Every Woman has a Price

by B. M. Hardin

  I knew my husband and I knew it wasn't going to be that easy to walk away. I just knew I had to watch my back.

  “Well, can we at least enjoy our lunch?” he said almost too calmly.

  “Sure.”

  I don't know. Maybe he was tired of us going back and forth just as I was. Or maybe it had something to do with the strange phone calls, either way; I was glad that he seemed to be on board.

  My phone started ringing. It was the doctor’s office.

  That was fast.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey Mrs. Gordon, I had to call to let you know that your blood pregnancy test came back positive.

  Not sure why your urine pregnancy tests were negative but I've tested you blood five different times. You’re pregnant. That's what’s wrong.”

  After hanging up, I sat quietly. Marcus stared at me. Trying to figure out what I had just been told but I tried my best not to show my emotions.

  I guess that was my definite reason for divorce. I was sure that Tony, back home in Alabama was my baby's father. Marcus hadn't made me have sex with him in a while and the last time he did, was way back at the beginning of December and I had had a period afterwards. I looked up and smiled at him to reassure him that everything was fine. But they weren't, at least not yet. Now, more than ever, I couldn't wait to get back home...back to Tony.

  ~*****************~

  ~* When you feel like your life seems to be a whole lot of bad and just a little bit of good, don't worry because everything has a season, and just as seasons change, so does everything else. *~

  ~*Anonymous

  *Chapter Twelve*

  “Untie me right now Marcus!” I yelled.

  His nice boy act was short lived. Things were back to normal.

  After lunch that day, he had definitely pulled away. I had guessed it was because I had told him I was still going through with the divorce. I was more than okay with the distance because we were breaking things off and I was just happy that he was taking it as well as he was.

  The next couple of days were not too bad at least I thought they weren't. He didn't say much. He had even asked how I was feeling and when I planned to go to the courthouse to get the divorce process started. I tell you, I was so surprised. I felt like everything was going to be okay after all but of course, Marcus was never consistent.

  I woke up on the couch, with my hands and feet tied together.

  “Who is he?” he asked, holding a plastic bat in his hand, not a wooden one, but the kind you buy for a small child.

  “What? Who is who?” I moved my arms and legs around. He had me tied up overly tight.

  “The father of your baby?”

  Oh my God, what ever happened to patient confidentiality in this town? Didn't they know that it was a crime to give out patient information to other people? Husband or not, it was my business, not his. And besides they had no idea what they had just done.

  “I'm not pregnant Marcus.”

  Before I had completely closed my mouth from saying the sentience, he smacked me across the face with the bat.

  Oh my God, another black out...Okay...I'm back.

  “I’m going to ask you one more time. Who are you pregnant by Kasey?”

  “You.” I answered angrily.

  “No you're not. I know exactly how far along you are and I haven't touched you. Try again.” he said and hit me across the face again with the bat.

  This time I screamed out in pain. I was hysterical. My face was on fire. I was trying my best to get loose, but I couldn't.

  I had this bad feeling that Marcus was going to do something far worse than he ever had before to me. I just had to get a loose.

  “I should have drowned you that night in the tub. See, this is what I get for being nice. “he said and hit me again.

  Now, I was getting mad. Not just because he was hitting me but also because of his little confession.

  Oh, so all of a sudden he wanted to admit that he had tried to drown me? The timing couldn't have been worse.

  “Oh, so you do remember trying to drown me?” I questioned still fondling with whatever he had tied my hands up with.

  He caught sight of me trying to work on my escape and bent down on his knees. One by one, he began to bite my fingers.

  I screamed at the top of my lungs and tried to bite him back.

  He laughed and mushed my face as hard as he could.

  “Of course I remember. I remember everything I do to you.” he said almost in a crazy kind of voice.

  I knew he was crazy. Why hadn't I got away sooner? And maybe now I never would because I was sure he was going to kill me.

  “Then why did you pretend not to remember?”

  “I’ve been pretending not to remember a lot of things for a long time now. But I remember everything. I remember everything he used to do to me. So, I did them to you. I wanted you to know how I felt.” he said, sitting comfortably on the floor beside me, staring off into space.

  “Who is he?” I questioned.

  What was Marcus talking about? He had never told me anything like this before and we had talked about everything. The fact that he was telling me now only made me think that he knew for definite that it wasn't going to leave this room.

  I was trying my best not to panic, but I was scared for my life.

  “That’s the same question I want to know. Who is he?” Marcus asked and reached for the blue lighter that laid at the edge of the coffee table.

  I started to cry. I wanted to tell him but I was unsure of which route to take. Some things are better left unsaid. By telling him I was with another man just didn't seem like the safest thing to do.

  I didn't know what to do so all I could do was cry.

  Marcus waited patiently for my response. When I didn't say anything, he flicked the lighter on. He grabbed me right foot and he began to burn my toes.

  Was he serious? Was he really burning my toes?

  “Marcus, stop! Please stop! I'll tell you. I’ll tell you!” I screamed.

