A Fresh Start
Chapter Forty Two
For most of the evening William stood alone on deck, staring across the water at San Cristobel. As much as he wanted to deny it, the results of the DNA tests were stuck in his mind and as much as he realized that when the news broke that Will was not his son and the chaos that it would cause, he knew that he had to admit the truth to Richard and Cassie. Walking over to the railing, he calls down to one of the crew members. "Tell the Captain I wish to return to port."
"Yes Sir." The crewmen replies, hurrying off to do as William asked.
Ten minutes later, the yacht docks and William leaves after thanking the Captain. Walking up the dock to his car, he tries to think about how he was going to explain this to Will. Getting into his car, he heads for the hospital. When he arrives, he finds Will alone, sleeping. He stays for a few minutes, watching him sleep before he leaves again, this time headed to Richard and Cassie's villa.
Richard and Cassie are about to leave for dinner when William follows Ms. Chitwood into the living room. Surprised to see him, they both look at each other before Richard says "William?"
"Hello." He replies, his tone formal.
"Is this about Will?" Cassie asks
"Yes." William replies, still formal. "I received the results this afternoon from the DNA test run on the baby in the garden, and they confirm that Will is not my son and therefore is not the heir to San Cristobel. My son is in fact the baby that was buried in the palace garden."
Cassie looks at Richard for a couple seconds, before he turns to William. "What are you going to do?" Richard asks.
"What can I do? He's your son. I have to tell the people of San Cristobel that I no longer have an heir to the throne, but before I do that I have to talk to Ava." William says, thinking out loud.
"Ava; how is she involved?" Cassie asks.
"She's pregnant." William replies, looking at Cassie.
"Who's Ava?" Richard asks.
"She's Jeffrey's daughter. I told…."
"Yes, I remember." Richard says, nodding. "She's pregnant with your child?" He asks, looking at William
"Yes."
"But I didn't know you were…."
"We're not; it was one night, when she was down here with Jeffrey."
"Does Jeffrey know?" Cassie asks.
"Yes. Have you said anything to Will?"
"No, we were waiting till we had all the results back." Richard says. "Do you want to be there when we tell him?"
"I'm not sure."
"William, you've been his father for the last five years. You need to be there." Cassie says
"I'll let you know. First I have to talk to Ava and then work it out with Natalie."
"You know that people are going to want to know how this happened." Richard replies.
"I know, and I'll make sure that a full investigation is underway. Not that it's going to change the truth."
"But I would like answers." Cassie says, walking over to the couch and sitting down. Richard turns to look at her.
Realizing that something is bothering her, he walks over to her and sits down. "What's wrong?" he asks.
"I want to know how we adopted our own son. I mean, what are the odds of that. It was odd enough adopting our nephew, or thinking we did, but our own son. Why would the hospital tell us that our baby died, if he didn't?"
"I don't know, maybe it was an honest mi…."
"That wasn't a mistake Richard; someone deliberately told us that our child had died at birth." Cassie says
"And given the circumstance surrounding your accident, the first obvious place to look is Edmund." William says, sitting down across from Richard and Cassie.
"Edmund! It's always him." Cassie says, getting up again.
"He's right though Cassie. I know I've always been guilty of trying to excuse him, but I can't excuse this. If he set us up to think our baby had died…."
"Edmund is locked up. He can't hurt us." William says.
"He's locked up, why?" Richard asks.
"I had him arrested after he tried to use Will as a pawn to keep Cassie." William replies.
"So he's been locked up for?"
"For about a year now, if he is responsible for this then he'll be spending a lot more time in prison." William says, standing up. "I've got to go. I need to get back to the palace and arrange to go to Springfield. And I need to speak with Natalie, so we can make the announcement about Will."
"When are you going to do that?"
"I would say, probably sometime next week when I get back from Springfield." William replies.
"We need to tell Will before it's announced to the country." Cassie says.
"I should be back from Springfield early next week we can do it then." William says.
