Never Forgotten

Part 21

Part 21

"Roman calm down" John begged, putting his arms up in a surrender position.

"Don't you dare tell me what to do. This is all your fault" Roman yelled and pointed while stepping closer to John.
"Everything was fine until you showed up. I know something has been going on between the two of you....if she doesn't recover it's on you!!" Roman spat out with fury.

John took a big step back to put some distance between them and bumped into the bed behind him. Per reflex he turned around to make sure that Marlena was okay, his hand instinctively caressing her cheeks. Roman watched the intimate gesture and felt himself about to explode.

"Don't touch her!!" He yelled again with his face so close to Johns that John could smell his foul breath.

"Roman...stop" John said in a low calm voice and put his hands on Romans chest, trying his best to avoid the situation escalating.

Staring into each other's eyes John was surprised to see how much anger, hate and resentment lay behind Roman's cold stare.
Trying again to calm him down, John whispered "Not here, Roman" as he glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping beauty behind him.

That last small look that John gave Marlena, made Roman even more furious. Like Marlena needed John to protect her from her own husband.. He felt his blood pressure rise and before he knew it, his hand was in a tight fist ready to take a swing at John.

John was totally unprepared for the attack from the man in front of him.
Roman drew back his arms and punched his fist with all of the force he had, directly into John's cheek, making John stumble back into the bed and the machines next to it.

It took a couple of seconds for John to register what just happened. The taste of blood made him touch the side of his mouth, confirming that he indeed was bleeding. John shook his head and looked at Roman with repulsion before he tried to walk past him. Just when he was at Roman's side, Roman harshly grabbed the collar of John's shirt. "Don't ever come back" He said as he pushed John towards the door, where Sami, Eric and Carrie stood and watched Roman's assault.

"Oh my God dad..are you okay?" Sami gasped at the scene before her.

John and Roman looked at her and simultaneously said "I'm okay!"

                                  ———

In a small town not far from Salem a young woman had just received a message from the person she had reached out to through an inheritage site.
She had had a normal upbringing with a loving mother and father, who she had loved and cherished, but the older she got she felt like something wasn't right. Her parents had always been somewhat secretive about certain things, like where they were from and their own family history. And when she had asked them about when and where she was born, like all children, they would hesitate and the story would change each time she asked. A small voice inside of her had always told her that she was adopted. With her long blonde hair and light blue eyes she didn't resemble her parents. But she had never mentioned anything about it, afraid of hurting them somehow.

Her parents had tragically died 6 months ago in a traffic accident. And it was after that, that she started digging into her family history and ended up sending in her DNA to an inheritage site.
To her surprise there was a match.

And now at 31 years old, she was at a crossroads with the possibility of maybe finding out who she really was and at the same time, possibly facing that her whole life had been built on a lie.

                                ————-

It was past midnight.
Abe and John sat in the waiting area in silence. After the children had stopped the confrontation between Roman and John, he had reluctantly left Marlenas room. Everything inside of him wanted to fight Roman and throw him far away from Marlena and this hospital, but instead he had left the room in silence.
Nobody besides him and Marlena knew what they had shared during the last week and nobody knew anything about their plans of leaving their spouses to live happily together, forever. And now was not the time to inform Roman or her children. So instead John had left, with the loving eyes of the children burning a hole in his back.