Misguided Trust

by Jamie Ott

  “What are you doing?”

  Michael ignored her.

  “Why won’t you answer me?”

  He took off his pants. She couldn’t help but admire his smooth skin and the overall visual of his long lean body.

  Michael opened a cheap plastic bag that had the tavern’s logo on it. He pulled out a cheap pair of blue jeans, loafers and a cream colored polo shirt.

  For a moment their eyes met and a small part of her hoped that he would return to the bed with affection. Instead, he broke eye contact with her, shoved the clothes into the bag which he stuffed into the trash. Then he opened the door, and at that moment, she realized he was leaving her.

  “Where are you going?” she asked hurriedly. But without a backward glance, the door slammed shut.

  Quick, she jumped out of bed, threw on her dirty clothes, and ran toward the door. She didn’t see him on either side of the hall, so she ran downstairs. He wasn’t in the lobby, either.

  “Excuse me, did you see a man in a light shirt walk by?” she asked the desk clerk. He pointed at the back entrance and told her he went left.

  She ran out but he was gone.

  “Can I borrow your phone please?”

  The desk clerk shook his head and pointed toward a lobby phone that was hooked to a desk. She walked over, sat down, and put the receiver to her ear. Her finger froze over the dial pad.

  818.674. 4… 4…

  Then she hung up and cursed under her breath. Like a child of the digital age, she allowed technology to do just about everything for her. Over and over again, she told herself she needed to make time to remember important numbers. She never got around to doing it, though.

  She turned in her seat, wondering what she should do next. Eyeing the desk clerk, she noticed a little sign displayed, saying, “We offer money gram.”

  The lobby also had a free computer. She used it to log into her bank account, and then sent herself an instant wire transfer.

  Fifteen minutes later, the clerk handed over five hundred dollars, and gave her directions to the Greyhound Bus Depot.

  Outside in the bright sunlight, she looked up and down the dry, dusty street. There was a small diner.

  Inside was a plain, cool room that looked like it was once a business office. The smell of breakfast filled the air.

  A waitress led her to a seat and just as she was about to sit, she saw him. His over bowed mouth and the shock of seeing her, there, made him sleazy and cowardly.

  “I’ll sit over there; I know him.”

  The waitress went to get her a coffee.

  “I’m not buying you breakfast, so just go away.”

  “Wow, you are a heartless asshole.”

  “Why don’t you just call your dad or Joe, or something?”

  “I don’t remember their numbers.”

  The waitress set down her drink.

  “You’re gonna take me home,” said Maddie. “If you don’t, I’ll call the police on you and tell them you were in on this from the start. I wonder how much jail time that could be, in the state of California? It’s a life sentence, I think. I know everything about you: where you live, your full name, your father and your friends.”

  He sighed and said, “Fine.”

  After breakfast, he said, “I’m gonna visit the rest room, and then we can go.”

  But Maddie didn’t believe him, and she was right not to. After he left the table and disappeared down the hall, Maddie went after him.

  She looked in the bathroom, which was empty. Then she went further down the hall and out of the back door. There was a back parking lot. To her left, Michael stood on the sidewalk, waiting to cross the street.

  She ran up to him and kicked him in the crotch, from behind.

  “Ahhh!!” he yelled.

  “That’s what you get, you asshole. But don’t worry, I’ll get home alright. I’m going to the sheriff’s department; I’ll them everything, and after, I’m sure they’ll give me a ride home. Goodbye, Michael. I hope you get out of the country alright.”

  She walked back into the parking lot, towards the back door to the restaurant because they hadn’t paid for breakfast.

  “Wait,” Michael shouted at her back.

  “Forget you!”

  Suddenly, he ran up and yanked her by the arm.

  “Let go of me!”

  But he was dragging her across the parking lot, away from the restaurant.

  A black car pulled up in front of them.

  “Run!” Michael shouted. Maddie was too slow, though. The short smoking man, who brought her to Le Marcon Manor, caught her by the throat and was dragging her to the car.

  Michael looked back and saw the man. “Damn,” he cursed, then turned and ran at them.

  The other man in a dark suit emerged from the car, pointing a gun at him. Michael grabbed his wrist and punched him clean out.

  John tried to pull his gun but couldn’t because Maddie fought violently.

  Michael punched him in the kidney, grabbed Maddie and said, “Let’s go.”

  They got into the kidnapper’s black car, and sped off toward the interstate.

