Crickets chirped in the night air and the full moon cast a blue glow over the terrace just outside the family room at the Blackthorne mansion.  Inside, the party was still going strong, with droves of Hollywood personalities showing up to welcome Nathan Blackthorne back from his extended exile.  On the terrace, Brooke wriggled her arm away from Alex and shot her with a penetrating stare.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.  “Whatever you have to say is of no concern to me.”   She attempted to skirt past her and escape the tense scene on the terrace. 

“I’m trying to do you a favor,” Alex purported.   “If you’d just stand still and listen to me for a minute.”

“Why should I listen to anything you have to say?” Brooke asked as she stopped and turned back to her.  “In the entire time I’ve been with James the only thing you’ve ever given me is a slap across the face.”

Alex sighed dismissively.  “I didn’t mean that,” she said.  “I was in a bad place at that time.  I was hurt and angry that James threw me aside for you.”

“And now you’re not?”

“No, of course I’m not,” she said.  “I’m over all that.  What I’m trying to do now is save you from a world of hurt.  Brooke, whatever you do you cannot trust Nathan Blackthorne.  He is a very dangerous man.”

“Nathan?” Brooke asked in disbelief.  “Why are you bothering me about Nathan?  He just got into town.  James has never been happier.  I don’t-“

“I saw you coming down the stairs with him,” Alex interrupted, a faraway look in her eyes as she recalled violent images from a night over twenty years ago.  She’d been up in the nursery checking on Stormy.  Nathan cornered her and she ran away in fear, but he overpowered her.

Brooke thought about her run-in with Nathan in the nursery a few minutes earlier.  Granted, she had gotten an unsettling feeling from him, but it was probably just because she didn’t know him, and he was rather intense.  Probably from years of experience as a character actor.

“So what?” she finally said.  “He wanted to look in on Michael.  There’s no crime in that.”

“That’s what I thought that night here at the mansion,” Alex insisted.  “And then he came after me.  I couldn’t get away.  He raped me, Brooke.”

Brooke studied her face carefully.  She could easily make things sound more dramatic than they were.  She was an actress, after all.

“James was always away on location shoots.  I was alone with Stormy for weeks at a time.  Nathan would come around and-“

“But you recanted your testimony and said he didn’t rape you.  Now you’re saying he did.  Honestly, who is going to believe anything you say about Nathan?”

“It’s the truth,” Alex insisted.  “I had to recant my testimony.  I-“

“Didn’t you also have a relationship with him before you and James married?” Brooke asked.  “He helped you with your career, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but-“

“And then you ended the relationship and married James.”

“Yes, and Nathan never got over it!” Alex exclaimed.  She reached out to her and gave her a look of full warning.  “I’m only trying to help you, Brooke.  He’s living in this house with you.  I’m telling you to watch out.  Don’t ever let your guard down with him.”

“I don’t have to listen to any more of this,” Brooke said.  “All you’ve ever done is try to cause trouble with my marriage.  Now here you are doing it again.  James is happy.  We have our son back, and he has his uncle in his life again.  I won’t have you ruining everything for him!”

With that, she turned and raced back inside the house, leaving Alex frustrated on the terrace.

 . . . . . . . . July 1984 . . . . . . . .

“I can’t believe you would say something like that about my own flesh and blood,” a dumbfounded James said to Alex upon his return from Berlin.  He’d expected to come home, kiss his wife and son, and enjoy a relaxing weekend at home.  Instead he was confronted with an ugly lie.

“You think I’m making it up?” Alex asked, tears streaming down her face.  “How dare you!”

“How dare you spread such filthy lies about my uncle!” James lamented.  “It isn’t bad enough what we did to him?  You had to twist the knife by lying about him raping you?”

“What we did to him?” Alex asked in disbelief.  “We fell in love.  Where’s the crime in that?  My God, James, you have never gotten over your guilt, have you?  For the past two years you’ve bowed to that man like he was some kind of God.  He’s human, just like you and me.  And he never loved me, I can tell you that much.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” James insisted and paced back and forth in their bedroom.  “When I came to Los Angeles I saw the way he acted around you.  He adored you.  And I let myself fall in love with you.  I hurt him so badly.”

“So what are you saying?  That you regret falling in love with me and getting married?” Alex demanded.  “Is that it, James?”

“No!” he yelled.  “I just think Nathan deserves better than this.  He taught me the business, gave me the money to start up Sunset Studios, and pulled the strings to get Will Thomerson blacklisted from Broadway for what he did to Georgie.  Now you expect me to cut him out of my life because you claim he raped you?  Alex, why are you doing this?”

She looked at him with disbelief, stepping closer and trembling from head to toe.  “You only see what you want when it comes to Nathan,” she said.  “I wish you could understand that.  I’m your wife, damnit.  You’re loyal to a fault to Nathan.  Where is your loyalty with me?”

