A Fresh Start
Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four
Sam and Jeffrey are finishing up lunch when Reva knocks on their door. "I'll get it." Sam says, coming out of the kitchen. Opening the door, she's surprised to see Reva. "Hi, come on in." She says, stepping back.
"Hello." Reva says, as Jeffrey gets up from the table after seeing her. "Are you busy?" She asks, looking at him.
"No, not right now." He says, seeing the envelope in her hand. "Is that…?"
"Yes, it's the results of the DNA test."
"What does it say?" He asks, as she walks over to him.
"I'll let you read it." She replies, handing him the envelope.
Jeffrey takes the envelope and goes over to the couch with Sam and Reva following him. Sitting down, he looks at Sam before he pulls the results out of the envelope and Sam sits down beside him. It takes him a few moments to read the test and then he hands it to Sam as he looks at Reva. "A 99.9% chance I'm his son."
"Yes."
"I can't… I don't…" He stops for a moment looking away. "Does Josh know you did this?"
"Yes, I told him before I came to see you."
"Who else knows?"
"Cassie knows about the test, so I'm sure Richard knows as well, but neither of them knows the results." Reva says, as Sam puts the paper down.
She reaches for Jeffrey's hand. "How did Josh react?" Sam asks.
"He didn't want me to tell you. I had to explain that you already knew about everything and that you were simply waiting for results."
"And he's not happy that you told us."
"No, he's not. I know this is going to be difficult for a while, but it was your right to know the truth."
"You haven't told Marah yet?" Jeffrey asks.
"No, Josh and I will do that."
"She should hear something from me." Jeffrey says.
"Let us tell her the truth. If she wants to talk to you after that, then I will give her your number and she can call you. As to Josh and his belief that you and I will get together, I don't want you to worry about that, either of you."
"I'm not." Jeffrey says, looking at Reva with a half smile.
"Nor am I." Sam replies.
"Good, I'm going to make this invitation now. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up and you're both invited, since I doubt that you will be going home to Georgia after what happened at the wedding."
"No, we won't be going home to Georgia." Sam says.
"Good. So, I'm going to go." Reva says, getting up along with Jeffrey and Sam. There is a moment of awkward silence before Reva says. "I'll see you both soon." She starts to walk away but Sam reaches out to stop her.
Hugging her, she says. "Thank you for telling us the truth."
"You're welcome." Reva says, hugging her back. She steps back after releasing her. "I'll see you both…." She says, as Jeffrey steps up. Hugging her, he steps back. "I'll see you both later." She says, smiling at them.
"I'll walk you out." Jeffrey says, as Reva turns to go. Sam steps out of the way. Jeffrey follows Reva to the door. Opening the door, he steps back.
Reva turns to him and then says. "No matter what Josh thinks or believes will happen between you and me, I'm glad you're part of this family and I'm sure everyone else will be as well."
"Thank you Reva." Jeffrey replies as she reaches for him. She hugs him again, leaning up to kiss his cheek as Josh walks up to the door.
He grabs Reva, pulling her away from Jeffrey as he swings. Jeffrey stumbles back and nearly falls as Sam hears the commotion and comes out of the living room. "Jeffrey." She cries, rushing to catch him.
"You keep your hands off my wife." Josh yells
"Joshua Lewis, what the hell are you doing?" Reva demands and then turns to Jeffrey. "Are you alright?"
"Why are you…?" Josh says, as Reva turns to him.
"You will shut up, Josh. He was hugging me good-bye…." Josh starts to say something but Reva keeps talking. "…just as I've hugged Billy, Richard, Bill and every other male member of this family." Reva says, her eyes flashing. "I don't care what you believe will happen between Jeffrey and I. I will not let you act like jealous jack ass." She says, turning to Jeffrey "Are you okay?"
"Yes." Jeffrey says, looking at Josh.
"Okay, good. We'll go and remember you're both invited to Thanksgiving and Christmas." Reva says, as Jeffrey nods. "I hope you come despite what he just did."
"We'll see." Sam says, staring at Josh.
"Come on, Josh." Reva says taking his hand and pulling him back from Jeffrey. "We'll see you later." She says, pulling Josh behind her.
Jeffrey closes the door as Sam slips her arm around his waist. "Let's go sit down." She says.
"I can walk Sam." He says, putting his arm across her shoulders.
