Episode 4, "Scheming Love" (Printable Version)

Scene 1- The Sterling Building

The screeching sound of the elevator cables grinding together echoed through hallway of the basement in the Sterling Building as a gray mouse dodged being hit by a drop of water that fell from the ceiling as it hurried down the hall searching for it's next meal. The rat stopped and hurried off in the opposite direction it came from as the sound footsteps quickly approached.

Marsha hurried around the corner, swinging an overnight bag. Recently, her partner in crime Joshlynne found an empty room in the basement of the Sterling Building and suggested that they meet there to keep Marsha from being spotted in public. No one in San Diego knew Marsha was back in town yet and she wanted to surprise everyone, especially the ones who were on their hit list. Marsha reached in the pocket of her dark blue Levi jeans and found the key to the door.

As Marsha slowly inserted the key in the hole of the door, Joshlynne opened the door and quickly pulled Marsha in, closing the door.

"Get in here quick!"

Amazed at Joshlynne's multi-colored dress, Marsha smirked nodding her head in admiration, "That's quite a get up Joshlynne, big meeting today?" she asked sitting the overnight bag on the rusty table.

Joshlynne shook her head, irked by Marsha's remark, "No, but there is the annual board meeting in a couple of days." she quickly replied.

"What's in the bag?"

Marsha grinned, taking out another photo of Felicia and Demetrius making love.

"This my friend, is the next phase of our plan." Marsha explained as she displayed, mocking Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune.

"Our favorite dress designer got her copy last night at the fashion show, and the look on her face was priceless."

Joshlynne covered the smile on her face, then clapped her hands celebrating, "No way, you've go to be kidding me." she exclaimed.

In the middle of her celebration, The words of Felicia pleading with her sister Sharon to keep quiet about the affair played in Joshlynne's head. "what are you going to do if William finds out." Sharon asked.... Felicia replied, "William is not going to find out! Do you understand me?!?" ..."I'll lose everything if any one knew what I just told you." 

Joshlynne pondered for a moment, "That's it!"  she handed the picture back to Marsha.

"Marsha we need to make a few more copies of this picture, I know a few more people who could use a copy." she stated with a devilish look on her face.

Scene 2- 2300 Proximity Lane

The lovely sound of birds chirping echoed from outside as the bright morning sun shined it's rays through the blinds of the kitchen window. An exhausted Paige hurried in zipping up her black and white track jacket. She forgot to set her alarm clock and woke up two hours late, so she decided to call in and catch up on some running hoping that it would clear her mind.

Paige fixed herself some Folgers coffee, then held the mug soaking in the scent of fresh grain coffee. She bit her bottom lip softly after taking a sip. Folgers coffee was Maurice's favorite drink, the man who seemed to take the place of her husband.

The softness of Maurice's  pink lips still lingering on her lips from the kiss that they shared last night at the convention center during the fashion show. At times being in Maurice's chiseled arms made things feel so right, the only thing that stood in their way was her husband Anthony, who was Maurice's best friend.

She wanted so bad to feel the touch of Maurice's hands slowly running up her spine. She missed the way his tongue told a story across her neck. Maurice was a drug that had slowly taken over her body it was no way she was going to get over it anytime soon.

Paige had some decisions to make and a lot of people were going to get hurt badly.

Paige ran her fingers through her hair frustrated, she wondered how in the world could someone like her get in a situation like this. She loved....used to love Anthony, but lately things hadn't been the same. Both were going up the latter in their careers and they've seemed to forgotten about one another.

Tears slowly came down her face as she picked up her blackberry and quickly dialed, "I n..need to see you!" she managed to get out as she sobbed.

"Paige what the hell have I gotten myself into." she whispered to herself starring at a 5X7 picture of herself and Anthony at an amusement park.

Scene 3- The Sterling Mansion

The scent of beacon and eggs filled the kitchen as Jackie walked in with disturbing letter from her mother. She found her step mother Lisa at the stove.

"Something smells good." she said sliding the letter in her back pocket as she walked over to the stove.

Lisa smiled, she loved Jackie as if she was her own daughter, she always thought of Travis' crazy ex-fiancé leaving Jackie with them on their wedding day was a blessing.

"Hey Jack, you hungry?" she asked fixing herself a plate

Jackie nodded, already digging into the food, "Where's dad?" she inquired carrying her plate of food to the kitchen table.

Lisa noticed the letter sticking out of Jackie's back pocket as she walked to the table.

"Your grandfather wanted him to come in early, he wanted to talk to him about something." she replied sitting across from her.

