Previously, On Concrete Shelves
- Emmet found a valuable clue in Iris’ phone.
- Gail grew jealous of Violet’s bond with Adrian.
- Gideon urged Miles to find Stavros Lakhani.
- A prank caused emotional harm to Natalie...
[.....]
[.....]
Scene One:
505 Auburn Rd., Stone Creek. [Thurlow Cottage]
James & Caitlyn’s Home.
Iris Galloway looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks and a kleenex in her milky white hands, she clutched it with all her will as she looked from each face to the next and focused on James Thurlow. “I didn’t mean to let things get this far! You have to know that.”
Her words etched into Emmet Thurlow’s mind as he closed his eyes in shame.
“You need to understand, darling, something like this,” Diem Joplin spoke from the seat across from her. Diem gave off a motherly gaze as she talked. “Lucy Hahn coming back to Stone Creek with Frank’s son. That isn’t something you hide from everyone. This has obviously escalated to a dangerous scenario.”
“I tried to prevent that.” Iris admitted.
“You did such a perfect job of that.” Emmet snipped.
Both women looked up at him as he stood in the doorway, not wanting to step foot directly into the room. After bringing Iris here he really hadn’t spoken a word to his fiance, out of guilt that he had been unknowingly helping her aide Lucy Hahn.
“I-” Iris started, but she trailed off into sobs.
James Thurlow stood before them. “We need to work together on this, all of us. Iris, I understand that you were only trying to protect your friend, it was noble of you to do so. But you understand that doing so you put Frank Nelson in harms way?”
“I’m so sorry.” She locked eyes with James, desperate for his acceptance.
He nodded. “It’s alright. Now that we know the truth we just have to figure a way to get to Frank at the cabin. I can’t believe that they have been under our noses all this time. Why didn’t we even think to check there in the first place?” He asked, mostly of himself.
“It’s not like we would have known.” Diem answered.
Emmet stepped into the room, which the other three noticed. “I should have known once Iris started asking questions about the Thurlow Cabin in the first place.”
She lowered her head.
“Lets just get this over with, shall we?” He demanded. “I’ll call Chief Wilkinson over so that we can go search the Cabin and maybe Iris should just stay here with Caitlyn and stay out of trouble?” Iris could feel his eyes glance over her, but she didn’t lift her head.
James shook his head. “Iris needs to come with us, just in case Lucy is hostile.”
“I promise she is harmless.” Iris protested.
“Well, just to be on the safe side.” James turned to Diem. “Can you stay here with Caitlyn and check on her every once in awhile. She hasn’t really been doing much these last few days so she won’t be too much hassle. But I know she still hasn’t had breakfast.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll get on breakfast.” Diem smiled.
Diem patted Iris’ shoulder and kissed Emmet’s cheek before leaving the room and entering the kitchen. Leaving James to gather his two-man crew and head to the police station to enlist Gideon in their search for Frank. It was about time that they got the law involved, although he wished it hadn’t come to this.
[.....]
Scene Two:
Stone Creek; Now Town
Candle Light City Park; Jogging Path
It took her two hours to get ready, mostly because she was starting to feel guilty about leaving Adrian at home with Violet and not being there herself. But then Gail Schmidt realized that it was probably for the best. All she ever contributed was to make their daughter cry.
She was disheartened at the very least and jealous at the most.
So instead, she decided to go for a morning jog with her father at the City Park. This would give them the perfect time to talk about her returning to work and maybe get some much needed advice from the man that raised her on his own. Gail felt she was becoming another person.
“One more mile.” David Schmidt wheezed as he jogged up to his daughter and because she was so deep in thought, he passed her by. Once he noticed she wasn’t keeping up, David slowed down to a fast walk. “Are you doing alright chipmunk?”
Gail glared. “You haven’t called me that since I was a little girl.”
“You had the cutest chubby cheeks. We used to joke around that you could carry an entire days worth of food in them, so we knew you’d survive if we lost you in Walmart like those distracted parents did to their children.” He watched her frown and gave her a nudge. “You used to laugh at that joke.”
“I was nine.” She replied. Gail stopped jogging and tried to catch her breath, it had been such a long time since she even attempted jogging. Now her father was running her into the ground. The distraction was nice, it had helped for the last mile, but now her problems were eating at her.
She sat at the nearest bench and her father joined her. “What’s the matter?”
