Underestimated

by Jettie Woodruff

  “Me? Get her the fuck out of here. She’s the psycho one,” he demanded, still holding his arm.

  The other big man with black as coal hair grabbed him by his suit jacket and yanked him up, shoving him out the door. I almost felt bad for the terrified look on his face. No. not really.

  “If you need anything else, you call this number,” the bald man said, handing me his card.

  “Thank you,” I smiled, taking the card.

  I hadn’t realized that I had stopped breathing until I was once again alone. I sucked in every last bit of air from that room.

  Now to take care of Drew. I was running on pure adrenalin. I could feel the blood dry up in my veins and the adrenalin was the only thing keeping me alive.

  If only I knew where Drew was, He could have been anywhere. I was sure he was in the air somewhere. I just wasn’t sure where. Was he an hour away, two, four, six? I had no clue. Why the hell hadn’t I asked more questions last night? Oh, yeah, because my brain was overloaded and I couldn’t think straight. I still couldn’t think straight. What was I going to do when he got there?

  I sat in the same spot for an hour and forty minutes with my thoughts a scrambled mess. I went from one memory to another. There were so many of them. It’s the weirdest thing in the world to not know who you are or remember things that happened to you. It’s even weirder to have them all come surging back like a lightning strike. I finally got up, taking my pistol with me.

  I walked toward the north corridor and knew exactly why I had avoided that side of the mansion. I wouldn’t even do my therapy in that room. I didn’t know why at the time. I just knew that I couldn’t go in there.

  I opened the steel door to the still empty gym and looked straight across the room at my reflection in the mirror. I didn’t know who I was looking at. It was like looking into the eyes of a ghost without a soul. I was empty.

  I looked over to the padded bench, and the memories once again flooded my awareness. I felt everything Drew had done to me in that room. I felt the shame, the humiliation, the hurt and the neglect when the steel door would close, and I would be left alone in silence for days.

  I dropped to my knees and sobbed. I cried for the little girl who lived in poverty. I cried for the girl whose little brother was ripped from her arms. I cried for the girl whose mother deserted her. I cried for the girl whose father sold her to a monster. I cried for Starlight and Lauren. I cried for the only man who had ever truly loved me, and I cried for the girl that was having a hard time believing that Drew was capable of what he had done.

  “Morgan,” I heard Drew, quietly say from behind me.

  I didn’t move. I stayed on my knees and kept my hands on my lap, covering the gun.

  “Do you think it’s still Stockholm syndrome when you fall in love with the Drew that you didn’t know?” I asked.

  “Morgan, please give me time to explain,” he pleaded.

  I saw him step toward me through the mirror. I spun around and came to my feet. I pointed the gun right at his head.

  “Explain what, Drew? Explain how I remember every last thing that you ever did to me? Explain how you used me for your own personal toy or would you like to explain why you used me for your own personal punching bag?” The tears were falling. I knew they were, but I was too shook up to control them. I couldn’t hold my husband at gunpoint and think about that too.

  “Morgan. Put the God damn gun down and talk to me,” he yelled in the tone that I remember scaring the hell out of me at one time. The thing was, it didn’t scare me anymore. It pissed me off.

  “Back up!” I yelled. I wasn’t intimidated by his over aggressive demeanor anymore. I was Charlie’s Angels, Cagney and Lacey, GI Jane, okay, so I watched a lot of television. It was all that I had to do when I was a prisoner in this house.

  “Morgan, it doesn’t have to be this way. Haven’t I let you come and go as you please?”

  That pissed me off even more. “You let me? Fuck you! I don’t need you to let me do shit.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. Please, put the gun down. Where is Derik?”

  I knew he had sent him to settle me down.

  “Don’t underestimate me. I shot him.” Well, I did. It just barely scraped his arm, but I did shoot him.

  “Morgan, I am so sorry. Please let me tell you the whole story. I love you.”

  “Back up!” I yelled again, when he tried to walk toward me. He took a step back, and I told him to keep going until he was in the far side of the room. I walked toward the door with the gun pointed right at his forehead.

  I barely got the steel door locked when he crashed into it. I jumped, but knew he wasn’t getting out of that room until I let him out. I slid down the door, sinking to the floor. I just knew that my heart was going to beat right out of my chest and be lying on the floor in front of me at any second. I thought I was having an adrenaline rush before, but this was ridiculous.

  I walked back to Drew’s office and logged onto his computer. I remembered the first password with ease, but when I clicked the icon for the cameras, I had to try three different ones, but finally got it. I clicked on the gym camera and just like magic. There he was. He had removed his jacket and tie, and was pacing back and forth, running his fingers through his too long hair. I told him a week ago that he needed a haircut.

  Okay, I could see and hear him. How did I make him hear me? Was there a button somewhere? Where was the microphone? I looked around the desk for something to make him hear me. I couldn’t find anything. I knew there was a way. He had talked to me when I was locked in there. No, he didn’t talk to me. He made me preform for him. I should make the bastard take all of his clothes off and do the same to him. I saw the little microphone in the corner of the screen and clicked it.

  “Hello,” well, that sounded stupid. I watched him look right into the camera.

