The Uninvited Guest


By Lisa



September, 1998.

Meg Cummings awoke on the day of her wedding with a feeling of foreboding. Something was terribly wrong; she could sense it. This should be "the happiest day of my life," the day I marry Ben, she thought. Then why do I feel this way?


"Last call for Flight 409 to Sunset Beach." The dark-haired woman realized that she and her companion were the only ones left in the airport lounge. Quickly, she located her carry-on bag, then grabbed the hand of the small child seated next to her.

"Come on, Rosa," she whispered. "We're finally going to see your daddy."


Rae Chang searched the throng of guests for Casey Mitchum. Ever since her divorce from Wei-Lee early that year, Casey had been an unfailing source of support--support Rae had badly needed after her parents disowned her once and for all. Divorce was not acceptable for the Changs, and her name would never be spoken by her family again. If not for Casey, Rae didn't know how she would have made it this far. She finally spotted him in a corner, chatting with Joan Cummings, Meg's mother, who had flown in for the wedding.

"Casey!" she called.

He excused himself to Joan and came over. "What's up, Rae?"

"Meg's really nervous. I think she may be getting cold feet."

"No way. Meg's wanted to marry Ben forever."

Rae sighed. "I know it sounds crazy. But if you could just see her, you'd understand. She's pacing around, saying that it's too soon and Ben hasn't really come to terms with Maria's death yet."

"Even after all this time, and all the therapy he's been through?" Casey asked dubiously.

Rae nodded. "I thought maybe if you talked to her... After all, you've been Meg's friend longer than anyone else in town. You could probably get through to her when no one else can."

"Okay," Casey agreed. "I'll get it a try."

As he began to move away, Vanessa hurried up. "Rae! Casey! There's an emergency!"

"No, it's all right," Rae assured her. "Casey is going to talk to Meg and calm her down."

Vanessa looked unwontedly grim. "I'm afraid this is something Casey can't fix. There's a woman here to see Ben-- and there's a little girl with her she claims is Ben's daughter."

"She's probably just an actress hired by Annie Douglas to disrupt the wedding," Casey scoffed.

"Annie would do anything to ruin Ben and Meg's happiness," Rae agreed.

"I'll get rid of this woman right now," Casey decided, heading toward the front of the church.

"We're too late," Vanessa groaned. "Look!" She pointed to the woman and child standing just inside the front door--right in front of Ben.

"Who are you?" Ben demanded.

"Don't you know?" the strange woman replied.

Ben studied her face carefully. There WAS something vaguely familiar about her...

"I had to have extensive plastic surgery after the boating 'incident'," the woman explained. "The waves slammed me into some jagged rocks when I was washed ashore. It took all this time for me to look human again. NOW do you know who I am?"

From behind Ben, Ricardo gasped, "Maria! But you look so different! Even your hair is short now."

Ben shook his head violently. "No! Maria's dead. She drowned. There's no way you can be her."

"But my body was never found," the woman pointed out. "You know I'm Maria.You just don't want to admit it because of what you tried to do to me. But I have to get past that, for the sake of our child."

For the first time, all eyes turned to the girl standing beside the woman who claimed to be Maria.

"Her name is Rosa, and she's four-and-a-half years old," the woman declared. "Your daughter, Ben."

As the guests stood in shock, Meg's voice was heard. "What's going on?" she demanded, pushing her way through the crowd. "Why is everyone out here?" She looked at the strange woman. "Who are you?"

"I'm Maria," she replied.

Meg turned to Ben. Her voice rising hysterically, she cried, "Is it true?" He didn't answer for several seconds. Then, finally, "Yes," he said. "The wedding is off."


Part Two
Two weeks after the disastrous wedding, in Kansas

"I can't believe I let that happen to me," Meg repeated for possibly the thousandth time. Almost immediately after the wedding, she had fled to Ludlow, refusing to listen to Ben as he tried to explain his actions. And if it had been up to Meg, she would never have returned to Sunset Beach. But fate--or rather, Meg's infinitely more sensible mother, Joan--took a hand.

"I am sick of hearing you say that, and I am sick of you running every time you have a problem in your relationships," Joan Cummings snapped. (You have to remember, she put up with Meg for 22 years without once breaking down, so she was about due.) "You are going back to Sunset Beach today, if we have to charter a plane!"

Meg was so stunned she was unable to utter another word until she was on the plane. And by then, of course, it was too late.