"Who wrote you a letter?"

Jackie stopped chewing, then swallowed her eggs beginning to become uncomfortable. Jackie didn't want to tell Lisa that her mother wrote her that letter and she threaten to harm Lisa.

"What letter?" she denied trying not to make eye contact with her step mother.

Lisa crossed her arms, upset Jackie lied to her, "the letter in your back pocket." she answered.

Jackie quickly cleaned her mouth with her napkin and laid it on the table. "Oh umm it's from Gino." she lied again.

"Can I be excused?"

Lisa sighed nodding her head.

Jackie quickly rose from her chair, causing the letter to slip out of her pocket and hurried out of the room.

Lisa got up trying to figure out why Jackie lied to her about a simple letter that Gino wrote. She placed both of the plates in the sink and noticed the letter on the floor. She walked over and picked it.

"To you, from me. My darling Jackie..." Lisa read softly to herself sitting on the kitchen table.

Scene 4- The Sterling Building

Demetrius waited patiently starring out the window of his office at Veritas Inc. the competition of Sterling Clothing. He summoned his sister and his son both being his right hand people for an emergency meeting. After last night, Demetrius felt his daughter Gloria, his Vice President had too many duties. He thought it would be easier if the duties of the Vice President were divided and he knew just the "woman" for the job.

Tiffany waltzed in laying a folder on Demetrius' desk, "Demetrius you wanted to see me?"

"In a minute, Travis isn't here yet. This involves both of you." he explained as his eyes searched the skies.

Tiffany folded her arms growing a bit impatient, today was not a good day for Tiffany, she was giving  interviews to various reporters regarding the fashion show and hadn't had a break yet.

"Alright! Alright! here I am let's get this celebration started." exclaimed Travis who was still on his high from the success of last night's fashion show as he entered.

"So what is it that couldn't wait for me to finish my breakfast." Travis asked clasping his hands together, standing beside Tiffany.

Demetrius slowly turned facing the two, "Son, you did a great job last night" he answered.

"It also came to my attention that Gloria has become overwhelmed with her duties."

Not sure where he was going with this Tiffany scratched the back of her neck trying to put the pieces together, "I think she is doing a great a job, has she said anything to you about feeling overwhelmed?"

Demetrius shook his head, "No, but I know my daughter and she been very tense lately and it's beginning to show in her actions. I wanted to divide her duties with someone who worked very hard and really came through for us last night."

"So in others word you want to promote someone." Travis blurted out.

"Mind telling us who it is?" Tiffany demanded placing her hands on her hip, becoming frustrated with this whole situation. Tiffany hated drastic changes being made especially if things were fine.

"Felicia." Demetrius revealed walking over to his desk.

"Felicia? Demetrius what the hell are you thinking, she knows nothing about the business." Tiffany shouted.

"Promoting Felicia to Vice President and bumping your Gloria will be a slap to the face. You know Gloria and Felicia hate each other."

Demetrius frowned, "Listen, Tiffany those two are going to have to learn to get along with each other. Both of these women have worked very hard."

Travis not able to make a decision decided to remain silent, he and Gloria really didn't get along but he would never do anything to hurt her...intentionally.

"I can't believe you want to do this, I'm sorry but I'm not for this." she protested shaking her head. "This isn't going to happen!"

Scene 5- 2300 Proximity Lane

Paige opened the front for Maurice who quickly hurried in, "Is everything alright? I could tell you were upset." he said taking off his black military jacket. He noticed the puffiness in her eyes and grew angry fearing that Anthony and Paige got into a fight.

"Did that bastard hit you?" he asked, looking around for Anthony. "I'll kill him!!"

Paige shook her head wiping her nose, "No Maurice, calm down, nothing like that has happened." she protested placing her hands on his shoulder at an attempt to calm him down. Paige still struggled to admit the fact that she was in love with her husband's best friend.

"Well what the hell has happened?" he demanded.

Growing frustrated with the growing urge to kiss Maurice, Paige began to cry again, "Maurice I try everyday to fight my feelings for you but I can't and I don't know why." she explained.

"What are saying?" Maurice asked growing with joy that Paige was finally admitting her true feelings.

Paige smiled, "I love you, Maurice." she yelled.

Filled with happiness and the satisfaction of Paige's declaration of love, Maurice starred deeply into Paige's green, "I love you too."

Paige smiled, reaching up to kiss his cheek before kissing his lips softly.

Kissing her back, Maurice picked up Paige and whisked her off to the bedroom as if he was her husband.

