"The true story?" Alesha asked looking at Lori.
"Yes. I want to hear it. I can't believe you kept it from me," she said shaking her head.
"You gonna hate me too?"
"No darlin'. I'm not going to hate you. I just want to know what's going on."
Alesha sighed. "I was fourteen years old," she began. "Scared, confused, full of hate and resentment. Trying to escape the years of abuse I had received at home, I turned to a guy that I thought was my savior. I met him at a party. He was so beautiful. Almost like an angel. He offered me an escape from the hell I was living in. The freedom he offered me was in the form of heroine. I was already on my way to becoming an alcoholic. The few moments of ecstasy I found when the drugs were rushing through my veins was better than any liquor I'd had. In return for my so called freedom, I gave myself to him. I ended up pregnant a few years later. I couldn't afford an abortion, so Bethany took me in, sobered me up, de-toxed me, and said she'd raise the baby as hers. After I had Taelen I moved down here. To kinda get away from everything and start over. And now…now it's all back haunting me."
"Do you want to give Taelen up?" Lori asked.
Alesha shook her head. "NO! I can and want to take care of him now. I love my baby," she said looking over at him sleeping on the couch.
Lori nodded. "So what is happening with you and Nick?"
Alesha shrugged and sighed. "I've no idea. He doesn't want anything to do with me. It's probably over forever," she said as the tears filled her eyes again.
"Oh sweetie," Lori said sitting down next to her. "It's not over forever. He just needs time to adjust to things. That's a lot of information and stuff being thrown at him at once, ya know?"
Alesha shrugged. "I guess. I just…I never thought…I guess I just assumed that if you loved someone, you accepted everything about that person including their past."
"She what?" Brian exclaimed looking at Nick in shock.
Nick was sitting on the couch, his head resting on the back of it, and his eyes closed. "She's an ex-junkie, ex-alcoholic, and Taelen is hers," he mumbled.
Brian sat in silence staring at Nick like he had had sprouted another head. "We're talking about Alesha? The sweet, funny, unselfish chick that everyone adores?"
Nick opened his eyes and leaned forward resting his arms on his legs and his face in his hands. "Yeah. That Alesha."
"You mean the angelic Alesha that gives 1000 percent of herself to our fans so that they love us more?"
"Yes," Nick mumbled.
"You mean the Alesha that would sacrifice anything to make sure that the world around her was happy?" Brian asked.
"Yes dammit!!" Nick growled looking at him. "THAT Alesha."
"Who told you this stuff?" Brian asked suddenly suspicious.
"What does it matter?" Nick said standing up and pacing the room.
"Because you may not have heard the whole story."
"Sarah. Sarah told me," he said softly walking over to the window. "Chad suddenly appeared out of no where to take Lesh and Taelen away. Sarah ran into him and he told her who he was and why he was here," Nick sighed looking out towards the ocean.
"And you believe HER?" Brian asked. "Have you asked Alesha for her side of the story?"
"No. She already told me what Sarah said was true," Nick said.
"There has to be more to it," Brian pointed out.
"What does it matter? She is what she is," Nick mumbled.
"Was," Brian corrected.
"So, what do you think?" Howie asked his mom as he helped her take the dirty dishes into the kitchen. Rebecca was in the front room with Pollyanna.
"She is adorable," Paula said smiling up at her son. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks," he said setting his dishes down and hugging her. "I love her so much. I'm just afraid it's too soon to feel to be feeling all that I'm feeling for her," he said softly.
"Love is a strange emotion. Sometimes it coems as slowly as Christmas to an excited child. Other times, it hits you faster than a flash of lightening. No one can predict how quickly or deeply some one will fall when it happens," she smiled. "But when it does happen, you should embrace it - not question it."
Howie smiled and kissed his mother on the top of her head. "Thank you," he said. He jumped suddenly as his phone started ringing. "Who in the world?" he mumbled as he clicked open his phone. "Hello?"
"Howie?" Lori asked.
"Umm…yeah. Lori?"
"Yes. Could you…could you make a trip to Nick's. Umm…Alesha…she…she needs to talk to you."
"Oookay. Is everything all right?" he asked.
"Well…no. She's okay, I guess. Her and Nick…well…she's staying in the beach house for a while."
"Hmm…give me 45 mintues," he said clicking his phone shut. Walking into the front room he motioned for Rebecca. Smiling she got up and followed him into the hall.
"What's the matter?" she asked seeing the worried look on his face.
"I…Alesha…there's something wrong. I have to go to Tampa," he said.
