by Cynthia Dane
“Whoa!” Dee appeared, already heading for Julia. “What the hell happened while I was gone? Who is this?”
As Alice figured, Dee was too new to the roster to instantly recognize the Monroes’ #1 “do not let pass Go and collect $200” candidate. “It’s all right, Dee. I know her.”
“Don’t know about this…”
“It’s fine,” Alice reiterated. To Julia, she said, “I’m afraid it’s not that easy. There are matters keeping me with your son.”
This was not the way she would meet her future mother-in-law in normal life. Julia was not only crazy, but she was adamantly opposed to Alice dating Damon… and not because she thought she wasn’t good enough. She’s trying to protect me, I think?
“Oh, no…” Julia’s crestfallen countenance struck fear in Alice’s heart. “You’re pregnant.”
That wasn’t the awe of a future grandmother. “No,” Alice said, fighting to retain her posture. “I’m pretty sure I’m not.”
Relief spread across Julia’s face. “Please, don’t take me the wrong way. I’m sure you’re a lovely young woman I would love to have in my family, but that’s why I really, truly must implore you to get out while you still can.”
“As I said, it’s not simple.” Alice braced her knuckles against the table. “We are in love.”
Dee glanced between the two women. Julia looked as if she had been given a death blow.
“I suppose I should be happy for the two of you,” she whispered. “Ever since he was born, I imagined him growing up to be a handsome young man with a sweet wife. Please don’t take this personally. I don’t want any woman to go through what I had to go through.”
“What happened?” Did Alice want to know?
“No.” Julia shook her head. “Not here.” She looked around the busy café as if someone would come rushing in and slam her out of her chair. What is this woman so afraid of? No one even stared at the burn scar on her face. Probably because it was covered by a tangle of red hair. “It’s not safe to talk here.” She looked at Dee.
“Hey, I ain’t gonna say anything.” The bodyguard held up her hands. “My job is to make sure Ms. Culver stays safe. Not spread gossip.”
“Who assigned you? My son or my ex-husband?”
“Mr. Damon Monroe picked me out and assigned me.”
“Good.” Julia sighed. “Also not good. That means he suspects that this young woman may be in danger.”
“Danger? I thought having a bodyguard was a formality.”
“Perhaps my son doesn’t know what he is protecting you from. Russell had us watched by his spies until our divorce was finalized. I… no. No, not here. Do you have time tonight?”
“Tonight?”
Julia scribbled something on a piece of notepaper and slid it toward Alice. “Meet me here tonight at seven. I’ll tell you everything.” She glanced around the café again, and when she was satisfied that nobody would get her, she stood up, bag clutched tightly in her hand. “You can bring her if you trust her. I must get going before someone sees me. I don’t want to make things even worse for you.”
The woman disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Is this how she lives her life? Always looking over her shoulder? Alice shuddered. So consumed she was by this shared paranoia that she almost didn’t notice Dee sitting in the chair Julia once occupied.
“I dunno about this,” the bodyguard said for the second time since coming back from the bathroom. “Something’s off about that lady.”
“That lady is your boss’s mother.”
“So I gathered.” Dee didn’t seem fazed by that info. “I’m not gonna pretend I know what’s goin’ on in your personal life or in that family, ma’am, but I do know that she gives me a bad feeling. Pretty sure my boss would not be happy with you meeting that woman.”
Alice unfolded the paper and saw an address. “Do you know where this is?”
“Sure. That’s not too far from here. Could drive there in about ten minutes, unless traffic is really bad.” Dee held up her hand. “No, ma’am. I have to discourage you from going.”
“You’ll go with me if I do go, right?”
Sighing, Dee softened her concerned demeanor. “I sort of have to, don’t I?”
“If I go, you can’t tell anyone. You get me, Dee?” Alice was of two minds about going as it was. On one hand, she was desperate to know more about the family Monroe would ask her to join one day. On the other… shit sounded a bit ominous. There was also the chance that Julia really was crazy, and everything coming out of her mouth was a crazier lie cooked up in her own head. She didn’t get that scar from nowhere, though. “I’m serious. There’s some weird shit afoot, and I intend to find out what’s going on. I might be the next Mrs. Monroe if things continue the way they are. I don’t want any surprises.”
