Within minutes, the police walked into the bank. The bank manager, Sharon, pointed in the direction of Tim and nodded her head to indicate where he was. As the police approached him, he became combative. Dragging him out, Tim’s heels dug into the floor as he threatened Keith that this wasn’t over and he’d see him again. He would be back.
That night when Keith came home from work, he told Ashley about the events of his day and how her father had come into the bank. She was visibly shaken as her husband laid out the story, spelling out how crazy her dad still was.
“That’s not my dad,” she insisted. “He may have helped my mom create me, but I refuse to call him dad. Did he say why he wanted to see us?”
“No, he said that you and the babies were his girls and he wanted you back. And he kept referring to the girls as his kids. It was weird. You should’ve seen the look in his eyes when I basically told him that you were my family now and that you were all safe.”
“Let me guess, his eyes were all bugged out and wild looking,” she described the eyes entirely to Keith. Of course, she knew all too well what they looked like; she had looked into them many times as he cussed her out and called her names her entire life.
“Yeah, and he stunk. His hair was a greasy mess and he looked like he was malnourished,” he added.
“Yep, he was probably on one of his drug binges. I tried telling you that I have a crazy family. I’m sorry babe. I’m sorry that he came into your work and caused a scene like that. I don’t even know how he knew where you….” She stopped mid-sentence as she realized what had happened.
“What?” her husband asked.
“Oh, no, it’s all my fault,” she sulked as her back slid down the wall and she sank to the floor.
“What are you talking about?”
“My mom emailed me,” she began shaking her head. “She asked how we were doing—me and the girls. I responded to her and told her that we were all great and that I’d gotten married.” Pausing for a moment, she could feel the pit of her stomach drop as shame heated her face.
“What is it?” Keith asked.
“I told her your name and that you worked at Missouri State Bank. He must have read the email and that’s how he knew who you were and where you worked. I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.
“Ashley! Why would you do that?” his voice was filled with confusion and a hint of anger. “If he’s this crazy, why would you voluntarily give him information?”
“I’m sorry,” she cried harder. “I didn’t know that my mom would let him see it. How was I supposed to know that he’d come to your work?”
Seeing how shaken she was, he felt sick he’d displayed his anger in front of her. She’d been subjected to hatred and violence her whole life, and she deserved better than that.
“I’m sorry, babe. Come here,” he said holding his arms out to hug her.
She buried her head in his chest as he embraced her. Crying hysterically, he rubbed her back and told her that everything was okay. After a few moments, she abruptly stopped and looked him straight in the eye; almost as though someone had flipped a switch.
“What?” he asked.
“I’ve got it!” she said, pulling back from him. “I’m going to tell him to fuck off and stay out of our lives. He ran my life as a child and he’s still doing it now. Fuck him! I’m going to be an adult and run my own life, and I’m going to tell him just that,” she said with finality.
“What do you think he’ll say or do?” Keith asked, worried that the crazy psycho would come back into his work causing another scene. He was lucky the day Tim did it when there were no customers in the lobby; only his coworkers. That, alone, was embarrassing enough.
“I don’t really care, but I’m going to tell him to stay away from the girls, you and me!”
She picked up her phone and began dialing.
“Are you calling him right now?” Keith asked, still unsure if this was the best course of action to take at the moment.
“Yes! Do you want to wait until he comes back into the bank?”
“Actually, that’s what I was afraid of.”
She walked over to him as she stopped dialing the number. “Keith, when I was in that Safe House, one of the things they taught us was to rid yourself of all toxic relationships and environments. It’s the only thing that will stop the cycle. And damn it! I’m going to do it now!”
Her tone alerted him to the fact that she wasn’t taking this lightly. She was pissed, but he could understand why and how she felt. His feelings were mutual.
She picked the phone up and redialed the number, this time placing the call. As the phone rang, she looked at Keith and arched her eyebrows as she impatiently waited for them to answer the phone. On the third ring, her dad picked up.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing going to my husband’s work like that?” she demanded.
Keith could only imagine what the scumbag was saying to her, by the way her face twisted and flushed.
“You know what, Tim? You need to fuck off! Stay out of our lives. We don’t want anything to do with you!”
Apparently, Tim had words for Ashley. Keith could hear him screaming into the phone though he couldn’t make out exactly what was being said.
“Fuck you!” Ashley screamed at the top of her lungs as she stomped her foot on the ground. “Stay the fuck away! Tell my mother that I love her and I hope she gets away from you!”
As she hung up on him, it felt as though the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt free, dignified. It was sanctioning to tell him how she felt. When she finally calmed down, she began to feel sorry, but she knew it had to be done. After a while, they surprisingly didn’t hear a peep from him, or her mom. She had expected, with his controlling behavior, that her phone call would make him come out of the woodwork completely unglued.
