“Ms. Butts, they have issued a warrant for your husband’s arrest, which they served yesterday evening about 8 p.m.. They had to call in the state troopers to make sure that everything was done properly. He did not resist, but it does look like he will be getting out at some point this afternoon if he can make bail. Now, because of his job situation the judge is almost certainly going to let him out on his own recognizance. Do you have any money or assets outside of what is in your co-owned bank account?” Jones was focused on Megan as if there was no one else in the room.
“No, he has always had control of it and the savings accounts. I mean I have withdrawal slips and a debit card, but I have no idea what we have in the accounts.” Megan was uncertain that they even had assets.
“Since you have been forced to leave for fear of your physical safety and have no monetary support, I have gotten permission from the judge to have the statements released to us. Megan, there is about $5000 total in both accounts. So the judge is allowing you to withdraw half of that into a separate account in only your name. This way you will have a little to get started on until the investigation is over and you can have a determined amount of child support.”
Megan looked terrified, “You have no idea what he will do if the money is gone. I’m only allowed to have money for the groceries unless he tells me what else to buy. I even have to give him the receipts so that he knows I’m telling the truth. Oh, this is so not good.” She started shaking her head and mumbling to herself.
“Megan,” Allie walked over to her taking her hand, “Sweetie, you will not have to answer to him again. The Judge is the one that is doing this, not you, so don’t you worry. They will make it work so that he can’t fault you. If he decides that you don’t need child support the judge can place him in jail or have it decreed to be taken directly out of his pay checks, right?” Allie looked to Mr. Jones who was nodding his agreement.
“Absolutely correct, since you are the victim and there is a chance with his connections that he could make life difficult; the Judge is worried that you might have to seek shelter in a neighboring town or county. As long as you inform the shelter of your whereabouts the Judge is going to be lenient about you leaving the county. These are special circumstances since he has the resources to find you easier than most men. That is why he has issued a court order to split the money in half closing your joint account and opening two separate ones in your individual names. Also, he has signed the papers allowing guardianship to go to Ms. Foster in case anything happens to you. Sally will automatically be given into Ms. Foster’s care so that she does not go to a state facility or back into Mr. Butt’s care. While these are drastic measures, the Judge feels that they are warranted considering the amount of damage he did to you in such a short amount of time. Legally, he can only work off of what is presented in court and not off of his own personal feelings. These are only temporary orders so it will go before another judge who can make it permanent. This will go to a different district court or even state court depending on what charges the D.A. decides to bring against Mr. Butts. Custody and the final divorce decree will be final in a few months, but this will allow you to have a better position depending on the charges. Hopefully, it will allow you a no contest divorcee since he could be in jail. Any questions so far?” Amazed that he had even stopped for breath, Allie couldn’t think of anything. She looked to Megan to see if she understood all that had happened. Megan was nodding her head in agreement, so it seemed that it would all work out rather smoothly.
“What do I need to sign to make all this happen?” Megan seemed to realize that she might have to approve something to make all of this work out. “I would like to press charges and go ahead and file for divorce. If I don’t do it now and I go back to him, then I might as well just kill myself because that is what he will do to me.” Megan didn’t know exactly what everything meant, but she knew that she needed to protect Sally any way that she could.
“When you file today it will help to make sure that by the time he goes to trial, your divorce will be final and it will be an extra layer of protection for you against any thing he might do trying to get back at you.” Mr. Jones seemed certain as he handed Megan the documents to sign.
He also handed Allie one to sign saying that she was willing to be a guardian for Sally in the event something happened to Megan. They both finished signing the papers without reading them and gave them back to Mr. Jones. Allie hoped that they had trusted the right man to make sure that Megan and Sally stayed safe.
“Thanks ladies. It has been a pleasure. I will come by in the morning and make sure that everything is going okay.” Becoming suddenly business like, his entire demeanor changed. He seemed to remove himself emotionally now that all of the legalese had been taken care of. As he walked out the door they both followed him with their eyes.
Allie voiced it first, “He is hot! Girl, I’m glad that you are still married because he has been very attentive to you. He is working very hard to make sure that you are well protected. I don’t think that most women have this much protection in place when they leave their abusive husbands. I know that Mike is a serious threat, but he does seem to be going above the call of duty.”
Megan looked flustered. “I’m not sure that I will be ready for a new man anytime soon. I am used to having a man who controls everything. Mr. Jones is cute, but he was just taking care of us as a client. I wouldn’t read anything into it. He was just doing his job. I just hope that he can handle what Mike will try to dish out.” She was certain that Mike would fight to keep them; she just hoped that Mr. Jones didn’t get caught in the crossfire.
