by Mack Collins
Unscrupulous Desires
Sisters Torn Apart
Dangerous Family Secrets Volume 1
By
Mack Collins
Copyright 2012 by Mack Collins. Published by Make Profits Easy LLC
facebook.com/mackcollinstheauthor
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
PROLOGUE
When Linda Carter is arrested at her sister’s bedside, she has no idea what to do or say. Although she is a lawyer by profession the entire situation takes her by surprise. Linda and her sister Molly had always had a tremulous relationship and with Molly’s recent accident all fingers seem to point at Linda. No one really knows why she would intentionally try to harm her sister. In a surprising twist of events Linda shows a lighter, more compassionate side in the court room, stating that she would never hurt her only sister. But does the jury believe her story. The prosecutor is a court shark and will do whatever it takes to prove that Linda’s actions are based solely on her unscrupulous desires. The court room is heated as the two lawyers battle it out. The entire situation escalates after the hearing. Molly James is back with a vengeance and will stop at nothing to destroy her sister’s life. In a story of lust, envy, betrayal, hidden secrets and unscrupulous desires two sisters are completely torn apart.
CHAPTER ONE
“Do you need a moment with her Miss Carter?” the doctor asked with a solemn face.
I looked down at Molly’s somewhat lifeless body. Today would be exactly six months since she’d been in the coma. She was near dead the doctors told me. But the blood that pumped through her heart let me know that she was still with us. Her face looked pale, a certain level of innocence resided on her face. Her hair had been brushed back neatly by one of the nurses and I had even put on her favorite shade of lipstick on her lifeless lips. To me she looked like a sleeping angel.
Suddenly I felt it. Two strong masculine hands forced my hands into handcuffs. I gasped, struggling to break free.
“Miss Carter you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Molly James. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an Attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?” His voice was firm and gruff.
“Yes. But I didn’t do anything!” I cried.
I managed to turn my head around just enough to see his police badge hanging loosely around his neck. I was being arrested right there in my sister’s hospital room. I had done nothing wrong, but the policeman did not seem to care about anything I had to say.
“I am innocent,” I said again. “I did not do this to my sister, let me go,” I pleaded desperately as he shoved me viciously out of the room. I continued to struggle against his firm grip but my efforts were all futile.
This must have been the way most of my clients felt when they were arrested. For the first time in my life I found myself on the opposite end of the law. We finally get to his car which was parked directly at the front door of the hospital; he opens the back and pushes me inside.
“This is definitely police brutality” I thought to myself. “When I get this all straightened out at the station I am going to personally see that he loses his badge.”
The back of the police car feels cold and I am starting to feel claustrophobic. The windows were all the way up, without allowing any air in. The entire ride to the station was quiet; the policeman did not even look back at me to see if I were dead or alive. Soon we arrive at the station. As we make our way through the small crowd of policemen siting at the various desks, a frightening shiver runs through my body, I look around nervously. I can see their piercing, judgemental stares; some with disgust, others with anger and others have impartial looks on their masculine faces. A tall dark hair man dressed in a black suit walks up to us.
His eyes look down at me, “Well, well, well, looky here, the great Linda Carter,” he says with a sarcastic smirk on his face.
He grabs hold of one of my arms, “I’ll take it from here Jerry,” he said to the arresting officer motioning to him to leave the two of us alone. The dark haired man leads me into a small room in the back. The room is empty, the only furniture in it are a long table with two chairs one on each side. There are glass windows on one side of the room; however the windows are not transparent. I have been in this room before, but never in cuffs. In the past my visits to this room were for the sole purpose of representing my clients. It is the interrogation room. He sits me on one of the chairs while he walks over to the other end and sits down slowly into his chair. He pulls out a small black recorder and a note pad from his pocket and places them on the table in front of him. Then he stretches his hand to the center of the table placing the recorder between the two of us. His long index finger presses down on the small red button. I know that he has now begun recording everything that I will say. My palms are sweaty and I’m trying hard to not let him detect my nervousness. In the past I have seen many of my clients implicate themselves with just a few inappropriate words. My knees are shaking uncontrollably and I know he has realized my fear, his look intensifies and he is staring me down. There is an ice cold silence in the room that makes me feel, nauseous, so nauseous.
He finally breaks the silence, his voice is gruff and husky, “I am Officer Pagan, nice to finally meet you.”
Did he know me? If he did I surely did not know him. I had never even seen this man.
“Miss Carter you’re a smart woman, you must know why we have you here today,” he leans in closer placing his elbows on the table.
“Did you really think you would get away with this?” He asked with a hint of sarcasm in his deep voice. His eyes are dark grey and I can almost see a shadow of myself through them.
I am an attorney, one of the best, the renowned Linda Carter; I have an MBA in law with almost fifteen years’ experience.
