by Jason Parent
“But—”
“I’ve been looking out for yours for how many years now?” She sat on the bench beside him. She leaned closer, and for a moment, he thought she might hug him, but she only patted his knee. “It’ll all work out. You’ll see.”
Michael wasn’t satisfied with Sam’s explanation. There were too many question marks, too many subjective conditions parting Tessa from the freedom she deserved. Yes, she had killed someone, but the world was a better place for it. In killing one, how many others had she spared from her father’s evil?
“Is there any way to get her out now? Maybe she could see doctors on the weekends or something.”
“I’ve seen a lot of deals go down in my day, so believe me when I say that Tessa is getting the best deal she can.”
“So, basically, she’s going to a prison.”
“Well, yes, but she’ll be in a medium-security ward specifically designed for prisoners with mental health conditions. It’s more like a hospital with guards.”
“So a prison where they’ll keep her drugged all the time?”
“It’s for the best. The things she’s seen… the things she was forced to do, they won’t be easy for her to live with. She’s fortunate to have someone like you standing beside her while she heals.”
“More like behind her. I’m way back in the peanut gallery. No one listens to me. I’m just a kid.”
Fortunately, they had listened to Sam. With Masterson’s death and his guilt proven far beyond any doubt, Sam’s lingering work issues seemed to have been swept under the rug. Michael knew she was already on some new case. He just hoped she would be careful. If the whole ordeal had taught him anything, it was that he didn’t ever want to lose her.
Sam didn’t like to talk about it, how she had stuck her neck out for them. But Michael wasn’t blind. He had seen how she had fought for Tessa, despite her obvious reservations. In the month he’d been with her, Sam had attended every hearing, met with attorneys on both sides of the case, and advocated for Tessa’s release into her custody.
“Thank you, Sam… for everything you’ve done.”
Sam smiled and looked away. So did Michael. All that touchy-feely stuff made them both uncomfortable. When he looked back at her, he saw a reddish hue coloring her cheeks.
“Don’t mention it,” she said.
“Will I be able to visit her?”
“I’ll see what I can do. Let’s give her some time to settle in first, okay? But, Michael, when you see her, she may not be the same.”
“I know.”
“The years of abuse she suffered at the hands of that man…” She shook her head. “Masterson wasn’t even her biological father, you know? She should never even have been with him.”
“I know.” Michael had heard it all at the hearings, and it made him angry. The truth brought out a desire for revenge, but Tessa had already taken that, leaving him without an outlet. It turned his stomach.
“Are you ready to go?” Sam asked.
“Sure.” Michael stood. He welcomed an escape from the courthouse. He only wished that Tessa would be walking out of there with them.
Two months later, Michael was granted permission to see Tessa. Her doctors said that she had progressed in her treatment and was allowed visitors at certain prescheduled hours. So far, Michael had been the only one to sign up. He doubted anyone else ever would, since she had no family, so he vowed to visit as often as he could. Sam had done all the paperwork and had signed up to be Michael’s chaperone.
He walked into the facility, past several armed guards, and emptied his pockets before going through the metal detectors. After that, he was buzzed through several doors before being led into a recreation room. Michael started having second thoughts. What if Tessa didn’t want to see him? Maybe she didn’t want to be reminded of the world outside her walls. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone.
But the time to back out had long passed. Willingly or not, Tessa was on her way to see him. Michael tried to prepare for the awkward greeting. Somehow, “hello” didn’t seem to cover it.
There was no furniture in the room, just some stained cushions scattered around the floor. Michael grabbed one and leaned it next to the wall then sat on the floor in front of it, facing the door. Sam did the same next to him. The room looked as though it had been childproofed. Besides the walls and floor, nothing in it threatened injury. Some board games were piled in a corner. Magazines and paperbacks filled another. Cartoons played on a television mounted near the ceiling, out of reach. The only other sound came from air blowing through a small heating vent.
