Never Forgotten

Part 13

Part 13

Marlena woke up with a startle to the sound of her alarm going off. Sitting up in bed, she glanced to the side, seeing Roman still sleeping.
She sighed heavily as she looked at the sleeping form of her husband and tried to recall how they had come to the place.
She did share some fond memories of him from when they first got together. She had fallen for him even though he was so different from her. He was so hot headed and impulsive. She used to find that charming at the time, but now it annoyed her more than anything. He wasn't the same man she married so many years ago and she definitely wasn't the same woman. When Roman came back he had a difficult time accepting that she had become independent and strong and didn't need his protection. Since then they had been drifting further and further apart. And now here they were, at a crossroad with her at the steering wheel, steering in the direction she wanted and needed, for the first time in her life.
She had to tell him that she wanted a divorce, something that she should have done a long time ago.

Getting out of bed, she suddenly felt a great sense of sadness and loss, unconsciously placing her hands over her heart. She looked back at Roman, thinking that their soon to be failed marriage was the reason for these sudden overwhelming feelings. But she felt nothing as such looking at him. No this was something deeper, something so heartbreaking and unsettling, that it felt like she was missing a piece of herself.
Closing her eyes she heard a voice she hadn't heard in years. The voice of the man, who had tried to destroy her life more than once.

"She must never find out...do you understand...never. You have to make her disappear, nobody can ever find out that she exists. And her, my precious Queen of the night... make her forget everything!!"

"Stefano...."

                                 ——————-

"Are you with me?" Jack shouted while he ran and looked over his shoulder.

John and Jack had planned a work out session to spend some time together before Brady's wedding, but John hadn't agreed to this marathon of a warmup. He did, although, have an ulterior motive for agreeing to spend their time together doing something he knew Jack loved. He hope that his son would be comfortable enough to tell him what was troubling him and why he was seeing Marlena

"Cut your old man some slack and slow down a bit" John laughed out of breath.

Jack saw his dad stop and rest his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Running back to him, Jack laughed and padded his shoulder. "Not as young as you used to be huh? Let's take a break on that bench over here".

They sat in silence for a while and watched people enjoying the park. Jack had a feeling that his dad wanted to ask him about something, because he kept taking a breath preparing to say something and then hesitated.

"Dad, is there something you want to say?"

"Yeah, well, maybe it's none of my business but I just wanted to know if you are okay?" John said.

Jack knew what he was hinting at. "You mean why am I seeing Dr. Evans?" Jack replied with a serious smile.

"Yeah...it's okay if you don't want to tell me, you know!" John said lovingly.

"No, it's okay. It's not  that I didn't want to tell you. It's  just that, at first, I wasn't even sure why I needed someone to talk to and share my thoughts with." Looking at his feet Jack continued. "You have always been my idol, my role model and my best friend and when I moved here I was alone and suddenly I had to figure out who I was without you to look up to everyday. It made me insecure in some ways, you know".

John looked at his son with pride. He knew that feeling, of leaving a place where you felt safe, secure and had people around you who were always there to guide you and help you, and then to start over and try to figure it all out again.
And the feeling of being all alone and confused, and needing someone to help you through that, was something he also knew all too well. When he first came to Salem, that was exactly how he felt, and just like his son, he had found Marlena.