Promise of Forever
Parts 16-17
By Kelly
Danny is driving to Casa Santos for his meetingwith Theresa and Bernardo, his mind drifts back to the confrontation he had withMichelle after he told her she wasn't coming with him. She was furious to saythe least, but he didn't back down, well, not completely, he thinks to himself.He smiles as he remembers the look on Michelle's face, he loves her fire, andboy did she release it on him. He recalls her words...
"Excuse me, what the heck do you mean"You" are going to spring it on them, are you nuts! Daniel Santos, youare NOT going to stop me from going with you! We have been in this thingtogether all along, and I'll be damned if you are going to go off and playcowboy, and leave me here wondering what is happening! I don't trust them, theycould hurt you and then just where the hell would I be! You best just rethinkyour plan, or you may just end up divorced for real Mister!"
"Are you done???" when Michelledoesn't respond, Danny continues, "Baby, I'm not letting you go in thathouse with me, it's too dangerous, plus if you are there, Theresa will know wehave her and it will blow everything, we could both end up hurt."
"But, Danny..."
"Don't "But, Danny...", me, youare not going! I you will be quiet I will tell you how you will still be able toknow exactly what's happening."
"Well, excuse me Sir, please docontinue," Michelle replies sarcastically.
Danny shoots her a look, that tells her she'sabout to push him to far, so she backs off a bit. "Thank you, you will beable to hear everything that is going on. My mother has her office bugged sothat she could always record what's going on if she felt it was something shecould use later, there is an out building on the property that houses theequipment, so I will activate the system, and you and Harley can be therelistening, that way you will know what's happening, and be able to call help ifwe need it. Deal?"
"Deal, Mr. Santos, just promise me thatyou will be careful."
"I promise, this will all be over in acouple of hours."
Danny has arrived at the house, he makes sureit's safe, and calls Michelle and tells her that she and Harley can go ahead andget to the building through the secret entrance to the property. He goes intothe house and gets everything set for the meeting, just in time for Theresa andBernardo to arrive.
"Danny, Honey, what did you need to seePoppy and I for that was so urgent?"
"Yes, Daniel, I'm not accustomed to beingsummoned."
"First things first, Theresa, don't callme "Honey", because I will never be your "Honey" or anythingelse, and once we are done here you will be very sorry you ever messed withme."
"Daniel, I will not allow you to speak tomy Theresa this way!"
"Shut up, Bernardo, I'm about to be rid ofyou too. Just sit back and watch the show."
Danny hits play on the VCR and the tape ofTheresa and Michelle appears on the screen, Theresa turns white and looks likeshe's going to pass out. Bernardo is shocked, but moves behind his daughterplacing his hands on her shoulders.
"Why, Theresa, you don't look very well,something you see?"
"Danny, what are you doing? This meansnothing"
"That's where you are wrong, Theresa,Bernardo, this tapes releases me from our "deal". You murdered mybrother, you are lucky I don't just kill you, but I won't, that's not who I am,all I want is my freedom to go be with my wife."
"Danny, I'm your wife."
"Wrong again, you see, our marriage wasnever valid, Michelle and I were never divorced or annulled. Seems there was amistake in the papers. You see I married Bertha Michelle Bauer, and the divorceand annulment papers were dissolving the marriage of Michelle Bauer Santos andDaniel Santos, OOPS, can't divorce a person who doesn't legally exist!"
Theresa goes crazy hearing this news."Danny, you son of bitch! You humiliated me again, and it's the last timeyou will ever do it! If I can't have you no one can, especially that bratMichelle," Theresa pulls a gun and aims at Danny's head, "I'm gonnakill you Danny, and then I'm going to make your precious Michelle suffer."
"Theresa, don't..."
The gun goes off and Danny's world goes black.
__________________________________________
Michelle screams and runs for the door when shehears the gun go off. Harley grabs her.
"Harley! What are you doing? Let me go,Danny is hurt!"
"Calm, down Michelle," Harley saysshaking her, "We don't know what happened, just calm down, we have tolisten to see who if anyone got shot, and if anyone is hurt. Just bursting intothe house will not do Danny any good, even if he is hurt, they won't let younear him and you could get shot yourself. You heard Theresa, she's crazy."
