Author's Note: I got my internet yesterday! So here is a new chapter of Broken Paradise. I am just loving all the feedback from the story and I hope you all like this story more and more! :)

Broken Paradise
written by missefron15

Chapter Four

It was loud. Way to loud for his liking. Keith rolled his eyes at some guy talking way too loud on the phone and being a jackass, you could say. Drew stiffed a laugh and looked at his man. Keith's eyes were filled with dread and sadness but he covered it well for others.

Keith looked over at Drew and saw that his hazel eyes were staring right at him. He sighed, "I'm fine, honey. I swear." He sweat talked.

Drew shook his head and gave him a soft smile, "It'll get better, Keith."

Keith gave a tight smile and turned his attention towards the baggage claim where Drew and he stood waiting for their luggage. "Keith?" Keith turned around and saw the woman he hadn't seen in almost 13 years.

He sighed, "Hello Joanne," he spoke looking into his ex-wife's eyes. He looked her up and down and noticed she'd gained a little bit of weight but looked good none the less. Her figure was curvier and she looked a little happier than she did with him. He looked beyond Joanne and noticed two little black haired boys with striking green eyes and a tall man that looked exactly like them.

"Is that your new husband?" Keith asked.

Joanne turned her eyes from Keith to Lewis and gave a soft smile. She turned back to Keith, "Yeah, that's Lewis. And our two boys Cruz and Finn." She told him with a small smile.

Keith smiled and waved to her new family which he received a wave back from all three of them and turned his attention towards Drew. "Jo, this is my husband, Drew." He said proudly.

Joanne's eyes grew wide when she looked at the gorgeous man candy next to him. He was 6'0, brunette and beautiful hazel eyes. His muscles bulged from his shoulders and he looked like a male supermodel. "I thought gay marriage wasn't legal?.." Joanne trailed off.

Drew rolled his eyes. "It is in Washington. That's where we've been living for the past ten years." He told his husband's ex-wife.

Joanne laughed and try to play off her dumbness, "Oops, my bad." She spoke and shuffled her feet.

Keith opened his arms, "Come here, Jo."

Jo didn't take no for an answer and went straight into his strong arms and broke out into tears. "Its okay, Jo, it's going to be okay," he whispered and kissed her head.

Jo cried into his shoulder, "It's not okay, Keith. You had a relationship with her, I didn't. I didn't know how to be a mother to her! My mom always mothered her and now she's gone. My baby is gone, Keith." She cried.

Keith sighed, "Jo, it will be alright. Just know that Gabriella is in a better place now, okay?" he asked, pulling his ex-wife back and looking into her eyes.

Jo sighed and nodded, wiping her tears away. "You want to catch a taxi van over to my mom's together?" she asked.

Keith looked to Drew and shook his head, "We're going to get a rental car. I think you should too." He told her and she nodded.

"Yeah that sounds like a more reasonable idea." She spoke and motioned for Lewis and her son's to come over and meet Keith properly.

Lewis Tyler sighed and looked at his two boys, "Come on boys, let's go meet mommy's friends," he told his songs.

Jo smiled when her two boys came to stand next to her along with Lewis. "Cruz, Finn this is Keith and Drew. Keith is your big sister's daddy." She told her two seven year olds.

The two seven year olds were confused. "Big sister?" Cruz asked his bright green eyes looking between his mother and this man named Keith.

Keith shuffled his feet from side to side and looked at Joanne. "You didn't tell them they had a sister?" he asked quietly.

She sighed. "I did, but they were about four when I told them. They didn't really understand what I was talking about, Keith." She turned to her two boys and knelt beside them. "Cruz, Finn, you had a big sister named Gabriella. You would've really liked her, boys." She commented softly.

"Do we get to meet her?" Finn asked, his brown eyes looking into his mother's matching ones.

Joanne sighed, "No baby, you don't. Gabriella died yesterday. She's in heaven with your grandpa."

Cruz looked confused, "Papa is dead!" he exclaimed.

Lewis looked at his wife with wide eyes, "No! Cruz not Papa. Mommy's daddy is in heaven. He was your grandpa too." Cruz nodded looking relieved.

Keith sighed from what he witnessed. Jo never told her new family anything really about her past life with him or her mother. That disappointed him but he couldn't do anything about it because it was not his life but her own. This was her bed and now she must lay in it.

