Chapter 35

The day ended up being quite peaceful.  The guest house is far enough away from the main house and it's on the other side of the garage, so it can't even be seen from the main house.  Jon and Beth, with all the kids except Jesse spent the day playing games and just chilling out. 

As it got towards evening, Jon whispers to Beth, leaning over to her on the couch, "I'm going to head to the studio a bit, do you mind?"  He kisses the side of her face, "Unless you want to go with me?"

Beth looks at him and thinks for a second, "What do you plan on doing there?  Are you going to be a long time?"  She wonders, only because if she went, she doesn't want to be stuck there all night.  "If it's a quick in and out, I'll go."  She melts onto him, kissing her favorite feature of his, his chin.  She continues, "But if you plan on staying for a while and need time there, I'll stay home."

"I can do either.  If you want to go, let's go."  his arms go around her and he holds her tightly.  "I can do in and out or I can stay there all night, but if you want to get out and go with me - let's do that."

Her tension leaves her body as he holds her, she loves how soothing his voice can be.  "Do you know what Pete is doing?  Is she back from church?"

"I haven't seen her, but Steph is here.  She can watch her brothers and her sister."

"Don't assume that Jon."  Beth nudges him with her elbow.  "She may have plans."

Reaching passed her to get to his cell phone, "I'll text her." he plays with her.

"Jon, seriously."  Beth smirks at him, "Get up and go ask her."

"A text will work, watch this."

Jon taps out a quick text to his daughter and then sets the phone on the back of the couch.  He settles back into his position of the loving husband and cuddles with his wife.  The little ones are watching a movie, kicked back on their bean bags, bowls of popcorn resting on their bellies.  The other two are  assumed in the game room doing what boys do when there is no schedule in place.  From the outside looking in, there isn't anything wrong in Beth's world - other than the ex wife just a few hundred feet away.


The run into the city was a pleasant one, as pleasant as N.Y.C. can be at 8 pm.  On their drive the two of them made good use of the free time and just talked.  Beth's hand on top of Jon's on the gear shift.  She's sitting sideways in her seat and can't help but soak up every detail of the face that's next to her.  The face of the man that she's loved so hard, the face of the man that's hard to love.  Loving him is expensive and she's seeing that.

"Why is Dorothea in our guest house?"  her tone flat, but alive enough for him to know that that question needs to be answered, honestly.

He looks over to her, "How do you want me to answer that?"

"Honestly."

With his eyes on the road, Beth can see his grimace, she feels his hand twitch under hers.  "I reacted to the tone in Stephanie's voice."  Was all he said.

Beth processed that for a moment and didn't like that it was just so blunt.  "She's panicked for far less and the end result has never been as strong as the solution to this problem."  She wiggles a little in her seat, but never loses contact with her husbands hand.  "Don't you think that this is a bit much, even for us?"  Her tone showing no empathy.  She's has never been empathetic when it comes to Dorothea.  Even from the very beginning.  Sure, the two women attempted to form some type of a relationship in the best interest of the children, but it never worked.  Neither woman was able to see the other for what they were worth.  "We've never stooped to this level of vulnerability, Jon.  Do you really think that this is a good idea?"

"What's the worst that can happen?  She has no one and she is the mother of my children."

"Now she's your house guest!"

"And....?" he asks a question that doesn't even need to be answered.

She takes her hand away from his in response to what he just said.  "And?  And?"  He can hear that she's getting upset.  "And what the hell, let's just invite our biggest ever problem into our safe space!  And.........fuck you, Jon."  She just reached her maximum capacity for the stuff that she tolerates and never should.  "You invited trouble into our house."

"I think you're over reacting."  He tries to place his hand on her leg and she quickly pushes him away.

"I think you are over reacting to her bullshit situation.  She can go to the Four Season, she can go to a homeless shelter for all I care.  She is NOT staying Jon."