"What happened?" She asks, ignoring him since he didn't seem to be fighting her help.
"We were hugging good-bye. Reva kissed my cheek and then he was there, telling me to keep my hands off his wife as he punched me." Jeffrey says, reaching up to touch his left cheek, wincing slightly as he sits down on the couch.
"Let me get some ice for that." Sam says, getting up. She goes to the kitchen and then comes back with an ice pack, handing it to him. "I'm really surprised you didn't fall." She says, sitting down beside him.
"I still had my hand on the door knob and my arm was around Reva. I did stumble a little bit."
"Is anything else hurting?"
"My ribs are fine."
"Can I check them?" Sam asks.
He looks at her and smiles, putting the ice pack down. "Help me with my shirt." He says, sitting up and reaching to pull it off.
"There's no need to take it off, I'll unbutton it." Sam says, reaching to unbutton his shirt as he settles back. Pulling it free, she reaches in and slowly moves her hands over his ribs. After several seconds, she sits back. "It doesn't appear to done any further damage, but we're staying here tonight." She says, sitting back.
"Sam."
"We're staying here so don't argue." She says, as he sighs.
"The furniture…."
"The furniture can wait. We haven't even begun to fix the house yet so we have time to go get the furniture for the other bedrooms."
"Alright." Jeffrey says, giving in.
"Who are you and where is my husband?" Sam asks, looking at him.
"This is your husband." Jeffrey says, sitting back smiling.
"Are you really okay?" She asks, sitting back.
"I'm fine, I promise." Jeffrey says, leaning over to kiss her. "In fact, I'm well enough for us to go out." He says, buttoning up his shirt.
"Jeffrey, I don't…."
He reaches over and lays a finger across Sam's lips. "I'm fine, darlin. Now are you ready to go?"
"You're sure you want to do this?"
"Yes." He says, getting up and holding his hand out for her.
Putting her hand in his, he helps her up. He starts to release her hand, but she takes a step closer to him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she lays her head on his chest. He hugs her to him, sitting his head on top of hers. They stand there for several moments and then she says. "I'm here whenever you want to talk to me about this."
He holds her tighter, kissing the top of her head to let her know he's heard her before he releases her. "Let's go." He says softly, releasing her.
"Take the ice pack and I'll drive." She says, turning for the door.
"I was going to drive."
"You need to leave the ice on your cheek for a little longer to keep it from bruising and you can't do that while you're driving." Sam says, as Jeffrey picks up the ice pack, following her to the door. They leave a few seconds later.
Richard sits down at the table, watching Cassie as she walks around the kitchen, getting them something to eat. "I think when we get back to the farm. I'm going to start working on the guest room. It would be perfect for a nursery."
"It's a little early to be planning a nursery, don't you think."
"No, we need to get it ready before I'm too big to do anything, besides we don't have a built in nursery anymore. And we won't have a nanny either." She says, looking at him.
"I remember what is was like after we came back from San Cristobel. Remember I watched RJ, Tammy and Will while you were out with Harley, Blake and Reva."
"It was one night Richard. We didn't even get into the baby stuff with Will before the accident."
"But that one night taught me a lot." He says, smiling at her
"What's that?"
"That kid's are exhausting and you're never going out and leaving me by myself."
"You mean I can't have a ladies night out." She says looking at him to see if he's serious but she can't tell when she looks at him, so she asks. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious."
"Richard." She says, stopping what she's doing.
"Come on Cassie, if you want a ladies night. We can call Ms. Chitwood."
"We're not calling Ms. Chitwood when you're perfectly capable of watching our children, if I happen to want to go out with the girls. In fact, if I go out, you and Jeffrey can hang out together because Sam's going to be included in these girl's nights. I can just see it now."
"What?"
"You and Jeffrey trying to change a babies dirty diaper and feeding them when they're old enough to throw their food across the room." Cassie says, as Richard gets up.
"You really wouldn't leave me with a baby by myself and Jeffrey."
"Of course I would, just to see what happens. I'll have to mention that to Sam when we get back, and we'll bring Ava too, so we'll throw William in there too."
"You're a mean and cold hearted woman." Richard says, slipping his arms around her. "Even if you're incredibly sexy standing there in my shirt."
"That is what got us here, remember. Besides I am hungry and I have keep my strength up." Cassie says, picking up a plate and walking away from him.
