Runaway

Destiny was in her room rocking Noah. She looked up at her wall at a picture of Darren then looked back down at Noah. A tear fell.

"I feel so conflicted." Her cell phone rung, she wiped her tear then answered. "Hey Matt."

"Hey honey bun. How are you and our little joy?"

"We're just dandy." Destiny lied. She was confused and a little sad. "Matt, I need to ask you a favor but you're not going to like it."

"Anything for you."

"It's not really for me. It's for Jason. He needs a job and you're about to re-open Capricorn, I know you still need people so..."

"You want me to hire the man that stole from my company."

"I know it sounds crazy but he really needs something. Just give him a chance. Give him anything. He's a good guy, he won't do it again."

"No."

"Please, for me. Hire him on a trial bases."

Matthew sighed. "Fine. He's tall, buff and tough so he can be a bouncer until I trust him more if I ever. He used to do security in college, right?"

"Yes. Thanks. I appreciate it and so will he."

"You know, Miry actually let me babysit Evan for the first time after almost six years."

"I know. You two have made a lot of progress. She trusts you now. That's good."

"Yeah but here's the thing, Evan and Del keep talking to each other in Spanish."

"Yeah they do that. It's like a secret language to them because the only ones who understand them is Miry, Dani, Leon and Téa and Téa's family of course... Oh and Izzy but that's very few in comparison to all the family."

"Can Dani speak Spanish?" It never occurred to him to ask before.

"Of course she can. She rarely does but she can. All these years and you didn't know that?"

"We were never really that close. What do I do about Evan and Del? Who knows what they're saying?"

"Matthew, they're five. They're probably talking about cartoons or something."

They hung up a few minutes later. At the mansion, Del went over and sat on Matthew's lap.

"Daddy, can I take ballet?" Del asked.

"Sure, if that's what you want." Matthew replied.

"Yay! Come on Evan, let's go play!" Del and Evan ran off and Nicole walked in and sat next to Matthew.

"Dad... I've been thinking... I want to go to that boarding school in London." Nicole said.

"Why?"

"I need a brand new start. I've only got one life to live and so far I've been screwing it up. I've blamed you for everything and maybe some of that was on my mom too but hearing her say all the things that she said I realized some things. I want to get away for my last year of school."

"You mean you want to runaway. I really want the family together. We've all been part in a sense for so long I don't want any of us to separate just yet."

"I need this... Please, just think about it."

"Alright. I'll think about it."

-v-

Miracle was at the recording studio with Infinity. They were working on their first album.

"This is going to be epic." Miracle said.

"I can't believe we're actually recording an album. This is too cool." Eva said.

"I can't wait to shoot our first video." Ace said.

"It's exciting." Chad said.

"We have the resources to really push this to the max." DJ said.

"Most people have to audition to get on a major record label but luckily for us, the owner is the pianist." Ace said.

"Technically, I don't own it until I'm twenty-one." DJ said. Darren left DJ and Destiny, Price Entertainment. He worked hard to achieve the success he earned with the business. He was a millionaire by the time he was thirty. Between Darren's success, what his parents had already done and Destiny's financial success, the Price family had done pretty well for themselves. However, they never let the money go to their heads and never stopped spending sensibly. Since Darren died, Destiny has been overseeing the company while hiring someone else to run it. When DJ graduates from college he can run it if that's what he wants to do. Darren made sure his family was taken care of.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" Miracle said.

"Eva, you can go in and lay down the lead track." The producer said.

-v-

That weekend was the reopening of Capricorn but with it's new name, Infinity. After having a hard time coming up with a new name, Matthew finally settled on naming the club after the band. Matthew took the club in a different direction and freshened it up. What would really put the club on the map was the fact that Bree was going to feature it on her reality show and magazine.

"Hey party people! I just want to say congrats to my cousin Matthew on the grand opening of club Infinity where the night never ends! Have fun tonight!" Bree announced. She was a popular supermodel with her own reality show and magazine. It was always a good idea to get her to speak at big events.

"Ryder!" Miracle exclaimed when she saw him then hugged him. "You're in town!"

"I'm back for a little while. I just booked a principal role on a TV show. I'm excited." Ryder said.