“I want to return to work.”
David breathed out, he looked out at the Park and the current inhabitants and then back at Gail. “Are you sure that you’re ready to return to work, Chipmunk? I don’t want to press anything, so tell me if I am, but are you sure that you’ve got enough bonding time with Violet?”
“Violet doesn’t want to bond with me,” Gail quipped, “She just wants to puke all over me and cry. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong dad. The only time she stops crying is when she’s laughing at me cry or when Adrian comes home from work.”
She tries to keep herself from crying, but the shallow breaths from the run aren’t helping and it all comes out in a jumble of trying to catch her breath and gasps for air. Finally she gets herself to calm down long enough to look at David. “I’ve talked to Adrian, he said if I wanted to get back to work, I could.”
“I think I’m a bad mother.”
David put his arm around his daughter’s shoulder. “You’re not a bad mother.”
“Then what am I doing wrong?”
[.....]
Scene Three:
Stone Creek; Cuttlebone Lake
Thurlow Cabin; Outside
“There’s Frank’s car.” James Thurlow pointed out as they pulled up to the dirt road leading to the Thurlow Cabin. “Should we park here so that we don’t disturb them inside?” He asked, mostly hoping for Gideon to answer since he was the Chief of Police and had experience in these types of situations.
Gideon Thurlow nodded and pulled over. “We can walk from here.”
“What if they’re not in there?” Iris Galloway asked from the back seat. James looked back at Iris who was gripping onto Gideon’s seat, clearly she was nervous about the whole situation. Wether she was nervous about confronting her best friend or if she was hiding another secret, James didn’t know.
James could see that his son, Emmet, already had his accusatory eyes locked on Iris. “Well, first we need to check and see if they are. The fact that Frank’s car is still here is a good sign, you said that Lucy didn’t have a car here in Stone Creek, right?”
“How did she get here to the cabin then?” Emmet asked.
Iris gulped. “She called a taxi.”
“To bring her out here?” Gideon gasped.
“She got a hold of her ex. boyfriend’s credit card.” Iris replied with an answer that both shocked and impressed the three men. She walked ahead of them, obviously over the conversation and ready to get this whole thing over with so that she could return to her life, whatever was left of it.
James stopped the three men once they had the cabin insight and Iris staggered to a stop as well. “We need to be smart about this. If Lucy is dangerous we need to surprise her.”
“How about you take Iris through the front, James,” Gideon spoke, he nodded to Emmet and then towards the back of the cabin. “We will go through the back door and see if we can get a better hold on the situation. I’m just hoping that what we find in there is a best case scenario.”
“She’s not crazy.” Iris snipped, but was led off by James before Emmet could retaliate.
Gideon eye’d the younger man. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“Of course.” Emmet nodded, he followed Gideon to the back of the cabin.
They waited a second before they continued through the back door. Emmet checked if the door was unlocked and then proceeded into the kitchen. It had looked like someone was here recently so they must have been on the right track. He couldn’t remember the last time he was actually at the cabin.
But right now wasn’t the time for flashbacks. Gideon led the way into the hallway with his gun out, Emmet cautiously followed behind him, keeping out for anyone that could harm them from behind, but it seemed that nobody was in sight.
Once the reached the living room the found Iris standing there, alone.
“No one is down here.” She spoke, saddened.
Emmet eased, leaving Gideon to look around the cabin. He found his good friend James coming down the stairs, James shook his head. “There’s nobody here. They must have already took off. But Frank’s car is still here so they couldn’t have gone far, right?”
“Let’s hope so.” Gideon replied, fearing the worst.
Scene Four:
Now Town; Harper Smites
Deborah Nelson’s Office.
After her morning grabbing a cup of coffee at Alice’s Haven Cafe, Deborah Nelson found herself at work. She scheduled a couple check-up meetings with some of her clients so that she could stop fussing about her husband Frank and focus more on active things. Like work.
Deborah looked at the younger woman, Cassie Lakhani stood near the window peering out at the view of Candle Light City Park. The view that Deborah was able to snag was remarkable, her office sat on the eight floor and looked down upon the sprawling man-made forest of a park.
“How do you feel about your brother being locked up?” Deborah asked, steering the conversation back to it’s actual topic and away from Cassie’s natural way of diverting them. She couldn’t blame the younger woman, but she knew all of her tricks by now.
