ODDS OF LOVE - SEASON 14

Episode 4

" No ," Nigel said firmly as he almost pushed a startled tired looking Richard towards the doctor. " If Tania goes in then so will Richard. He's his father just like she is his mother. " He aimed an icy one eyed stare at Wilson who glared back. " Wilson can remain out here with me. After all neither of us have a proper place in this situation, right? "

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  Josephine sat at her writing table in the bedroom close to her young charges' own rooms. Her long thin yet strong fingers proceeded to write in the small black journal that was her sole companion in life.

  She wrote of her determination to rid her sweet naive employer Maxim of anybody that might stand between her and her ultimate goal. Which was to become the wife of Mr. Maxim Volokouv.

One particular woman stood between them though, she thought as her eyes gleamed with an icy intelligence. That obnoxious little wife of his who only cared for his name and money more than him. Natasha did not even have proper feeling for the children.

Then the eyes grew even colder as she thought of the other woman. The sulky  handicapped boy's mother. Ariel Kendall, who appeared interested in the father yet she sensed an unseemly closeness towards Maxim.

Nobody would ever stop her from winning her rightful place beside Maxim's side , she vowed to herself. Nobody.

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Richie, like the other kids at Gerald and Alfred's house, was supposed to be sleeping but he was wide awake in one of the guest bedrooms. He sat up in bed and thought about only two things that kept colliding within his young head.

His mother who had been killed by his father Richard Jenkins.

And Lewis who had tried to kill himself once more tonight.

Why ? Why had he done it? Both of them? Why ?

Then he heard a knock at the door and before he could even respond it opened. Rebecca Norland, the princess of the family, stepped inside the room in her bright pink pajamas with hearts holding the hand of his quiet as usual little sister Tanisha who wore her own pink and white footie pajamas and carried her beloved Black baby doll that Nigel and the good Richard had gotten her.

" Yeah ? ," he asked.

Rebecca came closer along with his sister. " Can ," she asked in an oddly hesitant unsure for her voice," we sleep with you in your room? Please, Richie? "

Richie sighed and, with a sudden rush of tears to his eyes, nodded. He didn't want to be alone right now either. " Sure. Why not? But don't talk a bunch of girl crap like you usually do. "

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Zipp Dennis couldn't sleep. He was alone in his hospital room and feeling even more fatigued as usual. He was only alone because he had told Ethan to go home for a decent meal and sleep in a real bed. After all , the man had been running on nothing but coffee and pure determination as he moved between work at the firm and his regular hospital visits to him. And , tomorrow was the surgery, he mused as he reached over slower than usual and lifted up the old photo album he had asked Ethan to bring him from the house.

The house. The one he shared with Flower and Diamond in far happier days. He didn't know what to do with it. He couldn't see himself living there again. Too many memories roaming there like unhealthy ghosts. Most likely it would remain empty until Flower was well enough to leave the mental ward. If his former partner, beard and friend ever would be ready. There was also her tea shop in Hyattsville to consider although at least she had a good staff and manager to keep it moving along swiftly. Ethan wanted him to recover in his own house, he mused as he looked at pictures of him and Diamond, him and Flower , him and his parents who had called him worried earlier, until he got to a faded one of him and Ethan at Ethan's law school graduation. Richard and Claire was in the picture as well also wearing their doctoral hoods and smiling confidently at the camera Chad Lowen had held but his eyes were still just focused on Ethan Stone.

He sighed as he traced the man's younger face through the picture. What if something went wrong during the surgery? Ethan was taking such a risk for him..... What if something happened to him on the operating table......

If anything happened to the man tomorrow he would never forgive himself.