“Yes, Father, Antonio is the man that I love. The man I want to marry.”

Her words rang in his head and for a moment he couldn’t seem to understand them. Sheridan, the woman he loved more than any other in the world, had just delivered the cruelest blow to both him and his ego. She had told a priest, a man of the cloth, that she was in love with his brother. That her heart, the one his heart beat for, belonged to Antonio and not to him, nor would it ever. Tears burned at the back of his eyes, but Luis refused to let them fall. He wouldn’t give Sheridan the satisfaction of knowing how she hurt him this time. Too many times before he had allowed her to walk all over him, his heart too kind and gentle to hurt the woman he loved in any way. He always took whatever she said and let it roll off his back, even managing to control the Latin-Irish temper that he was known for, but no more. Sheridan Crane had dealt the straw that broke the camel’s back this time. She had lied for the last time, now she would deal with the fibs she had told.

“Luis?” Sheridan’s cautious voice broke the tense silence around them. She quivered as she waited for some form of response or acknowledgement from him, but she received none. “I’m so sorry. I did it for Antonio’s sake. His health…”

“You can take your excuses and shove them, Sheridan,” he replied as calmly as he could, but the tension in his body made his voice come out as a growl. “How far would it have gone? Two kids? Three? When would the lie have ended?”

“You know it isn’t like that,” Sheridan replied, reaching out to touch him. Her fingers ached to feel his skin and her arms wanted nothing more than to hold him and spare him from this pain. “I love you, Luis, but I can’t…”

“You can’t let him die,” he roared. “How many times have I heard that crap?” Luis asked her, jerking his body away from her touch. “Don’t touch me,” he ordered, knocking her hand away when she tried again to touch him. “I don’t ever want your filthy hands touching me. I don’t want you to ever kiss me or even look at me again. You’re scum, Sheridan. You and my brother belong together more than you can ever know. Everyone rushes to him,” he balled his hands into fists. “Everyone worries about him but I didn’t see him worrying about us for seventeen years. I didn’t see him sending money home so we wouldn’t live on the crust of bread and water!”

“Luis!” she cried out in horror. “You don’t mean that. You love me, just like I love you.”

“I don’t even know you anymore, Sheridan. The woman I love died in Bermuda. You’re nothing but that body,” his eyes raked over her form. “And not much else. The heart and the fire that I fell in love with, the woman that I wanted, is gone now. And even should she come back I wouldn’t want her. She’s been tainted now.”

“What are you saying?” Sheridan begged, tears rolling down her cheeks. She had never seen Luis this angry before, not in all her time with him. For the first time in her life she was afraid of him and even more afraid that this time she had pushed him over the edge. His eyes were so dark and hate filled that she was sure she would never appreciate what was coming next.

“I’m saying that you’ve made your decision and I’m not going to accept any faked apology from you anymore. I’ve turned the other cheek so many times I have whiplash, Sheridan, and it isn’t happening again. You want to be his trained slut, go on and be it. You want to prostitute yourself to a man you don’t even love, fine. I’m not your fiancé anymore; hell, I’m not even your friend. I never want to see your face again, Sheridan Crane, because I don’t love you anymore. I hope you have a wonderful life, Sheridan, because you’ll be spending it in the arms of a man that will never know that you sold your soul to the devil to save his life. Good luck in your marriage to Antonio,” he headed for the door, grabbing his coat.

“Luis, where are you going?” she cried, running after him. She followed him out into the damp, cold November air. “Please, don’t leave. Don’t leave me!” she sobbed.

“Go to hell,” he tossed over his shoulder, heading for his car.

“Luis!” she screamed. “Pilar! Stop him!” Sheridan called to the woman she considered a mother. Immediately the older woman joined her at the doorway to the Crane mansion. “You can’t let him leave. He’ll listen to you.”

“Mijo!” Pilar called, rushing out into the cold. “Please, stay and talk to me. There is nothing that can’t be solved when we communicate. If this is about Antonio, we can fix it. He hasn’t long to live, mijo!”

