by B. M. Hardin
I waited on Elroy’s response.
He asked her where she was going but when I didn’t respond to his question, he texted again.
“Well, okay. I love you. Be careful and take care of my baby. I’m pulling up now. You always forget to close the garage door. LOL. Oh yeah and baby, I got the job!” He texted and I cringed.
I got you that job fool!
Feeling angry, I sat her phone down, and watched Nate park her car in an abandoned junk yard, that was actually property of his folks. There were hundreds of cars there, so we were sure that her car wouldn’t be noticed. Nate made his way to my car and we drove and silence, all the way to my grandmother’s house.
After seeing how much Elroy seemed to adore her, I didn’t feel one ounce of guilt for what I was about to do. I just felt hate. I felt anger. But more than anything else and now more than ever, I felt desperate.
And desperate people do desperate things.
Desperately!
********************************************
CHAPTER VII
“Help! Help! Somebody help me! Somebody get me out of here!” Kera screamed.
But no one could hear her, except for me of course.
It was my first day coming back to the house, since we’d taken her. It had only been three days and though I hadn't planned to come but once a week, I’d left her phone behind and I needed to come get it to text Elroy. And while I was at it, I’d brought her more food just in case.
We’d left her that day, sleep, and in chains, lying in the bed that I’d set up for her in the basement. Nate had put the chains and locks in crazy ways all over her chest and around her shoulders and then he hooked them to another chain that hooked to a really thick chain, and then he wrapped it around the big, unnecessary pole in the corner of the basement.
The chains were thick and they were locked up pretty good. I was sure that she would never get out of them. The chains gave her some room to walk around and they were long enough for her to reach the bed, the small refrigerator and the toilet that was in the basement bathroom. We’d measured it. She couldn’t reach the sink or the shower. But at least she could reach the toilet.
Considering the fact that I hated her, because he loved her, I was being a lot more considerate than I actually wanted to be. I left the light on for her because I knew that she couldn’t reach it and I left on the heat. Even made sure that she had a blanket and a pillow.
I couldn’t help but be reminded that I was mad at the wrong person. She didn’t do it. Elroy did. She was innocent. But that was why I wasn’t going to try to kill her. It really wasn’t her fault that Elroy was a dog, so she got to live. It wasn’t her fault that he got her pregnant. But she was still the problem. So this was the only solution.
She screamed again and I just stood there. Nate made sure that there was nothing down there that she could use as any kind of weapon, so I wasn’t worried about her attacking me or anything. I guess the hatred in me, towards her, just wanted to listen to her scream and beg.
I took a deep breath. The entire house was empty so with the basement door cracked open, her screams echoed, just a little, off of the bare walls. I grabbed her purse off of the back of the door, from putting it there the other day and got her phone out of it.
I was way behind with my text messages to Elroy. I was so mad that I’d forgotten it but I’d been so busy trying to find stuff to get Nate’s son brother off on an assault on all of his charges that I hadn't had time to breathe, let alone keep up with Elroy. I’d been working hard to help Nate’s son because of what he was doing for me. I would be a fool to think that he didn’t want something in return, even though before he asked me to take the case, I’d been paying him for his service; even though I knew that he didn’t really need the money. He never turned a payment down though.
But this would be his son’s third strike so I knew that if I could make his charges go away too and win this case, Nate would be in my corner forever.
Checking her phone, Elroy had called and texted so many times that it was ridiculous! He kept asking about the baby and if she was okay. The voicemails were full of desperation and worry. He even started threatening her if she didn’t return his calls. He was telling her that he was going to slap her as soon as he saw her. And then he would say that he was sorry and to please call him. He was freaking out!
Okay. It’s time. I thought for a while and then I texted him.
“Elroy, I’ve been busy. And I don’t want to talk to you. But I want to let you know that I’ve decided that a baby isn’t what is best for me right now. I had an abortion. I’m not pregnant anymore. And I wanted to let you know that I won’t be coming back for a while either, if ever,” I read the text message aloud as I typed it.
I hit send and started another text message.
“I’m tired of holding on to our relationship. It’s over Elroy. The baby is gone and we can just go our separate ways. I don’t even love you anymore. I hate for you to even touch me. It makes me feel disgusting. So, GOODBYE,” I hit send after typing the capitalized letters. I felt a small amount of pain as I remembered that Rodney had told me those same words, about him feeling disgusting while I was on top of him. If nothing else in the message hurt him; that would. Just like it’d hurt me.
I waited for his response. It took about five minutes but he sent text message after text message, and I read each and every one of them.
Basically he called her a bitch here and there, and he told her that he would kill her for getting rid of his baby. He also said that he loved her and he couldn’t believe that she’d done something like that after all they’d been through.
What had they been through?
And humph, he sounded a hell of a lot like me! He seemed to love her a lot more than just because of the baby. He seemed to genuinely care about her and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all!