Across the room, a butler opened the giant mahogany paneled front door and welcomed Renee and Jordan, both dressed elegantly in evening attire that rivaled anyone in the room.  Renee handed the butler her fox fur coat and clutched her purse with a tight fist.         

“Don’t worry,” Jordan said and leaned in close.  “You have your cell phone.  If there’s any word from the hospital they’ll call you.”

Renee sighed and looked nervously around the room.  “What if she wakes up and I’m not there?” she asked in despair and stopped in her tracks.  “I shouldn’t have come.  I can’t do this, Jordan.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her toward him.  “Renee, listen to me,” he insisted, staring into her deep brown eyes and trying to calm her down.  “Sierra is going to be fine.”

Realizing that he was right, Renee collapsed into his arm and let him embrace her comfortingly.  She closed her eyes and finally took a breath.  “I’m so glad that I have you,” she said softly.  “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here for me.”

Jordan smiled and lifted her chin up.  “You won’t have to find out.”

Renee took a step back and pushed her curly black hair into place.  She took a breath and looked around, her eyes suddenly landing on Nathan Blackthorne as he stood across the room with James and Brooke.  She swallowed hard, panic returning quickly.  She tried to look away but it was too late, she had made eye contact with him.  The sinister look in his eyes sent chills down her spine and she suddenly felt light headed.

“Renee, what is it?” Jordan asked after sensing she’d returned to panic mode.  He looked up and saw Nathan coming in their direction.

Trying to catch her breath, Renee realized that she was in no way ready to confront him.  She quickly shot Jordan a look of apprehension.  “Excuse me,” she said and raced off to the ballroom where she hid away amongst a crowd.

Jordan didn’t quite understand her hasty reaction.  He turned back and smiled eagerly when Nathan approached, shaking his hand firmly and patting him neatly on the back.

“Jordan ol’ boy it’s good to see you again,” Nathan said.  “How have you been?  You look terrific.”

Jordan nodded appreciatively.  “You look good too, Nathan,” he said.  “I’m so thrilled to have you back.  I hear I’m in for quite a battle with Sunset Studios over you.”

Nathan laughed and dug his hands into the pockets of his tuxedo pants. “There’s plenty of time to decide on business,” he said.  “Jordan, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done to get me free of those ridiculous charges.  I’m sure you and James’ lawyers will have me sprung from house arrest in no time.”

“Don’t give it another thought,” Jordan said apprehensively.  “For once James and I were on the same side of an issue.”

Nathan gestured to the ballroom and folded his arms cleverly.  “I saw you with Renee DeWitt a minute ago,” he said.  “The two of you looked pretty close.  Is there something going on between the two of you?”

He shrugged.  “You might say that.”

Nathan nodded eagerly.  “I see.  Well I can’t wait to catch up on old times with Renee.”

The remark made Jordan curious to say the least.  “I guess I wasn’t aware that you and Renee were that well acquainted.”

“Oh believe me, we were,” he said.  “Incidentally, I read in the papers some time ago about Suzanne leaving.  I’m so sorry.  Has anyone ever found her?”

Jordan shook his head distantly.

“Well, she was such a sweet young girl,” Nathan remarked.  “To think that she would leave her husband and children like that is strange to say the least.  But I suppose we’ve both lost people close to us.  People we loved and admired.” 

 , . . . . . . . July 1982 . . . . . . . .

Jonas’s funeral drew in crowds from every reach of the business.  Anyone who had worked with him was there.  From the smallest bit part to the most seasoned actor.  Nathan attended with James, Alex, Lola and Jordan at his side.  As usual, Lola, the grieving widow, seemed to be playing more of a role than showing any real life emotion. 

When their limousine pulled up to the grounds and Nathan stepped out, his eyes immediately locked onto a face from the past.  He knew she would be there, but he secretly hoped that their paths wouldn’t cross.  His heart sank and he wished for a way out, but pandemonium had broke out at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  There was nowhere to run.

“Hello Nathan,” said Jackie, ravishing as ever with her long red hair cascading over her shoulders.  She hadn’t aged a bit in the fourteen years since she’d left.  “You’re looking well.”

“So are you,” he replied softly.  “I’m so sorry about your father.”

“Thank you,” Jackie replied.  “He loved you as if you were his own son.”

Then Royce Jenner slid beside her and put an arm around her shoulder.  Next to him was an eleven year old boy who looked remarkably like his father.  He quickly surmised that Jacqueline had gotten the child that she wanted, and Royce had been all to willing to deliver.

“Royce,” he said and politely extended his hand to Jacqueline’s husband.  “Nice to see you again.”  He didn’t know why he said it.  It wasn’t true.

“Likewise,” Royce replied with a permanent grin.

“This is David,” Jackie said and put her hand on her son’s shoulder.  “It was important for him to say goodbye to his grandfather.”

“Of course.”  Again, Nathan was polite to the extreme.  He wanted to shout and scream and tell her how much she’d hurt him.  Somehow all these years he’d hoped that she was off somewhere alone and miserable.  But to see her now, with a loving husband and their handsome son.  It was disheartening. 

