When all Seems Lost

Chapter 8 Pt 2

Goes Around

Eliza Thorogood viewed the four adults standing around her in the elevator. Now that the matter with Trina had been resolved, there was an awkward silence. They didn't seem to know what to say to each other or to her.

Once again, she would have to take the bull by the horns. The station was her top priority, but Eliza found herself caring deeply for these people, including the once she hadn't formally met yet, Lux.

She sighed as they got off the elevator, and crossed the hall to the executive penthouse. The living room was spacious and airy, with one wall made of glass, affording a bird's eye view of downtown Portland, and the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

"Wow. What a view!" Cate exclaimed. "I'd always heard about this place, but we peons were never invited."

"You mean you were never invited, Cate," Ryan looked at her with sad eyes.

"Trina tried on several occasions to get me up here. Turned her down flat. The only reason I kept my job, was that our ratings were through the roof."

"And Baze and I have ruined that, now," Cate said softly.

"I had hoped that we might have a good meal, before we got into the hard issues, Cate, Nathaniel, Baze, and Alice," Eliza said, her blue eyes full of compassion. I do have some ideas we can discuss. I know this is hard on you, Ryan that you don't want to relieve yesterday, but the station needs to take some sort of stand, and your input will be needed. Decisions will have to be made in part at least, today.

Eliza drew a long breath. Ryan had his eyes closed and his arms wrapped about his, while Cate leaned into Baze for comfort.
"I think quick action has to be taken for two reasons: the viability of the station and for the well-being on the people involved.

I would also like your input, Cate and Ryan."

Cate looked up at Ryan with tears in her eyes. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

Ryan looked up in anger. "What kind of glutton for punishment do you think I am, Cate? Things will NEVER BE THE SAME. Not for us, not for the show. We have to move on."

Cate shrank further into Baze's chest sobbing softly.

"I know the wounds are raw," Eliza stated matter of factly, "but I have some rather important decisions to make quickly. So try to contain yourselves. Cate, would you want to hang around were the situations reversed?

Cate shook her head, unable to look Ryan in the eyes. She loved him in her own way, just not enough to sustain a marriage. Not enough to force Baze from her heart.

He nodded. "As strange as this may seem, this whole ordeal has brought my parents closer to each other I'll be going to Seattle to stay with either my mom or with my dad. I want to hang out for a while; maybe a couple of months, re-evaluate my life, and get a place of my own.

I'll be staying in town long enough to put most of my things in storage, and to sort out my matrimonial state with Cate."

"You mean an annulment?"

"Yes."

"I believe I can help you in two ways. I have contacts with the owners of several stations in Seattle, and I have an attorney who is very discreet, and sympathetic. He has been doing some work for me, and he has a good heart. I believe he could help you. Here is his card."

Ryan uttered a quiet, "Thank you, as he put the card in his inside coat pocket.

"Just being practical," Eliza said with a sigh. "What about you, Cate?"

"I have no idea." She spoke very softly. "I can't see myself going back to the kind of show I was doing even if things had worked out with Ryan. I guess I need some time for myself and my family as well. Yet, I really am scared of the public reaction toward Baze and myself. We will be seen as home wreckers. The public liked the idea of "Cate and Ryan make a family with Lux". Baze and I will be vilified for ripping apart a winning combination."

"Ripping apart a winning combination was inevitable, "Eliza stated matter-of factly. "Better now than later. It may not feel like it now, but it will heart less in the long run.

As far a replacing the two of you goes, Tim and Tina from the graveyard shift, seem to be holding their own. They aren't you and Ryan, but they have their own appeal.

I have two reporters scheduled to appear here for statements in two hours. I will be telling my story, and they will already have some of the facts from the police about Trina and Samuel. I will give them my side of the story. I will come out looking like the badly maligned wife who is determined to carry on.

"Your situation, Ryan, Cate,and Baze, is a little harder to fix. The Oregonian has already had a piece of my mind. I have always been a major contributor. I accused them of taking lessons from the National Enquirer and hinted that they might want to prove they can write real news if they wanted my continued support.

"This is what I propose: A prepared statement by the three of you, and Lux, fairly short, and stating that if Portland wants the true story, they will stay tuned to K 100 for the rest of the story."

Cate, Ryan, and Baze looked up at Eliza in horror. Going on the air?"

"I see those looks, and I'm not crazy. Hear me out. What I mean is a conversational situation between the four of you. Listeners can response only by email. Not on the air. You could plan together how you will do this. I was thinking three days from now."

What does everyone think? Don't be shy now."

Ryan looked deep in thought. "It could work. I would take a lot of co-ordination between the three of us."

"No." Baze said. "It should be the four of us. Lux must be included. She's what started everything. She's strong, and we need her input."

