A Fresh Start
Chapter One Hundred Seven
Billy is getting ready to leave for Sam's job site, when someone knocks at his door. Walking through the living room, he opens the door on the second knock. "Yes, may I help?" He asks, a young boy.
"I have a delivery here for you Mr. Lewis." The young man replies, holding out a clipboard for Billy to sign.
Billy takes the clipboard and signs and then hand it back to the young man. "Thank you." He says when the young man hands him several envelopes.
"You're welcome." The young man replies, leaving as Billy closes the door.
Walking back into the living room, he sits the envelopes on the table by the couch as he sits down and pulls his cell phone out and calls Reva. After a couple rings, she picks up. "Reva, its Billy." He says.
"Hold on a minute." Reva says, walking out of the kitchen. "Okay." Reva says when she walks into the study.
"Josh is there?"
"Yes."
"I told you I would tell you when I received the envelopes from Tulsa and they just arrived."
"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Maybe I should look at these and then tell you want I find."
"No, I want to look at them myself." Reva says, walking out of the study.
"Okay."
She hangs up as she walks back into the kitchen. Putting the phone down, she reaches for her purse and keys as Josh looks at her. "You're leaving?" He asks.
"Yes." She says, walking out of the house.
A part of Josh wants to follow her but then the rational side realizes that if he did it would only make matters between them worse so he watches as she pulls away. About ten minutes later, she knocks on Billy's door before she walks in. "Billy." She calls.
"I'm in the living room." He replies, looking through a file.
She walks in the room as he closes the file he was looking at and picks up another as she sits down across from him. "All of this is from HB's personal attorney?"
"Yes."
"It could be anywhere, what Josh is hiding?"
"I know, so we best get busy girl." He says, handing her an envelope.
She takes it and opens it up. Pulling out a stack of files she begins the search. They've looked through several of the envelopes when Reva opens a file. She immediately realizes that it's a copy of HB's will, but it looks different than the one that was read after HB's memorial service. "Billy have you ever seen this?" She asks, handing him the file.
Taking the file, he looks at it and then hands it back to her. "No, I haven't."
"I wonder when this was made."
"There should be a date as to when it was signed and notarized in the back."
Reva flips to the back of the will and reads the date. "It was signed just a few weeks before his death." Reva says, showing Billy the date.
"So, maybe he has a second copy drawn up."
"But it would have had the same date as the previous will." Reva says, looking over the will again. She's on the next to last page when she begins to read a report that was attached to the will. "Oh my god, Billy read this." Reva says, handing him the file.
"Mr. Lewis, I was able to track down the last known address for your son. He was last living in Chicago but left several months before according to his neighbors after his mother was killed in a botched robbery. No one has a forwarding address for him but they were able to give me his name 'Jeffrey O'Neill'."
Billy looks up at Reva. "You realize what that is saying?" Reva says, reaching for the file.
"According to that, Jeffrey is HB's son. And if that's so, it would explain why Josh has been so hostile towards him, and why he's demanding that we stay away from him."
"You think Josh knows about this?"
"He's behaving the same way he behaved when I showed up in Tulsa claiming to be HB's son."
"But that was different. He idolized HB then, we all did."
"I know he did, but I think if he knows about this then it explains a lot about the way he's been acting the last few months."
"Come on." Reva says, reaching for her purse and the file.
"Where are we going?"
"To see Josh and show him this."
"Reva he's going to know what we've been doing."
"It's time for him to tell us the truth." Reva says, walking out of the living room with Billy following behind her.
Wanda is at her desk when Reva and Billy walk in. "Hi, Reva." Wanda says, as Reva walks up to her.
"Hi Wanda, is Josh in?" Reva asks, nodding towards his door.
"Yes."
"Thank you." Reva says, walking towards his office door with Billy following her.
Opening the door, Reva walks in as Josh looks up. "Reva, what are you...? Billy." Josh says, noticing his brother behind her as he closes the door.
"Josh." Billy says, walking over to his desk.
"We've got something to show you." Reva says, holding up the file in her hand.
"What is that?"
"It's a copy of HB's will, with some changes made to it, naming Jeffrey O'Neill as HB's son." Reva says, watching Josh. "How long have you known about this?"
"I don't…."
"Don't lie to me Josh, the proof is right there." Reva says. "This is what you've been hiding from all of us."
"Reva, we don't even know if that is real."
"It came from HB's personal attorney, well his son anyway. He called me a few days ago and said that he now had access to his father's personal files and he offered to send them to me." Billy says.
"And how did he get access now?"
