Valerie hid her car three blocks from Ashley's house. She held her wallet in her hand and hoped that Ashley would believe her good faith or it would all be lost.
She arrived at Ashley's house and immediately noticed that the cameras that they had filmed Dylan had been dismantled. The house had no video surveillance system.
Valerie took a couple of photographs and then walked over to the front door. She knocked and waited for Ashley.
There was a car in the driveway, Valerie thought it might be Ashley's.
She knocked again.
"Damn it," she thought.
Valerie wanted to go around the house in the hope that Ashley was in the garden and hadn't heard her presence at the door.
As she was about to turn around she heard the snap of the door and saw the figure of Ashely looking at her.
"What are you doing here?" She asked her.
"Hi Ashley, sorry to bother you.. do you remeber me?"Valerie raised the wallet she was holding so that Ashley could see it distinctly "last night I found this in the parking lot, there are your documents.. everything"
Ashely immediately relaxed "I think I missed it, Leslie right?"
Valerie nodded.
"Come in, sorry for the rudeness but I'm not used to receiving visits."
Ashley stepped aside to let Valerie in.
"I don't see your car," she asked
Valerie already had a justification "I came with the bus, my car is broken and I don't have the money to fix it"
That statement was tender as Ashley smiled at her.
"Have you gone all this way on the bus to bring my wallet back?"
Valerie smiled.
"Come we can drink something, this day is terribly hot"
"Thank you," Valerie replied.
Ashley had Valerie sit in the garden.
"You have a very nice house"
"It's not mine," Ashley replied, "I rented it and I have to leave it in a few weeks."
'Really?'
Ashley nodded.
"The landlord wants it back"
"I understand and do you already have another place to go?"
"Not immediatly ," Ashley smiled, "but I saved aside some money and Who knows.."
"good" valerie said.
Ashley smiled.
The two exchanged some futile chatter and enjoyed a bit of the cool shade.
"I think it's time for me to go," Valerie said with a smile hoping for luck.
Ashley seemed sorry for her "hear, if you want I'll give you a ride in the car to your apartment," Ashley said.
"Seriously, doesn't it bother you?" Valerie was excited about that stroke of luck.
Ashley shrugged her shoulders and said no, it wasn't a problem.
"Mind if I use your restroom ?" Valerie asked.
"The second door in the hallway," Ashley explained to her.
"Thank you"
Valerie took her bag and her cell phone, as she was passing through the living room she photographed some documents near the laptop, she went on obviously she did not enter the restroom but Ashley's bedroom.
She saw some documents on the bedside table and began to photograph them quickly. She put everything in place just as quickly.
She entered the restroom and flushed the toilet.
And then she went out.
"If you want we can go," she said with a big smile.
Valerie hoped that there was something among those documents that could help Dylan.
XX
Jim and Cindy had taken the kids to the Beach. They loved being grandparents a lot, it was more fun, and since Jim was retired he had turned out to be another man.
The kids were quite old, so vigilance was needed but not excessive.
Jim and Cindy were tremendously worried about what was happening to Dylan and now Kelly, but with Brandon's car accident it almost felt like they got out of the worst part of that horrible year and that things could be solved, that everything could have a solution.
Emma and Samuel were laughing sitting at a bar table. They had just taken a bath. The wet bathing suits, the tan, the air that seemed to have taken a long lap and taken them.
"what's wrong with you?"
Emma and Samuel turned around and saw Nate.
Towards those known voices.
A little further away Nate and Blanca were having an argument.
Nate seemed quite nervous as Blanca held her arms folded and didn't say a word.
They saw Blanca walk away quickly and Nate join Emma and Samuel at the table.
"Do you know what she gets?" Nate asked Emma.
"Why what's going on?"
"I don't know, since the school's party she's unhelpful, always angry, whatever I do bothers her"
"No," Emma replied, "she didn't tell me anything, but you know what her situation is, the father's process is approaching, try to understand..."
"No" Nate shook his head "it's not that, this whole situation was already there before, it's different, she doesn't want to be with me anymore and she's perpetually unhappy."
"And now where did she go?" Samuel asked.
"In the cabana with your grandparents and her siblings, she prefers to be there"
Samuel and Emma looked at each other.
"Do you want me to go talk to her?" Emma asked.
"I would be grateful," Nate replied.
"I'll go with you," said Samuel, "so I check what Grace does."
Nate was left alone at the table. He ordered a fresh coke, put on his sunglasses, the very idea that Blanca might have gotten tired of him made him suffer terribly.
