The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series

by Grey, Madyson

  Victoria made a list of the clothes she planned to take. Even though she might change her mind as she was packing, at least it was something to work from. And she could add to it between now and their departure so that she didn’t forget anything.

  As planned, Rafael met with both Mickey and Ted after closing and walked them through the procedure for printing out the day’s report, counting down the till, and making sure the cash matched the report. As they were both intelligent men, they caught on quickly. Then they went to the bank and Rafael showed them where the night drop was and how it worked. Rafael used heavy plastic deposit bags that were one-use only, which eliminated the need for returning to the bank to retrieve the deposit bags. Rafael made certain that they had plenty of them.

  Friday morning Gene Hillman from Angel’s Retreat called Rafael to tell him that he was planning to bring a group of ten girls to the park that morning, if the offer was still good.

  “Of course it is,” Rafael said warmly. “What time do you plan to arrive?”

  “I think we’ll be there at ten when you open.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there to meet you.”

  “Thank you. I’ll see soon.”

  Rafael told Victoria what Mr. Hillman had said, and she wanted to go down and meet them, too. So about a quarter of ten, they rode the quad down to the main entrance where people were already forming a queue.

  When Rafael opened the gate, they stood back while the people streamed in, watching for the group from Angel’s Retreat. Pretty soon they spotted them driving in, in the company van. Rafael had already told Jessie, the ticket booth worker that morning, that this was a special group that had free admission any time they came.

  As Mr. Hillman led the group in, Rafael and Victoria both welcomed him and the group to Thornton Park. There were several adults, both men and women, along acting as security for the girls. The girls were shy, but radiant with anticipation of this unexpected outing. For their own safety, the girls didn’t go out much until they had completed the program at Angel’s Retreat, and were placed in jobs and had learned how to protect themselves.

  Rafael and Victoria played escort to the group and showed them first to the pioneer farmhouse. The girls were fascinated with the old home, and often remarked how much nicer it was than their old homes in Thailand, even though the lack of utilities was similar. The outhouse and well didn’t impress them any, because that was their way of life in the remote mountain villages of Thailand.

  They were impressed, however, with the nice washboard and washtubs that the laundry was done in. It was much nicer than taking the clothes to the river to wash them. They loved petting the animals in the barnyard. Several of the girls expressed the idea that they missed the animals that had roamed their own villages.

  Next, they led the group over to the botanical garden. The girls seemed to really enjoy the beautiful flowers, bushes, and trees there. They stopped often to smell the flowers, or to admire this or that plant. The path through the garden led to the train depot where they waited for a few minutes for the train to return from its first run of the morning. The group piled on the train amidst much giggling and chattering. Then they were off for the fifteen-minute ride through the park.

  Back at the depot, the girls went into the gift shop where they examined all the merchandise with fascination. The girls didn’t have spending money due to the situation they were in. So when Victoria realized that, she nudged Rafael, and asked him if they couldn’t just give the girls each a gift. He was in full agreement.

  So she went around to each of the girls and told them that they could choose one item each from the gift shop to take for their very own. The girls looked at her in amazement. Then they looked at Mr. Hillman for confirmation. He nodded and smiled at them that it was okay. Then the giggling and chattering started all over again, as the girls went from one item to another, studying, pondering, examining, and trying to decide which one item to choose.

  As each one made her choice, Rafael then led them over to the soda fountain and asked each one what kind of treat she wanted. This really brought out the smiles as they each chose their preferred sweet. When everyone had been served, they took their milkshakes or floats or whatever they had outside to sit at the picnic tables provided.

  When everyone was finished, Mr. Hillman announced that it was time to return to their home. The girls put their empty cups in the trash receptacles provided. Then they surrounded Rafael and Victoria to thank them profusely for their generosity. Several of the girls were ones that had been rescued through Rafael and Victoria’s efforts, and they were especially grateful. Hugs were exchanged all around, and eventually the supervisors were able round the girls up and herd them back to the van.

  “Now that was what I call fun,” Victoria said, as she waved to the girls.

  “No kidding,” Rafael agreed. “That’s the best thing that’s happened here since we opened. I hope he’ll eventually bring .all of the girls.”

  “He said he would,” Victoria told him. “He seemed to enjoy himself, too.”

  “Yeah, I think they all did.”

  Saturday, Rafael spent the morning checking over the motorhome and taking it in for an oil change. He washed it and vacuumed out the cab, even though it really didn’t need it. They had only used it once, and had cleaned it good after they returned home.

  When he returned home with it, Victoria started carrying out the clothes that she wanted to take. Rafael followed suit, and before long that chore was done. They were both getting so excited about the trip that they could hardly wait to leave.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon plotting the route that they would take, knowing that it could change at any point. But they needed a general idea of where to go first. They chose to go north first while the weather was at its summer best. That meant Crater Lake in southern Oregon would be first. Then they would angle off to the northeast and head for Yellowstone and Cody in Wyoming, and then Montana, where they would visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the location of Custer’s Last Stand. After that, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota would be next.