"It doesn't matter, the point is that Jeffrey is our brother and the question is how long have you known about it and when are we going to tell him."
"First of all, we don't know if that is authentic."
"Do you want to know what is in this file?" Reva asks, opening the folder. "It's the usual stuff, everything that was read after HB's memorial service. The interesting part is the report from a detective agency. Shall I read that to you Josh? "Mr. Lewis, I was able to track down the last known address for your son. He was last living in Chicago but left several months before according to his neighbors after his mother was killed in a botched robbery. No one has a forwarding address for him but they were able to give me his name 'Jeffrey O'Neill'." Reva closes the file when she finishes reading.
"No matter what that report says, we're not telling Jeffrey anything." Josh says.
"He has the right to know." Billy says.
"You would say that Billy."
"Yes, I would. Because I know how he would feel if he wasn't told."
"Besides that, he's a part of this family and he's your brother." Reva says.
"He is not my brother. I do not know him."
"Josh, he has to be…."
"Billy, can I talk to Reva alone for a moment." Josh asks, looking at him.
"Whatever you need to say you can say in front of Billy."
"Please, Billy." Josh says, looking at him and ignoring Reva's comment.
"Sure." Billy says, getting up and walking over to the door.
"Josh!"
"It's alright, Reva." Billy says, before opening the door and walking out. He closes the door as Josh walks around the desk.
"We are not telling Jeffrey about this." Josh says, leaning against the desk.
"We have to tell him."
"We can't, for a number of reasons."
"We have to, whatever the reasons are we'll deal with it."
"What do you think will happen when Marah finds out about this?"
"Marah, what does she have to do…." The realization finally hits her as she stops to think about the implications of what that will contains.
"That's right, if what that will say's is true. Then that means that Marah actually slept with her uncle."
"Jeffrey and Marah are over with. And neither one should feel anything about what happened between them. Neither one of them knew the truth."
"Whether they knew or not, don't you think they'll be upset about the fact that they slept with each other."
"They'll feel something, but it's not going to be as bad as you seem to think it will be, and it certainly doesn't warrant not telling Jeffrey that he's HB's son."
"Jeffrey's mayor now." Josh says in desperation.
"So what, being tied to this family will only give him stronger ties to Springfield."
"Being that he slept with his niece, you don't think that will hurt him politically."
"Jeffrey won't care about that. We have to tell him."
"No, we're not saying anything. I forbid you to…."
"You what!"
"I said I forbid you…."
"That's what I thought you said. Who the hell do you think you are, Joshua Lewis?"
"I'm your husband and for once Reva you're going to do as I wish."
"Demanding I do something Josh, you should know that doesn't work with me. Jeffrey has a right to know who he is. And given how you've treated him, he may decide not to be a part of this family based on that fact alone, but that's his choice to make. We have to tell him when he gets back from his honeymoon." Reva says, getting up
"No, we don't." Josh says, reaching out to stop her from leaving. "I will not let that man become a part of this family."
"He's your brother."
"He is nothing to me."
Reva stands there and looks at Josh surprised at his demands and his reaction to this. "Marah's reaction isn't the only thing you're afraid of is it."
"Jeffrey is not a part of this family, I won't allow it."
"What are you afraid of?" Reva asks, turning to face him.
"I'm not afraid." Josh says, trying to relax.
"You're certainly behaving like you're afraid, afraid of losing something."
"He doesn't have to be told about this. He's gone all these years without knowing the truth and knowing his family, why do we have to tell him now?"
"Put yourself in his shoes, wouldn't you want to know who your family was? Jeffrey may act like he doesn't care, but deep down he wants to know."
"I'm not in Jeffrey's shoes, I'm in mine. And we're not telling him this."
"We can't tell him anything right now anyway. He's not here." Reva says, turning and walking towards his office door.
"And when he gets back we're not telling him then Reva." Josh says, following her out of his office.
"I'll see you at home Josh and we'll discuss this some more there."
"We don't have anything else…."
"Tonight, Josh." Reva says, leaving the office with Billy following behind her.
When they reach the parking lot, Billy asks, "What did he say?"
"He's adamant that we're not telling Jeffrey about this. He mentioned Marah."
"Marah; oh! I didn't think about that." Billy says.
"He's afraid of more than just that."
"Did he tell you what?"
"No, and I don't care what he's afraid of. When Jeffrey gets back we're telling him who he is."
"Reva, maybe you shouldn't push him about this."
"I'm not pushing him but this is the right thing to do and we both know it."
"What are you going to do with the file?"
"I'm going to take it home and look it over and see if I can find this detective agency." Reva says.
