Hope Is Love

by Hubbard, Sylvia

  Ethan chortled, "That bed does not look sanitary."

  "That's because you're used to sleeping in a big ass brand new one," Jefferson snorted as he knelt down and lifted up the mattress. "That smart girl put wooden pallets under the mattress, which was wrapped in plastic as well. More than likely when she was gone for long periods from here and if any thing got in here before she returned, caused little to no infestation."

  "What about the mold we noticed upstairs?" James questioned.

  "None," Jefferson said. "I checked every nook and cranny. There were some planks where the water heater was replaced recently, which I would suspect she did. There could have been something, but it seems as if she caught whatever was trying to start."

  "What about all these boxes?" James questioned. "I went thru some, but not all."

  Jefferson shrugged indifferently. "The majority of the boxes are supplies. With it being winter it's understandable for most of the stuff. The only thing strange is this." He went into a corner and pulled out a small footlocker from the wall. Everyone gathered around it.

  Ethan frowned hard and then looked at James. "Did she explain why she has a very expensive chest with a very expensive lock on it?"

  James shook his head wondering the same thing. "I never saw this box before."

  "I believe that was on purpose," Jefferson said. "She didn't want this to be found by anyone. I found the locker under all those boxes and other materials."

  James knelt to see if the lock could be broken off. With no tools that he usually had on him there was really no way to open the lock.

  "Do we really want to open this?" Jefferson asked reading everyone's mind.

  "I do," Ethan said.

  "Maybe Jefferson's right," James said. "I'm sure if there's anything I need to know about her I could easily ask and she'd tell." He remembered last night. "I'm sure she has nothing to hide."

  "A big ass lock like that clearly states there is something to hide," Ethan said. "I'll have the boys pick it up and-"

  "No!" James said adamantly. "I won't be there when it's initially opened, so no thanks."

  "There's no way we'll find a key around here," Ethan said obviously.

  "There is a key," James remembered. "But it's in a pencil case in her coat."

  "You touched her coat?" Ethan asked in disgust.

  "It doesn't matter, Ethan. I know enough about her."

  "Well, I don't and I need to know who this woman is. She's staying at my house. I don't know where she comes from or what she's about."

  "What is it that you need to know?" James argued.

  "EVERYTHING!" Ethan exclaimed in frustration.

  Jefferson said, "This box has initials on it." He pointed to the front. "They're engraved. JMC." He looked up at James. "Sounds familiar? They could be hers."

  Ethan snorted. "She wouldn't have a silver plated box."

  "It's platinum," James said kneeling down by Jefferson and the locker.

  Ethan and Jaelen snorted together in unison.

  "It is," Jefferson noted.

  "But those are not her initials," James realized, glad James was there. "Those belong to her father, I think. I remember reading an article in her pencil case. His name was..." He paused to take a moment to remember. "Jonah Melvin Crump."

  "Who?" Jaelen asked.

  Everyone was shocked to hear him speak after Ethan's last threat.

  "Are you speaking now?" Ethan questioned.

  "Fuck off, Ethan," Jaelen said. "What was that name again, James?"

  "Jonah Melvin Crump," James reiterated. "Why?"

  "Why?!" Jaelen questioned as if that should be obvious. "Because her father's fucking rich."

  "Rich like how?" Jefferson questioned.

  "He invented some shit that has to do with Hydro-Therapy or some thing that produces electric shit when it comes to water. Either way, he has an estate that should be bathed in millions," Jaelen said. "Why the fuck his offspring - if that is who she is - would be living on the fucking street would be a mystery to me."

  "Well the mystery is in this footlocker," Ethan said.

  "There's no way to open this lock," Jefferson concluded.

  "I have something important to say," Jaelen said quietly, but his voice was filled with contempt as if it were killing him to speak to any of them.

  "What?!" James asked annoyed.

  Jaelen pulled a strange key from his pocket. "I can open that lock."

