Chapter 80 - The Angels Left Here Long Ago

The Rumson Police station is quaint, fitting the little town that it's in.  All the employees, everyone in the area know who Beth is and news of the interrupted nuptials has spread fast.  

Beth can see it as she walks into the police station.  She can hear the whispers and see the stares, but she didn't care.  Making sure that the tie on her robe is tight, and that she is covered, she follows the officer into an interview room where they ask her to wait a few moments.  "We need to have him looked at by a paramedic to see if he needs medical attention.  Please wait here."  The officer pulls out a chair and Beth takes a seat, "Can I get you anything?"

Beth shakes her head no, "But thank you."  She looks around the cold room, remembering the last time that she was in a police station.  It was dealing with another tragedy that was out of her control and here they are in another one.  She laughs to herself, after the officer leaves. We had pretty tight security, how did he get by?  Beth sits long enough to get irritated, so she get up and starts to pace, reading the posters and information on the walls, hoping they would hurry with Brian so she can get her answers and get back to her family.

She waited for what seemed a lifetime, when the door opened and an officer walked in with Brian at his side.  Brian is handcuffed, with a clean shirt on and a butterfly stitch covering his right eye.  Beth's heart hurts a little bit, because Tony really did do a number on him, and not once did he swing back.  "Sit here."  The officer tells Brian as he pulls out a metal chair and waits for Brian to sit down.  Once Brian is seated, the officer attaches his handcuffs to a link on the table.

"Is that necessary?"  Beth snaps at what looks inhumane to her, "he isn't a danger to me."

The officer pays her no mind, regulations are regulations and he didn't feel that he needed to explain it to her.  He leaves them alone, and they both know that they are being watched by someone on the other side of the mirror.

Beth points to his face, "Does it hurt?"

He shakes his head no.

"Were they nice to you?"

He nods his head.

"Why are you here?" she quickly fires off, "Tell me why you're here after all these years?  Where have you been?"  Stretching against the cuffs and the link, he tries to grab her hand.  She pulls back and gives him a glare, her version of the stink eye.

"Beth Ann, I didn't come here to hurt you.  I'm sorry that I ruined your wedding day, really I am."

"I buried you years ago.  You're supposed to be dead.  I seen the car."  she's getting excited, feeling passion that's confused with anger.  

"Obviously I didn't die."

"Then what the hell happened to you?  Why would you let me go through that, Brian?  Why would you let me go on with life thinking that you were dead?" her breathing gets faster with every word that she says.  She can't believe that she is saying what she's saying, he's supposed to be dead.  "I about died when I lost you.  It took me years to get over you, to put you in my past."

"You and Jon look very happy." he tries to change the subject, tries to shift the focus from years ago and bring it to the here and now.  "You looked beautiful up there today."

Beth stands up and walks to the window, "Why did you leave me?"  She sees that night is falling on the east coast and her thought quickly goes to Jon.  She wonders what he's doing and how upset he is at her, she can imagine - she's has him pissed as hell before.  "Brian, I need - wait, I deserve answers."

"Will you sit down?" he asks her, just wanting to look at her.  "I'll tell you what you want to know, just sit with me."

"Tell me what I did to deserve going through the pain of losing you and burying you."  She turns to him, wringing her hands, "Tell me what was so wrong with me that you faked your own death to get away from me."

"Will you sit, please?"

"No, no I won't sit down Brian." She starts to rub her forehead, even more frustrated.  "You don't get to set the rules.  Tell me what the fuck happened."

"I had to leave you to save you?"

"To save me?" she snaps.  "To save me from what?"

"Yourself." he calmly says, watching her every move.  "I had to save you from yourself."

With a loud exhale and  roll of the eyes, "What does that even mean, save me from myself."

He takes a deep breathe and glances out the window, "I was hoping I never had to do this.  I came here just to see you, speaking up at your wedding was unavoidable.  I couldn't help myself."

"Brian."

"Do you remember when you were working the Sculotta case and we had some heat from the feds?"

"No."

"The case that we were going to be investigated for, for securities fraud?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Another deep breathe, "Just before my accident, I got involved in with the Sculotta's on a personal level.  I was hiding their money, playing with their money and eventually started to steal their money."

Beth shakes her head, "Steal their money?  Why?  We had more than we ever needed."

"I had a problem, a bad problem with gambling.  When I would travel for work, when I was done at the office, I would hit up whatever casino was close and easily lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a night, from an account that you knew nothing about."

"My money?" she questions, angered that she has to even ask, "Did you take my money?"

"Sometimes."

"So you had to run off?" she can't let that go, "You had to fake your own death, WHY?"

He wiggles in the chair, fighting the cuffs that are keeping him attached to the table - the metal is hard on his butt.  "My death wasn't planned.  The accident was on purpose, me living through it was my plan."