The brunette turned around and tried to smile, but all hope was lost. “I don’t believe he should be there.”
“Why not?” Her therapist asked.
Cassie wrung her hands. “Because even though he did shoot Miles Fowler and I, I don’t believe that Callum was truly responsible for the shooting. You can argue that he pulled the trigger, everyone keeps doing that.” Cassie looked down at her hands. “I think someone else was behind the shootings.”
Deborah scribbling something down in her notebook and then looked back up at Cassie. “How are things with Clifton Briggs? I understand that the two of you are still currently living together and taking care of your son, Lucian, am I correct?”
She nodded. “I thought we were talking about Callum?”
There was the diversion again, although this time it wasn’t about the view or some petty object. It was about Cassie not wanting to let go the control she had over the conversation. Deborah put down her notebook and clasped her hands together. “Do you think that the situation with your brother is a way to forget about your issues with Clifton?”
“I don’t have issues-”
“I’m just asked, metaphorically.” Deborah broke in.
Cassie nodded in agreement. “It could, yes. I could possibly be focusing on Callum so that I don’t have to worry about Clifton. But things between Clifton and I have been good for awhile. After what happened with his ex. wife and Catalina Cortez holding us hostage. Then Clifton wanting full-custody of Lucian-”
She stopped her self, knowing she had a rough last couple years. “Our arrangement is fine.”
“Arrangement?” Deborah asked in curiosity, she picked her notebook back up.
“Clifton and I are staying together for Lucian’s sake and although he is a very charming man I can’t fall in love with him because of our past. Of course, I’m not looking to fall in love right now, to tell you the truth Dr. Nelson.” Cassie smirked. “He’s a good guy.”
Deborah thought about her marriage to Frank and how it has had so many ups and downs over the course of it’s twenty-four years and how she still loved him today, even if he had the affair with Lucy Hahn and it produced a child. She shuttered at the thought. Hoping that Frank was indeed in Paris and not in some dirty hotel room with Lucy.
She closed her notebook. “Maybe we should stop there, give you a few things to think about for our next session?”
“Okay.” Cassie replied. “Thank you for everything.”
“Of course.” Deborah smiled.
[.....]
Scene Five:
Stone Creek; Now Town
HEAT Headquarters; Outside
The heat today wasn’t as bad as yesterday’s, but Natalie Marlowe wasn’t going to chance it or jinx it so she kept her thoughts to herself. The sound of her heels hitting the pavement as she rushed towards the building that she called her work.
After her conversation with her brother, Ian Kiefer, was a success she felt that their bond was restored. It had been sometime since she felt this close to her brother again. Every since Ian had moved to Stone Creek to chase their father, the friendship they crafted in San Diego had started to fizzle, mostly on Natalie’s part.
She sighed. But now things were finally falling into place.
Natalie stopped in her place. The man that was coming up to her was not a welcome face. In fact, he made shivers run down Natalie’s back, she touched the scars on her face and then regained her composure. “What are you doing here Oliver?”
He smirked. “I came to talk to you.”
“Not today.” She pushed past him, but he grabbed her arm. “Leave me alone! After everything that you did to me do you think I’d actually stand here and let you talk to me? You’re pathetic and I’d rather see you rot in hell than to give you a minute of-”
“Will you let me talk?” He barked back, causing Natalie to close her lips.
Oliver let her arm go. “All you ever do is talk! Damn. Maybe someday you should listen and then you might not be so snobby all the damned time.” He lowered his voice. “Helen doesn’t know that I’m back in town, so please don’t tell her that.”
“I owe you nothing.” She spat.
He stepped back. “You got me fired.”
“You tried to make me have a breakdown by leaving that note!” Natalie folded her arms. “Bravo, Oliver Cuthbert, you made me realize that my scars will always be there. That I’ll never be able to get over the fact that I’m fucking frankenstein’s monster! Do you know what Helen thinks of me now?”
She spat on his shoes. “She thinks I’m weak.”
“You’re not.”
Natalie knew this. She knew that she wasn’t a weak person and that her whole life she had tried to prove to everyone else that she was just as able as they were. Growing up into wealth didn’t mean she was naive, she was far from that. “What do you want?”
“I didn’t leave that note for you.”
“How do I know that?” She asked, defensive.
Oliver gulped, he licked his lips and tried to reach out her hand but she pulled away. “I wouldn’t have sent that note, Natalie, because you’re the one person I wouldn’t want to harm. In any way. Look, I know we had our rough times, but I still care for you very much.”
