Redemption (Desire Never Dies)

by Clara Grace Walker

  “It’s not exactly a secret,” Scott pointed out. “If Shirley hadn’t been so busy worrying about Earl and Mindy, she’d have caught on to you two a long time ago. And a few other things, too.” He looked pointedly at Rory, who cast his eyes to the floor, then glanced at Darla, who just smirked. He felt sorry for Rod.

  “Think what you like.” Nick stared at Darla. “What we learned here today remains our secret. Even if you dislike Mindy, have a little compassion for her child.”

  “Damn,” Vince said. “It’s no wonder that broad is so screwed up. “But I won’t say nothing, man. Like, whatever, you know.”

  “Are you fucking serious?!” Darla’s tone went from indignant to outraged. “Why does everyone tiptoe around that bitch and treat her like she’s so fucking special?”

  “How would you like the whole world to know you’d had a baby at fourteen and put it up for adoption?” Walter’s wife asked.

  As far as Scott knew, it was the first time she’d spoken loud enough for everyone to hear her, and for a moment everyone turned to stare.

  “I was raped by my father when I was fifteen!” Darla’s scream broke the silence. “And everyone in the world knows it!”

  “Mindy had a baby,” Nick said. “There’s a ten-year-old boy out there who doesn’t need to be hunted down by the press and have this dumped in his lap.”

  “Darla, it’s okay. I’m here.” Rod tried putting his arm around her, but she pushed him away.

  “No. It’s not okay.” She yelled, her face red, but free of tears. “Why the hell is Nick so concerned about Mindy?”

  “You wanted to tell the world your story,” Rod reminded her. “You wanted the world to know what a monster your father was. You helped a lot of women. Remember all those letters you received?”

  “What I remember is everyone forgot me. I was a somebody for about six months, until my father’s trial was over. Then all the hoopla died down and I went right back to being a nobody.”

  “You’ve never been a nobody to me.” Rod tried again to touch her, but this time, she shoved him away and stomped off, leaving the room in a hushed daze.

  “Here, Walter, I’ve got everything you asked for.” Belinda returned loaded with rolls of gauze and tape and antiseptic wipes. “Believe it or not, I found the clinic unlocked. I have no idea what’s happened to Dr. Belanger or Ms. Cantwise, or any of the security staff.”

  As she handed the supplies to Walter, Scott noticed Rory slip out of the room. Either he was off to warn Shirley what was going on, or he was just plain embarrassed. “I think this may have been the most therapeutic moment I’ve had here.” He turned to Preston. “And, Dad, I am very sorry about all the shit I put you and mom through.”

  Chapter 72

  How ironic, Rod thought. The best therapy CRC had probably seen came about because of Shirley’s breach of protocol and bad behavior, not because of all her rules and regulations. Revealing Mindy’s secret had been like a salve to Scott’s bitterness about his adoption. The young man seemed ready to take on the world. And while Mindy may have been devastated by the revelation of her secret, Rod suspected having the truth revealed to Earl was what she needed to finally start mending. Darla, on the other hand, he was at a loss to explain. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life.

  Why was she so eager to see Mindy hurt? Except for that drunken nightclub fight they’d had years ago, they didn’t even know each other. What difference could that fight make to Darla now? It didn’t seem likely she was still carrying a torch for a man she’d dated a mere handful of times. She’d barely even mentioned Vince since his arrival at CRC. There had to be more to it than that, but what? And why had she gone running off?

  He’d given her some time to cool down before chasing after her. After four years he’d learned the hard way not to approach when her temper was fully stoked.

  Walking down the hall, he heard wind whistling against the building and rain splattering on the roof. The change in weather was sudden. The sun had shone brightly when he awoke this morning. Even on his way to the disastrous family visit, streaks of sunshine had pored through the thickening clouds. He hadn’t seen a storm coming.

  Strange, too, was the deserted hallway he found himself strolling. Where was the staff? The security guards? Shouldn’t someone be stopping him?