Jon is mildly regretting asking her to come along for the ride.  He did not want to spend their evening doing now what they are doing.  Fighting.  "Did you want to come with me to give me a bunch of shit because of Dot?"  His anger level rising along with hers.

"Are you kidding me?  This is the 2nd to last thing that I want to do." she admits and that makes her angrier.  "Fighting about Dot, about her being at our home, it shouldn't even be happening.  She shouldn't be at our house, Jon.  Our HOME!"  

They hadn't quite made it to Interstate 95 on the Garden State Parkway when Jon decided he wasn't taking her attitude and this fight into the city.  It would be a waste of time and they would get nothing accomplished that way.  Jon takes the exit to get onto Highway 9 and finds a place to park.  He settles with the Walmart parking lot.  He slams the car into PARK and turns to her in his seat.  Upset.  "Look, what's done is done.  She's there for a couple of days.  We can do what you fear would happen, or we can just get through these couple of days and move on."  He made it sound like she had options, but she didn't.  "I'm sorry that I did this.  I'm sorry that you're mad at me but that doesn't change the fact that it happened.  Dorothea is at our house for a couple of days.  We can fight, like she's hoping we will or we can show her that we are strong enough to handle this."

"But I'm not!!!!" she admits with eyes burning from the tears that have started to well in her eyes. "Here we are AGAIN, fighting about something that shouldn't even be a THING in our lives.  We should not still be fighting about your ex-wife."    She has to look away, she can't let him see her fall weak again.  Her mind is in overdrive and her blood pressure matches, in her mind she thinks that this has to be yet another bad dream.  Another time that she wishes she could wake up from.

"We shouldn't be arguing about her, you're right.  So let's stop this shit right now and accept she's there for a couple of days."

"I can't do it." she mouses, opening the glove compartment searching for tissues.  "I thought I could, but I can't and I shouldn't have to."  She wipes away the tears, "We shouldn't."  Her gaze fixes upon some seagulls flying over trash in the parking lot, he thoughts she gets lost in. 

"What do you want me to do?" he quietly asks her, knowing the answer to his own question.  "Do you want me to send her packing?" He's certain that she is going to say yes, but instead, she says nothing.

Chapter 34

Modern advances in technology let both Jon and Beth know when the gate to the driveway has been activated.  In unison their phones alerted them to it.  Beth snatches her phone off the table and dismisses the alert, glaring at Jon.  She lost.  She hates that she lost.  What she hates even more is now she has to at least be civil to Dorothea while she was on the property, as long as her children were there.  Beth would never do anything to hurt or upset the kids on purpose.  Her will is about to be tested.  

Together, Jon and Beth walk out to the covered driveway, the little ones are in the back yard with Pete.  As the black car stops before them Jon mumbles, "Be nice."

Beth mumbles back, "Fuck off."  

Jon shoots her another look.  Him and his looks!

The car door opens and out pops a chipper Stephanie, "Hi dad, Hi Mom."  She says to Jon and Beth.  Beth winks at her, not sure if the Hi Mom was intentional or if it was just a dig at her mom, but she didn't care.  She knows where she stands with Stephanie and that's all that matters.

"Where's Jesse?"  Jon asks his grown daughter as she be-bops passed them.

"Todd's.  He said he'll get a car later to come home, he wasn't ready."  Steph gives her dad the only details that she has and disappears into the house. 

Dorothea emerges from the car, looking a little worse for wear.  "Jon, Beth."  she manages to get her signature hello out.  "Thanks for having me."  she says quite off handish, sounding like she was deserving of their generosity.  "I hope it doesn't cause an issue between you two."  she doesn't make eye contact with either of them, flattening her dress over her thighs.  "Are the boys here?"

Jon looks to Beth, Beth to Jon.  "They are, but why don't I take you out to the guesthouse and you can get settled in before they know you're here."  Beth suggests, adamantly to her husband's former wife.  

"Yeah yeah, sure."  Dot condescends.  "Whatever you say."