"Where are you going?" He asks.
"To eat my sandwich on the front porch."
"Where's my sandwich." He asks, watching her.
"You'll have to fix it yourself."
"Cassie."
"Maybe next time you'll think about telling me I can't have a ladies night and then saying you won't watch our child if I want to go out."
"I didn't mean it, I swear. Of course I'll watch our baby. I want you to take breaks and when you're not there I'll be able to bond with her. It'll be our father/daughter time." He says, following her out to the porch and watching as she sits down in one of the chairs. "So, can I have a sandwich?"
"Sure you can but you'll have to make it."
"I thought you were going to fix us both something to eat."
"I was and then you start saying some really crazy things, like…."
"I know what I said. I was really only teasing you." Richard says, sighing. "I'll be right back. I'm going to fix me a sandwich." He says, turning to go inside.
"Sit down." She says, putting her sandwich down.
"What?"
"I said sit down. I'll fix your sandwich."
"I thought you were mad and making me fix it myself."
"I was teasing you, just like you were teasing me." She says, going into the cabin as he stares after her. He sits down as the screen door slams on her laughing.
Mallet is wrapping up some paperwork when one of the detectives from the lab walks in. "Detective Mallet." He says, walking up to Mallet's desk. "I've got the lab results from the stuff we removed from the inn." He says, handing Mallet a folder.
"And."
"There's really not a lot of physical evidence we recovered. The tire tracks beside the inn match a late model Chevrolet truck. The tire treads look to match the stock wheels. The ashes we collected from the fire didn't reveal anything it was all newspaper, and food wrappers, stuff like that."
"What about the pill bottle?"
"That's the one thing that did establish some hard evidence. We were able to lift a print from the side of the bottle. We ran it through the system and we got a hit of a rather unusual database that holds records of diplomatic workers." The Detective says, as Mallet flips through the file to the report.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Positive, sir. The print we found was a full print, the computer gave it a hundred percent match. That bottle belongs to her. We also found a second set of prints on the bottle, but got no hits off it."
"Okay, thank you detective. You know what to do with all the evidence."
"Yes sir, I'll make sure it's locked up in the evidence locker."
"Thank you." Mallet says nodding as the detective turns away.
Mallet continues to look over the report. Going over all of the results until he has good understanding. Getting up, he takes the report and goes to Frank's office. Knocking once, he waits for him to answer.
"Yes. Come in." Frank calls, looking up.
Mallet opens the door and then walks inside, closing the door behind him before he goes over to Frank's desk. "I just got the report back from forensics." Mallet says, handing Frank the report."
"Okay, what does it say?"
"They weren't able to find a whole lot of evidence, but what they did find casts considerable doubt on the statements she made to me when I interviewed her." Mallet says as Frank looks over the reports, including the fingerprint report. "You found her finger prints."
"I found a pill bottle in the kitchen between the counter and stove. The lab finger printed it and got a hit off an old database of diplomatic workers."
"That would make sense. She worked for Richard before Reva went back to San Cristobel. Does she know about the inn?"
"She claims not to. But if she doesn't, how did the bottle of medication get there unless she was there for some reason? And the lab said, they also found a second set of fingerprints on the bottle, but didn't get any hits off them. I think we're going to have to look at this seriously."
"What do you want to do?"
"I want to see if she'll voluntarily allow me to search her rooms at the Beacon and her car."
"Olivia's smart enough not to do that. Go to Judge Wellner and petition for a search warrant. You can ask her if she'll voluntarily let you search, but if she refuses, you'll have the back up of the search warrant."
"Okay." Mallet says, reaching for the file as he gets up. "Should we tell Jeffrey and Ava about this?"
"Not yet, not till we have more to go on than this."
"Yes sir, I'll speak to the judge and then go see Olivia after I get the warrant."
"Okay." Mallet leaves as Frank goes back to what he was doing.
Julie walks into her office. Since Marciano's visit, Jacob has been in the parking lot everyday. One of the girls in the office walks up to her. "Looks like your guardian is still out there."
"I saw him." Julie says, looking outside.
"I think it's kind of sweet. I can't say that I've ever had someone look out for me."
"He's being a bit paranoid." Julie says, going back to her office as the girl looks out again.
