Sipping on a glass of white wine, Dawn found herself sitting face to face with Jeff just a few hours later, but as she expected, his stand up super son-in-law persona was long gone and he asked her "so why did you bring me here?"
Slightly taken aback, she answered "I suppose I could be asking you the same thing. Why am I here?"
"You're my sister. Why wouldn't I invite you?" he asked.
"Well, if you want me here, why are you so rude?" Dawn asked.
"I'm not rude" he answered matter-of-factly.
"I haven't seen you in years, Jeff and all you have been doing for the past two weeks is insult me, my house and my family? You're prancing around this hotel, acting like you're better than everyone. You weren't raised that way" she sternly answered.
"I'm getting a nice life now" he answered. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying the finer things in life."
"You have turned our family upside down! Upside down, left and right. You've stolen from us, you've been to jail."
"Don't ever say that in front of Julie!" he demanded.
"You didn't tell her?!" Dawn exclaimed. "Oh my God, Jeff."
He didn't answer so she continued. "So, you're lying to her. Lying to her whole family? Lovely. It's no wonder they love you so much. They don't know the real you. I TRIED, Jeff. I tried to give you a second chance because everyone told me you deserved it. But after all these years, you're just the same bad guy you always were, AREN'T YOU?"
He sat there with his arms crossed, clearly unfazed by what Dawn was saying and said "I wouldn't say that. I have nice things now so I'm not going to steal anymore. That's something."
Recalling her conversation with Stacey and Claudia two weeks ago, Dawn blurted out "do you love this girl?
"Of course I do" he answered.
"No. Do you really love her or do you just love what she can give you?" Tell me the truth."
Jeff was silent for a minute before he answered "what does it matter?"
Utterly disappointed, she shook her head and said "So you really are using her."
With a disgusting and smug look on his face, he looked her right in the eye and said "So?"
"SO?!" she exclaimed. "So you're taking advantage of this poor girl's wealth so you can get back on your feet? It's not right."
"Oh, like you didn't do the same?"
"EXCUSE ME?" she said angrily.
He replied sarcastically "Oooh, Dr. and Mrs. Ben Weiss..give me a break."
"I already had a business when we met..at a coffee shop. I didn't go actively searching for a guy with money. I didn't find out he was a doctor until our third date! We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment for years before we got that house" she said
"Oh please. You only have a business because Carol handed it to you. You didn't earn it."
"I didn't earn it? Jeff, I answered phones there for years. I went to school for what I do. She didn't hand it to me" Dawn answered.
He scoffed and said "Yeah, Whatever."
"No, NOT whatever, Jeff. My God, what happened to you? Why are you like this?" she asked.
"I don't need to explain anything to you. I'm getting an amazing new life out of this and don't have to do a damn thing. You're just jealous that you cant do the same" he said.
She said "You are reminding me exactly why I stopped talking to you. You're just.."
While every nasty name she could call him ran through her head, Dawn couldn't think of any that best described him and instead said "you're such a bad person. Shame on you."
"I guess we're done here?" asked Jeff.
She answered "I would say so."
Then, giving him the same sarcastic smirk he had given her several times over the last two weeks, said "now that you're doing so well, I think you can take care of the bill this time?"
As she began to turn and walk away, Jeff said "so..I take it you won't be there tomorrow then will you?"
"No" she said. "No, I won't" and she went back up to her hotel room, to go pack up her things.
As soon as she reached her room, she slammed the door behind her, startling Sunny, prompting her to get off the bed and ask "Dawn, what happened?"
Her anger began turning into heartbreak and she just slid down the door onto the floor and burst into tears. Sunny ran up to her and just held her close as she poured her heart out for the next few hours.
The last thing Sunny said to her before they fell asleep was "I'm so sorry but..at least you tried."
