I smile and take a deep breath. Finally. I’m leaving this place.
“The parole meeting is next Monday. They will ask you a series of questions, and based on your behavior while you’ve been here, I think you have a good shot. Of course, once out of here, you will serve the remainder of your sentence with a parole officer from home.”
“Yes. I understand.” I don’t care about having to meet with a parole officer each week. Leaving the confines of this jail cell will be enough for me.
“And this leads to the second reason I’m here. You’ll need to find a job.”
“Yes. Do you know anyone who will hire me?”
“I’ve been asking around and I have a friend who’s a mechanic. I told him you were the best. He said he would give you an interview. What do you think of that?”
Once again I’m speechless. This man has taken me under his wing for the past five years and now he’s practically handing me a job. He’s handing a criminal a job. Not to mention everything he’s done for my brothers. My brothers eat dinner at the Birch house at least once a month. This amount of kindness blows me away. I hope I’ll be welcome for dinner once I’m out…if Claire’s speaking to me then.
“Thank you. That’s more than I could have hoped for. I’ll be happy to go to the interview. I’ll go as soon as I’m out, and I can start the next day.”
Philip nods in agreement and shuts his notebook.
“That’s all I have for today. Any other questions?”
“Yeah. My friend Simon…the one I’ve been asking you about. When is he released?”
“He is scheduled to be released about the same time as you. I would have to check on his case to make sure.”
“Good.” Simon didn’t deserve the harsh sentence he received. He’s only in here because of me, and I’ve been checking on him throughout the past five years. We’re in two separate prisons so I haven’t laid eyes on him since the bust, but I’m always asking and checking. I know Tommy and Sally are too. They’ve been visiting us both over the past five years. Nothing too frequent, but enough to say they care. “Thanks, Philip.”
He nods his head in approval and stands. I stand and watch him leave. I want to ask about Claire, but she is the white elephant in the room. He didn’t mention her, and I didn’t ask.
I’m led back to my cell, and as I sit on my bed I decide to do what I do best. I take out a pen and paper and start to write Claire another love letter. It’s all I know to do in this situation. In my past letters, I’ve asked her why she doesn’t visit and I’ve been inquisitive about her lack of interest.
In this one, I only focus on her and her beauty. I focus on how proud of her I am for graduating law school and then I end the letter with a sappy love poem. I seal the envelope and slap on the stamp. I write her address from memory and signal the guard. He takes the envelope from my hands and as I watch him walk away, I get an idea.
I plan to write her a letter each and every day until I leave. And once I start work and have some money, I’ll start sending her flowers. Girls like flowers, right? I know Claire loves my sappy love letters. At least she did. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I will win her back.
I have to.
I’M A FREE man. The parole hearing went as planned and I’m walking out a free bird. I have to see my parole officer once a week for the next three years, but that I can handle. My brothers are here to greet me, and as I walk out of the jail, I’m a little shaken to be actually leaving. Surely there’s been some sort of mistake and they’re going to make me return.
Mark and Luke walk beside me as we head to their car. It’s a red Honda Civic and I’m already checking out the exterior. I need to stop. I left that life behind, and I need to see things for what they are, not what they would have meant in my past.
“Nice wheels,” I say as we walk to the door. I have no luggage or anything, so I open the door to the back seat and slip inside. The only items I’m taking with me are the cross necklace, the picture of my family, and some letters from my brothers and Claire. All of these items fit in my pockets.
“Sounds like you’ll be perfect for the mechanic job,” Luke chimes in as we slip inside the car.
“Yeah. My interview is tomorrow. I’m hoping he’ll hire me and that I can start as soon as possible. I need some money to help pay rent and send Claire flowers.”
“Don’t worry about rent money yet, Brandon. Get going on your feet first, and then we can talk,” Mark says as he cranks the car. We drive away from the jail. The feeling is surreal. After five years, am I really leaving? I never thought this day would happen. If it hadn’t been for Philip, I’d probably have been looking at life behind bars.
I watch the scenery change as we leave the countryside and move closer to the city. The twin’s apartment is downtown and surrounded by everything teeming with life. The thought is both accelerating and frightening. All I have known for the past five years is jail and before that my life was full of nothing legal. This is phase three of my life, and I intend to make it count. I’ve been given a second chance from a few select people, and I intend to make them proud.
We pull up to an older apartment complex and Mark parks the vehicle. I step outside, still in denial that I’m free. I walk over to the grass and remove my sandals. I step into its greenness and let the crackling feeling beneath my feet soak into my soul. This is nice. I haven’t felt grass beneath my feet in five years. Before jail I could have felt this sensation anytime and anywhere, but since that freedom was removed, this now feels amazing.
I turn around and see my brothers’ looks of confusion. “I haven’t felt grass in five years,” I explain.
Through their laughter, Mark walks to my side and throws his arm around me. “Big brother, we’re here for you and we’ll help you acclimate back into the real world.”
I sigh because really, they have done more than enough. “I’m going to need a lot of help. I haven’t ever been part of the real world.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Luke adds, and I look at my brothers in awe.