She shakes her head, "What?"

"The Sculatta's tampered with my car, the accident was supposed to kill me.  But when it didn't and I was in the hospital, they got scared because I knew all of their dirty little secrets, for whatever reason forgetting that I owed them a few million dollars."

"A few million dollars?  Are you fucking kidding me?"  she barks at him, pissed as she has ever been.  "You gambled and lost three million dollars?"

"I lost a million and borrowed more.  They owned me."

"Brian, how could you....."

"Let me finish, Beth Ann.  My debt was so big and they wanted to come after you to get the money.  I made deal after deal to keep them away from you and it worked, for a while."

"Go on."

"Well, I think that when the heat got too close to you, they decided to take matters into their own hands."

"What heat for me, Brain you aren't making any sense."

"At Deloitte, we were into some pretty heavy dealings that weren't always on the up and up.  Peter being my biggest partner."

"Peter?"  Beth squawks, "He was in on it?"

"Beth it was such a mess.  There was so many millions of dollars being moved from country to country, getting laundered and trickled back in.  Peter and I were so good for so long, until I needed to beg the Sculotta's to help me with my gambling debt.  That was the biggest mistake, because once I took their money, they owned me.  They owned us."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was too bad.  But when the feds got involved and scared the Sculotta's away from you - I decided to leave and just disappear, knowing that you were safe, but they didn't give me the chance."

"They caused your accident?"

"Yeah.  I was supposed to die.  Luckily, I didn't."

Beth sits down in the chair across from him and stares him in the eye.  She's trying really hard to process the information that she's hearing, pulling in the memories from that time and trying to make sense of it all.  After a few minutes, she realizes, "You planned on leaving me anyway?"

He nods his head.

"Because of money.  You were going to walk out of my life because you owed some bad guys some money?"

"That was the only thing I could think to do."

"To save your fucking ass.  What if they would have come after me when you were (she uses air quotes) fucking dead?"

A deep breath precedes his next sentence, "I knew they would leave you alone if they thought I was dead.  I couldn't come back to you once I was healed and able."

She glares at him, "So you just let me think that you were dead.  I buried you and had to start a new life.  Do you have any idea" he hands go through her hair, "how hard all of that was for me?"

"It wasn't easy for me Beth."

"Really?  You walked away from me and the life that we had planned.  You let me think that you were dead.  And what's even better, you let me think that you died a horrible and painful death, Brain.  That killed me."

"I missed you."

"Fuck you."  She gets to her feet.  "Do you have any idea the life that I have had since i lost you?"

He shakes his head no.

"Where in the hell were you, under a rock?" She's fired up.  How can he not know what she's gone through, she's been attached to Jon for many years and they are always in the news for something or another.

"Matt asked me the same thing." he chuckles again.

"You know nothing that has happened in the last decade.  I have been all over the TV and in the news."

He shrugs his shoulders, "When I got out of the hospital, I went and lived in a remote village in Belize.  Not much for news out there."

"You left the country?"

"I had to.  I had to get as far away as I could. To save myself and you."

Back at the window, Beth watches traffic drive by, through the barred window.  It's getting dark and she needs to get home to her husband and her family - they have a honeymoon to get started on.  "Well, let me tell you this Brain Paul, since you died and I buried you I have been raped, suffered a brain injury, been in a tragic car accident, had someone try to kill me and I have buried three children.  TODAY, I married my best friend and if it took losing you and going through all of that to get me to today, then I accept where I am at.  I married a man that loves me, even though I'm fucked up in the head.  I have two beautiful children with Jon and now I have Jon's four wonderful children that love me as if I was their own mother.  I went through hell to get this cloud of happiness and even you aren't going to ruin that."  On her heel she turns to face him again, "I have no idea why you're here today and what makes you think that it's safe - but as you now know and can now see - your face is all over the news.  Anthony kicked your ass and he'll do it again if needed, but maybe the Sculotta's will find you first."   She takes a few steps toward him, "For whatever reason you are here, it was a waste of your time.  You ruined my wedding day and hear me now Brian, I don't ever want to see you again.  Stay away from me and my family.  If you do NOT, I'll contact the Sculotta's myself !!!"  She places her hands on the table and leans into his face, "This is the last time that I will hurt for you, this is the last time that I will ever think of you.  You're despicable."

"Beth....."

She stands straight, "Officer, I'm ready to leave!" and she makes her way to the door.  Once she is able to leave the interview room, she says to the officer, "Charge him with whatever you can."  The door clinks behind her and she walks to the desk Sargent.  "is there someone that can run me home?"

"Yes, Mrs.  Bongiovi.  I'll have a uniform run you home."  She smiled and nodded, loving the way that Mrs. Bongiovi sounded.