"And if you don't find them?"
"Then we'll have to take the word of this file that Jeffrey's HB's son." Reva says, walking to her car. They get in and leave while Josh is sitting in his office, trying to decide what his next step would be.
When James walks into Cassie's office, Jessica is sitting at her desk and she asks, as he walks in. "May I help you."
"I have a meeting with Mrs. Winslow." James says, stopping in front of her.
"May I have your name please?"
"James Marshall."
"Of course, Mr. Marshall. If you will have a seat I'll let Mrs. Winslow know you are here."
"Thank you." James says, sitting down in the chair across from Jessica's desk as she picks up the phone.
"Mrs. Winslow, Mr. Marshall is here for your meeting."
"Thank you." Cassie says, getting up from her desk. She walks over to the door. Opening it, she walks out to the outer office. "Mr. Marshall." Cassie says, walking over to him.
"Call me James." He says, standing up.
"If you'll follow me." She says, turning back towards her office. "Jessica, if you would hold my calls."
"Yes ma'am."
"Would you like anything?" Cassie asks, turning back to James.
"No, but thank you."
"Yes ma'am."
They walk into Cassie's office. Cassie closes the door before walking over to her desk. "Please have a seat." Cassie says, sitting down behind her desk. James sits down in the chair across from Cassie's desk. "I looked over the information you gave Olivia and I will admit that it's an impressive package." Cassie says, sitting up.
"But?" James asks.
"I've curious why you want to use the Beacon as your model given the success of your current ventures. And why you're considering something like the operation here at the Beacon."
"I think it would be a challenge and I think that the Beacon would be a good model for us to follow."
"But why the Beacon? Surely you could have found more profitable hotels to make this offer to."
"Why not the Beacon? This is a very impressive operation."
"But there are bigger and more impressive operations than the Beacon in New York, Chicago and Washington DC."
"That may be true, but the Beacon has shown steady growth since it opened, even in the shaky state of the US economy."
Cassie leans back and after a while James says. "Something else is bothering you.
"You want me to be honest?" Cassie asks, sitting back up.
"Please."
"I've read all of this and as I said it's a very impressive, but my problem is the impression I get from you I think there is another reason for your interest in the Beacon."
He watches her for a few moments before he asks. "And what other reason would I have?"
"I don't know, but it worries me that you showed up here out of the blue, wanting to use the Beacon as your model to expand in Europe. It makes me wonder if you're looking for some else or to do something else."
"What do you think I want to do?"
"Maybe to take control of the Beacon."
"I can assure you that is not my intention. I do believe that Europe would respond well to an operation such as the Beacon, but I no intention of taking that operation away from you. I'm here to support it."
"But why? Why do you care?" Cassie asks, watching him. When he doesn't answer, she says. "Alright, let's say that I accept what you just said. What's the other part of this venture?"
He looks at her for several seconds before he says. "Alright, there is more." James says, taking out his wallet. "I want to show you something" He says, pulling out a photo. "This was taken a long tome ago, in Tulsa." He says, handing the photo to her.
Cassie takes the photo. Looking down, she immediately recognizes Sarah in the photo. "That's my mother. How do you know my mother?"
"The man in the photo is me. It was taken the last night we spent together. The night you were conceived." James says softly, watching her.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that was the last I saw Sarah and it was the night we conceived you. I am your father." James says, as Cassie stares at him.
"My dad was a traveling salesman, according to Sarah."
"I know, and I was at that time. Not long after I left Tulsa, I went to Europe. Your mother had no way of contacting me and I never knew you existed until I saw you in Paris with your husband and I recognized Sarah in you. I started to look into your past and I found out that you were put up for adoption by a woman named Sarah Shayne. I followed that adoption record to your adoptive parents and found out that they were killed and you were raised in the foster care system until you were seventeen when you had your own daughter. I found out about your daughter being taken away from you and about the abuse you suffered at the hands of one of your foster fathers. After that everything fell into place and I was able to trace everything back to Sarah and the time we spent together in Tulsa."
"Why are you here now?"
"This is something I've thought about since I saw you in Paris." James says, getting up and walking over to the window.
"I was in Paris more than five years ago."
"I know and some of that time was spent looking up everything I just told you."
"And the rest?"
"I'll admit I was scared to tell you this, afraid you wouldn't believe me."
"I'm not sure I do."
"I wasn't going to tell you this right now. I was going to wait…."
"Until you had a vested interest in the Beacon."