"Okay, and by that time maybe we'll know about the transplant." Richard says.
"What did Dr. Simon's say?"
"His counts are looking better, but their not ready to say that he's well enough to leave the hospital." Cassie says, as they walk towards the front of the house.
"I'll call you when I know something about the other." William says, as Richard opens the door for him.
"Okay." They both reply before William leaves, followed a few minutes later, by Richard and Cassie.
When William arrives at the palace, he goes immediately to Natalie's office. "Your Highness." She says, standing as he walks in the room.
"Hello."
"Is there something you needed Sir." She asks
"Yes, I need you to schedule a press conference and draft a press release for sometime mid week, next week."
"Certainly Sir, May I ask what this is about?"
"Will. It is official. Will is not my son and therefore can not be heir to San Cristobel's throne. He is in fact the biological son of Richard and Cassie. DNA results prove that he is their biological son. The baby they buried in the palace garden is in fact my son. I'm also going to be out of the country for the next few days dealing with a personal matter. When I return, Richard, Cassie and I will talk to Will and then we will make the announcement. I'm also ordering Colonel Mitchell to launch a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding this." William says, as Natalie takes notes.
"Yes Sir."
"Thank you." He says, turning and leaving her office.
Walking upstairs, he tries to imagine what he will say to Ava when he sees her. "How am I going to explain this?" He wonders out loud, as he packs and overnight bag. A few minutes later, he calls the airport. After a couple rings, the pilot answers. "Yes, hello."
"Captain, William here, please get the jet ready."
"Yes Sir, where will we be going Sir?"
"America, Springfield actually."
"Yes Sir. When will you be leaving Sir?"
"Within the hour."
"Yes sir."
William hangs up, grabbing his bag. He leaves the room. Walking downstairs, he goes to his office. Picking up the phone, he calls Colonel Mitchell, after a couple rings he picks up. "Yes, hello."
"Colonel, this is William."
"Yes, your Highness."
"I want you to launch and investigation into the circumstances surrounding the supposed death of Richard and Cassie's baby after Cassie's accident."
"Then it's official Sir?"
"Yes, Will is Richard and Cassie's son, DNA tests prove it."
"I'll begin immediately Sir."
"Thank you, I would like to have some answers before we make the announcement after I return from Springfield next week."
"Yes Sir, I'll put my best officer on it."
"Thank You, Colonel." William says, hanging up the phone, he picks up the folders he left on his desk, and then he leaves a note for Jodi before he heads for the front of the palace and his car.
The staff has already taken his bag for him. Walking out of the palace, he nods to the guards as he walks down the steps to the car. Getting in, he lays the folders on the seat beside him as he starts the car. He leaves a few seconds later. Arriving at the airstrip, he nods to the ground crew as well as the flight crew as he walks on board the plane. Twenty minutes later, the Captain buzzes him. "Yes."
"Sir, we've been cleared for take off. If you could please get ready, we'll be taxing in a few moments."
"Thank you Captain." William says, reaching for his seatbelt. A couple minutes later they are in the air.
Jeffrey is leaving Tower's when he runs into Ava. "Hi." He says, giving her a quick hug. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine." Ava says, as Jeffrey notices the bruise on her cheek
"You're fine. You didn't have that the last time I saw you." He says, pointing to the bruise. Reaching up, Ava lightly touches her cheek where Olivia slapped her. "What happened?"
"It's nothing. I had a minor accident."
"Ava." Jeffrey says. He can tell that she's not telling him the entire story.
"It's nothing really." She says, looking away.
"What happened?"
"All right, but you have to promise you won't do anything… promise Dad." She says, looking up at him.
"I'm not going to promise that, especially if someone is hurting you."
"If I tell you what happened, it's only going to complicate things even more." Ava says, walking over to one of the tables.
"How can I help you if you don't tell me what happened?"
"Olivia." Ava says softly
"Olivia, what does she have to do with this?" Jeffrey asks, sitting down beside her.
