The next morning, Linden found Isabella sitting at the girls' kitchen table. "Hey, Linden," Isabella said, looking up.
"Isabella, can I talk to you for a second?" Linden asked sitting down.
"Sure. What's up?"
"Where's A.J.?"
"That's what you want to know? Well, he's making us something to eat. Would you like something?"
"Oh, no. That's not what I wanted to talk about. Is Nick around? I'd like to tell him, too."
"No, he's still away with Cassandra."
"Cassandra? He's still following her?"
"No. He wanted to spend some time alone with her and introduce her to..." Isabella let her sentence trail off.
"Introduce her to what? Alone with her?"
"Oh Linden, you don't know? Do you?"
Just then, A.J. walked into the room. "What's up Sweetie?" he said kissing Isabella on the cheek. "Oh, hey Linden. Are you hungry?"
"Um, no," Linden replied. "What's going on?"
"Linden, listen. Cassandra died not too long ago."
Linden sat there and stared at Isabella and then at A.J., then smiled. "No she didn't. You're dreaming."
Cassandra rolled over and saw Nick's face, the one thing that she had waited so long to wake up to. She smiled and brushed his hair out of his face. She saw him begin to stir and open his eyes. "Good morning, baby."
He stretched and draped his arms over her. "Good morning."
"Nick I-"
"I know. I can read your thoughts."
"You can?"
"Well, not really but it's just like we were alive. I always know what you're thinking." He grinned. "So did I wear you out?"
Cassandra laughed softly. "Only a little." She laughed and pulled him onto her. She wrapped the blanket tightly around them and kissed him hard. "Let's not go back for a while."
He kissed her again. "How about we not go back until tomorrow."
"I like that plan better." She kissed him passionately, letting her hands roam.
"Hey guys!" someone said above them. They stopped and looked up.
Nick sighed. "What do you want?"
"Am I...interrupting anything?"
"You have to help me!" Brian pleaded.
"No way. Why should I help you?" Eric yelled back.
"You know that it's for your own good."
"You took Mercedes away from me and now you want to hurt her?"
"I'm not hurting her!"
"If I help you, you will."
"How do you know?"
"Because it would hurt me!" Eric finished.
Brian paused and thought things over. "Fine," he said and turned to walk away."
"Wait," Eric called.
Brian turned around. "What?"
"I...I will help you. I think that with your help we could pull this off."
Brian smiled. "Thank you. How long do you think this will take?"
"I don't know. To get everything set, a week, maybe two."
"I'll go tell Mercedes something."
Eric nodded. "Be ready in half an hour."
Brian nodded and turned to head for the house.
"What do you mean she isn't dead?" Isabella asked Linden.
"She can't be!"
"Well when they come back today, you'll see."
"I don't think that I'm going to be around when they get back."
"What are you talking about?"
Linden stood up. "I'm leaving, for good."
"But why?" Isabella asked standing up also.
"I have to be with Anthony, and my son."
"But you can't leave!"
"I have to. Tell Cassandra, if she really is dead, which I don't think that she is, and Nick that I love them both and wish them the best. Don't worry, I'll come back on their one year anniversary and yours, too."
"But-"
"Isabella! Don't make this harder on yourself. Good bye. I'll be seeing you."
Isabella reached over and gave her a hug. "Okay, good bye. If it's what you want."
"It is. Trust me, it is."
"Okay," Isabella managed to say and watched as Linden walked out of the room. "Oh, A.J. Why did she have to leave now?"
"Because she wants to be with Anthony."
"I know but-"
A.J. moved over next to her. "She said that she wants to be with Anthony. It's the exact position that Nick was in. And the same position that I was in. I wanted to be with you. It's all I could think about."
"You had to kill yourself though?"
"Well...I couldn't think of any other choice. It's only because Lucy killed you."
"I really don't think that Lucy killed me. Nick said so himself, and so did Cassandra."
"Huh?"
"We were talking about it, Nick and I, when Cassandra was still alive. She was talking to someone, I think it was Nicole, about how she thought that Lucy couldn't have killed me and-"
"Let's not talk about this now."
"Why not?"
A.J. thought about it for a minute. "Maybe we should talk about this with Cassandra and Nick."
"Well, okay. Maybe you're right."
"I know I am." A.J. smiled and pressed his lips to hers.
"Yes you are interrupting something, Kimberly," Nick said, annoyed. "Are you blind?"
"No, I just wanted to see you guys," she said, sitting down in the sand next to them, moving the pile of their clothes. "Hey, wow! Nice dress! Are these real diamonds?"
"Kimberly, just go away," he said, kissing Cassandra again.
Cassandra pushed him away. "Honey, that's rude."
"I know..." he whined, pouting. "But-"
"Nick," Cassandra said, giving him a look. "Shh!"
Kimberly giggled. "You guys are so funny. But you know Cassandra, you're even funnier, considering that you had me killed and all."
"Kimberly," Nick started.