Stepping back from Oliver, Natalie kept a sour face. “I have to go to work. I can’t be late.”
“Can I talk to you later?”
“Leave me alone.” Natalie turned away and rushed into the building, away from Oliver and the heat that grew from within her. It was done, she had jinxed herself.
[.....]
Scene Six:
Stone Creek; Cuttlebone Lake
Thurlow Cabin; Outside
Emmet Thurlow paced around the room, it was as if his whole life was changing with every hour that passed. Not only was the summer heat getting to him, but they had no luck trying to find Lucy Hahn. He shook his head as he heard his father’s best friend interrogating Iris.
That was another thing. Emmet stopped pacing and looked at them. “This is pointless, we're not any further than we are right now. Iris really,” He placed his hands on his hips. “If there is anything else that you could tell us, anything at all, please do so!”
“Emmet, that’s enough!” James ordered, entering the living room and bringing refreshments. “We are all tired and worn out but we need to stay united.” He looked at the exhausted Iris Galloway and handed her a cup of tea. “Lets just all sit down.”
Emmet left the room, angry. “I need a cigarette.”
“You should quite those.” James said, but Emmet was already out the door and on the porch lighting his cancer stick. James thought about going out there, to stop him form smoking, but knew it might be exactly what he needed to calm down.
“Once he gets focused on something, he won’t stop.” Iris spoke up.
James nodded in agreement. “Are you sure there’s not something else about Lucy Hahn? Do you think she could be dangerous?”
He looked at Gideon, then at Iris. “She doesn’t have any weapons, does she?”
“I don’t know.” Iris looked down, her drink in her hands. “I never seen her with any weapon, the times I’ve been around her she has always been rational until now. When she came back to Stone Creek, something changed and I don’t know how to explain it.”
“What changed?” Gideon asked.
She looked up. “Her need for Frank.”
“I’m sorry, I should have said something earlier when I noticed her start to get obsessed with him. Lucy is my best friend and I thought that maybe she was right about him. That maybe he wanted to be with her and help raise her son. Do you know how it feels to watch as your best friend just derails?”
James sat next to Iris. “We just want to find them.”
“She really was adamant about Germany.” Iris revealed. “I would bet that is where she is taking Frank Nelson. She said something about having relatives there, I don’t know the specifics but if she told Frank she was leaving for Germany once, I bet that’s where she is taking him.”
“So what now?” Emmet asked, leaning against the doorframe.
[.....]
Scene Seven:
Stone Creek; Now Town
Candle Light City Park; Benches
David Schmidt sipped on the soda he bought from a vendor in the park. He looked at his daughter as she snacked on an energy bar. “As for the house,” he spoke, continuing the conversation they started while in line at the vendor. “I don’t know what Helen is planning.”
“What does your lawyer say?” Gail asked.
He shrugged. “I think Melinda just wants what is best for me, she’s a really good lawyer, but I don’t know if I agree with all of her tactics.”
“If it’s any consolation I know for a fact that Helen always messes up.” Gail stated. “Just think about how she tried to run me out of town when she had Mac locate Adrian and bring him back to Stone Creek. That blew up in her face, not only that, but it brought the three of us closer. A family, without her.”
It was true, Helen schemed to get rid of his daughter by bringing Adrian back. But in the end she only managed to isolate herself from him. From all of them. David sighed, thinking Gail had a point. Not wanting to ponder on it anymore, he turned back to a previous conversation. “So what were you talking about earlier, about Violet not liking you?”
Gail placed her energy bar back in it’s wrapper. “She doesn’t.”
“Why do you say that?” It was such a strong way to phrase her change into motherhood. David remembered when Gail was born and how it completely changed his life. how he all of a sudden felt this need to protect her fragile self and how he began to worry so much more.
“Violet doesn’t want to be around me. All she does is cry when I’m around and I don’t know what to do.” David frowned. “Adrian always knows what to do or say and the moment he comes home all she does in smile and giggle. Dad, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
He placed a hand across the table and on his daughter’s. “You will get the hang of it. Some people just ease through the transition better than others. If a child senses your fear, they won’t know what to do. They get scared. Just know that nothing you can do can make Violet hate you.”
“What if I’m a bad mother?” Gail gulped. “What if I’m like mom? I could have inherited her Schizophrenia and the baby senses that I might end up harming it.”