“Neither do I, and yet we got a big surprise.”
Alice ignored that. “Damon said he’ll be out really late. I should be able to meet his mother without anyone noticing. He did tell me to go out and enjoy myself. This may not be enjoyable, but it’s a chance to learn some things.” Alice held her hand out toward Dee. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone anything.”
The bodyguard slowly shook her head before clasping Alice’s hand. “I make no promises if my boss directly asks me about it, but I guess we won’t give him a reason to?”
Alice would take it.
Chapter 8
The car pulled up to a hotel a few blocks from Alice’s. The driver helped her out, and Dee was on the sidewalk before anyone could even think about shooting the bodyguard’s charge.
“It’s fine,” Alice said, placing a light hand on Dee’s arm. “I’ll try to keep this brief.”
“Got a feeling that there ain’t nothin’ brief about that woman, ma’am.”
“Let’s get this over with.”
They entered the hotel lobby with nary a look to any of the help. All the driver had been told was that Alice wanted to meet a friend who was from Chicago. He would park and take a break until Alice wanted to go back to her hotel.
“Are you Alice Culver?”
Alice nearly jumped out of her skin as a man in dark sunglasses approached her. Dee immediately put herself between the two people until the man held up his hands.
“I’m her,” Alice said.
“Come with me, please. Ms. Johnson will meet with you in a secure area.”
“That guy’s a bodyguard too,” Dee whispered in Alice’s ear. “I could take him.”
“Hopefully you won’t have to.” They entered a small, private lounge where only Julia sat by the fireplace – no fire blazing. She immediately stood and gestured to another chair. Dee stood back, arms crossed and eyes never looking away from the scene.
Julia sat back down in her chair. The man in the dark sunglasses disappeared into a corner. She’s not even married to a Monroe any more, and she still has a bodyguard. Alice didn’t like where this was going.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me.” Julia’s entire personality had changed. No longer looking over her shoulder, the woman was poised, soft-spoken, and dare Alice say… confident? This is what I expect from a well-bred woman good enough for an arranged marriage like the one she had. Alice had no business being in the same room as this woman’s son. Ah, there it was. The downside to seeing the real Julia Monroe. “I take it that no one but your bodyguard knows that you’re here?”
“Damon is working late tonight, and I’m still of no consequence to anyone else.”
Julia’s smile was not warm. “Everyone but Russell, I’m sure.”
Alice swallowed. “He may or may not have threatened me.” Dee’s eyes drilled into the back of her head. I’d like to see you take Russell Monroe on, Dee, but he’s got more bodyguards than the president. “He’s made it clear that I am not the right material for his son.”
“Let me guess.” Julia leaned back in her chair. “He’s shopping for a suitable match. That family is big on their arranged marriages. That’s how I end
ed up in that mess.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Culver. I married that man willingly.” Julia rolled her one good eye at the memories of her younger self. “I was young and incredibly naïve. My whole life my family told me that I would be the wife of one of the greatest men in the country. I only met Russell a handful of times. He seemed taken with me enough.” She pulled her front bangs away, giving Alice a better view of the massive burn scar running from forehead to throat. “I didn’t always have this. It’s a token of my marriage.”
Alice stiffened in her seat. “How did you get that?”
“I’ll get to that.” Julia pulled a small box from her breast pocket. Inside was an ornate diamond ring. “The day I put this ring on, I signed my life away to the devil himself.”
“He abused you.” That wasn’t hard to believe. Russell Monroe definitely had some good ol’ boys skeletons in his 2600 sq. ft. closet.
Julia nodded. “From the first night. I was a virgin. Nothing could have prepared me for what I endured.”
Someone in the room suffered from a sharp intake of breath. Down, Dee. “I’m so sorry.”
Was there a fly in the room? Julia swatted something with her hand. Memories? “I told myself it was worth it. I was Mrs. Monroe. People respected me. I controlled entire properties and had access to hundreds of millions of dollars. On the surface, I was a happy woman. When I found out I was pregnant, I convinced myself that Russell would ignore me and leave me be for most of my life, especially if I gave him a son.”
