Hope Wilson's Revenge

A Fresh Start

Adam Newman was sitting at his kitchen counter eating some breakfast before going to work. Another exciting day of sorting Nate's mail and playing solitaire at his computer was awaiting him. But the youngest Newman son also felt at peace for the first time in months. He still was half convinced that he had dreamed up his mother visiting him last night, but he didn't care. Hope Wilson's son got to hug and talk to her again and it felt wonderful.

A knock at his front door interrupted his thoughts and he went over to answer, he would have never guessed who was on the other side. Sally Spectra was awkwardly standing on his doorstep looking nervous as hell. Their eyes met and his heart skipped a beat. Adam just couldn't help it, he still loved this woman. "Sally? Hi, come in" Adam stepped aside to allow the redhead to enter. "This is a surprise. Does Nick know you're here?" Sally winced at that question, the fact that Adam even had to ask was another eyeopener to how much control she had allowed Nick to have over her. God, she was embarrassed of herself.

"No, he doesn't. And it's not his business. Nothing I do is his business anymore actually, we broke up last night." Sally explained while staring at the wall; she couldn't face Adam yet.

Adam had to resist the urge to hide his glee and threw out his fake sympathy voice, "Oh no, that's too bad. Are you okay?" Apparently he didn't do a good job hiding it, because Sally picked up on it right away. However, she didn't want to start something with him, so she chose to ignore it.

"Yeah, I'm doing okay. It was for the best. Because while I care for Nick very much, I don't love him." Adam hitched his breath as Sally turned around. "I couldn't love him because I love someone else... you, Adam. I'm still so in love with you. I never stopped. There was never going to room for any other man in my heart, not with you occupying every space." She was crying now, but she didn't care; it felt so freeing to finally allow herself to feel this again. "I can never apologize enough for how I treated you, especially when I was pregnant. You were so excited for our little girl and I wasted so much time worrying about keeping Nick happy out of guilt. I couldn't enjoy my pregnancy because of my own selfish choices."

That crying had turned into full blown sobs and Adam threw his arms around her in a warm embrace. "Sally, Sally, please don't blame yourself. We both made choices. Very selfish and short-sighted choices. But, hey..." Adam lifted up her chin so he could look her in her beautiful blue eyes, "we got through it. If we can get through the pain of losing our little girl, we can get through anything. Because we love each other. I'm still so in love with you too." They kissed and it felt like fireworks were exploding. They had missed each other, missed this.

For what felt like the 50th time, Sally cursed herself for clinging to Nick out of fear for so long. She would never be able to forgive herself for allowing this pain to drag out for as long as it did. Nor would she ever forgive herself that horrible handshake. She had spent a sleepless night going over her entire relationship with Nick in her head, she hated the person she had forced herself to be in order to keep him happy. Most importantly, she would never forgive herself for putting Nick and his feelings ahead of her unborn child.

"Hey?" Sally came back to Adam's living room at his question "What's going on in that head of yours? You seemed pretty spaced out there"

"I'm thinking of all the things I hate myself for. If I had just been an adult and faced my feelings instead of hiding behind them and Nick, who knows where we would be right now. I was punishing you for breaking my heart and ended up punishing myself more. And Ava." Sally started sobbing again. "I put so much unnecessary stress on myself juggling Nick's happiness with fighting my feelings for you and trying to start a business and she paid for it. I was supposed to look out for her and I let her down." Adam held Sally once again as the sobs racked her body.

"Sally, Ava's death was a tragedy, it wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't yours either. I'm so sorry for making you think that it was. You were grieving too, it was unfair of me to put that on you. You didn't deserve that. You should hate me, I don't know why you don't." Sally sniffed. Adam let out a huge sigh of relief; he had longed to hear those words from her. He kissed her again with as much passion as he could muster. "Does this mean you forgive me?" She asked in a slightly teasing tone.

"Most definitely." Adam smirked than sighed. He wanted to just take her right to bed, but he knew they had other things to talk about. So much had happened, they couldn't just jump back into a relationship. "As much as I would like to keep this conversation going, I do have to go to work." Sally nodded and started to leave. "But" she turned back around, "I'm not opposed to finishing it later tonight at dinner. Say around six?"

"Where?" She asked, wearing a bright smile.

"Here, this is the kind of talk we should have in private. Especially since other things might be happening later." Adam trailed off in a seductive tone. Sally smirked in response and said she would see him at six. They had their dinner, the first of many that night, and before they knew it Sally was living at the apartment with Adam. She never left Adam's side again.