Revengeful Deceptions

by Ursula Dukes

  “I don’t want your fucking bracelet she screamed, I never asked for this, I never asked for any of it but you can rest assured that I mean to finish it Adam, get out! Get the fuck out!”

  “Dominique I...”

  As Pam went to console her weeping friend, Rob stepped in front of Adam.

  “Listen I think you've hurt her enough buddy, it's time for you to go, and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave her alone for good. You got that? Don’t come around here anymore Adam.

  The woman just got hit by a car for god's sake, she needs to recover and rest. I know who you are Adam and I know all about that scum bag brother of yours too and here I thought you were the decent one, boy was I wrong, go home Adam and forget about Dominique, she's better off without you.”

  Adam let Rob steer him to the door and push him out, he was broken, defeated. He had hurt Dominique so bad there was no way she would ever forgive him, it’s for the best, he told himself before getting back in the car and driving home for the holidays.

  Dominique lay on her bed sobbing like a child.

  “Oh Dominique honey, I am so sorry. What can we do to help Dominique, you name it and we'll do it.”

  “There's nothing anyone can do Pam, but I’ll be alright, I should be used to all this by now. You know what? No I am not going to do this, especially not on Christmas Eve, god I wish I could drink!”

  “Well you can't so what's say I pour you some sparkling cider and we try to salvage this Christmas Eve? Besides we don’t want Santa to skip this place and he will if he finds a bunch of sappy ass people moping around. Now let’s go wash your face and start getting you cheered up.”

  “Oh Pam I am so sorry! You guys come all the way here to spend the holiday with me and look, I’ve done nothing but cry and scream and curse. I am so very sorry Pam, can you please forgive me?”

  “Dominique you're pregnant, you're hormonal already,” she joked. And you are a part of our family and believe me when I tell you there is no place we'd rather be. You know what you can do to make it up to us? Get out of this room and come and have yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” she said with a smile. “And I mean that now come on lets go young lady!”

  “I love you Pam.”

  “I love you too Dom,” she said as she gave her friend a hearty hug.

  While Dominique and her friends spent the rest of their Christmas Eve eating, drinking and singing carols that Dominique was sure were going to cause the neighborhood cats and dogs to join in, Adam sat stone faced and heartbroken while all around him his family celebrated the holiday.

  After Pam and Rob left, Dominique felt utterly alone. She had enjoyed their company so much; she was devastated to see them leave. Once they had helped her get through the heartache that seeing Adam again had brought her she was able to enjoy the rest of her holiday.

  She hoped that her many emotional outbreaks had not harmed the baby. “It's just me and you kiddo, me and you,” she whispered. Dominique knew that she had only a matter of days to pack everything in her apartment.

  She would be renting yet another storage unit, this one in Boston, she would bring only what she needed and purchase everything else once she got to Nantucket. Rob had given her a wonderful gift, the gift of a new identity. With Rob's help, Dominique was able to secure a new driver’s license and social security card. He was even able to get her a few credit cards bearing her new name, Jocelyn Reid.

  “This is just a precaution Dominique, you’re to use these if you get in a bind or you want to do some online shopping, open up a library card, things like that. I've also got you a new insurance card so that you can take care of my little nephew,” he said jokingly, Rob loved Dominique like a sister.

  “Or niece,” she joked back. “Rob I appreciate all of this thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome, and don’t forget Dominique, if things get too hairy, you stop what you’re doing and run you hear me? The minute you sense any danger you get the hell out of there okay? Promise me Dominique.”

  “I promise Rob, but let's hope that it doesn’t come to that.”

  Molly and Neal helped Dominique put the last of her things in storage on December 30. Neal had put the unit in his name and Dominique had paid off the rental for a year. The sale of the house had gone through some months ago and she was glad. If for some reason someone went to New Hampshire looking for her, they would find that she hadn't lived in that house in years. Leave the new owners at peace, she hoped.

