The blonde gave Theresa a dirty look, “And who the hell do you think you are?” she asked, cockily. Theresa smiled at her evilly, “I’m Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald. My family owns this place. Anymore questions?” she said, annoyed. The blonde looked embarrassed, “I’m ...so sorry. He’s in the break room right now. It’s in the back.” she said, nervously. Theresa walked past her and into the break room.
Noah Bennett was sitting at the lunch table sipping his coffee, and looking at the front page of the paper, admiring his work. Theresa walked over to the table and heaved her copy of the newspaper at him, spilling his hot coffee in his lap, and onto the newspaper.
“What the hell!” Noah said, looking up at her. Theresa smiled at him. “Hi Noah. Troubles?” she asked, sweetly. He glared at her, “What the hell is your problem? You can’t just come in here and-” he said, but Theresa cut him off. “I can’t just what? You want to know what my problem is? This!” she said angrily, pointing at the soggy paper that was sitting on the table.
“Is that so? Well the truth does hurt.” Noah said, smiling at her. Theresa leaned down in his face, “I’ll tell you what, either you retract that article. Or I’ll go to the sleaziest tabloid and newspaper and tell them about your mother’s affair with T.C. Russell, and about you and your sister Jessica’s underage friend getting it on at the Bed and Breakfast. If her family finds out about that you could go to jail for quite some time. And not to mention the fact that I’ll personally make sure that you get fired from your job. So what’s it going to be?” she asked, smiling.
“You BITCH! How dare you threaten my family this way!” Noah yelled jumping up from his chair. Theresa glared at him, “No the question is, how dare YOU! I want a full retract on that article and an apology. Or you and your mother are going to seriously pay!” she said. Theresa turned and walked out of the building leaving an angry and helpless Noah in her wake.
Theresa felt bad, but this was her family that he was trying to destroy. She never did like Grace Bennett or her son. They were terrible to her sister-in-law and best friend, Kay. So she didn’t feel all that bad, about putting Noah in his place. She just didn’t like to throw her name around, and sometimes it was just the force of habit. She didn’t want people to think that she was evil and heartless, but sometimes you do what you gotta do, regardless of what other people thought.
Theresa marched into the Harmony Herald office, angry as hell. She walked up to the front desk. “I want to see Noah Bennett right now!” she demanded, leaning over the counter, in the receptionist’s face. “Miss do you have an appointment?” the young blonde asked, smacking her wad of gum. “No, and I don’t need one either. You tell me where Noah is right now, or I’ll make sure that you don’t have a job by tomorrow!” Theresa said, glaring at the girl.
Gwen walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of orange juice and got Katie a bowl of cereal. Gwen made a pot of coffee for her husband and sat down at table with her daughter. Tony walked into the kitchen. He sat down at the table, and kissed his daughter. Gwen smiled at him, “Hi honey. Where’d Luis go?” she asked.
Antonio glared down at the newspaper he was holding. “Probably had to go explain this to Beth!” he growled. Gwen was startled, “What do you mean ‘explain this to Beth?’ What’s going on?” she asked. She was surprised at her husband’s outburst.
Antonio didn’t say anything just handed her the paper. Gwen gasped as she read the head-line. She read the article and stared at her husband angrily. “What the hell you knew about this!? And you didn’t say anything! Beth is probably devastated! How could you?” she accused. The majority of the family knew about Luis and Sheridan’s affair, but thought it best to keep it from Gwen, since she was Beth’s best friend.
Antonio motioned for Gwen to follow him out into the living room so that Katie couldn’t hear. They sat down on the couch. “Look I didn’t say anything because it wasn’t my place. Luis is in love with Sheridan, and vice versa. They just know that they can’t be together. And who am I to tell Luis what to do? It’s none of my concern. And it shouldn’t be any of yours either.” he stated, staring at Gwen.
Gwen was furious, “You are an asshole! You were just going to let Beth marry him and not say anything? What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked. Tony was mad, “Gwen, I’m not going to fight with you about this. I’m going to go down to that newspaper and give that damn Noah Bennett a piece of my mind! Don’t go over to Luis and Beth’s house, OK? They’re just going to be fighting the whole time anyway.” he said, getting off the couch and walking out the front door.
Gwen sat on the couch in a daze, ‘What happened to the man that I married?’ she thought, heading back into the kitchen.
Sheridan Crane sat down on her couch and cried. Jean-Luc had read the Harmony Herald, and was not happy. He called her a slut and slapped her across the face. He told her that the engagement was off, and stormed out of her house. Sheridan looked up when she heard a knock on her door. She quickly checked her reflection in the mirror by the door. She had mascara running down her face, but she wasn’t in the mood to care. She flung open the door to find a very angry Beth Wallace, who had a death grip on a newspaper.
Richard Crane walked into his sister, Heather’s room and closed the door. Heather was lying on the bed with an washcloth on her face. “Hey slugger, you thirsty?” he asked sitting on the edge of her bed. Heather sat up and looked at him, “That’d be wonderful, thank you.” she said, as Richard handed her a glass of her favorite blue Kool-Aid. “Did you see the paper this morning? I thought that I was going to die. I can’t believe that I got into a fight with that bitch! She just got under my skin.” Heather vented. Her brother smiled at her, “So what did you think of Theresa?” Richard asked.
Heather smiled, “She seemed really nice. I felt so bad for her, I couldn’t imagine you or Ethan yelling at me the way her brother was yelling at her. They don’t seem that close, maybe that Fortune & Fame magazine was wrong. They act like they hate each other. You know what though, it was nice to see Gwen. Even if it was for just a second.” Heather said, looking at her brother.
Richard nodded slightly. “Yeah but I still can’t believe that she married that neanderthal Antonio. She was supposed to marry me. Then I end up stuck with Marie. And the worst thing is that Lopez-Fitzgerald Enterprises got the merger with the Hotchkiss Corporation before we did.” he said, in his business like voice.
Heather smirked at him, “Cut the crap Rich. You were and still are in love with her. So just admit it, already.” she said, slapping his arm playfully. Richard smiled at his little sister. She could always see through his front. “I know that your not happy with Marie, so why don’t you just get a divorce? It’s not like Grandfather has anything to gain from this marriage anymore. Dump the brat. I hate her!” she said, with disgust.
“I know that you do. She’s too much like her mother. But let’s not talk about that anymore. Did you read the part of the article that talked about Luis and Sheridan? I bet that Jean-luc and that Beth person are mad as hell.” Richard said. Heather nodded, “That reminds me, I was going to go over to her cottage and check up on her. I’ll see you later.” Heather said, kissing her brother’s cheek and jumping off the bed.
Luis rubbed his swollen cheek gingerly. Beth had punched him in the face and had run out the door. Luis walked got out of his car and went to knock on Sheridan’s door. There was no answer. He knocked harder. Still no answer. He was nervous. He bent down and reached under the welcome mat and grabbed the spare key. He unlocked the door and walked in. He gasped when he heard a woman scream echoing out in to the living room. He ran into the bedroom.
Theresa walked into the Book Cafe’ and spotted Ethan sitting at the counter talking to Chad. She walked over and sat down. “Hi honey. Hi Chad.” she said, smiling at them. They both said hello. Ethan turned to her. “So tell us all about your little run in with the blood sucker Noah Bennett.” he asked, putting his arm around her. They both listened intently to her, when she told them about her little confrontation with Noah.