Revenge – By Linn

“Tell me something John. Was it just Hope or was anyone but me?” Marlena’s emotions were on overload, she couldn’t think clearly.

“No one but you baby, come on! You are the one.” John tried to get a hold of Marlena, but she kept wrenching herself out of his grip. This was the 10th fight of the week after John had told Marlena about his submarine sex with Gina.

“Why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t wanna hurt you!” Marlena had positioned herself behind the couch and she gave him a look that could kill.

“Aww, aren’t sweet. But guess what? I AM hurt! You didn’t lie to protect me, you lied to protect yourself and your precious little schizophrenic wannabe princess.” She walked to the desk and grabbed her coat.

“Where are you going?”

“We need a break in this marriage. Stray all you want, I don’t care anymore.”

“I love you. Only you!” The door slammed behind her nearly touching John’s face.


Four weeks later, Marlena sat in her hospital office, having just run into John at the Salem mall. “Why do men always hurt me? I can’t belive I did this to Roman.” She traced the picture taken on their wedding day. The most perfect day of her life. Or so she thought. She was looking for kleenex when Miles Malloy, executive at the local NBC Affiliate, came walking in, whistling.

“Marlena? Hey. What’s wrong? Why the tears on this gorgeous face?” He placed himself on the edge of her desk.

“Everything is falling apart. My life, my marriage… Me…”

“Let me help? Latte?”

“Whiskey?” She looked up at him with a teasing smile.

“You’re not the type to solve things with alcohol, Marlena.”

“I’m not. But then, my husband wasen’t the cheating type. Ooops.”

“Your husband cheated on you!?”

“Yep. But he says he was brainwashed.”

“You don’t belive that, do you?”

“On a level I do, but I always thought that our love was deeper than that.”

“Brainwashing?”

“Long story.”

“I’ve got time. How about I take you back to my place and make you dinner? I’m a great cook. According to the tapes I bought.”

“That’d be great, yeah.”


“Whatcha cookin’?” Marlena hoisted herself up on the kitchen bench.

“Pasta. It’s all I know so far, and I hope you like pasta… or I’m screwed.”

“I love it. Can I help?”

“Sure. Why don’t you make the sauce?” He handed her a pan and continued to chop.

“Miles, I don’t… I was thinking more like setting the table. I don’t… really, can’t…”

“No, no, no, you asked to help. Go put on the apron.”

“Really, I can’t cook.”

“No arguments. You can’t be worse than me anyway…”


“Mmm, yum!”

“You haven’t tasted it yet.”

“Ready?”

“One”

“Two.” They both brought their forks to their mouths.

“Three.” Silence.

“Mmm, yummy.”

“Fabulous.” Marlena couldn’t contain her laughter and spit out the pasta. “That. Was. Horrible.”

“Worse than horrible, that was disgusting!”

“Chinese?”

“You call, I’ll throw this away.”


Marlena leaned against the sofa and closed her eyes. “Now that was food. Delicious.”

“More rice?”

“No thanks. So… go ahead. Ask.”

“I don’t want to upset you, you just seem like you need to talk. What happened?”

“John has a child with another woman.”

“I know, I met him. Not the most open kid.”

“Not Brady. He has a baby that was concived on our honeymoon. I just found out about 6 weeks ago. He didn’t tell me for months. Just kept lying and covering up, letting us belive that this other guy was the father.”

“She slept with two guys?”

“Three actually. It just really, really sucks… And I keep thinking of the irony. Years ago, I was married to Roman and I had an affair with John. Two nights that resulted in a child. And although we didn’t know Belle was John’s, it just keeps coming back to me that I’m getting what I deserve for sleeping with John. I wasen’t unhappy. I loved Roman. A lot. And I keep thinking that if John had never come to town, then everything would be picture perfect. Sami wouldn’t be so screwed up, Carrie would still be here, Eric would too. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have Belle, and I wouldn’t know what that kind of passion feels like. What John & I have … no one has been able to do what he does to me. To make me lose control the way he does. And now, all I can think of is getting revenge. I want to pay him back, so we can start with a clean state you know. But I don’t know if he even cares. If I went to him and told him I slept with someone else, that we’re even, if he’d even blink an eye. I don’t know if my husband cares and that kills me.”

