“Eve, I want you to know that I want to be with you for a lifetime, if you’ll have me, I’d love to marry you my darling if one day you see me as the man you’d want to spend the rest of your life with.” Julian said.

“Well it’s a bit soon but..”

“I’m sorry Eve, but having you in my arms, I can’t help but feel this way. I have waited my entire life to make it up to you, a second chance to have you as my best friend, my lover, my wife, oh Eve, I love you so dearly.”

“Julian, what would I do without you, I would be so alone and so scared and so afraid of the future. I know I’m an independent person, but for all of the lies of my shattered past that have come out, it would be a sad and awfully lonely day if I didn’t have you to support me.”

“I’ll support and cherish you in my heart forever Eve.”

Eve laid her head against his bare chest, closing her eyes, loving how close she could be to Julian, she felt happy to be in his arms, even with all of the trouble that her lies had caused.

“Julian?”

“Yes my love?”

“I don’t have a place to go now, T.C. wants this divorce, but I don’t want to be a burden living here in the mansion, living in this guest room.”

“You would never be a burden Eve, the only burden in this house is Rebecca. Speaking of which, I have to get her out, now that I am with the woman I love, she has got to go.” Julian said.

“We’re both still married, that is the problem.”

“Darling, I can be sensitive to your situation, you loved T.C., you had many years with him, of course it hurts to lose him, but Rebecca, I never loved her and I only married her to protect you, my one true love. No Eve, I don’t care what happens to her anymore, she holds no power over me anymore and later on when we decide to get up, I’m going to kick her ass out of this mansion so fast, it will make her head spin.” Julian said.

Eve smiled and placed a soft kiss upon his lips before falling asleep once again. When she woke up, she looked at the time, past ten now and Julian was not there. She was just about to get up to find him when he smiled, opening the door to the room with breakfast for her.

“Oh Julian, how sweet.”

“I wanted you to rest, so I decided breakfast in bed was the only way to go.”

He put down the tray next to the bed and fed her a piece of bagel.

“Thank you.”

“I wasn’t sure what you liked really, so I just guessed.”

“You’re very good to me.”

Julian sat there, simply smiling at her, trying to cheer her up, after T.C. was so rude to her. He ran his thumb along her cheek, with such love in his eyes. This was a dream come true for Julian, a chance for life and love.

“Well this is nauseating.”

Julian looked up to see Rebecca in the doorway.

“What do you want?”

“You and your lover are so pathetic.”

“What did I tell you before, I don’t love you, I love Eve, so pack your bags and get the hell out!” he demanded.

“Do you think I’m going to go just like that Julian? I don’t think so, you’re going to have quite the battle on your hands getting rid of me, I’m not just going to divorce you, you’ll never be able to marry Eve, I won’t let it happen.”

“Look, Becky, I love Eve with every fiber of my being, she’s the love of my life, the mother of our son, no matter what you think, I’ll never love you like I love her, she’s my heart.”

“I don’t care if she’s your heart, your bed mate, anything, you’ll have a fight on your hands.”

“But T.C. is going to divorce Eve and I want to get rid of your sorry ass as well.”

“My sorry ass is staying put in this mansion.” She said, standing there with her arms crossed.

Julian threw on a pair of pants and began pushing her out of the room and down the hallway.

“What are you doing, stop that!”

“If you don’t move voluntarily, I’ll move you myself.” He said, moving her farther along.

“Julian!”

He went into the bedroom, which he had previously shared with her, one that he never wanted to see in the light of day ever again. He opened up her closet door and started throwing things onto the floor.

“Julian, those are my clothes!”

“So what, start packing or I’m getting a garbage bag to take out the trash.” He said.

“They’re not trash.”

“I was talking about you, now hop to it!”

“What’s going on in here?” Gwen asked, coming into the bedroom.

“Gwen, my dear, you are welcome to stay in this mansion, you and Ethan, but MY WIFE is to leave!”

“You can’t kick her out Julian.” Ethan said, coming to the door.

“Yes I can and I will, why should I spend another day in the same house with a woman I don’t love? The truth is out, everyone knows I love Eve and I’m going to be with her.”

Ethan took Julian aside into the hallway.

“Look I can’t stand her either, do you think I like having Rebecca as my mother-in-law?”

“All the more reason she has to go.”

“Julian, she annoys me too but Gwen is her daughter, if you kick her out, I’ll have to hear from Gwen about it.”

“I don’t care Ethan, she makes me miserable and I’ve spent far too many years without Eve and I’m not about to make anyone else happy to sacrifice one more day without my sweetheart.”

“But…”

“No buts Ethan, don’t be such a milk toast, I know you love Gwen, but put your foot down sometimes.”

“Julian, that’s not fair, you know I’ve fought to keep Gwen in my life and make our marriage work, when you love someone, you accept their family.”

“Yes I know but Rebecca and I are not meant to be, she’s a cold hearted bitch.”

“Julian?”

“Eve, what are you doing out of bed sweetie? You are supposed to be resting.” Julian said.

“Don’t fight with Ethan about Rebecca, it’s not worth it.”

“That’s right it’s not worth it, you need to take a hike you whore!” Rebecca said rudely.