Luis’ hand stopped short of the handle on his car door and he looked up at the gray November skies. “For seventeen years I have put your wants before mine, Mama. For seventeen years I gave up my dreams, my hopes, my ambitions to be a good son to you. I took care of our family as a father would have and I tried my hardest not to have regrets.” Slowly, he turned towards his mother and former lover. “But now, I regret everything. I regret taking care of you all these years when I could have left and been welcomed back with the same joy that Antonio received. I regret meeting and falling in love with a cold hearted Crane that could love no one but herself. I regret giving up college to become a cop when I could have been the best damn lawyer in Harmony. But most of all I regret being born into a family where hard work and dedication mean nothing to anyone. Ask the prodigal son to make the sacrifices from now on, because this scapegoat is out of here. He’s got a better life to live.”

With that said, Luis opened the driver’s side door and climbed into his car. “Oh,” he called out the window just before he started the car. “Don’t look for me, especially you,” he told Sheridan. “I don’t want anything to do with either of you and should that ever change, I know where to find you. In this same hell-hole of a town where no one tells the truth and everyone has a secret they keep locked inside their hearts.” He started the car and with a cloud of smoke he disappeared from their lives.

He didn’t turn on the radio as he drove out of Harmony; he didn’t even stop for clothing from the bed and breakfast. But the first thing he did as he left the city limits was toss his cell phone out the window and watched as it shattered into a million pieces on the road, much like his heart had when Sheridan turned her love away from him. Then, he backed over it and started forward again to be sure that little link to his family would never ring again. That was the last time he went backwards and then he zoomed off towards the west coast, never seeing Harmony again.

Luis drove for nearly six days to reach his destination, which hadn’t originally been his first choice for a new home after the small town of Harmony. Still, the shoreline had been calling him and Luis drove to a city where thousands of people would keep him hidden from anyone that could look for him: Los Angeles. It was a new city with a new start and he swore to himself he wouldn’t ever think or return to Harmony again…

And he hadn’t thought about Harmony in the near eight years he had been away and honestly he hadn’t had much time to think about his past and his family. Most of his time was dedicated to forming the life he was forced to give up for his family and healing after Sheridan’s betrayal. The beach had been important to his healing process, so as he attended college to finally get the law degree he always wanted, he lived as close to the shore as he could. It was on that beach that his life would change one day when he met the most beautiful woman in the world. She was an actress on a law show he had watched often enough and he knew her name immediately: Alexis Lyons. She was five-foot-four with long brown hair that curled slightly at the ends. Her blue eyes shimmered when she slid her dark black glasses down her tanned skin. Her smile lit up the entire beach and Luis was lost to her beauty. Somehow he had managed to convince her to go out with him, or maybe she had convinced him to go out with her, but in any case they had become inseparable. She had listened to him when he needed someone to talk to and was willing to spend her time doing the most mundane of things. They built a relationship slowly and the only complaint he ever considered was their age difference; he being ten years her elder, but he never even noticed. She was mature and compassionate and when he was a junior in college he had proposed and they had wed in a spontaneous wedding in Vegas.

Two years later, they had a little girl they had named Karli, who was the spitting image of her father, and that was what prompted his wife to ask about Harmony, the town he had run from leaving no trace of himself to be followed. Before that, she had understood why he didn’t want to discuss the heartbreak he had in his past and she never pushed. Even in her mid-twenties, Alexis had dealt with enough pain because of her looks and money to know that sometimes things were better left unsaid. Men wanted her and used her as if she were nothing more than a doormat. She had never let it harden her and she held out for the day she found a man like Luis. All she wanted was to be the woman that saved him from the pain he lived with for so many years. She knew he would never admit it, but someone had hurt Luis in his past more than he let on. Before she met him, he had lived on his own barely making it through the day but for school and work. He barely ate or slept and until he met Alexis he didn’t care if he lived or died.