"Uh, we're going to head on over to your mom's house. My parents are going to meet us over there." Keith spoke to his ex-wife.

Jo turned towards Keith, "Did you tell them?"

Keith nodded, "Yeah, besides me and Drew, my parents kept in touch too but not too much because they didn't want to interfere with Gabriella's life and what not."

Jo nodded, "Understandable." She whispered. "Alright, we'll see you there, then." She gave each Keith and Drew a hug each and watched as they left baggage claim to the car rentals and then out the doors.

"Babe, we need to head over to your mom's house now," Lewis spoke up after a couple of minutes of silence.

Jo nodded. "Okay."

Her eyes glazed as she looked out the plane window. As soon as she got out of the hospital she went home, packed a bag, grabbed some things and went to the airport. She didn't even care if people knew she wasn't dead or alive, she just needed out of New Mexico ASAP. She didn't want to drive to LA, knowing that it would take forever to get there, so she knew a plane ride would be easier.

She couldn't believe she'd pulled off the biggest thing that is hard to ever do in a lifetime. She faked her own death to get out of an abusive relationship she couldn't get out of. She was pronounced dead and she was no longer a doctor. What if she could never work as a doctor again? She needed Troy ASAP.

She knew the one person this was going to hurt the most was her Nana. Before her parents split when she was twelve years old, her Nana lived right next to East high school and she would frequently stay with her when her parents were fighting.

Her Nana was her rock and now she thought she was dead. Gabriella had been on the plane for about two hours now and she heard the flight attendant say that the plane would land in about forty minutes. She had to make it to LA as soon as possible. Troy always knew what to do. She just hoped he would forgive her for what she had done. He always had before. He always protected her when something was going wrong in her life.

Ten years ago…

Gabriella sighed and looked up at the big school in front of her. East High School was definitely imitating on the outside but she knew on the inside it would be even worse. She took a deep breath and sighed. "What are you doing standing outside of the school and not inside like everyone else is going?" a familiar voice spoke.

She smiled slightly and turned around and jumped into his arms. "I'm scared, Troy." She whispered.

Troy's blue eyes looked down into her chocolate orbs and he pushed her hair back away from her face. "There is no need to be scared. I promise you, babe." He spoke to his girlfriend of a year. Even though there was a three year difference in their age, Rose was okay with the relationship and so were his parents as long as he didn't hurt her.

"I'm just nervous and anxious and I don't know…" she whispered.

He laughed and kissed her forehead. "Stop worrying, kid. I love you, that's all that matters. Just think of me or your Nana if you're afraid. It will make it all better, promise." He whispered and they stared into each other's eyes.

She smiled and leaned up on her tippy toes and gave him a kiss. "I love you too, goofball." She spoke softly.

"You ready to head inside now? I heard your homeroom teacher was Mrs. Darbus this year…I gotta warn you, I've known her for a while, she can be a little over dramatic…" he trailed off trying to make her laugh.

She laughed and smiled at him. "You goofball, my Nana is amazing!" she spoke and pushed away from him now feeling a lot better about her freshman year.

She didn't realize that she'd been thinking about that memory for the rest of plane ride because when she looked up people were getting off the plane. She sighed and raced to get off the plane and get into a taxi cab. She knew where he lived because his mother had given her his address right before she'd quit talking to her Nana.

After getting a taxi cab, it took thirty minutes until she found his apartment complex. She then got out of the taxi and then walked to his apartment building. She looked for his name and found apartment 9C. She saw that the door was locked. She then thought of an idea. She hit the button to 7C and waited for someone to answer.

"Hello?" a British female voice spoke.

Gabriella took a breath, "Hi, I forgot my key and can't get in."

"And what do you expect me to do? Let you in? I don't know you." The British female voice spoke.

Gabriella looked at the name and saw her name was Tiara Gold. "Please, Ms. Gold. I'm trying to surprise my boyfriend before he gets home. He gave me a key but I forgot it at home. Now I just drove in from seeing my grandmother. Please help me out here. I haven't seen him in two weeks." She pleaded hoping that her acting was working.

Tiara sighed and Gabriella heard the buzzing. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah." Tiara spoke as Gabriella opened the door and went inside.

Now all she had to do was wait for him to get home. Oh they joy.

Rose sighed as she looked out her kitchen window and watched as the leaves from the trees fell off and onto the ground. She remembered when Gabriella used to play in the leaves right before she was forced to clean them up.