But all is fair in love and war and now with the bait set, I just had to wait for Elroy to bite. I was going to do everything that I could to make him love me, just me, entirely. I was going to do everything in my power to make him love me like he obviously loved her.
I didn’t respond to Elroy’s messages. I simply put her phone in my back pocket, so that I wouldn’t forget it this time and placed on the mask that Nate told me to wear at all times. I picked up the bags with the food and sodas that I’d brought for her and I headed down the stairs.
“Hello? Hello?” she called out to me.
Once I saw her, I could tell that she had been going crazy trying to get out of there. Her hair was a mess. She had ripped pieces of her shirt off trying to get past the chains.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this? Please just let me go,” she begged.
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want her to hear my voice just in case she remembered it from the sandwich shop.
“Please. Just let me go. I’m pregnant,” she said.
Yeah. I know that already. That’s the reason you’re here in the first place! I said it in my head, but my mouth was dying to say it too.
I got as close as possible and somewhat tossed the food and drinks on the bed. She could reach the refrigerator, so she could put it in there herself. I continued to ignore her as she asked me a thousand questions. She was scared; it was in her voice, but she was keeping it together. Keeping my eye on her, I walked a few feet to glance in the bathroom to see if I saw any bloody tissues or anything. Any sure sign of a miscarriage or confirmation that the baby was gone. But I didn’t see anything.
“What do you want from me? What do you want from me? Who are you? Please. Why did you do this to me?”
Her begging made me despise Elroy even more. Why couldn’t he have just been the man that he had been pretending to be? He was the cause of this. He’d pushed me to this point. But since we were here, I might as well finish the job.
She watched me as I just stood there watching her. I studied her. I actually had a moment to just look at her. Not in a rush for
anything, not trying to see how I could kidnap her, or watching for her next move. But I really just had a chance to look at her. I guess I could see why he would like her physically.
It was something about her eyes and her nose. They were the best features of her face. But she didn’t look better than me. Still, she was very pretty.
“Why are you doing this? I’m pregnant. I can’t stay down here like this. My baby will die. And with these chains all over me like this, I feel like I can barely breathe. Please. Please. I won’t tell. Just please let me go,” she said softly but still, I didn’t say a word.
I wanted to ask her all kinds of questions about her and Elroy. I wanted to know their story and I wanted to know if her truth matched Elroy’s truth. I was sure that he’d left out a thing or two and I was dying to have a conversation with her. Woman to woman. But it was best if I just didn’t say a word. It didn’t really matter what their story was anyway. The point was that Elroy loved her, he chose her and her baby was in my way! Period!
Her phone made a noise in my pocket and it was as though she recognized the ringtone. She started to scream as though I was really going to be dumb enough to answer it. I took the phone out of my back pocket and turned my back to her to see if it was Elroy texting her again or calling. But it wasn’t him. It was one of her friends, Emily or something, so I just ignored the call. I took the liberty of turning the phone on silent and just as I was about to turn back around to face her, something hit me upside of the head.
As the can of soda fell to the floor, she threw another one and then another one. Hitting me hard in the head every single time.
“Bitch!” I screamed and scurried towards the steps.
“You’re a woman? You’re a damn woman? Hey, come back here! Come back here! You’re a woman!” she screamed as I hurried up the steps.
I slammed the door behind me and locked it. I stood still until my head stopped throbbing and I focused on not getting upset. I just had to breathe. I just needed to breathe. Hell if I’d been her, I would have done the same thing.
Once my head stopped pounding, I headed out of the house and glanced back at it one last time before driving away. Since she wanted to throw sodas, let’s see how bad she wished that she could reach them before I came back…next week.
~***~
“You’re going to get caught,” they said and hung up.
What? I looked at the phone and of course the number was private. Who was that and what did they mean that I was going to get caught? What were they talking about? Did they know? Did they know what I’d done to Kera?
It had been almost two weeks since I’d taken Kera.
I hadn't been back to check on her again, since that day that she hit me with the canned sodas, but I knew that I had to soon. She was surely out of food by now. But I shifted my thoughts from her back to the caller.
Who was that? How could they know about what I’d done? Maybe they had the wrong number. Maybe they hadn't meant to call me at all. I shook my head and got back to work, but now the situation was definitely on my mind.
Though Kera had been gone for a while now, Elroy still hadn't called me. He hadn't texted me or come by my house. Nothing. I had been by his house at least a thousand times. He was there, when he wasn’t working, but he never called me. Not even once. He hadn't done one single thing that I’d thought that he would do and I was starting to wonder if all of this was for nothing.
I was starting to realize that maybe she was the one that had really had his heart all along and whether tricking him into wanting to be with me or not, maybe she always would.
But how could someone pretend to be madly in love with you for three years? It just seemed impossible. It just didn’t add up which was the only reason why I felt that the love the he’d had for me, to some degree, had been genuine and true. It just had to be because a person can only pretend for so long. He had to have some kind of real love for me. I mean maybe it was just like he said. He was in a bad situation and his lies and choices just forced him to choose. But he’d chosen the wrong woman. He should have chosen me.