  He thought of the music from Jaws, sounding the inescapable forebodings of doom. From the moment Patty had knocked on his door informing him of the change in family visit time, he’d sensed something was wrong, as though he were prey in need of cover. But like lions hidden in safari grass, the danger remained unseen and elusive. Now, however, the danger seemed to be lifting its head, sniffing him out, preparing to strike, and he was certain of one thing; he needed to get Darla and leave.

  Reaching her door he raised his fist to knock, but hesitated just before striking. From inside came the unmistakable moans of love making. His stomach dropped. His fist froze mid-air while competing impulses flashed through him. Continue knocking. Leave. Yell out something. The impulse that won out was to simply open the door.

  He’d cracked it open only a few inches when his worst fears were realized. Darla lay prone and naked on the bed. Rory worked up a sweat on top of her.

  He halted. Rory halted. Darla looked over in his direction, her gazed tinged with fire. The impulse that won then was to flee.

  He would not let the bitch see him cry. Would not. In high school, a girl named Anna had broken his heart. Six years ago Traci, a woman he’d been close to falling in love with, had dumped him for Preston’s uncle. Why, for him, did love always end with unhappiness?

  He walked down the corridor as quickly as he could, even more heartbroken to realize there were no footsteps chasing after him. Outside wind whipped and rain howled, as if to confirm his sorrow.

  His life was falling apart again, and for once, he wasn’t the reason why.

  Chapter 73

  Mindy tugged her wrists against the restraints tying her to Belanger’s bed, but her efforts brought only a burning sensation to her flesh. While panic settled quietly inside, knotting her muscles and increasing her heart rate, her thoughts returned repeatedly to Frank. He hadn’t tied her up. He hadn’t needed to. He weighed over 200 pounds and she’d barely weighed 100. Climbing into her bed while Mama had been passed out drunk and holding her down had been easy. He’d held both her wrists with one hand, while he’d slid her nightgown up with the other.

  Memories haunted her, clinging like shattered fragments that dusted her emotions and could never be completely scrubbed away. The fear those shards of memory carried made her present misery all the worse. She knew what was coming.

  “Where’s Earl?” She tried sounding brave. Tried forcing her thoughts from what was about to happen. “What have you done to him?”

  Earl had lost consciousness almost as soon as Jim plunged the hypodermic into his arm. She’d watched helplessly as Ryan, Dex and Jerry dragged him off. She’d expected them to drug her next, but they hadn’t. Instead Shirley and Jim escorted her to Belanger’s quarters at gunpoint.

  He looked down at her from the foot of the bed. The room was dark from the clouded sky, visible through open drapes on the glass wall. Rain smacked the glass, having gone from a light sprinkle when she was being marched from the woods to an earnest shower by the time he’d finished tying her up. If she rolled her head to the opposite side, she could see the door leading to his living room. Something to the side of the door, a dresser she thought, cast a shadow across the carpeted floor in the dim light.

  Belanger sneered at her. His face ugly with wide eyes and crazy with excitement. Distorted from the snarl curling his lips. It was the face of her nightmare.

  “You ought to forget about Earl and worry about what I’m going to do to you,” he said.

  Panic edged in. “You’re not going to do anything to me.” She did her best to sound defiant.

  Belanger sat down on the edge of the bed, bringing his face in close. Stale
beer rolled from his breath. “I’m going to do anything I want to you. Shirley said I could. I get to do more than just touch this time.”

  She turned her face away from his. “I knew I wasn’t dreaming.”

  “Dreaming?” He grabbed hold of her cheeks, jerking her face back to his. “No. You weren’t dreaming. But it doesn’t matter if you know that. When I finish with you, you’re going to have an overdose. Just like Regina did.”

  She finally had proof. Not that it was going to do her any good. Or Daddio either. She tried to look away from Belanger, but he yanked on her hair until it pulled painfully from her scalp. She held back a scream. “Aren’t you going to have trouble explaining another overdose?”

  He stopped pulling on her hair and stroked it like he might a pet. “You’re right. Maybe I should think of a different way to dispose of you.”

