Welcome to Love's Legacy: Frankie & Jonny

The start of the story can be found
here and it can be navigated by using the menu to the right or by selecting newer post or older post at the bottom of each chapter. It may not be updated with quite the frequency of Edge of a Broken Heart but I will do my best to post at least once a fortnight.

Enjoy!!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Chapter 7

Jon's shoulders shook with the violent but silent sobs that wracked his body, as he reconciled the extent of Gina's sacrifice. When he had mentioned it to Frankie he never dreamed that sacrifice would be her life. She had died giving birth to her child…his child.

When he spoke his voice was husky, cracking with emotion, "Oh God baby… Why?? Why didn't you come to me? You would have had the best of care…the best of everything…"

Frankie stood stoically at the edge of the grave, very carefully controlling the emotion that roiled within her. She had expected to feel…smug… pleasure even, at seeing this stranger's pain – for she had known what she was doing would cause him at least that. She had wanted to shock the arrogance out of him. But what she was feeling now was far from pleasureable. Guilt formed one part of the complicated cocktail of emotion, and there was pity and remorse and even a little surprise at the depth of his emotion – she hadn't expected that at all.

"…We could have been a family!" he finished.

Frankie raised an eyebrow at that, but the emotion was far too raw in her to risk speaking now. She fished a tissue out of her purse and handed it over his shoulder silently. He took it in a shaking hand without looking back. She turned away from him then, as her own emotions threatened to overcome her. Tears welled in her eyes and she'd be damned if she'd let him see her cry.

While making her way back now to her father's grave - allowing Jon some semblance of privacy in his grief - she tried to determine the cause of her tears. Surely they couldn't be for him…for the pain he was suffering - that terrible consuming pain, the intolerable empty pain of loss. That thought led her to thoughts of her father. That must be it!
This is dredging up the memories and emotion of that awful time. That's all it is! She tried to convince herself that was the whole truth of it.

When Jon approached quite some time later Frankie was sitting by her father's grave singing softly – it always calmed her - as she picked the spoilt flowers out of the arrangement she had placed there on her last visit just days before. She still 'visited' her daddy whenever she could…though it was getting less and less frequent now. It had been her intent to come here at least every other day but the pressures of the real world had gripped her when she re-opened the Gallery to the public. She still managed to come at least once a week, to talk to him and tell him her news and confide her problems, usually late on a Wednesday afternoon – once their usual date day. Feeling a presence behind her, Frankie stopped singing.

So she sings, not bad either. It was a fleeting thought in Jon's overtaxed mind in light of the emotional upheaval he had just suffered.

"How long have you been there?" She asked looking up startled. He noticed immediately her red rimmed eyes.

"Only a minute or so. You ready to leave?" Jon's voice was a flat monotone. His eyes too, were red rimmed and bloodshot, puffier than she imagined hers to be.

She eyed him warily. "I'm fine. I'll catch a cab back."

"Don't be an idiot. I bought you out here…I'll take you back. It's on the way."

"To the Hamptons?"

"No, I'm gave myself a couple of days in the city to…" See Gina. Spend time with both of you. "Sort a few things out."

"Oh. Well I'm not going back to Mom's, I'm going home." Frankie rose and followed as he led her to the car.

Once again he opened the door for her, "No problem." He gestured for her to climb in and made his way around to the driver's side.

Jon navigated the familiar streets mindlessly…his attention focused somewhere far away. Neither passenger uttered a word on the long journey home, except for the directions he required to get her there. Frankie sat pondering what exactly had pushed her to be so callous and cruel. Initially, Jon was lost in thoughts of Gina, the time they had spent together and what could have possibly led to the tragic events that were only now being revealed to him. But by the end of the journey he was wondering the same thing as Frankie. What exactly had he done to deserve that? He had just reconciled himself to asking that very question when she spoke.

"Just here on the left." She directed. He pulled smoothly into the curb.