"No, it's okay," Cassandra said. "I'd like to know why you tried to break up our relationship."
"Cassie," Nick said. "What an accusation!"
"No, Nick," Kimberly said. "It's true."
"What?"
"Nick, I've always wanted you. Since we were kids, I've loved you. When you called me that one day and told me that you had found this wonderful woman named Cassandra, and that you knew that you two were soul mates and that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with her, I didn't know what to think."
"You did that?" Cassandra asked him.
"Of course! I had to brag to somebody, and I just figured it should be my best friend," Nick said, looking at Kimberly.
"And," Kimberly continued, "I admit that I was hired to help break you two up. There were a lot of people that despised you two together."
"Who?" Nick asked. "Who hired you? Is it the same person that had us killed? I mean, me?"
"I cannot tell you that, my Nicky." She reached over to touch his face, but he pulled away and held the blanket close to himself and Cassandra.
"Don't call me Nicky! Only my wife can call me that, and you're not my wife."
Kimberly sighed. "When I called you to come to Arizona that time, my boyfriend never hit me. It was the person that hired me. He insisted that I look the part, so I agreed to let him beat me up."
"He? It's a he?"
"Um, well, yes. It almost worked."
"But you were my best friend!"
"Nicky, I only did it because I loved you. I do love you."
"That's not love, Kim. I don't know what to call it, but I never want to see you again."
"You don't mean that-"
"But I do."
"Nick," Cassandra coaxed, "you don't want to do that. She's still your friend-"
"Cassandra, Sweetie, stay out of this," Nick said coldly. "I know you want her to leave as badly as I do."
Cassandra didn't know what to think. "I'm sorry, Honey, but-"
"Cassandra, shut up."
"Nick-" Kimberly started.
"Kim, just leave. Please, just leave."
"But-"
"Leave."
"Okay, Nick. If that's what you want." Kimberly turned her back and walked away. She turned and looked back at Nick wrapping himself and Cassandra back up in the green silk blanket. Probably apologizing, she thought. I will have you, Nick. There's no doubt about that. You will be mine. I'm not giving up.
"I'm sorry, Cassie," Nick said reaching over and hugging her.
"It's okay, Nick," she said. "I know what you're going through. I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, it's not okay," he said, pulling tighter. "I shouldn't have yelled at you." He laughed. "What a mood killer, huh?"
She laughed, too. "I guess so. Hey, let's go back home."
He nodded. "Oh, all right."
Kimberly stopped and thought about what she had confessed to Nick. She thought about how she had really been hired to break up Cassandra and Nick. She had always wanted to be with Nick, but when Bobby had offered her the chance of a lifetime, she took it without hesitation. He had filled her in on who Cassandra was, but she had already heard about her from Nick. Bobby told her that Cassandra and Nick had a house in Arizona and that it was the furthest away that they could get Nick from Cassandra. Kimberly told Bobby that she had an ex-boyfriend that had beat her up before and that it was Nick's weak spot. So the plan was for Bobby to beat Kimberly up so badly that it looked like her ex-boyfriend did it. And it had worked. Nick had fallen back into the trap and Bobby was well on his way to getting Cassandra back.
But everything had not stayed that way for long.
"Damn Cassandra," Kimberly said outloud to herself. "Nick is so blind to be with her. I thought that he was different. But, if my plan goes as planned, I will strike Nick's sorest chord with him and Cassandra and then he will be all mine, like he was supposed to be." Kimberly reached over and picked up a stone and started talking to it. "Now where does that leave you Cassandra? Alone and hurt? Desperate and pitiful as you watch your beloved husband make love to his new amour? He'll never want to see you again. I'm sure of it. I will be the only woman in his life, soon enough. Soon enough, Cassandra." Kimberly smiled and then heaved the stone as hard as she could out into the ocean.
Brian walked into the girls' house and saw Mercedes and Bethany sitting in the kitchen. "Mercedes?" he called.
Mercedes stood up. "Brian. Where have you been?"
"I-I have to go away for a while."
"Where?"
"I can't say."
"When are you leaving?"
"I have to be ready in half an hour."
"Oh." She slumped back down into her chair.
"It's not because of you." Brian kneeled in front of her and bit his lip to keep from smiling. "I'm going to be gone for a week. Maybe two."
"What about Cassandra's funeral?"
Brian paused. "Shit, I didn't think about that. I'm going to have to cut it short then," he mumbled to himself.
"But why can't you tell me anything?"
"For the same reason that you couldn't tell me where you were going when you went to see Chase."
"I see."
"I promise you that it's nothing bad, and it's not because you did something wrong. It's a surprise."
"What kind?"
"You'll see when I get back."
"I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you, too. I'll think of you everyday, and I'll try to call you on my cell as soon as I get there."
Mercedes nodded. "All right. I hope you have fun."
"I may not, but thank you." He quickly kissed her on the lips. "See ya."
"See ya," she said quietly and watched him walk away. She turned to Bethany. "Now what am I supposed to do?"