  “Morgan, open the door. You’re not thinking straight.”

  “Have a seat, Drew. You’re going to be there a while.”

  “I can’t fucking be here a while. I have work to do.”

  “No. No. You don’t. The only thing that you need to worry about is starving to death. How many days do you think it will take? I’ve heard that it can be anywhere from three days to six weeks. Did you eat today, Drew?” Wow, I was crazy.

  “Morgan, what do you want from me?”

  “I want answers. I want to know why you brought me here. I’m not buying the whole I wanted a virgin to train anymore. You didn’t just pick a poverty stricken town and pick me. I want to know why?”

  I watched Drew sit on the bench and run his hands through his hair. He took a deep breath and looked right at me.

  Damnit, don’t look at me like that…

  “Mr. Callaway sent me there to get you.”

  “Why?” I had a hunch that he had something to do with it. He was too concerned about me.

  Drew took another deep breath. He didn’t want to tell me.

  “Tell me, Drew” I coaxed.

  “I have known Randle since I was thirteen. His son was going to marry my mom before he got cancer.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I would have inherited it all, millions of dollars. When Michael was on his death bed, losing his battle after six long years, he told Randle about you.”

  “What about me?”

  “Michael Callaway was your father.”

  “What? How could that be? My father is Gary Willow.”

  “No, he isn’t Morgan. Remember when I came to your school. We were sitting on the bleacher, and I picked a piece of fuzz from your sweater?”

  I did remember that. “Yes, so?”

  “It wasn’t fuzz. It was a hair. You are no doubt a Callaway.”

  I needed time to process again. What the hell? I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.

  “What do you buying me have to do with any of that?”

  “Randle Callaway had a stroke three days after he buried his son. He was in bad shape. Whe
n I went to see him in the hospital and give him the DNA results he cried. He knew from the many pictures that I had taken how you lived. He felt horrible and changed his will the next day, leaving you every last penny. I was pissed. I was to step into that role, not some stupid hillbilly from West Virginia.”

  “I’m not a stupid hillbilly.”

  Drew snorted and looked up to me again. “No. You’re not, Morgan. You’re a very strong independent, beautiful woman.”

  “Stop. Finish telling me how I ended up gracing your presence.” I didn’t want to hear compliments from Drew Kelley at the time.

  “Callaway gave me an ultimatum. He wanted me to continue to run his companies, and I would always have his money, but I had to marry you, and promise to take care of you.”

  “You didn’t take care of me, Drew,” I sadly spoke. I didn’t even mean to say it. It just came out.

  “I know that, Morgan, and if I could go back and change it, I would. I didn’t want you. I didn’t want you to be my wife, and you were ruining everything. I was in love with a girl named Skyler. I wanted to share all of this with her, not you.”

  “You punished me for something I didn’t know about?”

  “I deserve to starve to death in here, uh?”

  “Yeah, you do. I was here for almost six years before I ran away. Why didn’t I ever know that Randle Callaway was my grandfather?”

  “He didn’t want you to know. He was ashamed of his son for leaving you there when he knew how you lived. You were his only grandchild. It wasn’t supposed to be for that long. He was in awful shape. We didn’t expect for him to be around very long. I figured you would be here for six months at the most.”

  “What were you going to do with me if he died?”

  Drew looked down at the floor and buried his face in his hands.

  “Were you going to kill me, Drew?”

  “You were going to have an accident. That was the only way I would get what was rightfully mine.”

  I sunk in the chair. Wow, if Randle Callaway would have died. I would be dead right now.

  “Morgan, I don’t know how to make this right. I don’t care about one rotten penny of that money. I care about you, and that’s it. I hadn’t planned on falling in love with you, but you changed, and I don’t mean because you couldn’t remember your name. You are stronger, beautiful, and so much fun to be around. I wished to God that I would have given you the chance to show me that in the beginning. I would walk away from all of it right now if you would forgive me.”

  “Drew, do you have any idea what you put me through? You hit me. You used me for a sex slave. You locked me in that room for days, and then, and then…you made me love you.”

  Drew dropped his head in shame.

  “I’m sorry, Morgan.”

  “Where is my mom?”

  “Randle paid her to go away.”

  “My mom sold me too?” I said it more as a statement than a question. It was a fact.

  “You’ve been through hell.”

  “I’m still going through hell. What about my little brother. He’s here in Vegas somewhere.”

  “How do you know that?” Drew looked up with a wondering look.

  “Dawson found him for me.”

  “Who’s Dawson?”

  “Where is my brother?” I asked. I was asking the questions, not him. He didn’t have that right.

  “He was adopted by a client and a good friend of Randle’s. He wasn’t about to leave him in the system, knowing how he would turn out. He’s in a good home with parents who love him very much. He lives in the suburbs on a cul-de-sac. He’s doing very well.”

  “Mr. Callaway thinks that we are happily married, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes. That is why I got so mad when he insisted that you talk to him without me. I didn’t want you to say anything to blow my cover, and I have been happily married these last few months.”

  “Derik was in on all of this too, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes. He knew.”

  “Did he know that you raped me?”

  “Don’t say it like that, Morgan.”