  I couldn't believe that he actually burned my toes. Who does that?

  “What’s his name?” he asked, moving the fire away from my foot.

  I continued to cry. I was so scared. But I knew that I'd better answer him.

  “His name is Tony.”

  “Tony?”

  “Yes, Tony. He was my ex-fiancée, back home in Alabama. It was only one time. I promise.” I cried.

  Marcus just looked at me. He didn't say anything for a long, long time.

  Kimbrella began to cry and he stood up to go get her. As soon as he was out of sight, I tried my best to get my hands free. He had tied them with some kind of wire, but he had wrapped it around my hands probably a hundred times. I could tell that it wasn't going to budge, but I just had to try.

  God, please help me. Don't let him kill me.

  He returned to the living room, carrying our daughter. She was smiling as always but Marcus looked as though he was up to no good.

  “So that's why you went home huh? Well, since your pregnant with someone else’s baby, I guess you no longer need our child, right?” he said and in one quick motion, he turned our baby upside down, holding her by her feet.

  “Marcus!” I screamed. I was crying and screaming like some crazy lady. He could do anything he wanted to do to me but not to my baby. She was innocent.

  I guessed, his compassion for Kimbrella was a lot more powerful than his anger because he turned her back up right, kissed her forehead, and placed her in her car seat by the door.

  I hadn't even noticed it there, or all of the bags that he had beside them.

  “Marcus, where are you going? You are not taking my daughter anywhere.”

  He chuckled.

  “Trust me; you have no say so in this. This will be the last time you see her; or anyone else for that matter.” he said and came to sit beside of me.

  See, I knew he was going to kill me.

  “Marcus, please. Please.” I begged.


  He rubbed my face, and then he touched my hair. For a while, he played with my curls. As if he was trying to capture some kind of last memories or something. He was really starting to freak me out. After some time, I felt his grip tighten as he held tight to one of my soft curls.

  By the time I noticed that he had picked back up the lighter, it was too late.

  “No, Marcus no!” I squirmed rapidly, uncontrollably, trying to get out of his reach but I failed.

  Marcus set my hair on fire.

  “Please Marcus please!” I screamed as I felt the heat getting closer and closer to my scalp. I felt as though I was going to black out. I saw my life flashing before my eyes. I couldn't believe he was going to let me burn to death in front of my daughter. I hadn't even been able to kiss her goodbye. I could feel the fire spreading rapidly all over my head. I screamed as loud as I could, it was the only thing I could do.

  All of a sudden, Marcus dumped a big bucket of water on me.

  He patted my head with a thick towel to make sure all of the fire was out.

  Though I was grateful that he had put out the fire in my hair, I was even more worried about what was next. Being that he had the bucket of water already on hand, I knew that he had planned the whole thing from the very beginning and I also knew it wasn't over. He was planning to torture me and I just knew that everything was about to get worse. I continued you to cry like I was a newborn baby.

  “Stop your whining. It barely burned any of your hair.” he said and stepped back to look at me from a distance.

  I knew he was lying. I could feel the burns all over my head. I could feel the unbearable aching.

  Why hadn't I left weeks ago? Why hadn't I just walked away like I had planned? I was trying to take my time, now I was all out of time.

  He walked closer. He looked so damn evil.

  “Lay on your back.”

  “No, why?” I cried. I could only imagine what he was going to do to me next. He ignored my question and pushed me on my back himself.

  I watched him as he went to fetch the bat and without thinking twice about it, he went straight to work.

  He hit me in my stomach with it over and over and over.

  My cries and screams all went unheard. I had never been in so much pain in all my life.

  I tried to plead with him, I tried to bribe him. I even promised that I would stay with him and never leave him but he wouldn't listen he just continued with his attempt to kill the baby growing inside of me.

  And then....

  * * * * * * * * *

  *Chapter Thirteen*

  “Mario? What the hell are you doing?”

  What, who was that? And who in the hell was Mario?

  Whoever it was, thank you God for sending him to help me.

  “Answer me Mario, what the hell is going on in here, huh?

  Move! Get the hell away from her!” The man was screaming and though I heard him I had yet to see him. My tears and the pain I felt in and out of my head had blurred my vision.

  “This has nothing to do with you.” I heard Marcus say.

  “The hell it don't, Mario this is my house!”

  What? His house? And why was he calling Marcus, Mario?

  Being that I felt it was safe to sit up, I focused to regain my vision and when I did; my mouth hung wide open in disbelief...

  Marcus was a twin.

  He had a twin? How come no one ever said anything?

  I couldn't believe my own eyes. And when I say they looked exactly alike, they were beyond identical. The only reason I was able to tell them apart was because I knew what, Marcus, Mario or whoever he was, was wearing.

  My mind was still trying to figure everything out as they went back and forth. Wait a minute, so if this is the other man's house, who was the real Marcus, you mean to tell me that the whole time I have been married to Mario, and not Marcus?

  “Mario, what the hell is your problem man huh? Why are you doing this? Have you been taking your medicine? Who is this?”

