Chapter 21
Sami screamed as the lights went out and E.J. instinctively clung to her to protect her from the unseen danger.
Lucas raged at the sight.
"Get your damn hands off her!" Lucas yelled as he lunged at E.J. before Rolf yelled at him to be quiet.
"Shut up! All of you! I need to take this call," Rolf said waving the gun around like a mad man.
Sami's face disappeared in E.J.'s chest while they all waited for Rolf to tell them what was going on.
While Rolf was distracted and Lexie huddled around his phone call to see if she could hear what was going on, Lucas took the opportunity to angrily whisper his disgust at Sami for forgiving E.J. and taking comfort in his embrace.
"How can you forgive that bastard after what he did to you?" Lucas judged.
"Just leave her alone, all right," E.J. grumbled, but Sami brushed off E.J.'s protection.
"Thanks E.J. but I think I've got this one," Sami said glaring at Lucas and walking toward him with her arms folded across her chest. "The truth is Lucas I forgave him the same way that I forgave YOU after you tortured me, after you framed me for a murder you committed and after you and your crazy mom tried to KILL me. I did it for my child and for myself because I fell in love. And you don't have to understand that, because I know I don't entirely understand it. But I am not going to let you say anything bad about this man any more. Because I love him."
Before Lucas could respond, Rolf got off the phone. After a quick whisper in Lexie's ear, he informed them all that there was an electrical malfunction in the house and it wasn't safe to leave the attic until it was fixed.
"Make yourselves comfortable, we are going to be here for a while," Rolf said.
"Samantha, I'm so sorry," E.J. said falling to his knees and holding Sami's waist as he looked up at her face. "For everything. Words can't do justice to what I feel right now. I… I… I don't know how you can even stand to look at me. To be in the same room with me."
"Well, E.J., that's so sweet. But I hate to break it to you, I am no angel myself," Sami said with a smile as she petted the side of his head.
"I find that hard to believe," E.J. said beaming at her. "I mean to have the capacity for compassion that you have. That you would care for me, say you love me after all this."
"Believe it," Lucas snarled as the two of them talked. "She's no angel."
"Don't say that about her," E.J. snarled. "Don't say anything about her."
Lucas laughed walked over to a pile of boxes and kicked them in frustration but was surprised when he stubbed his toe and heard the sound of glass clinking. He opened the box and discovered it contained several bottles of Stefano's prized brandy.
Meanwhile, Lexie began looking through a desk drawer to try and find some matches to light some of the old candles around the room.
"You said we're going to be here for a while, didn't you Rolf?" Lucas said picking up one of the brandy bottles and opening it.
Rolf thought about scolding Lucas, but decided maybe it would help pacify him and keep him quiet while the search went on so he didn't stop him. Lexie and Rolf moved toward the door to discuss it and other matters privately leaving Lucas, Sami and E.J. at the other end of the attic.
"Lucas you're drinking?" Sami squealed as she saw Lucas down a huge gulp straight from the bottle and wife his face with the back of his hand.
"Listen, Sami, if I'm not allowed to say anything about your friend, E.J., then you're not allowed to say anything about my friend, Brandy," Lucas said as he swilled more liquor.
Sami rolled her eyes and turned back to E.J. as her smile turned to a nervous frown. She stepped down to kneel and face him and clasp his hands.
"Lucas IS right," Sami said whispering. "I'm definitely no angel. In fact, I've often been somewhat of a witch."
"Or something that rhymes with that," Lucas volunteered.
"No one asked you!" Sami shouted at Lucas as she turned her attention back to E.J. "Anyway, as I was saying, I have done some pretty bad things to you, too, that I'm not very proud of."
"Like what?" E.J. said trying to appear cool but getting concerned.
"Well, you see, last summer when you came to Salem… right away we hit things off," Sami said.
"Not surprising," E.J. smiled.
Sami nervously chuckled.
"And uhhhh you were a very good friend to me… I mean we spent all this time together and you kept all my secrets and you were just the best friend I've ever had… well sort of a good friend to me…" Sami said as she raced through a confusing explanation of her misdeeds. "I mean you did send me these notes making me think that I was being blackmailed and I needed to tell my fiancé that I had lied about him not being able to have kids with my sister or horrible things would happen to my family, but really you were just trying to get me to tell the truth because you wanted me and Austin to break up so you could date me…"
"OK," E.J. said cautiously as Sami paused for air. "But I don't see how that was YOU hurting ME."
"Well, yes, but after that, you see, we did start dating. And there were always these crazy things that happened to break us up. I mean, my dad and Lucas and Will and Kate… you slept with Kate… I still can't believe that bitch monograms her bras…" Sami said muttering to herself.
"I'm… sorry?" E.J. offered.
"Get to the point, Sami," Lucas yelled.
"Is it that difficult to use an inside voice, Lucas?" Lexie asked as Rolf shook as gun at Lucas for emphasis and they turned their attention back to each other.
Sami glared at Lucas before continuing.
"OK, well, anyway," Sami said, still whispering, and trying to get to the point. "I got mad at you and after we broke up I led you on into thinking I wanted to get back together with you, but really I was just trying to help the police search your apartment."