I won’t allow myself to crack under this pressure, “Pull it together Lin,” I say to myself in my mind. I take a deep silent breath trying to collect my thoughts. I know that he will be carefully listening to every word I say picking out those he can use against me. I must be very, very cautious with what I say. I finally answer his question.
“I was not even here in Miami the time of the accident; I was at a conference in Detroit. I stayed at the West Springs Hotel. You can call them to verify. You can also check the camera footage from the hotel. I was there.” I said in a firm assertive voice.
I looked him straight in the face, waiting anxiously to hear what he would say. He was so cocky, so arrogant; I could see the wicked little smirk on his face. He squinted his eyes a little still maintaining an intense gaze.
“Oh believe me, I know all about your so-called conference in Detroit. Very smart indeed. Everything in your plan would have worked except you forgot one small minor detail.”
“And what was that, officer?” I surprised myself with that question. I wished I could have taken that question back.
With that he sprung to his feet and walked around the table to where I was seated. Leaning over me, I could feel his hot breath on my ear.
“You see Linda, one can’t stay in a hotel room three nights straight without leaving any creases in the sheets, no dirty towels, and have an untouched bar of soap. They could not even find a strand of hair in
the room.”
I was about to answer when he continued his statement. ‘Did you even go to the room, Linda? We have footage of you checking in and entering the elevator. But unless you’re some sort of neat freak it’s impossible for the room to have been so clean.”
He leaned in even closer as if to ensure that I heard his next few words, “The room was untouched you never even slept in there.”
“So what if I made my bed, used my own toiletries and cleaned up after myself,” I said with a curious tone of voice.
“Is it a crime?” I shot back at him.
He looked a little surprised by my sudden annoyance with his statements. But then again, did he think it would be that easy. Did he think that I would just confess? “He must be insane to think he can come at me with so little evidence,” I thought to myself, as I adjusted myself into my previous position.
I cocked my head up and looked in front of me. Now that I knew that the evidence that they had on me could easily be dismissed in court I felt this instant relief and a rush of confidence. As a lawyer I knew that I had nothing to fear.
Officer Pagan continued to interrogate me with a series of insignificant questions which I answered tactfully. Finally he looked down at his notepad. I knew he had not been asking me any of the questions that were written out in front of him.
“Miss Carter did you tamper in any way, with the brakes on Molly James’s car. Did you do anything that could cause harm to her?” He had a serious look on his face and his voice was cold as ice.
“Do you need your lawyer here; I was presuming that you would represent yourself. But do you need to call your lawyer?” He asked.
I immediately answered his question; I did not allow that window of suspicion to get wider.
“No I don’t need to call my lawyer, I’m my own lawyer,” I answered arrogantly.
“Okay, great,” he seemed content that I was going to represent myself.
Had I made a mistake?
“I did not tamper with Molly’s breaks. I did not do anything to Molly period. I have absolutely nothing to do with what happened to her. I love my sister with all my heart. I took care of her growing up, after our mom passed. She’s the only sister I have,” I looked him directly in the eye fighting back the stream of tears that were now making their way down my cheeks. This was the worst feeling in the world. I was being charged with attempted murder. The worst part was that the victim was my sister, Molly James.
“Okay well, if you didn’t do it, then you have nothing to worry about,’ he said as he walked over to one of the glass windows letting his colleagues who were all hidden on the opposite side know that he was done. A few seconds later two other uniformed policemen strode in and escorted me out.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked looking at all simultaneously.
Officer Pagan leaned in close to my ears once more, “See I just don’t believe you Miss Carter. You see I think you tried to murder your sister, so the question I have is: why?” he had a hint of arrogance in his voice.
He pulled away from me and with a straight face he said, “You’re being charged with attempted murder. You were here in Miami on the night of June fifth 2011; I have no doubt in my mind.”
“No I did not do it. I swear, I was out of town,” I yelled with the hope of convincing them of my innocence. I was desperately hoping that they would set me free. Prison would not be a good place for me, I was an attorney.
The policemen led me out of the room ignoring my cries to be set free. I was led down a lonely dark hallway to the back of the station. We came to a door which led to an area with several cells. As I looked around I could see several other women securely locked away behind the huge metal bars of their cells. Surprisingly they were quiet, distracted among themselves. Their demeanor was different; they were not rowdy the way they’re typically stereotyped in the movies. I was then escorted to a desk at the end of the hall where one of the policemen took my finger prints and another led me to a room, where my mug shot was taken. I was being processed before they put me into one of their cells.