  That night Dominique lay wide awake in bed, she had waited 2 years for this to happen and now, in a matter of hours it was all going to come to an end. Everything would be let out and when it was all said and done, Brandon Caruso would either turn himself in or die.

  As far as Jonathan Caruso, Muriel had plans for that no good son of a bitch, and so did Molly and Neal. Jonathan Caruso had not only covered for his no good son, but he has mistreated too many people for far too long, especially his wife.

  To think that he allowed her to be raped all for some tuition money, and then he fires Neal. Poor Neal, gets discharged from the military, lands a job as an investigator for the firm and does one hell of a job at it, and gets fired by Jonathan just so he can make room for that sleaze bag Brandon.

  But I have no doubt that Muriel will get the better of him once she gives him the ultimatum. Then there's Adam, Adam was totally innocent until he decided to keep the truth from me.

  But Dominique knew that she could not be upset at Adam because of that, she believed that he did love her and that he did it so that she could move on. She had thought that on the night of Christmas Eve when Adam showed up that he wanted to make amends but that wasn’t the case. He's done with me and there's nothing I can do to change that.

  After only a few hours’ sleep, Dominique woke up to the sun rising high in the sky. As she got out of bed, the first wave of nausea took over and she raced to the bathroom.

  “Oh god, not today, please don’t start with the morning sickness today little one I can't be late.”

  Dominique was all too familiar with the signs of morning sickness from when she was pregnant with Teddy. She remembered how the same thing had happened within weeks of she and Stephen finding out that she was pregnant. She remembered calling her doctor and asking if it was normal, “Of course.” She was told by the nurse.

  “That’s your body's hormones starting to build up,” she said. She also remembered that she was able to ease it by eating and drinking the traditional crackers and ginger ale. “I promise I’ll stop on the way to the penthouse little one if you just give me enough time to get ready and go.”

  Dominique sat in front of the toilet until the nausea subsided.

  “Thank you.” she smiled as she turned on the shower.

  After her shower, Dominique dressed warmly in a pair of denim jeans, tank and wool cardigan. She wasn’t sure what the weather would be on the island so she put on a pair of ugg boots. It's something she would have worn back in New Hampshire she thought to herself. Taking one last look around and grabbing her bags, she locked up and headed to the penthouse.

  “We're all here Dominique, just waiting on you,” said Muriel dressed casually and sipping her coffee along with Molly and Neal.

  “I'm on my way up, I had my first bout with morning sickness, see you in a minute.”

  Once inside, Dominique set down her small grocery bag and began eating and drinking her crackers and ginger ale.

  “Dominique are you feeling up for this?” Muriel asked.

  “I've never been more ready. Let’s do this. Go ahead Muriel, make the calls.”

  While Muriel made the necessary calls to her husband Jonathan, and son's Adam and Brandon, Molly, Neal and Dominique got out the supplies; heavy duty duct tape, plastic cable ties, and box cutters for each of them. Three chairs were set out in the living room of the penthouse.

  Neal would be the one holding the gun. It was to be used for shock value only she told him, but if anything went wrong, Dom
inique told Neal to use it. “Just not on Adam,” she told him.

  “They're on the way.” Muriel said. “I did just like we rehearsed; I told Jonathan and Adam that there were police and detectives here asking about Brandon's connection with Nick Kilarmo. And I told Brandon that I had a check here for him, they'll be here in about a half hour. Is everything ready?”

  “Yup, all we do now is wait.” Dominique nodded at Neal who took his place directly behind the front door. They only had to wait 20 minutes before Dominique watched as Jonathan and Adam arrived together. “Okay they are together.” Dominique spoke with authority, “Change of plans, Neal, you take Adam and I’ll take Jonathan, he won't put up a fight if you’re holding a gun to his sons head alright?”

  “No problem Dominique.”

  “Good but remember Neal, don’t hurt him.”

  Dominique’s heart began to race as they stood quietly on either side of the door. Please let this go as planned, she silently prayed and don’t let anyone that I care about get hurt.