David shook his head.
“How do you know?”
“I just do.” He replied, he unscrewed his soda. “Listen, you need to focus on yourself right now. I know you were only diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, but if you don’t take care of yourself it could get worse. Violet needs you, she loves you. If you need to go back to work to make you feel better, than do it.”
“So you agree?”
David sighed. “I agree that you need to do whatever you have to do to keep that baby girl safe. If going back to work is going to keep you watching over yourself and eventually lead to Violet living a better life. Then so be it. But don’t you ever think your mother’s sickness is becoming yours.”
“She was a good woman.” He added.
“When she wasn’t having an episode.” Gail replied, grim.
[.....]
Scene Eight:
505 Auburn Rd., Stone Creek. [Thurlow Cottage]
James & Caitlyn’s Home.
Before she could even follow through with calling Seth Keeler to ask how his day was going, Diem could hear Caitlyn stirring in the living room. So she quickly finished putting together a sandwich for the woman of the house and checked the temperature of her soup.
Since James had left her in charge of Caitlyn, well, since she volunteered to look after her. Diem had been keeping tabs all day on her. Making sure she had everything that she needed, even missing a phone call from her boyfriend, Seth. But the phone call wasn’t too important, which did bother her.
How could she be in a secret relationship and not really mind missing his call? Diem sighed, grabbing the condiments and placing them back in the fridge before she picked up the tray of food and exited the kitchen.
Caitlyn Thurlow was standing up near the fireplace, her attention locked on a clock that sat on the mantel, it had seen better days. Diem remembered James’ father telling them about when it was given to the Thurlow family, but they were young children then and they didn’t pay much attention to the history.
“I brought you some lunch,” Diem spoke, placing the food on the coffee table and sitting down in hopes that Caitlyn would join her. “It’s not much, but I thought that maybe you should eat something. You need to keep your strength up, Caitlyn.”
The other woman tinkered with the clock, then turned to face Diem. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
Diem’s eyes grew in concern. “What?”
“James is my husband, Diem. Do you really think it’s not obvious that you are trying to get close to him again. Trying to play the fair maiden to poor little Caitlyn? Come on!” She bellowed, waving her hands in the air. “I know the two of you were close growing up-”
“Caitlyn.”
“No!” She barked, nearly losing her footing. Caitlyn looked around the room, her eyes glossy as if she had been crying all morning. But Diem couldn’t tell, she surely didn’t hear her crying at all. “No.” Caitlyn replied, calmly. “You’re not allowed to come in here and try to take James away from me.”
Standing up, Diem walked up to Caitlyn. “I’m not trying to steal James from you, I’ve got my own man to take care of me.”
“Oh yeah?” Caitlyn challenged.
“Yeah.” Diem defended, she folded her arms. “I’m dating Seth Keeler, Caitlyn. So please, stop putting motives behind my actions. I’m just here to help you out because believe it or not I feel sorry for your current situation and I only have good intentions.”
Caitlyn pushed past Diem. “Well isn’t your life perfect.”
She left Diem alone in the living room, alone to realize that Caitlyn was the first person that Diem had actually told about her relationship with Seth and it made her feel better. Maybe things would be looking up after all. But how would she tell her daughter Leia?
[.....]
Scene Nine:
Stone Creek; Now Town
HEAT Headquarters; Inside
“That’s it Claudette.” Natalie Marlowe exclaimed as she looked through the lens of the camera. She had went through a meeting this morning, a couple dress rehearsals and now a photo-shoot and still she couldn’t get her mind off of her encounter with Oliver.
But the photo-shoot was helping. Being able to direct how the pictorial would look had boosted Natalie’s spirits about not being in front of the camera anymore. The girls were her models now and she always instructed them so and accordingly. “Amanda.”
Her best friend looked up from her position in the photo. “Can you tilt your head a little closer to Jessica’s?... Just like that.” She looked into the camera. “That’s perfect! Jessica, I think you need to hold off on some of the refreshments in the lounge.”
The model turned bright red.
“There’s the flush look I’ve been looking for.” Natalie spoke, she smirked. “Now you look perfect, like an embarrassed little virgin. The rest of you should take tips on how to look innocent, or like virgins!” She got a couple models to snicker and loosen up.