Around lunch time, Julie leaves the office. She was meeting Tom at the Lakeview to go over what would happen in the courtroom. As she walks to her car, she notices Jacob and decides to go over to him. "How long are you going to sit out here?" She asks, as she walks up to the car.
"I'll be here until I know you're safe."
"It's been more than a week and he hasn't been back."
"I'm still staying here."
"Alright, do you want to come with me to lunch? I won't be back here today. I've got a meeting with Tom about court and then I've got to go by my kid's school and help out there for the rest of the afternoon."
"You're boss is letting you take the afternoon off."
"I put in for the time. Do you want some lunch?"
"Alright." He says, starting his car.
"Is the Lakeview okay? I'm meeting Tom there after lunch."
"That's fine, I'll follow you."
"Okay."
A few minutes later, they walk into the Lakeview. The hostess shows them to their table and a few moments later, their waiter comes up to the table. "Welcome to the Lakeview, what can I get you to drink?"
"I'll have a club soda." Jacob says.
"I'll have an ice tea." Julie replies.
"Club soda and ice tea, do you need a moment to look at the menu or do you know what you want?"
"I'll have a salad." Julie says.
"I'll have the sirloin steak, medium rare, bake potato and a house salad." Jacob says.
"We'll have that here in a few minutes and I'll bring your drinks out."
"Thank you." They both say.
The waiter leaves and Julie turns to Jacob. "I wanted to thank you for not telling Tom about Marciano's visit the other day."
"You asked me not too, and I remember what happened the last time I went to Tom."
"You know you don't have to keep watch over me."
"Yes, I do."
"Why."
"I don't know. I'm drawn to you for some reason."
"Well, I'm from here, so maybe that's it." Julie says as the waiter brings them their drinks.
"You're from Oakdale."
"Yes, I wasn't born here but I was raised here, married here and lived here up until five years ago."
"Maybe that is it. I've lived in Oakdale all of my life until I moved away for college and then Medical School. If you're from Oakdale, why haven't I seen you before?"
"I don't know." Julie says, as their waiter bring their food.
"You said you were married here. So, Marciano is from here and you married him here?"
"No, I didn't marry Marciano here. We got married in Chicago. I married my first husband here. He was from here as well. We were high school sweethearts." Julie says, as he nods
"Who were you married to?"
"Matt, Matthew Peterson."
"Matt, you were married to Matt Peterson."
"Yes." Julie says, as Jacob looks sad.
"I was sorry to hear about his accident. He was a few years younger than me but I remember hearing about the accident. He was the best guy. He loved everybody and he wasn't too bad at baseball. He could have gone pro."
"Matt was the best years of my life and I miss him everyday." Julie says, smiling for the first time.
"You have a beautiful smile."
"Thank you."
"Is that why you're divorcing your husband now, because you're not over Matt?"
"No, I married Marciano within months of Matt's death. I was scared and I thought that my kids needed a father and I liked Marciano, but I never loved him and we never should've married."
"Has he ever… I mean does he…?"
"He's never physically abused me, but there are other types of abuse."
"You said he could be autocratic, was that to the point of being abusive."
"He likes things down his way and he has his own ideas of what a woman should be. And to be fair, he's probably that way because that's all he's known."
"He's that way because his father was that way."
"Yes and his mother was domineering too. We don't get along. My children don't like her and so I never made them see her. She didn't like that. She didn't like that I went to work a few years ago, instead of staying home. And I'm pretty sure she never liked me. The whole marriage was wrong and if Marciano will stop and think about the last few years, he'll realize that this is right."
"And if he doesn't?"
"I can't do anything about that. I can't live my life afraid of him. And I can't put my life on hold because he's who he is."
"And if he hurts you?"
"Somehow, I don't believe he will hurt me. He acts tough and he can be hard and uncaring but I don't believe he would try to physically hurt me."
"I hope you're right." Jacob says, as Tom walks up.
"Julie." He says, looking at Jacob.
"Tom, hi." Julie says, looking up. "Do you know Jacob Westbrook?"
"Hello, Dr. Westbrook." Tom says, sitting down in one of the empty chairs.
"Hello, Tom. I think I go now. Thank you for lunch. It was nice to talk to you." He says, standing up.
"You're welcome and thank you for your vigilance. Although I think you could spend your time better."
"I could, but I think I'll continue at least for now."