“Which you did.”
“Yes. Twice.”
“I don’t understand.” Alice’s fingers tangled between her legs. “I thought Damon was an only child.”
Another sad sigh echoed in the room. “He is. Shortly after he was born, I found out that Russell would never leave me alone. I was his to control and make suffer. Bad day at work? He took it out on me the moment we were in our chambers. He had a doctor on his payroll who kept me presentable for the public. Russell always knew how to strike me without leaving me with a visible bruise. Anywhere but my thighs, anyway.”
Alice was going to vomit.
“So I ended up pregnant again. Damon was still a baby for all of it. Him and the child inside of me were the only things that gave me strength. I went through everything for my sons. I couldn’t wait to get them away from their father. I told myself…” Julia dabbed her cheek with a handkerchief. “I promised I would raise them right. I wanted them as far away from Russell as possible. Easy enough. He wasn’t interested in them. Only me.”
“Nobody knew?”
“Of course people knew. Everyone working directly beneath him knew. My bodyguard, who was supposed to protect me, knew! Those bastards would stand back and watch as my husband struck me for coming back an hour late from the doctor’s. I’m sure they heard me screaming plenty of times as well.”
Oh my God, make this stop.
“When Eddie was born, I knew something was wrong. He didn’t cry. He didn’t want to touch anyone. He wouldn’t eat. If the doctors didn’t tell me he was breathing, I would have thought he was dead. Nobody could tell me what was wrong. They kept him in the NICU. I was there when he died. Russell was not.”
Alice clutched her stomach. Sympathy pains? Sympathy heartbreaks? She wasn’t a mother, but she felt that shock as instinctively as she felt fear and sadness. “I’m really sorry. That sounds awful.” Well, that sounded sincere, didn’t it?
“All I understood was that my baby had brain damage. Brain damage! They asked me if I had fallen while pregnant. Yes. Many times. Every time I fell it was because a man pushed me.”
Alice didn’t want to hear this anymore. What could she do?
“I was so depressed that I barely functioned. I didn’t care what anyone did to me. They could kill me. The only thing that kept me going was Damon. Someone had to take care of him, and I didn’t trust the nannies Russell hired. He was sleeping with most of them. Treated them better than he treated me.” Julia scoffed. “I didn’t care. I had my son.”
“So what happened?” Alice had a feeling she would regret asking that.
“I existed on nothing but my son for several years. I’ll never forget how old he was the last time we spent a day together. Seven. He was in first grade. Very bright boy. He had always been intelligent.”
“He is intelligent.”
Julia nodded. “I know. I follow him in the papers and from what people tell me about him. I’ve tried many times to contact him, but I can’t bring myself to do it. If Russell knew… our son may be a grown man, but my ex-husband carries the most power. At any rate, I don’t think Damon would believe me. My ex-husband has done everything he can to turn him against me.”
“I never got that impression,” Alice said. “He doesn’t speak of you with any malice.”
“Be that as it may, there’s nothing I can do now. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I suppose you want to know what finally led to me leaving that man.”
“Do I?”
“You should know. I came home one day to find Damon early from school. Russell was there. I didn’t find out about the fight at school until much later. All I saw was my husband threatening my son the way he always threatened me.”
Alice shuddered to imagine anyone threatening her boyfriend like that. Does he even remember? How often did it happen?
“I did what any mother would have done. I intervened. I finally made that useless bodyguard of his calm my husband down and stop terrorizing his son! Who has to do that?” Julia pushed the handkerchief across her eyes. “That day I told him I wanted out. I couldn’t take it anymore. It was one thing for him to hurt me. To hurt my son, though? That boy never did anything wrong. Even if he did, how was it right to do that to him? When I tried to take Damon with me, every single body on the security staff got in my way. They cut me off from my son that day. I screamed. I called my lawyers. I called my mother. Nobody would help me. Nothing scared me more than leaving my son to that monster. Not only what he could do to Damon… but how he would raise him!”
