John and Marlena (Finally) Get a Q!

Chapter 124 - Home BitterSweet Home

Kristen stared at the phone, ignoring Maya as she rattled the pots in the background. Where the hell was John and why wasn't he calling her? She'd spoken to him once the other day when he called from his conference in New York. Only a brief call, he'd spoken to Maya for longer than he'd been on the phone to her.

Why the hell would he go away now, of all times?  When she was overdue to give birth to their baby after a complicated pregnancy? When they should be finishing off the nursery and deciding on names for the baby?

Pouting, she reached over and picked up the portable, fondling it as she contemplated John's return. She would make him feel *so* guilty for abandoning her here with Badjelly the Witch. Alone and afraid and miserable. If she was going to be miserable, by G*d he was going to share it.

Maya looked over at Kristen and saw her staring intently at the phone, lost in what passed for thought in that addled head. She could barely believe it when Kristen had come out of the sedation asking for John. She appeared to have absolutely no memory of what had passed between them the last time she'd seen him. It was as though her mind had chosen to block out all memory of the incident to protect her from the reality that she had no future with John. Because to Kristen, that was no future at all. All she was, and all she ever could be, were tied inextricably to John. And when he left her life forever, she would have nothing left.

It was a pretty sad way to be, Maya mused. In some ways she almost felt sorry for Kristen, knowing what her future held. But then, she'd brought it all on herself. She had sacrificed her integrity, her self-respect and everything she possessed, for a lie. For something that she'd convinced herself existed. In defining herself by the man she had coveted, she'd defined herself out of existence. Because the woman that John had once loved had been lost forever once she'd succumbed to the innate DiMera traits that Stefano had imbued in her years earlier. Shaking her head, Maya turned back to her task chopping onions for the quiche she was making for dinner.

Kristen waited until Maya was no longer watching and then she quietly pushed herself off the sofa. Supporting her huge belly with one hand, she slowly made her way up the stairs. That b*tch thought she was stupid. Thought she didn't know when she was being watched. Well, she wasn't about to let some jumped-up Italian tart control her every move.

It was bad enough not being able to get out of the loft. If she even *looked* like she was thinking about it, Herr Maya was there, practically packing an Uzi to stop her. Well, she'd show her. She'd show them all.

Dropping heavily onto her bed, she stared at the phone again. She had already tried calling the hotel he had been at twice, but both times he was out. And the New York branch of Alamain Industries was only prepared to say that he couldn't be reached in the meetings he was attending.

How convenient. The little niggling voice at the back of her mind was becoming louder as the hours slunk by. How do you know they're telling you the truth? But where else would he be? Why would he go to all that trouble of having everyone lie for him? Unless...

Her lips thinned as she stared at the phone. Was it possible? Was John's business trip simply a front for him to go away with someone else? With *her*?

With jaggedly broken nails, Kristen stabbed at the buttons on the phone and then lifted it to her ear. A scowl settled on her face as she waited, the phone ringing resonantly in her ear. That's right, you're not there are you? You're with John, you thieving, whoring sl-

"Hello?" Marlena's sounded tired even over the phone. Caught off-guard, Kristen just sat there, staring at her reflection in the mirror in surprise. "Hello, is anybody there? Hello?" She heard Marlena's sigh of exasperation as she hung up and she let the phone drop slowly in front of her.