“He cares. Trust me. But… he’s an asshole. And he doesn’t deserve to have you crying over him.”

“I’m not. I’ve gone over to revenge mode. It just hurts like hell. This huge part of me knows that it wasen’t his fault and knows our history with Stefano. But then the other part of me knows that he chose to keep it a secret and that’s the betrayal that hurts. I thought we were different. We’re not Bo and Hope, we don’t lie to ‘protect’ each other.”

“Have you decided what to do? Whether you want to file for divorce … or…?”

“Already did. All that’s left is his signature.”

“So you’re a single woman.”

“Yes.” She placed her hand over his.

“Marlena.” Miles inched himself closer and put his hand behind her on the couch, leaning in to softly kiss her on the cheek. He gently whispered in her ear; ‘that’s because I’m sorry’ He kissed her again, on the mouth this time, whispering ‘and that’s because I find you incredibly attractive’ before he kissed her forehead. “That’s because you’re not ready to be with someone else. Your husband is an idiot, but you still love him. Until you can look me in the eye and tell me that you really want revenge for your husband’s affair, I am not going to kiss you again.”

Marlena stood up and reached for his hand. As he stood up, placing her hands on his collar, she tiptoed to kiss him. She led him towards his bedroom by the hand, a knawing feeling in her stomach as she neared the door. She opened the door and closed her eyes upon seeing the bed. Not what she expected the way she knew Miles. It was nice. Romantic. She felt like throwing up, images of John making love to another woman poisoned her mind and before she knew what had happened, she’d apologized to Miles and rushed out the door. She leaned against the wall, silently crying, clutching her purse as she stared at the wedding band still on her ring finger.
Page 2 of 3She watched people rushing by to reach the last movie of the evening and didn’t hear Maggie Horton walking up to the bench. “Marlena? Hi honey, you ok?”

“Yeah. Oh god, yeah, sorry, I was just a little spaced out.”

“Oh. Anything you wanna talk about?”

“It’s just … work. A patient who’s really messed up.”

“Want my coffee? I’ve had too many cups already.”

“Thank you.”

“So, I tried calling you earlier. Mickey’s away on business and I wanted to hear if you’d like to have dinner.”

“Aww, well, I was having dinner at Miles’ apartment.”

“Miles?”

“My boss. Miles Malloy. He’s the executive of the local NBC affiliate. Very nice guy. Ruined pasta and ordered chinese.”

“Don’t people smell it from a distance that you shouldn’t cook?”

“It’s why you have the resturant and I’m the shrink.”

“So what’s troubling you?”

“John. Hope. The situation. The divorce, my lawyer. He wants me to sue John. I just keep thinking that it shouldn’t have gotten this far in the first place. Right now is actually the most peace and calm I’ve had for weeks. Feels good. Just looking at the town, the stores, the …” She looked towards Java Cafe and she felt that nausiating feeling hitting her again. “… people.”

John and Hope. Hope… and John. Baby JT placed on his father’s lap, eating a french fry clutched in his little hand. Marlena felt her insides turning and tears began to forming in her eyes. He saw JT’s eyes light up as Hope giggled at something John said. The picture perfect family. That feeling of hatred and vengance rose again and she quickly stood up. “Maggie, will you excuse me? I have to go.”

“Are you sure, you’re upset, I don’t like knowing you’re alone when you’re upset like this.”

“I won’t be. And I’m sure. I know what I need to do. Say hi to Alice from me. I’ll see you later.”



She knocked on the black door. Once. Then two times and waited as the door opened.

“Marlena. Did you stay outside here after you left, o….” She interrupted his sentence by kissing him. He was taken by surprise as he followed her lead.

“I know what I want. For just one night, make me forget about the pain and the hurt, please?”

Miles closed the door quickly as she threw her purse on the couch as she continued to kiss him. She didn’t feel the same ease as she did with her husband when Miles unbottoned her silk shirt. Nothing was the same and she forced herself to forget. Seeing his bed again didn’t make her nausious, she was past that stage, all she could think of was forgetting the hurt and taking away the pain. Miles gently bit her neck before he sat down on the bed and removed her shirt. He pushed the silk camisole up and kissed the soft skin of her stomach. Marlena pushed him back on the bed, the pain disappearing little by little. His large form hovered over her as he continued to kiss her. His fingers massaging her back and his lips gently tracing her neck and shoulder. Marlena closed her eyes, thoughts of John pushed aside as she focused on the moment.