James led Jordan into his study so they could talk away from the crowd at the party, which appeared to be in full swing.  He poured them each a brandy and handed one to Jordan.

“To Nathan’s return,” James said and gulped the liquid down in one swallow.

Jordan grew quiet and looked inside his glass for a moment or two.  “Do you ever wonder if any of it was true?”

James frowned, tilted his head and looked at him confusion.  “Any of what?”

“The accusations against Nathan,” Jordan responded.  He couldn’t help but question things now that he knew more.  His connection to Renee, Alex’s unreasonable fear of him, the chapter in Debralee Scott’s book about rape survivors.  It all made him wonder if they weren’t trying to set a guilty man free.

“Have you lost whatever is left of your mind?” James demanded angrily.

“No, I just-“

“What the hell is wrong with you, Jordan?” he continued.  “We just spent the better half of three months trying to get my uncle back here.  We’ve assembled the best defense attorneys in the state.  You bought Debralee Scott’s publishing house so that you could bring her here to make that press statement.  Now you’re suddenly changing your mind?  You think he’s the monster than everyone makes him out to be?  I don’t get it.”

“I’m not changing my mind,” Jordan insisted.  He knew he sounded like a raving lunatic.  But he saw the look on Renee’s face when she saw Nathan for the first time. He couldn’t be as innocent as he claimed.  Something about the allegations made against him had to be true.

 . . . . . . . . Rosanne DeMarco . . . . . . . .

“I didn’t bring any head shots with me,” Rosanne said, fidgeting in her seat as she blew bubbles with her stick of gum.  “My agent told me that if you’re a real director you’ll be able to see my talent just by looking at me.”

“Oh I can tell you’re talented,” Nathan said with a knowing smile.  They were in his bungalow looking over a script.  Rosanne, a perky fifteen year old wannabe actress, had sought him out for an audition.  Nathan gladly accepted.

“My agent told me that I have the best shot of any of the girls of getting this role,” she went on to say.  “He said you shouldn’t even bother with any other girls.”

Rosanne didn’t have an agent.  He knew this because there was no role to audition for.  But she amused him so he played along.

“Your resume looks very promising,” he said while looking at the sheet of paper she’d handed him right off.  “But let me be frank, Rosanne, modeling at the shopping mall in Rapid City doesn’t exactly qualify you for a role in this film.  I’m afraid I’m going to need some convincing.”

The girl’s sassy confidence suddenly disappeared.  “Oh, well, I can do that.  I can do whatever you want.  I know I’m right for this role.”

“Of course you are,” Nathan said, got up and moved over beside her.  “Let’s start with a love scene.”

“Love scene?” she asked and shot to her feet.  “I don’t think that I can do that.“

“I’m sorry, I thought that you were a serious actress,” Nathan said in a thoroughly calculating manner.  “If you’re not willing to put in the required amount of work, then-“

“No, I am,” she said quickly.  The façade that she wore going into the audition quickly faded and was replaced with an innocent, wide-eyed girl.   “I am.  I’ll do whatever you think I need to do.  I just need a chance to prove I’m talented.”

He smiled and pulled her back down to the sofa.  “Well good, then we’re both on the same page.”   He put his arm around her and smelled her hair, aroused by the dewy fresh scent she emitted. 

 . . . . . . . . Present Day . . . . . . . .

“He was your idol every bit as much as he was mine!” James yelled, crossing the room and shaking his head in disappointment.  “All those days we spent on movie sets with him, learning from his craft, absorbing his confidence.  You’re willing to throw it all away because you’re giving in to the lies?”

“I don’t know that they’re lies!” Jordan exclaimed.  “Think about it, James.  Alex testified that he’d raped her!  She recanted her testimony and went to prison for perjury!  Does that sound like the Alex Reynolds that you know?”

“I don’t pretend to understand anything that Alex does.”

“She wouldn’t lie about something like this,” Jordan said warily.

 . . . . . . . . Debralee Scott . . . . . . . .

They laid in bed together, Nathan caressing her body as he pressed himself hard against her.  She was the fourth that year.  The one who reminded him the most of Alex.  She was fourteen, but she had the same zest for life that Alex had before she married James.  It was like he was living his past all over again.

“I haven’t gotten any offers yet,” Debralee said.  “I thought you said that you were going to help me.”

“And I am,” Nathan insisted, caressing her gently and relishing the feel of her hair brushing against his chest.  “It’s just a matter of time, my dear.  You’ll be the biggest star in the world when I’m through with you.”

“That’s what you keep saying,” Debralee said awkwardly, cringing as he moved closer yet.  “But when?  You said if I did what you told me I’d be working by now.  But still there’ve been no offers and no-“

“Just relax and enjoy the ride,” Nathan said, moaning despite himself as he climbed on top of her and brushed his lips against her neck.  “Making it in Hollywood is a journey.  Don’t rush it.  Sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses.”