The good thing was it was a temporary cell; I would only be there for no more than seventy two hours. However, seventy two hours would be too long for me to spend away from Molly’s bedside. I was told that I had one phone call. I tried to figure out who I would call. My sister was the closest family that I had in Miami; our parents had died when we were young. I had basically taken care of the two of us, working two jobs, pushing myself through law school and caring for Molly at the same time. Finally I decided to call Robert, my brother in law. I knew I could count on Rob; he would get me out of here.
His phone rang endlessly. “Where could Rob be?” I wondered to myself as I dialed the number one last time. I decided to leave a short urgent voicemail, hoping that he would make it his priority to get to the station when he heard it.
As one of the policemen led me to a cell I couldn’t help but have a moment of reflection. So many times I’ve chastised my clients for not immediately calling me when they were arrested. It is always best to have the legal representation when law enforcement officials attempt to question you, yet here I was in the same situation as my clients and I did not call anyone to legally represent me. I was doing exactly what some of my clients had done in the past. Deep down inside I knew I should have probably called one of my colleagues to help me. But my arrogance got the best of me. I was an attorney myself, a damn good one at that, in fact one of the best lawyers in the whole of Miami.
“How funny would it be to have Mason or even Luke represent me?” I laughed at that thought in my head.
“Here we go”, the policeman opened the iron doors and pushed me into the cell with almost too much force than was needed.
There were two other women already in there; they were both seated on their beds. Upon seeing me, they got off the bunk bed and walked over to where I was standing. One of them was very attractive much like me. Her hair was blonde and wavy like mine and our blue eyes matched perfectly. She looked totally out of her element.
What was someone like her doing here?
I was able to answer my own question, because here I was in the same place as her. She was slender in size and later told me her name was Amy Shutterland.
My other cell mate was a darker character. She had multiple colors in her hair, it looked like a rainbow. A small chuckle escaped my lips as I examined her from her head to her toes. My gaze went back to her hair; there were streaks of red, blonde, purple and blue in it. Her arms were covered with strange looking tattoos.
Her name was Suzanne, Suzanne Lace.
“But you can call me Big Sue,” she said when she introduced herself to me. Big Sue suited her well; she was taller and more masculine than the average woman. A huge scar ran from the top of her right cheek to the corner of her mouth. I was instantly curious about how it had gotten there.
What had happened to her?
“So why are you here?” Big Sue asked moving closer to me.
Although she was a bit intimidating at first, I had warmed up to her within the few minutes I had spent with them. I decided to open up to her. In fact, I decided to tell them both why I was arrested. Amy had also seemed interested in knowing my story; her eyes looked at me with curiosity burning through them.
I couldn’t help but realize that there was only one bunk bed, just enough for two people. Where would I sleep if Robert did not get my message tonight. Clearly there was not enough room for three people in that cell. Amy answered the question that had been lingering on my mind.
“Don’t worry I’ll be out of here by this evening. My mom’s on a flight to Miami as we speak, she will come bail me out as soon as she lands. You can have my bed,” she said with confidence.
A warm smile graced her pretty face, “Don’t worry it’s not that bad here.”
“So back to you, why are you in here?” Big Sue interrupted. I looked at her pensively then I slowly began to recall the events leading up to my arrest. “
Well it all started December of last year.” I stopped and thought hard for a moment.
“No, wait, it actually started before that, about ten years ago.”
I had to tell the story from the beginning, before my sister’s unfortunate accident. I decided to start from the day of her wedding.
“It had been a beautiful summer afternoon. A few of our family and friends were gathered on a private estate for my sister Molly’s wedding. She looked absolutely stunning. She was so, so beautiful. I felt happy for her but at the same time I must admit I felt a little envious of her. She was my baby sister and she was getting married before me, although I had been engaged before her.”
I stopped and thought for a moment, I needed to clarify the engagement thing. I saw Amy glance at my finger when I mentioned that I was engaged.
“Well my engagement did not work out, he walked out on me. But that’s another story, back to Molly’s wedding. I always thought that she rushed into the whole marriage thing, you know. She was only twenty two at the time of the wedding. I tried to tell her that having a baby with someone does not mean you have to get married to that person right away. She was about six months pregnant and I just felt like she did not have to get married yet, she could have probably waited. But Molly ignored my warnings; she did not want her baby born out of wedlock, period.”
I stopped what I was saying and I watched the two women. They were now seated beside me at the edge of the bottom bed. Big Sue was on my right while Amy sat on my left. They were both equally engrossed in what I was saying.
“Why didn’t she just wait and have sex after she was married, if she was so prim and proper,” Sue said with a smirk on her face.
She did have a point, Molly had kept telling me the entire time that she was a virgin and was not having sex. She was in church every Sunday, singing in the choir, preaching, doing everything a good Christian girl should be doing. Except for one thing, she was secretly having unprotected sex with her boyfriend at the time, Robert. It had come as a shock not only to me, but to the people of the church when they saw her pregnant.