  Just as the door opened, Neal's military experience kicked in and he had Adam subdued within minutes. Dominique simply pushed Jonathan, who was completely taken by surprise, to the ground and had the cable ties around his wrists in a matter of seconds. Muriel smirked as she watched Jonathan helpless and struggling.

  Adam on the other hand was not willing to go down without a fight. Not until he saw Dominique tying up his father.

  “Dominique what the hell is going on?” He screamed as Neal held him in a choke hold.

  “Adam, don’t fight, sit down and relax, it'll all be explained once your brother arrives.”

  “Muriel, did you have anything to do with this?” Jonathan asked his wife.

  “You’re goddamn right I did Jonathan now sit down the both of you and let's wait for Brandon.”

  Adam and Jonathan shared a surprised look with one another before being forced to sit down. Neal returned to his spot at the front door to await Brandon's arrival. He knew that if Adam put up a hard fight, Brandon was going to put up an even harder one.

  Dominique stood in silence as she watched Molly and Muriel tighten the cable ties and bind her husband and sons mouths with duct tape. Adam could not take his eyes off of Dominique, and she returned his gaze as if to say, you brought this all upon yourselves.

  The room got uncomfortably quiet as they waited for Brandon's arrival.

  “Maybe I should call him again.” Muriel said worried that Brandon was going to ruin the plan.

  “Nope, get ready Neal; he's on his way up.

  Neal found taking Brandon quite easy as Brandon had been up all night and was still hung over from his night of partying. The nausea had returned but Dominique was determined to fight it.

  Once they were all tied and bound with cable ties and duct tape, Dominique began to talk, she wanted to start by telling them a story, one they would never forget.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  “Good morning ladies and gentleman, I’m sure you three are wondering why this gracious and wonderful woman summoned you all here by telling you a lie. Well its simple, I asked her to. You see gentleman I needed to tell you a story, a story that I only need to tell once so I figured this would be the easiest way, so let’s get started shall we?”

  Jonathan and Adam exchanged looks while Brandon struggled to get out of his chair. Dominique did not like being interrupted, especially by him. Walking over to him she leaned down and whispered in his ear. “Brandon, you wiggle in your seat one more time, I'm gonna shoot you dead, just like I shot your friend.”

  Brandon had never seen such coldness in her eyes. He sat still and remained seated.

  “Now where was I? Oh yes my story. So Jonathan, Adam, Brandon, I want you to sit back and relax, close your eyes if you must, but make sure you listen and listen good because this is an amazing story. We start off in New Hampshire, it’s a quiet October night and my husband Stephen and I are in bed, it’s almost midnight or so and the phone rings, waking us up from our slumber.

  It's our friend Beth, it seems that our little boy Theodore has had a bad dream and wants his daddy to pick him up. No problem said Stephen I’ll be right there.”

  “Are you all following me? Nod if you’re following me.”

  Once the bound men nodded Dominique continued.

  “So Stephen, that's my husband; gives his wife a kiss goodbye, that’s me, and tells her that he loves her before he heads out the door. He hopes into his '66 mustang, he loved that car by the way,” she says turning around to face Muriel and Molly. They smile and nod at her because they know things are about to get difficult for her.

  “Anyway, he goes to Beth's house which is off of Route 101 and picks up Teddy. Okay now this part I have to skip ahead a few hours because I was not in the car so I don’t know what happened once Stephen picked up Teddy.

  Of course only one person in this room knows what happened but we'll get to that later. So it’s late and I’m suddenly awake. I don’t know why but something makes me go and check in on my boys, I mean here I am expecting to find Stephen and Teddy fast asleep in his room right? WRONG! No one is there, it’s just me.

  So I begin to panic as any normal person would do right? I'm calling, and calling Stephen's cell phone but I’m not getting an answer. I'm about to drive myself insane so I call our friends Rob and Pam and they rush over. Then the cops show up at my door and I can't believe what they are telling me. They try to tell me that there was a fatal accident and that my boys won’t be coming home ever again.