"I'll see you around then."
"Yes, Tom." He says, nodding as he turns to leave.
When he's away from the table, Tom turns to her. "What was that about?" He asks as their waiter walks up. "I'll have a club soda with a twist of lime."
"We were having lunch. He's sort of been acting as my guardian for the last few days."
"You're guardian, why?"
"Marciano come to my office."
"He was at your office. Did you call the police?"
"No, nothing happened other than we talked. He then he left."
"You talked and then he left." Tom says, looking at her.
"Yes."
"And was Dr. Westbrook with you?"
"Yes, he was there." Julie says, watching him. "Nothing is going on between Jacob and I."
"He seems to be there whenever you need protection from you ex, why?"
"I don't know. He's there I guess because he says he's drawn to me."
"Are you drawn to him?"
"Tom! There is absolutely nothing going on between Jacob and I. He's been there when I've needed him, but that's only been because of coincidence."
"Coincidence or not, you have to be careful who and what you do before the hearing. Getting to close to him could put this case in a completely different dynamic. What did Marciano want? And why didn't you call the police? He was clearly in violation of the restraining order?"
"He had just been fired from his job. He came to tell me, I don't really know why. We didn't get into it because I reminded him that he was in violation of the restraining order and that he needed to leave. We spoke for a few moments and then he left. Jacob was there so you can ask him."
"Alright, I think I'll do that." Tom says, as Julie looks at him. In the mean time, the hearing is less than two weeks away. We've gathered all the evidence we need to make a strong case for a divorce."
"What evidence, this isn't a trial. I just want a divorce."
"It's not a criminal trial, but we do need to explain the irreconcilable differences that you claim is the reason for the divorce to the judge."
"So, what evidence do you have?"
"We have statements from your former boss. Your friend Lana. I spoke with your Mom and Missy about how things have been since you were married and how they were before you married. I've spoken with the hospital guard and if I need to I'll call Jacob to…."
"Why do you need to call him? Why do we need evidence? I don't understand."
"The judge wants to know each side of the story before he make a decision."
"It's simple. Marciano and I never should have married."
"Well, it's going to take a little bit more than that."
"And when you present this evidence you believe that will persuade the judge to rule in my favor?"
"I'm… I don't believe that the evidence will hurt the case."
"It sounds like you don't have much confidence that we'll win."
"I have every confidence that you'll get the divorce."
"But."
"It will look poorly on you if Marciano finds out about this relationship you have with Dr. Westbrook."
"First of all, I'm not divorcing Marciano because I want to see other men. Marciano has seen me with Dr. Westbrook but he has never caught us in a compromising situation. Secondly, Jacob feels like he's my protector, I don't know why. But if Marciano wants to bring that to the courts attention then he'll have to explain why Jacob has only been around when he's tried to do something to me."
"I'm only saying this because I want the hearing to go well."
"I'm not seeing Dr. Westbrook. There is no relationship between us, except that he's been there to protect me when I've needed protection from my husband. So, what's going to happen when we get to the courthouse?"
"I'll meet you outside court room twelve. When we go in, do not be surprised to see other people in the court room with us."
"Other people, what do you mean?"
"There will be other attorney's there with their clients along with the judge, court reporter and bailiff and some press."
"Some press, and there will be people listening to my case."
"Yes, the press is there to cover the proceedings. They won't ask you any questions and the other attorneys and clients will be focused on their own cases. They will not pay attention to us. Now the bailiff will call us up before the judge. He'll look over the evidence and may ask questions. Let me speak for you if he asks a question unless he speaks directly to you and then you can answer. After he's considered the evidence presented, he'll make a decision."
"And how long until the decision is final?"
"Sixty days. Now once the judge has made his decision, you will not be allowed to have any contact with Marciano. And he will be advised of the same stipulations from the judge and his attorney, if he has one."
"If he has one, of course he has one." Julie says.
"Well, if he does I haven't heard from him."
"Is that all that's going to happen."
"Yes, we'll present our evidence, the judge may ask questions and then he'll make a decision and in sixty days you are a free woman again."
"Alright, if that's all, I've got to go over to my girl's school."
"Okay, and I'll see you on October 1st at 11am at the county courthouse and we'll state our case."
"I'll be there." Julie says, standing up with Tom following her. She leaves and then he follows her a few seconds later.