Duane’s Determination (Broken Wheel Ranch #9)

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

“Can you tell us your story?” Opal asked after everyone had filled their plates and began eating.

“It’s not as interesting as all of yours, but sure. Just don’t yell at me for it being boring.”

They all reassured her that they wouldn’t judge her, so she began.

“I married when I was nineteen, had my daughter when I was twenty-one. My husband stopped sharing a bed with me when I was pregnant. I know this next part might shock you, but I stayed in a loveless marriage for the next twenty-three years just to be a petty bitch. I’m not normally that type of person, but I did it anyway.”

“What did you do?” Duane, who sat next to her looked at her with raised brows.

“Before the wedding, Peter, my ex-husband’s name is Peter Stanton. And what I’m about to tell you is just how petty I can be, but I feel justified in my actions.”

“Ooh, mystery,” Erin said with a laugh. “What did you do?”

“Beatrice, Peter’s mother was a first-class royal bitch. Not just to me, but to everyone she encountered. The only good thing, according to her, was her son, who could do absolutely no wrong, and the money their company made.”

“Entitled much?” Marcia asked.

“Yeah, anyway, before the wedding, she literally shoved a pre-nuptial agreement in my face and demanded I sign it on the spot. I told her not until I showed it to my lawyer. She didn’t like it, but I gained some respect after that, which I quickly lost within the next year.” Laurie grinned at everyone.

“I take it that didn’t bother you?” Denver asked from his seat across the table.

“Not in the least. Let me get through this, then I’ll answer any questions you might have. As I said, she tried to force me to sign the pre-nuptial on demand. I took it to my lawyer, and did end up signing in the end. My lawyer worked with her lawyer, and we finally got a mutually agreeable document. I signed, then as a good faith effort, my father drew up a contract that would help them out.” She took a bite or two of her meal and waited before she continued,

“See, Peter’s family owned and operated Stanton Enterprises, they were/are an import-export business. Gibson Associates was run by my father. My name was on the letterhead, but only as a silent party until I graduated from college with my degree. Only then could I take an active role in the company.”

“Smart, so you knew you’d have a job when you got out.” Duane nodded to her in admiration.

“Yes, anyway, I graduated from college, started working for Dad, we were in investments, and within six months of graduating, Peter and I married. The first petty, defiant deed I did was that I refused to take his last name. No one knew this. I just never changed it after we got married.”

“How is that defiant?” Duane asked.

“Beatrice told me just before she was walked down the aisle that since I would now be marrying her precious baby boy, that I would be a Stanton, and that meant that I had to cut all ties with my family.”

“Was she on medication she forgot to take?” Erin asked in shock.

“Not that I’m aware of, but that was how she was. I politely informed her that I was only marrying Peter, not her or her husband or anyone else in the family. If she couldn’t handle that, then I could call off the wedding. She shut up and backed down within seconds. While she didn’t apologize, she didn’t comment for several years.”

“Do you know why?”

“Yes, see, after she tried to force me to sign the agreement without going to the lawyer, Dad drew up a contract that Gibson Associates would give Stanton Enterprises one-hundred-thousand-dollars a month, every month, as long as Peter and I remained married.”

“Oh, snap,” Pru said. “She backed off because she would be out that money.”

“Correct, and Dad was just petty enough to offer that, and do not think for any reason did I feel that he had to bribe Peter’s family to marry me. Their company was struggling, and Dad helped. Oh, and in case I didn’t say this, another condition of them receiving the money was that they had to have Dad make their investments. It worked for years until Peter Sr started embezzling from the company in order to give his current affair partner a lavish lifestyle. That went on for about three years, with several different women, until Beatrice got wind of it and confronted him. Senior took the coward’s way out.”

“What did he do?” Erin asked.

“He committed suicide. If they hadn’t continued to receive the payment from Gibson Associates, their company would have gone under.”

“So, you and your family kept them afloat?” Duane asked.

“Yes. Anyway, after the wedding, I just never went to all the different agencies to change my name, and forgot all about it. I think when Peter questioned me once, I told him I used Gibson because of work. He bought it.”

She continued to eat, and shook her head with a smirk. “One day, I came home and found Beatrice in the kitchen with Peter. I barely walked in the front door when she confronted me. She informed me that as a member of the Stanton household, it was a disgrace that I was working and not staying home and waiting on her precious baby boy. I couldn’t help it, I snorted a laugh. I asked her what Peter was going to do for me if I quit and stayed home to cook and clean all day?”

“Let me guess,” Duane chuckled. “He was going to pay all the bills, and provide you with a small allowance. Oh, and since he was a man of the house, his word was law.”

