions."

Natalia walked into Company for coffee and saw all the Coopers gathered. Feeling unease she went to leave but then Marina walked in and all attention was drawn to her. Mallet asked for a drink and Marina was all smiles. "I'll take your order."

Daisy looked at her confused. "Are you working for Alan now?"

"No, no I'm not. But I am working for the owner of this restaurant."

Mallet was quick ask, "Who's the owner?"

"Yours truly."

Frank replied with confusion. "What?"

"When Phillip left this morning I went after him. Look I know some of you may not like this, but our family needs to own this restaurant. This is who we've been. This is who we are. And I know it's right."

Everyone looked at her in surprise. Natalia was the first to speak. "Well I think it's wonderful."

"Yeah, me too." Frank agreed. "I am so proud of you."

Buzz was still shocked when Marina hugged him. "I'm sorry this is the right thing."

"Well that's have a drink." Mallet shouted.

No longer wanting to be involved in the Coopers family affairs, Natalia silently departed.

The following morning Natalia walked into the kitchen to a pacing Olivia. Stepping over to pour her coffee she leaned against the counter, watching Olivia a moment more. Transfixed by her beauty. "You trying to burn a hole in the floor there love?"

Olivia was so lost in thought she hadn't even noticed Natalia come in. She jumped and put her hand over her heart. "Oh my god Natalia, heart patient here."

Natalia walked to her and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Sorry querida. What's got you wearing down the floors this morning?"

"Um, I, I, Natalia, do you love me? I mean really love me?"

"Of course I do Olivia, where is this coming from?" She asked, while placing a hand against Olivia's cheek.

"Marry me…."

"Yes."

"And not because of Phillip, and not because of Frank, but…." She began to pace again.

"Yes." Natalia just stood and watched her pace with a huge, dimpled, smile on her face.

"But because I love you. Because I can't imagine my life without you. And I know we have a lot going on right now…."

"Olivia."

"And I know we have only really been together for a few months. But really when you think about it, we have been together in one way or another since the day we meant. And…."

"OLIVIA!" Natalia stepped in front of her and framed her face with her hands. "I said yes."

"You what? You said yes." A bright smile plastered her face.

"I said" She Kissed her. "Yes." And she Kissed her again. "Yes!"

"Really? Yes?"

"Yes, how many times do I have to say it?"

Pulling a black velvet box from her pocket, Olivia dropped to one knee. "Just one more. Natalia Rivera, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You are smart, and funny, and beautiful, and kind, and I could go on forever. You call me on my crap, you hold me when I'm sad, and you laugh with me when I'm happy. You love my kid like she's your own, and you have no problem putting me in my place. You have brought so much joy and light into my life. Nothing in this world would make me happier then to call you my wife. So, Natalia Maria Rivera, will you marry me?"

Tears were running down Natalia's face and she was smiling from ear to ear, she pulled Olivia to her feet locking eyes with her. "Yes Olivia Rebecca Spencer. I would love nothing more then to marry you."

Olivia slipped the one karat gold band from the box and slid it onto Natalia's left ring finger. Using the hand to pull her close and kiss her soundly. Pouring every ounce of love she possessed into this one promising kiss. "I love you so much. I don't know that anything could bring me down right now." She lowered her head and kissed her fiancé again.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Reluctantly separating Olivia opened it to see Phillip Spaulding standing there. "Hey I'd like to talk to you." He said urgently. And Olivia's happy moment was gone, well almost gone.

Trying to hide her giddiness, she let her face fall expressionless and starred at him. "What do you want Phillip?"

Before he could answer Natalia stepped forward. "I'm gonna head to the Beacon, let you two talk." She walked towards the living room grabbing her coat and stepping out the front door, Olivia close behind.

Stepping onto the porch Olivia grabbed Natalia's hand. "Wait, you don't need to leave, we just got engaged he needs to go. Give me just a minute. I want to celebrate with you."

Leaning their foreheads together Natalia gave her a quick kiss. "I know, me too, but you need to talk to him honey. We can celebrate later….privately." She said with a wink.

"Okay, okay you're right. I love you and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I love you too. I am so, so happy. I'll see you soon." One more kiss and she walked down the side walk to her car.

Olivia stood and watched her, wrapping her arms around herself to guard from the cold. She watched until the car turned onto the road and then spun around to go back into the house and deal with Phillip.

"Olivia, I just wanted to say thank you."

"What?"

"Yesterday was a difficult day."

"You went on trial for kidnapping."

"Look I know we've had our ups and downs. Um, and I know it's been difficult for you since I've been back. That's why I really think what you did yesterday was very generous."

"What, what did I do?"

"You allowed Emma to testify on my behalf. It made all the difference."

"You bastard. What did you do? What did you grab her from the house? Did you have somebody pick her up? Did you trick her and have Alan come and get her? What did you…"

"No. Emma called and said that she wanted to testify, so the courts sent over a subpoena. I assumed that you knew that."

"I never saw any papers." She walked through the living room to the base of the stairs and called for Emma. "Emma, Emma come down here right now. Come quickly."

Emma saw Phillip as she came down the stairs and ran to him. "Daddy."

He picked her up into his arms and smiled. "I thought you might be in school."

"The bus is coming right now."

"Oh, Okay."

Olivia motioned her over. "Baby come here. Talk to mommy for minute okay. Look at me. Daddy says you went to his trial yesterday. He also says they sent home a paper saying you had to be there only I didn't see it. Do you know where it is?"

"It's in my room." She said, looking down, unable to meet her mother's eyes.

"How did you get to the court house Emma?"

"Beth sent me a car."

Olivia stood and glared at Phillip. "Beth sent her a car, how nice."

"Don't blame daddy. He didn't know I was coming." Emma said looking down and then mumbled the rest. "I thought you guys would get mad."

