Disclaimer: Chapter title is from a book by Gregory Maguire.

Chapter 5 Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Present time

Adriana sat in the interrogation room of the Llanview Police Department. She tried to understand the situation and how she could have turned into such a horrible monster. Why did she not see this? She shook her head at herself in disgust. She saw it. She just had the stupidity to actually believe Gigi would have the audacity to fake such a hatful crime that countless women have suffered throughout the ages. Gigi was too good of a person to be so spiteful to make a mockery of a serious crime as abuse….no assault on a woman from a man that was suppose to make her feel safe and loved. Not lost, scared, and hurt. "It's not the bangs that made me bitchy, it was me," she thought to herself, "I did this to her. I paid for her to be continually abused by a man trained to kill with his bare hands. What the hell I was thinking? Is this something too horrible that not even God could forgive me for?" Adriana heard the door open. John and Antonio walked into the room. John threw door a pile of pictures. She glanced down briefly of pictures that were taken at the carriage house and of Gigi and Shane. She quickly pushed them away from her, "I don't want to see those."

"Don't you want to see what you paid for?" Antonio asked, "I mean Brody did one hell of a job on them, don't you think."

"I never told him to do this to her! To him!" she screamed back, "I would never have…"

"But you did tell him to do 'whatever it takes' right?" John asked, "This was the price they paid to obey your instructions." He pointed to the pictures to accentuate his point.

"Why?" Antonio asked, "Why would you do this to them?"

"I didn't know what was happening," Adriana admitted, "I just wanted her to stay away from Rex because even after two years he can't thinking about her!"

"So you degrade yourself to keep him instead of finding someone that would cherish you," John countered back, "Do you really have that little respect for you?"

"He loved me before she came into town!"

"But he loved her before he even knew you existed," Antonio countered, "So you paid Brody to terrorize Gigi into silence."

"It wasn't like that," she defended herself. She felt like the walls where closing in on her. She never thought that Brody would do this to Gigi and Shane. And the worst part was she was paying him to do it.

"Your mother called me," John said, "and told me something that I found very interesting."

"What was that?"

"That you admitted to seeing Brody attack Gigi and did nothing about it," John said, "which makes this artificial innocent act you having going on really hard to believe."

"It's not an act," Adriana said, "I thought it was an act."

"What do you mean by that?" John asked, "Are you implying that you thought Gigi was making that up to play on Rex's sympathies, to lure him away from you?"

"Yes!"

"How so?"

"Because immediately after that the text messages, emails, and letters stopped," Adriana said, "If it was really happening it would have continued. But Gigi realized that Rex wasn't buying her lies and stopped."

"Or maybe she realized he didn't believe her and left her to fend for herself."

"I didn't think of it that way," Adriana admitted.

"Did you know anything about Brody before bringing him to Llanview?"

"Only that he was Shane's father," Adriana confessed, "but then he told me he wasn't. He was willing to let me pay him to stay here and play house with Gigi."

"Tell me about the time you saw the abuse."

"It was about a year and a half ago," Adriana said.

"Six months after your wedding," Antonio asked.

"Yes," she replied, "I was constantly checking Rex's phone and email for messages, his email. I would get the mail before Rex so I could intercept her letters before Rex had a chance to read them. I was getting tired to it all so I went to see Gigi. To confront her about them…"

One Year, Six Months Ago

Adriana had the last of Gigi's letters clutched in her hand as he stormed up to the carriage house door. She was about raise her hand to knock on the door when she heard them fighting.

"Leave me alone!" Gigi screamed.

"I ordered you to stop the interactions between Shane and Rex!" Brody yelled at her, "And yet they are out at a movie even as we speak!" Brody's voice dropped a few octaves as he said, "Are you deliberating defying me at every turn! When will you learn your lesson you stupid woman!"

"He's Shane's father and they deserve to know each other!" Gigi screamed back in a moment of strength. Gigi's split second of defiance was rewarded with a hard slap across the face. Her body moved three steps from the impact of his slap.

Adriana's eye widen as she saw it and the sound of his slap reached her ears, "This can't be happening." She quickly opened her purse and reached her cell phone. She had just dialed 911 and was about to push the send button when she looked up and saw them kissing. She closed her phone and shook her head in disgust. "She must have seen me come up and talked Brody into his little charade. That is so wrong on so many levels." She put her phone back in her purse. When she looked up she saw Gigi sitting on the couch with her head buried in her hands. What Adriana missed when her head was down was Brody grabbing the back of her neck and roughly pulling her into a bruising kiss. She didn't hear his low threat to bring Shane back now or else. She missed it all as she was searching her purse for her phone. Her head was down for only a few seconds, but those few seconds would cost Gigi and Shane so much in the future. Adrian turned around and left. She was seeing so much red at this moment she couldn't even stand sharing the same air with Gigi.