"She met me the other night as I was coming in from having dinner with you."
"And?"
"And she started in about the baby, William and Sam. One thing lead to another and I told her that if she would back off about William and the baby and let me live my life things would have been different and then I told her that I feel comfortable with Sam, more comfortable with her than I do with Olivia. That's when she slapped me."
"She what!" Jeffrey exclaims.
"She slapped me."
"Why?"
"I assume because I told her that I was more comfortable with Sam than her." Jeffrey gets up and starts towards the elevator with Ava following behind him. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Olivia's."
"No, wait. That will only make it worse. I handled it." Ava says, reaching out to stop him.
"She slapped you for Christ sake."
"I know, but if you show up and attack her, she's only going to fight back and she'll probably blame me or Sam or both of us."
"Fine, I won't go over there. But I want you out of that hotel."
"No! If I do that…."
"You will do that, I'm your father and I'm pulling rank. I won't let you be hurt because she's… I don't even know what she is, or what she's thinking."
"Alright, I'll see if Buzz will let me stay at Company for a few days." Ava says, as Alan steps off the elevator.
He walks over to them. "Jeffrey." He says coolly
"Alan." Jeffrey replies, just as coolly. "I've got to go. You call me, whether or not Buzz lets you stay at Company. If we have to you'll stay at the loft with me." Jeffrey says.
"Alright." She says before she hugs him and he leaves.
The ring Jeffrey gave to Sam before she left Springfield, crossed her mind several times but she hadn't really sit down and thought about what he said until a couple days after she got back from Springfield. She spent the rest of the week stabilizing and taking care of patients at the hospital, most of the agents hurt in the ambush had been released, except for the two most seriously injured.
Since Jeffrey had arranged with Noah to have the agency come in and move her stuff to Springfield, she had a lot more free time on her hands, even though she spent most of her evenings going through things and getting rid of stuff, the actual packing and moving would be handled by the agency. After a day of sorting and several trips to the trash dumpster, Sam stops working around sun down. Taking a warm bath, she is laying in the bath tub relaxing when the ring came back to her.
Closing her eyes, she pushed the baby to the back of her mind and focused solely on Jeffrey. 'If I wasn't pregnant, would we end up here?' She thought "Yes." Sam says aloud. "I believe that eventually he would ask me to marry him." 'Then why are you hesitant to marry him, you love him don't you?' "Yes." 'And you believe that he loves you' "Yes." 'Then what is the problem?'
Opening her eyes, she realized that there is no problem. That the baby didn't matter, at least it didn't matter in the grander scheme that was their relationship. She loved him and she knew he loved her. They were meant to be together, and as Jeffrey told Ava, if the stuff in Russia hadn't've happened, they would have been married along time ago. "My being pregnant only cements our relationship. It's not a hindrance or obstacle. It's a blessing." Sam whispers, laying her hand on her stomach.
She starts to get up to get the phone and call Jeffrey, but then she changes her mind. "I'll wait till he gets here and then I'll tell him." Sam says, reaching for the shampoo bottle.
After leaving Ava, Jeffrey went back to the loft. For a few minutes, he paced the living room, fighting the urge to go to the Beacon and confront Olivia. Reaching for his guitar, he sits down and tries to play a little bit, but the idea of Olivia slapping Ava blocks out any creativity he would normal have.
Putting the guitar down, he goes upstairs. Changing out of his suit and putting on a pair of shorts, sleeveless shirt and tennis shoes, he grabs his keys and leaves. Running down the street, he heads towards the Springfield Park and the jogging trails that line the park. Behind him is Ralph.
Jeffrey runs for at least a couple hours, before he decides to go back to the loft. Turning around, he heads back the way he came. He's about halfway back to the loft when he looks behind him and recognizes one of the men running behind him. Stopping, he watches as the man gets closer. When Ralph gets abreast of him Jeffrey calls out to him "Mr. Sutter."