“No, I don’t believe you,” Debralee claimed, pushing him off with all her strength.

Nathan, growing angry by her resistance, pinned her arms down and forced himself on her.  He kissed her hard, biting her lip gently as he began making love to her.  He ignored her silent cries of despair, having his way with her despite her protests.

 . . . . . . . . Present Day . . . . . . . .

“I think he got to Debralee,” Jordan said.  “I think he bribed her, or threatened her like he did Alex.  I don’t believe she told the truth in her statement.  It was too rehearsed.”

“You are unbelievable,” James said angrily, throwing his drink across the room and watching the glass shatter into the fireplace.  “So what are you going to do now?  Share your wild theory with the D.A. so he’ll never be free?  Come on, Jordan, think about what you’re saying.  You’re actually asking me to believe that my uncle, a man who helped me get to where I am today, took advantage of dozens of young girls, including Alex.”

Jordan looked at him blankly.  He didn’t want to believe it.  He wished it wasn’t true, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense.

 . . . . . . . . Sheila Buffamonteezi . . . . . . . .

It was late when Nathan got home from the studio.  His bungalow was dark and he fumbled around for the light switch.  Suddenly he felt a cool breeze and wondered if he’d left a window open.  But when he heard the sound of a revolving gun chamber, he realized he wasn’t alone.  Quickly, he turned on the lamp and scanned the room.

“My daughter sends her regards,” said the woman standing in the living room with a revolver pointed directly at him.

Nathan didn’t bat an eyelash.  He had grown accustomed to the mother’s and father’s of the young girls coming after him with revenge in their hearts. 

“You remember my daughter?” she asked, her hands trembling.  “Sheila?  Thirteen years old?”

“I remember Sheila,” he said.  “You must be Mrs. Buffamonteezi.  The domineering, disapproving mother.  Incidentally, you’re every bit as passive aggressive as she said you were.  I must say, breaking and entering is par for course for you from what Sheila told me.”

“And you’re every bit as vile and disgusting as Sheila said you were!” the woman screamed, rattling the gun in her unsteady hands.  “My daughter came to you with a dream!  And you shot that straight to hell you sick son of a bitch!”

“Relax, Mrs. Buffamonteezi,” he said patronizingly.  “Sheila came to me for help and I helped her to understand the business.  She’s a much better person for it now.”

“Oh my God, you did do it,” she cried, trembling so much that she couldn’t keep the gun steady in her hand.  “You did everything she said you did.  You had sex with my thirteen-year old daughter and promised her a career, but you took her innocence and you left her broken and ashamed!”

He squinted hard, walking toward her with no hesitation.  “If your daughter was ashamed, it was only because she couldn’t handle the business.  She didn’t have what it took.”

The woman pointed the gun against his chest, knowing in her heart that she didn’t have what it took to pull the trigger. 

“Now,” Nathan began, taking the gun from her and throwing it across the room.  “If you say anything to anyone about what went on between your daughter and I, I promise you she will never work in this town.  She will be blacklisted before anyone’s even heard her name.  She’ll be ruined.”

Mrs. Buffamonteezi backed up and flung herself on to the sofa in a fit of hysterics.  Nathan quickly pulled her up by the arm and drug her to the door, throwing her out into the courtyard with one swift movement.

Nathan ambled his way through the crowd in the ballroom.  He smiled and waved to a few celebrities, stopped and kissed the cheeks of a few others, and then finally found Renee standing with Adrienne Fallmont.

Renee saw him approach and immediately tensed.  She tried desperately to escape before he caught her but it was too late.  She froze like a rabbit in headlights.

“Good evening, ladies,” he said.  “Adrienne, would you mind if I steal Renee for a just a minute?”

“Not at all,” Adrienne replied and made her graceful exit.

After she’d gone, Renee looked at Nathan with steely eyes.  “How nice to see you again, Nathan,” she said with a sarcastic tone.  “It’s been a long time.”

“Yes, a long time,” Nathan agreed, looking into her eyes as if he could read her mind.  “You look beautiful.  Still the same girl I knew twenty years ago.  Divorce seems to suit you.”

She narrowed her eyes on him and shrugged indifferently.

“I’d love to get together and see you sometime,” Nathan said after waiting a beat.  “In private.  We have a lot to catch up on.”

Shaking her head, Renee glanced away quickly.  “That’s not possible,” she said.  “I have a lot going on in my life now and there just isn’t time for anyone new.”

Nathan chuckled and reached for her again but she pulled away.  “I’m not someone new,” he said.  “I’m an old friend.  Is there anything wrong with two old friends getting together to relive old times?”

“I already told you.  It’s not possible.”  With that, she turned and started to walk away but Nathan grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her back.  She shot him a look of warning and then pulled away, fluttering across the room in a hurry.

Jordan spotted her and frowned, even more disturbed by her reaction to Nathan.  He quickly followed her into the library and locked the door behind them.

