A/n: Thanks for all of your reviews, I really appreciate that! Sooner as expected I managed to finish the second chapter. The story still needs some introductory chapters so I hope it's not too boring. ;) Enjoy and please review.
David stared out of the front window of his parked car and watched Victoria standing under a streetlamp about 30 feet away.
After some time on the road Amanda had finally stopped crying and now only sat in silence, an empty expression filling her eyes. David had tried to take her hand and reconcile with her, but his daughter had refused any form of conversation with him. That was when he had begun to question his decision to put Amanda's interest aside and trust Victoria and her so-called plan instead.
After all, Amanda was his daughter and he had promised her that nothing would ever come between them. But now he was afraid that bringing Victoria into their life would break that promise.
The moment David lifted his head and came back from his thoughts, a young woman appeared in the street. As he observed her more closely, he could also detect a young boy walking behind her. He was apparently scared to death in the dark, but only until he seemed to recognize the woman standing in the flickering light of the streetlamp. He stopped and looked at her curiously. Only some seconds later the boy was running towards his mother, who kneeled down and hugged him as soon as he got to her. She whispered something into his ear and quickly pulled a white envelope out of her jacket, which she gave to the young woman accompanying her son.
David saw them exchange a few words before the woman turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the street again.
It was pretty obvious that young Daniel Grayson was just as confused as Amanda was and did not know how to deal with the situation. That was why Victoria decided to lift him up and carry him to the car while she was still whispering soothing words into his ear.
"Don't worry. You'll sit here, Danny, right next to me." Victoria explained when she seated her son in the back of the car. Since Daniel seemed to be too intimidated by the sudden change of scenery, he only nodded and watched his mother fastening the seatbelt.
It was then that it hit David. He couldn't just drive wherever Victoria was telling him. If she really had a plan she would need to explain the whole thing to him.
Thus, he left the driver's seat, grabbed Victoria's arm and pulled her away from the car, so that their children could not hear what they were saying.
"Your plan, Victoria. I need to know everything before I drag my daughter any further into this. I can't just follow your instructions. We have to work as a team from now on." David made his point pretty clear. As far as Amanda's well-being was concerned, he tried to keep his feelings for Victoria aside and think rationally.
It was no wonder that Victoria was surprised by the demanding tone in her lover's voice. Nevertheless, she understood his worries and simply answered his question. "I found someone who agreed to help us." She took David's hands into hers and went on. "He got us fake IDs and a car so that it will be difficult to track us down. Right now, the only thing we can do is to leave the city behind and find some Motel where we can stay until tomorrow. Then we'll take the fake IDs and the new car and drive as far away from here as possible. Conrad will be home from his business trip tomorrow at 9 am. I guess it'll take him about one hour to realize that I'm actually gone. He's not stupid so he'll probably check your place first only to see that neither you nor your car is anywhere in the Hampton's and after two more hours he'll finally notice that also his son is nowhere to be found. Afterwards, he'll scream at various people, drink a few glasses of Scotch and do some serious thinking which will lead him to the conclusion that our disappearance is by no means a coincidence but rather a trick of his evil wife to escape their marriage. So to sum it all up: We'll have to leave early."
David looked at Victoria with still a lot of question marks in his face. "Okay, I get that you don't want to face an angry and drunk Conrad, neither do I. But isn't it a bit over the top to travel across the country with fake IDs and a borrowed car? If you really want to get as far away as possible why don't we just take the plane?"
Victoria swallowed nervously. Too many questions, he asked too many questions. Now it was time to lie in order to hide her real intentions behind their little road trip. It was not that she was bad at lying, in fact she knew that she mastered the art of lying due to hard training leading back into her early childhood, but with David everything was different. He was an absolute honest man and she had sworn to herself to start a new life without the burdens of her past.
Nonetheless, Victoria was forced to make an exception in this case. She was sure that if David found out about the whole truth, he would be less willing to turn his back on the Hamptons. Instead, he would probably try to stay and fight for his right, but Victoria knew that that would be a fight destined to be lost to money, power and above all unscrupulousness.
In order to spare him such cruel fate, she finally opened her mouth and decided to do what she did best: Telling lies. "Conrad has his spies everywhere. I can't leave the country without being noticed. And I figured that those fake IDs would give us the chance to begin our life together without my husband making us go through hell and testing our relationship right from the start. I want to make this work. I want us to be real. And I also want to find a way to get along with Amanda which will be easier if we spend more time together." Victoria genuinely smiled at David and noticed the serious expression fading from his face. She had obviously chosen the right words and therefore succeeded in gaining his full trust again.
"I'm sorry, Vic. I didn't mean to push you. It's just that I'm so worried about Amanda. Normally, she's nothing like that." He gently squeezed her hand when another question popped up in his mind. "But wait, you didn't tell me who agreed to help us. Do I know him or her?"
Victoria hesitated for a moment before she answered. "It's Roger... Halsted."
"What? You asked Roger? How do you even know him?" He hadn't expected the Senior Accountant of Grayson Global and one of his true friends in the Hamptons to be a person to fake IDs and give away cars for free.
"Well, I met him at several of Conrad's business dinners and we talked a lot actually. It also came to my notice that you and him were quite good friends and he already knew about our affair, so I felt like he was the right person to turn to." Again Victoria put on a smile to distract from the fact that she was not telling the whole truth. And again, it worked.
"I just didn't think he would agree to do something illegal. He's such an upright guy."
"But as it appears, your friendship is more important to him." This time it was Victoria who stepped forward and pressed a kiss onto David's lips. She wanted to say that she was sorry for lying, that she only did this to protect them. After all, she really loved him and hated that it was so complicated for them to be together.
Once they made it through this whole mess, she would keep her promise and let go of her old habits for real.
Right now however, she could only believe in the goodness of David's heart to survive this nightmare and forgive her for all of her sins.
"Okay, so we're officially partners in crime now?" The doubts that filled David's head immediately disappeared as Victoria's soft lips crashed onto his. He had never been so utterly in love with a woman before and he was sure that he would not be able to live without her anymore.
"I guess we are." She felt his breath on her face and wrapped her arms around his neck. "But we don't have time for jokes right now. Let's get away from here and sleep a bit before we start our journey tomorrow."
David nodded and couldn't resist the urge to give his lover another kiss before they both got into the car again, drifting off into their own visions of what the next morning would bring them.
I'm not sure if you remeber Roger Halsted, but he's the guy from the flashback episode from Season 1, who had enough evidence to free David but was killed by Frank at the Grayson's 2002 New York Eve's party.