An AU rewrite of the Salem Strangler storyline. How would it play out if John Black came to Salem in 1982?

Their love was rumored fact and fiction, blurring the lines between reel and real. After a decade apart, John Black, a retired baseball player and now Hollywood star, reaches out to Marlena Evans with an opportunity she cannot refuse. The challenge? They must contend with feelings of longing and attraction, leading to an arrangement.

Post Marlena's 1992 return to Salem. Marlena made the decision to give her marriage to Roman a try, but is struggling. John, putting his own pain aside, is frequently there to help her. Thank you to Ms. Goldie for the cover art and for inspiring me to revise and continue this story!

This is Act II of The Giuoco Piano which is a sequel to The Exchange Variation. I am opting to split this into different books on Wattpad, because it's long and I can. In Act I, we saw Stefano Dimera send Marlena on a dark and twisted treasure hunt to remind her of who she was when she she adopted the alternate identity of Grace, a woman who seduced, stole and murdered for Stefano. Stefano had Carrie and Will and was holding them prisoner to force Marlena to play his macabre chess game. The first act ended with Marlena agreeing to stay with Stefano in order to secure the safe release and ongoing safety of her husband and her family. Roman, who had stood by her during the intervening months as she wrought a trail of destruction around Europe at Stefano's behest, was understandably distraught. Act II opens several months after Roman and the others left Marlena behind on the small island in the middle of Indonesia....

Marlena Evans never imagined her carefully ordered world would be ripped from beneath her, nor that she would wake to the cold press of a blade at her throat and the smoldering gaze of a man who is both her captor and her savior. In a world where the past doesn't stay buried, where demons don't die, and where love is the most dangerous trap of all, they must decide-will they fight their fate or surrender to the storm that is pulling them under? ---------- This story is set in 1999!

An AU story about Marlena's 1993 pregnancy. The blood test was inconclusive, John sends Kristen packing, and Sami never witnessed anything. A story of healing, and the final acceptance that fate is out of our hands.

I wrote this many moons ago and never got to finish it up. Going to try to rediscover the story and characters as I go. You're welcome to come along for the journey, if you wish. This is my take on the affair from 1993, set in that moment in time. Hope you enjoy (: