Post by rsafan on Nov 13, 2006 3:25:03 GMT -5
Chapter 27:
“Evening Henderson.” Victoria greeted Victor’s manservant as she stepped into the foyer of the Kiriakis mansion.
“Mr. Kiriakis isn’t back yet.” He said as he took her coat.
“Oh I know, I came to see Philip, is he here?”
Henderson nodded, “Indeed he is, he’s in the study.”
“Thank you.” She walked down the hallway to the study and knocked on the door before entering, “Hey, I’m not disturbing you, am I?”
Philip turned around from the computer screen, he smiled when he saw her though the smile didn’t reach his eyes, “No, of course not. I always have time for my niece.”
“Please don’t say that, it makes me feel as though I should be calling you ‘uncle’ Philip.” She pulled up a chair beside him, “so how are you doing? Is everything okay?”
“If by okay you mean is my life falling apart; then yes everything is okay.”
“God Philip I’m sorry I didn’t mean…”
“It’s okay, I know you didn’t. I’m just really angry right now and taking it out on all the wrong people.”
“I went by the loft yesterday, went to visit my nephew. Belle said you’d moved out.”
“Just for a couple of days, till I get my head around all this. God I still can’t believe this is happening, a few weeks ago I was looking forward to spending a fantastic Christmas with my family; given how we spent last year and suddenly I don’t even have a family.”
“That’s not true, you have a family. You have Belle and you still have Claire, you’ll always have Claire.”
He shook his head, “No, I never had Belle and Claire is no longer mine. Claire is Shawn’s daughter; she’s going to grow up calling him ‘daddy’. My little girl…” He broke off, overcome with emotion and looking at him Victoria knew that this was affecting him much worse than he was showing. He wouldn’t cry, she’d figured that much already, not in front of her and maybe not in private either. It just wasn’t the kind of person he was, but she was here to make sure that he at least spoke about it.
“She’ll always be your little girl, no matter how old she gets or who she calls ‘daddy’. You’re the first dad she’s ever known and no one can ever take that away from either of you. You know she misses you.”
“I can’t go back there, not yet anyway.” She stared at him. Was there more to this than anyone was telling? Philip was big on responsibility; it wasn’t like him to simply walk out on his family.
“Is it because you don’t want to be running into Mimi, because if it is let me tell you now…”
He smiled at her tone, throughout this entire mess; she had been Mimi’s defender. She’d never allowed anyone to say anything bad about her friend, “No this isn’t about Mimi; I can’t even be angry with her because I can understand why she did it.”
“Well I’m glad somebody can.”
“If you’d stop defending her actions, you might find that most people don’t blame Mimi at all, in fact they admire her for coming out with the truth. Even if it was a bit delayed.”
“So if it’s not Mimi is it Shawn?”
“No, well not really. The problem is between Belle and I…”
“And it’s personal. I understand.”
“No, I actually think I should say something. I can’t keep hiding away can I? That’s why you’re here; to get me to talk.”
“So what’s really bothering you? You think Belle’s still in love with Shawn don’t you?”
He looked at her surprised, he certainly hadn’t expected that. But then again she was more observant than he was, maybe he was just a fool for believing Belle could ever be happy with him, “The day we got the test results back, that’s when it hit me that she’d never be over him.” Victoria frowned at him, “when the lab technician told us the results, the look of relief on her face…” he stopped, remembering the look and how he’d felt, “She was so glad Claire was Shawn’s. Never mind the fact that we had raised her for almost a year, she hid it pretty quickly, but I saw it and I knew that there’d be no going back for us. Belle and I are over, I’m not going to sit around and play second fiddle to Shawn Brady.”
“Do you think they’ll get back together?”
He shook his head, “I doubt it. If Shawn had wanted that, he wouldn’t still be with Mimi.”
“He might be staying out of guilt.”
He looked at her, puzzled; “What does Shawn have to feel guilty about? Mimi lied to him and he could use it to justify walking out on her. It wouldn’t be right, but he could do it.”
“Maybe he could, but he’d be walking out on Zach too though wouldn’t he. And that puts an entirely different spin on things.”
Philip processed all this, she was right. Shawn wouldn’t walk out on Mimi because he wouldn’t walk out on his son. Claire and Belle were across the hallway so he could pop in any time he liked. The question now wasn’t whether or not Shawn still loved Belle; it was how much he loved Mimi. Was he staying with her out of love or out of a sense of duty and if it was the latter, who was going to be there for Mimi when her world came crashing down around her ears? Philip had just experienced that and it was something he could barely cope with; he couldn’t for the life of him imagine how Mimi would, not when he knew just how much she loved Shawn. He got up and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going home.”
“Philip, if you’re doing this to somehow protect Mimi, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”
Philip stopped at the door, “That’s only part of the reason.”
“What’s the other part?” Victoria asked him confused.
“You just told me my daughter’s missing me,” he informed her with a smile, ‘what kind of a parent would I be if I didn’t look after her?”
*****
“Tis the season to be jolly…”“Aren’t we in a jovial mood today. So what happened?”
“My tickets are booked and confirmed. I’ll be jetting out of Salem on Thursday and landing in Chicago with just enough time to drop off my gifts for Rex and the my other friends before catching a flight to London and spending an entire week with my parents. I can’t wait; I haven’t seen them in ages.” She dropped her things by the front door and danced around the apartment, Max figured now wasn’t the time to tell her about the message her parents had left on the machine. He was just glad he’d gotten home first.
“So you’re planning on deserting me boring old England. I’ll be spending Christmas all alone while you jet off to some foreign land.”
“England is not boring and it’s hardly foreign, it’s where I come from, where I grew up and where my family is. You can always come with if you like.”
“No thanks, I’ll stay here. Are you sure I can’t convince you to do the same? You’re absolutely sure you want to leave me, the man you claim to love, all alone on Christmas?”
“Absolutely positively sure that I want to go and you’ll hardly be alone, you have your family and…okay, tell me what’s going on here.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Max, I can see it written all over your face. Something’s wrong now I want to know what it is.”
“I think maybe you should listen to the messages.”
“On the answering machine?”
He nodded. She pressed the button and her mother’s voice filled the room, “Tory honey, its mom here. I’m so sorry we missed you again, we’ve been trying to reach you for days but you never answer. I really didn’t want to leave this on the machine but… We, your dad and I, think it might be a good idea if you spent Christmas in Salem. Get to know your family; we’ll always have next year and all the years after that. We just think maybe you should get to know them better. We’ll send your gifts down, and don’t you dare open them ahead of time, I’m your mother, I’ll know. I love you sweetheart, best wishes to your family and that nice young man who answered the phone last week I’m guessing he’s Max. Enjoy Christmas and don’t forget how much I love you, more than yesterday, less than tomorrow.” Victoria sat down; out of habit she repeated the last phrase. She couldn’t believe her parents were dropping her for Christmas, if you couldn’t depend on your parents you couldn’t depend on anyone.
“So I’m guessing you’ll be spending Christmas in Salem with me this year.”
Victoria turned to Max, tears streaming down her face, “Why wouldn’t they want me there?”
Max went and knelt before her, taking her hands in is he squeezed them, “Oh honey they do, they just want you to get to know the Bradys and the Hortons and the Kiriakis families better. They want you to have at least one Christmas with them. They don’t want you to have any regrets.”
She shook her head, “No, I’m going to Chicago. I’m having Christmas with Rex and Sara and everyone there. It’ll be so much fun.”
“No, you’re staying in Salem if I have to tie you to a chair. I spoke to your mother, they want you to do this and that’s what you’re going to do.”
“Max you don’t understand.”
Finally losing his temper with her, he almost shouted, “You’re right! I don’t understand, I don’t understand and I don’t want to either. You are behaving like a spoilt brat and it stops now. You will spend Christmas in Salem, you’ll spend it with your families and you will enjoy it.
“Yes sir!” she saluted him and got up of the chair, she marched upstairs and threw herself onto the bed. Sometimes she hated the fact that there were no doors in the apartment, she really needed to slam one now. She settled for tears instead.
Max left her alone for a half hour; she was entitled to vent her frustrations. If crying was her way of accomplishing that, he’d leave her to it. He made her a cup of tea and took up to her.
“Are you done with the dramatics?” she ignored him, obviously still angry. He placed her tea on the nightstand, “well, I’m going to go and do some last minute shopping. I’ll leave you in peace.”
He was halfway down the stairs already when she asked him, “Can I come with?” he looked up to find her sitting on the bed glancing at him with a hopeful expression. He’d figured shopping would get her in a better mood.
He looked her over, her eyes were red and her hair was even more messed up than it usually was, “You have to brush your hair first.” He commented as he walked to the sofa to pick up the jacket he’d placed over the back of it. He didn’t have time to dodge the pillow that came flying at his head, but he did hear the comment she passed. He walked out the door laughing; he’d wait for her in the car.