XX
Brandon and Kelly sat in Dr. Jungerman's waiting room. A psychiatrist who had been recommended to them. Kelly's discomfort was quite evident in the last few days, from the moment she opened up to her husband. From the moment she had told him her truth. It was as if until then she had kept everything inside because circumstances demanded that she remain standing, that she was strong for everyone, but the crack that had formed had become a flaw.
Kelly didn't take care of the house, she had a hard time sleeping, she had lost her enthusiasm, she had moments of sudden anger and confusion.
It was like a river in flood that suddenly overwhelmed her.
Brandon held her hand and occasionally looked at her profile. He was heartbroken for her because he knew that the cause of that stress had been him and his accident. He cursed himself for endangering his life and that of his son and now also his wife.
Dr. Jungermann's secretary made them sit down.
The doctor looked calm, she could be about sixty years old, some traces of a past beauty.
She smiled cordially at both of them.
"I'm glad you're here too, Mr. Walsh"
"call me Brandon, please"
Brandon shook her hand and didn't lose sight of Kelly for a single moment.
"How do you feel Kelly?" Asked Dr. Jungermann.
Kelly gave a shy smile.
Jungermann smiled and then started talking " after our talks I compiled the final report, this is our starting point. Having studied psychology are all terms that you know Kelly very well and you also know that there is a solution and what the therapies are. I called your husband here because I wanted, with your consent, the situation to be very clear to him too, because this is a path you have to take with your family and not alone."
"You suffer from a post-traumatic stress syndrome, the triggering event was the accident that happened to your husband and your son, but most likely you had a latent situation that dates back much earlier. The state of anxiety about paternal and maternal abandonment may have aggravated the situation."
Jugermann looked Kelly right in the eye
"Do you have nightmares Kelly?"
She nodded.
"Do you want to explain to your husband what kind of nightmares you have?"
Kelly sighed, she wasn't sure how she could explain what seemed unreal to her.
"Sometimes," Kelly cleared her voice, "I always have the same dream. Everyone is crying desperately and I can't find you," she said to Brandon, "and neither can Samuel and Grace. I hear the noise of the hospital appliances, a long whistle, I approach and you are dead there. Andrea tells me that you are dead."
"Oh Kelly ..." Brandon was moved.
"It's always the same dream, all the time, I wake up suddenly and I find you next to me, I touch you and you don't move, you're cold, and I wake up again, and you're there sleeping by my side and I'm afraid to touch you, because I'm afraid to feel that you're Cold"
Kelly and Brandon's fingers intertwined. The only instinct to give her strength at that moment.
"PTSD is very common for it to develop long after the triggering event, from one or six months later, so what's happening to you Kelly, is not irreversible, and it can be cured. You were very brave to talk to your husband about it, because, especially those who know deep down this disease, can deny it, can settle in a world of normality that does not belong to him. It was an important first step."
Kelly felt Brandon on her hand.
"The moment the stress situation is resolved, PTSD can be unleashed and can destroy the ordinary daily life of the person."
Dr. Jungermann gave a reassuring smile.
"we can start Kelly if you are ready"
Kelly nodded.
"How did you two meet?" The doctor asked Kelly.
The memory of the moment they showed up immediately rejoiced Kelly.
"In high school.. " she began to tell "he was the twin brother of a friend of mine..."
XX
Matt and Brenda received news from Valerie's cell phone about how she was doing as well as the photographs she had taken inside Ashley's home. Matt opened the laptop and began to zoom in on the documents. One by one.
Clinical bills, an expired plane ticket to Arizona.
"Valerie says she is her apartment with Ashley. She is winning her trust," Brenda said, checking the messages Val was sending her.
"I wouldn't count on it too much, we don't know who Ashley is and what Ashley is capable of."
Brenda sat next to him and her closeness made him feel a strange sexual tension he felt towards Brenda.
Matt tried to drive that feeling away. It wasn't professional, it wasn't correct, and it was a really bad idea.
Brenda hadn't noticed anything and pointed to a photograph on the screen.
"Here," she said.
There was a receipt for a transfer of 200,000 to Ashley's account made by an Antigua company.
"M E T R O L U X," Brenda spelled in.
"Look at the date," Matt suggested.
It took little time to realize that the date of the transfer was just after the complaint filed by Ashely and the arrest of Dylan.
"Could it have to do with Dylan's arrest?"
Matt nodded "could".
"Why would a one like Ashley get so much money from an Off Shore company in Antigua?" Matt asked out loud.
"We could check Metrolux?"