"No, the Beacon has nothing to do with this. You were right, the Beacon was an excuse for me to get closer to you, but not because I wanted to take it away from you. I'm quite proud of what you've done here." James says, turning to look at her.
"So, you were going to wait till what?"
"I don't know, maybe I wanted to see what kind of person you are. Maybe I was afraid you would reject me. I know you still can do that, but I hope you won't."
"I… I need to think." Cassie says, getting up from her desk. She feels herself start to sway and she reaches for the desk, but James catches it.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, but if you don't mind. I'd like to think about all this."
"Of course." James says, walking over to the door.
"Thank you." Cassie says, holding tightly to the desk.
He walks out of the office, closing the door behind him. Cassie collapses into her chair. She takes a deep breath as she tries to steady her racing heart. After several seconds, she reaches for the phone. She calls the farm and on the second ring Richard picks up. "Hello, Winslow residence."
"Richard." Cassie says, sitting up.
"Hi darling." He says putting the papers down.
"Are you busy?"
"I was looking over some papers. Is something wrong?"
"I need to talk to you. Could you come to the Beacon?"
"Sure, I'll be there in a few minutes." He says, standing up.
"Okay." Cassie says, hanging up as Richard reaches for his keys and leaves. After hanging up with Richard, Cassie buzzes Jessica.
"Yes ma'am."
"Could you continue to hold my calls until further notice I'm in a meeting."
"Yes ma'am."
"Richard is on his way over here, when he arrives let him in."
"Yes ma'am."
"Thank you." Cassie says, before hanging up.
Standing up, she walks around her desk. She walks over to the window, standing in the same spot as James stood. She's looking out the window when Richard opens the door. She turns and walks over to him as he walks in and closes the door. When he turns around, she hugs him, holding onto him tightly. "What's wrong?" He asks, putting his arms around her.
"I don't know what to do." She mumbles into his chest.
"About what?"
"About James."
"James, who's… the guy that wants to use the Beacon in Europe. What did he do?" Richard asks, stepping back.
"I had that meeting scheduled with him about his plans for using the Beacon." Cassie says, releasing Richard and walking over to the couch. Richard follows her and sits down beside her.
"So you had the meeting. Did he offer to buy the Beacon?"
"No, but I was telling him that I didn't believe that the only reason he wanted to use the Beacon was because of it's success and he admitted that he did have another reason."
"What was it or did he tell you?"
"He claims to be my father." Cassie says, looking at Richard.
"How could he possibly be your father?"
"He claims to have been involved with Sarah shortly before he went to Europe. He said that he began looking into my life after he saw me and you in Paris. He had a picture of Sarah and he claims that he's the man in the picture with her."
"That's all he said."
"Yes, I didn't know what to say to him. What questions to ask him? I never thought that he would claim to be my father."
"So, he only has the picture of Sarah and he claims to be your father."
"Yes."
"Alright, is he still here?"
"Yes, he's got a room upstairs."
"Okay, come on." Richard says, reaching for her hand.
"Where are we going?"
"We're going to talk to him."
"What! No." Cassie says, pulling her hand away.
"Cassie, we can't accept that he's your father based on his word and a picture that he claims is of him and Sarah."
"It was Sarah."
"But we don't really know that it was him in the picture. He has to have more proof than this."
"I don't know if I want to know what happened."
"You know that you want answers. Not having your parents is what pushed you to make sure William stayed in Will's life."
"What if he's not anything like what I thought my father will be like?"
"He's probably not. But you won't know that until you talk to him and get to know him." Richard says, taking her hand again. "I'll be there with you and I won't leave." Richard says, drawing her towards the door.
Opening the door, they walk out. "Jessica, I'll be out of the office for the next..."
"She'll be out of the office for the rest of the day." Richard says.
"Yes sir." Jessica says, as Cassie looks at Richard.
They leave and Cassie stops at the front desk. "Yes ma'am." The clerk says.
"I need Mr. Marshall's room number please."
"Yes ma'am." The clerk replies, pulling up the computer. "He's in room 410, ma'am."
"Thank you." Cassie says, walking away with Richard following her.
About five minutes later, they walk up to James door. Cassie turns to walk away, but Richard stops her. "I will be right there with you." He says, putting his arm around her as he knocks on the door.
James opens the door a few moments later. He's surprised to see Cassie standing there with Richard. "Cassie." He says, stepping back. Cassie and Richard walks into the room as James closes the door. "Please have a seat." He says, indicating the couch behind them as he sits down in the chair across from them. "I assume you're here because of what I told you downstairs."
Cassie looks at Richard. "Yes, we are." Richard says.
