Leave Me Breathless

Chapter 9

But who else can I turn to?

Oh, baby, I'm begging you

Won't you reach out for my dying soul?

And make me live again...

I Can't Make It Alone - Maria McKee

June 16, 1996

    Kristen stared at the ceiling of her darkened bedroom wondering if her father had gotten Marlena out of the house yet. She'd brought Marlena the drugged tea, just as her father had instructed, even staying to make small talk as the bile settled in the back of her throat. When Marlena and John had returned from her house that evening both of them had been acting odd. Marlena rushed off to bed, giving her paltry excuses, and Kristen had immediately known that something had happened between the two of them. When she'd brought the tea to Marlena, Kristen had seen a purple mark on Marlena's collarbone, partially hidden under the neckline of her nightgown. She knew exactly what it was, and who had put it there. The only thing that had kept her from exploding was the knowledge that her father would be taking the woman away that very night.

    Later, in her bedroom, as John was changing his shirt, Kristen saw red scratches across his lower back, and again, found herself seething inside. Did they make love? Would John tell her if they did? Just as she'd been about to ask him, a pain had torn across her abdomen, and she'd bitten her lip to keep from crying out. As soon as Marlena was gone from her life, the amount of stress she was under would disappear. That was the only way to save this pregnancy, because she had a sinking feeling in her gut that she would loose it otherwise.

    She rolled over, trying to get comfortable, when she heard a thump in the hall, and then a knock on the door. John was immediately awake, and out of bed, running for the door, "Doc?" Seeing Sami standing there, her faced etched with worry, John said, "Where's your mother?"

    "I don't know," Sami said. "I'm trying not to get scared, but she's not in her room, and there's a teacup spilled everywhere, so I thought maybe she went to get something to clean it up, but she hasn't come back yet—"

    John took off toward Marlena's room, pushing the door to her bedroom open, and screaming, "Doc!" His heart was racing in panic. She couldn't be gone.

    "I already checked her bathroom," Sami cried when John slammed the door open to the small room in the back. "I also checked Belle and Brady's room...she's not upstairs."

    John stood in the middle of the hallway. His mind was racing. His heart was thundering in his chest. How could Stefano have gotten to her with the updated security system, and the guards he'd hired to watch the house? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something odd. A picture on the wall that wasn't sitting right. He approached it slowly, catching his fingers behind the edge of it, causing a panel inside the wall to open up.

    "Fuck!" John roared. "No! No!"

    Sami didn't have time to say anything. She'd never seen him in such a panic. He disappeared inside the wall, following wherever the secret passage would lead, and out of the corner of her eye, Sami saw Kristen emerge from her bedroom. Sami turned, "Did you know about this? Do you know where it leads?"

    Kristen tried to look innocent. She tried to look scared, but her inflection came off as slightly surprised, and bored, "Oh! No, I thought this was the only house my Father owned that didn't have secret passages."

    Sami stared at Kristen for a long moment. She didn't trust her, and she didn't believe her. Without time to ponder Kristen's motives, Sami ran downstairs when she heard John shouting. She found him in the garden on his knees, sobbing, with something clutched in his fingers. "John...Dad, she's gone isn't she?" Sami asked him, sinking to the ground beside him, and feeling the wet dew covered grass soaking the fabric of her pajama bottoms.