Calida allowed a frown to cross her face although the only thing she said was, “It is coming along at the moment but thank you for asking, Sophia.”
Sophia chuckled as she said, “Well, if you need any help I would be glad to offer my assistance, but I wonder if the wedding will take place, hmm?”
Calida forced herself to stop and stare at Sophia hazel eyes quizzical as she asked, “What do you mean by that, Sophia?”
“Oh, nothing,” Sophia relented with a sharp laugh. “I just thought it seemed weird that Ric was engaged to you but before he left, he gave me a gorgeous necklace that he bought me. Of course, it held a beautiful charm including an engagement ring.” She glanced down at Calida’s left hand where her engagement ring sat before she added, “Even more expensive than the one you are wearing now, but then again Ric does have excellent taste, doesn’t he, Calida?”
Calida’s paled at her words unable to stop that betraying action as Sophia smiled at her smugly before she murmured, “Don’t think you have won yet, Calida, because I know a few things that I think would destroy that fantasy you are living in.”
“Sophia,” her companion called in loud voice. “I’m hungry and since you forced me to come here, let’s order.”
Sophia smiled at Calida her eyes flashing with triumphant before she turned away and headed to the table where her companion sat waiting for her.
“Calida,” Wilma said behind her only to frown when Calida flinched at her voice telling her that Sophia’s words had unnerved her enough that Calida hadn’t even heard Wilma’s return.
“Let’s get going, Wilma,” Calida whispered walking out of the café pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her jacket pocket and slipping them on to hide the sheen of tears in her eyes.
They made a few more stops before heading back to the house but once there Wilma was surprised when Calida said, “I have a few things that I need to do so go on in and tell the others I will be back for dinner.”
“Calida,” Wilma said worry in her voice but Calida only smiled before she put the car in gear and drove away.
As Wilma watched her, Jake came out and seeing her hurried over. “Honey, is everything okay,” he asked putting an arm around her.
“Yes, I think so anyway,” she said turning to him with a smile as he kissed her cheek and they turned to the house. “Oh, Calida said that she will be back for dinner but there were a few more things that she had to do.”
“I wonder why she wants to do it herself,” Jake muttered as they walked in the house and his wife just laughed.
“She probably just wants some time to herself so she can think through some things, that’s all,” she told him as Marti came out of the kitchen wiping an arm across her forehead.
“Everything okay,” she asked, and Wilma nodded her before explaining what they had accomplished omitting Calida’s run in with Sophia.
Calida pulled into the driveway three hours later on a weary sigh as she opened the car door and slid out glancing over at the sun which was just beginning to set. She smiled because it was a sight that she particularly enjoyed even though she didn’t understand why. Her cell went off in her pocket and she ignored it as she started for the house only to stop feeling eyes watching her and she turned her head just in time to see a car pull away from the curb a few blocks down. Hmm, she thought to herself as she turned and continued inside the house, it took him long enough to find her.
“Welcome home, Calida,” Jake called out as she walked in the house a few seconds later and she smiled at him her eyes tired but there was a look of satisfaction in them that caused him to freeze for a moment as she walked into the living room.
“Good evening,” she said smiling at them as she sat down relaxing against the couch. “Any phone calls?”
They all glanced at each other before Marti answered, “No. Are you hungry Calida?”
She shook her head sighing gently before sat up and said, “I’m going to bed. I haven’t been sleeping lately so I hope tonight will be an exception.”
With a nod, she headed for her room where she closed and locked the door before she walked over and collapsed on the bed allowing her body to relax into its softness.
Sleep was about to claim her when her cell went off and without opening her eyes, she pulled it out of her pocket and answered wearily, “Hello.”
“You didn’t go to sleep did you,” Edric told her in a stern voice.
Calida briefly opened her eyes as she sat up and said carefully, “I had a lot on my mind so sleep just wouldn’t come.”
She heard him sigh heavily before he scowled her, “You won’t be up for our wedding if you are all tired out from sleepless nights.”
Calida opened her mouth to make a remark before she bit down on her tongue and said instead, “I know so I will try to get some sleep tonight.”
There was silence for a few minutes before Edric asked, “Have you picked out your wedding dress yet?”
“No,” Calida told him honestly, and she heard noise in the background as if a door just opened.
She heard Edric speaking to someone on the other end before he told her, “Good, wait before you go shopping for your wedding dress.”
Calida shook her head rolling her eyes as he continued, “I need to go but try to get some sleep tonight.”
He didn’t say another word except ‘good night’ as he hung up while Calida was slower as she pulled the phone from her ear staring down at it before she turned it off.
“I wasn’t planning on buying one anyway, Edric, so you didn’t have to warn me to wait,” she muttered as she tossed the phone to the night stand only to miss as the phone landed on the floor.
She sighed putting her forehead on the bed as tears slipped from her eyes wishing that she had followed her original plan and not gotten involved with him.
“I want to sleep,” she said in the quietness of the room. “I just don’t want to dream.”
Unfortunately the minute she closed her eyes, a young woman floated through her mind and green eyes similar to the man her heart ached for flashed at her that her eyes snapped open sadness reflected in them.