Once he confessed this to his wife, she had insisted that they go back to Harmony for Christmas and allow his family to meet Karli. Luis had protested at first, not wanting to go back and see Sheridan or his mother after leaving on Thanksgiving so many years before. He didn’t know what he could possibly have to say to any of them and he refused to apologize for feeling the way he did. Yet Alexis had insisted for the sake of their daughter that they go back to his hometown for a visit. She wanted to meet her in-laws and see the woman that could pass up Luis for some noble sense of duty to a man she barely knew, a man that had hidden from his family for so long. Finally, he had given in and allowed Alexis to make the plans and do the shopping she so desired. Before he knew what was happening, he was in Harmony and standing outside of his mother’s home with his wife and daughter.

The house brought back so many memories and he wasn’t sure why. Part of it barely resembled the home he had gown up in, even if Theresa had managed to hire the best carpenters in the world. The repairs after the fire had changed the home he had known, loved and paid for. But the same front door with the wreath of evergreen boughs rested against the front door and the same ugly green curtains hung in the front window. It was almost like stepping back in time to the year he met Sheridan and considered her not so bad for a Crane. But that was over eleven years ago by his count and he knew that the woman he had loved then was never to be seen again because she had died at sea. Sheridan Crane was gone for good and that bothered him. He had loved Sheridan with his entire heart and soul, thought no one could ever compare to her. How wrong he was! Sheridan may have been his soul mate and cut from the same mold as he, but Alexis was certainly the woman he was meant to be with for eternity.

“Are we going to stand here and look at the house, baby?” Alexis teased, coming up beside him with bags of gifts in her arms. She could have been Santa had she been about two hundred pounds heavier, male and dressed in red velour. Lexi, as he called her, was amazingly giving and charitable. She donated money and worked for charities when she wasn’t busy at the set or with their daughter. He could really tell that she cared about other people, as opposed to some of the big wigs they met in Hollywood that wanted nothing more than to look good in the public eye.

“No,” he hugged Karli closer. “We’re going inside, babe,” he looked around the neighborhood and remembered how often he used to play on this same street with Hank and Beth. Part of him wondered what had happened to both of them after he disappeared. They had been his childhood friends and swore undying loyalty to each other only for him to break the bond because Sheridan crushed his heart. “I was just thinking that this place hasn’t changed in the eight years I’ve been away. Funny how some places have that annoying quality. It’s almost as if Harmony is stuck in this time warp; the rest of the world changes but this place perpetually stays the same.”

She giggled, always loving his wit and charm. “This place looks like it belongs on a postcard, Luis. I honestly believe I’m going to love it here but don’t get any ideas. I’m going back to LA; I can love to visit but you can’t pay me to live here.” She shivered, already missing the bright sun of LA even in the polluted haze around it.

“I wouldn’t dare ask you to,” he put his free arm around her and led her towards the front door. “Let’s just get this over with. As much as part of me has missed my family, the majority of me still regrets returning here. So, the sooner you see why I left, the sooner I can go home.”

Alexis looked at him. “I’m glad to know that our house is really your home,” she told him, kissing his lips as he rang the doorbell. He knew that part of her was concerned he wanted to be back in the place he was raised but had just confirmed that Los Angeles was home now. Before anyone inside could answer, Karli started whimpering as she woke from her nap.

“Bear,” she whimpered, looking for her favorite stuffed toy. Her bear was the only way she would sleep or be calm in a new situation, much like a security blanket.

“Oh darn! I left Kar’s bear in the car,” she reached for her daughter and the child practically leapt into her arms. She was definitely attached to her mother, despite the fact that she adored her father as well. “Why don’t you take the gifts inside and Kar and I will go find Mr. Bear?”

“I can go back with you, Lex. There’s no reason I have to go inside,” he heard footsteps heading for the door and began to panic. The last thing he wanted was to have Sheridan or his mother answer the door while Lexi was back at the car. He didn’t want to be there and if the woman that had made him strong wasn’t there for the first confrontation with his family, Luis wasn’t sure he would survive.

“Luis, Karli and I can find her bear. We’ll be right back,” she started walking away with their sobbing daughter on her hip. She had just walked out of view when the front door opened.