She heard Lucille's footsteps before her voice. "Hello, Lucy," she spoke softly.

Lucille Bolton sighed and placed a cup of tea that was in the living room into the kitchen sink. She looked at the older woman and placed a hand on her frail shoulder. "How are you?" she asked quietly.

Rose sighed. It'd been a few hours since she was supposed to go to the morgue to identify Gabriella's body. She called and said she'd be there but she was waiting for her granddaughters parents to get into town. She looked at her watch and saw that it was about eight pm. They would be here any minute.

"I'm okay, just a little nervous to see my daughter and Keith. I haven't seen Jo in a long time but Keith usually comes to visit every other year for Christmas." Rose told Lucille.

Lucille gave a small smile, "It'll be okay, Rosie." She told her.

Rose smiled, "How is Cade and Caroline dealing with this? And Jack too?"

Lucille shook her head, "Caroline is a mess. She's upset because she thought Gabriella as an older sister and Cade has been at the basketball court in our backyard playing non-stop. That's what Troy used to do when he was upset."

Rose sighed, "It'll get better."

"I should be comforting you, not the other way around. Didn't we just go through this earlier?" Lucille laughed.

Rose shook her head, "It's all good, dear."

The doorbell went off and Rose looked at Lucille. "They're here." Lucille told Rose to stay put and that she would get the door for her. Lucille walked to the foyer and opened the front door and saw Gabriella's father standing there with his partner, Drew behind him. "Hey Keith," she whispered.

Keith smiled to see his daughter's ex-boyfriend's mother, Lucille. "Lucy, how are you?" he spoke and pulled her into a hug.

"Oh you know, the same ole same…except for what happened today." She whispered into his shoulder.

Keith gave her a tight squeeze and then pulled away. "I know, honey. Where's Jack?" he asked as he and Drew stepped into his old house.

"He's on his way home from a meeting over on the west side of town at West High School. It ran late." She told him.

"Does he know about Gabriella yet?" Drew asked, speaking up for the first time.

Lucille sighed, "No. I didn't want to tell him while he was in the meeting. It was an important meeting."

Drew looked at the woman, "How is Rosie?"

"Honestly?" she asked and the two men nodded, "She's okay on the outside but on the inside…I think she's broken."

Keith sighed. This is not what he wanted to hear. He loved Rose Darbus like she was his own mother. He hated to see her sad. When her husband died, it nearly killed her and now that Gabriella was gone, she was all alone.

"Keith, honey is that you?" Keith heard her voice. He smiled and walked towards the kitchen where she was standing by the kitchen sink.

He looked her up and down and saw that she was wearing a long dress with a big scarf wrapped around her neck. Her greying hair was pulled back and her glasses were on the bridge of her nose. "Hey Rosie." He whispered and walked up to her and wrapped her into a hug. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you earlier." He whispered again.

She smiled into his shoulder, "You're here now that's all that matters. Your parents are on the way, they called earlier to let me know you told them."

Keith nodded, "How are you holding up?"

She sighed, "If I get asked that one more time…" she trailed off and made Keith laugh. He raised his hands in the air backing up a little.

"Alright, alright." He smiled and saw that Lucille and Drew were behind him now. "You remember Drew, right?" he asked. Rose smiled and nodded.

"Of course I do, you big dork. Drew, darling how are you?" she asked as she engulfed him into a hug. Drew hugged the woman back and smiled. "I'm good, Rose."

"That's good," she whispered and pulled back from the hug. The doorbell went off and Keith sighed.

"That has to be Jo. We ran into her at the airport." Keith spoke and Rose nodded.

"You want me to get the door again?" Lucille asked.

Rose shook her head, "No. I need to talk to Jo alone." Rose walked through the house and into the foyer to open the front door. When she answered the door she saw her daughter standing with two little boys and a tall man. This must be her new family, Rose thought.

"Hey mama," Joanne whispered.

Rose stepped aside and let them in and closed the door. "Hey Jo." She spoke and looked at the other three men. "And who are these gorgeous little men?" she asked.

Jo smiled, "Mama, these are my two boys Cruz and Finn. And this is my husband Lewis." She spoke to her mother.

Rose smiled at the boys, "Hello darlings, would you two like something to eat?" both boys nodded shyly and Rose smiled. "Lucy, could you take the boys and Lewis into the kitchen and fix them something to eat?" she called out.