She nodded. "Okay. Want me to come with?" she asked.
He smiled. "Thank you," he said softly.
"For what?"
"Not getting upset because I'm rushing to help her."
Rebecca smiled. "I love you and understand that you and Alesha are friends. There's no reason for me to be upset with you."
"Do you still love her?" Brian asked looking at Nick.
"Do I still love her?" Nick asked looking at Brian like he was crazy. "What the hell type of question is that? Of course I still love her."
"Then why is she there," he said pointing in the general direction of the beach house, "and you're here?"
"Because I can't deal with this. There is so much with her that would complicate my life. And I just don't need that right now, perhaps never."
"What do you mean?" Brian asked.
"Well for one, do you realize what her past could do to me...to us...to our careers if it got out?" Nick asked his eyes wide.
"Do you realize how much of an asshole that makes you?" Brian asked.
"I'm being serious. But that's just part of it. Haven't you heard about those people who like fall off from whatever path they're on and revert to the way they were? It's not an easy thing cleaning up after being a drug or alcohol addict. It's so easy and tempting to go back to them."
"Yeah, especially when someone you thought loved you and cared for you turns their back on you," Brian said sarcastically. "It has been seven years Nick. I somehow don't think she's going to revert back to her old ways. Hello," he said waving his hand in the air. "She's a completely different person."
"Yeah, well, as I believe it is you who is so fond of saying...i've seen the most angelic persons turn into demons in an instant," Nick sneered.
Howie sat down on the couch watching Alesha pace back and forth. Lori and Rebecca were in the other room talking. "What is it Lesh?" he asked. Turning towards him, it was then that he got the first look at her swollen jaw, the cuts on her lips and the bruises on her face. "What happened?" he asked surprised. "Did Nick --"
"NO!! It wasn't Nick. He stopped it," she said her eyes filling with tears. "It was Chad."
"Chad?" he asked confused.
"Taelen's dad."
"Why would --"
"Because...because I'm Taelen's mom," Alesha sighed.
"You're...but how?"
"Do I really need to explaing THAT to you?" Alesha asked looking at him.
"No," he mumbled looking down.
"From the beginning," Alesha sighed. "I spent the first fourteen years of my life being abused by the various men that drifted in and out of my house. Verbally, emotionall...sexually," she said softly. "I started drinking by the age of ten. My grandfather found it quite amusing to see me wasted. Anyway," Alesha sighed. "I found some friends who lived to party and get high. I started hanging out with them more and more looking for escapes from home. One day...I was at a party, I seen him for the first time. He was beautiful. He offered me a drug that was guaranteed to take me away from anything. And it was free because he thought I was cute."
"Chad?" Howie asked.
"Yeah, Chad," Alesha replied. "He showed me which veins I could use and how to prepare it and shoot it. I was afraid at first, being that I've always hated needles, but the moment the heroine hit my bloodstream, I was in another world. I'd found my escape from hell."
"Oh man," Howie said softly.
"But my freedom came with a hell of its own. In return for my free heaven, I gave myself completely to Chad. But the abuse that I received at his hands didn't matter to me as long as I had my drugs," Alesha sighed. "But as with all drugs, it eventually took more and more to reach that plane of ecstasy, leading me to almost overdose. And then I found out I was pregnant."
"Wow," Howie breathed staring at Alesha.
"The only person I had to turn to was my cousing Bethany. She took me in and began the long hard road to cleaning me up. She took custody of Taelen. There was no way I was capable of taking care of him. I was only 16. She also sent me here to Florida to a de-tox center," Alesha looked at Howie with tears in her eyes. "If she had turned her back on me as everyone else did, I probably would be dead somewhere. Beaten, broken, used up," Alesha sobbed.
"And where is Nick?" Howie asked.
Alesha shrugged. "Disgusted by the sight of me. He wants nothing to do with me."
"Oh Alesha," he said softly walking over to her. "I am so sorry darling," he whispered pulling her close.
Alesha shrugged. "I'll be okay. I just never thought it could hurt so bad," she whispered, the tears falling.
"So where are you and Taelen going to stay?"
"Lori's moving in with AJ, so we're going to stay here I guess," she said wiping the tears from her eyes. "She's already talked to Nick. He wants to make sure I'm okay. He just doesn't want anything to do with me," she said softly.
"Ahh," Howie nodded. "Promise me sweetie that if there is every ANYTHING I can do, you'll call me?"
Alesha nodded slowly. "I promise."
