From Vengeance To Forgiveness (Revenge)

Truth

Grayson Manor, Hamptons

Victoria was already fully dressed and sat at the breakfast table when David returned to the manor. She looked at him reproachfully. "I thought you were drowned!" She said, not very pleased.

"Not me, but almost your daughter-in-law," he explained, reaching for the bread basket to take a croissant.

"What does that mean?" She looked at him, confused.

"She swam a bit too far out," he began to tell. "She probably overestimated her swimming skills. I pulled her out before anything worse could happen."

"Have you introduced yourself to her?"

He nodded and looked at her thoughtfully. Why he had told her his real name, he didn't know. The fewer people knew about his real identity, the better. But he had reacted spontaneously. It had just felt right to reveal his true identity to her. His instinct told him that he could trust her.

"She knows you're David Clarke?" Victoria's eyes widened in horror. "You told Daniel you were Robert Bellows." She shook her head. "He knows now that you lied!"

He began to spread butter on his croissant. "I just didn't think it through," he admitted. "Perhaps it's the closeness to the beach house, the beach or the ocean itself. I can feel things there I have long forgotten. It was a good feeling to talk to someone, without lying." He looked at her with a serious face. "I've been hiding for so long and always lied. You almost forget how to tell the truth."

"But it's also dangerous," she said, gazing at him with a meaningful look.

"Yes." He sighed softly. "That's true. But I think I can trust her."

Victoria laughed. "Are you kidding me? Especially after what I told you about Emily. She had wormed her way into my family! She had used Daniel for years and manipulated him!" She said in a sharp voice. "And you trust that woman?"

He just stared at her and wondered why Emily Grayson had awakened protective feelings in him. He didn't even know her. But he felt a bond which he couldn't explain. Perhaps it was because the situation had been so familiar to him. Twenty years ago, he had saved Amanda from drowning. Emily Grayson had just looked like her when she had lain there, with her eyes closed, her hair fanning around her. For a moment he had seen Amanda lying there again, his little girl. And he had had to squint twice to get back to reality. "Should I have let her drown?" He asked, looking at her reproachfully

"Of course not." She rolled her eyes. "But a little more distance would be reasonable."

"I'm wondering how you tolerate her here, when you dislike her that much," he said hesitantly. "The Victoria, whom I knew from before, would probably have chased her away."

She reached for a croissant and covered it with jam before she answered. "If I do, Daniel will go with her, and they will take Julian with them. Then I lose not only my son but also my grandson." She sighed deeply. "I can't take a chance. So I keep my mouth shut and leave it to that. However, I keep an eye on her. She won't deceive me again."

He looked at her for a moment thoughtfully, then put the rest of his croissant into his mouth. "I'll take a shower," he said, rising to go upstairs.

When he was standing in the shower, letting the hot water run over his body, he wondered what Emily Grayson had done to make Victoria so upset. Was she really that deceitful and mendacious as Victoria claimed? He got a different impression from her. Perhaps I would learn more about her, if I would drink coffee with her the next day, he thought. Something that he shouldn't mention in Victoria's presence. He stepped out of the shower, toweled himself and got dressed hurriedly, before he went back to Victoria.