"The name is Beasley. Stacey took her maiden name back." Ralph replies, stopping beside Jeffrey.
"What are you doing here?" Jeffrey asks.
"It's a public park, and like you, I thought I would take a run, maybe work off some of the frustrations… if you know…."
"You'll stay away from Stacey. She's made it…."
"Relax, Mr. Mayor. I'm not after your extra…."
"Stacey and I are not involved." Jeffrey says, taking a step closer to him.
"Okay, back off man. It's a public park. I needed to burn off some excess energy. Why are you out here?"
"I don't have to answer to you." Jeffrey replies, turning to take off running again." Stopping, he turns around and while jogging in place. "Remember, stay away from Stacey. She's…."
"Yeah, I know she's made it clear she doesn't want me around." Ralph says, as Jeffrey turns around and takes off running again.
When Jeffrey's out of sight, Ralph walks back to his car. Getting in, he pulls out his cell phone and calls Simmons's. After a couple rings, he picks up "Yeah, what?"
"I think I may have figured out how we can make our move."
"Meet me at the cabin and we'll discuss it."
"Okay." Ralph leaves.
Jeffrey was just walking into the loft when his cell phone starts to ring, picking it up off the counter; he glances at the screen and then smiles. Pushing talk, he says. "Hi Beca."
"Hi, J." She says softly. "Where have you been, I've been calling for at least the last twenty minutes.
"I went for a run. I had to works some stuff out."
"I thought the music did that for you."
"Tonight, it wasn't working."
"What happened?"
"Something happened with Ava…."
"Is she alright, the baby?"
"No, no, the baby's fine and she is too, now. But she and Olivia got into it the other night and one thing lead to another and Olivia slapped her."
"She slapped her, why?"
"Ava told Olivia that she feels comfortable with you and that's why she asked you to go to the doctor's appointment with her, and that…."
"She told Olivia that she was comfortable with me."
"Yes, as well as if she would back off and let her live her life, things might have been different. I guess that's when Olivia slapped her, I don't know. But she has a bruise on her cheek."
"Did you say anything to Olivia?"
"I was going to. I got up to leave right after she told me, but Ava stopped me."
"I know Olivia is Ava's mother, but I don't get a good feeling about this. Something's not right here."
"I know. That's why I told Ava that I didn't want her staying at the Beacon anymore. She's going to see if Buzz will let her stay at Company. I told her if he didn't that she could stay here at the loft. I don't get why she's doing this Sam. We dated for a couple weeks, it didn't work out and we had one night a long time ago. Why won't she let it go?"
"I don't know, but are you okay, with her there?"
"I'm fine, but I have to protect Ava."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. How are you doing, both of you?"
"We're fine."
"You're not working too hard?"
"No, I'm not. I've been taking it fairly easy, just sorting through stuff and getting rid of the stuff I don't want to take with me to Springfield and getting ready for the agency to come in and pack it all up."
"How about at the hospital?"
"Everything is fine, LaKeisha makes sure I take plenty of breaks as well as eat."
"You haven't told…."
"No, she knows because she's the one that drew the blood for the blood test."
"Okay."
"Have you heard anything from Richard or Cassie?"
"No. I haven't even seen Reva around town. I guess she's busy." Jeffrey says, shrugging his shoulders.
"I'm going to let you go."
"Why?"
"Because, if you just got back from a run, you need a shower."
"I can take one after we get through talking."
"You need a shower and I'm tired." Sam says, yawning
"I'll call you tomorrow."
"Okay."
"I love you both."
"We love you. We'll talk tomorrow."
"Okay, bye Beca."
"Bye J." They hang up. Putting the phone on the table, Jeffrey goes to the bathroom.
A couple hours after leaving San Cristobel, the plane touches down at Springfield International Airport. William called ahead and arranged to have a car waiting for him when he clears customs. Putting his briefcase and overnight bag in the seat beside him, he heads for Towers.