“Yeah. Thanks.” I can’t say much more. Luke leads the way to our apartment. I walk inside and see it’s fully furnished.
“Your room is back here,” Luke says as we travel down the hallway. I open the door and see a bed and a small dresser. It’s actually nicer than the room I had with Tommy and Sally.
“Where did you get this furniture?” I ask.
“We asked around. Some of this is from Dayna’s family,” Luke answers.
“I appreciate it.” I walk to my bed and sit on the mattress. Having a bedroom of my own feels weird, and it will probably take me a while to get use to the privacy again. Privacy in jail doesn’t exist.
“We’ll give you some space, Brandon. We’ll take you the places you need to go, like to your meetings with your parole officer. Also, you’ll want to renew your driver’s license and go purchase clothes. We didn’t know what to get you, but you can borrow some of our clothes for now.” Luke is right. I need to get my shit together before I get back to Claire.
“Yeah. All that would be great. I’ll borrow your clothes for right now, and I’ll need some help getting to the parole office. I have to be there tomorrow, and I have my interview, too.”
“Okay, we’ll leave you alone for now,” Mark says and they both walk out of my room. I want to pick up the phone and call Claire. She has to know I’m out of jail. Suddenly I’m angry that she hasn’t even attempted to get in touch with me. We told each other we were in love and then when the going gets tough, she ditches me. I lay on the bed and let the anger roll off my back. I can’t be angry at her. That’s a sure way to not get her back.
I walk into the den and see Mark and Luke watching television. “Hey, can I borrow a phone?”
Mark hands me his cell and I look through the contacts. I see Claire’s number is one of his favorites.
“Are you calling who I think you’re calling?”
“Yep.”
> “Good luck.”
I give him a tight smile and walk back to my bedroom. I close the door and hit send. The good thing is she’ll think this is Mark calling and possibly answer. She answers on the third ring.
“Hey!”
I hear her perfect voice and freeze. This is reminiscent of when I tried to contact my brothers all those years ago. I want to hang up, but I don’t.
“Claire.” My voice is hoarse. I hate how vulnerable I am around her. She obviously doesn’t want me anymore, and here I am about to make a fool of myself in front of her. She’s silent on her end and when she speaks, it’s like an exhale.
“Hey.”
“I’m out. I’m at Mark and Luke’s apartment. I’m staying here for now.” I pause but she doesn’t speak. “I just wanted to let you know…if you were interested.” This is the most awkward phone conversation I’ve ever had with her or with anyone else for that matter. She continues the silence and I decide to ask her a question. This might get her to speak to me.
“What happened between us, Claire?”
She pauses again, and I’m starting to wonder if she’s dropped the call, when she speaks. “I just…I just felt disconnected Brandon. Your time in jail was hard for me. I’m sorry. I just…” She doesn’t finish her sentence and I decide to jump in for the kill. Why not?
“Is there somebody else, Claire?”
Silence continues on her end, and then I hear her sigh. “Brandon, it’s much more complicated than that.”
“Can we get together? So we can talk?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Her voice is soft and angelic, just like I remember, and she’s breaking my heart one beat at a time.
“I’ve got to go, Brandon. I’m sorry.”
Just like that, she hangs up the phone. I’m left staring at the screen and wondering what the hell just happened. I want to squeeze the phone to pieces and throw it at the wall, but I refrain. One thing I learned in prison is that my temper doesn’t get me anywhere. It used to bring me power, but when I’m dealing with Claire, I’m completely powerless.
I’ve got to get my shit together or I’m going to lose her entirely. I refuse to believe that has already happened. I’ll continue sending her love letters each day but first, I’m going to work on myself. I need to get in a good place financially and then I can start pursuing her. Maybe she needs me to have money and a stable job before we can try this again.
I’ll have Mark and Luke keep tabs so that she doesn’t do something crazy like get engaged. Then I’ll start to work my charm. I’m forcing myself to focus on something else for the time being, with my top priority being to find a job.
Then I’ll start sending her a rose each and every day. If she thinks I’m going to give up that easily, she’s wrong.
Brandon Wilson doesn’t give up.
CLAIRE LOOKS AT her reflection in the mirror. What is she doing?
I’m doing nothing wrong.
So why does she feel like she’s cheating on Brandon? She is meeting Nathan for drinks and that is all. Nothing else. The past five years have been trying for her. She has finished law school, passed the bar, and now works fulltime for her dad. She is a successful lawyer and had plenty of accomplishments.
So why did she feel herself drifting from Brandon?
Now Nathan has come into her life with his polite ways and perfect charm. In fact, he is the total opposite of Brandon. And for this past year, she has craved normalcy. Her life had been far from normal since the moment she met Brandon Wilson. Once she was returned, she was the object of media scrutiny. Even though she tried to keep Brandon and their relationship a secret, the media still caught on and made a spectacle of her dating her kidnapper.
Claire chose to ignore the media and instead, focus on Brandon, but as the years wore on, so did her emotions. He wasn’t able to touch her, wasn’t able to take her on dates, and wasn’t able to be there for her. By year three, her commitment had started to diminish, although she had put on a good show, but by year four, she couldn’t hide her feelings anymore.