But in the back of her head, Oliver stood. His hands behind his back and this smile on his face, like her knew something that Natalie couldn’t quite put a thumb to. She wondered, what if Oliver didn’t try to sabotage her? What if he was telling the truth.
“Are we done yet?” Amanda whined.
Natalie snapped to. “Right! I think we are done for the day, I got the shots I wanted. Have fun tonight ladies and remember, if you want to act like a classy woman then don’t accept the fourth or fifth free drink from the same guy. He’s only trying to get in your pants.”
They giggled and rushed off, all except Amanda who walked over to Natalie. “Someone’s far off on Venus.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I know my best friend.” Amanda said.
Natalie smirked, falsely. “I’ll see you back at home.”
“Okay.” Amanda sighed, skipping away and leaving Natalie to pack up her things.
She knew that Amanda was right, that she was being completely obvious with her doubt today and that it was affecting her judgement, but she couldn’t help it. Natalie grabbed her things when Helen Schmidt walked into the room. Although she was her boss, there was no reason for Helen to be down here.
“Can I talk to you?” Helen called, not waiting for an answer. “It’s about the incident with the mirrors.”
The affliction she assigned to the words caused Natalie embarrassment. “What about it?”
“It looks like you were wrong when you accused Oliver Cuthbert, he might be a sexist womanizer but he didn’t set those mirrors up in that room.” The older woman eye’d Natalie, as if she were accusing her of setting the mirrors up on herself. “Maybe you should think next time before you accuse another innocent man?”
Natalie shook her head.
“Good.” Helen looked around, before leaving. “You’ve done some nice work today, I was watching from the hallway. The girls really like you Natalie. Don’t be making a fool of yourself anytime soon, alright?”
Everything changed, which wasn’t a surprise. Whenever Helen walked into a room, she usually had that power. To change opinions, emotions or even people. Natalie watched as she left the room. Leaving Natalie completely alone and confused.
[.....]
Scene Ten:
Stone Creek; Now Town
Stone Creek Police Station; First Floor
She had spent the last couple weeks splitting her days between her brother, Callum Lakhani and her son, Lucian. Although a lot of people have given her grief about getting involved with her brother’s legal problems, Cassie knew that she had to help him out. There was really no other option.
So while Cassie was at the Police Station, Clifton Briggs took care of their son.
Who would have thought that something so bizarre as her shooting could have brought the two together as parents to Lucian. It was as if everything just fell into place and whenever Clifton wasn’t taking care of Lucian, he was tending to his business.
“How’d your meeting with Deborah Nelson go?” Cassie snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Miles Fowler standing behind her. She looked at him confused. “I started seeing her, just to make sure I check-out. The other day I saw that you were scheduled for an appointment.”
“That’s supposed to be confident.” Cassie relaxed, a playful smirk. “You should know all about confidentiality Detective Fowler.”
Miles rolled his eyes. “Still not given the full bill of health, so I’m just a civilian helping on Emily’s case.” The words started to feel less than grim the more someone said them. “How are you doing Cassie? I know I asked you about school already-”
“I’ll get back into once everything is stable around here.” She hastily replied. “Although I really don’t know when that will be. This feels like the longest year of my life. It feels like Callum has been in jail for years now! It doesn’t make any sense.”
“After what Gideon said, I’ve been trying to locate your father.”
Her eyes lit up. “Any luck?”
“None.”
It’s not secret that Cassie hadn’t spoken to her father in years and it wasn’t that she had a horrible upbringing it was simply that she never really bonded with her father the way her siblings had. When Stavros finally did abandon their family, it didn’t hurt Cassie as much. In fact she felt a sense of relief.
She cocked her head to the entrance way.
But Cassie didn’t have time to form words, Miles took the liberty to form them for her. He stood up straight, a nervousness in his words as the man walked up to them. His eyes locked with Miles’ light blue eyes. “I’m here for my son, Callum.”
He then turned to Cassie. “Hello, darling. It’s been quite sometime, hasn’t it?”
[.....]
Scene Eleven:
Somewhere Outside of Stone Creek.
A Hotel Room.
It was finally silent.
The last couple of months had been so excruciatingly loud that even her thoughts were shouting at her as Lucy Hahn tried to keep her plan from falling apart. Spending so much time trying to convince Iris Galloway that she was the love of Frank’s life was hard enough. But having to think about it.
