Underestimated

by Jettie Woodruff

  “Why did your wife leave you, Dawson?” I asked for some reason. I never asked about his past. I guess it was just another one of my hang-ups. I was never allowed to ask questions, and it was always no concern of mine.

  He snorted next. I assumed he was thinking about how crazy I was.

  “I met her at the police academy. I knew I wanted to stay here and take over once my father retired. She was from Chicago and couldn’t get used to the small town. She needed more action than Misty Bay could give her.”

  “Your wife was a cop too?” I asked. I never knew that. I had seen a picture at his house once of a graduating class, and I assumed one of the two females was her, but had no idea that she was an officer. I was shocked that Lauren never mentioned it. Not that she was much on gossip, but she would answer my questions. I guess I never asked what his wife did.

  “Yes, she was a cop or is, I should say. She went back home to Chicago after one year here. Her dad was also a cop, so she knew that there was more action than writing parking tickets in some small hick town.”

  “I like this small hick town,” I smiled up at him. He carried a heavy heart. I could see it in his eyes.

  “I need for you to talk to me, Ry.”

  “I’m not telling you who he is, Dawson,” I assured him.

  “Then don’t, but I need some answers.”

  I took a deep breath. I owed it to him. There was nothing that I could tell him that would scare him away. If he was going to run, he would have done it before now.

  “What do you want to know?” I asked, turning back to lie on his chest. It was easier not to look at him when I talked about my past. I didn’t want to see the disgust on his face.

  “How did you spend your days there?”

  “Most days were good. He traveled a lot, so I spent most of my time either alone or with Rebecca.”

  “Tell me about Rebecca. She knew. She knew that you were there against your will. Why didn’t she help you?”

  “Rebecca helped me in more ways than you could ever know. I don’t know that I would have survived without her.”

  “How old was Rebecca?”

  I’m not sure why that mattered, but I answered. “She was probably in her mid-thirties when I first got there.”

  “And she was just the help there?”

  “She was more than the help. Her only job was to take care of me.”

  “What do you mean take care of you? What did she do?”

  “Hmm, a little bit of everything I guess. She made my appointments for my hair, dress fittings for his stupid dinners, made sure that I had my birth control shots. She cooked for me too, but I think that was because she liked to do it. I remember her always being close by. I used to ride around the property on one of the golf carts, and sometimes I would see her in a distance checking to see where I was.”

  “Were you able to talk to her?”

  “Not much. Every room in that house had cameras, and he could hear everything that was said. Sometimes she would ride with me on the cart, and we would talk, but she was always afraid to say anything.”

  “Why would she work for a man like that?”

  “Rebecca too, came from the same side of the tracks as I did. She grew up very poor and never had much. She was waitressing in a diner in some small town when Drew approached her about working for him. I don’t think she really knew what she was getting into, and I think she too was afraid of him. She had a five year contract to take care of me. He would give her, her own suite, take care of all of her needs, and once her contract was up, she would be paid a half a million dollars for her time. I guess Drew thought that five years would be enough time to train me.”

  “So she too was weak. What a coward. So she left before you?”

  “No, she signed another one year contract. I think she was afraid to leave me. She was the one that came and put me back together when he decided to come home pissed off and take it out on me. But she was leaving shortly after I left. I hope she did,” I added.

  “How often were you…”

  “Punished, you can say it,” I said, finishing his sentence.

  “You were a grown woman. You shouldn’t have been punished.”

  I ignored that part. “It depends. Sometimes I would go months without any encounters. He would come home and do his thing with me and leave me alone. Other times, mostly when I had to go out with him,” I added. “I always said something or looked at someone or something that he made sure that I was going to be punished for.”

  “And this Derik prick, did he leave you alone?”

  I snorted. “No. Once I was trusted enough to go out and shop or go to the library, Derik had to be the one to go with me. He always made sure that he took a back way home, but I did become friends with his wife Jena and was occasionally allowed to go out to a show or to eat with her.”

  “You couldn’t talk to her?”

  “And tell her what, Dawson? Hey, your husband has sex with me, and I am living in this mansion with everything that a woman could want with this good looking rich guy against my will. We didn’t talk about personal things, well I didn’t anyway. She did. I used to be absolutely repulsed when she would giddily tell me about their sex life.”

  I almost felt bad thinking about it. I said, almost. I did start to somewhat enjoy sex with Derik. Not that I liked him or anything. I hated the slime ball, but at least he would let me finish. He loved for me to come and tried to make sure that I did every time, unlike Drew who used it to torture or punish me when I did.

  “So you were getting raped by not only Drew but his business partner as well.”

  He didn’t say it like a question. He knew what it was.

  “Not for long with Derik. I got up enough nerve one night and told Drew that I thought Rebecca should go along the next time I was going to the library. I told him that I didn’t think it looked good to be running around the city with him so much alone. The bastard agreed. He made sure that Rebecca was with me from that point on.”

  Our deep conversation was interrupted by none other than my annoying neighbor.