  “Now that we got their car, they shouldn’t be able to catch up to us for a while, but they might call the police which could be a problem.”

  ~~~

  Maddie was excited to be going home. All she could think about was what Joe would say when he saw her. After two hours, Maddie awoke and found that they were stuck in traffic somewhere. She wasn’t sure if they were in Los Angeles or Orange.

  “Where are we?”

  “Brea,” said Michael.

  “Great,” she mumbled in disappointment.

  If she got home before Joe, she could shower and look good for him. She just hoped traffic kept moving.

  They made it to Westwood four hours later. Maddie was disappointed to have arrived so late. Still, she was excited to see her house.

  They pulled into her driveway.

  “You don’t think those guys know where I live, do you?”

  “I’d imagine so.”

  “Well, I’ll just call my father. Are you gonna be okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself.”

  “What about us?”

  “Just go.”

  “Well, I hope things work out for you.”

  She got out of the car, and walked inside her house without looking back.

  Michael sat in the car and watched Maddie.

  As soon as she closed the door, he drove down the street, made a u turn and parked. Michael had no intention of leaving Maddie because she was the key to getting his life back. He would sit there and wait until the moment came, and then he would jump.

  How It Came to Be

  Chapter 9

  Lucian Marcon had always been an impressive boy with good looks. Many were instantly charmed by his sweet, smooth face, and more so by his large, phoenix shaped blue eyes. Atop his head was an angelic crown of white-blond hair that strikingly contrasted his tan skin. When he was a toddler, his parents never had a hard time finding someone to babysit.

  Being pretty wasn’t all there was to Lucian. He was gifted with well-coordinated long legs and arms that made him a football sensation. Lucian was agile and his parents loved to send him to practice because it helped him burn insurmountable energy. His father couldn’t be more proud of his athleticism and although he placed a great value on his education, he also had hopes that maybe he would play football professionally.

  Lucian was the kind who enjoyed doing things hands on rather than theorizing, remembering, or citing events. That’s why, when he wasn’t playing, he was helping his parents around the house. He’d clean the fireplace or pick up shopping supplies for them; anything to get out of study.

  Despite his physical nature, his mind wasn’t all bad. He did fairly well in all academic areas, even math. His classmates generally liked him, his teachers took extra time with him, and even strangers favored and showered him with affection.

>   Aside from being a loveable child, Lucian was a high spirited, highly impassioned boy. At school, he was very popular; a leader who was rarely challenged because people loved him. If they didn’t love him, they were quickly won over by his charm, and if not, plenty wouldn’t hesitate to come to his defense.

  When he didn’t like someone, it was usually for good reason. Perhaps they were mean, shallow or bullied other children, and to their rescue, he would come. Lucian befriended those who couldn’t help themselves. He wouldn’t hesitate to defend good ethics or principle.

  Lucian loved his mother and his father very much, but he always wished he could have met other family members. He did have a distant memory of meeting his grandfather, from his father’s side, once. Sadly, he died several years later.

  His father was a very busy man who worked as a law clerk in an extension of his grandfather’s business in Bruges. In Lucian’s early years, he rarely saw him, for he was always the first one up and the last one down. His mother spent all of his time taking care of him.

  His father, Anton, came from a working class family of civil lawyers. Unlike the children he went to boarding schools with, he wasn’t brought up in a life of decadent abundance. Still, he was well taken care of and usually got what he wanted.

  At eighteen, rather than go to college as his family wished, he married his girlfriend from the neighboring school, Gabrielle. She was from an entrepreneurial family, and she’d spent many years at boarding schools; like Anton, she resented her family for this.

  Gabrielle was always most fashionably dressed. Making women’s hats, brassieres, and shoes was her family’s business. They were hardly aristocrats, but very wealthy. Her parents always insisted she look her best, and as such, attracted fairly wealthy suitors. However, Gabrielle hated the family business and hated her mother and everything they’d worked for.

  What Gabrielle didn’t understand was that it was the beginning of a new age. Women all over were giving up the traditional family and stepping into the workplace with the determination to prove themselves. Gabrielle’s mother, Heidi, was a strong activist who wanted to set an example to society. So when her father learned that he was dying of cancer, Heidi begged him to leave her the companies. After many weeks, he finally conceded that his only child, Heidi should become his principal heiress, rather than her cousin, Frederique. In turn, he made her promise him that she would rather work her spirit dry than allow their family to lose the companies that had taken generations to make a success.

  At a time when modern women were scorned, especially by the upper crust circles that Gabrielle was subjected to, it was hard to be proud, as she should have been; even her father showed no compassion. At first, Heidi tried to balance work and home duties, but her schedule was very demanding. Soon, she had to hire help. One weekend, she didn’t come home at all, and that was what finalized the end of her marriage.

  With her husband gone, Heidi had no choice but to hire more staff to help raise Gabrielle, but in rebellion, she gave everyone an awful lot of heartache. Nannies and housekeepers refused to stay, no matter what. At the age of nine, Heidi sent her off to school.

  Gabrielle couldn’t comprehend what her mother, or Parisian women, were going through at that time. She resented her for most of her life, and spit on the working woman. When she had a family, they’d be nice and proper.

  Heidi always spoke of Gabrielle taking over the companies when she was old enough. It was her dream that her daughter should be as successful and strong as she was. Upon hearing that Gabrielle had the notion that she would be a house wife, Heidi tried to interfere by ending her term with the academy early. Unfortunately, Heidi was too late, and she would regret it for the rest of her life.

