Ch 11 Restaurant on the outskirts of town
Jason and Keesha sat in the small seafood restaurant and enjoyed a lunch of lobster, crab cakes and stuffed shrimp. The lunch had originally been about the threat of Mariucci, but Jason had been unable to blow Keesha's world apart, not yet anyway. He knew that he was going to have to. She deserved to know the truth; her husband was a lying, cheating crook. But she looked so beautiful and her smile was so bright. How had he hated this woman? He remembered what it was like when he awoke from the coma after the accident. She had been so needy. She wanted him to remember her so desperately. And he had pushed her away. Thrown her away, was a better term. He watched her as she tried to crack the lobster tail in a lady-like manner. It was a nearly impossible feat but she looked great doing it.
She knew that he was watching her. And she was trying to be as careful as possible with the lobster tail. She didn't really want to do anything embarrassing while with Jason. He had that concentrated look on his face; she could tell he wanted to help. "Jason, I can do it. Something is wrong with these thingies", she said indicating the nutcracker.
He laughed at her terminology. "Well, just let me know if and when you need help. And don't forget to save room for that cheesecake. This place may not look like much but they have good desserts."
She said 'ok' and went back to trying to crack the offending shell of the lobster. "So, enough about the food. We need to talk about … Daniel. I know that you don't have good news. If you did then we would have discussed it already." She looked at Jason, her eyes imploring him to tell her what was going on. "Just tell me, Jason. I can take it. Whatever Mariucci wants, I think I can handle it"
"Keesha, what we've found out so far is hard to tell you" He looked at her and knew that he was about to destroy all faith she had in her husband. His mind went back to the night at Jake's when he had seen her talking to Taggert. She had said that she had the instincts of a puppy and blamed herself for not being able to tell when people were lying. He knew she would blame herself for what her husband had done and it would kill her.
"Just tell me. Please, tell me."
"Your husband was having an affair." Jason blurted out.
Keesha dropped the nutcracker and lobster tail with a loud thump. She sat back in her chair and stared at Jason. 'He had to be lying, joking, something' Keesha thought to herself.
"Sonny and I have two computer whizzes who work for us. The one, Spinelli, lives with me. I've kinda taken him in because he has no where else to go. He um, found out some information regarding two women. One lives in Philadelphia. Apparently, she was running his offices there. She is … she has two small children. It can't be confirmed but everything points to Daniel as their father. The other woman lives in Los Angeles and runs a variety of different business there under Livingstone Inc. She also has a child. They both have similar setups. Their houses were bough and paid for by Livingstone Inc. Their monthly bills are also paid for by the company. Seems that whenever Daniel went away on business, he was with these other women."
Keesha hadn't moved or even breathed since Jason had started talking. There were tears in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Her husband had cheated on her. Was cheating on her, with two women. She needed to know for how long.
"How old are the kids, Jason?"
"The oldest is Caleb Downs; his mother is Carla, the woman from LA. He is 10."
She closed her eyes. That means that Daniel might now have cheated on her with this Carly woman. Their relationship had probably ended before he ever met Keesha. She let the relief wash over her, but it didn't last long.
"What about the other two?"
Jason lowered his head. He didn't really want to tell her this. She was going to be hurt and he didn't want to be the one who hurt her.
"It's ok, Jason. I'm just curious. I have to know."
"The other two are" God, this is going to kill her. "Daniel is the oldest child of Adrienne Green. I guess they named him after his father. He is 7"
Jason heard Keesha gasp. Her husband had children with her and someone else within the same year. 'How was that possible?' she thought. And this woman had given her son Daniel's name. She wanted to cry and scream. But most of all she wanted to strangle Daniel Livingstone.
Jason saw the look in her eye and knew that he might as well continue. "Their youngest child is Graceland and she is two years old."
Keesha shook her head. She didn't want to hear anymore. "What about this Mariucci business? Do you think that either of these women knows what he wants? Do you think they have been contacted?" she asked Jason.
"We don't know yet. Spinelli found that your husband had safe deposit boxes and accounts in banks all over the world. We will have to check those out; I'll have some men contact the girlfriends. You being his wife, you will have access to all of his accounts. Everything with his name on it will be at your disposal and consequently, at our disposal."
Keesha shook her head 'yes'. She was shell shocked. She didn't know her own husband. 'God, my husband. Can I really even call him that?' Two girlfriends, two children while he had been married to her.