  Chapter 19

  Every pore and hair follicle hurt, but she didn't say a word. Jona remembered passing a spa when she was only nine and had to stand on her tip toes to watch the women in there. She had wished so hard on everything holy to have that experience.

  From now on she would be careful what she wished for.

  The term beauty is pain must have derived from some deluded woman trying to do everything in her power to be some kind of beauty. This whole thing hurt and Jona swore she would never have to go through this again.

  Yet, every time she decided to stop, Cleo would show her a mirror and Jona saw some kind of improvement about herself. She'd never seen her fingers so clean and her nails were gleaming with good health. Cleo scrubbed her toes like there was a crust of cement around them and Jona almost cried as they scraped the bottom of her feet with some odd gadget.

  Cleo had tweezed every unnecessary piece of follicle from Jona's body from head to toe - literally and then sculptured the rest.

  Walking was not an option and she was glad when Cleo put some strange brown thick liquid in the tub and made Jona get in. By this time Jona was more than comfortable with being naked in front of Cleo. The woman had seen more of Jona's body than Jona herself.

  "What's this?" Jona questioned as Cleo took some more thick materials and spread it over Jona's face.

  "It's more or less a mud bath. We must get all that unnecessary skin off your body. Trust me, Ms. Jona. You will come out softer than a baby's butt."

  "This stuff smells like a baby's butt," she mumbled.

  Cleo gently put Jona's head back on a pillow and then carefully placed cucumbers over her eyes. In a very stern voice, Cleo said, "Keep those there until I say so, Ms. Jona. I'm gonna straighten up so you can prepare for your massage. That should make you feel all better."

  "Should is a sketchy kind of word," Jona said doubtfully.

  Cleo giggled and Jona heard her moving around humming quietly. Relaxing, Jona took deep breath and tried to let go of the world despite the troubles on her head. Before James returned home, she knew she needed to get down to her coat and get her pencil case. Somehow, she would have to sneak away to first, get the ring and then she needed to get back to the house to get her father's footlocker.

  Deep in thought, she partially was aware that Cleo had left the room and everything was completely silent. A few minutes later, the door opened again and even though her eyes were closed, she knew just from the sound of the footsteps approaching the tub, this was not Cleo. Removing the cucumbers off of her eyes, she frowned because no one was around.

  Looking around the room, Jona's eyes confirmed no one was around, yet her senses told her a different story.

  "Cleo," she called out, hoping that was who had made her gut go on full alert for danger.

  No one answered and Jona convinced herself maybe she had gone just a little crazy and she was being over paranoid.

  Just as she began to relax, while she put the cucumbers back over her eyes, Monica's sinister tone raked over her soul like ice.

  "You stupid bitch! You had the nerve to save his life and come here begging for a reward after you pawned his one of a kind ring?"

  The panic attack returned quickly as Monica came from behind her holding up the pencil case and the pawn ticket.

  If Jona had clothes on she would have jumped out of the tub, but she was naked under all the mud. Defensively, she said, "I was going to return the money when I got the reward. I would've used the extra money to pay off the interest, so I'm not greedy."

&n
bsp; "You're still stupid," Monica sneered standing just over arms length away from the tub where Jona couldn't reach her.

  "Give me my stuff!" Jona ordered firmly.

  Monica smirked. "I'm not going to do that, Hope Pane Crump." She put the pawn ticket back in the case and reluctantly put the case in her large purse with her face clearly set in disdain.

  Saying her full name clearly meant Monica had gone through the case and found the folded up birth certificate Jona kept in there. Jona was set to fight physically, but this mental warfare was causing havoc on her brain and soul.

  Monica snarled triumphantly raising up a business card. "It doesn't matter what you know or what you saw, what you're going to do is keep your mouth closed. You're not going to say one damn word about anything to anyone." She dropped the card on the floor. "That's my husband's office address. You'll get the hell out of here and never return or ever try to see James ever again. If you do this, you can come get your case back in three months from the address on the card, but the minute you open your stupid mouth, I'll destroy everything in this case in the hottest fire since hell and you will never see anything that's in this case again."

