Hope Wilson's Revenge

The Dumping of Nicholas Newman

Nick Newman was staring at his phone in shock. Sally had just dumped him out of nowhere. The oldest Newman son tried calling her back multiple times, each time going straight to voicemail. Something must have happened to her and that something must have been Adam. Nick started to get up off his couch when he felt himself being pushed back down. He looked up and got one of the biggest scares of his life. His former stepmother was staring down at him with an extremely pissed off look on her face.

"Sit down Nicholas. We have a lot to talk about." She said in an aggressive tone, one that he never remembered her having. He watched her maneuver around his living room with ease, a lot more ease than she used to have. He was about to ask her about it, when she started talking again. "Let's talk about your relationship with your brother, my son."

Nick sighed, he should have known that's why she was here, "What about my relationship with Adam? Hope, I know you love your son, but that makes you blind to his faults." Nick froze in embarrassment. 'Did he really just make a blind pun at a blind woman?' "Hope, I'm so sorry, I don't..." Hope waved him off, though she did think to herself that clearly Nicholas hadn't gotten any wiser with age.

"Don't worry about it, we have more important things to discuss. Like your jealousy and petty need to hurt my son."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not jealous of Adam."

Hope raised an eyebrow as she chuckled. Nick was eerily reminded of Adam. "You're not jealous of my son? Then why have you spent the last year including her entire pregnancy with my granddaughter gatekeeping Adam and Sally's interactions? Why date her at all? You knew that she and Adam still loved each other, that they still love each other even now. Adam begged you to back off and let them work it out, instead you called her and took her out. Why? All so Adam couldn't have her. It's pathetic Nicholas, I expected better of you."

Nick leaned back into his couch feeling like a scolded child. Wow, Hope really knew how to give a good guilt trip. Chuckling he responded, "That's good, Hope, an excellent guilt trip. No wonder Adam went off the rails when you died. You weren't there to keep him in line."

The Kansas native narrowed her eyes in anger before slapping Nicholas across the face. He sat back stunned as Hope snarled, "What is wrong with you? Trying to laugh this off, this is not a laughing matter. Grow up and act like the 50 year old grandfather you are. I swear you were more mature when I was your stepmother than you are right now."

"I'm not fifty." Nick pouted as he rubbed his cheek.

"Whatever" Hope rolled her eyes in disgust. "Anyway, back to your mistreatment of Adam, the real reason why we're having this conversation. You told him that you want a brother you can hang with and trust, did you not?" Nicholas nodded. "However, you never meet him halfway. You and your sister and mother refuse to acknowledge the good he's done. The three of you hold on to all the bad like your lives depended on it."

She held up her hand to silence Nick, she knew what he was going to say. "I know what he's done and I don't condone it. I told him that myself. But he has apologized for it and he's grown a lot since then. Faith is alive because of him or did you forget that he donated his kidney to her?"

"Of course, I didn't forget that. I will never be able to repay Adam for that. But a couple of good deeds don't erase a series of painful actions."

"Your father has a history of hurting you. And so does Victoria and Phyllis and Sharon. Yet you seem to forgive them with no problem. Why is that?" When he couldn't or wouldn't answer her, the blonde decided to keep going. "Because you are jealous of your brother. You never forgave him for falling in love with Sharon. Because it was bad enough that you had to share being Victor Newman's son with him, but the love of your life too, that was too much. That's why you went after Chelsea and Sally. Instead of giving them the chance to talk things out, you inserted yourself into his relationships and caused a lot of pain. For what, so you didn't have to sleep alone? Honey, you could have saved yourself the head and heartache and hired a hooker. And if your mother wanted to give you any flack, just remind her of her background."

Now the oldest Newman son was really in shock. The last thing he expected tonight was the ghost of his brother's mother confronting him and that she would be so accurate. She was right about a lot more than he cared to admit. However, he did feel the urge to defend himself. "I don't do things because of Adam. Chelsea and Sally are beautiful intelligent women, who wouldn't want to be with them? As for Sharon..." He awkwardly swallowed. "Sharon is a grown woman, she can do what she wants." He said in a halfway convincing tone. Nick looked up at Hope, she didn't believe him. And if he was being honest, he didn't fully believe it himself.

"You claim to love Sally. Name three things that you love about her and you can't say her beauty or intelligence." Nick froze, Hope put him on the spot.

"I um love her... drive, her drive... and um her. Her..." Nick sighed as he gave up. He really didn't know anything about her, anything that wasn't surface level.

"And you say that Adam had nothing to do with you pursuing her." Hope smugly responded. "Now leave that woman alone and let her work things out with Adam. Even if they don't get back together, they deserve the chance to truly talk about everything they went through without having to worry about your feelings. Can you agree with that?"

"I can. It's what Sally needs, what they both need. I will leave them alone and let them fix their relationship. And I will be the first one to wish them a lifetime of happiness, because I know once they talk all their issues out, they'll be back together. I should focus on my own life."

"You can start by fixing your relationships with your children." Nick looked at her confused. "Think about it, Noah is in Europe, Faith would rather be at school and you were the last to know about Phyllis because Summer felt like she couldn't come to you. Because you put Sally, the woman who destroyed her life, in front of her. What kind of father sleeps with the woman who ran his daughter out of town? You were so focused on hurting Adam that you didn't think of who else you were hurting."

Nick hung his head in shame. He had been a terrible father lately. There was a lot of work that needed to be done to repair his relationships with his children, Summer most of all. The former bar owner was so focused on coming up with a plan that he didn't even notice that Hope had come up behind him with an electric razor. She had started buzzing off his hair.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm helping you start your new life by giving you a new haircut. Because sweetheart, this haircut is tragic. Whoever's idea this was, hates you."

"It was my idea. I was trying something different."

"Well, you should never do that again. Now stay still." Hope finished shaving his head giving him a nice buzz cut. "You'll thank me for this. I promise you. There you go, you finally look age appropriate and not like a loser suffering through a midlife crisis. Time to start acting it." Nick turned around to confront her but she was gone. Gone almost as quickly as she arrived. If it wasn't for all the hair on his floor, he would have been sure he dreamed it.

He rubbed his newly shaved head; Hope did a surprisingly good job. She was right about one thing, he did need to fix his relationship with Summer. He sent his Supergirl a text asking if they could have dinner some night. The tired almost fifty year old then put his phone down and resettled on the couch, waiting for his daughter to text him back.