 . . . . . . . . March, 1987 . . . . . . . .

The full moon hung like a giant orb in the sky above the marina.  Nathan’s yacht bobbed on the surface of the water, romantic music emanating from the interior cabin where he poured two glasses of champagne.

“To us,” he said and handed one to Renee Merteuil.  She was classy, beautiful, twenty-four years old, and had been the first woman to truly excite him since Alex.

Renee accepted the glass and gazed into his eyes. She had never met anyone like Nathan Blackthorne before.  He was so suave, sophisticated, and worldly.  She’d watched him from afar for years, always at the same parties as him, jealous over his relationship with Alex Reynolds.  She easily found herself falling in love with him over the past six months.   Now, eight weeks pregnant, she had finally decided to tell him that she was carrying his child.

“Is something on your mind, my dear?” he asked.  He loved African American women.  They were exotic and smelled heavenly.  He’d spent the last six months worshipping Renee and trying to forget about all the other girls.  The younger girls, the ones who made him feel like he had another chance after his failed relationships with Jackie and Alex.  The girls who needed him.

“There’s just something that I have to tell you,” Renee said in a frightened voice.  She wasn’t sure how he would react.  Nathan was nearly twenty years older than her.  What if he wasn’t as excited about the baby as she was? 

“Well don’t keep me in suspense, Darling,” he said and kissed her warmly. 

She opened her mouth to tell her big news.  It was on the tip of her tongue when the lights came shining through the windows of the yacht, blinding them and startling Renee into silence. 

“What the-“ Nathan began, turning to look out of the portside windows.

Then the voices through the bullhorn began.  “Nathan Blackthorne.  If you are Nathan Blackthorne, come out with your hands in the air.”

“What’s going on?” Renee asked, terrified by the sudden events.  “Nathan?”

“Stay here, my sweet,” he said.  “I’ll be right back.”

Renee watched as he walked up to the deck where dozens of police officers were waiting for him.  He looked around and smiled nonchalantly. 

“Something wrong, boys?” he asked.

“Nathan Blackthorne, we have a warrant for your arrest,” said one of the officers in charge.  He turned Nathan around and locked his hands behind him with a pair of handcuffs. 

Nathan offered a disaffected laugh.  “My, my, such formality.  What, pray tell, are the charges?”

“Debralee Scott’s parents are charging you with statutory rape,” said the officer.  .

As they led Nathan away, Renee watched from the deck.  Her eyes widened in disbelief.  The evening had not turned out anything like she’d expected.  She went into it planning on delivery life-changing news, and ended with the realization that the man she loved was leading a double life.

 . . . . . . . . May, 1987 . . . . . . . .

“What am I going to do?” Renee asked as Suzanne Rogers handed her a tissue and a cup of tea.   “He’s on trial for statutory rape.  All those young girls….”

“Shhh,” Suzanne said and tried to soothe her friend.  “There’s nothing you can do to change it now.  What’s done is done.”  She felt relieved that she’d gotten away from Nathan before his fetish began.  She knew he was trouble long ago.  Now she happily married to Jordan with a beautiful daughter.  Renee was not so lucky.

“But I’m carrying his child,” Renee sobbed into the tissue.  “I was planning on telling him when he was arrested.  Suzanne, I can’t let this child find out what kind of monster his or her father is.  And what about my parents?  It’s bad enough I’m pregnant and not married, but when they learn who the father is…”

“People are going to find out,” Suzanne cautioned her.  “There’s no way around it, Renee.  Once people find out that you’re pregnant, the newspapers are going to be all over it.  Everyone will know who the father of your baby is.”

“A rapist and child molester,” Renee sobbed.  She couldn’t bare the thought of it. She wouldn’t give her baby that kind of reputation.

“You’ll have to go away,” Suzanne said and reached her hand out to her friend.

“Away?” Renee asked.

“Have the baby somewhere else,” Suzanne continued.  “It’s the only way.”

 . . . . . . . . September, 1987 . . . . . . . .

“Sign here,” said Mr. Montoya.

Renee scribbled her signature on the adoption papers.  She winced from the pain, still not fully recovered from the difficult labor.  Sierra had been born just eight hours earlier, happy and healthy, and thankfully with little resemblance to Nathan.

She’d gone to London to give birth, taken care of by Sara Beth, the mistress of a girl’s school who had been friends with Jonas Lamont in the sixties.  She had no love lost for Nathan Blackthorne, and didn’t ask any questions.  Mr. Montoya was an adoption attorney who was easily bribed into forging documents proving that Renee had adopted the baby.

“What are you going to do now?” asked Sara Beth.

Renee huddled in her private room, praying that her secret would stay her own.  “Wait until she’s a little older and then go back to California.”

Sara Beth looked on with disapproval.  “She won’t know her own mother?”

“Oh she’ll know her mother,” Renee insisted with a sense of urgency.  “I’ll visit her often.  As often as I have to.  But I can never bring her back to California.”