"You're kidding?" His building was less than one hundred yards up the road.

"Nope"

"But I live…"

"I know." She interrupted, and then shrugged. "It's unfortunate, but I couldn't turn this place down based on who my neighbors were. It was too good a deal"

"Frankie, why?" He asked quietly.

"I just told you…" She wondered if he was really that dumb – he didn't seem that dumb. His stare was intense. She faltered "…it…it was too good a deal to pass up." It was almost a question.

"NO! Why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't!" And she realized then that it was true. She didn't hate him as she thought she would, but that didn't mean she wanted a relationship with him either. "I gotta go." She said as she got out of the car.

She leaned back down into the open door, "Thanks for the ride. See ya!" she said flippantly, then closed it and bounded off into the building behind her.

Jon sat in stunned silence. That was all the explanation he was going to get 'I don't!' "Oh no you don't little girl. No fucking way!" he muttered to himself - Frankie was long gone. He turned the car off and pulled the key from the ignition. He got out slamming the door behind him.

"Sir…you can't park there sir." A uniformed doorman was at his side.

"Take care if it!" Jon barked handing the doorman the keys and several folded hundred dollar bills as he hurried by.

"Yes sir!" The doorman smiled at his tip.

Frankie stepped into the elevator with Mrs. Parsons from the fourth floor. She often saw the elderly widow in the mornings coming home from her daily stroll as she was heading out to work.

"Afternoon dear," the old woman croaked.

"Afternoon Mrs. Parsons, lovely day out there!" Frankie said conversationally as the doors began to slide closed. She couldn't bring herself to be rude to the woman who always had a kind word for everyone, despite the pitiful mood she was in.

"It sure is dear." She responded a kindly smile lighting her time weathered face.

Just before the doors closed a hand shot into the gap causing them to open again.

Jon stepped into the small space, so angry that he wasn't even aware the two women inside both seemed to shrink back against the wall in the face of the wrath emanating from him. "Did you think that was just the end of it, Frankie? That you could pull that little stunt and then just run up here to safety? Well guess what...!"

The octogenarian standing next to Frankie grabbed her arm in alarm. "I'm sorry Mrs, Parsons...This is Jon. He is a ...a family friend." Frankie drew herself up to her full height in the face of his rage and reminded him of his manners. "Jon, this is Mrs. Parsons, my neighbor," she said through gritted teeth. "Don't you think it would be better if we discussed this privately?"

Jon finally noticed the look on the older woman's face and willed the tension in his shoulders to relax, easing the deep lines of anger and frustration in his expression. "I beg your pardon, Mrs. Parsons. It's a pleasure to meet you..."

The woman considered him warily. "Likewise son. It's always a pleasure to meet a friend of young Frankie's." She said looking at him sternly, her voice holding no warmth. It was clear in his case there was no pleasure at all.

The ding sounded that indicated they had reached the fourth floor but Mrs. Parsons was hesitant to leave the young woman alone with this man, she stayed in the lift holding her arm across the open door. "If you need anything dear…don't forget Steven is right out front." She shot Jon a look of warning that lingered a little longer than necessary as if she were trying to memorize his features.

"I'll be fine Mrs. Parsons… Really" Frankie assured her. "It's just a little disagreement, nothing at all to worry over."

"Well ok then." The woman said hesitantly, stepping out slowly and letting the doors glide shut.

Jon held his tongue. It wouldn't do to start shouting in the elevator and have his words echo down the shaft to Mrs. Parsons' curious ears.

The doors groaned open on Frankie's floor and she stepped out into the foyer searching the depths of her bag for her keys. Once retrieved, she slid the correct one into the lock, pushed the door open and stood back for him to enter. This was obviously unavoidable and she preferred the confrontation she knew was coming take place in the privacy of her apartment rather than in public.

He trudged past her into the bright expanse that was her apartment. The scene in the elevator had cooled his temper a little. "How long have you lived here?