"I doubt we would be lucky and we don't have that much time"
'Why?'
"Is an off shore company and is located in Antigua, these companies are created by mail and linked to a myriad of satellite companies, it is almost impossible to find the company or the head company."
"But... we have to try, it could be a solution"
Matt closed the laptop. It was really disheartening to have no solutions and not even luck.
Brenda looked at him.
"I'd like to see Dylan"
Matt was uncomfortable, Dylan had received her letter but had never withdrawn his divorce application. He was still convinced that it was the best solution even though he was breaking inside.
"Please Matt"
"It's not up to me Brenda. It's just up to Dylan."
Brenda jumped up. .
"Dylan is not reasoning right now" the tears began to rise quickly.
"I know that he loves me and that he is alone and when you are alone despair can take over."
"If you go there," Matt said, "he'll reject you. I don't want you to be sick and he doesn't want it either."
"He's my husband, he's the love of my life" Brenda had collapsed "I don't care about money and success, I can even go and be a waitress, as long as he stays with me. He can't send me away, he promised me." Brenda's eyes had been on fire.
Matt got up and hugged her. It came spontaneously to him and regretted it almost immediately. He felt so attracted by her.
Brenda broke the hug.
"I'm talking to him about it," Matt said, "I promise."
Brenda seemed to be content with that answer.
Matt felt Bad.
XX
Valerie had invited Ashely to dinner and didn't even have to insist, that girl had an aura of loneliness that Valerie knew very well, she looked the same as hers. Same texture, same color.
In the kitchen they chatted and Valerie focused a lot on the moment when Ashley called her Leslie, so as not to make a mistake.
"Your apartment is not bad," she said.
"You'll be kidding, it's a shack, but it's a place all mine, after the hell I've been through, it looks like Versailles," Valerie said.
"Was he your husband?"
'What?'
"Was it your husband who beat you up?"
Valerie had reviewed that story hundreds of times but decided to put it aside and give it the most authentic version of her.
"My father," said Valerie, "my father started raping me when I was 11, at night, when my mother slept, slipped into my bed, and did with me what he wanted."
"Oh I'm sorry Leslie...What about your mother?"
Valerie gave a painful smile.
"At first I believed that my mother didn't know anything, that she hadn't noticed anything, but then I realized that she knew, and that she consented, so as not to lose him, my father."
The authenticity of Valerie's tale struck Asheley who was silently listening to her.
"I'm sorry Leslie," she said.
"Yes to me too," Valerie replied, "and what's your story instead?"
'My story?'
Valerie nodded to the marks she had on her face. They were faded but still visible.
"Your husband?" Valerie asked.
"No" Ashley shook her head "I had a small car accident a few weeks ago"
Valerie was sorry that her authenticity had not been reciprocated by Ashley. She became convinced it was probably too early, Brenda, Dylan, came to her mind. Her was a mission, she was not looking for a friend but she was looking for the truth.
Valerie looked for bottles of wine and together with Ashley they drank a few sis and ate a fresh salad.
"Listen," said Valerie, "I know we've known each other recently and everything, but I'm new to the city and maybe you'd like if I call you sometimes, maybe we go out together, we go to the beach, it would be a way to start for me."
"Leslie," Ashley replied, "unfortunately I won't be staying in Los Angeles for long."
"Oh," Valerie replied, "do you go back to Arizona?"
"No" Ashley shook her head "I don't have anyone over there anymore, I would like to move to some Antilles island, open something of my own... I don't know"
"Great," Valerie said confusedly, "too bad because I think you and I have something in common"
Valerie tried to raise the bar. SHe somehow tried his luck.
She stared At Valerie.
"The pain, I see it clearly in your eyes too," Valerie said, as Ashley stared at her speechless.
XX
Emma went inside the cabana.
"Blanca?"
She was from behind, in the shadows.
When she looked at Emma you could see that she had cried.
"Are you all right?"
Blanca wiped her tears.
"Yes," he replied
"I wouldn't say," Emma whispered as she put her arm around her shoulder "What's going on with you?"
Blanca bit her lip. It was Emma, she was her best friend.
She breathed a long sigh and closed her eyes.
"I think I'm pregnant," she said in one breath.
Emma was shocked but tried to maintain a sympathetic attitude.
"I'm ten days late," Blanca said as the tears were coming out again.
"OK," Emma said letting Blanca rest her head on her shoulder.
Blanca burst into an airy cry 'how do I do it now, how do I say such a thing to my parents'.
"You could tell Nate. You could start there and then we'll deal with this thing together."