"You did?" E.J. said.
"Yes. I did. And then when I found out you were a DiMera even though you had just given me this really great job at your company, I had gotten back together with Lucas and I helped lure you to this boathouse where John was shot," Sami told him self-consciously. "You thought you were meeting me to run away together but it was setup."
"I see," E.J. said, his heart sinking.
"Oh that's nothing compared to the other stuff, E.J.!" Lucas said laughing. "Why you leaving out the good stuff, Sami? You haven't known true hell on earth until you've fallen in love with Sami Brady. Wait 'til she gets to the part about the cabin."
"Cabin?" E.J. asked.
"Well you see, the night John was shot, Lucas and I were at this cabin and a beam fell on him and…"
"No, Sami, tell him the OTHER cabin incident," Lucas snickered.
Sami looked at Lucas and then back at E.J. and winced. E.J. mouthed the words "It's OK" back at her and she gave him a half-smile in return.
"Well, even after everything I had done to you and everything that had happened, you still wanted me and you wanted us to raise this baby together," Sami said rubbing her stomach. "And I was with Lucas and I was just so frightened of you and your family that some day you would stop loving me and take my baby away from me forever that first I filled out a fake amnio report saying the baby wasn't yours."
E.J. tried to project indifference to her words but his heart was breaking.
"But you see, you were so smart, you saw right through me," Sami said with a teary smile.
E.J. gave her back a half-hearted smile.
"And I didn't know what to do and Celeste started coming to me with this crazy idea that I should kill you and all my stress and all the drama would stop not just for me, but for this baby. And that all my problems would go away for good… if you did."
"I guess your attempt wasn't successful then," E.J. sighed.
"No, E.J. it wasn't. I couldn't do it," Sami said. "I mean… I did try… I guess. I made you think that the baby was yours and that I wanted to be with you, truly be with you and that we were getting married in Vegas."
"Vegas?" E.J. shook his head and made a face.
"Hey, that was your idea," Sami laughed before the conversation again turned serious. "You wanted me to meet you at this cabin and we would run away together, but Celeste had this plan where I wore this lipstick that when I kissed you it would put you to sleep and we'd douse the place in gasoline and burn you alive."
"Sami, how could you?" E.J. could no longer hide his disgust. "Burned alive?"
Sami paused for a moment to soak in the hurt in E.J.'s eyes as he had called her Sami instead of Samantha.
"But don't you see, E.J.?" Sami said with desperation as she clutched E.J.'s face with her hands and tears streamed down her face. "The thing was I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill you. I loved you too much to kill you."
E.J. laughed.
"Loved me too much not to kill me?" E.J. asked. "Well that's comforting. So tell me, Samantha, this whole time… this whole time that we've been building this…"
E.J. paused for several moments to try to pick the right word for their relationship. He couldn't find it so he settled for another word.
"…friendship… While we've built this friendship that seemed like there could be something more… have your feelings been genuine with me? Or have you just been seducing me to get my help in getting out of this place? Seducing me to get what you wanted… like all those times before."
Chapter 22
"While we've built this friendship that seemed like there could be something more… have your feelings been genuine with me?" E.J. asked. "Or have you just been seducing me to get my help in getting out of this place? Seducing me to get what you wanted… like all those times before."
Sami bit her lip and looked away catching a glimpse of Lucas who was listening to their conversation and judging her with his eyes.
"Oh, don't look at me, Sami," Lucas said. "I want to hear the answer, too. Have you ever really loved either one of us or has it always just been about seducing us to get what you wanted?"
"That's not fair, Lucas," Sami snarled.
"Fair? HA!" Lucas said, pausing to chug more brandy. "Fair like you marrying me and telling me you loved me when you obviously still had feelings for E.J."
Sami hung her head in shame.
E.J. gently lifted her chin with his thumb and index finger.
"Is that true?" E.J. asked. "Is that what happened?"
Sami began pacing as she tried to make sense of all the crazy things that had happened.
"The truth is E.J. that I don't know what happened," Sami said. "I did love you, but Lucas and I had all that history and I wanted to do what was right for my son and I wanted my family to accept me after all the horrible things I had done and… and… and…"
"And what, sweetheart?" E.J. asked.
"And I was afraid," Sami admitted. "All right? I was afraid of what I felt for you. I was afraid of the fact that you could have any woman in the world if you wanted her. I was afraid of your crazy family. And I was afraid of my family and what they would think about me if I was with you after I found out you were a DiMera."
"But were you afraid of me?" E.J. asked.
"No," Sami said meekly. "I guess not. You didn't scare me. I mean I always knew because you had that thing for me that you wouldn't, that you couldn't really do anything to me. But oh there were times you made me hate you. You just wouldn't give up and I hated you for it. And there was the way that you made me hate myself… for wanting you."
"Do you still want me now, Samantha?" E.J. asked. "Because even though it doesn't make any sense and even if I don't understand it and even though you're quite possibly the most maddening and difficult woman I've ever met, I still want you."
Sami smiled as her eyes welled up with tears.
"Yes, E.J.," Sami said whispering and leaning in to face E.J. "I still want you."