“Sort of. He was going to pay the bills, but I had to give up my car, be allotted an allowance, and I had to make that stretch to last a month. I think it was like a hundred dollars. I couldn’t help it, I started laughing so hard that I had to bend over to catch my breath. I stood up and told her that first, the house was mine, I inherited it before we were married, and that was written in the pre-nuptial that he couldn’t lay claim to it, nor any of the furnishings. Nor the cash inheritance I received. Then I proceeded to tell her that I made four times the amount of money her precious son did, because he was a lazy SOB. I then proceeded to tell her that if she came into my home again, I’d have her physically removed. I know I sound like a bitch, but that was the only way to deal with Beatrice Stanton. I knew that if I didn’t assert myself early on, I would be walked all over, and as far as I know, my Mama didn’t raise any fools.” As she continued to eat, several of the people around the table nodded, made encouraging comments, or grinned. She felt like she was starting to gain some friends.

“Okay, fast forward a year, I became pregnant. I don’t like to tell people this next part, because it is extremely personal, but you need to know in order to understand why it’s so important later on.”

“Oh, god, what?” someone asked, Laurie didn’t recognize the person who spoke.

“As soon as I told Peter, though he was happy, he said our sex life was over. I thought he meant during the pregnancy, but he said no, it was over completely. When I asked why, he said as bluntly as he could that he didn’t screw mothers. Though his words were harsher. He not only moved out of my bed, he moved out of the bedroom. He slept in a different room, but kept his clothes in one of the walk-in closets in the master. Anyway, I carried my daughter to term, and Peter was there physically, but not mentally. He was extremely disappointed that I hadn’t given him a son.” She shook her head and sighed as she sat back and pushed her empty plate away.

“That was great, thank you.” They all told her to take more, but she refused as she continued, “Beatrice tried to insert herself into my parenting, but I told her to butt out. Her idea of being the perfect parent was that children should been seen and not heard. I blew up at her when my doorbell rang excessively one entire weekend with people that said they had an appointment for the nanny position. She called the agency, not me. I ended up contacting that agency and said that I was going to take them to court if they didn’t remove that false listing. I never heard from anyone again.”

“That’s not being petty,” Marcia said. “That’s being a good parent.”

“Thank you. Anyway, around the time Lorissa turned six-weeks old, I had my suspicions and the building I worked in had an investigation agency there. I talked with the owner, and paid the retainer. Over the next twenty-three years, not religiously, it was sporadic, like when they remembered, or saw something, they documented Peter’s numerous affairs. This is important later in the story. I never confronted him, or said anything. We were literally two ships passing in the night. He stayed under my roof, but we never talked, unless it was about Lorissa, never had sex, nothing. He was dead to me.”

“Why did you stay?” Scott asked in shock.

“This might be where the pettiness comes in,” she grinned. She settled back in her chair with her glass of water cradled in her hands. “See, there were two very important clauses in that pre-nuptial agreement.”

“Which were?” Erin asked as she leaned forward to hear every word.

“One, if I stayed in the marriage for twenty-five years, I would be paid three million dollars in the event of divorce after that time.”

“Hell, for three million dollars, I’d be just as petty,” Duane snorted a laughed, everyone agreed with him. “What was the second clause?”

“With documented proof that he cheats on me, I receive one thousand dollars for each offense. I’m not talking with each woman, I’m talking with each individual act.”

“Wait,” Julie said in shock. “Are you saying if he hooked up with woman A and did it seven times, that would be seven thousand dollars? Then if he was with woman B fifteen times, that’s fifteen grand on top of the seven?”

“Yes.”

“Holy crap,” Pru said in shock. “So, how much did he end up owing you at the end?”

“Remember it had to be documented. I’m sure there are several times it wasn’t, but in the end, the judge was so disgusted with the evidence I had presented in the divorce instead of awarding me the two hundred thousand, he changed it to two million.”

“I’d be petty for that,” Duane chuckled from beside her. “I take it what you said is all backstory to your injury?”

“Yes, the day Peter was served divorce papers, I kicked him out of the house. He hadn’t been home in over a week, and I had taken time off to pack his crap. I set it in the driveway, and because I’m not totally vicious, I did cover it with a tarp.” She looked at them with a gigantic grin. “It rained all week.” She shrugged and laughed this time. “Who cares that I happened to start the pile of his crap where the water ran off the eaves.” She grinned when everyone shared in her laughter, but quickly recovered.

She waved her hand in front of her face and shook her head. “Anyway, Peter dragged the divorce out for over a year. It was all over those two clauses I mentioned. When we finally got to the judge he listened to both our sides, and ruled in my favor. However, he did something that wasn’t the norm.”

“What’s that?”

“He made Peter write the check to the court for the total amount. He also stated that if it bounced, then he would be held in contempt until it was corrected. Once it cleared the court’s accounts, they in turn made a check out to me. Again, once it cleared my bank, I drew up the papers to have the contract my father made terminated. I included a copy of the contract with the letter stating I was cutting off all funding. I thought it would be okay, because I didn’t hear anything from either Peter or Beatrice.”

