Facing Their Future
    Part Three

    *****

    When they got back things settled pretty normally. Brady and Chloe had dinner at Tuscany as planned and Philip had not been seen or heard from since hitting Brady.

    One night three weeks after returning, while walking through Salem Place, Chloe bumped right into Philip. He was turning to walk away when she stopped him.

    "Can we talk?"

    "Sure," he said, leading her to the park.

    Philip and Chloe sat on what seemed to be the one and only bench in the park and faced each other.

    "I miss you, Chloe," Philip said.

    "Philip, don't make this harder than it has to be."

    "What do you mean? I'm just telling you I miss you and that I love you. I forgive you for cheating on me with Brady."

    "I didn't cheat on you Philip, I never did. You and I were broken up when Brady and I started seeing each other. And you're the one who broke up with me."

    "And I've told you how sorry I am for that a thousand times over. You were ready to forgive me and take me back until my uncle brainwashed you."

    "Philip, stop, okay. Listen, I wanted to do this nicely and civilly. I wanted to tell you that I don't blame you for anything. The fact that we didn't work is partly my fault. Yeah, you didn't believe in me, but I never really let you know me."

    "Chloe, I know you better than anyone. Way better than Brady does."

    "No, no, you don't. See, that's my fault. I let you know the Chloe that I thought you wanted. I made myself what you wanted because it was nice for people to finally treat me like I wasn't some freak. But this summer I finally realized that I am normal and it isn't my fault people can't understand that. Then I was more comfortable being myself."

    "And I'm sure Brady was right there to help you."

    "He was there when I got off the plane and we became really good friends. Philip I thought that I loved you, but if I couldn't say it, it wasn't true. Our time a part just made me realize that we aren't right together."

    "What makes you think you and Brady are?"

    "Because I have never connected with anyone like I have Brady. I love him Philip and there isn't anything anyone could have done to stop that from happening."

    "Why? Why, Chloe? Why can't you see that I love you more than anything. Why don't you see that we belong together, you and me. I mean you love coming to my games and stuff and hanging out at dot com."

    "No, no, I don't, Philip. I made you think I did because I thought that would make you happy. I discovered that I love just driving around. This summer I did so much stuff that I found out that I love."

    "With Brady."

    "Yes, with him. He's been so great for me. I can't help it, Philip. I don't want you to get hurt, but there is no way around it. I want to be with Brady, I have to be with the one I love."

    "What about me, why can't I be with the one that I love?"

    "Because I don't love you back. I know it hurts, but you'll get over it and you'll be okay. But I have to go. I have dinner plans," she said getting up.

    "I'll show you what hurts," he said getting up and grabbing her by the arm.

    "Philip, you're hurting me," Chloe frightfully said.

    In response Philip dragged Chloe to a shed behind some bushes in the park. She struggled to get free, but his grip was too tight. Soon, the pain made everything go black. She'd passed out.

    When Philip was done he wiped the sweat from his brow and walked out, through the park, like nothing mad happened.

    Walking along, holding hands after another successful date with Kevin, Mimi looked past the bushes and saw someone laying there, crumpled and dirty. She looked a bit closer.

    "Oh my God, Kevin, it's Chloe," she shrieked.

    "What?" Kevin knelt by where Chloe was. "You can barely tell it's her."

    Chloe's face was bloody and bruised. Her right eye was already starting to swell. Her arms too were bruised and bloodied and her legs probably would have been if they weren't covered by her jeans. Her hair, which had been twisted up, was now half way down. Her light blue tank top looked as though she had been digging holes in it, it was so dirty. There were also a few blood spots on it. Kevin looked over Chloe, seeing what else looked wrong. There was quite a large amount of blood coming from her abdomen and her left wrist was swollen, probably broken. Kevin checked for a pulse.

    "She's alive. We have to get her to a hospital," he said, gently picking her up.

    They carried her as quickly as possible to Salem University Hospital where they were greeted by two nurses who called the doctor over. It turns out the doctor on duty was Craig, since the regular attending had called in sick.

    "My God. Mimi, call Nancy then call Brady. Kevin, where did you find her, what happened?"

    "We found her in the bushes in the park. We didn't see what happened. We tried to stop the bleeding from her stomach, I think we did, but I couldn't tell. I think her wrist is broken too, but she had a pulse when we found her, it was strong and she was breathing okay, I think. I also saw a big cut on her head," he explained quickly.

    "Thanks. Can you two please go make those calls so we can take care of her," Craig ordered frantically.

    Brady walked by the Java Café and found Belle and Shawn sitting with coffee.

    "Have you guys seen, Chloe? I can't find her anywhere and she isn't picking up her cell phone," Brady said.

    "I haven't seen her in a while," Shawn answered.

    "Me either," Belle said.

    "Hmm, we were supposed to have dinner," Brady mused. His phone began to ring and he answered it. "Hello?"

    "It's Mimi, Kevin and I were in the park and we found Chloe. She's in the hospital you need to come down here," Mimi said quickly.

    "I'm on my way," Brady said.

    "I'll call Belle," Mimi offered.

    "She's right here," Brady said, hanging up the phone. "We have to go, Mimi found Chloe, she's in the hospital."

    They quickly made there way to the hospital, there they found John and Marlena already waiting along with Nancy.

    "What happened?" Brady went up to Nancy.

    Kevin stood and faced Brady. "Mimi and I found her in the park, we think someone attacked her and she was beaten. Dr. Wesley should be out any minute."

    "My God," Brady said going to the door and looking in the window. He didn't wait long, Craig opened the door and faced his wife.

    "She's going to be fine, honey," he said, taking her hands in his.

    "What happened, Craig?" Nancy cried thinking of what her baby girl must be going through.