Present Time

"I will carry the shame of that moment for the rest of my life," Adriana said, "I let my hatred for Gigi and my desperation to hold onto Rex believe that could have been anything but that was an act. That Gigi would take something as serious of abuse to try and get Rex."

"So that's your story?"

"That's the truth," Adriana said, "I'm not asking…" Her sentence was cut off by Nora Hanen walking into the room.

"We are integrating a suspect Nora," John said, "You can't be here right now."

"I know," she said, "I'm here on behalf of my client."

"You're her lawyer?" Antonio asked.

"I should said clients," Nora said, "Gigi Morasco and Rex Balsom."

"This will have to wait until we are done here," Antonio said.

"I'd really like to get back to the hospital as quickly as possible," Nora said, "and it will take only a minute. I promise."

"How are they?" John asked.

"Shane's still in surgery and Gigi's in a coma. Dr. Sheppard had just arrived when I left," she explained, "but it doesn't look good."

"Let her stay," Adriana said, "she's needed elsewhere."

"Okay," John said as him and Antonio started to leave.

"You can stay," Adriana said, "It's only going to take a minute. I'm assuming you have the divorce papers from Rex already."

"Yes," Nora said taking them out of her briefcase and handing them to Rex, "Rex didn't want anything. Just what was his before the marriage. Everything else is yours."

"I don't care," she said, "Just give me a pen. I don't deserve any of it."

"I know," Nora said, "but my client was persistent that he doesn't want anything that would remind him of your time together."

Adriana nodded and signed her name. She tired not to feel the sting when she saw Rex already had signed it. She handed them back to Nora. "When Gigi wakes up," she said, "tell her I'm sorry."

"It's not when, it's if," Nora said.

"Gigi's a fighter," Adriana said with conviction, "so it's not if, but when."

"I have something for you," Nora said handing her an envelope, "It's from Gigi. She came to me about two months after your wedding looking for an attorney. Someone to keep this safe incase she well…you know."

"What is it?" she asked as she grabbed it.

"She wouldn't say," Nora explained, "She just wanted me to hold onto it and give it to you incase she of her death."

"But she's not dead," Adriana pressed.

"Not yet," she replied, "but her request was if she was dead or her life hanging in the balance to have me deliver this to you."

"I can't," Adriana said handing it back to her, "I can't read it. I'm too afraid to."

"It's important that you know the contents of this letter," Nora said, "Gigi was relentless that I make sure you read the letter."

"I can't."

"I think you owe her that much," Nora said bitterly handing it back to her.

Adriana nodded in agreement, but knew she owed her more than that. She tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter. She read it over and started crying. "What I have done?" she said dropping the letter as she folded her arms and cried into her arms.

"My work here is done gentlemen," she said, "I need to get back to the hospital."

"I understand," John said, "let Rex know when we are done here, we'll be back."

"I'll pass along your message," Nora said before walking out of the door and quietly closing it behind her. Lying on the table was Gigi's last words to Adriana, words that had officially shattered her heart into millions of pieces.

Dear Adriana,

I know you must be thinking that this is a letter when I sarcastically write "You must be thrilled I am no longer here to threaten your relationship with Rex" but this isn't that type of letter. My words are scarce these days and I must use them wisely. We both know that Rex is Shane's father and when I die Rex and the world will know it as well. My last words to you are my plea to you. Rex will want to raise his son with you. And rightly so, Rex has been a great father to Shane without the title. My plea to you is to let Rex raise him. My hope is that you fall in love with him as well. I am confident that you will. Because the more you get to know him, the more you will see that Shane is truly his father's son. And I know how much you love his father. I beg you to please never let him forget me and help him live his life to the fullest; because I can't do that for him, not anymore. Please care for my son and love him with all your heart. Don't do it for me. Do it for Rex and for Shane, because you will be his strong female figure in his life. You will be his new mother, the woman that will continue to mold him into the man I started for the instant I held that small baby in my arms. Let him feel loved and inspire him to continue to be the amazing young man that he is.

Gigi

"Adriana," John said, brining her attention back to him.

"I don't want you to let me walk away from this unpunished," she pleaded with them, "I deserve everything that is coming to me."

To say that John and Antonio were shocked by her statement would be the understatement of the century. The men shared a look before turning his attention back to her.

"Adriana Balsom…" John said, but was cut off by her.

"Cramer," she corrected him, without a hint of bitterness in her tone.

"Adriana Cramer," John said again, "You're under arrest for aiding the attack of Gigi Morasco and Shane Morasco. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said.

"Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?" John asked, he watched her nod her head, "I need you to answer the question."

"Yes I understand," Adriana said, "I must pay the price for my part in this. It doesn't matter whether I not I knew what was happening. I funded him the opportunity it do it."