"Vanessa," Logan called out as he walked out of the courtroom and into the lobby.
Vanessa hesitated a moment, trying to get a hold of her temper before turning around to face him.
"Please, don't be angry at me."
"Why shouldn't I be? You know very well the things Silas has done. For years he's been terrorizing not only me, but everyone he's come in contact with, including his own daughters. He's attacked, drugged, kidnaped, locked up, and done countless other things to all of us. The man deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life or worse, and you're suggesting that the judge go easy on him? I'm sorry, but I don't think it's out of line for me to be angered by that."
"I understand," Logan said calmly. When Vanessa responded with a skeptical look, he added. "Really, I do. Do you think I liked going up there and defending him? Because I didn't. I agree that the man is no good. He's a menace who is a threat to anyone who he comes in contact with."
"Then why did you do it?"
"I gave him my word. If he cooperated and gave me the information he knew, I promised I'd speak up on his behalf. He did that, so I had to hold up my end of the bargain. I'm a man of my word."
Vanessa sighed and begrudgingly gave in. "That I can respect, I suppose."
"Besides, no matter what I say, I'm sure the judge isn't going to let him back on the streets again. There's nothing he could ever do to make up for all that he's done."
"Hey, let's go sit down and relax a second," Blaine said as he took a lost looking Cassandra by the arm and led her to a bench in the corner of the lobby. "It's almost over now. In a few minutes the judge will come in, give the sentence, and it will all be over. We can all go on with our lives. It will be alright, I promise."
"I know. I just have this really bad feeling and it just keeps getting stronger and stronger. I know something is going to happen and soon."
"It will be ok," he tried to reassure her.
"But you don't know that. You don't know."
"No, but I know that you've been through a lot because of your father. You stood up to him twice and rescued me from him twice. That takes a lot of guts."
"Thank you for saying that," Cassie said, flattered at his compliments. "It's just I get these feelings, I mean I can sense that something is going to happen. I just don't know what. And since I don't know what's going to happen, there's nothing I can do about it. I feel so helpless and it's frustrating. I just wish I could do something."
Blaine studied Cassie for a moment and realized how genuinely concerned she was. "Cassie, I don't think you realize what a special person you are. You're so strong. You'd have to be to handle everything as well as you have. That's why I know you'll get through this alright too, whatever happens. I really admire that about you."
When Cassie looked over at Blaine she could see the pure admiration in his eyes. He was looking at her slightly differently. It was the way she'd always wished she would see him look at her. She was overwhelmed suddenly by a sense of guilt. "I haven't been as admirable as you think," she confessed.
"What do you mean?"
"There's something I've been keeping from you. I've been dishonest with you."
Blaine looked confused. Cassie had always seemed up front with him. Even though she'd never confessed her feelings for him until recently, he'd always felt like he knew just where he stood with her without a word. Unlike with Reese, who was never really clear about how she felt about him, but he didn't blame her for that. He doubted that Reese was even sure what her own feelings were.
"What have you been dishonest about?" he asked.
"I think I'm the reason you and Reese broke up."
"Why would you think that? You know why we broke up. It was because we wanted different things in life. It didn't have anything to do with you."
"But there's something you don't know about. My mom and I . . . we made this love potion," she said and looked away embarrassed. "When you drink it, it's supposed to make the next person that you talk to fall in love with you. I was supposed to drink it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I set it down and then James got a hold of it and drank it before I could stop him and Reese was there with him . . ."
"Are you talking about the day I moved out of your house?" Blaine asked, as he slowly started to remember that day. "That's why you ran out of the house suddenly?"
"Yes, and I'm so sorry."
Blaine laughed. "You don't have to be. You didn't do anything. Reese isn't interested in James in that way. He had nothing to do with why we broke up."
Are you sure?"
"Positive. Don't even worry about it." He shook his head in disbelief. "A love potion . . ."
When the courtroom doors opened and the bailiff called everyone back in, Blaine took Cassie by the hand and they walked back towards the courtroom together without noticing the door that opened behind them.
When Reese stepped out into the lobby from the office where she had just turned in some paperwork, she was stunned to see Cassie and Blaine walking away. Before she could even think about moving out of sight, someone spotted her. She locked eyes with Serena for a moment before she finally snapped out of her stupor and ducked back into the office.
She could tell by the look on Serena's face that she knew. She had seen the condition she was in. Reese took a deep breath, praying Serena wouldn't say anything.
"Is everything alright between you and Edward?" Amanda asked in a hushed voice after Ed had left the room, leaving her and her sister in privacy. "You both seem a little tense."
"It's just been very stressful with Jeremy."
"This cute little guy? No way. I don't believe it."
"I'm anxious to go back to work, but Ed thinks I shouldn't yet. He's talking about having another baby," she scoffed. "As if one isn't enough for me to handle right now."
"It can't be that bad."
"You'll see."
"Alma? Can I ask you something? It's kind of personal."
"What is it?" Alma asked warily.
"When you were pregnant, how did you and Edward handle . . . being intimate?"
Alma's jaw dropped open and her face blushed a deep red. "I'm not going to discuss that with you, that's too personal. It's none of your business and I'm not going to talk about anything of that nature."
"But we're sisters. Who else do we have to talk about these kind of things with?"
"I don't think we should be talking about these things with anyone. It should be private. I can't believe you would even ask me something like that"
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. Let's forget that I even brought it up," Amanda said. She didn't really want to know the details Alma and Ed's personal life, but now that she had found the extra padding to make herself look pregnant, the hard part would be keeping her husband from finding out about it. Eventually the subject was going to come up and she had no idea how she was going to keep her distance from him until the baby was born.
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