“Luis!” Sheridan gasped as she opened the door and came face to face with the man that had taken her heart as he left town. She started to feel the love she held for him flood over her as she looked him over. He hadn’t aged much except for a little patch of white that was beginning at his temple. He was dressed in designer clothing and smelled just like she remembered: Obsession. “Oh my God, is it really you? I-I can hardly believe that you’re here! I used to…”

“Please stop, I really don’t care what you used to do,” he mumbled, picking up the bags of gifts and stepping inside. He knew his words had been sharp and cruel, much like the words he used in the past, but he didn’t care. Sheridan meant nothing to him and her feelings were no longer his concern. “Is Mama here? My siblings? I brought some surprises for them,” he looked around the house. The inside barely changed and the same pictures that adorned the mantle still rested there today, except for the ones with him and Sheridan in them. Instead, there was a single photograph of himself from eight years ago standing tall and proud in the center of the mantle.

“They’re in the family room Theresa had built; that’s where the tree is this year. You’re looking so wonderful! Where have you been hiding yourself?” she started to close the front door. Having him back meant she stood a chance of getting herself unlocked from the loveless marriage she was forced to endure with Antonio. Luis’ return could only mean good things for herself and the children she was raising with a man she didn’t love.

“Wait! Hold that door!” Alexis called, half running towards the door and catching it with her free arm. She continued inside despite the odd look from Sheridan and headed for her husband. “Funny story, Mr. Bear was laying on the sidewalk. I guess Karli dropped her on our walk from the car,” she told Luis half out of breath. “Well ok, not funny but at least I didn’t have to walk all the way back to the car.”

“Who are you?” Sheridan asked, totally taken off guard by the pushy woman that had entered the room. She looked at the little girl in the woman’s arms and realized that the child was definitely Luis’. For a moment she hoped this woman was nothing more than a friend and that the child merely resembled Luis by accident. Or perhaps they were roommates and the child was theirs because both wanted families. Either way, Sheridan would accept the child as her own when Luis returned to her and she knew he was going to ask her to be his again.

“Sheridan, who was at the door, mija?” Pilar came in from the other end of the house, her other children behind her. Her beautiful chestnut colored hair was graying and her brown eyes were sad and empty. Since Luis had left, Pilar had become frailer than ever before, regretting her choice to spare one son and wound the over. They worried about her every moment of every day and someone was always with her in case she should collapse.

“Luis!” Theresa cried, running to her brother and throwing his arms around his neck. He felt good finally having his family around him again.

“Bro?” Miguel beamed, Charity at his side. “It’s good to have you back, Luis. Harmony hasn’t been the same without you. Charity said she felt that someone we loved was returning to us at last, I’m glad you’re the one returning.”

“Excuse me,” Sheridan interrupted, looking at Alexis with anger in her eyes. As much as she wanted to deny it she knew that the woman was definitely more to Luis than an innocent roommate. “But you haven’t answered my question. Who are you and why do you feel you can just walk into this house without being invited?”

Luis smirked, seeing Sheridan’s confusion slowly dawn into pain. She realized just whom she was talking to moments before, but her feigning of ignorance was entertaining. A vicious side of him began to take form and he couldn’t wait to spring the news on everyone what Lexi wasn’t just any woman. She was his wife. “Everyone, this is Alexis, my wife. We met in California not long after I arrived there.”

“Wife?” Sheridan covered her mouth, tears filling her eyes as the reality of his words sank in. She couldn’t breathe because the pain was so intense and her head began to throb. Married! Luis was married to a woman that looked barely out of her teens and now she would never have the man she wanted. Luis was gone from her forever. “Your wife? She’s twelve!”

“Twenty-eight actually,” Alexis smiled gently and rubbed Karli’s back, allowing the insult roll off her back. “This is our daughter, Karli, she’s two and a half. You must be Sheridan Crane…or is it Lopez-Fitzgerald now? Luis told me you were engaged to his brother but we were both too out of touch to ever know if you wed. I must say I was fascinated by you life for a time, but once that incident happened in Bermuda your media attention dropped off. Still, you are what prompted me to go into acting.”

