“William needs a mother, Phillip.”
“I am sure that Danika will be there to pick up the pieces. Don’t make it all fall apart, Christin, or you will not like what happens next. You will never see me, your family’s money, clan, or your son. You really don’t know what I can do to you, Christin. If you want to find out, keep it up.”
Christin wasn’t sure what she had done to gain such a hatred from her husband. She sadly, after time, started to get used to it. She was treated horribly, and she hated every second of it, but Christin smiled and tried to be as pleasant as she could be.
She did this for years. Many years actually, almost a decade. She smiled when appropriate, went to the events where she was expected to attend. The family power had moved on to Phillip. He had married into it, just like he had married into her money from her well-off family. Phillip was king now, but that didn’t mean that some of his clan’s loyalty, lied with his wife, not him. He seemed well aware of it, and he wanted to break the reconnection, but he didn’t know if he would be able to.
Then, one day, everything changed, and Christin’s life of simplicity and life with her son was over. She took a call from her husband, and that turned out to be the worst decision that she had ever made.
“I need you to go get William from Danika’s house. She is going to be leaving for the day and I don’t want him to be alone.”
Christin couldn’t believe that he had left William with Danika, especially after all of the failures that had occurred. She didn’t really care though. Phillip tried to keep the two of them apart all the time, so it was okay that he was bossing her around to do this or that. If it had to do with Phillip, Christin couldn’t have done anything differently.
So, she did what he wanted and went to pick up her son. It was the sort of situation that she had been waiting for. Christin wanted to be more in his life. She was allowed to raise him, but as he got older, Christin saw him less and less. Christin noticed the change and she was taking every opportunity that she could to increase the time she spent with him.
She was excited to see William, without his over-bearing father around. Christin hated Danika, but she had long since found the necessity of Danika. Danika took off of her head, the many sexual things that Phillip wanted, but not from her. He had Danika for that, and she seemed to detest his touch a little less. Christin had learned that Danika was a necessary evil. Christin steeled herself for the host of comments that were going to be launched her way.
They didn’t come though. Christin went to the door, knocking, waiting. She was getting impatient after a few minutes and started to bang louder. The girlfriend lived five miles away in a nice apartment that her husband paid for. It had never been a secret, any of it, because it was used as a form of torture, until Phillip realized she couldn’t have cared any less.
Finally, she looked around for the spare key that William said was there somewhere and Christin let herself in. An eerie feeling came over her, but the fact of the matter was that if her son was there, she had to see what was going on.
Christin called for Danika, then for William. She got no answer and stepped all the way into the room. She looked around, noticed that things were all out of place. That was unlike Danika. Danika liked everything just so…
Christin screamed. She couldn’t help the loud noise coming out of her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Danika was dead. Blood was everywhere and the perfect white bedroom that she had always hated was now a crime scene of the worst caliber.
All Christin could think was, where was William?!
Chapter 4
Christin
The neighbor heard her screaming from Danika’s apartment and called the police. They were there within minutes and Christin was still there, desperately looking for her son. When she heard the police calling out to whoever was in the house, Christin was on the phone with Phillip. She wanted to know where her son was. There was no sign of him, so he had to have been kidnapped or something. Because of their money and status, Christin had to imagine that it was a possibility.
“Who is that yelling in the background?”
“It’s the police, Phillip. Someone must have called them. Where is my son!? Did someone take him? Have you heard anything, got a ransom demand?”
He chuckled and that made Christin’s blood boil. What in the world would he have to be laughing about? Their son was gone, and Christin felt nothing akin to humor. She felt like it was all over. It was going to be all over if she didn’t find William now.
The police were entering the apartment, threatening to shoot anyone still in the house if nothing was said. Christin didn’t want to get shot, but it wouldn’t be the first time. She moved into the bedroom closet to finish. Something was going on, something that she had no clue about, and Christin had to find out what it was.
“No demand has been made and it won’t be made. He is here with me, Christin. He is fine. I would let you talk to him, but I don’t really feel like it.”
“What do you mean that he is there with you?” Christin didn’t get it. She was confused, but Phillip was always good about clearing up any misconceptions. This was no different. He wanted her to know it all and he seemed to understand her predicament pretty good, because he was talking fast. The police were almost into the bedroom. Christin didn’t have much more time, but she was hanging on to every word coming out of her husband’s mouth. It was important. He was explaining how he had ended her life.
“He’s here with me and Danika. Well, she is with you, isn’t she?”
“She’s dead, Phillip.”
“I know. She shouldn’t have been cheating on me. I knew that she was and decided that I didn’t want to be with her anymore. So, I figured, you know, two birds, one stone. I could get rid of both of you bitches in one fell swoop. She’s fresh and you’re in her house. It doesn’t look good, Christin.”
Her heart was racing, and Christin tried her best to ignore the people in the room, but they’d heard or seen her, because their drawn guns were now pointed at her. Christin felt a wave of fear and something else run through her. Anger. Christin was mad. She knew that Phillip had won. She turned the phone off, the laughing in her ear, the one thing she would hear as she fell asleep for the next year to come.
***
Christin was charged with murder. She could have left the jail many times, shifted into her true form and took off. Christin knew that she couldn’t though. The case was high-profile and there was always a camera crew there. She was always being watched and since Phillip made it clear that he wouldn’t even let William visit her, if she didn’t plead guilty, Christin had no choice. He was using her son as bait. Christin wanted to see him, even if it was just a few minutes once a week. She agreed to most of it, just so that she could have that small time with him. It was better than nothing.
Christin had initially thought that she would get out of it. Most people were guilty and that’s why they were convicted. Christin held out this childhood thought that the law would work, and her innocence would be found out, and then she would be out of the mess.