"If I told Nate, then it would become real."
"Blanca," Emma said, holding her hands on her face, "if that's the case, it's already real, despairing you's no use. Did you take the test?"
"I don't have the courage."
"Okay," Emma replied, "Do you want to make one?"
Blanca sighed heavily "I don't even know what I want."
"You have to tell Nate, it's not fair that you deal with this on your own"
Blanca wiped her tears.
"He's mad at me, I treat him really badly"
"He's not mad at you, he doesn't understand why you're like this, try to explain it to him"
Blanca was looking at the ground.
She wiped away her tears.
"Yes maybe you're right" Blanca said "but I don't know what to do"
XX
brandon started working on the news received. He had some contact left in Washington. Someone who could get into the most armored systems and get news.
Brenda had told him about Metrolux.
Kelly was lying next to him, waking up and watching Brandon's fingers pressing hard to write emails and to do research.
Brandon had told to Kelly. He hadn't excluded her from anything, nor from what Valerie was doing, nor what they were looking for.
"Can this person help us?" Asked Kelly looking at her husband.
"I hope so honey, there's a whole network of hackers used by the government, he's one of them. If the Metrolux has anything to do with it, it's likely that we'll find out."
Kelly settled down better.
"Thank you for coming with me today," she said in a low voice.
Brandon stopped his frantic fingers. He took off his glasses and squeezed his wife tightly.
"I'm sorry for what's happening to you, and I'm sorry it's all my fault, if I hadn't lost control of the car, if I hadn't had the accident, you wouldn't have to deal with this thing now."
Kelly nodded. She was constantly crying but she tried to restrain herself. This monster brooting inside was taking up space, she had known this for a long time, but a little out of shame a little with Brandon in those conditions, she hadn't been able to say anything.
"Wake me up," Brandon told her suddenly, "when you have these nightmares, wake me up, don't watch me sleep, let me help you."
"They are horrible Brandon"
"I know, I don't care, I want to be close to you."
Kelly stared him in the eye. The monster became appeased and retreated to the deepest part of her as love progressed.
Kelly deeply kissed Brandon.
They hadn't made love in a while, since that time in the hospital, because Kelly didn't want to be touched, Brandon hadn't said anything, he knew what her condition was and Jugermann had advised her to do only what she felt she wanted to do. Not to force anything out of duty or out of condescension
Brandon did not dare to make any attempt even though his desire remained unchanged.
In that moment, Kelly took the initiative. She kissed her husband more and more intensely, stuck a hand inside her boxer and massaged him gently. She straddled him and took control.
"You don't have to do it if you don't want to" he told her
"I want," she whispered, "I want more than anything in the world."
The kiss resumed even more intensely, and Brandon's hands returned to explore her body, they undressed and she was looking at Brandon from top to bottom.
Brandon held her tightly by her hips as she began to move and enjoy. She closed her eyes, threw the monster away, into the corner of the room.
Brandon's hands took her bare breast by squeezing them and making her be astonished that she had already lost herself inside the new pleasure. She bent over him and came back to kissing him intensely. On the collarbone. On the chest, on the nose, on the mouth, on the neck.
Then it was his turn to take the control, in a dance that could last all night.
They both moaned together as they pushed deep in each other. The monster was there looking at Kelly.
Kelly lay down by his side, with her back to him, and let their legs intertwine into a new erotic game, as he penetrated her gently from behind and then faster and faster. Moving Kelly up and down.
It was no longer making love, it was something halfway between fucking and fighting together. Kelly kept her leg up to allow Brandon to glide better as he sank his face into her hair and thoughts.
They were still trying to have another child so they didn't use anything, they said to themselves that maybe it would come as a miracle, as Grace and Samuel had been, maybe not, but they strongly wanted the third child together, and that night they devoted hours to their love.
Pushing one into the other, so much so that Kelly several times managed to enjoy the moment and not think about anything as he grabbed her by the hips and they easily became one. She looked him in the eye as he fucked her and then made love to her and then had a baby with her.
She loved him desperately for this monster had appeared
They fell asleep that it was already late at night.
The monster went up quickly, gaining space in the night. He grabbed Kelly who opened his eyes wide in the night, Brandon was dead, Andrea was telling her. He heard the whistles of the medical equipment. She felt her shortness of breath.
She opened her eyes wide and found Brandon watching her.
He immediately took her in his arms.
"It's okay" he told her squeezing his wife's naked body "I'm here" Kelly closed her eyes very hard, Brandon opened them wide in that's night which never seemed to end.
