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Calamity

Chapter 8

As soon as Evangeline’s mother leaves for home Evangeline prepares herself for this very important meeting.  At first she was determined not to attend but when Todd told her that he wanted her there with him she changed her mind.  A week back at home she received the invitation so she ignored it.  Todd told her that he also received one and asked for her support.  

On this rainy, thunder filled day they all gather in the office of Attorney Caruthers for the reading of the will of one Spencer Truman.  Initially several of them refused to attend but after careful consideration they all agree to meet to have an ending to all of Truman’s drama.  They were naïve to think that, even after death, Truman wouldn’t still try to have the upper hand over everyone.  Some of them were nervous as to what Truman has for them and others were not and were more curious than anything.  But there was one who did not care at all.

Mr. Caruthers stands at the front of the conference room and made his opening remarks.

“Thank you all for coming.  There are a few preliminaries that I must address prior to the reading of the will.  Mr. Truman’s will is uncontestable.  If you are listed as a beneficiary you must follow to the letter the stipulations attached to that bequest or forfeit it.  Everyone here will receive a monetary remittance for appearing here today.  You can keep it, donate it, burn it or do with it whatever you may choose.  Everyone may now be seated to view a short video presentation.”

Everyone’s eyes are fixed on the screen set up on the table in the front of the room.  Spencer Truman appears on the screen.

“Well hello everyone.  I know you never thought that you’d see me again.  Well, here I am.  If I know you as well as I do, you are all curious as to why I asked you here.  If you’re here then I’m dead and so you think that that’s the end.  Oh how wrong you are.  Don’t any of you know me better than to think that I would just go away never to be heard from again?  Come on now.  Get serious.  When have I ever done what was expected?  You people here in Llanview are so easily fooled.  Well enough of my insults let’s get to the real reason for gathering you all here.  I have something to say to each of you.

First of course is Blair, my love.  I wanted you Blair from the first time that I saw you.  Not only are you beautiful but you also have a deviousness about you that attracted me more to you.  I could see that you were torn between your attraction to me and your love for Todd, therefore the only way to have you to myself I had to get rid of Todd.  There I have admitted that I set up Todd for Margaret Cochran’s murder.  It worked perfectly.  He was executed and would have died if the bumbling detective McBain had not interrupted everything with Margaret in tow.  Blair we could have had a beautiful life together but you betrayed me.  I knew all along that you stayed with me trying to gather evidence against me but I still loved you and wanted you.  But the crazy thing about it Blair you wanted me too.  Do you remember the night in my bed when I asked you why you were with me and you told me that you feel free with me?  You said you feel like you can be yourself and you’ve never felt that way with anyone else.  That was the real you Blair, not the Blair that you show to everyone else.  You go back and forth with Todd because that’s what you know.  I gave you something new; something exciting and you loved it.  But here’s one thing that you didn’t account for dear Blair.  While you were scheming to get evidence on me I gathered evidence on you.  Take a listen.”

On the screen those gathered see a video of Blair sitting at a table talking.  You can hear her say that she knows that Spencer set up Todd but for some sick reason she finds that exciting because no one has ever done anything that drastic for her.  She said that she found it sexy.

Then the second video ends and Spencer reappears to continue his speech.

“So Blair, fight it all you want, deny it until you’re blue in the face, you wanted me too.

Now Paige, the only good thing that came out of my involvement with you was our son Hugh.  He’s dead now and anyway you lost your usefulness to me years ago.  As a physician, you’re mediocre at best and as a woman you’re even less.  You and Dr. Saybrooke need to turn in your medical licenses because the two of you are just dumb.  I heard the two of you talking in the hospital corridor about what would make someone do what I was accused of doing.  You were in a public area talking about psychotic behavior.  Did you ever think that someone who might be psychotic could hear your conversation and get new ideas to act out?  Do you know anything about discretion?  Some things you need to keep to yourself.