  Mario-Marcus looked at him and then looked at me. He smiled a devilish type of smile at me and then mouthed the words that looked something like “goodbye.”

  He looked back at his brother, who stood in front of him, holding the bat that he had almost beaten me to death with.

  “ Well, if you must know my brother, that woman there, well she's your wife.” and with that Mario turned his back to me, kissed Kimbrella, grabbed his bags and walked out the door, never to return...or forgotten.

  ~***~

  The real Marcus and I left the hospital after ten long hours. To my surprise, the doctor's said that the baby was still going to make it and that in due time my burned scalp would heal. The burns weren't as bad as I had thought they were. I still had some of my hair but I had scars that I would never go away and that I would never forget.

  Once back at the mansion, Marcus, you know, the real one, and I sat down and prepared to have a long, long talk.

  “Kasey, I don't know what to say. I am so sorry this happened to you.” Marcus said sympathetic.

  “I really thought it was you. Everyone thought it was you.”

  “Yes, they always do. Mario and I have always looked exactly alike.

  Coming up we used to use it to our advantage. But when we were about twelve years old, something happened to Mario. He was kidnapped from right outside our home. No one ever knew where he was and after being missing for months, he just showed up at the front door. He would never tell us what happened to him, where he had been or who had taken him. All we know is that when he came back, he was different. Very different. Whoever it was had done something to him. And he had never been the same. Kasey, Mario is very, very sick. He has been committed in one of those centers for mental cases' for years, way up in the mountains in Colorado. No one probably thought it was him because no one but me has seen him in about fifteen years. I was the only one that even bothered to keep in touch with him. Everyone else had written him off a long time ago. But I couldn't. I wouldn't.

  The same day that I came home from dropping you off at the airport two things happened. One, I got a call to go work on this big science breakthrough in Italy. It was scheduled to last at least a year to a year and a half, which as you can see, it did.

  You did know I was a scientist right?”

  I shook my head. Hell, at the banquets way back then, I hadn't paid much attention to what they were talking about. I was just so overwhelmed by the money and the luxury that I guess I hadn't even noticed what or why we were there in the first place.

  “No, I thought you were a lawyer. That's what he had lead me to believe. All of the friends Mario had around were lawyers, and no one ever told me any different. Not even your parents.”

  “Lawyer friends? I only know two lawyer. And my parents retired and live in Australia. They haven't been in the states for years. I talk to them almost every week so I know that they knew nothing about you or Mario. Whoever those people were, I'm sure he paid them to be here, to pretend.”

  What? They all seemed so real. And since they weren't who had we been letting babysit my daughter all those times? And that would explain why his fake sister Tara said nothing when she walked in on him trying to force me to eat dog food. She and everyone else's had been paid to be there.

  Only in the wonderful world of money.

  I shook my head and turned my attention back to Marcus.

  “Anyway, that same day, when I pulled up at home, Mario was waiting outside of the gate. We didn't have much time to talk, the only thing he said was that he needed to stay here awhile and that he had gotten better. We had been through this so many times before that I knew he would only be around a few months, and then he would go back to the center for more help. That was his routine. It's like he wanted so badly to get better but whatever it was that happened to him, it just consumed him at times. So, I left him access to my house and access to one of my bank accounts to get himself together and to make sure he had everything he needed.r />
  He was still my brother and crazy or not I loved him and I would never turn him away or turn my back on him.

  When I first left, I would call him all the time. For the first few months he answered with no problem but then after a while he stopped answering so I figured he had gotten tired of trying to live out here and had went back to where he felt he belong.

  After all, for the last five of the fifteen years, he had been there voluntarily. But when I called to see if he was there, they said he hadn't been there in over a year. So, for the last month or so I had been calling him like crazy but he never answered.

  I couldn't wait to get home. I was worried that he had died, and no one would know because no one cared about him but me.

  And me, I thought.

  It was all just so much to take in at one time. I was so shocked.

  Everything, my whole marriage had been a lie. But now, it all made sense. That's why he wouldn't answer the phone. That's why he was so different from the guy I had first met.

  I was just so overwhelmed.

  “I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry. I'm sorry that he lied to you, deceived to you.” He rubbed my face.

  “And I’m sorry he hurt you. That day, before I left, I dialed your number twice, but I hung up. I didn't know what to say. I knew you wouldn't wait on me to get back from Italy so I just figured that I would let you live your life.

  I convinced myself that everything happened for a reason, and I just decided that I wouldn't break your heart. But right before getting on the plane, I decided that I couldn't do you that way, but when I looked for my phone to finally call you, I couldn't find it. When I was able to call it, Mario picked it up and said I had left it at home. I bought a new phone and since so many people had the number, Mario stated that he would hold on to the phone and give anyone who called my new number. He never, not once told me you called. Never. I would have called you. I swear.” he looked so sad.

  Everything just hit me like a ton of bricks. For a while I was at a loss for words. I knew if I had been with the real Marcus the whole time, my life would have been so different. After we cried together, I continued to fill him in with all that had happened.