Michael picked up a magazine, Outdoor World, and thumbed through it, not really interested. He found the publication to be a cruel choice for a place whose inhabitants might never get to experience the outdoors again, except for the occasional walk in the facility’s concrete and barbed wire fenced-in garden.
Sam somehow looked proper and powerful while sitting cross-legged on a cushion. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall, apparently less wound-up than Michael was. Michael tensed when the door buzzed then opened.
Tessa walked in with a large orderly. Once the door was closed, the orderly moved to a corner and kind of slouched against the wall, but Michael could tell the guy was paying close attention.
Tessa had always been thin, but after three months of incarceration, she seemed to have aged three years. Her face was drawn and pale, with lines that hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen her. Her hands shook a lot. Michael was pretty sure she was taking some heavy-duty medication. Still, her hair was neatly brushed, and her clothes looked clean.
She gave him a smile that accentuated her dimples. With that, she looked like Tessa again, and he was really glad to see her.
“Hi,” she whispered, holding her hands behind her as she swung her shoulders back and forth.
Michael stood and went over to her. He didn’t know what to say. He mouthed the word “hi,” and even that was an effort.
Summoning his courage, Michael threw his arms around her. He felt as though he might cry, but he kept his tears inside. Light as feathers, Tessa’s arms draped over his shoulders. She leaned in to him, nuzzling her forehead into the curve of his neck.
Feelings for Tessa surged through Michael, almost swallowing him in raw emotion. Picking through his thoughts, trying to make sense of them, Michael realized that no matter what, he didn’t want to let go of her. So he didn’t. He would have held on to Tessa as long as he could if she would let him, until staff came and tore them apart.
It wasn’t fair. None of it. Only God knew what they were doing to Tessa in that awful dungeon. She shouldn’t have been there. She should have been with Michael. Tessa deserved a normal life, so much more than all the other kids their age who had done nothing to earn theirs. Will she ever have one?
Slower than a crawl, Tessa’s nose slid up the side of his neck toward his ear. Her lips, soft as pillows, caressed his cheek. Michael found her touch exciting. He would give anything to keep that sensation going.
But it lasted only a moment more. Michael’s eyelids began to flutter. His thoughts scattered like cockroaches under a light. Soon, they were all gone. Something new was coming.
Sam had been trying to give Michael his privacy, but when she saw Tessa moving closer to him, she stood guard. When Michael fell, she was there to catch him.
The orderly held Tessa back.
“It’s okay,” Sam said. “It wasn’t her. He has fainting spells.” She caught Tessa staring at her, and when she made eye contact, Tessa gave a slight but knowing nod. She kneeled down beside Michael and cradled his head in her arms.
A few minutes later, Michael returned to reality. He gazed up at Tessa, apprehensive at first, then donning a smile so mixed that Sam couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. She checked his pulse and could feel his heart racing, danger
ously fast. His breath came out in short wheezes, as if he had held it too long underwater.
“A vision?” Sam asked from her spot against the wall. Michael nodded.
“My future?” Tessa asked. She frowned and buried her head. “I don’t want to know.”
Michael sat up and shuffled beside her. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. “It’s okay,” he said, smiling through tears. “Everything’s going to be okay. It will be hard, at first, but eventually your life will be everything you want it to be. You’ll see.”
Tessa stared into his eyes as though she were looking for signs of deceit. Sam stared, too, but if Michael was bluffing, he had learned to fool even her… and apparently Tessa, too. Her frown disappeared. Her face shone a little brighter. Some of those extra lines, wrought by hardship, seemed less severe. As if by a will of their own, her lips found his.
Sam looked away, smiling wide herself. Maybe Michael was exactly where he needed to be.