  “How?” She didn’t want to know, but the longer she kept him talking, the longer she could put off whatever he had in store for her.

  His eyes brightened. “Maybe drowning. You see that storm outside, don’t you?”

  She did. The rain now fell in sheets. In the distance, she heard a loud peal of thunder, followed seconds later by lightning illuminating the sky.

  “That’s hurricane Phoebe making landfall.”

  “A hurricane?” Mindy died a little inside. “You knew? You knew there was a hurricane coming and you didn’t evacuate? What about all the people here?”

  “What about them?”

  “Isn’t it dangerous?”

  He slid two fingers under her chin, bringing her face up closer to his. “What’s your point, sweetheart?”

  She remembered New Orleans and the tragedy named Katrina. “People might die.”

  He smirked. “People will die. Starting with you.”

  Chapter 74

  How could this possibly be?

  Even when the clouds had rolled in, thick and black, Shirley hadn’t believed it. They would get rain. She had accepted that much. Rain. A storm even. But Phoebe herself, the full brunt of the hurricane, would pass them by. All the signs of fate had promised her a legendary destiny and a life with Earl. Starting with the day he had shown up at her facility. Only to support Mindy. That was all. He had told her so himself.

  Only yesterday he had sought her out. They’d shared a kiss. She had him signed into CRC. How could this have happened?

  But he’d lied to her. The unwanted thought tore at her heart, threatening her with doubt. He hadn’t been in the clinic to talk to Arthur. Ryan had found Arthur’s pictures and Andrew’s medical degree stuffed inside Earl’s pockets, and her keys to the clinic were missing from her office. Earl had betrayed her. Sought to ruin her.

  Heartache wrenched a tear from her eye. Earl was too far gone, turned into a brain-dead lump of hormones by that slut Mindy. And now Phoebe was coming, too; closing in on her with her winds and her storm surge.

  Lightning struck outside. So close and so loudly she heard a tree split and crash to the ground. Shirley jumped. Her chest tightened, making it hard to draw breath. It was just a thunderstorm, she told herself. The outer fringes of Phoebe brushing past them, while Phoebe herself skirted by.

  It wasn’t true though. They weren’t going to escape the hurricane. Not even a little bit. Phoebe was going to hit them head on. And if Earl ever walked away from here, he would turn her into the authorities.

  Tears welled up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t. She’d worked so hard, never drinking, never smoking, never taking drugs or engaging in sex. She never even swore, save a few times when she was feeling really, really stressed.

  Why would fate favor someone like Mindy? A girl who’d done everything wrong? A girl who’d been brought to her for fixing. How could Earl possibly prefer Mindy to her? It made no sense. And now Phoebe was going to hit them, too. She’d only been in Florida a few years and she had no experience with hurricanes, but if an F5 tornado was as bad as it gets, then a category 5 hurricane had to be just as awful. The thought chilled her; brought fear into the deepest places of her soul. A hurricane was about to swallow everything she had spent her life building, and if Earl survived, he would still love Mindy. Mindy. Not her.

  But what if he didn’t survive?

  She looked up from her desk, pulling her face from her hands. Of course. That’s what fate was trying to tell her.

  She wiped her eyes as the realization came to life. Fate never meant for her time with Earl to be on this Earth, on this temporary plane of existence. Fate had something more eternal in store for them. And if she and Earl died together, in each other’s arms, she would become legendary, just as she had always dreamed. The world would never forget the woman who had died in Hurricane Phoebe with Earl Grayson. She, and her teachings, would be remembered forever. Consumed with excitement, she pressed down on her walkie-talkie. “Ryan, have Mr. Grayson moved from his room to my bedroom, please.”

  “What are we going to do about this storm?” he answered back. “It looks like the hurricane is going to hit us after all.”

  “We’re just getting hit by the fringes. Phoebe’s headed back out to sea.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He sounded worried. She didn’t like that. Now was no time for doubt. “Trust me, Ryan. Have you ever known me to do anything but look out for everyone’s best interests?”