"Oh, a few months." She replied a little guarded.

Jon let out a low whistle "Aren't kids your age supposed to live in dumpy little apartments or better still at home with your parents?"

"I'm not like most kids my age."

"That has yet to be determined. That little stunt you pulled was pretty childish, don't you think?"

"What stunt was that?" She asked feigning innocence.

His anger rose in the face of her cool response. "The fucking cemetery Frankie. What the fuck did I ever do to you to deserve that? You fucking set me up!"

"You asked to see Gina. I just obliged. I warned you couldn't go back but you just had to push. Stubborn sonofa…" She trailed of under her breath.

He ignored her insult. "C'mon now, you know you weren't exactly giving me all the information there. Put yourself in my shoes. If our roles were reversed, how would you feel if I did that to you?" He asked irritation evident in his voice.

"You'd never have to.....I could never have left like you did" Frankie replied defensively…she knew what she had done was wrong.

"Will you cut me some freaking slack??? I didn't even know she was pregnant! If I had known....Gina... awe fuck… Gina." The fact that she was really gone hit him full force and he sat heavily on the edge of one of Frankie's pristine white sofa's and rubbed his hands up and down his face as if trying to scrub away the memory "…if she had just…told me… it wouldn't have ended like this."

Frankie remained standing opposite him. She raised an eyebrow, "Oh, how would it have ended?...All happy families? I seriously doubt that!"

"Damn it, Frankie, would you at least give me a fucking little bit of credit for being a decent human being?"

"Sorry I haven't seen much yet to suggest you are!" She snapped bitterly.

He recoiled from the comment like she'd slapped him. "Do you really think that if I'd known Gina was pregnant I would have just turned my back on her?"

Frankie opened her mouth to speak but he silenced her with a raised finger and a frosty glare. "And NO! Before you even start - because I know where you're going with this - I can't tell you that we would have all ended up as one big happy family. Hell I was so fucked up in the head at that point in my life, she probably wouldn't have wanted to play happy families with me. But this I can assure you, she would never have wanted for anything and neither would you. Both of you would have had the best of everything. And even if we didn't end up married, I know…knew Gina and I know she would have wanted you and I to know each other, to have a relationship as father and daughter."

"Isn't that what you said at the cemetery? Even in death your lying to her....and you want me to give you credit for being a decent human being. Right!" she added sarcastically.

"What the fuck are you talking about now?"

"At the cemetery... 'We could have been a family!'" she mimicked him cruelly "Those words don't ring a bell? And just for your information, according to her, …no she didn't want us to know each other...not back then anyway. Not until I was ready to make the decision for myself."

Jon blinked, looked towards the floor and shook his head slowly, "I don't believe that Frankie. I won't believe that she never wanted us to know each other."

"Believe what you like!"

"Let me tell you something about your mother…" Frankie opened her mouth to protest the use of the word - in reference to someone other than Beth, it still shocked her – but again he silenced her before a sound could escape and continued "…and yes I know Beth is your mother but let me tell you something about Gina…she was one of the warmest, most giving people I have ever met in my life. We were friends for a very long time… I knew her better than almost anyone, and I don't believe that she would have been able to keep you from me for long."

"I don't need you to tell me anything about her. I don't want to learn about her like this. I don't want to see her through your eyes, especially since it seems you never saw her all that clearly yourself."

Jon was a little taken aback. "Well how else you gonna find out honey? It seems to me, I'm the only person that can give you any real information about her. About what she was really like…don't you want to know? Or do you just want to form your impressions based on some letter she supposedly left you."

"Oh there is more than a letter." She hinted mysteriously, peaking his interest.

He crooked an eyebrow and waited.

"I have her diaries as well...I'd say they would give me a pretty good insight...wouldn't you?"

Jon turned away, unwilling to let Frankie see the emotion on his face, thus giving her further ammunition to hurt him.