  “I’m making coffee. You guys going to sleep all day?” Lauren called from the kitchen.

  We both laughed.

  “Why don’t you have any leftovers in here?” she asked as I made my way out to meet her.

  “We had pizza at the shop last night, remember?”

  “Yeah, but what happened to that lasagna?”

  “You ate that yesterday.”

  “Great, now I’m going to starve,” she pouted.

  “Or you could go home and cook. Hey, I know. How about you cook once and let me come over and eat your leftovers?”

  Lauren laughed. “Nah, I kind of hate that idea. What are you guys doing today? Wanna go hangout at the mall?”

  “No. We’re staying in today,” Dawson said, joining us. I knew then that our conversation wasn’t over.

  “You guys are pathetic. You act like you’re forty or something,” she stated.

  “I am forty,” Dawson said. I laughed. He wasn’t forty. He was only thirty.

  I made us all breakfast and noticed how Dawson kept staring at me. It wasn’t his sexy, I want you stare. It was more of a trying to determine whether or not I was okay kind of stare. I wasn’t okay, and was beginning to wonder if I ever would be. Some days I did think I was okay, and couldn’t be better. Other days, like that day, made me question that.

  I smiled a warm smile at him. He returned it.

  After Lauren left we got dressed and walked down the path to the beach. It was chilly but not too bad for October in Maine. Dawson held my hand as we walked. He was quiet, and I didn’t quite know what to say. We spoke to John, out for his daily walk with his dog, and then sat in the sand. The sand was warm from the sun. It felt nice, therapeutic.

  “I want to know how you got here, Ry.”

  I knew it was just a matter of time before the questions continued. I picked up a handful of warm sand and let it funnel through the bo
ttom of my hand. I looked up to him, and he leaned in and kissed me.

  “Please talk to me,” he begged. “I think maybe getting it off your chest will help.”

  “It doesn’t help, Daw. It makes me relive it.”

  “I need to know, Ry.”

  “Because you need to decide whether or not you should marry me?” It wasn’t actually a question. I was just stating a fact.

  “I am marrying you, Riley Murphy. I love you. But we have been together for over a year, and I know that there is so much that you haven’t disclosed. Why won’t you tell me?”

  “Why did I ever get involved with a cop? I should have gone out with Levi. He probably wouldn’t care about my past. But nooo. I had to go fall in love with someone with investigating training.”

  “Investigating training?” Dawson said light heartily with a smile. I smiled back. I couldn’t help it. He was just too darn cute.

  I took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

  “I want to know everything, but right now I just want you to tell me how you left. What made you decide to leave?”

  “Remember that I told you that Rebecca started to go everywhere with Derik and me?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “Well, after a few times. Derik stopped stalking me in the library. He was pissed that he couldn’t get me alone anymore, and pretty much pretended that I didn’t exist.”

  “Did Derik always drive you?”

  “Mostly, I think he was the only one that Drew trusted. Drew gave me a cellphone so that he could track my whereabouts and call when he wanted.”

  “Did you drive?”

  I snorted. “No. I did get my driver’s license when I turned twenty one. I’m not sure why. I was never allowed to leave without Derik, Rebecca and sometimes Jena, but if I was with Jena, either Derik or Drew himself followed.”

  “And Rebecca?” he asked.

  “We were in the library right after Drew had agreed to keep her on for one more year. I was looking for a book that I had been waiting to come out. It was the third in a series.”

  I smiled, when I noticed that Dawson wasn’t the least bit interested in the book that I had been so excited about.

  “Anyway, I looked up, and Rebecca was giving me some sort of strange look. We were never close, like in talking about anything personal. We talked, but she would mostly just listen. I think she was afraid of what Drew would hear.”

  “What, Rebecca,” I asked.

  “You need to leave, Morgan,” she stated, and for some reason I knew that she wasn’t talking about leaving the library. I feigned ignorance anyway.

  “I have twenty more minutes,” I stated.

  “You need to leave Drew, Morgan. I am going to help you. We have nine months to get you out of there, and I will be gone. I don’t think I would ever forgive myself if I left and didn’t at least try. I may end up dead, but at least I would die without a guilty conscious.”

  “Rebecca, you know that I can’t just leave. I can’t even leave the house without a babysitter. I have nowhere to go. I wouldn’t go back to where I came from. He would just find me.”

  “We are going to figure it out. I promise, Morgan.”

  I kept looking to Dawson, trying to read his face. Every time that I did, he leaned in and kissed me.

  “So, how did you two scheme up your disappearance?”

  “We never talked about it again for a month. Drew had beaten me pretty good one evening, and the next day she brought it up again while she brought me food.”

  “Why did he beat you up?”

  “I thought you wanted to know how I got out.”

  “I want to know it all,” he insisted.

  I turned my gaze back to my little mountain that I had been forming from funneling sand through my hand.