  State by state they planned their route on a US map at the front of the atlas that they would take along. Of course, they would also utilize their GPS and online mapping programs, but there was just nothing like a real paper map laid out in front of you on the table where you can see the whole country at once.

  Victoria used a fine-tipped yellow highlighter to trace the route. Once they were actually on the road, she planned to trace the route they actually ended up taking with a pink highlighter. That way, no matter how many years passed, and no matter how many more vacations they took, they would always remember this first vacation of theirs and know just where they went.

  Tuesday Victoria spent the better part of the day inventorying the gift shop and placing orders for what she hoped would be enough merchandise to carry the shop all summer while they were gone. She had Lena and Sarah both there with her, showing her how much back stock she liked to have on hand.

  “If you start to run low on anything, just call or email me and I’ll get it ordered. I can do it no matter where we’re at, unless of course, we’re somewhere out of cell phone range. But even if we are, it should only be temporary. So don’t wait until you’re out of something. Give me a day or so to get your message and place the order,” she told them.

  The two women agreed that they would stay on top of things while Victoria and Rafael were gone. Victoria felt confident leaving the store in such capable hands. She knew she could trust her mama, and she felt certain that Sarah was just as trustworthy.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Wednesday, June 28th was Victoria’s birthday. She was twenty-seven years old that day and Lena and Rafael planned a surprise for her. Lena knew that Victoria had always wanted to go to Griffith Observatory at night to look through the telescopes there ever since she was young and had read about it in a coffee table book of Lena’s that Vic
toria liked to look at. So they checked to make sure they could go that day, and planned dinner out on the way to the observatory.

  “Happy Birthday, my love,” Rafael said softly as Victoria awakened early that morning.

  “Mmmm, thank you,” she murmured, looking up into his face as he leaned on one elbow beside her.

  He lowered his head and claimed her lips in a tantalizing birthday kiss. She responded eagerly, and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him down closer to her. Before she had time to think or to freeze up, they were making love, and she was on fire just as she had always been before her rape.

  “Oh, honey, I love you so much,” Rafael whispered in her ear as they coasted down from their mountaintop. “I love you more than I can say.”

  “I love you, too, babe,” she replied. “I love you. And I finally did it.”

  “I know. I knew you could sooner or later.”

  “I know. I’m sorry I took so long. But I think I’m back now.”

  “I think you are, too.”

  He kissed her tenderly again, and then they got up and got ready for the day. Victoria put on her favorite white capris and a cute red tank top that had glittery stuff on it. It was her day, and she would wear her favorite summer outfit.

  Lena had a special birthday breakfast waiting for Victoria when they came downstairs. It was the breakfast Victoria had always requested for her birthday as a child—waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, hot chocolate (even though it was summer), and an egg fried in the little heart-shaped mold that Lena used only on special occasions.

  Grandma and Grandpa Ericksen were there, too, to join in the birthday breakfast of their granddaughter. Victoria greeted them with a happy smile and hug. This was going to be a wonderful birthday. The only really important person in her life that was missing was her dearly beloved daddy. She freely admitted to herself that she really didn’t miss Marian at all. At least not very often. She did have a few good memories of her mother, but not many.

  There were three prettily wrapped packages on the table at Victoria’s place.

  “Do I get to open them now?” she asked.

  “Why not?” Rafael said. “Go for it.”

  She opened the card from Rafael first, and then the package. It was a really nice digital camera with a couple of lenses, and small photo printer.

  “To use on our vacation,” Rafael explained. “I thought it would be fun to take a lot of photos on our trip and actually print them out and put them in albums that we can look at any time we want to, instead of just having them stored on a flash drive somewhere.”

  “I love it!” Victoria exclaimed. “I have wanted to learn to do really good photography for a long time, but I was always a little intimidated by fancy cameras. Now I’ll have to learn. Thank you so much, babe. I absolutely love it!”

  She picked up the card from Lena next and read it. Tears came to her eyes when she pulled the card from the envelope and saw the words, “To My Beautiful Daughter, With Love” written on the front in a fancy script. This was the very first card she had received from Lena as her mama. When she finished reading the card, she hugged Lena and they both wept a little, but they were happy tears.

  Lena’s gift to her was two beautiful photo albums that said “Our Vacation” on the front. Each one had a nameplate added to the front with “Rafael and Victoria” engraved on it. The inside of each album had a “Notes” page between every photo page on which to record the date, place, and other info about each photo.

  “Oh, how cool!” Victoria said enthusiastically. “I love these. They will be so fun to have along. We can print each day’s photos as we go, and write down where we were, so we don’t forget anything. Thank you so much, Mama. These are just perfect. What cool birthday presents. You two must have been in cahoots on this.”

  Lena’s eyes just twinkled, while Rafael winked at his mother-in-law.

  The gift from her grandparents was last. She opened the card first, and got teary-eyed all over again at the words, “To Our Granddaughter, on her birthday.” To reword a very worn-out saying, this truly did feel like the first birthday of the rest of her life.