“What happened?” Duane asked as he reached over and took one of her hands in his.

“He showed up at the house saying he was missing her father’s Rolex. He said it was in the bottom set of drawers in his former closet. My tea kettle was going off, so I told him to go up and look for it while I dealt with that. I went upstairs and found him in the closet, and he said he couldn’t find it. We walked out together, and I told him if I found it, I would send it to his office. Oh, and after I served him with divorce papers, I not only changed all the locks on the doors, but I also replaced all the windows. There were several that wouldn’t lock.”

“That was smart.” Duane tightened his grip on her hand to reassure her.

“What happened?” Erin asked.

“We were talking, he said something about asking me how I was, but I snapped back at him and told him to stop being concerned about me because he hadn’t given a damn for the last twenty years. I started down the stairs and the next thing I know, I’m waking in the hospital a week later.” She shook her head and tightened her grip on Duane again. She turned to say her next part directly to him. “I don’t know if it was legal or not, but I didn’t give a damn at the time.”

“What did you do?”

“My name is the only name on the deed. There was no mortgage after I paid the inheritance tax. When I realized Peter was cheating on me, I put Nanny cameras all over the house. If he brought one of his skanks into my home, I would have ended the marriage sooner. He didn’t. Anyway, I know this might be childish, but my grandmother had collected those Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.”

“Holy shit, if she had some of the original ones, they’re worth a lot of money,” Opal said. She looked around the table when everyone stared at her in shock. “I have one at home and Dad said he was researching them, because he’s thinking of moving, but that’s a different story. He asked what I wanted him to do with it. I told him to wrap it in tissue paper, put in a shoe box, and save it for me.” She shook her head. “It was a substantial amount.” She then turned to Denver with a grin. “Let’s just say that if I ever sell it, the place we’ve been discussing for a honeymoon can be fully funded with money left over.”

“Holy shit,” Denver said, and shook his head. “We’ll have to discuss it. I know how sentimental that doll is to you.” He looked around and looked at Reid. “It was her mother’s.” Reid nodded and everyone turned back to Laurie.

“Was his attack on you recorded?”

“Yes. I need to let you know that the cameras did not point into any bedroom nor any bathroom. However, they did point to the doorway, the sitting area at the top of the stairs, down the halls, downstairs they covered the front and back doors, the living spaces, and up the stairs. I made sure all blind spots were covered.”

“Are you sure you don’t work for the police?”

“I’m sure, it was Mike Powers from that investigation company I hired that came in and put them in. Since the dolls were already there from when my grandmother lived there, he only put the cameras in a button on the doll. I don’t know how, but he also set it up so it recorded to some place away from the house. He would view them once a month and if there was no suspicious activity, he’d make a disc, file it away, then clear the recording for the next month. Thanks to that, we were able to give it to the police. I know I’m stalling, but I wanted to let you know what we did. Anyway, after telling him he didn’t have to start worrying about me, as I turned to go down the stairs, he picked up the baseball bat that I had propped up against my daughter’s bedroom a few weeks prior. It is my house, but I respected her privacy. If she left something lying around, I would put it outside her door.”

“She doesn’t live with you?”

“No, she has her own apartment closer to her work.”

Laurie finished her water, and sighed heavily. “I don’t remember the actual attack, but I remember the pain. The video showed that he swung the bat, then at the last minute he changed directions and took out my knee.” She shuddered and looked directly at Duane. “He was aiming for my head.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, anyway, because of all the cameras the police got a good angle. Oh, and there were only two that had volume. The one at the top of the stairs, and the one at the bottom. After I tumbled down the stairs, hitting my head several times, I landed at an odd angle. It clearly showed that he took my picture in that position, sent it in a text, then made a phone call. He said, ‘it’s done’. Then he walked out of the house, drove to the airport, parked in long-term parking, hopped on a plane, or we assume he did, and disappeared. Both he and his mother are still at large.”

“How long ago was the attack?” Duane asked.

“Six months. I’ve gone through four operations, and both the doctor and physical therapist said I’m as good as I’ll ever be. I’ve lost about forty percent mobility. The doctor said I would be in this brace and using a cane for the rest of my life. That’s why I’m here, to see if horse therapy will do any good.”

“I’m sorry for what you went through,” Erin said. “I believe we may be able to help you. I’m not saying that you’ll be running a marathon after you complete the course, but you might be able to walk without the cane, and may be able to ditch the big bulky brace you’re sporting now to a smaller one.”

“I can only hope,” Laurie said on a sigh and sat back, with her hand still in Duane’s and listened to what the others suggested to do once she returned for the course.