The driver hands her the things that she brought with her in her rush to get away from the city.  "Dorothea, you are here against my wishes, please don't make me the bad guy and send you packing."  Jon is quick to say, to avoid a confrontation with her and his wife.  

"Jon, I appreciate you allowing me into your home."  she smiles sarcastically, "well your guest home."

"Don't make us regret it any more than we already do."  Beth gently adds, through her teeth.

Jon leads the way, Dot right behind him, "There is no reason for you to be in my house.  Do not go into the house for anything."

"We're changing the codes."  Beth states as a matter of fact, having this idea right at this second.

"I mean it Dorothea.  Don't go in the house.  You have all that you need out here, however, if there is something that you need, there are many cars in the garage, feel free to take yourself to the store."  Jon enters the code on the guesthouse key-less door handle 1.9.8.3., saying the numbers out loud.  "Don't take my car or Beth's."

Beth is a little taken back by that.  She doesn't even try to hide her disgust or even her unwillingness to go along with this chapter, "How long do you intend to stay?"  Her arms fall hard at her side, "This is only for a couple of days.  You're only here long enough to have your place fixed and new security put in."  Her arms go up along with her anger, "THIS is only for a couple of days!"  
Dot can see that Beth is at wit's end, but she refuses to care.  One part of Dorothea is happy that she's creating trouble for Jon and his wife, because she is no longer his wife.  "This wasn't my idea, this is all on Stephanie."  Dot instantly snaps, "This was all her."

"Then why are you here?  Could you not have come up with anything better?  I'll be more than happy to put you up at the Four Seasons."  Beth cat calls right back, "At MY EXPENSE!  I mean after all, you have no source of income other than alimony."

"Beth."  Jon says to her, as if she were a child.  As fast as he says her name, their eyes lock and she can see that she just crossed an imaginary line.  "Why don't you go in the house.  I'll be there in a minute."

"I'll stay."  she's firm in her response to his order.  With an attitude she didn't even know she possessed, she responds, "Let's get her all situated and then we will go in the house."  Beth rips open a closet door.  "There are clean linens in here."

Jon watches what's happening in his guest house and is having a hard time figuring out how they got to this point in his life.  His wife and ex wife were under the same roof again, he is very uncomfortable with the situation.  

Chapter 32 - Feels Something Like Healing Time

Beth rolls over and yawns, the sunshine  blinding her sleepy eyes.  Gently she reaches over and feels that her husband is not there.  She slowly sits herself up, eyes gazing the room, "Jon?" she mumbles with a yawn.  She can't hear him doing anything.  The villa is dead quiet.  When she hears nothing back, "Jon."  she tries again as she rises from the bed.  She rubs her eyes as she patters to the bathroom.  She glances around the room, but can't see a note. 

After using the bathroom and brushing her teeth, she makes her way to the kitchen area and pops in a coffee pod.  As her cup brews, she wanders back into the bedroom and finds her phone.  She only had 13 text messages and 4 missed calls.  She swipes up to see who she missed.  Several texts from the kids, just saying hi and asking when they woulld be home.  The missed phone calls were from numbers not stored in her phone. She writes them off as spam.  The most recent text that she received was from Jon.

I went for a run.  Let me know when you're up and we can head into town. Love you!

She drops her phone on the bed, off to get her coffee she thinks, 'Why is he running without me?"  Beth, unconsumed by her thoughts grabs the newpaper off the kitchen counter and takes it out on the lanai with her. There isn't any better way to start your day than with a newspaper, sunshine and fresh coffee. 

She's deep into the society pages of Honolulu when Jon appears, scaring the shit out of her.  When her brain registers who it is she smiles, "Hi gorgeous."  she says to him with a smile on her face.

Jon bends over and kisses her, "You're the gorgeous one.  How'd you sleep?  He asks, taking his running ball cap and tshirt off.  "When I left, you were sawing logs."

She continues to smile at him, "I slept better than the dead, I think.  How did you sleep?  Why are you up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep."  He says to her as he heads into the suite.  "I can only watch you sleep for so long."  He picks on her.  He heads inside and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge, "What do you want to do today?"