  Jona could barely breath at the terror of losing all her memories, her identity and everything she held dear to her.

  The hope of a new life faded away, dying slowly because she knew she had no choice - No choice at all.

  Jona was glad she had forced herself not to become accustomed to the pleasures her new life could have offered because this would have been a harder decision. Everything in her soul told her to fight this horrible woman, but Jona wasn't used to this mental warfare and her body hurt from the inside out. Defeated, she asked, "How much time do I have before you want me gone?"

  Monica smiled triumphantly as she answered, "Tonight."

  "They'll never let me out of here. His brother will make that asshole detective take me into custody and I'll sit in jail until I rot or they find out who tried to kill him."

  "There's a back entrance to the house the servants use," Monica said knowingly. "It's right outside James' bedroom door. Just take the stairs all the way down in the basement. There's a crawl spot for an animal to go in and out of the backyard. I'm sure you'll have no problems getting dirty and squeezing through. I'll make sure the latch is released for you to push through and once you get in the backyard jumping over the fence should be easy."

  "How do you know so much about this place?"

  "When Ethan was designing this he needed James a couple of times for his expertise." She shrugged as if everyone should know this. "I looked at the plans a lot when I was his assistant."

  "James will try to find me," Jona warned. "He almost killed himself leaving the hospital to find me. What makes you think this time will be different? I have nowhere to go but the streets."

  Monica thought for a moment tapping her chin as if that could help her think better. "This calls for a change of plans." Looking in her wallet she pulled out all the cash inside and dropped the money on the floor. "Take it and use it to get out of town. Don't come back for any reason. When you send a postcard where you're at, send a postcard from that address and I'll send you the stupid wallet."

  "Before I accept this you have to tell me why did you hurt him? Why did you want him dead?"

  A look of guilt crossed Monica's face for a moment, but she blinked several times and her face became cold again. "He wasn't ... he wouldn't take me when I was single. He only became attracted to me when I was married and even then he didn't want me to leave my husband to be with him. James is no good." There was a lot of hurt in her big blue eyes. "Like my husband said, he deserved a bullet."

  "No he didn't," Jona said. "No one deserves to die."

  "You don't know a lot of evil in this world, you stupid bitch. You wouldn't know what it feels to be ignored your whole life and then made to feel like you're on a pedestal. James has a way of doing that to people and once he becomes bored with you, he pulls the rug right from under you. I got him before he got me for a change."

  "How can I believe you'll do what you said and won't try to come kill me or destroy my case?"

  "You don't have a choice, bitch. And I need you gone, not dead. If this will keep you away, then you'll do it."

  She lowered her head defeated after nodding. Too upset to look back up until she heard the bedroom door open and close she was surprised to see Monica gone and Cleo standing in the room.

  "Are you okay, Ms. Jona?" Cleo asked concerned.

  "No," Jona said honestly looking around to see if maybe everything had been just a dream.

  Cleo kneeled down to pick up the money on the floor. "You got out, Ms. Jona and dropped your money? This is your money, right?"

  Jona glared hard at the bribe, but then sighed. "Yes, it’s mine."

  Cleo put the money on the dresser before coming over to Jona. "Let's get you out and prepare you for Mr. James' arrival."

  Reluctantly Jona did as she was told, but nothing could raise her spirits. Tonight she would leave James forever, but until then she hoped she could savor each memory with him until their last.

  * * *

  There was a long moment of silence as Jefferson and James looked at the key Jaelen held in heightened curiosity.

  Obviously , Ethan knew something about the key. "You still carry that around, Jaelen?"

  "I never know when the mood hits me," Jaelen said wickedly. "Kimber loves to torture me and I don't seem to mind pleasing my wife."