“But you’ve signed the adoption papers.  Who would think anything if you brought her back now?”

“I can’t take the risk,” she said.  “Look at her.  She looks like me.  My mother will take one look at her and will know that she’s my daughter.”

“But Miss Merteuil…”

“She can never know that that monster is her father,” Renee vowed.

. . . . . . . . Present Day . . . . . . . .

Jordan poured a brandy into a crystal tumbler and handed it to Renee.  She accepted it with a trembling hand and sat down on the leather sofa in the library.

“You were with him when he was arrested?” Jordan asked in disbelief.

She nodded.  “He kept telling me everything was going to be okay, that it was just a mistake.  But the next day his face was all over the papers.  They said there were other girls but none of them would cooperate.  Debralee Scott was the only one who did.  By the time the trial started, I was on my way to Europe where I gave birth to Sierra in secret. Nathan had no idea.  No one did.”

“And you were alone through all of this?”

She nodded.  “I stayed in London until Sierra started boarding school.  Then I came back to Los Angeles and that’s when Kenny and I got married.  And now I’m just so afraid that Nathan will put the connection together and the whole truth will come out!”

“Shhh,” Jordan said and pulled her into an embrace.  He sighed heavily, unsure of what to do with the new information.  He loved Nathan like a father, but knew that it would ruin lives if he ever found out about Sierra.  “I’ll protect you and Sierra.  I promise.  No one will find out your secret."

Alex made her way through the crowd and approached the hors d’ oeuvre table where she gathered a small plate from the crudités.  She sighed and looked around the room, ignoring the whispers and stares that practically everyone sent in her direction. 

"You look even lovelier than you did when I last saw you,” said a voice from behind.

Quickly, Alex spun around.  A gasp escaped her throat and she dropped the plate, sending glass shattering in every direction. 

“Nathan,” she whispered and instinctively backed up a step.  She knew she couldn’t turn and run.  The scene would be too much for the nosy gossipers and she’d never hear the end of it.  Instead, she forced herself to stay and remain as calm as she could.

“Yes, very lovely indeed,” Nathan said with a sickly smile as he pushed a lock of curly brown hair from her face.  “Not a day older than you looked on the witness stand at my trial.”

Alex took a deep breath and pushed his hand away.  “I wish I could say the same about you,” she said spitefully.  “You look like hell.  Paris obviously didn’t agree with you.”

“Now, now, Alex, let’s not be vindictive.  Is it so hard for you to tell me that you’re glad to see me after all this time?  It’s been twenty years, after all.”

“Glad to see you?” she asked in disgust.  “If I am going to see you it's only because now you're going to prove to everyone what kind of man you really are.”

“What?” he asked with a smug grin.  “Don’t tell me you’re still holding on to that claim that I forced myself on you all those years ago.”

Alex looked around quickly, praying that no one could overhear their heated conversation.  “You know damn well you did,” she hissed.

“I’m assuming that you have some kind of proof,” Nathan admonished.  “Were there any witnesses to the alleged rape?”

Yes, there was, Alex thought to herself.

“Stay away from me or I swear-,” she began ominously before turning and darting through the crowd away from him.

Nathan swallowed hard, realizing she was probably being her overdramatic self.  But on the other hand, something inside told him that she was serious, no longer the naďve actress he’d met and romanced so many years ago.  The challenging look in her eyes was unmistakable.

 . . . . . . . . May 13, 1987  10:15AM . . . . . . . .

The prosecutor was ruthless.  He’d reduced a long line of defense witnesses to tears on the stand.  Despite the fact that Alex was testifying by her own free will, Mr. Edwards didn’t make it easy for her.  Neither did James – who pleaded with her to reconsider what she was about to do.

“If you do this, you will be sending him away for a lifetime,” he’d cautioned his wife minutes before she took the stand.  “If what you say happened actually happened, what difference could it make now?  It’s been three years.”

“The prosecution thinks that my testimony will help.  They’re having difficulty proving anything about those girls he took advantage of.  Debralee was the only one who would cooperate.“

“He’s my Uncle!” James shouted.  “Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“What about what this is doing to me?” Alex demanded, tears already flowing.  “You’ve chosen to side with your uncle over your own wife.  My God, James, we have a five year old son at home, and a two year old daughter.  We’re supposed to be a family.”

“I haven’t chosen him over you,” James insisted.  “I thought we were through with all of this nonsesense.  We've been happy for three years.  Now you're-”

She glared at him with contempt.  “Why can’t you see what I’d be doing if I didn’t testify!  I’d be letting a monster go free!  You can’t possible expect me to do that!”

And so she did take the stand, and Mr. Edwards grilled her relentlessly about that night at the mansion.  He told her to expect it.  It was a tactic to draw out emotions that the jury could see and sympathize with.

“What was Nathan Blackthorne’s purpose for coming by your home that night, Ms. Reynolds?” he asked her.