  “How would you like for me to phrase it? Did you know that he raped me too?”

  Drew stood up. His face was instantly red. “Are you serious? When?”

  “A bunch of times, every time he would drive me anywhere.”

  “I’ll kill that motherfucker.”

  “You don’t have to worry about him. I told Mr. Callaway what he did.”

  That got another shocked look right toward the camera.

  “When?”

  “Before you sent him here to kill me.”

  “I never sent him here to kill you. I sent him here to calm you down.”

  “He was going to kill me,” I assured him.

  “Who’s Dawson,” he asked again.

  “My sheriff,” I replied with a sad tone.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I was going to marry him until I ended back up here in your web.”

  “You were going to marry him?” he asked with an almost hurt tone. Good. I wanted him to hurt. “How were you going to do that? You’re married to me.”

  “No. Morgan Kelley was married to you. I wasn’t Morgan Kelley there. I had a whole new identity. A whole new life. I was happy there.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “I loved him more than anything alive. He is the only one who has ever been there for me my entire life, and he loved me too. I do still love him, but I don’t know if it’s enough anymore.”

  “I’m sorry, Morgan. I should have let you get on that plane.”

  “Yeah. That would have made things easier,” I said it, but I knew that I would have spent the rest of my life wondering the answers to all of these questions.

  “Morgan, I know that it’s selfish of me to even think, but I want you. I love you.”

  “That is pretty selfish. A leopard’s spots never changes, Drew.”

  “My spots started changing the first time you kissed me.”

  “You never kissed me before.”

  “I didn’t want to be intimate with you. I wanted you to pay for messing everything up.”

  “How could I mess something up that I was unaware of?”

  “You couldn’t, Morgan. Your dad would be so disappointed in me,” Drew said with his head down. He was ashamed of himself. I never thought I would see the day.

  “How did he meet my mom?” I couldn’t say my dad. I never knew the man existed. I thought that when I heard my dad from back home say that he raised another man’s child that he was talking about Justin, not me.

  “I don’t know the answer to that. I didn’t want to know any of the details.”

  “You said that your mom was going to marry my dad. Where is your mom?”

  “She shot herself in the head the day after Michael’s funeral.”

  I gasped. “I’m sorry, Drew.”

  “Don’t you dare apologize to me. Don’t you ever apologize to me. I deserve to feel every bit of pain humanly possible,” he said, getting angrily.

  “I have to go to Mr. Callaway.”

  Drew only nodded. He knew that I would.

  “You’re not really going to leave me in here to starve are you?”

  “No,” I said getting up, “but you are going to stay there for a while.”

  I didn’t need an address. Mr. Callaway’s address was programmed into the GPS on Drew’s car. I had found it when I was sitting in his air-conditioned car one afternoon waiting for a game to start.

  His house was just as extravagant, only newer. I wondered if that would be left to me too. The grounds were meticulously kept, and the blacktop drive looked like it was freshly laid. It wasn’t quite as big as the house we lived in, but bigger than the normal mind could imagine.

  I walked up to the massive door. I’d never seen anything like it. There was an arch built from stone and the double doors were glass with etched tree branches galore. It was breathtaking. I rang the doorbell and all of a
sudden felt sick.

  The nurse that seemed to always be with Mr. Callaway answered, and I wondered if she was the only one there. She smiled at me.

  “He saw you walk up,” she said, gesturing with her hand for me to enter.

  Did this man have a camera fetish?

  Holy shit…

  The house was beyond astonishing. The ceilings looked like they could go on forever and I wanted to run my fingers across the vibrant marble floor. I followed the nurse as my eyes widely took in the surroundings. I was expecting to be taken to his bedroom, but I wasn’t. She led me to a den of some sort. I waited while she opened the wood pocket doors.

  Mr. Callaway must have been an advocate hunter. There was every exotic animal on the planet in that room. I almost jumped when I saw the stuffed Black Panther beside of me. It looked so real, and his eyes looked hungry.

  Mr. Callaway did look bad. I had never seen him look so sickly. His eyes were sunk into his skull, and his lips were dry and cracked. The nurse pushed the button on his bed and he struggled to sit. I got an immediate cold chill. You could feel death lurking in the air. I didn’t want him to die. I wanted to know him.

  He put his hand out to me, palm side up, and I placed mine in his.

  “How are you, Morgan?” he asked. I knew he was talking about Derik and what I had been through with him, and I was going to leave it at that. My intentions all along were to go there and expose Drew. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want him to think that he took me out of a bad situation and put me in a worse one.

  “I’m good Mr. Callaway. How are you?”

  “I have never been better,” he smiled.

  My eyes couldn’t seem to stop looking around the room at death. I’m sure if I would have counted, I would have counted close to fifty dead animals, including the paintings around the room. I couldn’t help but look at the owl straight across from me hanging from a branch that miraculously grew from the wall. His big eyes never left the sight of me.

  “You’re a hunter,” I stated the stupid fact.

  “I used to be. Have you ever been to Africa?”

  “No,” I replied. I had only been out of the country once, and that was when Drew took me for our anniversary.

  “You tell that boy I said to take you there, beautiful country,” he assured me.