“I knew you looked familiar,” Antonio laughed, interrupting the two. He himself enjoyed seeing his wife squirm when Luis announced that he was wed to the beauty before them. “I watch your show every Wednesday night! I absolutely love the lawyer you play. Megan Crawford, isn’t that her name?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Luis loves her as well, but mostly because she is just like he is when he is in court,” Lexi leaned against her husband as he removed Karli from her arms. “He’s told me so much about all of you. Let’s see if I can get your names right,” she looked at the sobbing mess to her right. “Theresa, his little sister turned heiress to the Crane fortune after marrying Julian Crane and having his son?”

“Yup!” Theresa bubbled and gave her a hug that cut off her oxygen.

Lexi tried not to laugh and pulled herself out of Theresa’s grasp. Nearing Pilar, she smiled gently. “You have to be Pilar, Luis’ mother. He’s done nothing but speak highly about your love for the family. I know he really missed you, despite the ways he tried to hide it. You might think I am covering for my husband, but I know one of the hardest things he ever did was leave you all those years ago. I believe that’s why he suffered for so long over his decision.”

“I was only concerned with his safety and well-being but I can see he was in good hands. My son has chosen a fine wife,” she hugged Alexis. “Welcome to our family.”

“Thank you,” she smiled. Looking at the couple to her left, she said, “Miguel and his fair Charity. Luis told me you two probably married after he left town. I’m sorry we couldn’t have been in attendance but we didn’t even know when it was to be. We wanted to write but Luis was wary about contacting you after the scene he caused.”

“It’s all right,” Charity hugged Alexis as well. “We’re glad Luis has decided to return at last and we know that he was merely the victim of a broken heart.” Her gaze turned to Sheridan, who had to look away from the guilt in her heart.

Finally she turned to Antonio. “The older brother, Antonio. I see you’re much better off than when Luis left. I’m glad. I think part of him always wondered if his leaving might have sparked an attack and he regretted leaving your mother should anything happen to you.”

“Healthy as a horse now. My sight returned after my wedding to Sheridan and we have two boys now, Antonio and Luis, twins. I’m glad my brother found his own true love.”

Lexi’s eyebrows rose in surprise at the choice of names, but she said nothing. “It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope you don’t mind but I purchased you all Christmas gifts…well mostly all of you. Luis and I didn’t know that there were other grandchildren to buy for besides little Ethan, so we didn’t buy anything for your boys, Antonio. And we weren’t really sure what to get Ethan since we didn’t know him, so I hope he won’t mind a gift certificate…”

“Speaking of grandchildren, let me hold my precious granddaughter,” Pilar reached for Karli, who amazingly smiled and went to her grandmother willingly. She hugged her little arms around her grandmother’s neck tightly and prattled on and on in both baby-talk and English. “She’s so beautiful, Luis. So excited and joyful, very much like you were as a child.”

“Why don’t we all go into the family room, Mama?” Antonio asked, looking around at everyone standing in the middle of the living room. “We’ve left the boys alone and that could be pretty dangerous.”

“You have a point,” Pilar nodded. “Come, we’ll talk in the other room,” she led the pack of Lopez-Fitzgeralds towards the back of the house. All of them followed, Karli’s giggles and chatter trailing down the hallway. No one noticed that Luis and Sheridan stayed behind, watching the others in silence for a time.

“Married?” Sheridan said, almost as if the word was foreign to her. Her mind had not been able to digest the truth that had come out. Luis had moved on without her, left her heart in the cold. He wouldn’t know how she suffered, how she cried at night; he wouldn’t even make amends for breaking her heart all those years ago.

“Yes, married,” Luis replied, crossing his arms. “I married her before I started law school. That was over four years ago now. She’s changed my life for the better. She’s my angel.”

Sheridan could barely look at him, the pain his words caused cutting through her heart. “I-I guess I always hoped you would come back to me. The first year was the hardest because I kept waiting for you to return and tell me not to marry Antonio. I would cry each night and beg God to send you back to me before the wedding. Every corner I turned I looked for you and when we finally took our vows, I expected you to come riding in and stop me.”

“I told you I wanted nothing to do with you, Sheridan, I meant that. I left this place because of you; I came back because of her. She wanted me to make amends with my family and to finally let my mother back into my life. I couldn’t care less if you are my sister-in-law. I’m here for my mother and her alone. I punished her out of anger and rage, it was wrong of me to do so even if I did hate Antonio and loathe you.”