Scene 6- The Sterling Building

Marsha placed the blackmail pictures of Demetrius and Felicia back in her folder, as Joshlynne entertained a interview via cell phone with one of the reporters from one of the newscast from Los Angeles. She began to wonder why Joshlynne want so badly to break up Demetrius and Melanie's marriage.

Joshlynne laughed hanging up the phone, she looked at Marsha, "Sorry that took so long. Sterling is doing really good in sells." she bragged.

Marsha crossed her arms, not interested in some sells that had nothing to do with task at hand. Marsha slowly walked over to a chair and took a seat crossing her legs. She looked up at Joshlynne with an intrigued smiled.

"Joshlynne you never told me why you wanted to destroy Mommy and Daddy Dearest's marriage."

Joshlynne rolled her eyes, she only wanted Marsha to do all the dirty work no questioned asked. Joshlynne feared that if her planned did play out and Demetrius knew that she maneuver the whole plan she would end up with nothing.

"I've loved Demetrius since the first time I laid eyes on him." she explained as a smile slowly appeared on her face.

"I've done everything possible to show him that I love him and he STILL HASN'T NOTICED!"

"So with Demetrius at his lowest, You are going to be the one who picks him back up and he's going to miraculously fall in love with you." Marsha stated as if she was reading a children storybook.

Marsha laughed nodding her head tapping her finger on the desk, "That's a really good plan but what about the Sterling off springs, they're not going to let you win that easily."

Joshlynne snickered evilly, "I thought about that, so I'm going to let Felicia take fall. Hence the exposure of the affair. You see Felicia and I have battled for Demetrius' attention for years, but he always seemed to notice Felicia over me. So I got smart."

"Riiigght I get it! While the Sterlings are busy fighting off the dress designer, your going slowly ease your way in." Marsha laughed amazed, she could help but wonder if this plan was actually going to work. She shrugged not caring about Joshlynne's motive, hurting Travis and Lisa meant more to her then some silly drunken love story and it was nice to have someone working with her.

Scene 7- The Sterling Mansion

Disturbed from reading the letter that Marsha wrote to Jackie, Lisa folded the letter and laid it on the table. This would be the last time she read something that wasn't for her.

 "Oh no!" she whispered. Marsha did a great job scarring Lisa and this was something she didn't want to experience again.

"What does she mean we'll be sorry." she thought to herself.

Lisa knew Marsha carried out her threats and no one was safe when she went off the deep end.

Lisa shuttered realizing Marsha could be in town, knowing Marsha and her methods anything could happen.

Jackie rushed down stairs and saw Lisa standing by the table, she gasped covering her mouth noticing the letter on the table, "I didn't want to tell you." she whispered.

Lisa turned to Jackie and smiled softly trying to hide how frightened she was, "It's okay, Jackie. There's nothing to worry about."

Unable to hold back the tears Lisa, sped out of the room and up the stairs.

Jackie walked over to the table and ripped it up. "You're not going to hurt my family!" she protested throwing the ripped letter in the trash.

Scene 8- The Sterling Building

Tiffany paced around Demetrius' office still upset that Demetrius wanted to demote his own daughter. Tiffany narrowed her eyes at her nephew Travis, who remain quiet during the whole argument.

"Travis you've been quiet over there, what do you have to say about this?" she stated.

Travis sighed, he knew this moment was coming but he didn't want to tell them that he want to demote his own sister to keep her from becoming CEO. Even though he and Tiffany were the top two. Demetrius groomed Gloria to one day take over the company. Putting Felicia and Gloria together would most likely drive Gloria to quit.

"I think it would be a great idea to promote Felicia, My sister needs help and I think it would be interesting to have someone who isn't a Sterling in position. It would send a message." he explain with a sly look.

Tiffany huffed, "Yeah it would send a message! The WRONG message."

Fed up with the nonsense that was going on, Tiffany grabbed her folder, "listen I need to get back to work, if this fiasco is finished!"

Demetrius nodded, "You gave your opinion."

Tiffany looked at Travis and Demetrius filled with disappointment, "I hate to be you two at the board meeting coming up."

Travis sighed as Tiffany stormed out slamming the door.

"Dad you sure this is going to work?" he asked becoming unsure of the decision he just made.

Demetrius gave Travis a reassuring smiled, "I'm almost certain. My sister is wrong and I think this will workout fine." he replied.

...Forever Never Seems That Long...

Next Time on Forever & A Day

 Regina finds herself overwhelmed trying to adjust to working at Sterling Clothing and Jonathan will receive some bad news.

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