"That's awesome. I've missed you cousin."

"I've missed you too. We have to hangout before I go back to Cali." He noticed Millicent. "If it isn't Ms. Milli. I'm going to go remind her why she shouldn't have dropped me for Zane."

"I think the fact that he dropped her before she could blink is reminder enough."

"Wow, that's a shame. I'll see you later." Ryder walked away.

Then she noticed Hope and Gabe dancing together. She soon saw Jaime and they talked for a little while before Leon approached her and she walked away from him.

"You've been avoiding me for like two months now which is pretty hard to do considering we have a son and our family is all intertwined." Leon said.

"I don't want to see you. What do you want from me? You ruined my relationship with Irvin. You don't get to have me whenever you want me. It doesn't work like that." Miracle said.

"I love you. I want you."

"So what? You made up your mind. We're not on the same page. We may be young but I'm ready to settle down with you, you're not. I've dealt with that. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe we shouldn't be. We could be together and I could wait for you but like you said, we just weren't working and we needed to be apart and it looks like you were right. Being apart did us both well so let's keep it that way."

"What if I am ready to settle down with you?"

"What if it's too late? Leave me alone." Miracle walked away and found Destiny.

Meanwhile, Izzy wasn't having a very good time at the opening of Infinity. Liam was trying to cheer her up as she sat at the bar.

"Can I have another tequila on the rocks please?" Izzy asked the bartender.

"You've had enough, don't you think? You don't want to start the bad habit of drowning your sorrows in alcohol." Liam said.

"Maybe you're right. No more tequilas for me." She was already half drunk anyway. "You know, the first man that was good to me, showed me how good a dad could be and protected me was Darren and he died because of it. He was protecting me and Miry. Maybe that's why I wanted someone so evil. I didn't want to lose another good guy but this time he'd be my boyfriend instead of a daddy figure. Liam, don't leave me again. Don't die."

"I won't leave you, Izzy. Your dad, Brendan won't leave you either. Have you talked to Miry about how you feel? She probably feels how you feel."

"That's the problem. We're both too nutty from the situation to talk to each other about how we feel. We're both traumatized. It's just awful... How long can we keep this secret before the police finds out that it was me?"

"Shh. If it makes you feel any better, we can skip town and go some place nice, an island or something."

"Won't that make me look guilty?"

"If so, we'll be long gone before they find us."

"What about your dad and Sam? We can't avoid talking to them."

"We don't have to. If you want we can start packing and runaway after we leave the club."

"Let's do it."

The next song that played kicked it old school. It was Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) by the Pussycat Dolls which is Destiny and Matthew's song. He made sure it was played for a reason. He took the mic after the song went off.

"Everyone having a good time at Infinity?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah!" The crowd screamed.

"Great! Keep coming back! I just want to take a moment to talk to my Destiny."

"What is he doing?" Destiny asked Miracle and Neela. They both shrugged their shoulders, clueless.

"That song is the soundtrack to our relationship. You're the reason why I breath, the reason why I still believe. You are my Destiny. I won't ever let you go again." Bree's camera crew was moving in closer.

"I don't think I like where this is going." Destiny said. Matthew finally moved closer to her. "I hope he's not doing what it feels like he's doing." Now Matthew was directly in front of her. "What are you doing?" He got down on one knee. "Matthew, please don't do this." She said trying not to let the camera see or hear what she was saying. He pulled out a small velour box. She looked around completely overwhelmed and ran out the club before he had a chance to open the box and pop the question.

"Destiny!" Matthew called.

Miracle and Neela looked at each other.

"This isn't going to go well." Miracle said.

Matthew ran after Destiny and found her outside by her car.

"What was that about?" Matthew asked.

"I can ask you the same thing. Why were you going to propose to me and in front of the world after I told you I didn't want to get married again?" Destiny asked.

"Things are different now. I thought you may have changed your mind."

"I haven't. I don't want to hurt you. I love you so much, Matthew, I really do but I can't marry you. I'm sorry." She cried then got in her car and drove off leaving Matthew hurt, confused and a little bit angry.

I know you're all looking forward to getting deeper into Matthew and Destiny's relationship and what's going on in Destiny's head so stay tuned, it's coming next chapter.