"When most people travel, they just bring home tchotchkes," Regina comments on Regan's new pregnancy, a souvenir of her trip to China. "So, tell me about your latest exotic baby daddy."
Regan tells her cousin about Tao and her trip, and Regina fills her in on what's been going on in Sunset Valley. "My sister spawned, she and the Landgraab have a daughter, Adria. So now my son and Alison's daughter are both half-siblings and cousins. Pretty soon we'll all be grotesque inbreds. But I guess I should be happy I at least have a proper Goth heir, even if it is part Landgraab. I would die of shame if the estate got transferred over to one of the Helmut Goths. Well, I'd already be dead, but my ghost would die of shame." Helmut Goth was the son of Gunther Goth by his second, younger wife, after he divorced Cornelia. The descendants of Cornelia's son, Mortimer, have ever held the descendants of Helmut Goth in contempt, and have sworn to keep them from inheriting any part of the estate in perpetuity. "At least the pressure is off me to get married, since I don't need to get another heir."
Regan is on maternity leave, but the bistro asked her to bring by a plate of the stir fry recipe she learned in China so they could decide if they wanted to add it to the regular menu. As she was leaving, she ran into Donovan on the patio.
"Are you stalking me?" she asked him as he approached her.
"I heard you were pregnant," he answered. She only just found out herself recently, but gossip travels fast in this small town. "I just wanted...if you need anything, anything at all, I'm here for you, that's all."
"What could I possibly need from you?" Regan asks, her voice sharp, but her heart soft and bleeding. Her trip to China, her affair with Tao, time spent away from Donovan, none of it has done anything to alleviate the powerful need she feels for him, her desire to be with him.
"We were friends before we lovers, Regan," Donovan says, hurt in his voice.
"Leave me alone!" she hisses, running off before she starts to cry. She absolutely won't let him see her cry for him.
Regan did call Tao to tell him about her pregnancy, and he came to visit her straight away.
During his stay, her parents were pretty direct in their hints about wanting to see a wedding happen. Tao had offered to marry her back in China even before they knew she was pregnant, to have her live there with him. But Regan had turned that down, not wanting to leave her home forever. Though Tao was as loathe to leave his own home, he did offer to do so, to be with her and their child. But Regan turned that down as well. As much as she adored Tao, he didn't have the place in her heart that Donovan did, and it wouldn't be fair to ask him to leave everything behind for a relationship like that. And though she wouldn't admit it to herself, Regan wants to keep herself free for the day that Donovan is himself free, if such a day should come.
Regan has a son, the first boy born in this house since Liam McDermott. She names him Tao Zu, after his father. Tao's visa expires shortly after the birth of his son, and he returns to China after only a brief time with his little namesake.
Saranya dies not long after her grandson is born.
Harlan stands on the spot beside her grave where he will lie himself, grieving, wondering why she had been taken first when he was older, and she was so healthy with her work outs and martial arts. Life is unfair, and death even more so.
Regina meets Regan in the cemetery to console her cousin. After Regan cries on her shoulder for a bit, Regina says, "Listen, I have a plan, and I need you help."
Regan lifts her head. "A plan? What do you mean?"
"I've figured out a way to get my sister out of Landgraab's clutches, and keep his filthy hands off the inheritance she'll get when my mother dies. If you were to seduce him, and Alison were to catch him cheating on her, she'd leave him, and their prenup would be void because he's an adulterer. He'd lose everything."
"That just seems so...wrong," Regan answers hesitantly, "What if Alison is happy with him? Should we interfere?"
"Come on, Regan, you know why he married her. He doesn't love her, and if she's happy with that, it's a false happiness. It isn't right for him to get what he wanted out of this, after what he did to get it. We have to stop it before he gets all her money!"
Even though Donovan's nasty schemes did lead to success, Regan isn't convinced that getting him to cheat on his wife and causing a divorce would make things any better. But her grief isn't allowing her to think clearly, and she trusts her cousin's judgment. It is her sister after all, and surely Regina would want what is best for her own kin.