Joanne looked to where she saw Lucille Bolton step through the kitchen doorway. Jo sighed. She'd always been jealous of Lucille, ever since high school. Lucille had the perfect husband, perfect kids and perfect life. She always wished her life was like that. Even her own mother loved Lucille. "Hi Joanne," Lucille spoke coming towards them.

Jo nodded her head. "Cruz, Finn go with Lucille. She'll fix you something to eat." She nudged her kids to Lucille. Jo turned towards Lewis. "Go get something to eat; I'll be in there in a minute. I got to talk to my mom." She told him and he nodded, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips.

Once Rose and Joanne were alone, Rose took them towards the living room and together they sat down. "You never told me you had two boys," Rose trailed off.

Joanne looked at her aging mother and sighed, "I'm sorry mama…I just moved on with my life. I wasn't going to dwell on the past." She told her.

Rose grew angry. "Dwell on the past? Your daughter was your past? She was your present the whole time and you took advantage of her and me! I raised that girl when you could raise her. At least Keith kept contact!"

Joanne took a deep breath. "Mama, I just couldn't deal with Gabriella or you and Keith too. Ya'll were always happy go lucky and when I found out Keith liked men and that I was stuck in a loveless marriage, I wanted out. I needed a fresh start even if that meant losing my daughter in the process. I knew Gabriella would always have someone in her life and I knew that was you. You helped me in so many way and I thank you every single day, Mama." Joanne cried.

Rose sighed and looked at her daughter. "You could've kept in contact. All she wanted was a family to love her." Rose spoke and got off the couch and walked towards the kitchen. She needed to get out of that room. Her daughter had changed. She sighed and got her phone and called the morgue to talk to the doctor about when to come see her granddaughter's body and identify her.

"Albuquerque Fields Memorial Hospital, this is Doctor Wyles in the morgue, how can I help you?" a male voice spoke.

"Hi yes, I spoke to you earlier about my granddaughter Gabriella Montez," Rose spoke.

Doctor Wyles sighed, "Yes, hello Mrs. Darbus. Let me go check with the main mortician who checked Doctor Montez over," he spoke and placed her on hold.

Five minutes later a panicked Doctor Wyles got on the phone, "Mrs. Darbus…uhh….I'm sorry to say this but your granddaughter's body is missing."

Rose shot up, "What the hell do you mean her body is missing?"

Doctor Wyles gulped. "It's gone. We opened up the body bag and there were sheets in the bag and not her body."

Rose looked around the room and noticed Keith was staring at her wide-eyed. "You better find her damn body. I'm calling the police and the FBI."

He was tired. Emotionally and physically tired. His whole body ached and all he wanted to do was go home and lay in his bed.

It'd been almost nine hours since Rose Darbus had called him with the news. It was now almost eleven pm and he was heading home to his apartment. Word had gotten to the chief that his ex-had died tragically and he was forced to go home from work.

He usually worked all-nighters to try and get his entire case load done but he was sent home two hours ago. He then left and went walking down the beach to clear his head.

She was dead. He couldn't fucking believe the girl he'd love all his life was dead. When he'd asked Chad to check more into Marshall, nothing came up; but he was going to continue looking because he had a funny feeling that Marshall was behind Ella's death.

Ella.

He hadn't used that name in a long time and it was popping up now.

Right after he heard the news, he turned his phone off and didn't want to talk to anyone. He didn't want to talk his family or Rose Darbus. He loved Rose Darbus even though she was a scary woman at times but he loved her like a grandmother.

He sighed as he pulled up to his apartment and turned his car off. He got out and then started walking inside his apartment building turning his phone on as we walked. He got into the elevator and pressed 3 and rode all the way up while his iPhone booted up. When the doors opened he saw he had twenty missed calls. Most of them were from his family and Rose.

He called his voicemail and the first thing that was said was this. "Troy, honey it's me Rose. I called the morgue and Gabriella's body is missing. Please call me back ASAP." Troy was walking to his apartment door when he saw a small figure and almost dropped his phone when he heard Gabriella's body was missing.

Troy reached for his gun and pulled it out, "Who the hell are you?" he shouted to the figure in the dark. The small figure slowly stepped out into the darkness and Troy was shocked at what he was seeing.

"Troy…" she whispered.

He couldn't believe his eyes… "Ella?"

I just love cliff-hangers :)

- Ashley