  “I had to go to another one of his events,” I started with a heavy sigh. I hated Drew’s events, dinner parties, and prospect meetings. I knew what it meant. I was never going to make it through one of his engagements without messing up. He knew it. He thrived on it. He knew that we would come home, and he would play his sick games with me. That was really the only time that he raised a hand to me. It was inevitable. I would screw up somehow.

  “I was having my hair and makeup done when he came into to check on my progress. He was rushing me, or the stylists, I guess. I wasn’t intended to go to this particular event. I overheard him telling someone that I wasn’t feeling well, and I wasn’t going to be able to make it. He then went on to suck up to whoever was insisting that I be there.”

  “I’m actually looking forward to this night,” he whispered close to my ear, holding his hand around my throat while he glared at me through the mirror with a warning.

  I took my normal lecture in the back of the limo. Don’t talk to anyone, but Jena. Don’t look at anyone, don’t answer questions, and the most important one of all that night. I was in no way allowed to talk to Mr. Callaway alone, and if he asked, I was to tell him that I rather my husband stay. I wondered who Mr. Callaway was. I knew that Drew said that he was his father. I wasn’t sure that I believed that. He called him Mr. Callaway. Why would anyone call their father by Mr.? Even for a fucked up family like that, it seemed off to me. This would be at least a dozen times that I would have the pleasure of being beaten because he insisted, every time that I talk to him in private. Drew never helped. He walked away with his tail between his legs.

  Jena never showed, only Derik. He said that she had come down with something and wasn’t feeling well. I really wanted Jena to be there.

  I saw Mr. Callaway being pushed around in his wheelchair. Drew looked over and told me not to look at him.

  What the fuck?

  I turned my gaze away from him. I knew that I was going to be in trouble regardless, so I asked.

  “What’s wrong with him, Drew?”

  He shot me a death glare. “Don’t ask questions that don’t pertain to you. That’s one,” he warned, holding up one finger. One what, I didn’t know. It could mean anything with him.

  My dress had an open back and Drew kept his hand there. It made me sick that he made all of these people think what a wonderful husband he was. He never kissed me unless it was in public around people that he was trying to impress.

  Mr. Callaway of course made his way over to me. I couldn’t figure out what his interest was in me. Why did he always insist that I be pulled to the side with him?

  “Leave us Drew,” he boldly stated as soon as he was wheeled by his caretaker to us.

  “With all due respect, Mr. Callaway, I would like for Drew to stay,” I tried. I did want him to stay. This guy was just going to ask about my happiness like he cared about my wellbeing.

  “Nonsense, leave!” he demanded. Drew walked away. I looked past Mr. Callaway and Drew held up two fingers. I almost rolled my eyes at him, but caught myself, knowing that I would get the third finger.

  Mr. Callaway gently took my hand, beckoning me to sit. “You look absolutely gorgeous, as always.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “How are you doing? I missed you last month for our grand opening.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about. Drew didn’t tell me things that pertained to his business.

  “Drew said you weren’t feeling well. Is everything okay?”

  No. You old moron, I am married to a monster. I don’t feel so well at all.

  “Yes. I’m fine. Thank you for asking. It was just a little bug,” I lied.

  “How is Drew treating you? Everything okay at home?”

  What the hell? Who the hell are you, and why do you care?

  “Yes, everything is wonderful.”

  I had no idea what this guy’s deal was, but for some reason he felt the need to go on and on about his son. Michael. I mean, I’m not cold hearted or anything. I did have compassion for the guy losing his only son. I just couldn’t understand why he felt the need to tell me, especially with my obstinate husband glaring scalpels at me.

 
; Chapter 10

  “What was the party for?” Dawson interrupted when I got silent, thinking about the party.

  “I don’t know, some software launch or something,” I lied. I wasn’t about to tell him Drew owned fifteen different jewelry stores throughout the country. It wouldn’t be hard to pinpoint the Callaway name to them now that I had volunteered the old man’s name. It was better that he thought he was some kind of software developer from Indiana. Maybe someday I would tell him, but not yet. I couldn’t take the chance. I knew Dawson would go after him, and probably end up dead.

  “Why did he not want you to be alone with this man?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. I still don’t know. I never did figure out what his interest was in me. Drew had told me the first time that I met him that his father was none of my business, but I’m not so sure if the guy was truly his dad.”

  “Did you ever meet any of his family?”

  “No. I don’t even know if he had family, other than Mr. Callaway.”

  “What happened after the party?”

  “Let’s go up to the house, and save that for another time,” I tried.

  He pulled me toward him causing me to knock over my sand creation with my foot. He kissed the corner of my mouth and then whispered.

  “I love you, Riley, and that was a real nice try,” he smiled.

  I leaned my back to his side, and he put his arm around me.

  “We left almost immediately after Mr. Callaway was wheeled away. Drew didn’t say a word all the way home. He did put his hand out for my rings once again which I without a problem, I handed over to him.”

  “Where are you going?” Drew asked once we were inside.

  “To change?” I said in a question, asking for permission.

  “Uh-uh, go to the gym. I want you to watch.”

  I knew he was talking about the mirrored wall, but I asked anyway. “Watch what?”