    "She was beaten, pretty badly. She's got a lot of cuts and bruises to her face. Nasty black eye on the right side. Her right arm and wrist are broken. She took a blow to the head. Also, it looks like she was stabbed with a piece of glass. A dirty one, we cleaned it up and got her in a gown. She should be waking up any minute."

    "I want to see her," Brady said.

    "Brady, I think you should wait," Craig protested. Brady didn't listen. He walked straight in the room and sat next to Chloe. She had a bandage on her head, a band aid over her right eye, lots of scrapes and bruises to her arms and her lip was swollen. Her left arm was in a cast. Even in this state she was beautiful to him, just to have her alive made him happy.

    "Brady," she weakly whispered.

    "I'm here, I'm here," he said leaning a little close, taking her hand in his.

    "Brady," she said again, opening her eye to look at him. "Where am I?"

    "You're in the hospital. You were attacked."

    "Philip..."

    "What? What about Philip? Did he do this?" Brady's face tensed.

    "Yes," Chloe said through her large lip.

    "You need to get some rest, okay. There are a lot of people who want to see you and you can't unless you get some rest. I love you, Chloe."

    "I love you, Brady," she said, drifting off to sleep. Brady sat with her for another fifteen minutes watching her sleep before getting up and softly closing the door behind him.

    "She's a sleep, I'll be back in a while," Brady said, stalking out of the hospital. He knew exactly where he was going.

    He drove the jeep in a familiar direction. He picked up his cell phone and dialed a number.

    "Henderson, it's Brady. Is Philip home?"

    "No, I'm sorry. He's having dinner with his father and Miss Walker at Tuscany tonight," the butler answered.

    "Thanks," Brady said putting the phone away and making a sharp turn in the other direction. He parked in front of Tuscany telling the valet to leave the car there.

    Walking in he strode past Maggie and headed for the table where he located Philip, Victor, and Nicole.

    "You son of a bitch," Brady said pulling Philip from his chair and taking him outside. Victor and Nicole stood and followed. Maggie walked outside to see what was happening.

    Brady took Philip by his shirt collar and slammed him into a wall. He turned him around and hit him as hard as he could, causing his nose to bleed.

    "You broke my nose, you bastard," Philip yelled. He tried to get up to fight back but Brady kicked him in the stomach multiple times before lifting him off the ground and holding him bu the shirt collar.

    "Brady, let go of Philip this instant," Victor commanded.

    "Ask him what he's been doing tonight? Ask him about when he saw Chloe? Ask him why she's in the hospital." Brady threw Philip against the wall again, knocking him to the ground and kicking him again and again. Once more he picked him up, punched him in the stomach, then in the face before throwing him into the jeep and tearing off leaving Victor and Nicole to follow in their limo.

    Brady dragged Philip into the hospital and slammed his head into a trash can, then slammed his body against another wall. What Brady didn't know was that Bo and Hope had been at Tuscany and followed to see what was the matter. They pulled up along with Victor and Nicole just as Brady held Philip to the window to see Chloe sleeping.

    "Do you see what you did to her? Do you?"

    "Get off of me, Brady."

    "Listen to me, and listen good. Got it?" "Brady put Philip down instantly," Victor repeated.

    Brady ignored his grandfather.

    "Brady, you need to let go of Philip before I have to arrest you," Bo said.

    "Arrest him, dammit. Before he kills me!"

    "You'd be lucky to be dead. I'm going to see to it that you go to jail for doing this to her. You are never to touch her again. You aren't going to go near her, not even to apologize. If you even so much as look at her I'm going to do a lot worse to her than I am now."

    As Brady threatened Philip, Bo talked to Craig about what happened.

    "Brady, let go of Philip so that I can take him in," Bo pleaded.

    "I don't even want her, Brady. But how does it feel to know that she's damaged goods, that I fucked her first?"

    "How does it feel to know that she never loved you?" Brady turned to Bo to hand Philip over when he noticed Chloe standing behind him, having gotten out of bed. It was the first time the others had seen her and they were shocked at the extent of what Philip had done to her.

    Shawn leaned over to Belle, "I thought you said that Brady was her first."

    "Philip's lying," Belle answered.

    Brady went to Chloe as Bo held on to Philip.

    Bo looked at Victor, then at Chloe, "Chloe, did Philip do this to you?"

    "Yes," she answered weakly. Brady held her by her good arm and led her back to her bed as Bo read Philip his rights and Victor told Bo to let Philip go, that he would handle the situation.

    Belle, Shawn, Mimi, Kevin, John, Marlena, Craig, and Nancy followed Brady and Chloe into her room. Brady tucked her in.

    Looking up at Brady she told him, "I never slept with Philip."

    "I know, I know. It's not important," he said, kissing her forehead. "I took care of him."

    "You beat him for me," she smiled weakly.

    "Hey, Chloe," Belle said.

    "Hi," she answered.

    "You know, Mimi and Kevin were the ones to find you," Craig said.

    "Thanks you guys. I'd really like to get some sleep though. I'm tired," Chloe said. They all began to file out of the room and as Brady started to walk out she touched his arm. "Stay with me, please?"

    He smiled and got into bed next to her, holding her as they slept.

    "He loves my little girl, Craig," Nancy beamed.

    Chloe was released the next day and Philip was charged with assault. Before he could go to trial, though, Victor had him sent out of the country.

    Two days after getting out of the hospital Brady took Chloe, who was still extremely bruised and with a broken arm, to a secret location, not letting her know where. He took the blindfold off to reveal a large picnic blanket at the gazebo where they had sang and danced earlier in the summer. There was no singing and dancing this time, but they enjoyed themselves, despite the pain that Chloe felt. They were in love and nothing was going to stop them from enjoying themselves.

morganrosella@hotmail.com

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