  When Gabrielle met Anton, she was easily swayed, for he showered her with affection as she’d never had. In those days, more and more women were engaging premarital sex; not Gabrielle, though. Instead, they’d make out in her dorm, where he’d sneak in by climbing up the side of the building and in through her window.

  They only saw each other for several months before he asked her to marry him. When she agreed, it was with the condition that they elope before her mother could interfere, and then she promised to give him a wonderful life and family.

  A few years later, they both were to be found renting a Belgium house close to where Anton’s family had secured work for him as law clerk, despite his dropping out of school. All hope and fortune wasn’t lost, as he still stood in line for inheritance; he just couldn’t practice law to the full extent. They would live meagerly for a majority of their lives.

  Gabrielle was pregnant with Anton’s first child and they were very happy. Unfortunately that happiness didn’t spread to appreciate Bruges, for at that time it was fashionable to be modern and follow entrepreneurial spirit. Bruges, in contrast, was an ancient city struggling to bridge itself from an old world to a new modern one. Also, Gabrielle missed her friends, terribly, and was very lonely there. Anton never saw how much she struggled because he became consumed with working around the clock.

  The Marcons lived in Bruges for almost five years and as Anton’s work schedule became more and more hectic, Gabrielle became more and more desperate. The first time she spent almost two weeks in their house alone with no one to talk to, she nearly went mad. Anton only came home in the evenings well after she was in bed while only spending as much as an hour in the mornings with her, just long enough to breakfast and leave.

  Gabrielle told Anton that it just wouldn’t do because she needed him there to help with the baby. Anton only insisted that he had no control over his schedule and that he needed to work to keep up with their expenses. When she asked him to hire help for her, he laughed, told her she was ridiculous, and dismissed her entirely.

  Gabrielle was never quite fooled by Anton’s swear of abiding by a stringent work schedule. Still, she tried to ignore her gut for the sake of the baby as well as their good name. After many more months of loneliness, she couldn’t take it anymore and set out to find the truth. When she confirmed her suspicions by following him after work one day, she decided that she would no longer be the foolish wife at home. If Anton was going out and having a life, then so would she.

  It all began when she hired Estelle, an old retired nurse who needed a bit of income. Against Anton’s wishes, Gabrielle moved Estelle into one of the guest bedrooms. She was a nice elderly woman whose husband had died and children had moved on to bigger cities for work. Estelle helped her with cooking and the baby for next to nothing and Gabrielle blissfully pursued a life of her own.

  Her very first day out, without her boy or the worry of chores, was the most freeing. Blissful, she spent the afternoon perusing books and sipping espressos in the city’s best bookstores. It was there she met the man who would bring back the beats in her heart.

  Francois was a store clerk who’d recently graduated from the University and had several girlfriends, of which Gabrielle hadn’t a clue. He first lured her with his kind intellectual savvy, which Gabrielle found irresistible. She missed having discussions with her girlfriends back in Paris.

  After several meetings, a few of which were over wine and a meal, Gabrielle allowed herself to be further seduced - into Francois’ apartment. For a time, Gabrielle was happy and couldn’t care about what the consequences of her actions would be. All she knew was that she had a thrill of life again, and it made her happier than she had been in years.

  Anton, being no fool either, noticed the change in his wife. When he asked Estelle, she said she didn’t know, but of course, mentioned that she’d been spending most afternoons away. Now, Estelle told him exactly what Gabrielle told her, which was that she’d been studying in the free bookshop across town. Anton didn’t believe Estelle’s story of Gabrielle, not even for a moment.

  That morning, he kissed his wife and told her he loved her. Gabrielle didn’t reply. He, then, went to work for a few hours, but returned just before noon. He sat out of sight, down the street, on a stoop of
which he knew the residents would be gone. When Gabrielle left the house, he followed her down the street to the shop on the corner.

  Anton hung back and watched her enter the shop. Then he, himself, entered just in time to catch Gabrielle at a corner table as she leaned over and kissed a gentleman on both cheeks. It appeared innocent enough, except it was not lady-like in those days to meet with strange men, so Anton decided to sit and observe. They conversed with affection and Anton was extremely jealous, despite having several mistresses, himself.

  When they left, he continued his pursuit of them to the man’s home. They approached a building; a man tipped his hat and held the door for them. He hung back once more and when they disappeared inside, asked the man which room they went to.

  Anton walked up two flights of stairs and down a dank, smelly hall.

  Gently, he tried to twist the knob but found that it was locked. He knocked, lightly, on the door. The man opened the door. Anton rammed his shoulder into it. He pressed inward with all his strength and the man tumbled backward and fell.

  Anton walked in, shut the door and beat Francois, who could barely defend himself, right there in his kitchen. Gabrielle came from the bedroom and screamed at the top her lungs. She tried to pull Anton off Francois, but he turned around and knocked her unconscious.

  The man lay in the corner holding his eye. Anton continued to beat him, nearly to death. When he was unconscious, Anton kicked in his crotch so that he was from then on impotent.

  Gabrielle had awoken and tried to leave, but he grabbed her by the neck and swung her away from the door. She screamed in terror as he came at her with his belt. Slowly, she backed away until the open window was behind her. She looked at Anton, looked at the bloody heap of Francois; she looked out of the window, and then she jumped.

  Anton returned home. Estelle was preparing dinner and Lucian was down the street with a play pal. Without a word, he packed a bag and left, taking every bit of money from his safe.