Sunset Beach "Why are we bothering to try to help Meg?" Casey wondered irritably as he doused a rag with chloroform. "She won't appreciate our efforts, and we all know it."

Vanessa and Mark nodded in agreement, but Rae shook her head. "I'm doing most of the work here. If anyone has a right to complain, it's me. And I'm not. So let's get moving."

With a great deal of grumbling, the others performed their assigned duties. It was true, Rae WAS the brains of this operation.

that night, at the police station Ricardo was unfortunate enough to be on duty when the woman who called herself Maria burst in. He would regret his actions on this day for the rest of his life.

"He tried to kill me!" Maria cried. Now, she did look like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards, but there was no overt sign of injury. Nevertheless, Ricardo immediately became incensed. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything," he promised as he sped over to Ben's house, all without asking Maria a single question.

at Surf Central

Rae held up a vial of blood. Ten others lay on the table before her, carefully labelled.

"Will these prove our point?" Casey wondered.

"They won't need to," Rae answered confidently. "They're just for show."

"Wait a second," Mark protested as he stepped around a huge box of medical paraphernalia. "I gave blood for nothing?"

"We had to convince 'Maria' that we were serious," Rae reminded him. "If she thinks we drew 11 vials from her, that should frighten her just a little."

Vanessa nodded. "You should have seen the look on her face when she woke up and realized we had drugged her and performed unknown medical experiments on her in her sleep. She was so desperate to escape, she almost put up a decent fight. I tell you, I was tempted to give her just one good karate chop, but I let her get away after she admitted that Annie and Tim hired her. I'd say right about now she's packing it in. Annie couldn't pay her enough to keep up her masquerade after what we put her through."

The phone rang. Casey snatched it up and listened for a moment. "WHO was shot?" he demanded, hanging up as soon as he had the answer. "We have to get to the Medical Center right away!" he informed the others.

Medical Center

They found Ben in the waiting room, pacing up and down. "I'll perform the surgery," Rae told him, heading for the emergency room.

"Rae has to operate again? Must have been another budget cutback," Mark decided.

"Shut up!" Ben yelled. "Meg was shot, and it's all your fault!" "Let's be calm," Vanessa suggested. "What, exactly, happened?"

Ben took a deep breath. "I knew the woman wasn't Maria the moment I heard her story. It was too ridiculous for words, but I wanted to get to the bottom of who hired her and why. So I pretended I thought she was Maria. I didn't know that idiot, Ricardo, was stupid enough to believe her. Anyway, I managed to persuade all of you to help me frighten the imposter away. Unfortunately, you performed your duties too well. You made the woman think that she was in mortal danger, and she went running to Ricardo for help. He then came to my house, where Meg and I were sharing a joyous reunion because she had finally come to her senses and returned to town. And that's when he shot her."

"I don't get it," Casey responded. "Did Ricardo mean to shoot Meg?"

"No," Mark declared. "He's always hated Ben. He just had bad aim."

"If Meg dies..." Ben let the sentence trail off.

...there'll be a spare room at Surf Central, Mark thought.

...I won't have to listen to her whining anymore, Vanessa thought. ...Rae will decide that life is too short and marry me right away, Casey thought.

a few hours later

Rae emerged from the operating room. "She'll pull through with no problem."

"Can I see her?" Ben asked.

Rae pointed out the room. Ben rushed in. "I don't know how Annie came up with that devious plot to make us think Maria was still alive, but that's what it was, a trick. Maria is really dead. Absolutely, with no doubt at all. Now we can be married with no fears."

"Just promise me one thing," Meg replied. "What?"

"I want Ricardo sent up the river for shooting me. I hurt like he**." "Meg? Are you sure you didn't get shot in the head, too? That didn't sound like you."

"The result of my near-death experience," Meg explained. "I also plan to take care of Annie, and Tim, and a few other people who've gotten in my way. Now, first, we..."

Epilogue: Five Years Later

Meg and Ben had a quiet wedding in the hospital. Then Meg hired a bounty hunter and set off in search of Tim and Annie.

It took Casey and Rae another three years to get married. (She hadn't quite given up on her parents yet.)

Mark failed in his dream of becoming a DJ and remained a waiter at The Deep.

Vanessa dumped Michael in favor of a less gullible doctor who instantly saw through Virginia.

Ricardo is serving a prison sentence for shooting Meg. He plans to move far from Sunset Beach when he is released.

The fake Maria was never heard from again.

And Tim and Annie are still running for their lives.

THE END


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