She loves Brandon. She doesn’t doubt that for a second, but she has needed his arms around her. She has needed him there for her at night, and she has wanted nothing more but to call him up on the phone after a hard day. For the past five years, she hasn’t had that. Then she met Nathan.
Nathan Lang is a successful owner of a marketing firm in Atlanta. They met while she was legally representing his company. It started with a smile, which turned into drinks, which turned into dinner. And the deal with Nathan was he was normal. No baggage, no criminal history, no skeletons in the closet. Only normalcy. Bliss.
As guilt invaded her system, Claire had quit visiting Brandon. She didn’t know any more if what they had could survive in the real world. Their relationship had grown in the three-month bubble during the kidnapping and in the artificial environment of prison. Claire was starting to think maybe love wasn’t enough. She desired touch, feelings, and someone there physically to accompany the love. And over the past five years, Brandon hasn’t been fulfilling that need. It’s not because he hadn’t tried.
He has written her enough love letters to fill an entire box. Once she stopped visiting, the love letters sometimes arrived daily. Due to the guilt she had felt for abandoning him during his darkest hour, she quit reading the letters. Even his brothers have backed off from asking her about Brandon.
She continues to ready herself for her date tonight. She and Nathan aren’t official. They have been together only a few months and have never really discussed their relationship. As far as Claire is concerned, she and Nathan are simply a little more than friends.
She doesn’t love him, but she does like him. What she and Brandon had shared was crazy love, quick and all-consuming. They were only really together for three months, but she still knew that he was someone special. She had been able to see past the temper and past the anger to visualize a man with a good heart.
Not that Nathan doesn’t have a good heart, because he does. Nathan is secure and easy. Brandon is a wild card, which means an unpredictable future. She isn’t sure if being with him would ever secure her a normal life. Brandon’s past will haunt him for the rest of his life, not to mention what the media will do if they venture out in public together.
Claire’s heart is torn between love and reality, and she can’t decide which to choose. She has tried blocking Brandon out by not visiting him and not reading his letters. Life is easier when she focuses on Nathan and tries to cut herself off from the past five years.
That is until Brandon called.
He called her from Mark’s phone a full week ago, and of course she answered immediately. She had known he had a chance of parole, but she chose to exclude herself from all the legal proceedings. Her father had given her space when it came to Brandon. He let her make her own decisions, and because of this, she had no idea that Brandon had already been released. His voice stunned her and she raced to hang up the phone before the illusion of her perfect world became unraveled.
After that phone conversation, she had needed Nathan to remind her of normalcy. She had called him that night to ask what he was doing, but he had been busy with work all week. Tonight is the first chance for them to be together. They have decided on dinner. As she applies her lipstick in the mirror, she briefly wonders what on earth she is doing.
Is she running from her feelings? She had known Brandon would try to contact her, but she also knew that, if she pushed him away, he would slowly start to back off. He is a gentleman, and won’t force himself on her. She has to make up her mind what she wants, and she has to decide soon. Brandon will come for her, this much she knows. She will have to decide what she wants and choose between safety and unpredictability.
She glances over at the box of unopened letters. She knows they probably contain poems. If she opens even one, her heart will melt into a puddle. She knows all Brandon will have to do is kiss her, and she will return to him. He h
as a crazy power over her that has so much to do with her knowing him fully. She has seen the good, bad, and ugly sides of Brandon Wilson and because of this, she feels an unexplainable connection to him.
The doorbell rings as she stands wrapped up her thoughts. Nathan is here, and it is time to move her mind away from Brandon. For the night, at least, she decides to ignore her heart and move to what she knows is the logical answer. She glances once more at her long blonde hair and takes a deep breath.
She leaves her room and walks down the hallway of her and Sarah’s apartment. Sarah is out for the night at a study session, leaving the entire apartment to Claire.
Claire makes enough money to afford her own place, but she wants to live with Sarah. She and Sarah have developed a bond since the kidnappings five years ago, and although Sarah is younger by almost five years, Claire feels like she is a best friend and a sister. Their families are friends and they have kept in touch after all this time. Living together is easy and carefree. They each do their own thing but, they see eye to eye on so many different issues.
Claire walks to the door and throws it open without looking through the peephole. “Ready…” Her voice trails off when she sees Brandon standing in front of her. Neither speaks as the seconds tick by. Claire studies Brandon and his form. He looks older and wiser. There is something different in his eyes that she can’t quite decipher. She realizes she hasn’t seen him in over eight months.
“Claire.” His voice is almost a whisper, causing her body to slightly melt. She longs to run into his arms, but knows she shouldn’t. She hasn’t made up her mind yet, and if she decides to be with Brandon, there will be a long road of recovery ahead of them. Is she willing to travel that road?
“Hi Brandon. What are you doing here?” She manages to find her voice as she struggles to swallow. She has forgotten how great he looks with his shaggy brown hair and perfect hazel green eyes. His eyes remind her of a storm, and his hair is slightly more unkempt than usual. His body speaks volumes of a man who has worked out. How long he spent working out each day had been a joke of theirs when she would visit the prison.
The Thief Redeemer Page 23