E.J. grinned and leaned in for a long, soft kiss that curled Sami's toes, but the amorous display also sent Lucas beyond the edge with jealousy.
Lucas hopped up from his drunken heap on the floor and charged toward E.J. tackling him to the floor. Rolf and Lexie began yelling at the two of them to stop, but every time E.J. pinned Lucas and then released him thinking he had settled down he would lunge at him once again.
"STOP IT!" Sami screamed as she watched the increasingly tense situation unfold with Rolf pulling out a gun and threatening to shoot both E.J. and Lucas if they didn't settle down and be quiet.
Sami grabbed her stomach and collapsed in pain while Lucas, at the sight of the gun, tripped backward knocking over a candelabra and setting the wine-colored plush drapes adorning the Jacobean four-poster bed ablaze.
Chapter 23
"Antony, are you out there?" Stefano said coughing behind the curtain.
"Just a minute, father," Tony said. "I'll be right in."
"Oh, Stefano," Celeste said in a whisper as she felt shivers down her spine. "Listen, Tony. I don't know what you are planning to do to me or Alexandra or Samantha for the sake of your father, but I wish you wouldn't. Don't you know he's betrayed you?"
"Betrayed me?" Tony said with a laugh. "I'm well aware of the differences I've had with my father in the past, but he is still my father. And I am going to prove my loyalty to him by saving his life just like he is going to prove his loyalty to me by handing me the reins of the DiMera dynasty."
Tony grabbed Celeste's arm to drag her with him inside the curtain, but Celeste pushed him back and stopped him from going inside.
"Don't be so sure of that," Celeste said.
"What do you mean?" Tony asked. "What bad news did you forsee for me in your crystal ball, pray tell?
"It is not the spirit world that has told me that you are not going to inherit the DiMera legacy," Celeste said sneering. "It was Alexandra."
But Tony did not hear the last word because of the loud chaotic screams he heard coming from the other part of the mansion. He sniffed the air.
"Do you smell smoke?" Tony asked.
"It's happening," Celeste mumbled to herself as she remembered her tarot prediction before she left for New Orleans and the frightening Tower card the spirits revealed.
"Oh no, not again," Tony said. "The mansion's on fire! C'mon, Celeste, you've got to help me get my father out of here."
"Help Stefano?" Celeste said. "I don't think so."
"Don't do it for him, or for me," Tony implored her. "Do it for your daughter. Do it for your grandson."
Celeste laughed.
"It is for Alexandra and Theo that I hope he dies," Celeste said. "I must go find Alexandra before it's too late."
Celeste ran down the corridor and back toward the fireplace passageway leaving Tony to try to help his father out of the mansion on his own.
"Father, can you get up?" Tony asked as he helped Stefano gingerly stand on his feet and lean against him. "That's good. That's good. We're just going head out the back this way. Nice and easy."
Chapter 24
"STOP IT!" Sami screamed as she watched the increasingly tense situation unfold with Rolf pulling out a gun and threatening to shoot both E.J. and Lucas if they didn't settle down and be quiet.
Sami grabbed her stomach and collapsed in pain while Lucas, at the sight of the gun, tripped backward knocking over a candelabra and setting the wine-colored plush drapes adorning the Jacobean four-poster bed ablaze.
Perhaps without thinking, Lexie quickly switched into doctor mode as she hovered over Sami. But unbeknownst to Lexie, the diary she had carried in her pocket slipped out of her coat and onto the floor.
"Oh God," Lexie whispered to E.J., "She's having the baby!"
"Oh look what you've done, you imbecile," Rolf screamed at Lucas pointing a gun in his face as smoke and little orange flames began crawling across the bed.
"I didn't mean to," Lucas pleaded as tears welled up in his eyes and he turned his back to Rolf to look at the fire. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
"Just like I didn't mean for this to happen," Rolf said as he pistol-whipped Lucas in the back of the head knocking him unconscious.
E.J. scooped up a horrified Sami in his arms and began starting to carry her out of the attic and down the stairs with Lexie attending to them nearby.
"Everything will be all right, sweetheart," E.J. said kissing her forehead. "I'm going to see to it that you and our baby are fine. Everything's going to be just…"
But E.J. stopped when he felt the cold steel on the back of his neck.
"Rolf, what are you doing?" E.J. asked flatly as he tried to belie his concern as he stared into Sami's deeply frightened eyes as she looked both at his face and the madman standing over E.J.'s shoulder.
"I'm doing what I should have done in the first place," Rolf said. "I should have killed you the first time you disobeyed orders rather than going along with your father's idea to erase your memory. I told him you can't erase treachery from a person's heart even if you can wipe away the reasons for treacherous behavior by cleaning up the mind."
"Oh, shut up, Rolf," Lexie commanded to Sami's surprise and E.J.'s delight. "Go check on Father or run the hell away. There's nothing to be gained by killing E.J. We all need to get out of here NOW or we're all going to die."
Rolf scowled but slunk away down the steps.
"Thank you, Lexie," E.J. said with a smile.
"Don't thank me," she told him. "Let's go. We should be safe from the fire in the woodcutter's cottage out back. Sami doesn't have much time."