Family Inheritance (13 page)

“Thank you, Thomas.” She stroked his cheek. Typically, Thomas would have pulled away
if Helene tried to do any mothering, but in these early morning hours, he just stood
there with his hands down along his sides, looking helpless. Helene wrapped her arms
around his neck. “I love you, Thomas. Be good, okay?”

“I will, Mom.”

Helene turned to Bill and was startled as he encircled her with his arms. Pulling
her close to him, he whispered into her ear, “I love you, Helene. I really love you.”

Anguish choked Helene as she laid her head against his shoulder, fighting the feeling
of wanting to just stay there and not get into the waiting car. Bill hadn't held
her this close in a long time, and she wanted to stay snuggled in his arms and savor
the deliciousness of it. It felt good; she had craved this for so long that she wanted
to settle into his strength. But she couldn't today because she had to go home. She
just had to go home.

Helene climbed into the limo and settled herself in the backseat. “Be good, both
of you,” she smiled weakly. “I'll call you as soon as I'm settled.”

As the limo drove away, Helene waved from the backseat as she watched her entire
world fade behind her. She knew they probably couldn't see her through the heavily
darkened window, but as she watched them fade, Helene wondered what her life would
be like when she came back. A swirl of fear engulfed her as she fought an impulse
to tell the driver to stop so she could just return to her life as she knew it, because
she somehow knew it would never be the same again—that she would never be the same
again. She felt herself being pulled into the mouth of a deep, dark cavern as forces
tugged her deeper and deeper into her past, and she knew with an innate certainty
that she would not emerge the same person. She didn't know how she would change.
She just knew that after this trip she would be forever altered. About that, she
was positive.

Chapter 13

Northern Minnesota

The policeman escorted Alice, Sarah, and Sam up to the door of their house. Alice
kept looking behind her. Sarah's hands were shaking, and Sam's eyes were round with
fear.

“I can stay here with you for an hour,” the policeman said. “That should be long
enough for you to pack enough belongings to last you for a while. Then I've got to
bring you back to the shelter. We've got so much territory to cover.” He smiled in
apology. “I'm really sorry, ma'am. I know you should be able to stay in your home
and feel safe, but we just don't have the manpower to protect people from their own
families. And sometimes those are the most dangerous of all.”

They slowly walked through the house with plastic bags in hand; they had instructions
to bring only what was necessary for the next couple of weeks. When they got to Sam's
room, he shrugged his shoulders and opened the door. Sarah walked quietly to her
room, and Alice trudged down the hall. As she rummaged through her closet for clothes
to take, she came upon the stash of chocolate and sat still for several moments,
deciding what to do. She shook her head, then gathered up her clothes, stuffed them
into the plastic bags, and started for the door where she paused, quickly turned
around, grabbed a handful of the chocolate bars, and shoved them to the bottom of
one of the bags.

As they gathered back in the living room, the phone rang. Sarah grabbed it then turned
to Alice. “Mom, it's for you. They say it's about Grandma.”

Reaching for the phone, Alice brushed sweat from her brow.

“Hullo,” Alice muttered into the phone. Alice hadn't called her mom in a while, but
her life was in turmoil, and her mother would just tell Alice that she had made her
bed, so she had to lie in it. Her mother would never believe about Sarah and Jake,
and she sure wouldn't understand Alice and the kids going to an abuse shelter. She
would just tell Alice that she was overreacting. Alice honestly couldn't deal with
her mother now.

“Mrs. Hudson? This is the Virginia Regional Medical Center. We've been trying to
contact you for hours. Your mother is in intensive care. How soon can you come to
the hospital?”

Alice's mind fought through a fog of confusion. Her mother was in the hospital?

“I'm not sure,” she stammered as she struggled to deal with what she was hearing.
“What do you mean intensive care? How long has she been there?”

“She was brought in during the night by ambulance,” the voice answered.

Anger flooded through her as Alice tightly gripped the phone. She had been dealing
with her mother's life, her mother's pains, her mother's loneliness, and her mother's
unhappiness ever since she was a young child. She was the one her mother talked to
and complained to, even when Alice was a child. At times it felt as though she were
more responsible for her mother than her mother had ever been for her. Well, she
couldn't do that right now. Her own life was turned upside down and her kids needed
her. She wasn't going to get pulled into her mother's “poor me” attempts like she
always did. She didn't know where her own life was headed, and she couldn't deal
with her mother. Not now!

Yet once again, Alice was being asked to set her own feelings and life aside to deal
with her mother. Of course, she did what she was expected to do as she asked the
police officer to drive her and the kids to the hospital.

Chapter 14

Dallas, Texas

It had been three weeks since Suzanne's terrible mistake, and Jeff had been pursuing
her the way a hound chased a fox—never letting up. She never knew when he would appear
or what he would want. She had met his demands. She even wrote letters commending
his performance and gotten him a raise and a bigger bonus. In the process, she had
been trying to avoid Melanie's questions and protests, but today Melanie caught her
off guard.

“What's going on? Jeff hasn't changed a bit. What's going on here?”

Feeling backed into a corner, Suzanne snapped at Melanie, “Don't overstep your authority.”

“What's he got on you?” Melanie asked as she stepped into Suzanne's office and sat
down in her usual spot. “Come on,” she coaxed as she leaned over the desk. “What
is he threatening you with? You'd never do this without a reason. And why all those
closed-door meetings? What is it?” Melanie sat back in the chair. “Don't let him
do this!”

Suzanne spun her chair around to face the windows and stare at the view below, turning
her back to Melanie. She wanted to yell, scream, punch something, but that would
mean she'd have to tell Melanie what was going on, and she couldn't.
My God, I just
can't
. She couldn't tell anyone.