  That their dead and that I don’t want to see my little Teddy or my Stephen at their worst that I need to remember them like they are in this picture. Look at this picture!” Dominique screamed at them to look as she forcefully shoved the picture in each ones face. Tears streamed down Adams face as he felt the extreme anguish spewing out of Dominique.

  “This picture is what the officer handed me and told me what I should remember. You know why Jonathan? Brandon? No? I'll tell you, it’s because my boys were so torn up they knew I wouldn’t be able to recognize them, I couldn’t even give them an open casket you son of a bitch do you know how that makes me feel? Do you know what it feels like to not be able to say goodbye?

  Do you?” Dominique shouted and stomped over towards Brandon slapping him hard in the face. “Fuck you, you son of a bitch! You took away my husband and you took away my son, my baby. He was seven years old, seven years old and you took him from me you motherfucker.”

  Rage filled her body as she began to punch and hit Brandon repeatedly. Finally, Molly had to subdue her. Adam wanted so very bad to take her in his arms and hold her, he understood now that keeping the secret that allowed his brother to get away with murder was wrong if only he could tell her.

  “Dominique,” Molly whispered, “think about the baby, you've got to take it easy.”

  Dominique had broken down in tears but with Muriel and Molly holding her hand she continued. “I had no idea what happened to cause the accident and neither did the police, but they found two sets of footprints at the scene Brandon, and tire treads that belonged to a big SUV.

  An SUV that was no doubt destroyed!” She said, glaring at Jonathan. “Oh they had no leads or witnesses to go on so by and by the months go on, and I bury my son and husband. Still no leads so they call the case cold, but I’ve got friends in high places Brandon, just like you do except my friends work within the law not outside of it.

  These friends do some digging on their own and turns out the same night my boys are killed some drug dealers are buying some cocaine, same time they finish up is the same time my boys are driving home, home to me Brandon, except they don’t get very far do they. The drug dealers get pulled over in New Hampshire and the suppliers are heading back home to Boston. Then BAM BRANDON! Oh I’m sorry, did I scare you, did I make you jump? Don’t worry this story has a happy ending, well for some of us anyway,” she laughed sarcastically.

  So these suppliers run my boys off the road, get
out of their vehicle, I’m sorry their large SUV and watch as they lie dying. And according to your good pal Nick Brandon, Stephen was still alive and you watched him die.

  Brandon shook his head violently.

  “What's that? I can't understand a word your saying, don’t worry you'll have your chance, when I wrap things up,” she slapped him hard on the face.

  So, I find out that it was Brandon and Nick, I do a little searching on the internet, I find info on Brandon, Adam and you Jonathan.

  But nothing on Nick, not a photo, article, nothing, but that's alright because I figured when I find the slug Brandon, I’ll find his slimy partner as well. But back to you Jonathan, I didn’t know that you or Adam were involved so my plan was to go after Nick and Brandon.

  Get them to turn themselves in. But when I found out that they are not the most upstanding of men, I devised up this plan, and since I already took care of Nick, I was relived; I mean, here it was, one less person out of the equation. You see Brandon?

  It was simple; I’d get you all in a room and make you confess. Your buddy Nick got what was coming to him, and let’s face it; he walked right into that one. He was so sure that I would be easy to kill. Guess he was wrong wasn't he Brandon?” She said staring him in the eyes. “But I needed help with getting to the rest of you, and when I moved here I knew no one but the moment I met Molly and she told me how you fired Neal just to make a spot for this animal,” she said pointing to Brandon.

  “I knew I could count on them and when I became close with Muriel and she told me what she told me, I thought to myself, this was all meant to be, but the one thing I wasn’t counting on was falling in love with you Adam.”

  Dominique walked over to him now, she wanted him to see in her eyes that she meant every word that she was about to say to him.

  “Adam, when I met you I thought I would burst, you made me smile, you made me laugh and you were so protective of me. Even our first date do you remember that maniac trying to grab me? And you were right there, my knight in shining Armor.