Natalie, well one can hardly blame you for your misbehavior after all your mother and sister are wackos, your uncle is a convicted rapist, your grandfather was a swindler and the woman who raised you is a drunk. Even finding out you’re a Buchanan, which is nothing to brag about mind you, why do you act like the world owes you something?  So what you had a rough childhood, who hasn’t?  The world doesn’t owe you anything.  I will give you this though.  You wanted John McBain and you got him, but not on your own merit because everybody knows that no man in his right mind would choose you over Evangeline Williamson.  John is messed up in the head so don’t think you have a jewel there.

Oh and Natalie, a word of advice though.  You and Cristian Vega should be a lot more discreet on your sleeping together.  Your secret rendezvous place isn’t as secret as you think.  Forbid if you’re pregnant because you need to get back with John quickly because I’m sure you’re planning to pass off the kid as John’s baby.  Where’s the prestige in having a broke boxer wannabe as a baby’s daddy when you can have a chief of detectives?  How does that work anyway, if John is your soul mate then what is Cristian, your sex mate?

John McBain or excuse me Lieutenant McBain, you wear that ‘tormented soul’ thing like a badge of honor.  It is not.  Get over yourself. Life goes on.  Stop living in the past.  If I had allowed my past to rule me I’d still be a grifter instead of a successful surgeon.  Even with psychological help if you don’t decide to join the rest of the world in the ‘land of the living’ you will end up where I am or you will end up alone.  Now that you know the truth about Natalie you can either ignore it or use it as an impetus to get out of that unbalanced relationship once and for all. You have a hero complex and she loves to play the victim so you get your fix when you rescue her and she keeps you on a tight leash.  The ball is in your court Lieutenant.

Todd, my nemesis, I have nothing good to say about you.  You’re probably celebrating that I’m now dead but hold on a minute I have something for you.  Your son is ALIVE!  Yes he is and closer than you think.  No, this is not a joke. It is real.  Off you go and find that little bundle of joy.

Evangeline, you’re the odd one in this lot.  You probably refused to attend but only came to support Todd.  You are a good friend but not much of a girlfriend if both McBain and Vega left you for Natalie.  Don’t worry though.  As I said before, no man in his right mind would choose Natalie over you.  Everyone knows that Vega’s mind is scrambled so he has an excuse whereas McBain is just ‘clueless’.  But I’m confident that you will survive this too just as you survived McBain’s ignorance.  I know that I baited you about McBain and your blindness.  Hey that’s just me.  Even though you’ve made mistakes you keep trying and one thing that I admire about you is that you are loyal.  You continued to support Todd even when everyone believed him guilty.  Sure you were his attorney and that’s your job but you risked your career and reputation for him.  Not many people would do that.  I found out later that you had a part in McBain finding Margaret and that put a major wrinkle in my plan to get rid of Todd.  Of course with Margaret back, the only person who could implicate me, I had to get rid of her.  Yep, I killed her.  Boy, this ‘confession is good for the soul’ thing is real.  Unfortunately it won’t gain me a place up there but hey it feels good.

To everyone, I don’t regret anything that I did.  Regrets are for weaklings.  I own up to everything that I did.  So now I say farewell to all of you.  My attorney will pay you each for attending.  After a few minor bequests, the remainder of my estate I bequeath to …

The video ends and everyone’s eyes and mouths pop open.  That is everyone except two of the guests in the room.  No one knew what to say.  Those two who expressed nothing both rise and depart.  The rest sit silent.  Paige is the next one to leave and soon after Blair leaves.  John talks with Attorney Caruthers about obtaining a copy of the video to use to close their police cases.  Caruthers has a copy waiting for Lt. McBain.  Natalie sits waiting to talk with John in an effort to diffuse the situation and refute the claims that Spencer made in the video.  As John walks to the door with his copy of the video Natalie calls his name to get his attention.  Before she can continue John says, “I’ll drop off your things at Llanfair,” and with that he leaves Natalie standing alone in the conference room.

The End.

A/N:  I had another ending all written but decided that this scene was the best ending.  There are so many ways for this story to go after this scene but the things revealed here will change things forever for everyone in that room.  Until next time thnx for reading and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!