"You're right, Baze. She's what brought us together."

Eliza looked at Ryan, Cate, and Baze. The common thread was Lux. The time had come to reveal her guests.

There is one more subject I need to cover with you. I told you, Cate and Baze, that I had two people I wanted you to meet and so you shall, in a few moments. I have a story to tell you.

"I was sheltered as the only daughter of two wealthy and influential people; part of the Portland aristocracy. My life was planned out from the day I was born. One glorious summer, before I began college back east, I was invited to spend some time with a friend at her parent's cottage on Puget Sound. Her father was having some work done by one of the local boys. He was tall, tanned, handsome with green eyes and curly dark hair, funny, and completely at ease with himself and others.

He loved to poke fun at my reserved manners. The truth was I didn't know how to have fun. He would take us on trips down the sound. He taught me how to fish, and he taught me how to love. We began an intense, secret affair. My friend Sue Ellen, covered for me, and I would sneak out of the cottage late at night, and return a few hours before day break. The week before we were to return to Portland, I found out I was pregnant. I had some money of my own from my grandmother, and we ran off together. We got as far as his grandmother's house in Chicago, before my parents found us.

I always thought that Daddy paid Thomas off. I loved him

At least that was what I was told. It didn't make me love him any less. The

truth was that Daddy convinced Thomas that he would force me to have an abortion, unless Thomas stayed away from me permanently.

So I was sent home in shame, then carted off to stay with an old maid great aunt until the birth of my child. I pleaded with the staff to let me hold my child just once. My cries fell on deaf ears. A nurse later told me I'd had a boy.

I was sent to Radcliffe, and upon graduation, forced to marry Samuel Thorogood. My heart was broken, I didn't care. Whenever I complained, I was reminded of the "shame" I had brought on the family. Samuel used to like to call Thomas a "gold digger" and a brash upstart who was way out of his league."

I played the dutiful wife in public, and had my charities to keep me busy, albeit out of the spotlight. Life went on day after dull day, until my accountant noticed some 'incongruities' in the station's books. He didn't trust Samuel. By that time, Samuel hadn't graced my bed in over a year. I decided to take action. You know the rest of that particular story.

Thomas found me two months ago, through his own channels. He had come back to Portland a year ago, once he learned my parents had died in a car accident. You see, he had made a name for himself commercial contracting.

We were both determined to find our child, a boy, who is now twenty. What we didn't know was that Michael, our son, was trying to find us at the same time. The information was on the internet. We just needed some help in accessing it. The three of us, met for the first time, very discreetly a month ago. We have had to be very careful with the investigation of Trina and Samuel going on at the same time."

Mrs. Thorogood stopped to wipe the tears from her cheek. "Maybe now you can understand why I was so interested in your situation, Cate and Baze. I know it was not the same set of

initial circumstances, granted, but three people who were trying to be a family in spite of themselves. Three people who belonged together; and a fourth, who had a heart big enough to give them the chance, even if things were topsy-turvy."

Mrs. Thorogood walked over to what Cate assumed was one of the bedrooms, and called out," Thomas, Michael, you can come out now."

Out stepped a man in his early forties, with brilliant green eyes, and curly dark hair with just a hint of gray. Following him was a young man, with the cornflower blond hair of his mother, and the green eyes of his father. Eliza put an arm around each of them.

"Meet my family. Oh, it will take some time to make it official, but I don't believe Samuel will fight me over a divorce. His life is on the line, if he stays in the Portland jail. He has many enemies. I will have my freedom to start a new life with my son and his father, and Samuel, will be tried in another state and serve his time in a top secret location."

Ryan pinched himself. "If I didn't know better, I'd think all of this, both our situation and what we just heard, was part of a movie."

Eliza laughed. "I assure you, this is all very real." She suddenly frowned.

"Where is Lux, Cate? She needs to be here."

Cate's mind suddenly jerked into motion. "I left a note at Mom's for her to come here. Maybe I should give her a call."

The words had no sooner left Cate's mouth, than there was a knock upon the penthouse door.

"Mom? Are you in there?"

Cate pulled open the door, to see Lux standing there.

Cate stepped aside so Lux could come in. Lux was so wound up; she didn't acknowledge her surroundings-at first.

"Returning the gifts took forever, and then Laverne had to stop at the liquor store. She drank straight out of the bottle! I was so embarrassed. Anyway, we made it back to her house without an accident-I was praying all the way-and I found your note, called for a taxi-"

When she paused for breath, Lux decided to take a look around. Everyone was smiling at HER, and who were the three people in the center of the room?

"Mom, Dad, Ryan? What's going on?"

Cate cracked a grin. "Come on in, honey, this is going to take a while."