She takes a sip of her morning heaven, "I don't care.  When are we going home?" 

Jon takes a seat next to her on the lanai and chugs his  bottle of water.  Once he's done he exhales loudly, "I was thinking today,   What do you think about that?"  He shoots her a wink. 

At first Beth is a little stunned.  When she gives it a quick thought she decides that that might not be a bad idea.  "Are you serious?"  she questions with a smile.  "I think I like that idea.  I woke to several texts from the kids, I think they miss us."

"Then home we go.  I'll call and have the plane ready.  When do you want to leave?"

She leans over, wipes sweat beads from his furrowed brow and says, "You are the best husband."

They spent what was left of their last morning packing and saying goodbye to their newest slice of heaven.  They were prepared for the very long flight home.

Chapter 31 - Not Just Another Grain of Sand

"Babe, I think you did great, even when you lost your cool."  Jon assures her, sliding his hand down her back.

Beth takes a big gulp of the water he had just handed her, and after she swallowed hard she replied, "I cracked."

"You acted as you should have.  Her questions were tough and we knew they would be.'

"But why did she have to ask about the dream that you had about me dying?  How does she even know about it?"

He moves in closer to her, slides his arm around her to try to push, direct, her toward the car, "I told her.  She is our friend, Beth."

"But did she have to know about Brianna wanting to kiss me in my casket?"  Jon can feel Beth slightly tremble, he can feel that she's tense.  "Why did she go there?"

"It's her job."  His hand on her as she slides into the seat of their car.  "She did what I paid her to do."  Beth looks up at him, remembering they did ask for that.  They wanted all of their dirty laundry aired.

"She came at me like I had done something wrong."  she gets out of her mouth as the car door closes.  She watches her husband walk around the front of the car.  She inhales deeply, looking passed Jon to Savannah and her crew tearing down and taking apart their equipment.

Once the car is in drive and they start to exit the cemetary, Jon states, "She wasn't targeting you, you know that."  He doesn't believe his own words, but he knows that she needed to hear that.  He needs, rather, they need to put the past where it belongs.

When they arrived back home, Beth could see Jon was exhausted.  As they walked into the house, she grabs his hand, "Why don't you go lie down, I'll make dinner." She smiles as he looks over at her, "Let me take care of you, for once."

He pulls her close and kisses the side of her head,  "I'm okay, why don't we make dinner then after that, let's go for a bike ride.  We can take the littles."

Walking into the house leaning on her husband she admits, "A bike ride would be real nice."  Her memories go back to the better days of their life when things were so much easier and activites were abundant.   They were so active as a couple, as a family, but under the Dalton cloud she never really thought about how stifled they really were.  "We haven't done that in a long time."

Once through the mud room and into the rear of the kitchen, they paused and heard silence.  Jon looked to Beth, with a hint of question, "Do you hear that?"   

Beth walks over to the side of the refrigerator where they have a community chalk board.  "Well, it looks like they're all at grandma's and they're going to spend the night." The grin on her face growing.  

Jon pulls his wallet out of one back pocket and his phone out of the other and leans on the counter. "Hhmm, what should we do?"  His grin just as big as hers.

Her head is still on the bike ride, "Well, considering the day we just had why don't we go on a bike ride?  We can go into town and get a bite to eat."  She winks at her husband, "Come on, let's get changed."  She reaches across the counter for his hand.  Hesitantly he takes her hand and together they change their clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Beth trips, trying to tie her tennis shoe she catches Jon looking at his Ipad with a scowl on his face.  She doesn't say anything to him at first, not wanting to get into his business, but she can see his body language change.  "What's that all about?"  She plops down on the bench in her shoe closet.  "That wasn't a good look."

He turns to face her, "It's an email from Paul."

"About?" she questions him, tieing the other shoe.  

"Tentative tour dates." he tosses the Ipad on the bed, "I told him that we weren't ready for me to go back on the road."