"Mommy's a little bit mad, but you know what, we'll talk about it after school so will you go fill your backpack up with all your stuff?"

"Oh and, daddy's feeling better now." Emma added as she ran up the stairs to gather her belongings.

After Emma left for school Olivia turned her attention back to Phillip. "Great, that's just great. No matter what I do to try to protect my daughter, I'm gonna come off looking like the bad guy."

"That's not what I wanted."

"Yes it was. Yes it was, and you know what, there's nothing I can do about it. So, I will set up some supervised visits for the two of you."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, cause I don't think it's gonna last. I think they're gonna send you to jail, and then I'm gonna go to you parole hearings for the rest of my life, and I'm gonna make sure you stay there."

"So you're assuming I'm going to prison?"

"Well if you aren't then I'll get a restraining order and Emma and I will leave the country."

"What? Why? Why would you do that? Why would you take her out of this home? She's obviously thriving here, you can see it in her."

"Don't, don't, don't stand there and talk to me about her."

"Olivia. I'm okay with it. Whatever you and Natalia have here, it's obviously a perfect environment for our daughter. I mean she's incredible, she's smart like us, she's certainly beautiful like her mom, but she's got this sweetness in her, where the hell did that come from? It sure didn't come from either one of us."

"I wanna keep her sweet and wonderful and I don't believe that can happen if she's around you. You need to leave her alone."

"She's my daughter Olivia."

"You have other children Phillip. You have other children, grandchildren, you've probably got children running around out there that you don't even know about. You can go corrupt them, but leave her alone."

"You wont be able to keep her away from me forever. She loves me."

"I hate you."

"I know." He chuckled and walked around her and out the door.

Olivia looked at the statue of the virgin Mary. "What are you looking at?"

Olivia had decided that she would like to understand Natalia's religion better so that she could make sure to respect it as they went further in their relationship. Placing a call she was able to set up a meeting with Sister Anne at Towers for later that afternoon.

Olivia walked to the bar at Towers checking the time on her watch. To say she was nervous about this meeting would be an understatement. Anne came in walking quickly. As she passed Olivia, Olivia grabbed her attention. "Anne?"

"You must be Olivia."

"Yes, um can I get you something?" She asked, turning to the bar tender, "We'll have two…" She looked to Anne for an answer.

"Coffee."

She turned back to the bar tender, "Coffees. Would you like to sit?"

"Yeah."

Sitting Olivia folded her hand under her chin. "So…"

"You're new at this aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"It can be a little awkward the first time."

"I'm finding that out."

"Do you know what you want?"

"Not exactly."

"Okay, well, I can start…"

"No I, please. I'm the one who contacted you and I'm so sorry I seem so self conscious. It's just you're not what I expected….you know, for a nun."

"We come in all shapes and sizes."

"Yes I'm sure you do. So how do you become one? I have a track record of volatile relationships with men. I mean I don't play it safe, and I know that's no reason to dive into a religion."

"So you're not a religious person?"

"Oh God no, my mother was, and by that I mean judgmental, which is probably why I avoided it."

"Mmm, what changed?"

"I met this woman, Natalia, she's my roommate, actually my girlfriend, fiancé, as of this morning, and she's Catholic, I mean she prays to this little virgin Mary statue all the time. Honestly I hated that little thing for the longest time, I mean it upset me, I didn't get it, and honestly I don't know that I still do, because how does talking to a statue make you feel better ? But with Natalia it does. Her faith makes her kind and it gives her strength, and when she prays it's not outta guilt, it gives her peace. I made fun of her faith for the longest time but now I, I respect it. So I thought maybe you could help me out a little here, maybe throw some reading material my way, or maybe I can take a class just so I can understand just a little bit better and take the next step. I'm just saying that I want to understand what's good and what's bad and what's right for you and what's wrong."

"Don't you know?"

"I did, I did, but, I thought I knew. But then I met Natalia and everything just got very confusing. I don't know. I decided to stick with what I know and who I've been and she's doing the same thing, and that's good, it just…"

"Well, when god closes one door…"

"I know this one, my mother used to give me this, he opens the window."

"No, what I was going to say was, he sometimes shuts it on your foot. To get your attention. You've obviously been hurt, but from my experience, the only thing that can get rid of that kind of pain, is love. The more you give, the more you'll have."

"So, God is love, okay. Thank you."

"God is love Olivia, and so are relationships, especially the worth while ones. Thanks for the coffee, and good luck." She gave Olivia a small smile, before she departed.

Returning home, after putting Emma to bed, Olivia and Natalia were sitting in bed just holding one another. Natalia's head was on Olivia's shoulder with her arm draped across her waist. Olivia was running one hand through Natalia's thick, raven hair, while stroking her arm with the other. Natalia squeezed Olivia and looked up at her. "I am so happy."

"Me too" Said Olivia, smiling at her. She placed a kiss to her forehead.

"You wanna tell me what happened with Phillip?"

"Not now, what I do wanna talk about, is our engagement party."

"Engagement party?"

"Someone promised me a private celebration."

Natalia stretched up for a kiss, "That I did mi amour." She raised her hand to the back of Olivia's head and pulled her into another kiss which quickly turned heated. Natalia's tongue slipped across Olivia's bottom lip, seeking permission which was eagerly granted. Their tongues slid together, caressing. Olivia gently sucked on Natalia's tongue while rolling them so Natalia was on her back and Olivia was half on top of her. Pulling back breathless Olivia smirked down at Natalia. Who said, "I always keep my promises." She pulled Olivia down for another deep, sensuous kiss. A kiss meant to celebrate their love, ignite their passion, and flame the sparks that were ever flowing between them. This kiss was meant to arouse.