Thank you, to all my reviewers and to those who gave me some insight to what I've been missing from the plotline history on all characters involved in my story thank you very much. I appreciate it and accept any help I can get.
Also another quick note. I'm sorry this one was so short. I guess you could call this one a filler in or transitional chapter. The next one will be longer. I"M SO SORRY!!!!
Chapter 3
Theresa drove for what seemed like hours on end. She was hungry, Little Ethan was hungry and they were running low on fuel. She wasn't nearly as far away from Harmony as she liked but she would restart their journey after a much needed pit stop.
"Ok Ethan here we are," Theresa stated breaking the silence in the car. They were at a popular food chain rest stop/gas station just in the middle of Maine.
"Yes, I'm starving. Thank you Mommy." Little Ethan cried as he unlatched his seat belt and stepped foot outside the SUV.
"Mommy can I call Daddy now," Little Ethan asked. He was missing his father and sister terribly right now.
Theresa looked at her son. She too had the same idea for the past couple of hours. She desperately wanted to go back to Harmony and repeat the cycle she and Ethan couldn't seem to get out of but she also needed to get away and cut off all ties to Ethan and Harmony.
"Not right now sweetheart. When we find the perfect place to stay then you can write Daddy a letter." She stated.
"But I want to call him not write him." Little Ethan protested. "I can't hear his voice if I write him. I want to hear Daddy's voice."
Theresa sighed. This was going to be a difficult transition for both of them, "Ethan, I know it doesn't seem fair that you have to leave your family and friends behind in Harmony, but I promise that I won't keep you away from Daddy. You just can't call him right now. He's still upset at me and he can find out where we are if you call."
Little Ethan looked at his mother, "Mama, you didn't tell me that Daddy was upset at you."
"I didn't want my little man to be worried. Everything will be fine. We just need time for your Daddy to calm down. Then you will write him not call him sweetie I know how hard it is going to be for you not to see or hear from him everyday."
"If I write him don't you think he'll know where we are," Ethan asked.
Theresa didn't know what to tell her son. His father was smart; he still had the resources he had when he was still a Crane. Anything could happen with just a simple sheet of paper but Theresa wanted her son to have contact with his father. She didn't want either one knowing how it felt like not to be able to contact each other just like the situation with her own daughter.
"He probably will find out Ethan, but we're going to make it harder for him to find us. I'm not ready for him to look for us. Please don't think I'm doing this for a mean deceitful thing. I'm doing this because I can't have you and I live in Harmony anymore. There are people there who will do anything to see me get hurt. They could even hurt you. I don't want that for you."
Little Ethan nodded. He understood what his mother was trying to tell him in someway, maybe not fully understanding but he understood. "Ok Mommy. I won't call Daddy if you don't want me too."
Gwen Winthrop wanted answers and she wanted them now. Her husband was distant; her stepson was missing or rather ill according to her husband. She wasn't buying the scheme that her stepson was ill. She was going to do some investigating and when she finds out the truth, she'll tear Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane from limb to limb.
Gwen knew this whole ordeal had Theresa written all over it. She just needed back up. She started to pick up the phone to dial her mother when her mother barged into the Winthrop/Bennett house.
"Oh Gwennie, Something just terrible happened to me." Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane cried overly dramatically.
Gwen rolled her eyes, although she's gone along with just about every single one of her mother's scheme to help her get rid of Theresa from their lives, she still knew her mother was a drama queen.
"What is it Mother, I have things I need to do plus Jane has a doctor's appointment."
"She's kicked me out of my home and changed all the locks, upped security and let all the help go."
Gwen didn't need her mother to tell her who the "She" was. "Theresa!" Gwen hissed. "Where are you staying now Mother," she asked. For all she cared Rebecca could stay in the sleaziest motel operated in Harmony. She wasn't about to let her mother move in with her new family.
"That horrid Bed & Breakfast on the Harbor," Rebecca said with a cold shiver.
Gwen quietly chuckled. Leave it to her mother to tarnish a fine establishment's image because it wasn't expensive to stay at.
"Not only that, I have no money what so ever. She's locked me out of the Crane money vaults."
Gwen really needed to be the voice of reason with Rebecca. "Mother that has never been your money. It's been Alistair's and Julian's money, now that Julian has no desire to be with you and Alistair is dead the money does belong to Theresa whether we like it or not. You're lucky she didn't throw your arse out on the street when Julian kicked you to the curb and the day Alistair died for good."
"That's no way to talk to your mother," Rebecca countered her daughter.
"Well Mother like it or not the world right now does not revolve around you. So what if you were kicked out of house and home. So what if you are financially unsound. I have a son who is apparently sick."
"You don't have a son." Rebecca sobered up for her overly dramatic scene.
Gwen gave her mother an, "are you dubious look?" She still considered Ethan Martin (Little Ethan) her son. She knew legally she was his stepmother and he her stepson but it didn't matter to her.
"Oh come one you honestly don't think these two situations are connected."
"I don't know what to think," Gwen addressed.
"She isn't to know she is being followed," Ethan Winthrop said into his phone. "I know that I should let her go and cool off but our child is with her and his safety is all I'm concerned about."
Ethan listened to the other person for a moment. "No you're not going to kidnap him. He's safest with his mother. I just want to know when they have settled and if their names are changed. Don't tell me where they have set up their new lives. She'll come to me or slip up when she's really ready to be found."
To say that Ethan Winthrop was still angry was an understatement. He was red with anger but that didn't mean he was about to let his ex-girlfriend and their son go out into the world without a bodyguard. There really wasn't a place on the earth were the former evil crane empire didn't have connections to ruthless people and he couldn't afford them finding out that Theresa and Little Ethan were out in the anonymous world alone.
"Please just keep them save. That's all I ask." He finished before he hung up the phone. 'I'm doing this for us Theresa. One day I'll grow that back bone you've said I lack and when I do I'll know exactly where it is you are. Then we will be together.'
Several hours after the rest stop found Theresa and Little Ethan a few states away. "How would you like to live in Farm Country," Theresa asked the six year old.
"With horses, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, fruit and vegetables," Little Ethan asked excitedly.
"Yes, exactly, we can open our own farm stand, you can make some real friends. It could be great."
"Please Mama please!" The little boy was now begging.
"Ok, it's either, Montana, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas and/or Oregon. What's it gonna be?"
The car was quiet for approximately a half hour before either spoke again. "Let's check them all out the state we love the most will make our new home," Little Ethan suggested.
Theresa smiled, such an innocent idea from an innocent child, "That'll take a very long time and you'll fall behind on your schooling are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"If I get bored then we'll just settle in any state. I don't really care Mommy as long as I'm with you."
Theresa smiled. Her son truly was a blessing. "Then let the quest begin." She hollered. Then turned the radio on and the two began to sing to the first song they knew coming out of the speakers.