Michelle takes a deep breath and runs herfingers through her hair, "OK, OK, you're right, we have to know what'sgoing on."
Inside the house....
Theresa is screaming hysterically, "Oh MyGod, Poppy, help me, what have I done? I never meant to hurt him," she runsto Danny's side, "Danny, please, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean.....POPPY,he's bleeding, help!!!!"
Bernardo comes to check Danny out, he sees thatthe bullet just grazed his head, and he has a bump on the back of his head fromwhere he hit it on the mantle when he fell. "THERESA, CALM DOWN! Danny's isnot hurt, the bullet just grazed him, and he hit his head, we need to get himupstairs."
Theresa has completely lost control, and isstill screaming, Bernard is shaking her trying to get he to calm down, when itdoesn't work he slaps her. Stunned she looks at him, "I said Danny is fine,now you have to calm down, and do EXACTLY what I tell you, because if you don'tI will walk out of here and never help you again. I can't believe what I justsaw, you killed Mick, and let everyone think Michelle did it. You areunbelievable! You caused this mess from the beginning, and now you want revengefor something you think you deserve. I am sorry that I ever took your side overDaniel's. You disgust me, but you are still my daughter and I will help you outof this mess, but you will never have Danny and if you go against my wishes atall, I will see to it that the truth comes out. Now shut up, and help me getDanny upstairs to his bed, we have to clean up this gash and get some ice onthat lump on his head."
Theresa stares at her father in disbelief atwhat she has just heard, but doesn't even dare to speak, she just helps herfather get Danny upstairs. They tend to his wounds and leave him in his bedstill unconscious.
Michelle and Harley heard the entire exchangebetween Bernardo and Theresa and are in shock that he would turn on his daughterin that way, but are glad that Danny isn't badly hurt.
"Harley, we have to get in there and gethim out of that house, I still don't trust Bernardo or Theresa."
"It's time to call the police Michelle,let me call Frank, and they will handle this."
"NO! The police will scare them, and Dannycould get hurt in the process. I won't let that happen, I can get in that housewithout anyone knowing and get Danny out."
"If I let you go in that house, Danny willkill me. I'm calling Frank."
"Harley, Danny has risked his life for memore times than I can count, I have to do this for him, I can do this, but I'llmake you a deal, if I'm not out in 20 minutes you can send in Frank, deal?"
"I don't like it, but OK. How are yougoing to get in there?"
"There is a secret tunnel that no oneknows about, Danny took me through it once when we wanted to sneak out of thehouse to be alone. I can get in that way, and get into our old room and getDanny out and no one will know he's gone."
Harley lets out a long sigh, "OK, I don'tlike, it, but I know I can't win this argument, I don't know who is morestubborn you or Danny, but I'm only giving you 20 minutes, and then all hellwill break loose. Be careful."
"I will and I'll be back in 20 minutes,with Danny."
Michelle sneaks into the house through thetunnel and makes her way to their old room, the tunnel lets out in the closet.All the way there she is praying that Danny is not only safe, but alone andawake. She gets to their room and opens the door a crack to make sure Danny isalone, she sees him lying on the bed, his arm over his face, he still takes herbreath away. After she is sure he's alone, she quietly walks to the bed to gethim, she reaches down and brushes an errant curl from his forehead, thinking howpeaceful he looks, he grabs her with his free hand and throws her to the bed,only then does he open his eyes and realize who he as just thrown down.
"Michelle," Danny's voice is barely awhisper, "What in the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Well.....I was coming to rescue you,unless you had something else in mind."
"Not funny, are you trying to get yourselfkilled?"
"No, I'm trying to make sure my husbanddoesn't get killed, now can we stop arguing and get out of here?"
"Well, Missy, just how were you planningto do that?"
"The same way I got in here smarty,through the closet."
"The closet?" Danny is confused bythat statement, and then a look of realization crosses his face, "Thecloset, I knew I loved you for more than just your body Mrs. Santos, you came inthrough the tunnel."
"Exactly, now lets get out of here,before....Danny, someone is coming. come let's go!"
Michelle pulls Danny off the bed and the closethe closet door and get into the tunnel just in time to hear Theresa scream,"NO, DAMNIT, NO, this isn't happening!"