  The gift, when she finally opened it after giving more hugs, was several packages of photo paper, and a package of really cool colored pens to go with the camera, printer, and photo albums. She now had everything she needed to take, print, store, and record info about the photos she would take on their vacation.

  “Okay, it was all four of you that were in cahoots, huh?” Victoria said, looing at each one standing around the table with merriment in her eyes.

  All four nodded and admitted their collaboration. “Thank you so much, Grandma and Grandpa, for rounding out this collection. And I love the pens! You may not know this about me, but I’m kind of a pen freak. I love a really great pen, and I especially love a variety of ink colors.”

  “Your mama told us about that one,” Signe said. “She’s been around you a lot more than we have.”

  “But that’s changed now, hasn’t it?” Victoria said, giving her grandma another hug.

  “It sure has, and we’re so happy,” Signe told her.

  Victoria took the camera out of the box, and after a couple of minutes of fiddling, got the regular lens on it, turned it on, and snapped a couple of pictures there in the kitchen just to try it out.

  While Victoria was playing with her camera, Lena began dishing up the waffles that were being kept hot in the oven. She buttered them, then put the strawberries and whipped cream on each one and set them on the table. Victoria took a photo of her plate of food, and was pleased that it came out so good.

  “I think I’ll get the hang of this pretty soon,” she said. “See how good this looks? Good enough to eat.”

  “So let’s eat then, before it gets cold,” Rafael urged.

  Victoria laughed. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s more fun to play with my new toy. But I don’t want these yummy waffles to go to waste, either.”

  After breakfast, Lena wouldn’t allow Victoria to help with clean up, insisting that she should do no work on her birthday. So Victoria played with her camera some more, snapping picture after picture of Lena cleaning off the table, of Rafael making funny faces for the camera, of her grandparents, and of anything else she happened to aim the camera at.

  “The great thing about digital cameras as opposed to film cameras, is that you can take all the photos you want, and just delete the bad ones, or the ones you don’t want,” Lena commented, as she watched Victoria go crazy with snapping pictures.

  “I know, it’s so cool,” Victoria said. “No worries about wasting film.”

  She gathered up all her gifts and was about to take them into the family room for some serious examination when Rafael interrupted her.

  “Get your camera together and let’s go somewhere,” he said.

  Victoria looked up at him expectantly.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Victoria’s eyes sparkled as she got up from the sofa, put her camera in the carrying bag, and went to find her purse. How she loved surprises. Good ones, that is. While she was upstairs, Rafael had a whispered conversation with Lena.

  “Now, you can get there all right, can’t you?” he asked.

  “Of course. Don’t worry about me. Mom and Dad will be along, too, and Mom has a keen sense of direction. Besides, I have been there a couple of times before. I know it was a long time ago, but I can find it again.”

  “Five o’clock at Thai Patio, right?”

  “Right. Then we’ll still have plenty of daylight to get up to the observatory, but be there after dark, too.”

  They heard Victoria coming down the stairs just then, so Rafael changed the subject.

  “We’ll see you later, Lena. We’ll have lunch out, but see you for supper.”

  “Okay. Have fun, you two,” Lena said as Victoria came into the family room.

  “We will,” Rafael replied.

  “Bye, Mama.
Thanks for breakfast and everything,” Victoria said, giving her a hug.

  They went out and got into the Ferrari. Rafael had put the top down because it was such a gorgeous day.

  Once they had started down the driveway, Victoria asked, “So, where are we going?”

  “Oh, I thought we go someplace fun, have lunch, and see the stars.”

  “The stars? It’s a little early for that, isn’t it?” Victoria asked, puzzled.

  “You’ll see,” was all Rafael would say, but there was a teasing smile on his lips.

  She leaned back in the seat and let the wind blow through her hair that was beginning to grow out and look halfway decent for a change. She was just enjoying the scenery, which was only city, but driving anywhere through the LA metro area can be interesting. She recognized the fact that they had entered Hollywood, which was always fascinating to her. But she gasped as they turned into Paramount Pictures.

  “Here? Are we going here?” she queried incredulously.

  “Would you like to?”

  “I would love to,” she nearly shrieked with ecstasy. “Oh, wow! I can’t believe I actually get to go in here.”

  They parked, crossed the street to the entrance, and then were directed to the place were the VIP tour would begin. At promptly nine-thirty the guided tour began. They were only two in a modest-sized group, but they were given plenty of opportunities to take photos along the way.

  The tour took them through the archives and through the backlot production facilities. Seeing how movies and TV programs are made was so fascinating to both of them.

  “I’ll never watch a movie the same again,” Victoria declared as they watched how easily a saloon chair broke over an actor’s head without hurting him.

  The tour lasted for four and a half hours and included a gourmet lunch served at an exclusive location on the studio grounds. Victoria was totally excited when she caught a glimpse of Chris O’Donnell, star of NCIS Los Angeles, walking across the lot. NCIS LA was her favorite show. They spotted a few other well-know celebrities, as well as some lesser known ones.