Chapter Ten
Turner
“Turner! Thank God you’re here. We have news, it’s…”
I cut Martinez off with a glance and inspect Zack more closely. He looks like he’s been crying. I have this persistent feeling that something terrible has happened. Anger and fear are reverberating in my head along with the high-pitched screams of my wife from that fucking dream.
Several faces are gaping at me and not a single one of them has said a damn thing yet. I’m immobilized as terror takes control of my entire body. Have I lost the love of my life?
“Don’t you dare say she’s… ”
No fucking way. I am not going to think it, let alone say it. Whatever it is, I know with all the love I have for Clove, it’s something that is going to break me beyond repair.
“Turner.”
Finally Zack speaks, softly. I don’t want soft. I don’t want all these eyes on me like they are about to tell me she’s gone, that I will never be able to hold her again, tell her how much I love her, miss her, need her.
My mother places her hand on my shoulder.
“Sit down, Turner.”
“I am not a goddamn child! Will someone please tell me what the fuck is happening here? Do you know where she is? Is she hurt? Fucking hell, where is she? Has that no good rotten motherfucking brother of mine done something to her?”
I sink into the chair that Martinez has just put behind me. My entire body is shaking. I feel the weight of the anxiety, rage, and sadness in this fucking room and I am suffocating.
“Turner, what the hell is wrong with you?” my mother yells from behind me. “I know you’re upset and worried; we all are, but I have kept my mouth shut for way too long now. That man you are calling names is my son just as much as you are. I will not stay in this room and listen to you carry on like this anymore.”
“What? You’re actually defending him now? He stole my wife! He took her from me.” I jab my finger into my chest. “I can’t believe this shit. She’s my life, Mother. MY LIFE.”
My father-in-law looks at me angrily.
“Turner, calm the hell down right now. We all love Clove and want her back here where she belongs, but for you to go off on your mother like this is not helping at all. This isn’t about any of us right now. This is about getting my daughter, your wife, and his sister, back here to every single one of us. After a year without seeing her I will not waste another minute in getting my daughter back. Now sit the hell down and listen, goddamn it.”
He’s right. Nothing matters right now except finding out what’s going on and if she is alive.
“She’s alive, Turner.”
Zack’s words force a rush of adrenaline through me. I’m harrowed yet relieved. Scared, yet lightened. I need to see my wife. I want my life back, with her. She calms me. We breathe together, laugh together, love together. I haven’t done any of that since the day I was taken away from her.
“Is she hurt?”
Tears suddenly sting my eyes, and I let them fall. They pour down my face as a tightness swells in my chest. Jesus, my wife is alive. She’s fucking alive! My soul mate. I feel as if someone has just put the key back into the lock of the room I have been trapped inside of for the past year.
The room has grown eerily quiet. I watch Zack, who is struggling to try to tell me something. Whatever it is he is having such a hard time trying to say, it can’t be good. I look around at the somber expressions on the faces around me, faces that should be showing elation at finally getting news of my wife, not the trepidation I’m seeing now. We should all be embracing each other, sprinting out of this building to get to her. What the hell is going on here?
“Zack, what the fuck are you keeping from me?”
My brother-in-law and I have a stare down.
“She’s fine, as far as we know. But…”
“But what, goddamn it?” I stand abruptly. “Just fucking say it! Whatever the hell it is, tell me!” I bellow.
“Clove had a baby. You have a daughter.”
“She what?” I say, trying to catch my breath. The thought of her having a baby with any other man besides me is too much. I can’t take it. No, she would never do this.
“There has to be a mistake, Zack. Your sister would never have a child with him. No fucking way. Not when she thinks I am dead. I refuse to believe this.”
Martinez places his hand on my shoulder.
“Turner, man. I know you have questions about your daughter and I’m the one with the answers. Zack just found out about the baby not even a minute before you walked in the door.”
My eyebrows rise a notch as I register what he just said.
“Wait. You just said my daughter. How can that be true? The last time I made love to my wife was over a year ago.”
“There’s more to this story. A lot more,” Zack says, visibly trying to stay calm.
“Just tell me. All of it, from the very beginning. Every damn thing you know, Zack. Don’t bullshit me or beat around the goddamn bush anymore.”
“She’s with my mother.”
What in the hell did he just say?
“Tina?” I whisper. “I don’t understand. Clove doesn’t want a damn thing to do with her. How in the hell could she be with her?”
“Sit back down, man, and let us explain,” Martinez states from my right.
I sit.
“Explain then.”
“Clove isn’t with her because she wants to be. My mother has premeditated this entire thing.”
“What the fuck?”
“My mother found out about the money... your inheritance. For reasons we don’t know yet, we believe she was the master manipulator behind this whole thing.”
“Good God almighty. I knew she was hateful but this is entirely something else.” My head falls into my hands.
