HEARTS WILL GO ON
Chapter Twenty

He smiled when he saw me, just like he did any other time we met, but I didn’t smile back. In fact, I quite glared at him. He’d cut his hair, but kept the stubble.

"Jo…you look lovely," he said, and I crossed my arms testily.

"You have a lot of nerve, don’t you…Jack?" He stopped smiling, but didn’t look surprised.

"So, Livy told you then," he said, and I nodded.

"Obviously. When were you going to tell me?" I made sure to look straight into his eyes, which were exactly the same as mine. He stared right back.

"Quite honestly, Jo, I wasn’t. Until you got engaged." Wrong answer, Jack.

"How could you? How could you do this to me? Why would you do that?"

"You couldn’t understand, Jo," he said quietly. "I thought she was dead. How could I possibly have known? When I found you, you were already sixteen and you had a father who had raised you. I didn’t want to confuse you. So, I decided to become your teacher, which I may add, you did not need." He sighed. "When I found out about your stepfather passing and your financial situation, I filled Olivia in, who, bless her, wanted nothing to do with it. She said, ‘You’ve made your bed, and you should lie in it.’ Of course, she was right, but I couldn’t come clean then…not when you thought I was Thomas Rose." I shook my head.

"You’re disgusting," I ground out.

"Jo…I never said I was perfect."

"I never asked you to be! All I wanted was a father! Sorry it was so much to ask!"

"What is this?" a voice behind Tom asked. I froze, looking at my mother. I couldn’t find my voice, and his eyes widened, too. I saw, for the first time, a shadow of a young man in them.

"This is a mess, Mother…meet my teacher. Thomas Rose," I said, and with that, I spun on my heel and left him to her mercy.

"Jo…are you all right?" Jonathan asked. I shook my head.

"No…I am so far from all right, I…" I began to cry again. He pulled me into his chest, and I said, "Why is it I always cry like a baby when I am around you?" He chuckled.

"It means you’re comfortable with me, which is good if we’re going to be married." I looked up at him. He smiled. "I talked to your mother…and told her everything. Well, with the exclusion of Stirling and Gloria. She gave me her blessing."

He grabbed my hand.

"Come with me…I want to show you something," he said, and led me outside. It had begun to snow, but only just. The lights in the garden made it look like a wonderland.

"Wow," I said in awe, and when I turned, he was smiling and holding out the ring he’d bought. "Is this the moment?" I asked quietly. He nodded.

"Jo…I should have done this to begin with. Will you?" I wiped my eyes and laughed.

"No! You’re not even down on one knee." He looked down.

"Oh! Oh, yeah!" He sunk down. "There. Better?" I nodded.

"Much…and yes." I put his ring on, having given Dave the one he’d bought me to give to Gloria. It was more suited to her anyway. I let him put his arm around me and sighed, remembering my mother was seeing my dead father very much alive.

"I shouldn’t be so happy right now…not when my mother is probably miserable."

"Are you going to forgive him?" Jonathan asked.

"I honestly don’t know…right now it just hurts…it hurts me so horribly that he could have known all this time and never said anything. I should have known. God, Mom was right! I do look a lot like him! It’s strange. Even the way we stand and hold a pencil!" I scowled. "I hate it!"

"Jo…you sound a lot like I did after my father shot himself. I felt like he’d just left us…that he’d been too much of a coward to step up to his problems. I still haven’t forgiven him properly, but I am starting to see that he felt like there was no way out. Maybe he thought we’d be better off. I haven’t forgiven him, but I sure do miss him." He looked down at me. "Maybe this is your second chance. I mean, he’s still alive. That has to count for something."

We stood there for a few minutes, quietly, until a shadow filled the light pouring out into the garden.

"Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?" I turned to see the looming figure of Keegan Edwards.

"What do you mean?" Jonathan asked. The man was positively seething.

"I just got a call from our butler. He said Gloria is gone. With a note saying she was getting married. To your fiancé, girl!" I winced at his words. Jonathan held my hand.

"Your butler was right. I’m not marrying Gloria…I’m going to marry Josephine here."

"Do you forget, boy, the things I know about Cal?" Edwards asked, so close to us that I could smell the scotch on his breath.

"You…and the rest of Philadelphia…at least, they’ll all know tomorrow morning," Johnny said. "I talked to the editor of the News today and they were going to send information to New York, San Francisco, and every other big paper in the country. It’s over, Edwards…so you can go screw yourself." I gasped at his audacity. Edwards just stared at us before looking at me and wrenching my arm from Jonathan’s grip so hard I yelped.

"Let go! Please! You’re hurting me!" He pressed harder, and I screamed. Jonathan was able to get him away from me and wrestle Edwards to the ground before turning slightly.

"Jo! Run!"

Rose Dawson Calvert

"What is this?" I demanded to know as my daughter looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights. Jo glared at her companion, who, as of yet, I could not see the face of.

"This is a mess, Mother…meet my teacher, Thomas Rose!" she spat, and before I could say anything to her about the plan that Cal’s son had revealed to me, Thomas Rose turned around. As I extended my hand to meet him, I realized I knew him from somewhere, but couldn’t place him.