“Mother!”

“Now you see why I can’t stand being married to her, she’s so ignorant, you take that back right now!” Julian yelled.

“Stop it, everyone stop it now, I can’t stand fighting today, please.” Eve said, a tear running down her cheek, running back into the bedroom and slamming the door.

“Now look what you’ve done, you nut!” Julian said coldly to Rebecca.

“I haven’t done anything.”

“Yes you have, Eve is in pain right now and I seem to recall a while back when you realized just how much I love Eve, why can’t you just be happy for me? Why is it always about revenge? Why is it always about blackmail? Go and find yourself another husband to sponge off of if you want money so much. I have made my mistakes in life and paid for them and now I have a real chance at true love. For once, why can’t you just realize that? For once, somebody is this God forsaken town deserves to find happiness and that person is going to be me.” Julian said coldly.

“So you want to be happy and I should just divorce you like that?”

“Yes.”

“Life isn’t fair Julian, what do you think this is, a soap opera?”

“Never mind, I’m not wasting my time talking to you, you know what I said get out and stay out!”

“Where am I going to go?” She asked.

“Well if you are feeling suddenly poor, I hear there are a few corners available for you to work on.”

“Julian, that was cold.” Gwen said.

“Yes it was, then she should realize what I’ve lost over the years and how much I want it back.”

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Rebecca said.

“I just want my Eve, my darling and beautiful Eve, so get out and piss off!”

“No!”

“Listen you witch, here’s a couple hundred, get out of my hair for a while, I need to be here for Eve, at least do that will you?” he said, slapping the money in her hand.

“Fine.”

“Good, now go, get a hotel room, Gwen and Ethan can stay but you’re just in the way.” Julian said.

Julian was glad to be rid of her for a bit, perhaps the best thing to do was maybe to move out himself with Eve, but the temporary situation was for Eve to stay there with him, away from T.C. and away from his wife, soon to be ex-wife. When he opened the bedroom door once again, Eve lay there in tears. He hated to see her so upset but him fighting with Rebecca definitely wasn’t helping.

“I’m sorry about that.” He said, rubbing her back.

“I’m just under enough stress of what is sure to be a messy divorce, I can’t listen to all of the bickering.” Eve said.

“Darling I will make it as peaceful as possible and make you comfortable being here, how about I do that for you?”

“Yes Julian, I just need a bit of quiet time now to gather my thoughts and deal with the situation at hand.” She said.

Julian dealt with it, being there to support his love, making sure that Rebecca kept her distance. Each time she tried to get on Julian’s bad side, he would just throw her some more money and kick her ass out the door. He was determined to get rid of her and he would if it was the last thing he did. One afternoon, Eve sat in the living room reading a magazine; she looked up to see Julian taking off his coat.

“Hello my love.”

“Hi Julian.”

“I’ve missed you my dear.”

“Liz stopped by to cause havoc of course and rub it in that her and T.C. are doing well.”

“That sister of yours will never stop.”

“Probably not.”

“Eve, you are happy with me?”

“Yes Julian, I’m very happy with you, I love you.”

“I love you too.” He said, leaning down to her in the chair and kissing her hands.

“I would love to make our life together even more wonderful if we were both free agents, free to be together and love one another and make a true commitment.”

“I know Julian, but in time, we will, we just have to be a little bit patient.”

“Yes my love, as soon as our divorces are final, I want to give you the most wonderful wedding you could ever imagine, horse and carriage, fireworks, loads of guests, just the grandest wedding I ever could.”

“Julian, it’s not important to me, any of that, I just want to be with you. We could have a small ceremony of four people but what would it matter? As long as we have each other to love whole heartedly, that would be enough.”

“But darling, you deserve everything I could give you.”

“I know you want to spoil me, but you do that by showering me with kindness every day I’m with you Julian.”

“Eve, you’re in my heart always and forever.”

“Julian, if I could ever imagined that I’d look back on this day over two decades ago and see that what we had to start with, we’d have back again, I would have never believed it. We’ve come so far, from a love that was so true so many years ago, through the painful years of feeling abandoned and hatred for you. And to this day, loving a man who is even more amazing and wonderful than how I remember you, you’re everything I ever wanted and more Julian.” Eve said.

“Eve, you’re the true love of my life and I’m never going to let you go. For all of the mistakes I’ve made, I only wished and wanted you back with me Eve, back in my life to spend many years together, many happy and new memories we could create. I can’t wait to make this new life permanent and complete with you. I’ll never hurt you or leave you ever again; I’ll be twice the man I was then and prove my love for you in every way. My dear Eve, I’m more in love with you every day, every hour, every minute I’m near you. You complete me, you are my soul mate, you are my life and from this day forward, I’ll love you with all of my heart and soul, our love is a destiny that stood the test of time and there is no one in this world I’d rather spend my life with than you. Sweetheart, thank you for giving me a second chance to be the Julian Crane you could truly love, thank you for believing in me and thank you for loving me, our love will last a lifetime.” He said, placing sweet and soft kisses upon her, taking her hand then and leading her up the stairs.

The End

Thank you to all who read my stories. :)