It had been a few weeks since she’d had the phone conversation with her dad when her mom called her one day. She was reluctant to answer the call, not knowing if it was her mom or her dad, but she decided to answer it at the last minute. It was Ashley’s mom, Brenda. She called to apologize for Tim’s behavior and professed how much she missed them. Begging to see them, she could hear the pain and compassion in her mom’s voice. It broke Ashley’s heart. She loved her mom, and never intended for her to get hurt in the process. But there was still the circumstance that she didn’t trust her dad and his explosive behavior, and the fact that they still used drugs. At the end of the call, she promised her mom that she would talk to Keith once he was off work to discuss the possibility of her being able to see the kids. When he came home that evening, she talked to him after the girls were in bed for the night.
“I need to talk to you,” she said as they snuggled in bed.
“About what?” he asked, wrapping his arm around her.
“My mom,” she gazed into his eyes as she judged his reaction. “She called me today and asked if she could see the kids. She really misses them.”
“What do you think?” he asked with a worried look on his face.
“I don’t know. My mom hardly knows Brooke at all. You know, right after she was born we went to live in the Safe House and then we moved in with you. She hasn’t seen either of them in a really long time,” she said with a look of uncertainty on her face.
“But?” Keith probed.
“You know me so well,” she smiled. “But I’m worried about them going over there because of their drug use. I’ve never shared this with you,” she turned away from him, staring at the ceiling.
He patiently waited for her to continue.
“When I was little, I remember going into my bedroom at night and hearing them smoke meth. Sometimes he’d hit her—for any reason, sometimes no reason at all. One night, she pissed him off; I was in my room with the door shut. They were yelling at each other and I heard him hit her. It was the sickest sounding thud sound that you can imagine. Instantly, she fell silent. The next day when she woke up, she complained of a headache
. But I remembered him hitting her so I looked at her head and it was extremely swollen on her left side. It took almost two weeks for the swelling to go down, and sometimes,” she started to cry.
“You don’t have to say another word,” his hand lightly brushed the side of her face, sweeping away her tears.
“No, I want to tell you this. They smoked meth—a lot—and when I’d come home from school,” she paused to calm herself. “There were foily’s all over the house. I’d have to pick up all the dirty sheets of aluminum foil that were covered with burnt meth so I didn’t step on them. Or sometimes so I’d have a clean spot to eat my breakfast or dinner. I don’t want my babies to see anything like that.”
“You’re a superb mom! You know that Ashley? Despite what you came from, you’re an amazing woman and an excellent mother. I love you,” he planted a kiss on her forehead.
She sighed, “I just don’t know what to do. I want them to have a relationship with their grandparents, but at the same time, I need to protect them.”
Keith thought for a few moments. “You know what you could do?” he looked at Ashley. “The girls could still have somewhat of a relationship with them.” She looked at him as though alien-like probes had begun to grow out of his head. “Supervised visitation,” he simply stated.
“Supervised visitation? I don’t know about that. I don’t want them coming over here. That would be bad. I can picture my dad stealing stuff out of our backyard or breaking into our house when we’re not home.”
“No. Nothing like that. We could work something out with the courts. I’m sure the judge could appoint someone to supervise the visits. Or they have visitation centers where we can take the kids. Your parents come and staff members of the state oversee the visit through a two-way mirror,” he explained.
“You are the smartest man I know!” she kissed him as she cuddled up to him. “Seriously, thank you. I don’t know where the girls and I would be without you.”
The next morning, Ashley called her mom back but was unable to get through. Part of her was glad that her mom didn’t answer because although she found a solution to the problem, she didn’t know how her mom would respond to supervised visitation. The truth of the matter was that they shouldn’t have been allowed to raise her. If it weren’t for Ashley’s grandma, Evelyn, coming to her rescue as she grew up, she might have taken a different path in life. Her grandma would pick her up as often as she could and keep her for as long as possible. Ashley never understood how her dad came from that woman. Her grandma was religious and taught her about God and how to be a good person. It baffled her that her father didn’t turn out better than he did with such an excellent mom.
Brenda called her back later that afternoon when she finally got out of bed for the day.
“Ashley, did you call me earlier?” her mom coughed and hacked into the phone.
Pulling the phone away from her ear to keep from listening to her mom cough a lung up, she said, “Yeah, I tried calling you this morning. Are you all right?”
“Not really. I’ve been better. It’s been so hard to breathe and I can’t get rid of this cough. What’d you want hun?”
“I was calling you back about seeing the girls, and….” Her mom interrupted her.
“Oh! That’s,” she began coughing up the other lung, “great babe! I can’t wait to see them. Hold on while I get a drink,” she said, laying the phone on the table without waiting for Ashley to respond.