She flinched at the display of abhorrence Luis was showing her knowing all too well she deserved his scorn. “She’s been so ill since you left. She worried so much about you. It will save her to know that you’re home again, Luis.”

“I’m not home again, Sheridan. Harmony isn’t my home nor will it ever be! I’m not staying here. Lexi and I will go back to our home in Los Angeles and live our lives there like we planned. We came here for the holiday and nothing more.”

“Oh,” she whispered.

Luis looked at the pictures on the mantle again, the ones of the weddings and grandchildren he missed. He couldn’t help but notice how horrible Sheridan looked in the photograph from her wedding day; the sadness her eyes held too much for him to bear. “I don’t know what you thought over the last eight years, Sheridan, but I’m not back for you. I told you that day I would never want you again. Obviously you and Antonio have started a life together.”

“I wouldn’t say that. He knows about us, Luis, but he doesn’t seem phased. It was almost as if he knew about us the entire time and was simply waiting for me to spill. I don’t love him, Luis. I never did. I’ve always loved only you and it’s taken me years of pain to get over the fact that you left town when I needed and wanted you most.”

“You had a hell of a way of showing that to me, Sheridan! But it doesn’t matter, does it. You still sleep with him and have for years. Guess that makes you a bigger whore than I thought,” he replied bitterly. “Look, I shouldn’t even be treating you this way since I owe you a plethora of thanks. You have no idea what it means to me that you did the Irish jig all over my heart. Moving out of this place and to Los Angeles did me a hell of a lot of good. I fell in love with a woman that is ninety times the woman you’ll ever be. So thank you for breaking my heart, Sheridan. In doing so you gave me the greatest gift anyone ever could: you sent me to the woman I was destined to be with.”

Sheridan turned towards the window and started sobbing, trying to hide her pain from him. For the last eight years of her life she had waited for his return, praying her would save her from the prison she was in. It was lonely and cold in her life and she was never the woman she had been when they were together. Her hurt made her feel like she was being pulled out to sea in a wave and she couldn’t swim for the shore.

“Luis, baby, your mother wants us to tell her about the last eight years. Come on and help me fill her in on what’s been going on in our lives, hm? I don’t want to do it alone.”

“Coming, baby,” he walked over to his wife and kissed her lips. “Just let me grab the gifts.” He tapped her nose. “I love you.”

“All right, darling, but hurry,” she smiled. “I love you too,” she disappeared down the hall.

“You must really hate me,” Sheridan cried, her tears rolling down her cheeks and landing on her blouse, wetting the fabric. Her back was still too him as she couldn’t bear to look at him when she knew that his eyes were going to be cold and unfeeling. He wanted nothing to do with her now and she finally realized she had lost everything that meant anything to her.

“No, Sheridan, I don’t have the energy to hate you,” he picked up the bags. “But I don’t love you anymore, either. I’ve moved on and I think it’s in your best interest to let go and move on too. Stop living in this fantasy that I’m here for you…”

“But Luis…”

“No!” he cut her off. “I love Alexis and I always will. I hope the rest of your marriage is all you want it to be, Sheridan, because he’s the man you’re with until death do you part, just like Lexi is the one I’ll be with for eternity.” He left the room with his packages in his hands.

Sheridan remained there, looking at the snow swirling outside as her tears rolled down her cheeks. Luis was gone to her now, lost in his own life full of joy and contentment. Her whole world had collapsed in the one event she had waited nearly a decade for and she couldn’t handle the ache in her chest. Laying her head against the cold window, Sheridan felt for the first time in years what Luis had that Thanksgiving so long again: that her heart and been beaten and bruised. She knew nothing would save her this time; she had lost it all.

The End

Disclaimer: This story in is in no way meant to infringe upon the rights belonging to , NBC, or any entity thereof. All rights to Passions and any related content, including characters used, belong to "Outpost Farms Production Inc", James E. Reilly, and NBC.
This story is the property of the author. Copyright 2002. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without the written permission of the author.
Beaten Heart- Copyright © 2002 - All Rights Reserved.