Michael and Tessa spent the entire visitation period talking and being together, sometimes even sharing a laugh. Sam didn’t even think she or the orderly existed in their eyes. Any barriers between them—any awkward teenage construct, societal restraint, emotional stereotype—crumbled, an awkward psychic and a psychologically damaged killer shooting the shit as if they weren’t in a mental hospital but their own private safe haven. When it was time to leave, they separated reluctantly, each being led from the room by their chaperone with only partly complying feet. As soon as Michael exited the prison, he asked when he could visit again.
On the drive home, Sam couldn’t keep her curiosity bundled any longer. “Is that what you really saw?” she asked. “Will her life truly turn out fine?”
Michael shook his head. His eyes filled with tears and his nose ran. “No. What I saw… it was horrible. But that’s because Tessa already felt like her life was over. I have to believe that. When we got to the prison today, she had no hope left. What I saw was the effects of a life without hope, stuck in that institution. It would end with violence and ugliness and… and death.”
Michael paused, letting out a deep breath. “But you and I both know that what I see can be changed. Your life is proof enough of that. So, I thought that maybe, with the hope I gave her today and will continue to give her for as long as she’ll let me, Tessa will make her own future into a better, happier one.”
Sam was never one for optimism, but she smiled warmly just the same. Maybe Michael was being naive, but she could tell he had to try. He wouldn’t give up on Tessa. He wouldn’t let her give up on herself. I only hope it’s you lifting her up and not her dragging you down.
The truth was that Sam didn’t know what the future held any more than he did. Michael had caught a glimpse of a possibility only. Make an adjustment here or a modification there, and a whole new timeline could fall into place. After all, he had saved her life. That had to count for something.
The future was what they chose to make of it. Just like life. She wondered if she still had time to make something else of hers.
Dear Reader,
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Angela McRae and the Red Adept Publishing team for their knowledge, skill, and patience with respect to editing and publishing this novel.
I would also like to thank Emma Adams for her editorial contributions pre-submission for publication, Tarrah Parkman for her wealth of knowledge with respect to foster care and social services, Abigail Grace, my family and friends, and all of my wonderful readers, many of whom I’ve been blessed to have met via Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or through my website, for their continued support.
About the Author
In his head, Jason Parent lives in many places, but in the real world, he calls Southeastern Massachusetts his home. The region offers an abundance of settings for his writing and many wonderful places in which to write them. He currently resides with his cuddly corgi, Calypso.
In a prior life, Jason spent most of his time in front of a judge… as a civil litigator. When he tired of Latin phrases no one knew how to pronounce and explaining to people that real lawsuits are not started, tried, and finalized within the 60-minute time-frame they see on TV, he traded in his cheap suits for flip-flops and designer stubble. The flops got repossessed the next day, and he’s back in the legal field… sorta. But that’s another story.
When he’s not working, Jason likes to kayak, catch a movie, travel any place that will let him enter, and play just about any sport (except for the one with that ball tied to the pole thing where you basically just whack the ball until it twists in on knot or takes somebody’s head off). And read and write, of course. He does that too sometimes.
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Did you love Seeing Evil? Then you should read Yeager's Law by Scott Bell!
Abel Yeager is dead broke, down on his luck, and suffering from a serious case of what-the-hell-does-it-matter. His transition from active Marine to stateside long-haul trucker hit a wicked speed bump when his rig was involved in a wreck that claimed the life of a pregnant woman and laid him up for several months.
Back at work but deeply in debt, Yeager meets bookstore owner Charlie Buchanan in St. Louis and jumps at the chance to haul a load of remainder books to Austin for her. On the way south, a crew of truck thieves tracks his every move. But none of them know what Charlie’s ex has smuggled inside the book pallets, who he stole it from, or how far the owner will go to get it back. Charlie’s the first person Yeager has cared about in a long time, but as their bond deepens, so does the danger they’re in.
With enemy forces closing in, Yeager battles greed, corruption, and his own fatalism in a bid to hold true to Yeager’s First Law: come home at the end of the day.
Also by Jason Parent
Seeing Evil
A Life Removed