Calida sat up putting off sleep as long as she could because she still wasn’t ready to confront her own cowardice ten years ago even if she was trying to put it right now.
She laughed until the laughter turned to sobs as she whispered, “It won’t work out even if he did love me, would it?”
There was no answer to that heartbroken question but Calida didn’t need one as her heart already knew the answer while she allowed herself to cry now knowing that when she faced her brother, she needed to be prepared for whatever he may have in store for her.
Calida’s crying lulled her to sleep and her mind took her back to that day when her whole world changed, and her nightmare began.
Chapter 18
Calida stared down at the book on her lap flipping through its pages as she decided what classes she felt like taking for her first semester when she heard loud laughter. She sighed leaning her head back against the head board as she heard one of her brother’s friends yell, “Hey, Adella, come swimming with us.”
Calida frowned sitting up as she heard the name wondering if it was the same young woman she had met that afternoon at a small café they both stopped in when it started pouring.
She shook her head as she remembered the smile on the woman’s face as she explained she was going to visit her boyfriend and she hoped that the rain would let up so she could make it in time for their date.
Calida allowed a smile to pick up the corners of her mouth as she went back to the pamphlet in front of her making marks by classes she thought about taking ignoring the laughter and shouting outside.
A few hours later, Calida yawned as turned on her bedroom light before she grabbed her robe and slipped her feet into her slippers, and left her room. She was thirsty and a glass of water would hopefully help her go back to sleep.
Entering the kitchen, she walked over to the c
abinet grabbing a glass before she headed over to the water cooler her father had bought recently since Jeffrey didn’t like bottle water. She poured herself a glass of water and started to drink looking out the window above the sink seeing the light on in the pool house thinking that Jeffrey must’ve gotten one of his many girlfriends to stay over for the night.
She was turning away about to head back up to her room when suddenly she heard a scream. The glass in her hand slipped from her hand and landed on the floor as she turned suddenly looking out the window. She stepped back forgetting about the glass on the floor and she cried out as her left foot fell on a sharp piece of glass.
She gasped at the pain although her eyes turned to the window again as another scream filled the night air and she heard shuffling behind her.
“What…” Wilma asked turning on the light seeing Calida standing there the glass shards at her feet. “Calida, sweetie, you’re bleeding.”
“Oh,” Calida said glancing down. “I stepped on the glass when I heard the scream, Nanny Wilma.”
“Scream?” Wilma asked a slight frown on her face, and Calida glanced back out the window above the sink.
The lights in the pool house were still on and she thought she heard laughter coming from inside, but she wasn’t sure.
“Nanny,” Calida called back as she limped toward the door.
“Calida, wait, your foot,” Wilma said following her out of the house heading for the pool house when suddenly they both froze at the loud scream that came from the pool house.
Wilma frowned but before she could say anything the phone inside the house rung, and her eyes shifted to the pool house not hearing the scream again as she shook her head.
“Calida, it was probably a movie they are watching,” she said rushing back into the house to answer the phone wondering who would be calling so late.
Calida continued to the pool house limping when suddenly she stopped and lifted her foot pulling the shard out although she could tell that her foot was bleeding heavily. She tossed the shard into a bag for trash before she continued to the pool house only to freeze when she heard Jeffrey said angrily, “I get what I want and don’t you forget it.”
Calida heard crying and she couldn’t get her body to move any more as she listened to the mocking tone of her brother.
“So you have a boyfriend, huh, and yet you took up my invite,” her brother taunted.
“Jeffrey, please,” Calida heard the soft voice and she frowned as she recognized it. “You said that you could help me…”
Jeffrey laughed and even though it was through the small open window of the pool house, Calida paled at the edge behind his laughter before she heard a loud sound as if someone had been lift followed by a crashing noise.
“At a price, Adella,” Jeffrey said in a cold mocking voice. “Everything has a price and I want you for the price of helping you get into my Alma Mater.”
“I…” the woman began only to stop when another crash echoed around the pool area, and Calida couldn’t force her feet to move forward nor run away. She was frozen where she stood as she listened to the young woman plead. “I love my boyfriend and I want to go to him pure.”
“How sweet, and yet you came here tonight, didn’t you,” he taunted his voice lower that Calida didn’t hear what he said afterwards but she did hear the snarl he gave when the young woman responded back in the same tone.
“You bitch,” Jeffrey screamed and Calida shivered as she heard the young woman scream in terror.
Calida’s body shook as she heard the woman continue to scream and cry out, and she knew even if she didn’t see it that her brother was hitting her. Her hand came to her mouth as she stood there her body shivering in fear and yet she couldn’t move. It was as if her body was glued to the spot and she had to close her eyes tightly to the screams and cries that came from the pool house before they finally settled to whimpers and then going silent.
“Now look at you,” Jeffrey said his breathing a little uneven. “I don’t think your boyfriend would want you now, but I could never pass up a virgin.”