"Yeah, I thought so." She smirked.

"Are you trying to tell me she had nothing but bad things to say about me? That she hated my guts?"

"Worried about that are you?"

"No, actually I'm not." The tone was not quite as confident as the statement itself. "What I am afraid of, is what you may misinterpret from what is written. Hell, look at how good you are at twisting my own words… I can just imagine what you've come up with from the pages of a diary." He turned his back to her, his attention focused on the skyline and added so soft she wasn't sure that she'd heard it at all, "No wonder you hate me."

Everything was very quiet and still for a moment while Frankie tried to determine whether or not he had spoken when he spun back to her harshly causing her to startle and jump back.

His voice was menacing. "But let me tell you something honey, there is nothing you can say, nothing any freaking diaries can say, that will ever make me doubt how she and I felt about each other. So if that's your purpose here, you may as well stop now."

"Please Jon…enlighten me exactly how did you feel about her?"

"I loved her!" He said with no embellishments.

"HA! You sure have a strange way of showing love."

"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?" He snapped.

"Loving her but marrying someone else."

"I loved..." he paused to correct the sentiment "love my wife too. It was just…", his anger got the better of him then, "No… you know what… I don't have to explain this to you, you're nineteen fucking years old. You have no idea how complicated these things can be. But damn it Frankie, try to imagine what my life was like back then. I'm sure you must have read a bit, seen interviews or whatever. It was like…I had this life as Jon Bon Jovi, rock star, I could write mega-hits and we had more money than any twenty-something year old kid should ever have but…but my personal life was in shambles. I didn't even know who I was any more. I was finding it hard to distinguish between this persona that had been created for me, and who I really was. Back then there were three women in my life who could always bring me back, and two of them were Dot and Gina."

Frankie stared at him in disbelief. "You're fucking kidding me…another one."

Jon shook his head clearly exasperated "My mother was the third…shit, your grandmother. Oh hell that's gonna be one tough discussion"

"Oh" Frankie said chagrined. "Well that still doesn't excuse what you did."

"Please tell me again what crime I committed? What did I do that was so unforgivable?"

"You left her."

"Damn it Frankie. I didn't leave her! She ran off to Europe."

Frankie looked at him patronizingly.

When he spoke, his voice was quiet, contemplative. "Oh…I see...she never went to Europe. That was for my benefit."

"Regardless you left her first."

Jon shook his head. "Just when I think you are showing an amazing level of maturity you go and say something like that. This is not some school yard competition of who went first. We were on tour. She came and joined me when I needed her, we had an amazing time together, then I had to go back to work and she went home." He explained. "Back then it wasn't like it is now. We didn't have cell phones and email, it was harder to keep up with each other but it wasn't like I never intended to see her again when we said goodbye."

"I've done my research Jon. It was ten weeks…just ten short weeks from the time I was conceived until the time you got married...What the fuck was that? That's one quick turnabout for someone 'in love'."

He took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"It wasn't like Gina didn't know about Dot. Hell they knew each other." It sounded like a poor defense even to him.

"So I believe. But you knew she was in love with you Jon. And you took advantage of that…in so many ways. That's what's unforgivable. You knew she could never say no to you, how could you do that to her?" The anger and emotion were raw in her voice. "How could you lead her on, then walk away and go back to Dot like it never happened?"

"No," he said shaking his head in denial, "that's not what happened Frankie. I didn't know she was in love with me."

Frankie pounded her fist into the top of the sofa she stood behind, "LIAR… You did know. She told you herself."

She said it with such conviction he knew she knew the truth. His mind was a whirl.

He ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head. "Jesus Frankie… how much detail did she put in this diary?" He asked, concern evident in his voice. Gina had known more about him than even his wife. She had been one of the inner circle, so much more than Dot ever had. She had been his confidant. Hell, she had even seen what life on tour was like…she had never been protected from it as the wives and girlfriends were…for so long she had just been his best friend…until…

"Enough for me to know the truth, all of it!" In truth Frankie didn't know what the diaries contained, she had barely skimmed the surface. All of the information she had used against him so far had come from Gina's letter.