Donovan is surprised by Regan's visit, and by the fierce hug with which she greets him.
"I'm so sorry, about your mother," he whispers in her ear, assuming it was grief that lead her to his door.
"I've missed you so much," she murmurs into his chest, and it's not a lie. She thinks of him every day. Before she can think better of it and back out of Regina's plan, Regan pulls his face down to hers for a deep kiss. She hasn't kissed him in so long, and it feels so good...she pulls away suddenly, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I can't go through with this. I just can't."
Donovan squeezes her tightly. "You don't have to do anything," he says, "If you want to talk, or cry, or whatever, I'm here for you."
"I should never have let Regina talk me into this," she says, face pressed against his collar. "Even you don't deserve this."
"Regina? What has Regina got to do with this?"
Grief and desire had been pulling on heart, and she'd spoken without thinking, revealing Regina's part in her visit. Having let the name slip, Regan now lets the entire plot out, feeling relief from the pressure it put on her with every word. "Regina sent me here to seduce you," she tells him.
"She was hoping I'd pull a Gunther?" After Gunther Goth left Cornelia for a younger, estateless woman, the inhabitants of Sunset Valley used the phrase 'pulling a Gunther' to refer to a rich man abandoning his estate to his wife to live with another, poorer woman.
"No, she wanted Alison to catch us, and leave you. So you don't get the rest of her inheritance," Regan admits, finally realizing that this plan she taking part in is as ugly as anything Donovan has ever done. "I'm so sorry, I should never have agreed to this."
Donovan hugs her again, "Don't blame yourself. Regina is a bitch, and she used you while you were in mourning, knowing you'd be more malleable then."
Donovan gently led her to the parlor, and sat her down with a glass of water. Pacing in front of her nervously, he spoke, "Regina's plan probably wouldn't have worked the way she expected," he said, "You see, I have this unfortunate habit of calling out your name when I... at inopportune moments. I've had numerous frank discussions with Alison about my relationship with you, and I haven't been able to convince her I'm not actually sleeping with you. As far as she's concerned, I am an adulterer, and you are my mistress. I don't think that actually witnessing what she already believes is true will change anything in our relationship, and most certainly won't get her to leave her current situation. She may be disappointed with me as a husband, be she's very invested in being the mistress of my estate and the mother of the Landgraab heir. If she left me, she could ruin me, again, financially, but she couldn't claim the estate, or prevent me from remarrying and displacing her child as heir. Or, for that matter, prevent one of my brothers or uncles from stepping in and claiming the estate, not that anyone in my family wants the responsibility of it."
"Are you happy, Donovan?" Regan asks. She knows rich people often marry for money, and that their estates often come before their own happiness. Regina's own love life is a testament to that, her long relationship with Wade Alto was all about having a man equal to her in wealth and status, whether she liked him or not.
"My estate is saved and my family name and honor is upheld. I've done my duty," Donovan answers. "My father married for love, he was happy. They were blissfully happy," he says with a nostalgic sigh, "But he ruined us for his happiness. Unlike Alison, my mother had no idea what running and estate like this entails, and my father just indulged himself and her with his wealth, until it was gone." Raymundo and Marsha Landgraab were often held up as an example of truly devoted love in Sunset Valley. (That is, after they were married. Before that, when Raymundo was a young man and had moved the homeless teenage Marsha into his house, everyone suspected something illicit and there was much whispering and gossip. The phrase 'adventures of Raymundo' had come to mean something salacious and illegal. But once Marsha came of age and Raymundo married her, all the gossip was forgotten and the whole town sighed whenever the loving couple appeared in public.)
"And you've actually remained faithful?" Regan continues her inquiry into Donovan's married life.
"Well, of course. Why wouldn't I?"
Regan raises an eyebrow, "You need a reason to cheat?"
"I'm not a womanizer by nature, Regan," he answers. Regan raises her brow again in response, and laughs, "Be fair," he continues, "I was with you for love. Everything else was about money. That makes me a bit of a scoundrel, sure, but I've never pursued women for the sake of sex. If I am going to cheat, it would be with you, and you only."
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