“Hey, I wasn’t rushing you. I didn’t expect you to jump his bones. We were simply appreciating what good ‘ass’ets the man has.” Allie winked at her letting her know it was okay to still have a sense of humor. “I’ve got to go get a car seat and swing by my work before I pick Sally up, so I’m going to head on out. I will bring her by when she gets out. I figured we would hang out for a little bit and then we will go out to get something to eat, if that is okay with you?”
“Sure, I trust you to take care of her. I had forgotten about not having a car seat, so thanks for taking care of that as well. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Megan tried to smile, but leaned back exhausted. “Let the nurse know that I will take some of those good pills so that I will be feeling better when Sally gets here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Allie saluted and left to let the nurse know.
Chapter 5
Allie picked up Sally, who wanted to go check on her mom, the very first thing. Allie was glad that they could spend time with her for the afternoon. Allie thought just being together would be a good idea so that both Sally and Megan would feel much better about the situation. Allie and Sally only stayed until dinner was brought in leaving Megan to eat in peace.
After they left, Sally was in a hurry because there were so many more princess movies to watch. There was also an entire day that needed to be relived thru Sally’s eyes. A quick dinner at McDonald’s, then they headed home to do the reading for Sally’s home work. With the promise that she could watch the movie they had picked out after her shower. Sally hurried to finish so that they could get started. Since Sally could take her own showers now, Allie let her. Sally was in such a hurry that Allie had to do a little damage control to make sure that she got all the shampoo out of her hair. Dressed in pjs, Sally got settled down onto the couch so that they could watch Brave. Sally was asleep before her the opening previews were finished.
Allie left the movie going and decided to start work so that the next day would be a little easier to handle. Allie started with putting orders together on her kitchen table. She needed to get them sorted out so that she could deliver them the next day. An order had arrived this morning, which she had set aside till the chaos had calmed down. Sorting and bagging it didn’t take long, so Allie set the boxes full of orders next to the front door when she noticed someone lurking outside the bushes.
Allie thought she saw Mike walking back to his car, but since it was dark out there was no way to know for sure. Since, whoever it was appeared to be leaving Allied decided that there was no point in calling the police.
Just to be extra cautious, Allie went ahead and locked the dead bolt and chain. She put a chair under the door knob so that she would hear if someone tried to get in. Gathering her shoes, keys and wallet, she put them altogether in her backpack so that if something happened she wouldn’t be searching all over for what they would need to leave with. She also packed Sally’s backpack so she would have a set of clothes and shoes in case they had to run out in an emergency.
Hoping that these extra security precautions would be enough, she went back to work. She had to put her orders in the computer so that it would be finished in case something else came up in the next few days. She had just submitted it an hour later when she heard scratches at the front door. Quickly getting up she looked out the peephole and saw Sally’s dad, Mike, standing just outside.
Wondering how he had found out where they were, she stayed as quiet as possible. Waiting for him to make a move before calling the police, Allie hoped that he would do something foolish so that they could lock him up.
Allie wanted to be certain that he meant them harm before she alerted the police. All Allie needed was for the police to show up with him gone. This time he went to his car and got in driving away while looking at the apartment the whole time. Just glad that he was really gone, Allie sank to the floor in relief that she had not called the police.
This time he left without doing anything threating, so it was a good thing that she had waited. It seemed like Mike was trying to get Allie to make a wrong move, so it would look like she was just crying wolf. The police might not show up the next time when she and Sally really needed it.
Allie carried the still sleeping Sally to her room laying her on the bed. She hoped Mike wasn’t coming back and to be on the safe side she pushed a chest of drawers in front of the back door.
She turned everything off in the living room and grabbed the back packs, placing them next to the bed. Taking a last bathroom break, she closed the door to her bedroom, putting a chair under that door as well. She didn’t even think to wonder where Mike might have gone till the next day.
Chapter 6
Megan had been taking the medication only when necessary or after everyone left so that she could get some rest. She figured that if she got more rest, she would get better faster and be able to get out of there sooner. She had been sleeping when she felt someone standing over her.
Most of the time when the nurses came in and out they moved around and made some noise. They quickly checked her vitals or were replacing the IVs. To have someone just standing there made Megan uncomfortable even in her sleep.
She rolled over so that she was facing the person standing there. She tried to keep breathing evenly so that they thought she was still asleep. Looking thru her lashes, she noticed that it was Mike.
Having a good idea of what he would try if she were awake, she simply kept laying still hoping he would leave if she wasn’t conscious.
He left her side and pulled a chair up to the side of her bed; resting his elbows on his knees. He tapped his fingers in front of his scruffy chin, seeming to wondering where to begin the conversation.
Talking to her in a soft, yet admonishing voice, “How could you do this to me? What were you thinking? I know that you were hurt and I’m so sorry that happened.” He paused, sitting up straight in the chair.
He looked at the length of her bruised body, taking in the bandages on her head and the IV. running to her arm.
“If you had just woken me up then none of this would have happened. How could you turn me in to the police? Men that I work with handcuffed me and put me in a cell.”
