072:

It was late. Melia felt sick to her stomach. Her back was tense, the blue sparks were everywhere, and her headache blossomed angrily. She needed to find Ryan, or... even Matthew. Jared had once engaged Matthew to help her, but would he now? The thought did cross her mind to just leap overboard into the shiny black water and let herself go.

"Are you happy now?" Ryan's voice in the stillness penetrated her black mood. She turned to look at him. Sitting on the side of the bed closest to the wall. The bed was the biggest part of the small room. The window above him was open now, letting in cooler air, now that the heat off the lake had dissipated with the sunset.

She shook her head slightly. "I wanted to set things straight with Kell." She managed against the raging current building in her.

"You wanted to see if he was vulnerable to your... wiles...."

"I have no wiles. That's a lie you've spread to hurt me. Even my own sisters believe it now."

Ryan chuckled. "Yeah, they do." He had done an amazing job of giving them all fuel for their fires. Kell was the easiest to deceive because he knew only what he'd observed, and what he'd heard prior to meeting her and it hadn't been good. Matthew only needed a small amount of pressure to begin spouting his virulence about Melia, and Ryan knew it wasn't because of her supposedly immoral acts; it was because she hadn't fallen for Matthew. He was simply another rejected suitor.

"Why do you hate me so much? I see you got the papers. Why are you even here?"

He sat up straight on the bed, and put the book he'd been perusing aside. "Melia, don't you get it?"

"No, Rye, I'm past getting it, explain it to me again." She said wearily, not really understanding how he could spend so much time even now trying to kill her relationships with her own family. She understood his revenge on her with the annulment and the fake marriage.

"I want you to hurt like I hurt."

She blew out her breath. "I did, Ryan! You made me feel low, and like crap, and alone and hurt and ashamed. But your family doesn't hate you, or think you're some kind of man slut. You're making my new brother-in-laws think I'm a whore."

"You are a whore!" he announced, pointing a finger at her with narrowed eyes.

"I am not!" she cried in real frustration. "I messed up once! I married the guy! I was faithful to him!"

"But not to me!"

"I've been faithful to you since you married me, but that was a joke, you've been off with Alicia."

"And you've gone after everything in pants within eyesight."

"I have not! Where do you perpetuate this crap from? I have not been with anybody else! I haven't kissed anybody but you since Jared, and I wish I'd never kissed you!"

He laughed angrily. "Why were you up on deck just now? Going after Kell? Don't deny it."

"Yeah. I went to talk to him. He believes your lies the most. I tried to show him I'm not that person. I was going to try and explain... but he freaked out. They are all ready to believe your lies about me. I swear, Rye, I didn't hate you before, but I hate you now." She shot him a look meant to give him a piece of her mind, but instead, she saw that he was grinning. She was shocked.

"Good, then it's complete. I hate you too."

She nodded. It was over then. Good. Good... It had been over... now it was over again.... "Can we just be done? Why do we have to stay together for the reunion? I'll just have my dad deal with the rest of this stuff, and you can be free."

"The letter said specifically that you and I had to be together in New York. You don't want those pictures to get out."

Her eyes screwed up in consternation. "Pictures are stupid. I doubt that anybody is even... maybe you perpetuated them."

"Don't even think it." He gritted out. "I did no such thing."

"What are you doing to prevent it then? I have no idea. You say.... But why don't you just enlist my dad...."

"We are going to do what the letter says Melia. We're going to New York in two weeks. That's it. I'm going up on deck. Sleep well, bitch." He pulled the pillow and blanket off the top of the bed and left the room shutting the door fairly hard behind him, causing Hannah who had just got back to sleep after the last time to wail again.

Melia shook her head, lifting Hannah's screaming form into her arms and cuddling her. She arched away, eyes wild and screams alerting Abby to discontent. Now they were both wailing and Melia felt her heart sink in despair. Yes, she did feel despair. Her whole world was in crises.

*****