Contracted To Love

Chapter 8

There was no way Michelle would let that be the end of the conversation. There had to be more. She was willing to do anything and everything to see her daughter and perhaps that was the problem. Her hand was shaking as she dialed Jean’s number again.

“1 haven’t changed my mind,” Jean said coolly when he picked up.

“And I’m not offering you anything just to have you take pleasure in what’s rightfully mine.”

“Well, this is what the judge—” Jean started and just then Michelle felt her mind snap.

“I don’t care about the fu*king judge, Jean. I should have visitation. I was granted visitation!”

“At my discretion,” Jean said and once again Michelle ran her fingers through her hair.

“I want my daughter, Jean. Every other weekend… just four days a month and you cannot even give me that?”

By this time the tears were flowing freely down her cheeks and she couldn’t be bothered to wipe them off, let alone stop them. Besides, it wasn’t like she could if she tried.

“I was doing you a courtesy by telling you that I’ll be away. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go.”

He hung up again and this time, Michelle was convinced there was nothing to be gained by calling him back. She cried out in anguish and threw her phone against one wall before she sunk to the floor. Her sobs grew louder and louder before she finally felt her heart breaking again, the second time since Jean called. So she did the only thing she could to let that anguish out: she screamed loudly. She didn’t care who heard her. She was tugging at her clothes, banging her head against the chest of drawers. Over and over. She wasn’t really feeling any pain. All she cared for was ending the pain and misery that had overcome her. She hardly even saw Valeria running into the room or when she held her in her arms. She only calmed down when she felt Valeria’s soothing voice singing to her as she rocked Michelle gently.

Michelle lost all sense of time and the only thing she knew was that after a while, Valeria was gone. She’d taken an aspirin for her headache and tried to fall asleep on her daughter’s bed but sleep evaded her. It was like the universe just wanted her to be awake. For her to lay there in anguish, for her soul to lament in pain.

She didn’t know how long she’d been lying there when she heard a soft knock on the door. She wanted to ignore the knock. To wait for whoever was at the door to leave, but whoever it was just wouldn’t leave. She managed to speak to let the person in even though her voice was small and weak from all the crying.

                                                            *****

David hadn’t really thought about what was on the other side of Andrea’s bedroom door. Yes, he knew that Michelle was upset, but to what extent, he couldn’t tell. Or even imagine. The Michelle he saw on the bed wasn’t the one he was used to seeing. Her hair was tussled, her usually perfect silky pressed hair was all over the pillow. Her silk blouse was untucked and he could hardly tell just where the skirt she had on was supposed to reach. She was on the bed holding on to one of her daughter’s stuffed animals as if she drew her very reason for breathing from it.

“Hey,” he said in a soft voice as he walked in.

He wasn’t sure if he was expecting a reply or not. He slowly made his way to the bed and sat on the edge looking, at Michelle. She looked defeated. The light she usually had in her eyes while anchoring, while being witty during their dinner conversations. it was gone. All gone and in its place, darkness. A lifelessness he’d never known her to have before.

“Hey, Valeria tells me that you’ve had a particularly rough evening,” he said in a soft voice. He looked at her for a long minute before looking up at the wall. There was a small mark on the wall where her phone had collided with it before landing on the ground. “It looks like we need to make a trip to the Apple store sooner than later.”

“I don’t care about the phone,” she muttered.

“Well, I do because I need to reach my wife and pagers aren’t really a thing nowadays.”

She looked up at him. He’d made a joke but she obviously wasn’t in the mood to indulge him.

“Talk to me, what happened?” he asked. “And how can I make it better?”

She shrugged.

“Can you make my ex disappear?” she asked. “Just make him non-existent. That would be perfect.”

David nodded.

“I could arrange that. I mean, it would take some time to get the right person but I have this guy who runs private military in Africa and the gulf. He’s proven to be quite the businessman and word is if you need someone taken care of, he’s the guy.”

Michelle looked at him, obviously surprised.

“I wasn’t serious but the fact that you know someone like that makes me a little weirded out and excited at the same time,” she said, making him smile.

“What? I always tell you, anything is for sale if you know what the right price is.”

“And I keep on telling you that not everything is for sale.”

David grinned.

“Believe me, Michelle. Everything’s for sale. Everything.”

She sighed in exhaustion as Valeria walked in with a tray.

“Thank you, Valeria. Bring it over here, please,” David said, making room on the bed. “Thanks, that will be all,” he added as Valeria walked out.

“What’s this?” Michelle asked as she looked at him working the corkscrew into the cork.

“I wasn’t sure if this was a glass of wine situation or a bottle of wine situation. I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.”

She smiled a he poured a glass of wine.

“I’ll have the bottle, thank you very much,” she said as she reached for the wine.

David handed it over and looked at her.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked.

She took a long sip from the bottle and he grinned once more. This side of her, the unkempt, rough side of her was actually quite relaxing for him. In all the years he’d known Michelle from afar, she’d never had a single strand of hair out of place. She was always so put together. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night and find her looking perfect as usual in her silk night gown, her hair in a long braid falling over her shoulder. Even in the middle of the night she looked flawless. But now, for the first time, David was looking at his wife and seeing the non-perfection she wore when she couldn’t handle something.

“Jean called to tell me that I can’t see my daughter. Again.”

David frowned.

“How long has it been?”

Michelle exhaled loudly.

“Too long… but at this rate I think my daughter will forget all about me soon enough.”

“So, what would you like me to do?” he asked and she blinked back a tear. She looked at him, her eyes full of hope.