"Who isn't?"  she stands up and reaches over for a sweat jacket, "Go."

He laughs at that, "Go?"  

She walks up to him, "If you're ready to go back out, go."  Her lips land on his cheek, "When does he want you to leave?"

"The first date is May 1st."  He waits for her reply.

Beth pauses, "Um, that's my birthday."

Jon laughs at that.  "Do you still want me to go?"

They take their bike ride into town and have a bite at Barnacle Bills with a couple of beers.  They try to keep the conversation light, but it never works out that way.  With a gulp of her last beer, Beth asks, "How long of a leg are you planning?"

He shruggs his shoulders.  "No idea, but it can't be that long.  The album is almost 2 years old now."

"Then why go?" she inquires.  "It's not needed to support you guys or even the manufacturing costs."

"It's a contract thing, you know the drill."

"I know you also have the best lawyers in the industry that can get you out of it."

He stands, indicating that he was ready to leave, as the bill has already been paid, "That's not me, you KNOW that."  He then winks at her.  "Let's get home.  I'd like to enjoy this evening with my wife."

Beth smiles as she stands to leave with him, "You want to get home to watch the evening news."   Not willing to admit that she wanted to see it too.

Savannah had told them that a 90 second snippet would air within NBC'S nightly news, alluding to the rest of the story being aired during the Today show the next morning.  

"Don't you?" He asks, taking her hand and leading her to their bicycles.  "I know she'll do what we set her out to do.  She's great at her job."

Beth admits, "I do want to see it, but I'm a little skeptical.  I hope she spins it in our favor and makes Dalton, Brian and Dorothea looks like total assholes."

"She will."

They enjoyed their evening bike ride home and once they returned home, quickly they showered and found comfort in their shared bed, munching on a fruit and cheese tray, with a bottle of 1928 Rosé.

Chapter 30 - I Don't Know Where To Begin

"Thank you for joining me on this beautiful day in New Jersey.  I'm on assignment today, out here in Raritan, New Jersey at the local cemetery, where I have met with Jon and Beth Bongiovi.  I'm here with them today to talk to them about the release of a video that captured a brutal assault that Beth suffered at the hands of a former colleague and ex boyfriend, Dalton Patterson.  

Jon and Beth reached out to me, to help them get their story out and once I seen the video, the brutality and the horror I knew that I needed to help them.  This video was released to news media's that profit from others misfortune and grief.  They are predatory and only tell the most gruesome side of the story.  Which brings me to this cemetery in Raritan, to let Jon and Beth tell their side of the story."

The camera pans back and captures Jon and Beth sitting graveside, in director chairs, of the 3 children that they have buried there.  Beth is in a flowing floral sundress, Jon is in blue jeans and a tshirt and as soon as Savannah starts to talk with them, Jon's nervous ticks kick in.

"We are here today in the cemetery where I watched Jon and Beth lay to rest, 3 of their children, whom they lost at the hands of Dalton Patterson, either directly or indirectly."  Savannah smiles at the couple, feeling an immense pride in being asked to help them, "Jon, Beth - thank you for asking me to do this with you, for you.  I can only imagine how hard this is for you, and I can't even fathom losing a child.  And you lost three.  My heart still goes out to you."

Jon clears his throat and shifts in his chair, "Thank for doing this for us.  You are the only one that we know that could pull this off, tell our story our way."

"It's my pleasure Jon.  Beth how are you doing?"  Savannah glances her way, giving her a gentle smile.  A short pause, "Thank you for letting me do this."

Beth smiles to her friend, "I'm doing good, with the exception of dealing with this media nightmare."

Savannah gives her a half smile, that looks more like a look of concern, "Shall we get started?"

Both Jon and Beth nod.

"Beth, what's the first thing that you want to say regarding the video that was released?"