She patiently waited as she listened to her mom close a cabinet door and pick up the phone.
“Yeah, mom, but here’s the thing: I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say. Keith and I talked about it last night and we decided that we’ll let you see the kids—as long as it’s supervised.”
“Supervised? You mean I can’t even see my own grandbabies without someone watching me?” she sounded appalled.
“Mom, I hate talking about this, but the way you and Tim do drugs, you have to understand. There’s no way we’re letting the girls come to your house. Chloe and Brooke deserve better than seeing drugs or drug paraphernalia lying around the house.”
“They can’t even come over here?” her mom was beginning to sound angry.
“No, mom, they can’t. We thought that we’ll go through the courts and have supervised visitation ordered. We’re going to try to make it to where you can see them one weekend a month at the Division of Family Services visitation center.”
“Will your dad be able to come?” she asked, coughing into the phone again.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to discuss that with the courts.”
“When will this all start?” her mom asked, anxious to see the kids.
“I’ll call an attorney tomorrow. It’s probably too late now since it’s almost dinner time. I would’ve called one today, but I was waiting for you to call me back.”
She knew that her mom wasn’t happy about the supervised visits, but at least they’d get to see each other, and her kids would be safe. It was a win-win situation. Now all she had to do was find a lawyer to represent them in court and file the petition. It was a lengthy process, but the girls seemed excited.
The ordeal took about four months from start to finish. During the court proceedings, the judge ordered that both grandparents would be awarded supervised visitation once per month for twelve months. At the end of the twelve-month period, the supervised visitation would end and they would have to go back to court for a new supervised order. The supervised visits began later that month. Both girls were happy to see their grandparents and didn’t seem to mind having to go to the visitation center to see them. Much to their surprise, the visits went well with her mom and dad—for eight months.
On the eighth month, neither her mom nor dad showed up for their visit. Concerned, Ashley tried phoning them to see if something had happened or if they were just running late. There was no answer. They waited at the visitation center for an hour, and when they didn’t show for their visit, the family left. Disappointed, the girls asked about their grandma and grandpa. Ashley didn’t have an answer. When they were back home, she confided in Keith that it didn’t surprise her. She was lucky that they were around enough when she was growing up, and figured it was only a matter of time before they flaked out with the supervised visits. The following month, the same thing happened. Again, she tried calling her parents but received no answer. On the third month, it was a repeat of the previous months. It concerned her that she was unable to reach them, but knowing their drug use history, she figured they were on another meth binge and trying to avoid her. Eventually, the stopped showing up for the monthly visits to protect the girls from being disappointed.
“Maybe we’re lucky,” Keith suggested. “Maybe they realize it’s too much trouble to continue supervised visits and gave up.”
“Possibly,” Ashley agreed, “but it makes me wonder what they’re up to. It’s not like my mom to ignore my calls, especially for months on end. Do you think my dad killed her and he’s hiding it from everyone?”
Alarmed, Keith shot a glance in her direction. “Is that a serious question? Do you really think he’s capable of murder?”
Ashley shrugged her shoulders.
Chapter 3
A couple of years had passed before Brenda finally reached out to Ashley, asking for forgiveness for skipping out on their visits at the visitation center. She explained to Ashley that the reason they stopped coming to the center was because their drug use had gotten so out of hand that she nearly overdosed. They realized that they needed help and had checked themselves into a rehab center to get clean once and for all. For the last two years, they had been focusing on their sobriety and had turned over a new leaf.
Happy to hear that her parents had finally sought out help for their drug addiction, she agreed to meet them at the park later that weekend so they could all reconnect. Skeptical, Keith didn’t agree to go along with the visit but, after a bit of persuasion, Ashley finally talked him into it. When the
y arrived at the park, she was stunned to see that her mom and dad were already waiting for them as they sat at a picnic table. She noticed that there were two coolers on the table; they’d made snacks and brought drinks for everyone. This was not something her parents would’ve ever done before. They enjoyed their afternoon in the park and began to talk to each other more.
A few months later, Keith received a devastating call from the nursing home where his father was. He’d passed away overnight, in his sleep, at the age of 78. Preparing for the funeral was a difficult and challenging task. It had taken its toll on Keith emotionally and mentally. Feeling as though they needed a short break, Ashley asked her parents if it were possible for the girls to spend the night with them. They would stay the day before the funeral and keep them while the service was in session. Ecstatic, her parents eagerly agreed to keep the girls. When Ashley dropped the children off at her parent’s house, her mom boasted about an elaborate shopping trip that she planned to take the girls on the next afternoon. She thought it was wonderful how far her parents had come. Two and a half years ago, she would’ve never allowed them to go to their grandparent’s house, especially overnight, nor go on a shopping trip.
The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance Page 16