“Do you know if Clove is hurt? Where has Tina been keeping her this whole time? Is she here?”
I can no longer hold my bottled-up anger in. Her own mother did this? All of it? From having me kidnapped, to having my brother pretend to be me, to kidnapping her own child. Her own grandchild. What has she been doing with her this entire time? I feel sick at the thoughts surging through me. So many nights I have laid in my bed trying to wrap my head around who would want to do this, or why? Never would I have guessed it would be the woman who brought my beautiful, kindhearted wife into this world.
My mother’s intake of breath behind me has me turning around to see her hand trembling as she brings it up to her mouth, only half covering up the sound of her choking sobs.
“Melody. Here, have a seat.” Zack brings around another chair for my mom whose body looks deflated. My father-in-law looks no better. “Dad. Come on, you sit down, too. Are you sure you want to hear all this again?”
I study my father-in-law, Bill, as he collapses into the chair without saying a word. God, he looks like he’s in rough shape. His soul is broken. To hear that the mother of his children could do what Tina has done must be devastating.
“I’ll be fine, Zack. You just need to fill Turner in on everything. Finish up now. I’m good,” says Bill with his mouth, but the windows to his soul say something completely different.
Zack returns to his seat.
No one speaks for the longest time. All I can think is, Clove is alive. She needs me. I have to get to her.
The sound of a throat clearing brings me back from my thoughts and Zack starts recounting the whole, fucked up tale.
I listen, ready to kill anyone in this damn room if they even make a sound. For over an hour, Zach lays out the whole sick, twisted plan to ruin our lives over money I didn’t even know existed.
So Tina found out about the inheritance by hiring a PI to dig into my mother’s family business, then somehow convinced my father and brother to go along with her fucked up plan to destroy her daughter’s life.
Details are sketchy about what happened at James Calloway’s house after I was shot, but Zack has one more bombshell to lay on me.
“Clove tried to kill herself,” he says solemnly.
I feel like I have been shoved in a blender with every emotion known to mankind, and someone has sealed the lid and set the bitch on high as my body spins so fucking fast from one place to another, shooting my brain to my feet while slicing the hell out of my heart. I can’t even begin to describe the rawness I feel.
Thank you, God that she wasn’t successful. She was saved by Tina’s ex-husband, a Dr. Caleb Hollis. The same doctor who delivered the baby.
Martinez takes over from Zack, who looks too drained to continue.
“As soon as we started looking into Tina, it led us straight to Caleb Hollis. Once we apprehended him, he confessed everything, right down to the dirty little details. And one of those details is that he performed a vasectomy on Trent before he made the switch, so there is no way he could be the father of that little girl.”
“How can he be so sure it worked? We all know those surgeries are not 100%.”
The question is barely out of my mouth before I hear a strangled cry from behind me.
I twist around to look at my mother, who is now crying uncontrollably.
“Mom.”
I stand, go to her, and bend down to embrace her.
“I can’t take anymore,” she sobs. “I know you all hate Trent and you have every right to, but please stop. For God’s sake, please. He’s my son too, and this… it’s killing me to sit here and listen to all of this. I just can’t do this anymore.”
“Shh, Mom,” I whisper. I hold her as hot tears cascade down her face, landing on her flowery dress. Someone hands me a box of Kleenex and for the first time in my life, I console my fragile mother who has carried more burden, guilt, and shame through this entire thing than the rest of us combined.
She places her unsteady hand on my cheek.
“Thank you, son,” she murmurs.
“Do you want something to drink, Melody?” asks the Chief.
I’ve been so selfish and consumed with my own thoughts today, I have not once thought about what this is doing to her. I grab hold of the back of the chair I was sitting in and pull it back to sit next this strong and brave woman who has lived most of her life in hell. I clasp her hand in mine. She places her other over the top, gently squeezing.
“I would love something to drink, please.” she replies through her still trembling lips. “But first I believe my son asked a question before I broke down, and he has the right to an answer.”
“Right.” The chief nods. “I only have Hollis’s word. That’s all I’ve got until we get our hands on either his ex-wife or your brother. I will tell you this, though. That man in there is telling me the truth. He is so eaten up with guilt from this whole thing that he’ll most likely die from it before he dies from spending the rest of his life in prison.”
“That motherfucker is here? I want to see him!”
“Turner. You can’t.”
Zack stands and approaches me.
“That’s bullshit! I…”
“I know. I know,” he says, then pulls me in for a meaningful, much- needed brotherly hug. “I want to rip his damn heart out just as much as you do, but we can’t. All we can do is wait until we hear from the FBI that they have Tina and Trent in custody and that Clove is with them and safe.”
It’s at that precise instant I pull away from Zack, survey the family and friends surrounding me, and ask the one question I should have asked from the very beginning.
“What’s my daughter’s name?”