"I want to say that the video is 100% accurate.  Everything in the video was as it shows.  He raped me, beat me, trashed my house, he broke my spirit, he made me think that my husband would never touch me again.  He shattered what I thought of the world, he tormented us for years but even he couldn't break us."  her words fail off with each one that she says.  "He couldn't beat us."  

Jon slides his arm over her shoulder and pulls her in tight, remembering that they are on live TV.  He shoots Savannah that crooked half smile that is as fake as fake can get, and Savannah knows what it means.  She's known Jon and Beth long enough, been around them enough to know what their body language says.  "Jon, what are your thoughts about that video being released?"

"I can't really share with you my actual thoughts of it, as we're on live tv.  The idea behind this interview is to tell the fans what happened, before they see the video so they have the premise in mind.  He's doing this just because he's evil and takes pleasure in hurting her, in hurting us and our family."

"That's apparent."  Savannah replies, "What do you want your fans to know about that night, or those nights, rather?"

"He brutalized her and beat her until he had had enough."  Was all he could say before Beth interrupted, knowing that she needed to; she could feel his anger tense in his arm.

"What we want them to know is that he raped me and terrorized our family for years.  He was the mastermind behind several cruel acts and if he didn't do it himself, he had others do it for him."  she needed a breath.  "He was able to manipulate a woman into killing our daughter.  He was able to control and deceive Dorothea.  He thought he was untouchable."

Jon jumps in, "But he wasn't.  And those that helped him, those that aided him were all brought to justice as well."

Beth nodded in agreement, "What I want the world to know, more than anything is, with the love of Jon and our family I was able to heal and recover from all of that, and even though that monster did unspeakable things, he didn't break me and he didn't break us."

"Would you say that it's brought you closer?"  Savannah gently asks.

"It could have gone either way."  Jon fesses up.  "You hear about it sometimes; couples that lose a child ending in divorce.  We can admit, there were times that we were touch and go."

"Meaning?"  Savannah questions, "You and Beth were heading toward divorce?"

"He blamed me, I blamed him.  It was ugly."  Beth starts to open up, "We have never outright said to each other that we blamed the other, but over time we realized that we were blaming each other subconsciously.  I blamed him for the one night stand and he blamed me for bringing Dalton into out lives."

"But you knew Dalton before you knew Jon."  Savannah states, in the form of a question.  

"She did know him before she met me, but that's not the point."  Jon starts to get defensive.  "And over time we learned that Melissa, or Dani what ever her name was, she was all part of Dalton's plan."

"What was Dalton's plan?"

Jon leans back, resting his right foot on his left knee, posturing away from Beth, but not intentionally.  "His plan was to have her or destroy her."  His arrogance showing in his posture, looking into the camera, "So when the coward didn't get what he wanted, he had to hurt her and then he called it love."  The stink eye set in, slightly.  

"So he wanted Beth and when he couldn't get her, he decided to hurt her?"

"We later found out that he had plans to kill us all, one by one."  Jon divulges facts not yet known to the public.  "That was never revealed in court, but we learned that he planned to take her kids from her, one by one.  Then he was going to take my kids and then me - leaving her with no one, but HIM in his mind."

The camera pans to Beth and freezes on her face.  The lens so clear it catches her eyes well up with tears.  Her right one twitching a little.  "We're guessing he thought that eventually I'd go back to him to make him stop with what he was doing?"  Beth questions, out loud trying to make it make some kind of sense to her, "He thought I'd go running to him after McKenna died."  Her head drops.

"McKenna" Savannah starts to smile, tears filling her eyes, "I remember the day that we met for coffee in the city, do you guys remember?" 

They both nod their heads yes.

"I can still see Jon holding her.  Even though she wasn't brand new, he held her like she was going to break.  But the look in your eye Jon," the camera zooms in on him, "that look in your eye, I think I've only seen it one time since then."

"We've been through alot." he replies.  

"You looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered in life."