“This is wrong, Megan. I will have to discipline you better in the future. Sally needs a mother that knows how to obey instructions and not piss off the man of the house. I have trained you for the last 10 years and yet this is the way you repay me. Oh, Megan, I had such high hopes for you.” Mike spoke with increasing venom, his true feelings overshadowing any concern he might have had.
Megan listened in growing horror. What did he mean to obey him more than she already did? She wasn’t his slave. She hadn’t asked to be beaten. It wasn’t her fault he had fallen asleep in the truck.
On the other hand, he had spent so much time training her to be the wife and mother that he needed her to be to do his job properly. She should have been watching for him to come home. She had known that he would be mad when she had finally gone to sleep about 4 am.
She alerted the nurse by pressing the call button, feeling safe.
“Mike, I am so sorry about this, I didn’t mean for it to go this far. Can you ever forgive me?”
Megan really wanted his forgiveness since she could tell he hadn’t really meant to hurt her. She was convinced she had let him down and caused his outburst. It had been her fault for trying to run from her punishment, she could have waited to take the beatings so they wouldn’t have been as bad.
Mike had jumped up when Megan started speaking and came to stand by the bed.
“Megan, I can’t forgive you until you have taken back what you’ve told them. Everything that you tell others about me will only make matters worse. We can tell them that you were just confused and it was someone else that came in our house.”
“All those lies that woman, Allie, has been filling your head with, they are just not true. You can come home and my fellow officers will help me locate this scum that did this to my wife. No, one should be allowed to punish you except for me.”
Mike took her bandaged arm and instead of being gentle, he grabbed hold of her wrist bringing her arm up into the light from the bathroom.
“What have you done Megan? You told me that you were sorry, but you have pressed the call button that will bring the nurse in here.”
Watching the rage build, Megan realized that no matter what she said or did this man would never take her back without seriously making her pay the price for coming to the hospital.
Wondering where the nurse could be, Megan began to worry that they wouldn’t reach her.
Mike decided to go ahead and kill her. Moving his hand from her wrist to her throat, he smiled gloatingly.
“I knew that this apology was too good to be true coming from such a lying bitch as you. I cut the cords on the buttons before you woke up.”
“There won’t be any help coming to rescue you. They are all in the break room having a short naptime. I put a small amount of powder into their tea and on their pizza so that when they went to take a break it would knock them out for a time so that we could have a real heart to heart talk.” Mike smiled as Megan eyes widened in terror.
“I knew that you were up to no good. Did you know that they put me in a cell block with other criminals? Guys that I have hunted and worked hours on the cases that put them in jail and brought them to justice. Megan, Megan, did you really think that you would be safe from me?”
His hand let up slightly from around her neck, allowing her to take a deep breath. Seeing that she wasn’t going to answer him, he squeezed harder putting the other hand around her neck totally encompassing her throat. He continued squeezing until he heard sounds out in the hall and realized that someone had stumbled upon the sleeping nurses.
He hid in the bathroom, while several people rushed past. He left the room once they were gone and snuck out the front door. He didn’t try to hide from the cameras because if anyone asked he had simply gone to visit his wife.
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There were only a few people housed on this hallway and Megan was the only person with a ser
ious diagnosis. So the discovery of Mike’s handy work might have gone unnoticed all night if one of the nurses from the other section had not called down to ask a question.
When she didn’t get a response, she had gone to see what was going on. Seeing the nurses passed out in the break room, she pushed the emergency button which alerted security and called the police. After making sure both the nurses in the break room were still alive, they had found three more passed out behind the desk.
Megan had passed out from lack of air, so when Mike had released her it took a few minutes to regain consciousness.
Realizing that her throat was bruised, there was no way to get the attention of the people out in the hall. They were frantically trying to revive the passed out nurses and trying to make sense of the chaos.
Her throat hurt so much that all she could do was whimper. She closed her eyes again knowing that someone would come to check on her. She was relieved that she could still breathe.
The ER doctor went straight to Megan’s room assuming that this was because of her. Since everyone else was trying to check on the nurses, he was the first person to see the damage that Mike had cause in his short visit.
Once, everyone had been triaged someone remembered that no one had checked on the patients and they hurried to make sure they were okay. Entering Megan’s room, they noticed all of the cords had been cut from the monitor which is why there had been no alert from Megan’s bed.
The ER doctor walked closer and saw the handprints on Megan’s throat, but seeing that her chest was still moving up and down, the doctor was relieved that she was still breathing. Opening up her eyelids to make sure there was no brain damage, he was amazed to see that she was only resting and not unconscious.
When she tried to talk it only came out in a small whimper, “Mike”, she pointed to her ring finger hoping that the doctor would know who she was trying to say did this to her.
Ding Dong!! Is She Dead? Page 4