Jason saw the distress on her face. "Why don't we get out of here? I know something that will take your mind off of all this." He reached his hand out to her. And without a thought, she took it. Keesha followed Jason to his motorcycle in silence. She took the helmet, got on behind Jason and instinctively wrapped her arms around Jason. Once the mask was over her face, she let the tears fall.
Jason could feel her shaking behind him. Her shoulder heaved up and down and he knew she was crying. Crying over the loser who had been Daniel Livingstone. 'Man, he better be glad that he is dead'. Jason thought as the bike took off.
They drove around for almost an hour before Jason stopped the bike. They had ridden out into the country, but didn't stop. They had been out to Vista Point and to an estate, which Keesha had never been to, but in the end Jason had come back to a place familiar to both of them. They were on the Quartermaine property; at the lake where they had spent so much time in their youth. Well, where she and Jason Q had spent so much time.
Jason didn't know why he stopped here. He had thought of a few different places that he could go. But he didn't want to take Keesha to the places where he had spent so much time with Robin and Elizabeth. He didn't want to regurgitate the sameness of those relationships. So, he brought her back to a place that he knew was their own. He stopped the bike and got off. He didn't want her to take off the helmet, because he didn't think that he could handle her tears again.
Keesha stayed on the bike; she turned her head away from Jason as she took the helmet off. She quickly wiped away the tears before he could see them. She took a deep ragged breath and shook away all the thoughts of her husband and his other women.
"Come on" Jason said extending his hand to her. She took it and stepped off the bike. She walked behind him, completely numb from the information that she had learned that day.
He took her to a bench and they sat down.
Keesha breathed deeply scared of what his response would be to what she was about to say but still needing to get it off of her chest. "You … Jason and I used to come out here. We would talk and plan and dream about our future. I always regretted the fact that I wanted to wait to get married. I was so determined for us to have it all that I missed out on what was important. It didn't matter if he was a successful doctor or that I was a lawyer. All that would have mattered was that we were together. He knew that and tried to tell me. I wouldn't listen. I wanted the perfect princess wedding, Jason didn't care. He just wanted me. It's funny; I was so cautious and careful with Jason. And I threw it all to the wind with Daniel. How could I have been so stupid?" She asked looking at Jason.
He didn't know whether she really wanted him to respond or if she was just talking. He had always hated when she talked about Jason Quartermaine, but it seemed that she finally understood that they were two different people. When she talked about him now, it was just as if he were another person from her past.
"You aren't stupid, Keesha. I guess you just were making up for how cautious you had been with … Jason." That felt strange. He never talked about Jason Q in that way. It felt strange.
"I was cautious", she started. "And then I wasn't. We … I why me? Do you know why he married me when he was having affairs with two other women?"
"I have no idea. I guess that he loved you. There was no other reason for him to marry you. He had to have loved you in his own way. That should make you feel …better. He did love you. I don't know why he had the other women. Maybe they knew about his business, maybe not. But we know that part of his life never touched you until after he was already dead. So some part of Daniel Livingstone loved you enough to not let you get caught up in his dirt."
"I guess I can look at it that way. I could let myself believe that my husband loved me enough to not include me in his illegal dealings. OR I can think that my husband actually never cared anything about me."
"I hear the kids talk about their father; I know that he loved them. I can see it on their faces. Obviously, your husband loved his life He just had more to it than what met the eye. We are going to look into this Keesha and we are going to get to the bottom of this." He pulled her into his arms to hug her. "You and your kids are going to be safe and you will be free to live your life the way you deserve."
"Thank you, Jason. I never in my wildest dreams every imagined that we would ever be here again. I never imagined that I would ever be in your arms again. I know that things are very different now, you aren't the man I loved, but this is all so Jason. My Jason. He was so easy to talk to and he cared so much for people. You're a great man, Jason Morgan. Thank you, for everything". She looked into those deep blue depths and leaned in to kiss him.
He saw her lean in and captured her lips with his. His hands instinctively went to her cheek and caressed her gently. The kiss was slow and sensual and passionate. Keesha moaned into his mouth. It had been so long, since she had been kissed like this. Daniel had been gone for nearly a year and they hadn't been intimate for a long time because of her high risk pregnancy.
Jason heard her moan and felt his pants get tighter. He couldn't do this, not here, not right now. Keesha deserved better than that; better than him. He pulled away. She looked at him with lust in her eyes. She shook her head to clear away thoughts of taking Jason right there next to the pond. She rubbed her hand over his cheek and then down his muscular chest.
"We should get back. Carly is probably going crazy." She laughed.
He pulled her in for another quick kiss and then grabbed her hand and led her back to his bike.