"She kind of was." his eyes start to tear up.  "She was the one that cemented my love for Beth, my dedication to Beth.  After we lost the twins, I had no idea which way was up.  I needed to grieve, I needed to help my wife grieve along with my other children - I was a walking disaster.  And when we found out that we were pregnant with Kenna, my heart out poured like never before.  She got all the love that I had to give to the twins, but couldn't.  She was the light in the darkest of storms and when we lost her, I really lost my way."

"I could tell that she was special to you.  I could see that she had your heart."

"She still does.  They all do.  Each of them has their own little place and my love is open ended.  I will love them until the day I die."  that one lone tear rolls down his cheek, catching both Beth and Savannah by surprise.  "It's never easy to lose a child and we have lost three."

"What do you think when you hear those words, Beth?"  Savannah takes the attention off of Jon, like a seasoned journalist would do.  "Do you have anything you'd like to add to that?"

Beth wiggles in her chair a bit, lost back in the part where they blame each other.  "It breaks my heart to hear his heart break and when he talks about the twins, about McKenna I can't help but feel guilty, can you understand that?"  she looks to Jon for an answer more than she did Savannah.  "Because of me, he did all of that."

"You truly can't blame yourself Beth, you had no idea what he was capable of."  Savannah states, leaning over and placing her hand on Beth's knee.  "You never could have known he would turn into such a monster."

"He was, wait, is the devil." Jon reiterates.

"He found us one time when we were in Greece and from that moment on, we should have had around the clock security"  Beth starts to open up.  "Jon and I had broken up and I needed some rest, so I booked a trip to Greece - having no idea Jon and the band were there.  When I learned that they were, I attended the show and the rest is history.  Dalton caught us together and that's when his hell fire started to rain down."

Savannah had no idea about this.  "He caught you?"

Beth nodded, accepting that they would leave nothing out.  The world is better hearing it from Jon and Beth than they did Dalton or anyone in his circle.  "Dalton planned on meeting me there, but I went a couple of days before him.  Whether Jon and I were on a break, broken up or whatever, once I had seen him it was over.  I knew, as I have always known that he's the one for me; he's my person."

"And when she says he caught us, he literally caught us in her room."  Jon had to chuckle, remembering how funny it was at the time.  He never like Dalton and never hid that fact.  "He seen Beth laying there covered in just a sheet and I could see him turn 15 shades of red."

"What happened then?"  Savannah has to know.  In her brain, she's getting details from Jon that no one else knows - not only is she breaking a story, but she getting even juicer details.  She's in journalist heaven right now.  "How did he react?"  She leans back and soaks up what she's going to hear.

"He got loud, insulted her but left without incident.  For a second, I felt bad for the guy but that quickly passed."

"And from there, that's when all of this started?"

Again, both nod their heads.

Jon goes on, "Beth felt terrible, as that's the way that she is.  She never wants to hurt anyone and genuinely feels bad when she does."

"But was that bad enough to put her through what he put her through?  He hurt her badly, in many ways, unspeakable ways.  Do you really think that's what set him off?  Is that what made him put his plan of action in place?"

"Best we can figure."  Beth adds, "When he put it into place is no longer relevant."

Jon gets back into the conversation, "Regardless of what we had done, nothing warranted to terror he put her through."

"That's not what I'm saying."  Savannah corrects herself, "Something made him do what he did.  It obviously started from jealousy and being jilted, right?  In preparing for this interview, I was able to get some court documents and court transcripts, from visitor logs and such.  He's boasting in one interview that he needed to be sure that Beth would never be able to forget how sweet the love that they made was.  Were you intimate with him on a consensual basis, Beth?"

"NEVER!" she replies.

"You dated, but were never intimate?" she clarifies.

"I never had consensual sex with him, ever.  Not once!"

Chapter 29 - Once In A While, When I Crack A Smile

The beach with her husband was just what she needed to put everything into perspective and her thoughts in order before they meet with Savannah.  

Chapter 28 - They Don't Wash Away

The pictures of Beth and Brianna falling off of the yacht made their way to New Jersey long before Jon and the family got there.