Marlena lay quietly, looking at the figure beside her, not knowing exactly what to do.

“You don’t have to stay.” He whispered.

“I need to.” She held his hand as she turned and let him embrace her. She quickly fell asleep, tears and pain forgotten.
Page 3 of 3″Thank you, for everything. Dinner, comfort, breakfast. You know. It helped more than you think.” She opened the door and turned towards him again.

“So… I will see you at work tomorrow?” Miles leaned against the doorframe.

“Yeah. And no one will know?”

“No one will know. Technically, I’m your boss and people at NBC frown upon that. So no one will ever know. Not their business anyway.”

“Thank you.” She leaned in and kissed him one more time. “Bye.”



“Mr Black, your wife is here to see you.”

“Send her in please.” The door opened and John stood up to greet her. “Doc, I’m happy to see you.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Please, sit. Do you want something to drink? I can get you a mimosa if you want. Actually this is perfect timing because I was heading home anyway.”

“No, thank you. I’m here to talk to the man I married, not the business version of him. I think that we’ve made a mistake giving up so soon. We have years behind us, and I hope that we have years ahead of us. I want to get over this John, the lies and the betrayal, but there’s something you need to get for that to happen. You can’t push me aside and expect me to understand. You can’t tell me it’s not my business and that I should stay out of it. I’m in it, and that’s where I should be. I want you to ask for visitation rights, I want you to end this sneaking around and the lying. No matter how much Hope wants to keep this double life where everything is perfect for her, that’s not what is best for JT and it’s not what’s best for you or for Bo. Either she agrees that you see him AS his father, or you agree to forget about your child and let Bo continue to raise him knowing the truth and agreeing to keep quiet about it. But I know you and the second option isen’t even under consideration for you.”

“Doc…”

“Please, let me just say this. I want you to respect me enough to always tell me the truth, even if it’s gonna hurt. Because finding out after hurts a hell of a lot more. Respect me, respect our marriage and you’d be surprised and the pain I’ll go through. Just don’t lie to me. The bottom line is… we love each other. We’re soulmates and we should be together. We can try to deny it, we can try and change it, but that’s one of the few true facts in life. We belong together. We need to have a long talk, about everything and we need to gain trust again, but I’m ready… if you are.”

John watched as Marlena teared up.

“And one last thing.” Marlena watched as John tensed up, his eyes sparkling.

“I slept with Miles. We’re even.” John didn’t move, as he watched Marlena turn and walk out of his office nearly reaching the elevator before he ran out of his office just barely jumping into the elevator before the doors closed completely.

“You slept with Miles? Your boss Miles? Miles Malloy?”

“Yes.”

“Why? You just said…”

“Revenge. I wanted to get back at you. You slept with someone else, I slept with someone else. Would have been nice if you haden’t been married when you did, but right now, we’re even. We can start over. We’ll finalize the divorce and we’ll start over with a blank slate. Just a part of our past. We’ll focus on the kids, Brady, Belle … and JT. We can date again, we’ll get to know each other, learn to trust each other again.”

“Why Miles? You work for him.”

“He was there, and he cared. He was willing…”

“I bet he was.”

“John, don’t you dare do this. Miles is not the guilty party in this. I seduced him, I went to him. There won’t be any awkwardness or any continuty, it’s just going to be what it’s been since we started working together. Platonic and friendly. We’ll fight off Nancy’s crazy suggestions together and no one will ever know. I told you because I wanted to see how you’d react. And deep down, I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me when you told me about Hope… Gina.”

They both stood in silence. Minutes passed until John turned to her and spoke quietly.

“If I promise to forget about you and Miles, will you try to forget about Gina?”

“Yes.”

“Will you come to the park with me… and JT… later today? Bo is out of town and Hope wants some time off.”

“Yes.” She turned to him, slowly. “I’d be honored to spend time with J…. your son.”

John pressed the button to open the elevator doors and as Marlena stepped out, she reached for his hand. John smiled and laced his fingers with hers, walking towards his waiting car, and a new future.

– THE END –