Jon became still and silent. When he spoke it was hardly a whisper. "I…I didn't believe her…when she told me…I never believed she could."

"How could you not? She was in love with you from the start…from the very first day." Frankie asked incredulous.

Jon jumped to his feet and Frankie reflexively took a step back. "Damn it! I didn't KNOW! When she told me I just…"

"You just what, thought it was a line to get in your pants? What exactly did she have to gain from lying to you Jon? Please enlighten me!"

"You know what… fuck it, there is no way that I can explain this to you that you won't twist around to suit yourself. You didn't fucking know her and you certainly don't know me…"

"No and I think I've made it clear I don't want to!" Frankie interrupted but he carried on as if she hadn't spoken.

"It…me leaving… it wasn't about her, t was never about her it was about me god damn it. I didn't believe I was good enough for her. I loved your mother. I don't care what you say, what you believe or what kind of letter or diary or fucking time capsule you pull out of your ass, there is nothing you can say that will taint the memories of what we had." He raged. "I'm outta here, but before I go I want you to know one thing. I think what you did today was just… well it was fucking cruel. I think your mother…take your pick which…would be ashamed to know that you could do that to another person let alone your father. You think about that for a while."

Jon stormed from the room and slamming the door behind him.

"Mr. Rock Star doesn't like being put on the spot me thinks." Frankie said quietly to the empty room but as her bravado crumbled she realized that – about one thing at least – he was absolutely correct.

7 comments:

The Goddess Hathor said...

Sheesh, what a turbulent chapter! I think Jon is getting way too upset over something that was mostly his own fault in the first place. Agreed, that the little cemetery stunt wasn't the nicest, but yelling and screaming at his "daughter" like a fishwife isn't the way to forge a relationship.

Take a valium, J....

~ Hath

joviswillow said...

Wow. That was one freakin amazing chapter!! I feel all tied up in knots from reading it.

He's right that she did a cruel thing, and she's right to feel bad. How will they get past this??

More!!!

Bayaderra said...

WOW!!!
I feel for both of them...but they still have blinders on...they only see their side. When the blinders will come off (and I hope they will in the future!) they will have a wonderful relationship because they are sooo alike...
More please!!!!

Big Apple Jen said...

I really love the premise of this story.

I hope that Frankie actually reads Gina's diary and can maybe find some insight into her mother's relationship with Jon.

It was cruel the way she delivered the news of Gina's death. She refuses to see anything other than what she wants - but that's because she is young.

Hopefully Frankie will mature and try to open her mind a little so she can make a more informed decision as to whether to forge a relationship with Jon.

Anonymous said...

I think it's evident that they're both going to have to grow together. Jon finds out one day he has a daughter, and the next he finds out that her mother, someone he loved, is dead and the truth had been hidden from him for decades.

That's a lot to swallow in a weekend. Doesn't surprise me that his temper got the best of him.

And yes, Frankie is young and immature, but really, how long can she resist Jon? And something tells me her mom is gonna make her feel like crap for doing that the way she did.

TaraLeigh said...

Man alive! These two go at each other like frenemies. The push and the pull, the hurt and the OPEN MOUTH INSERT FOOT attitude is NOT good. LOL They are too much alike.

Someone's going to need to suck back a shot of reason before they end up killing each other in a blind rage!

lifetimejovifan said...

As a woman who's "sperm donor" left her with a child on the way when I was 19 years old...I can feel for Frankie...However, my daughter died before I could tell her the truth about her "father" I finally gave up my anger and contacted him 3 years AFTER she passed. He was apologetic etc. about not being there, and shed what I now believe to be token tears at the cemetery. So I can see how you've written Jon too. WOW! Great story and THANK YOU for writing it!