Diligence by Lesli Richardson

Author:Lesli Richardson [Richardson, Lesli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lesli Richardson
Published: 2018-12-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

My hands are shaking when I finally look up from the letter. It feels like I can’t breathe.

Benchley’s gaze is focused out the window.

He’s…crying.

“We didn’t know if Michelle would even be able to have kids,” he hoarsely says. “She had problems, and we’d been trying for so long. Your mom and I worked at the same law firm when I first graduated law school. She actually hired me there. She was seventeen years older than me. She helped me land my job as county administrator just a couple of years later.”

He looks down at his hands, which are gnarled with arthritis and wrinkles and tremble for a different reason than mine now do.

“I knew something was wrong when she married that sonofabitch,” he continues, “but she seemed happy, so none of us said anything. She wanted to be a mom more than anything. Then, about six months in, I hear rumors from people still at the law firm that she’s been missing work, wearing sunglasses and hats, heavy concealer, shit like that.”

He finally looks at me. “One of the guys at the law firm called me one day and warned me she was out ‘sick’ again. I’d asked them to keep me posted. So I drove over there to confront her. He’d given her a black eye, beat the shit out of her.

“I said let’s go report it, get the bastard arrested, and she begged me not to, because she was afraid what would happen to her reputation. Apparently, he had taken pictures of her naked. Now, I know that’s not really a big deal now, but back then? It would have ruined her if he’d released them. He swore he would do it, too, if she divorced him or reported him to the cops. She wanted to run for office at some point. Turns out the fight was because he admitted to her that he’d had a vasectomy long before she met him, because he didn’t want kids. Nobody knew that, either. He lied to her when he married her.”

He takes a deep breath. “She didn’t want to risk going to a doctor to try to get pregnant, because they’d want to talk to him, or it’d leave doctor records. And back then, in the early days, it was so expensive. It wasn’t covered by insurance, and there was no way for her to hide the expense from that worthless bastard. Plus she worried he’d hurt her or a baby if she got pregnant.”

He sniffles, wiping at his nose with his handkerchief. “Remember, this is a long time ago, honey. And I was young, and stupid, and so damned angry that she’d been hurt. I said look, hell, I’d get her pregnant, if it meant she’d let me take care of the fucker, because he was going to kill her. I’d seen his type before. Then, once we were sure, he could meet with an accident, have him cremated, and she could list him as the father on the birth certificate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.