"And I can assume that you don't believe what I told her." James says, looking at Richard.
It's not so much that we don't believe you. But that we have questions about what you told her." Richard replies.
"I can understand that. What do you want to know?"
"She said you had a picture of yourself and Cassie's mother Sarah."
"That's correct." James says, getting up and getting the picture he had shown Cassie. He hands it to Richard as he sits back down.
Richard takes the picture and he immediately recognizes Sarah from the pictures that Reva has shown them. "But how do we…?"
"How did you meet my mother?" Cassie asks, interrupting Richard.
"I met Sarah when I was in Tulsa trying to sell cleaning products. I was given the Lewis name as a possible contact and I was told to speak to their housekeeper Sarah. When I arrived I had a devil of a time getting Sarah to listen to my pitch, but she finally did and I made a sale. I left the next day for the next town, but I returned to Tulsa the following month and every month after that.
Sometimes she would buy something, sometimes she wouldn't but we struck up a conversation. And over the next few months after I would finish my route I would go to the Lewis house and I would take Sarah home. On a few occasions I had dinner with her and her two children…." James says, as Richard hands the picture back to him, but he shakes his head, nodding towards Cassie and Richard hands the picture her.
"So you met my brother Rusty and my sister Reva." Cassie says, taking the picture.
"Yes, but only briefly. I'm not sure they would remember me. Over the next few months I would come to Tulsa and Sarah and I would talk and take walks. I never asked her about her life or if she was married."
"When did you, you know?" Cassie asks.
"We didn't do that until a couple months after I started going to Tulsa. When that picture was taken I had decided that I was going to Europe. I asked Sarah to go with me, but she refused. She couldn't leave the Lewis boys or her family there, so I left and six weeks later I was in Europe. I never saw Sarah again. And I never knew about you until I saw you in Paris with your husband." James says, nodding to Richard.
"But I don't understand how you knew I was Sarah's daughter."
"I knew because I saw Sarah in you."
"So because of that you started investigating her." Richard asks.
"Yes, I suspected that she was related to Sarah, but I couldn't approach her without proof."
"And this is the proof you offer." Richard says, holding up the picture.
"And I will consent to a DNA test being done. But I know that she's my daughter. Her birth date is exactly nine months after I left Sarah in Tulsa." James says, looking at Cassie.
"Why did you find me now?"
"I don't know. Maybe I didn't want to die without knowing you and maybe I wanted to make up for some of the things that happened when you were growing up. I would have brought you to England after your adoptive parents died, if I had known that you existed." Cassie looks at him and then she gets up and walks over to him as he stands up. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." He says, as Cassie looks up into his eyes."
"I have dreamed about finding you and now you're here and I don't know what to say to you." Cassie says, reaching up to wipe the tears away.
"We can start with hello and go from there." James says, reaching up to caress her cheek.
"Hi." Cassie says, moving closer to him as she asks. "Can I give you a hug?"
He reaches for her, drawing her to him. He looks over at Richard. A few minutes later, Cassie steps back. "I don't know what we do now?"
"I think we need to have that DNA test done." James says, stepping back.
"We can talk to Rick." Cassie says, turning to Richard. As she turns to him, she feels a staggering wave of nausea rush through her. She takes a deep breath before she asks. "Where's your bathroom?"
"It's right through there." James says, pointing to a door behind them.
"Excuse me." Cassie says, walking swiftly to the bathroom.
"Cassie." Richard says, following her. When he reaches the door, he hears her and stops. Stepping back, he waits for her to come out. A few moments later, she opens the door. "Are you okay?" He asks.
"Yes." Cassie says, walking over to the couch with Richard following her. They sit back down as Cassie says. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. It's simply the nerves. But I would like some water."
"Of course." James says, getting up and getting her a bottle of water. He brings it over to her and then sits back down. "You were saying something about talking to Rick about the DNA test."
"Yes, he's one of the doctor's at Cedars. He did the DNA test for Richard so that we could get our marriage license."
"Alright I can speak…."
"I'll call him tomorrow." Cassie says, glancing at the clock and realizing the time. "Richard we need to go. The boys will be home in about ten minutes."
Richard looks at the clock. "Okay." He says, standing up.
"I'll call you after I speak to Rick." Cassie says, standing up and turning to James.
"Okay." He says, standing up. He walks them to the door and Cassie hugs him again before she walks out as James turns to Richard. James holds out his hand and Richard takes it. They shake hands as James says. "I'll see you again soon."
"Okay." They reply before they walk away and James closes the door.
As they walk back down the stairs, Richard puts his arms around her and pulls her to him.