  “No, Ms. Cantwise.”

  “Good. No more talk of hurricanes.”

  A new realization hit suddenly. Too many patients and family members remained unconverted. If they survived, and she didn’t, they might tell terrible tales about her. And tarnish her legacy. Instead of being hailed for her good works and vision, she’d be ridiculed. Her teachings to change the world might end up in the trash. If anyone survived at all, it could mean the end of everything she’d worked for. She couldn’t allow that to happen.

  She radioed Ryan once more. “Be sure to take all necessary measures to keep the patients and their families from talking of hurricanes, or using this storm as an excuse to leave. Some of our patients are desperate to avoid treatment. And their family members are all co-dependent. None of them have even attended Patty’s seminars.”

  Three years ago, when she’d built the treatment facility, the building inspector had been concerned about the glass walls. He’d said they might not be safe in a hurricane. But as a CRC adherent and someone who wanted to keep his involvement with drugs and extortion secret, he’d acquiesced to her wishes. Now the beauty of her building design became clear. Trapped inside the glass building, everyone would die. A necessary tragedy. She spoke once more into the walkie-talkie. “Ryan, once Mr. Grayson’s moved, guard the hotel. Don’t let anyone inside. Send everyone back to the rehab facility if they show up. I’m counting on you to keep order.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I won’t let you down.”

  Shirley felt satisfied at last. She and Earl would be swallowed by the storm, their spirits inextricably bound, one to the other. They would transition to eternity together, while she and her teachings became immortal.

  Chapter 75

  Darla sat in the bed, her breath coming fast and shallow, choking on the fear grabbing hold of her. Now she’d done it. She’d pushed Rod away for good. It had been obvious by the look on his face. He’d looked like a kid who’d just seen his dog hit by a car. And he’d look at her like she’d been the one driving. A mixture of agony and disgust. If she needed any more proof, there was the way he’d closed the door without a word. And not come back.

  Worse still, her realization that she’d lost him had been instantly followed by the realization that she didn’t want to. “Rod.” She jumped off the bed, belting on a robe she grabbed from the floor. “Rod, come back.”

  Opening the door to her room, she saw nothing but an empty hallway. And made her third distressing realization. She glanced at Rory, sitting on the edge of her bed, still looking confused about the way she’d pushed him off her. “What if Rod tells everyone?” she
asked. “What if he leaves? Just leaves me here alone with everyone knowing what happened?”

  “Fuck.” Rory grabbed his pants from the floor and pulled them on. “If Shirley finds out I’ve had a non-approved relationship, she’ll tell my parents I’m the one who stole my mother’s wedding ring and sold it to pay my gambling debts.”

  “What?” Darla stood dumbfounded. “Why are you talking about your mother’s wedding ring right now?”

  Rory looked at her like she was stupid. “You don’t get it, do you? Why do you think everyone does what Shirley says? She finds out your secrets in therapy and uses them to blackmail you into doing whatever she wants. And she doesn’t like people having sex unless she pairs them up.”

  “So.” Darla didn’t see what the big deal was. “I haven’t told any secrets the whole world doesn’t know about already.”

  Rory finished buttoning his shirt. “Well yippee for you, but she has plenty of dirt on me.” He pulled a set of car keys from his pants pocket, zipping his pants and stuffing his feet into his shoes. “I’m getting out of here.”

  “Wait!” She tried to stop him, but he ran out the door without even looking back.

  Darla clutched the belt to her robe, tears sliding down her face. Rod was gone and now Rory was gone. And she was all alone.

  Chapter 76

  What started as light rain became a downpour. Wind screamed through trees and against the buildings like a group of banshees. A very large group of banshees. All suffering PMS and rioting. Preston took in the chaos, already formulating a plan.

  “We need to get out of here,” Vince yelled. “We should get in our cars right now and take off, before the guards get back.”

  “No.” Preston spoke loudly. “It’s too late for that. Getting on the roads now would just be suicide.”

  “What kind of storm is this?” Vince asked.