“You’ve been distant lately. Distracted,” my father, my boss, Mr. Roger Thomas himself, said, walking into my office and taking a seat. I smiled at him though I didn’t really feel like smiling.
“I just have a lot of my mind.”
“Yeah. It has something to do with you and Elroy,” my father said.
“What?”
“You haven’t been around. And you haven’t worn your engagement ring in forever Serenity,” he said.
I looked down at my finger. I’d actually gone out to buy one to replace the one that Elroy had gotten me, just to wear to keep my family off of my back. But I’d been so distracted with everything lately that I forget to put it on.
“It’s nothing. Really,” I said to him but he knew that he was lying.
“Serenity, sometimes things don’t work out the way that we want them to. Sometimes people in our lives are just passing through. Don’t force what doesn’t fit. Who doesn’t want love? Who doesn’t want happiness? But there’s no rush.”
“Daddy, what are you talking about?”
“Love. You. Elroy. Sometimes it’s just easier to let go.”
“Daddy, Elroy and I are fine. And I’m thirty. I don’t exactly have a whole lot of time left to play the field or anything if you know what I mean. I’m the only one that isn’t married. Everyone else is happy and in love, so I’m trying to get that part of my life together too. Letting go isn’t that simple. And for some, sometimes, it’s not an option.”
“But holding on sometimes hurts even more. And you’re not in a race. Just live life. Sometimes you can think that someone is happy or that something is just perfect, envy it, and even want it for yourself. But you don’t know the hell that they could be going through just to keep it. Some people just paint the perfect image. Sometimes, you just have to start over. And it’s nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about. Look, all I’m saying is that it is okay to get disappointed. Just don’t let it consume you, make you bitter, or make it to where you can’t even focus at work or in court,” he said now sounding more like my boss than like my father.
“I know. Well, I was planning to take a vacation. Maybe I need some time away. I have plenty of vacation days saved up. Maybe I’ll take about two weeks off.”
“You should. Clear your head. Get yourself together. You don’t have to tell me what’s going on, just take care of yourself. Put it in and start your vacation tomorrow. But I have someone in my office and she’s going to wonder where I snuck off to. Love you,” my father said and after that he was gone.
I always admired his wisdom and his knowledge, but he didn’t understand. He already had someone who really loved him and planned on being with him forever. I wanted that too.
For the next few hours, I worked hard, done what I could, checked the calendar for Nate’s son’s next court date, put my time in and by lunch time, I was headed out with no plans of returning to my office for the next two weeks. I would probably still do a few things at home, but I really did need this time to get myself together. I just needed to think.
As soon as I was inside of my car, my phone started to ring again, and I answered it in a hurry.
“Hello?”
“You’re going to get caught,” they said again.
“Who in the hell is this? Huh?” But they didn’t answer me. They simply hung up again.
Somebody knew something.
But what did they know?
And more importantly, how much would it cost me to keep them quiet?
~***~
I took the long way home and drove by Elroy’s house again but he wasn’t there. I knew that I needed to go check on Kera, but the strange phone calls had me shook.
They were calling over and over again now. I didn’t know if someone knew what I’d done to her. I didn’t know if someone was watching me and I didn’t want them to catch me in the act or follow me to my grandmo
ther’s house. I’d been trying to figure out what else the caller could have been referring to, but it always led back to Kera. If not that, then what else could they have been talking about?
Did someone see us take her that day at her house?
I wasn’t sure. But I knew that they had to have saw something. And I wanted to know what. Still yet, I couldn’t leave her down there to rot, so I was going to eventually have to go by or at least send Nate.
I had an old client that was good at cracking things, from a technology stand point and she could probably get past the private calling to see who was behind them, but she was out on maternity leave and said that she wouldn’t have access to anything until she got back to work. So, I would just have to wait.
Arriving home, my eyes lit up and all of my thoughts and concerns disappeared. I even managed to smile.
Elroy was there.
Okay! So finally he had come to talk to me. He watched me pull in and I put my game face on. He was sitting on the porch, looking. He was just sitting there. It seemed as though he was in deep thought. Looking at him, though part of me was happy to see him, the other part of me just wanted to stab him, like fourteen times, preferably in the heart, so that his heart could hurt just like mine did. I wanted to stab him for all of the things he’d done to me and for loving another woman. I blamed him for pushing me to the edge of doing something so drastic. I kept telling myself if something happened to her that it would be his fault, but really, here lately, and maybe because of the phone calls, I’d started to feel just a little ashamed for what I was doing just to win him back. I mean, I loved him but damn! And though he was right there in front of me, the truth was that he was only there because Kera was “gone”. He wasn’t there because he wanted to be or because he’d thought that he’d made the wrong choice and wanted to be with me. He was only there because I’d taken his first choice away.
Did I really want him back like that?