Calida’s felt her stomach clench at his words and she gagged her legs giving out as she collapsed on the patio her eyes still on the pool house, but her mind raging at her that she should do something and yet she did nothing as she heard the loud wail that came from the pool house and tears slipped down her face at her own fear and cowardice.
“Well, now, that wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be,” Jeffrey muttered as he opened the door and Calida saw his naked body in the light of the doorway, but it was the blood covering him that had her eyes widening.
She almost cried out when a hand closed over her mouth and pulled her back in the shadows as Jeffrey’s narrowed eyes swung in that direction. Those eyes searched the area Calida had been kneeling before he shrugged and turned back inside calling out, “Are you ready for round two?”
Calida thought she heard a loud moan, but she couldn’t be sure as Wilma muttered, “Calida, don’t make a sound.”
Calida pushed her hand away a she said tearfully, “We need to call the police.”
Wilma nodded her head before she started back inside only stilling when she noticed Calida wasn’t following her.
“Calida,” she whispered letting her voice carry on the night air.
“I can’t move,” Calida told her turning to look at her hazel eyes filled with guilt and disgust at herself, and Wilma nodded her head.
She went back inside as Calida turned staring at the pool house before she glanced around the patio looking for something, anything that could distract Jeffrey.
She didn’t find anything useful and then Wilma returned moving softly through the shadows before she knelt down beside her.
“I called and gave an anonymous tip,” Wilma said, and then they heard a phone ring in the pool house.
“That’s Jeffrey’s cell,” Calida muttered knowing the tune of his phone because he knew that it scared her.
There was silence as the phone was answered and then Calida heard clearly, “What do you mean the cops are on the way to my house? Why the hell…”
His voice broke off before he said roughly, “Damn, someone must’ve heard the slut screaming. I need you to get here quickly and help me get rid of her before the cops arrive.”
Calida’s eyes widened while Wilma stared in shock at the pool house as not even five minutes later two men came silently across the patio and Jeffrey opened the pool house door fully dressed.
“She’s over there,” Jeffrey said, “Or what’s left of her. We need to get rid of all evidence she was here including cleaning up the blood.”
“Where do you want us to take her,” one man asked as his partner went inside the pool house.
“Away from here,” Jeffrey answered with a scowl as they entered after him. “Put her in the park as I’m sure it will take a few days to find her.”
There was silence at his words as Calida prayed for the cops to get there quickly but even after forty-five minutes and the cops hadn’t showed up, Calida watched as the young woman wrapped in a bed sheet was carried from the pool house.
“Where are the cops,” Calida mouthed to Wilma. “I thought you called the cops.”
Wilma frowned shrugging her shoulders not able to answer as Jeffrey and the other man came as the one carrying her said, “I thought you said the cops were on their way.”
Jeffrey gave a wicked smile as he said, “Oh, they are but I doubt that they would rush over to a house of the man who tends to keep their pockets lined heavily.”
Calida felt her head spin at what he was revealing and it wouldn’t be too much later that she would learn Jeffrey had boasted of something that wasn’t entirely true, but Calida would learn the truth and the cop he did have on his payroll would find himself on a the receiving end of an internal affairs review even though he had moved and went to a different precinct.
Yet that night the cops were slow in coming and a young woman lost her life a
s Calida listened to her brother brag and go on about what he wanted them to do. She never realized that the man Jeffrey kept referring to was the young woman’s brother or the amusement that went across his face at how he would use it for his own advantage.
Calida listened to her brother’s coldblooded plans and the blinders that she kept up for so long fell away.
Wilma put a hand on her cold arm and Calida didn’t even feel it as she continued to stare at her brother and the two men with him the body of the young woman tossed over one man’s shoulder.
When they left the patio, Calida turned to Wilma and told her, “We need to follow them.”
Wilma began to shake her head but Calida was already rising to her feet as her body shook so hard that she had to grab hold of Wilma’s shoulder so that she didn’t fall completely forgetting about her injured foot only remembering when she put pressure down on it.
“Nanny, please,” Calida whispered tears in her eyes, and Wilma nodded her head as she straightened slipping an arm around Calida’s waist wishing that her husband was there.
They made it to the front of the house just as the black car Jeffrey preferred to drive pulled away fast and Calida hurried with Wilma’s help over to her car where they hurriedly slid in, and followed them.
Wilma bit her lip as they caught up to the black car as Calida sat in the passenger seat her body shivering even though she had the heat up all the way.
“I didn’t do anything while I listened to her scream and cry,” she muttered her hands gripping each other so tightly that the knuckles were turning wet. “I just stood there as if I was made of stone and didn’t try to help her at all. What does that make, Nanny, that I didn’t help her? I always thought that I would help if someone was screaming in pain or fear, but I just stood there cowardly listening but not acting.”
She shook her head hazel eyes filled with tears but her face was filled with loathing at her own cowardice that cost a young woman her life.
Wilma didn’t not what to say in this moment so she kept quiet as they followed the car to the park where Jeffrey had them lay the woman off in a small thicket a place where sweethearts and lovers tend to disappear into when they wanted some private time while in the park.
Past Sins Revisited Page 22