Walking into his suite at the Towers, he puts his briefcase down in the living room and then carries his overnight bag into the bedroom before he returns to the living room. He spent the next couple of days, figuring out how he was going to approach Ava. Finally on Monday night, he picks up his phone, scrolling through till he finds Ava's number and then he sits back.
Staring at her number, he tries to figure out how he's going to tell her about Will and what her reaction will be. After several seconds, he pushes talk and then holds the phone up to his ear. After a couple rings, she answers slightly out of breath. "Hello, Ava here."
"Ava, its William."
"Hi, what's up?"
"I need to see you."
"See me, I'm in Springfield and I can't get away right now."
"I know. That's why I flew to Springfield. This is important. I have to talk to you."
"Are you okay? Are you sick? What's going on?"
"I'm fine, but I need to talk to you about Will and the baby."
"Will and the baby, I don't see…."
"Can you come over to Towers?"
"Ah, I guess I can." Ava says, looking around the room that Buzz had let her rent for the next few days.
It was filled to capacity with her stuff so she barely had enough room to walk around, but it satisfied Jeffrey when she had called and told him that she would be staying at Company.
"I'm in Suite 6732." William says, looking out at the view of Springfield from the couch.
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Thank you." William says.
They hang up, and a few minutes later Ava leaves Company. Ten minutes later, William is still sitting on the couch when she knocks on his door. Getting up, he walks over to the door, pulling it open he steps back to let her in. Neither one speaks until they are back in the living room.
"What's…?", "Thank…." They both speak at the same time. Nodding to him, as she sits down, Ava waits for him to explain why he's in Springfield.
"Thank you for coming." William says, sitting down in the chair across from her.
"I'm surprised you're here. I just talked to you."
"I know." William says, looking over her head for a couple seconds.
"What's going on? Why are you in Springfield? You said you needed to talk to me about Will and the baby."
"Yes…." William pauses for a few seconds, trying to gather his thoughts. "As you know, Will has been in the hospital for the last few weeks."
"Yes, but you said he was getting better."
"Well, he was. He's fought off the infection but another problem came up."
"Okay."
"He's rejecting the liver transplant that he was given as a baby."
"You mean the liver that you gave him, he's rejecting that."
"Yes."
"Why, and what does that have to do with our baby?"
"I'm getting to that. Because of the infection, Will's body started to reject the liver transplant, As a precaution, his doctor wanted all of us to be tested to see if anyone of us were a match for him, as you know."
"Yes."
"The test that the lab ran on Richard and Cassie showed unexplained characteristics between Cassie and Will's blood, characteristics that should not be there if Cassie is Will's adoptive mother. They ran the test again, this time also including a DNA test on both Cassie and Richard's blood as it compares to Will's. Richard should have certain characteristics in common with Will because he is Will's uncle, but there should be not a biological connection to Cassie, and yet the DNA tests came back positive for both Richard and Cassie. They are a 99% match to Will." William says, getting up and walking over to the window
"So what does that mean?" Ava asks, watching him.
"It means that Will is Richard and Cassie's son. He's not my son."
"But how can that be?"
"When Richard and Cassie were still Prince and Princess of San Cristobel, Richard found out that he wasn't the true heir to San Cristobel. To make and even longer story short, Richard announced this to the country along with the fact that our half brother Edmund was in fact the true heir to the throne but because of the things that Edmund had previously done, Richard couldn't just hand over the country to him, so he suggested that the country disband the monarchy and try democracy.
After several weeks, Edmund seized control of the country while Richard and Cassie were still on the island. One thing lead to another and Edmund placed Cassie under arrest at the palace; she escaped and was trying to get to Richard when there was an accident. Cassie was pregnant at the time and for a few days it looked like she and the baby were going to be alright, but then she went into premature labor. Cassie delivered before Richard could make it to the delivery room and Richard was told by Cassie's doctor that she had delivered a stillborn son."
"So, how does that tie into Will?"
