Contracted To Love

“Where’s David?” Michelle asked.

“Upstairs. He has been since he got home.”

Michelle made her way upstairs, causing the worried old woman to call for her to be careful once again.

“Quidado, por favor!” Valeria called out again but Michelle was already on the second floor of their palatial home.

“David!” she called out as she walked into her room. It made sense for her to look for him there. That was where they’d spent their weekend, but the place was empty. She ran across the hall to his room and found him sitting on the edge of the bed with a yellow envelope on the bed next to him. She stood at the doorway, panting.

“How was your day?” he asked and she shook her head.

“I don’t really care about my day right now. I just want to know about the phone call.”

David took the envelope from his hand and stood up before walking to where she was.

“Signed papers freeing you from all financial obligations you had to Jean, as well as the documents needed to grant you sole custody.”

She took the envelope and opened it. Flipped through the papers as she stared at them in disbelief.

“The deed to the house?” she looked up.

“Yeah, you can keep the house of you want to,” he told her. “He’ll move. He won’t give you any trouble at all.”

Michelle looked up at him and shook her head. She knew that Jean was proud and a sadist. There was no way he would have given all of that up so easily. He’d taken such pleasure frustrating her over the years. So, why then would he suddenly give everything up… and without even contacting Michelle? It was at that moment that she remembered the conversation she’d had with David. The conversation that had probably set the ball rolling,

“What… is Jean dead or something?” she asked. “Because you know I was kidding about him disappearing.”

David smiled.

“He’s alive and well, but he’s been playing you for years. Benefitting from your hard work and delighting in the pain he caused you.”

Michelle walked into the room and took a seat. That was just too much information for her to process all at once.

“How do you know all this? How did you find out about… everything? How did you make him just sign all of this over?” she asked.

“Jean started a business some time back,” David started and she shook her head.

“I know. He’s an accountant.”

“Well, he may be an accountant but he hasn’t been on work trips every other weekend as he so claimed,” David went on. “He’s actually hardly worked a day in his life ever since… God knows when the last time he actually did any work was. He does have a company, yes, but even the staff members have never met who they work for.”

She put the papers down and bit her lip.

“Then where does he go? What makes him leave my daughter with her grandparents?” she wondered out loud.

“Las Vegas. Gambling, s*x clubs and every other vice he can indulge in. He’s usually in the company of a blonde who’s also benefitted greatly from your had-earned money.”

Michelle almost choked on her own spit.

“What?”

“The woman is Tiffany Moran. He’s been dating her since early on in your marriage and it never really stopped. He bought her a place in Vegas, a penthouse. The purchase was a little before your divorce,” David explained and Michelle exhaled loudly.

“Let me guess,” she said. “The penthouse was one million, seven hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars?”

“How do you know that?” David asked and she forced out a laugh.

“That figure was the reason I left him. Well, it was because of the violence, but the day I asked him why our joint account was missing that much, he almost killed me. I mean, he’d been violent with me before but that day it was different. It was like he didn’t care if I lived or died. All he wanted to do was to shut me up by whatever means necessary. And all because he was buying a house for his whore?”

She shook her head. She could remember that night as clearly as ever. It was almost like the whole thing had just happened. Just thinking about it made her hands shake. David walked up to her and sat down next to her. He gently draped an arm around her shoulders and pressed his lip to her temple.

“I told you I would do it,” he said in a soft voice. “I promised you.”

She closed her eyes and smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“You know I meant for this to be a happy occasion, right?” he asked and she nodded.

“I do. It’s just that… I’ve been waiting for this for so long but I never thought it would happen. I guess I’m just happy and emotionally drained all at the same time.”

David kissed her again.

“It will all be alright. Soon.”

Another tear rolled down her cheek.

“It already is, but I don’t want the house. He can keep that… it holds too many bad memories,” she said.

“Okay.”

“But I will take the penthouse in Las Vegas. I want it listed yesterday,” Michelle hissed.

“Whatever you need,” David said in a whisper.

She was not one to be petty, but there was no way she could let that property stand. That property was bought by her money. The property had made her get the wildest beating of her life from a man who claimed to love her. She wanted it to simply not exist. She wanted to hurt the cause of her pain just as much as she’d been hurt. That penthouse must have mattered a whole lot because for years Jean had travelled to Las Vegas and consequently denied her access to her only child. He was going to pay. And finally, she was free of all financial obligation she had to Jean.

Finally, after years, she was free of Jean-Phillippe Lavoisier. He was her past and David was her future. She couldn’t wait to get started on a future without any worries or regrets.

*****

Michelle’s stomach was in knots the day she saw her daughter for the first time in ages. Andrea was so big, practically a woman. She’d taken a lot after her mother. And those beautiful brown eyes and even more beautiful long, black curls… Michelle could only stare at her when she walked onto the property. She had so many thoughts running through her mind. She would have wanted to speak to Andrea before and explain that her mother would never have abandoned her as Jean had led her to believe. Luckily for Michelle, her mother, Andrea’s grandmother had already had this difficult conversation with Andrea. So, all she had to do when her daughter got there was hold her in her arms and kiss her.

The first few days were a little awkward, but after three days she was feeling much more comfortable. Valeria had just made some quesadillas for lunch and taken them out by the pool where Michelle and Andrea were. Michelle smiled in gratitude at the housekeeper as she set the tray down.

“Sweetie, why don’t you take a break and have something to eat?” Michelle called from the lawn chair.

The pool must have been Andrea’s favourite part of the property. She must have spent hours a day in that pool. Her skin might have been terribly damaged if Michelle didn’t put her foot down and get her to come in to the house.

Andrea swam to the edge of the pool and looked up at her mother.

“Aren’t you going to get out of the water?” Michelle asked, smiling. “Valeria makes some of the best quesadillas in the world.”

Michelle looked at her child lovingly as she climbed out of the pool and joined her on one of the lawn chairs. She handed her one of the towels and grinned when Andrea squeezed the water out of her hair.

“What?” Andrea asked and Michelle shrugged.

“Nothing. It’s just the hair… mine was just as thick when I was your age.”

Andrea grabbed another towel and went on squeezing the water out of her hair.

“So, tell me. How do you like it here?” Michelle asked and Andrea chuckled excitedly.

“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe I haven’t been here before… I feel like I’m on vacation or something.”