To think about their past and how vivid it was. The hardest part was knowing that Frank might not ever love her like he does his wife Deborah. One day, he will fall in love with their son Sebastian, Lucy was sure of that. But nothing could stop her from thinking that he’d never love her again.
She rocked Sebastian back and forth as he fell into a slumber.
Now things were falling into place and she was safe. As safe as safe were to get and far away from Stone Creek and that horrible wife of Frank’s. It did hurt her that she had to leave her friend Iris behind. But there was no way of taking her with them.
Having Frank with them was all that mattered.
Lucy’s eyes wandered around the room. The light colored walls matched the pastels of the bed comforters and laying on the bed in his own sort of slumber was her future husband, Frank Nelson. The man looked gorgeous even in his sleep and she made sure that he knew it one day.
His hands lay on his chest, tied together with a durable rope just in case he had anything else up his sleeve. Lucy knew that he was brainwashed by his wife and that she needed to slowly make him come to the realization that he loved only Lucy. It might take years.
But Sebastian would help. She looked down at their baby boy and smiled heavily, he was the key to this whole thing and she was so grateful to have given birth to him. Sebastian was the blessing that Lucy had been praying for for years and to have him in her arms and completely dependent on her was riveting.
She knew that one day Frank would be completely dependent on her as well.
Lucy smiled gratified. “Welcome to Germany.”
[.....]
Scene Twelve:
Stone Creek; Sage Gardens
Cuttlebone Lake; Pier
Since her conversation with Helen Schmidt, Natalie couldn’t get Oliver out of her mind. But she didn’t know exactly why. Their time together was sparse at the most and if there was any sort of tension between the two it was because they were always at odds with one another and not because she had feelings for him.
But Natalie had to admit that the two times they did have sex she felt extremely safe with him. It was something that always nagged her about Ryan Bauer. She had felt like she was always trying to fight for Ryan and keep him away from Marina Thurlow. But Oliver never took his attention off of Natalie.
It was something that she liked about him.
So she agreed to meet with him and hear him out. To see what he had to say about why he was back in Stone Creek. When Natalie got to Cuttlebone Lake and parked her car. She found Oliver skipping rocks into the Lake off the Pier. It was definitely romantic the way the moon lingered in the sky and danced on the water.
“I was thinking you’d stand me up.”
Natalie smirked. “You deserve for me to hear you out.”
He turned to Natalie. “You look hot. How romantic would it be for the two of us to have sex right here on the pier?” He got closer to her and smirked devilishly. “Or we could have a nice little dip in the Lake without our clothes on. You know to lighten the mood.”
“This isn’t High School, I’m not getting into that filthy water.” Natalie turned away from him to hide a smile. “Besides, you wanted to talk to me about something, so damn it Oliver, talk to me about whatever it is that you wanted me to hear.”
“I didn’t do that thing with the mirrors.”
Natalie looked down. “I know that now. I just thought that after everything I put you through and getting the girls to help get you fired for sexual harassment. I thought that maybe you would just retaliate and try to get me fired as well. But I was wrong.”
“I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
“It all just seems so silly to me now.” Natalie folded her arms and locked eyes with Oliver. “How is that my own boyfriend couldn’t make me feel the way that you could make me feel? I’m not saying that I forgive you for being a pig!”
Oliver chuckled. “You make me horny.”
“You’re still a pig.”
“Run away with me.”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “You live in this High School fantasy world, don’t you?”
“I’m serious Natalie.” He said, licking his lips, Oliver gulped. “Your parents are no longer here in Stone Creek and you said it yourself, your own boyfriend doesn’t turn you on-”
“I didn’t say that!”
Oliver made face that caused Natalie to smile. “Come away with me and leave Stone Creek. I’m a great photographer and probably some of the best sex you’ve ever had. You have an amazing eye for fashion and killer legs to match. We can leave here-”
“And go where?” She ran a hand through her hair.
“To Paris.” Natalie drew a blank face, her brown eyes tiny and nervous by his words. “Come to Paris with me and get away from here. I’ve got a job overseas already lined up for myself and I’m sure you can get another job in an instant over there.”
“You’re crazy.” She stated.
Oliver shrugged. “Be crazy with me.”
Next Time, On Concrete Shelves
+Natalie has to make a choice about Oliver.
+Dizzy causes Mac Kern discomfort.
+Diem is concerned about Caitlyn.
+Unable to resist it, someone gives into a kiss...
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