Sage

Chapter Four

"Brian, where do you expect her to go?" Mrs Woods asked from the black leather couch she occupied in her husband's home office.

Mr Woods sat by his oak desk, reading the contract in his hands. He was still dressed in a dark navy blue suit but the black tie was placed before him.

"Brian, I am..."

"Woman, can you not see I am occupied?" He didn't raise his head.

"So those papers are more important than our daughter?" Mrs Woods stood up and fixed her long turquoise silk gown. She walked towards the desk.

"If you still want to maintain your lifestyle, yes," Mr Woods put the papers down and stood up. He removed his suit jacket and walked over to his closet. He slid the glass door open to pull out a hanger. He hung the suit jacket on it before placing it back in the closet.

Mrs Woods sighed and sat down on a maroon leather chair in front of the desk. She crossed one leg over the other and followed her husband with her eyes as he returned to his seat behind the desk.

"You know..." She started, "I do not know when you became heartless but you are. Towards me and now Sage. All this wealth changed the man you were Brian."

"All this wealth..." Mr Woods motioned around the room with both his hands, "That is in every argument is never a bother when you..." He pointed his middle finger at her, "Are reaching limits on my credit cards or when you are laid up in some spa getting massaged," Mr Woods picked up the papers.

Mrs Woods looked away towards the black leather couch as she took in her husband's words. She remembered when they first met, remembering the first trait she picked up was his gentleness. She had fallen in love with how he spoke to her and looked at her. It was as though he came across beauty he had never seen. As though he waited his entire life for her. She had felt respected and wanted by a man for the first time, in her books, that day.

"Sage needs to learn a lesson."

She was taken out of her thoughts.

"What lesson is that Brian?" She turned her head to look at her husband, "On the streets?!" Her voice rose unexpectedly.

"A lesson to respect me and my house!" Mr Woods looked up from the papers.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. This conversation was tiring him and he needed to finish going through the contract, "I need to work."

"I am not done!" Mrs Woods stood up and walked over to her husband, "I want my daughter back in this house," She pressed her index finger on the desk looking into the blank eyes that stared back at her.

Mr Woods chuckled, "This house is my house and I do not want a disrespectful girl under my roof. Now leave, unless you want to join her out there."

"Brian please..." His wife pleaded with teary eyes.

Brian returned to reading.

"Brian..." Mrs Woods leaned beside him, against the desk.

"Woman! I said I do not want a junkie under my roof, not again. Now LEAVE!" Anger laced his voice as he glared at his wife.

Mrs Woods jumped up at the volume of his voice. She stood up straight and wiped away the tear that had escaped. She walked towards the door and opened it.

"Find Morris, he should still be alive!"

Mrs Woods stopped to look back at her husband who was now focused on the papers in his hands. She sighed as she exited the room, closing the door behind her.