Alex, seated on the witness stand in a black dress and dramatic veil over her eyes, trembled from head to toe.  She couldn’t look Nathan in the eyes, or James for that matter.  Their looks of disapproval tore her apart.

“He said that he needed to pick up a script that James had in his study,” she explained tearfully.  “I went upstairs to check on Ryan in the nursery.”

“What happened then, Ms. Reynolds?”

She collected her thoughts as best she could.  “I turned around and there he was, staring at me with those intense eyes of his.  I was frightened.”

“Why were you frightened?” Edwards asked.

“Because since I married James, Nathan had been very hostile towards me.”

“And why was that?”

Alex shrugged.  “Because he was in love with me and I married his nephew.  I don’t think he ever got over it.”

“Objection!” called one of Nathan’s defense attorneys.  “The witness has no way of knowing what my clients’ emotional state of mind was.”

“Sustained,” said the judge.

Edwards withdrew his question and continued his inquisition.  “Ms. Reynolds, tell us what happened next.”

“It told him to leave and he didn’t so we argued.  He tried to kiss me and I pushed him away.”  She took a deep breath and recalled the events as if they were happening at that very moment.  “I ran down the stairs to get away from him but he came after me.  He carried me back to the master bedroom and threw me onto the bed.  He told me that I was his protégé and that I belonged to him.”

“And that’s when the defendant, Mr. Blackthorne, raped you?”

“Yes,” Alex replied.

Nathan glared at her from his seat in court.  He wasn’t about to go to prison because of Alex Reynolds.

 . . . . . . . . May 13, 1987  1:15PM . . . . . . . .

“That was quite a display in there this morning,” Nathan said during a recess.  “I almost forgot what a convincing actress you could be.  Did I recognize a line somewhere in your testimony from your monologue in Roundabout?”

“It was fact,” she said and attempted to dart around him.

Nathan pulled her back and bore his dark eyes into hers.  “You could very well have ruined me for good, Alex, my dear,” he hissed.  “If it hadn’t been for you I would have been acquitted for sure.  My lawyers aren’t too happy with your cooperation with the prosecution.”

“I don’t care,” Alex said defiantly.

“You will care,” he said in a deep, throaty voice.  Leaning forward, he clasped his hand firmly around her arm.  “If you don’t make things right.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Because if you don’t, I will make sure that your children never see their mother’s beautiful face again,” he said ominously.  “I’ll see to it that James banishes you from his life, and from your children’s lives forever.  Then I’ll see to it that that beautiful face of yours is unrecognizable.  Your career will be finished.  You will wish you’d never been born when I get through with you.”

 . . . . . . . . Fifteen Minutes Later . . . . . . . .

“Your honor, I’d like to recall Alex Reynolds to the stand,” said Nathan’s defense attorney.

Hushed whispers from the spectators filled the room.  James frowned and looked around in confusion.  He glanced a few rows back where Lola and Suzanne and Jordan were seated.  They appeared as perplexed as he was. 

“Ms Reynolds, were you telling the truth during your testimony this morning?” the attorney asked and crossed the courtroom.  “The full truth?  And may I remind you that you are under oath.”

Alex cried silently in the witness stand.  She looked at the jury, and then at Nathan whose eyes seized her into intense fear.

“It….it was late and I was tired,” she said softly.  “I guess I might have been confused.”

More gasps from the spectators.  James’s eyes flashed open in shock and his eyes met with Nathan’s.

“So Nathan Blackthorne, the defendant, did not force you into sexual intercourse?" the attorney asked.

After a few torturous moments, Alex nodded and mouthed a simple  “No.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I said no.”

“No what?”

“NO, he didn’t rape me!” Alex cried, agonizing over the fact that she had to change her testimony.  She had no choice.  If she didn’t, she knew exactly what Nathan would do to her.  He’d been in too many mob movies to not know how to take care of someone if he really wanted to.

“So you lied to the court this morning,” the attorney charged.  “You made up that story to get an innocent man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, didn’t you?”

“No, I was confused, I-“ Alex sobbed.

“Confused?  Your honor, I must ask for the courts indulgence.  Ms. Reynolds gave a disturbingly precise account of a rape that apparently never took place.  Now she is lying again by claming she was simply confused.”

“Ms. Reynolds, you do know what the penalty is for perjury, don’t you?” the judge asked. 

Alex nodded somberly. 

“Bailiff, take the witness into custody.  I’ll decide on sentencing at a later date.”

Alex cried silently as the guard led her out of the courtroom, all eyes on her as she made her shameful exit.

 . . . . . . . . May 14, 1987 . . . . . . . .

“We just got a report from our mole in the jury pool,” said one of Nathan’s attorneys while a group of them had drinks at his bungalow.  “It looks like they’re leaning toward a guilty verdict.”

Nathan wasn’t about to accept his fate.  Even with Alex’s second testimony, it seemed he was destined to be convicted.  “There’s got to be something we can do!” he insisted.