  James looked at the strange key Jaelen held and then nudged Ethan. “Why does he have a key like that?”

  “It’s a universal key,” Ethan explained rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Jared needs it occasionally with his wife. Trust me, it’s a long story. You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

  “Oh this just gets juicer and juicer,” Jefferson smirked.

  “Shut the fuck up. No ones packing a third leg like you, big dick,” Jaelen sneered. “Now do you want me to open the chest or not, James?”

  Jefferson flinched in irritation and turned away pretending to look around the edges of the wall for something.

  “Yes,” James said.

  “Even though you know it’s wrong?” Jaelen mocked.

  “Just open the damn locker, Jaelen,” James grumbled.

  Jaelen knelt down and put the key in the padlock. After a few tries, the lock jiggled and clicked opened. When he stepped away, James and Ethan moved forward and Jefferson was thoughtful enough to bring the flashlight over.

  Their eyes lighted first on an envelope from a bank. James picked up the envelope, but didn’t look through it because he saw what he couldn’t believe and picked up what was under the envelope. Looking at Ethan, he knew his brother was thinking the same thing he was thinking.

  “Are those bonds?” Jefferson questioned.

  “Yes! Hell yes!”

  “Those are about a million dollars worth of bonds,” Jaelen estimated. “Who the fuck is this chick, James and why are you keeping her from us?”

  “Nothing! I don’t know,” James said confused, looking further through the chest not believing his eyes.

  “Why would she keep this in here? And not use it?” Ethan asked looking at the items James moved around in the chest.

  James didn’t want to sound like a damn recorder saying the same thing, but he really didn’t know. There was really so little he knew of her, but he had been sure she wouldn’t keep some large kind of secret.

  Jefferson stepped back as if he couldn’t believe what was going on. “Something’s not right, James, is it?”

  James looked at Jefferson.

  Ethan looked at both of them. “What do you mean?”

  For some reason, Jefferson’s question made James remember. “She couldn’t read. She didn’t know what she had because she couldn’t read.” He put everything back in the footlocker as neatly as he could and placed the lock on again.

  “Why’d you do that?” Ethan asked.

  “Because sh
e can’t know we went through her things. I’ll take this back to the house and we’ll tell her about it tomorrow. She’ll get the key, open it and we can get all the answers. We could even reunite her with her family.” James lifted the footlocker. “Let’s get out of here. I want to return to her.”

  Chapter 20

  James was anxious to get home. His shaking knee clearly told everyone in the car that he wanted to hurry home. To piss him off further, Jaelen insisted on being dropped off first.

  “I have very important business to take care before I see everyone tonight,” Jaelen explained.

  When the brothers were alone, Ethan asked, “How’d you feel about Monica being there this morning?”

  “It’s fine. I really don’t care.” This was really true despite that he was barely listening to his brother and just overwhelmed with the need to feel Jona’s presence.

  “And you won’t mind that I intend to fire her husband?”

  “I’m sure there’s good reason, Ethan,” James said assured. “I know you care about the business as much as I do. Dad wouldn’t have left us in charge if he didn’t think we cared about his business, right?”

  Ethan seemed to relax. “And Monica?”

  “What’s with this concern over how I feel over Monica? When did that make a difference when it came to business?” James asked irritated. “She was just an assistant.”

  “I thought your relationship was different with her,” Ethan said. “Nicole and I thought-“

  “You thought wrong,” James said. “All I care about now is Hope.” He slammed his fist against the seat anxiously. “Are all the fucking lights red?”

  “So you plan to have sex with this woman you barely know?”

  “There’s a problem with this woman?”

  Ethan shook his head. “Health wise, she’s cleaner than a whistle according to Jefferson who looked at her tests. So no, I don’t have a problem with her, but she’s not married, James. You’ve never been attracted to single women. You often find them needy and clingy. What if you get your memory back and you return to the old James and don’t want her like you want her now.”