Alice couldn’t look her in the eye any longer. This explains a lot. Damon never spoke of his father fondly. She thought that was a side-effect of a distant relationship… but now…
“I didn’t go down without a fight. I hired all the best lawyers I could afford. They got me a lot, too. I got one of the properties. I got a ton of alimony. I received more than what was my fair share of investments, but I didn’t get what I wanted most. I never got my son. Russell got full custody, and I couldn’t even visit Damon any longer. His lawyers argued that I was abusive… and that useless judge was either stupid enough to believe it, or he was paid off. I don’t like either option.”
“So how about the…”
“I know what you want to know.” Nevertheless, Julia became reserved, retreating into the toxic memories spilling from her mind. “One month after the divorce was finalized, I made one last move to see my son. I wanted him to know that I still loved him, and that he would always have a place in my life. I went to his school and got as far as his classroom. Campus security had to drag me out kicking and screaming. I never saw Damon. They had completely cut me off from him, and I was still naïve enough to think that would be Russell’s final assault against me.”
Alice steeled herself.
“Two weeks later, I was walking home when someone… someone I recognized from that awful house… casually approached and threw gasoline on me.”
Nobody asked for a further explanation.
“Russell wanted me dead. He couldn’t kill me with his own hands, but he would kill me nonetheless. The only thing that saved my life was a Good Samaritan who put me out the moment he saw me. I was in the hospital for months. They thought I would die. I wanted to die, but for some reason I held on, even though my face no longer worked and I couldn’t move my whole arm. I think the only thing keeping me alive was knowing that man was raising my son. I didn’t know what kind o
f monster Russell would create in his image, but I knew I couldn’t take the easy way out of seeing it happen.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Alice whispered. “This is all so… insane.”
“That’s why I have been trying to warn you. There is no good in that family. No matter how sweet such a life may seem from the outside, there is evil within. Even now I hear terrible stories about my ex-husband. More than one woman has felt his abuse behind the scenes. I hear even one woman who works closely with him was bestowed a miscarriage to get rid of unwanted heirs. ”
“For what it’s worth, Ms. Johnson…” Alice tentatively began, “I don’t believe that Damon is like his father at all in that regard. He’s treated me beyond what I could even comprehend.” I better not mention the BDSM shit.
“There is still the matter of my ex-husband. You say that he has threatened you? Heed his threats. He will follow through, if he tires of your intrusion. I already feel bad for whatever woman my husband chooses to marry our son, but at least she will have Russell’s approval and perhaps… I want to believe he will leave her alone. You say that my son is a good man?”
“From what I can tell.” To be fair, Alice didn’t know much about what he did for a living. For all she knew, he funded drug cartels and bolstered shady politicians who would give the Monroes kickbacks. Just because he wasn’t threatening Alice didn’t mean he wasn’t terrible in other ways. “I have to be honest with you. I think I’m in love with him. He’s a terrible romantic, even if he won’t call it that. He’s been waiting to fall in love for a long time. He says that he yearns for stability and a happy, calm home. I believe him, Ms. Johnson.” Alice sucked in more breath. “I won’t lie. Your son has some personal predilections that are possibly connected to the way he was raised, but he’s not like his father. Not like that. At all.”
“I am relieved to hear that, truly.” Julia sank into her seat. “Perhaps I will sleep a bit easier tonight than I have over these past many years.” She sighed. “That does not mean I do not fear for you. My heart weeps to hear that my son is in love with a nice girl like you. It’s what every mother wants to hear.” Her sadness, however, was breaking that very heart she spoke of. “My heart also fears that it makes you a greater target of my ex-husband’s. If he thought you were nothing more than a temporary plaything, he would be more lenient. You would only have to worry if you began to embarrass the family’s image or if he had a marriage to arrange.” Julia stood, the weariness of her visage transferring to Alice in turn. “I’m sorry, Ms. Culver. I’m a tired old woman. I’m thankful that you came to speak with me. And…” She held out the small box that held her old wedding ring. “Give this to my son, please. Do not tell him that it’s from me. He’ll know, if it’s meant for us to meet again.”