“Maybe there is,” said Victor Distefano, one of Nathan’s best friends and frequent co-stars.

Two hours later, Victor’s private jet was fueled up on the tarmac.  They waited until it was late at night when reporters wouldn’t see them driving to the airfield in the black sedan.

“By the time the jury comes back with their verdict tomorrow morning, you’ll be in a lavish penthouse in Paris,” Victor said and gave his friend a pat on the back. 

“Thank you, Victor,” Nathan said with an appreciative smile.  “You’ll give my best to James and Jordan, won’t you?”

“Of course,” he replied and watched as his friend climbed the steps to the plane.

It was after midnight and the party was winding down.  Alex waited outside under the porte-cochere for her driver to pick her up when Jordan emerged from the house, his hands dug deep in his pockets.  He looked into her eyes and saw the panic.

“Alex, why did you come?” he asked.

She waited a beat before swallowing hard.  “I had to prove that I wasn’t afraid.”

Her car arrived and the driver opened the door for her.  Before she could get in to the back seat, Jordan gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back.  “But you are afraid, aren’t you?”

She looked at him silently before pulling her arm away and getting inside.  She closed the door and watched through the window at Jordan disappear in the distance.   Once they were on the main road, she thought back to the day they learned Nathan had fled the country.

 . . . . . . . . May 15, 1987 . . . . . . . .

“Pity,” Lola said to Alex in her jail cell.  “What do you want to bet one of his Hollywood friends got him out of the country.  Now he’ll never have to answer for what he did.”

Alex regarded her closely.  “You believe he's guilty?”

Lola appeared surprised.  “Oh, of course I believe.  He’s guilty as sin.  I’ve known it from the beginning.  I was there, after all.  I saw what he did to you.”

She couldn’t believe her ears.  “What do you mean you saw?”

“I saw him attack you at the mansion that night,” Lola explained casually as she swooped into a giant handbag for her Chanel sunglasses and matching umbrella.

Alex grabbed her to get her attention.  “You were there?”

Lola nodded.  “That’s what I said, Mary Ann.  I sometimes get homesick for the mansion so I sneak in through the tunnels.  My condo is fine, but I feel nostalgic for the old days with Jonas, you know.”

“You saw and you didn’t do anything?” Alex demanded in a shrill voice.  “You let me go up there and lie to save his life and you didn’t say anything?  What is wrong with you?”

Lola finally looked into her eyes.  “Mary Ann, do you remember our scene on the docks in The Briar Patch?  I told you that I felt you were upstaging me?”

Alex nodded.

“Well, consider this your payback,” Lola said casually, slid on her sunglasses, and walked down the hall of the detention center.

Nathan went to his room upstairs to get ready for bed.  He was tired and needed a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.  He had a lot to do tomorrow.

He switched on the lamp beside his bed and heard the sound of a revolving gun chamber.  It brought back many memories.

Slowly, he turned around and his eyes narrowed uneasily on a face from the past.  It seemed like just yesterday he was in the same situation.

“The infamous Nathan Blackthorne returns,” the woman said.

“Debralee Scott,” Nathan said with a sickly sweet smile.  “It’s been a long time.”

“Too long,” she said, pointing the barrel of the gun directly at him.  “I’ve been waiting for a long time to get you back here.”

Nathan crossed the room and peered outside at the eerie black night.  “I guess this means your warm, fuzzy statement to the press was just an attempt to get me where you wanted me.”  He waited for her to react.  “Am I right?”

“You’re smart as ever,” she said, her hand trembling.  “I wanted you to come back so you could face me and look me in the eyes and see what you did to me.”

“It seems what I did to you was give you fodder for your very own best seller,” Nathan mused, full of self-righteousness.  “I think I deserve thanks.  Not a gun pointed at me.”

“You ruined my life,” she said, her voice wavering as she spoke.  She was wrapped in a generous fur, her hair styled perfectly, and diamond earrings hanging from petite ears.   “Do you have any idea what my life has been like?”

Nathan shrugged.  “You seem to be exceptionally put together.  What am I missing?”

“What you’re missing is the torture I went through after you got me pregnant.  My parents taking me to a doctor and making me have an abortion.  You’re missing the fact that now I’m barren and childless, or that I have never been able to have a real relationship with a man.  You’re missing me lying awake at night reliving every detail of your sickening body and your cold, watery eyes.  The feel of your disgustingly soft hands on my breasts.  The way I became a laughing stock at that trial instead of becoming an actress.   You’re also missing the ten years I spent in and out of rehab, therapy, and two suicide attempts."  A beat while she took a deep breath.  "Now you tell me how put together you think I am.”

She didn’t give Nathan a chance to respond.  He took a step forward, reached out his hand, and watched as she raised the gun and shot herself in the head.

Next time....

Miranda meets a mysterious woman from her father's past.  Heather comes to terms with a recent tragedy.  Stormy continues seeing Samantha.  

  Read Episode 57