"I'm not entirely sure what happened. I was at sea at the time, and didn't know I was a father until just before Richard and Cassie was set to christen Will."
"I still don't see how this ties into our child."
"Because Will is not my biological son, he can not be the heir to San Cristobel." William says, looking at Ava and realizing that she still didn't understand. "If Will is not my son, then I have no heir to the throne."
Ava finally begins to realize what William is saying. "And you want our child to be named your heir."
"He is my heir."
"He's not even born yet. I'm barely a few weeks along."
"I know. But he's still the heir."
"We don't even know if it is a he. We could be having a little girl."
"The sex doesn't matter, as long as it's my child."
"I don't know William. I don't know if I want my child being raised like that."
"He or she will be a Prince or Princess, they'll never lack for anything."
"And they'll be a ruler of a country. You know what it's like, growing up…."
"Actually, no I don't. I wasn't raised in the palace."
"I know you were adopted, but I'm sure you and Richard have talked about what it was like growing up in the palace. Look how Edmund turned out."
"Edmund is the way he is, because he was ignored by his father, he never felt loved, needed or cared for. Our child would never feel that way, because we would both be there to love and teach it. Yes, it'll be the ruler of a country, but it'll be our son or daughter first."
"Can you really say that, you know how things work in a monarchy? We all have good intentions, but…."
"Ava, I'm not going to forget that above all this child is my son or daughter, a part of me."
"Let's say for arguments sake that you name our child as your heir, how is that going to work?"
"You and our child will move to San Cristobel. We would have to get married…."
"Whoa, wait a minute, get married; we're not even dating William. We had one night together, and if I hadn't've gotten pregnant, that quite possibly would have been all we had, that one night." Ava says, standing up and beginning to pace the room.
After a couple minutes, William walks over to her and reaching out for her, he stops her pacing. "What's wrong with us getting married? Maybe we should be doing it anyway."
"Get married, why, because of the baby." Ava asks, looking up at him.
"Maybe."
"And what happens two years down the road, when we wake up one day and realize that we don't love each other. If we get married, we're tied to it. There's no turning back, no divorce, there can't be."
"Or we could find that we love each other deeply, like Richard and Cassie."
"Richard and Cassie are completely different than us."
"How, they started out as an arranged marriage."
"Yes, but they already had feelings for one another."
"How do you know that?"
"Jeffrey and I talked about it. But that doesn't matter; we can't live our lives hoping we end up like Richard and Cassie, because it probably won't happen. I like you William, and that night I was attracted to you…."
"But?"
"But, I don't want to be a princess. We can do this without getting married." Ava says, walking towards the door.
"We could have if Will was my heir. He can't be. And where are you going?"
"I need to think about this." Ava says, stopping at the door.
For the first time, William notices the bruise on her cheek. "What happened?" He asks, pointing to her cheek.
"It's nothing. I had a bit of an accident a few days ago."
"Does it have something to do with Olivia?" William asks, watching her. Ava looks away and that is all the answer he needs "If we were married…."
"I'm not going to marry you just to get my mother off my back. This is my life, and I want to be happy, and I want the man that I marry to be someone that I'm completely and totally in love with. I don't want a marriage of convenience." Ava says, opening the door and walking out of the suite with William following behind her.
"Ava, I only meant that I could protect you."
"You can do that now, if I wanted or needed it, but I don't. Besides, my father is taking care of it and me." Ava says.
"Alright, I'll let you think about it, but I go back to San Cristobel next week."
"Okay." Ava says quietly, turning she starts to walk away but then turns back around. "William, I'm sorry about Will. I know that you love him very much."
"Yes, I do. But I am his uncle, so I'll still be in his life." William says.
"I know, but it's not the same and I know it's going to be hard to see him leave with Richard and Cassie when he gets well."
"Yes it will, and thank you."
"I'll call you when I've made a decision."
"Okay."
Ava walks away with William watching her until she gets on the elevator before he goes back into his suite.
42.12