She’s shaking and trembling. All that nerve, all that defiance has evaporated.
Have I finally broken you?
Here? Now?
Is that what I wanted?
What did I want?
What do I want?
“What the fuck have you done to my life? I never hurt you. And my mother really did nothing either. No-one chooses who they fall in love with. But she might have stayed with both of you if you’d let it happen…. But it’s all about you, you selfish, evil bastard…. And with what they’ve got on you now, my testimony isn’t even going to make any difference. You’re in here to stay, but you’ve got me in prison too….”
Shaking and rocking, she sobs hard. Blondie looks alarmed, wrapping his arms around her, murmuring something quiet.
And if the screen were not between us, I would hold her myself….
Mitch….
Mitch’s daughter….
She wipes a runny nose on her sleeve. It’s inelegant but endearing….
What the fuck am I thinking….?
The guard taps Blondie on the shoulder, pushing a tissue into his hand. He passes it to her and she blows her nose loudly and gracelessly.
A silence falls.
Ahh…. Christ….
What have I to lose…?
“Jennifer…. Charlotte. Go get your life back.”
Clutching at the tissue, she blinks through swollen eyes. “What?”
“I said, get your life back. You’re right. You appearing in court, no matter what your testimony, isn’t going to make a difference to me at this point. Go home. Go back to your university. Go find your mother if you want to. If she’s still alive. You won’t have any more trouble. Or at least none that I’m responsible for.”
Blondie stands, his chair scraping back, looming over me through the screen….
Jeez, you’re a big bastard….
“You’re kidding,” he says. “Just like that, it’s all different?”
Is it?
“Yeah… just like that. I suppose you won’t believe me, but, for what it’s worth to either of you, you have my word. Whatever else happens in your lives, I won’t be behind your problems…. But there’s a price….”
She wrings at the tissue. “Which is?”
long time. Probably
stands, rising from her seat and
perfectly serious. Come and
Mitch’s daughter….
Mitch’s image….
Talk to me
outrage in his voice, “You murdered her father, tried to destroy her mother, enslave her…. And you
think they’re going to let me near
man who kidnapped, assaulted, and intended to
Conners’ daughter….
my stomach lurches
Father Christmas and
that. But that was then. And…. I’ve already lost the
at me in utter disgust and disbelief, wraps an arm around her and with a nod to the guards, steers her away and out.
*****
me by the arm. “Back
Sir?
“You're new, aren't you?”
Klempner,
Mr Klempner?
heard by the other guard. “I ran into
Ahhh...
ask you if there is anything
“News mainly.”
Klempner. Anything
“I’ll let you know.”
He holds a hand to my cell door. “Um, you understand sir that when the other guards are
course. What’s your
“I’m Gerry Sutcliffe, sir.”
meet you
too, sir. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll do my
*****
James
how did
then gulps down from
about and able to walk now, at the level of using the bathroom without the intervention of a nurse. Nonetheless, Michael’s return is an excuse for me to climb back into bed, take the weight from my aching leg
and convinces me to sleep more than I could have done in the renovation/building site which is our mountain home, even
up against the pillows and Michael reaches around, rearranging them for me.
story short, Klempner admitted to murdering Charlotte’s father, seemed to have some kind of crisis over her looking just like her mother and at the end of it told her he’s calling off the
What the fuck….?
Yeah…. Right….
for the longer version of that in a bit, but do you think he could possibly be sincere? After everything he did, you think he would simply give up? Forget his revenge, just like
on the two back chair legs. “But…. if we don’t at least consider taking him at face value, what are
Not an option….
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