She buried her face in her hands and just shook her head. “Please, Melanie,
just
let this be.” She had gotten herself into this mess, so she would have to handle
this by herself.

Suzanne heard Melanie get up and walk out.

Suddenly, she heard Jeff 's voice. She turned in time to see him sauntering into
her office. “Hi,” he smiled as he closed and locked the door.

Suzanne was boiling inside. She wanted to call him an arrogant pig, to tell him to
get out of her office. She'd like to fire him and get him out of her life for good,
but she couldn't take the chance that he would follow through on his threat to distribute
the pictures. She was too afraid to face those consequences, so she was a pawn in
his malicious, spiteful game.

“Why aren't you working?” she demanded.

“Have you forgotten, boss? You don't make the demands. I do.” He advanced toward
her, cleared her desk with one sweep of his hand, and grabbed her.

Suzanne's stomach churned. “No, Jeff. Not here, please.” Her fists clenched and her
body turned rigid.

Jeff 's smile turned nasty. “I think you've forgotten, sweetheart. I'm in control
here.” His emphasis on the word
sweetheart
turned it into something nasty and foul.
“I'll say where, when, and how much. You, Ms. Simpson, are at my bidding and don't
you forget it.”

Suzanne wanted to resist, to tell him she would not be blackmailed, not anymore.
Yet she didn't. The little girl was back in Daddy's control. Back in the darkness
of secrets where nobody could know what happened, nobody could know what a really
bad girl she was because of what men wanted to do to her. The darkness and pain of
her childhood sucked her downward like a whirlpool into a vortex of helplessness
as she bit her lip to keep the sobs inside.

As Jeff moved her up onto her desk, raised her skirt, and lowered her pantyhose,
Suzanne once again pushed away the feelings and pain as she closed her eyes, gripped
the desk with her hands, and silently submitted.

Suzanne fumbled with the key in the door. When she stepped inside, she dropped her
briefcase and slammed the door shut, then dead-bolted it. Ripping off her coat, she
ran into the bathroom, hurriedly removed her clothing, and
jumped in the shower,
scrubbing her skin as hard as she could. Finally, the tears came as she stood under
the water, sobbing until the water ran cold against her skin.

Slowly turning off the shower, she wrapped herself in a towel and leaned back against
the wall of her bedroom, slumping to the floor in utter exhaustion. She had to get
away from Jeff 's clutches because she couldn't handle the feelings that were pounding
hard against her chest. Anger that had been buried deep inside of her for years roiled
under the surface like a dormant volcano. Over the years, a hard crust had formed
over her anger, keeping it contained, but that control was slipping. The horrific
rage inside of her was now threatening to erupt.

Today, during Jeff 's invasion of her body, she had glanced at the letter opener
lying neatly on her desk and had wanted to grab the instrument and quickly and violently
thrust it into his back. She had felt too helpless to even reach out her hand. When
Jeff was satisfying himself with her body, Suzanne saw a flash of her father and
fury had blazed so ferociously within her that she had violently thrown Jeff off
her.

Pulling his pants up and regaining his balance, Jeff had grabbed her arm as anger
contorted his face. But rage had burst to the surface and Suzanne had tugged up her
panty hose, punched his jaw, grabbed his collar, and hauled him toward the door.
Unlocking and opening the door with one hand, she had pushed him into the reception
area where Melanie's desk was and quickly slammed her door closed behind him. Gathering
all the strength she possessed, Suzanne straightened her clothing and resumed her
day, shoving her anger into the black cavern of feelings deep inside of her.

With wet hair and the towel still wrapped around her, Suzanne headed into the kitchen
to pour herself a scotch. Then, without any warning, energy oozed out of her like
a punctured balloon, and she fell against the countertop, holding her head in her
hands as she waited for the sobs to come once more. They didn't.

After several moments, she pulled herself into a standing position and noticed the
red light blinking on her answering machine. She numbly hit the play button.

The first two messages barely touched her consciousness. They were
reminders of appointments—one
from her dentist, the other from a business associate. It was the third message that
caught her attention as she leaned close to the machine to get every word. She hastily
grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby drawer and scribbled down the number. The call
was from a hospital in Minnesota. The person who'd left the message said it was an
emergency.

Normally Suzanne wouldn't be concerned, but the many weeks of dealing with Jeff had
uncovered feelings about her family and her childhood. Suddenly, a childhood that
had been buried away had come to the forefront. In a half daze, Suzanne picked up
the phone and made a call.

After hearing the news, she hung up and slipped into one of the four chairs that
neatly circled the kitchen table and sat there in stunned silence. A cynical laugh
slowly bubbled to the surface as she realized she now had exactly what she needed
to get away from Jeff for a while: a dying mother. Who could not have sympathy with
that?

Her lip curled in distaste as she remembered how her mother had never come to her
rescue when she needed her all those years ago. And neither had her sisters. Suzanne
had felt alone and abandoned. She had never told anyone because her father had threatened
to hurt them all if she did, and Suzanne had believed him. But why hadn't her mother
and sisters known? The small, wounded child that still existed deep inside of Suzanne
couldn't forgive them for that.

Hysterical laughter erupted from Suzanne. All those nights that she had lay at the
mercy of her father, her mother had never come to help her. The mother who had been
just a few doors away had never come to her child's aid. Yet now, from over a thousand
miles away, her mother was coming to her rescue from her deathbed. Was it poetic
justice? To get away from the pain and torture of her present, she was rushing headlong
into the pain and torture of her past.