Scenes From a Soap Opera

Johnny Discovers the Truth

Johnny Abbott was sleeping peacefully for the first time since he was poisoned. Someone snuck into the room, not to hurt him, but to watch him. Watching him from afar wasn't enough this time. The mystery person lost track of time staring and praying over the young boy. They were so focused they didn't even hear another person enter the room.

"What are you doing here?" Billy whisper shouted.

Chelsea stepped back from the bed wearing a guilty expression. "I, I had to see him. I know I gave him up, but he almost died." She moved towards Billy. "He almost died without knowing the truth."

The youngest Abbott stared at her in disbelief. His son had just been at death's door and Chelsea was thinking about herself. "You saw him, he's going to make a full recovery, you can go." He said trying to be polite while also getting her to leave. "Chelsea, I mean it. Get out of here before Victoria sees you."

"Too late." Both adults turned to see Victoria Newman standing in the doorway. Chelsea flinched at the intensity of the death glare the ice princess was shooting at her. The over-tired and pissed off mother stormed into the room to give her least favorite ex sister-in-law a verbal beatdown. "I cannot believe that you had the nerve to show your face here. After everything you've done. I want you to stay far away from my son."

"He's my son." Chelsea fired back.

"No, he's not. He hasn't been since you signed those papers." Victoria snapped. "He's your son's cousin and nothing else."

"I gave birth to him."

"Because you drugged and raped his father." Victoria could still hear Chelsea's ugly and hurtful taunts in her head. Forcing herself to rebury them, she continued, "Then tried to use him as the ultimate grift, so forgive me for not wanting you anywhere near him."

"What?" All the adults froze, Johnny had woken up and judging by the look on his face had heard everything. Victoria felt all the blood drain from her face, she was horrified. Chelsea wanted to throw up and Billy was wishing the ground would swallow them. This was not how Johnny was supposed to find out.

Billy and Victoria were struggling to come up with what to say, unfortunately Chelsea didn't have that problem. "Johnny, sweetie I'm sure you have some questions."

"Stay away from him." His parents both shouted at the ex-grifter. The young boy flinched as Chelsea approached him. His mind was on overload trying to process everything he had just heard. He screamed for all the adults to leave; he wanted to be alone. They had to be forced out by the doctors, then separated by the hospital security. All three went their separate ways for now, the damage was done.

Newman Executive Office

Adam was sitting at his desk reading a new contract when Victoria stormed in. He sighed in frustration wondering what his older sister wanted this time. The Newman Black Sheep hadn't seen her since she found out she wasn't getting her old job back. And he honestly thought she'd be spending all her time at the hospital.

"Victoria, how's Johnny doing?" He was genuinely concerned about his nephew.

"He's doing okay. We found out what was wrong. He was poisoned by Ashland." Adam's eyes bugged out, but before he could comment Victoria kept talking. "That's not why I'm here though. It's about Chelsea."

Adam's head cocked in confusion. "What did she do now?"

"We caught her in Johnny's hospital room, staring at him. Naturally we told her to leave, she refused, we got into a fight and the truth came out. Her truth." Victoria replied wanting to place all the blame on Chelsea so she didn't have to deal with her own guilt.

The CEO leaned back in his chair. This was the last thing he needed right now. "Did you need me to talk to her?" he asked, not really sure what she was doing in his office.

"No, I can handle that grifting bitch. I wanted you to know so you could talk to Connor. I figured Johnny won't be able to keep quiet about this for long. Connor should find out from you." Adam nodded, feeling numb.

"Thank you Victoria. Really, I appreciate it." Adam sighed. "I'm sorry she put you through this."

"I'm sorry that you're in this position too." The ice queen stated before leaving the office. She was hoping that Johnny had calmed down enough to let her and Billy talk to him. Adam put his head in hands as he pondered his next move. Connor had to be told this news in a gentle and delicate matter, two things he was not known for. He picked up the phone to call Sharon, hopefully she'd be able to guide him through this.

The Grand Phoenix

Chelsea Lawson slammed the door to her hotel room and stomped over to her mini-bar. She could feel the steam radiating off her body. Victoria and Billy were so nasty to her and Johnny... She had to admit the look of shock and disgust on Johnny's face hurt more than she cared to admit. There was a knock at her door and she braced herself for Billy and or Victoria to come in screaming. To her shock, it was neither.

"Hello Ms. Lawson." A smirking Ashland Locke said as he entered her hotel room.

"What are you doing here?"

"I have a proposition for you." Chelsea gave him a intrigued look so he continued. "How would you like to get out of here?"

"Out of here, how?" She questioned. "I'm in the middle of a trial, I just can't leave."

"Why not?" Ashland asked as the con's eyebrows shot up her forehead. "I can get you out of town, under cover. No one would even notice until tomorrow."

"Why would you do this for me? We've hardly interacted." Connor's mother asked in genuine confusion. "Not that I'm ungrateful, because I am."

Chuckling, the Lockeness monster responded, "Because you've been used and abused by the Newmans the same as me. They should suffer for all their crimes, don't you agree?" He took her smirk as encouragement. "I figure you get out of town, then do what you want. Plan your ultimate revenge. You know Adam deserves it."

Chelsea gave him a sinister grin, "When do we start?"