"Mr. Rose…it’s a pleasure. I’m sorry…don’t I know you?" I asked, trying to place him. He nodded.

"Yes…I believe it’s been a bit over twenty years now, but we have met…albeit briefly." And then I knew.

"Jack?" It was him. He looked very nearly as I remembered him, though older. His face had matured. His hair was still brassy blond, but his face was complemented with a few lines. It was clear he had become more attractive with age, and I was more in awe than angry at that moment.

"Hello, Rose," he said. He was remarkably calm standing there. He was taller than I remembered and thicker.

"How? Why? When?" I babbled. He swallowed.

"I don’t know how. I really don’t. I woke a week later in a New York hospital without feeling in one of my feet and a few of my fingers." His voice turned dark. "They told me you were dead." I nodded.

"Yes, they would have…I gave them your last name as mine."

"I know. Jo’s told me." I remembered suddenly. Jo! My daughter…his daughter! He went on. "When they were trying to get my name, they said I mumbled something like ‘Tommy…Rose…’ So that was what they recorded as my name. When I found out that you were…dead…I just couldn’t go back to Livy…so I wrote to her and told her to tell everyone I was dead. That I was going to live my own life. As Tom Rose. Away from the media and the reminder of…well…"

"I see…" I said, feeling horribly numb. It was as if I was talking to a relative I barely knew.

"I got out of the hospital on October twenty-first, six months after the sinking. I had to use a cane for over a year and I never regained full feeling in my foot or hand. You’re going to be surprised to hear this, but Cal found out about me. We ran into each other in the hospital." My eyes widened.

"You did?" I asked quietly. He nodded.

"We actually remained quite good friends from then on, keeping in touch with letters. It was actually Cal who gave me the money to start my business, which I paid him back, of course. After he killed himself…it was…it was a surprise, and it was really hard for me, because he was my last real link to you. Stupid, I know…"

"How did you find out about Jo?" I asked, curious.

He folded his arms before taking a long breath.

"I was in Iowa, at this art gallery, and I saw one of her drawings. I thought it was a guy, but I thought it was interesting because it was signed J. Dawson. They sent me to her high school and I saw your name and I knew."

"But…Tom--Jack! Jack…that was three years ago. Why didn’t you just come to us and tell us yourself?" I was beginning to feel very out of the loop, and it hurt. He gave a short, bitter laugh.

"For what? To confuse the poor girl more? To confuse you more? Give me some credit, Rose…you were married and had children with your husband. I didn’t want to come waltzing back in like some skeleton in your closet." I stared at him very intensely.

"Jack, you could never have been a skeleton in my closet." I was looking at my feet now, feeling very like an awkward schoolgirl again.

"What about Jo, though? I mean, she was attached to your husband as her father. I didn’t want to make her miserable and make her think she needed to choose between us. And you know she would have felt like that. And when your husband died, I couldn’t exactly come and say, ‘Guess what, Rose? I’ve been lying to our daughter and to you! I’m back,’ could I?"

"Well…no," I admitted. "But I would have forgiven you…for Jo. She’s been my life for the past twenty years. I’d do anything for her. And she needed you…why couldn’t you see that?"

"But she had me…" he said weakly. I glared at him now, furious.

"She needed her father! Damn you and your selfishness, Jack Dawson! Damn you to hell!" I hit him then.

I made to go at him again when I heard a bloodcurdling scream from outside. I looked up at Jack and then caught Olivia’s eye. One of the girls in the room ran out and came back inside.

"They’ve fallen through the ice! Mr. Edwards and Miss Dawson!" I forgot my anger at Jack and realized in a daze that he was pulling me frantically outside. He left me and ran in another direction. Jonathan Hockley was laying across the ice, holding Jo’s hands, and Edwards was nowhere to be seen.

"Jo! Jo!" someone was calling. Was it me? I heard her coughing and her face was white as a sheet.

I heard a sickening cracking sound as the part Jonathan was laying on began to come apart from the hole Jo was in. Then she disappeared under the surface and I screamed as Olivia grabbed my arm and I felt someone run past us.

"Watch out!" It was Jack, of course, and he pulled Jonathan back by the feet and in one swift motion dove into the freezing water. It was like all of my worst nightmares come to life…only this time Jo was involved. Jack had tied a long piece of rope around his waist and Grant was ready to pull them back when he gave the tug. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was only seconds, the rope tugged and the people standing around gave a simultaneous gasp. Jonathan was shivering and crying at the same time beside me. I grabbed his arm, wondering why I was comforting this boy for worrying about my daughter, but I did.

Grant and two other men pulled them back up and onto the snowy bank. Jack could barely keep his chin still from chattering, but Jo was not moving. She was pale as death and her hair was frozen. I rushed forward, throwing myself on the ground and grabbing her cheeks, which were like ice. Jack swallowed hard and sat her up before slapping her on the back. Almost instantly, she began to cough up water and retch. Some slight color was coming back to her face. I looked at Jack.

"Where is Edwards?" I asked, shivering myself. His eyes were dark.

"Dead."

Chapter Twenty-One
Stories