Chapter 16 #2
“Thank you. After getting over the shock, I did the only thing I could. I planned his funeral, they brought him home, he was laid to rest, and Katherine and I did what we could to get on with our life. By the time Katherine was seventeen, I met Larry Mason. It wasn’t anything spectacular.
I know that sounds cruel and heartless, but now that I look back on it, I think it was more of a companionship that we turned into a marriage.
He had his life, I had mine, though we lived in the same house.
We had been married for only two years when we realized that we were nothing but friends.
He moved out of my bedroom and into the spare room.
We had a mutual agreement that though our marriage wasn’t open, but if we wanted to be with other people, keep it out of the house.
I never hooked up with anyone, and I have no clue whether he did or not, and I didn’t care.
Oh, and I didn’t take his last name, I kept the Miller name.
” She sighed heavily, and rubbed her forehead.
“It was Larry who introduced Michael and Katherine. He was the one to encourage them to get together and date. I don’t know if the pressure was from George, or Larry. I may never know.”
“You can always ask him once he comes back to California for a trial.”
“Yeah, I think I will. I know we’re divorced now, but I think both Katherine and I need closure to sit down and talk with him.
Maybe we can get over any lingering resentment or hang-ups we have about him.
I know I never loved him as much as I thought.
Like I mentioned a few minutes ago, it was more to get over my loneliness of missing Daniel that I married him. ”
“I totally understand. Not that I’ve ever been married, but remember when I told you about that woman I was dating, who moved into my home, and tried to have the brand new kitchen redone?”
“Yes, what about her?”
“I had been in a long-term relationship with a woman for over three years prior to me meeting this woman. It’s not comparing apples to apples, but the relationship I had for those three years were also more of a convenience.
We liked each other, the sex was good, but neither one of us wanted to give up our independence in order to get married or live together.
Sure, we would stay at each other’s home on occasion, but not on a permanent basis.
She was my date for any function I had to attend, and I was hers. ”
“How did it end?” Ilsa asked, fascinated by his tale.
“I was trying a case and worked tons of overtime. I’m talking eighteen hours a day I was in the office researching, reading, planning, sort of like we are now with this Grayson case.
During this time, there were about three functions I missed.
She understood, because her job was just as stressful and important to her as mine was to me.
That’s why I think we lasted as long as we did.
Anyway, on the first event I missed, she met someone.
She went stag, so did he. They met again weeks later at another missed event, then after the third one.
” He shook his head and smiled. His smile caused Ilsa’s insides to wake up and study the man intently.
“What happened?”
“She asked me if I could make time for her. It took a few days, but when I left the office one morning, after working for almost thirty-six hours straight mind you, I had her meet me at my house. She arrived two hours later, I had gone home, showered, changed, and was eating something Mrs. Hastings, my housekeeper had made the day before. When she arrived, I knew it was over, and I let her off the hook gently.”
“How?”
“When we went into the kitchen, so I could finish eating, I studied her. Neither of us said a thing until I finished. She immediately grabbed the dishes to rinse and put in the dishwasher. She never did that before. I had her sit down, took her hands in mine, looked into her eyes, and nodded once. I said that it was okay if she met someone. We knew that this relationship wasn’t going in the direction of marriage and kids.
When she realized I wasn’t mad, she told me everything, and together we walked every room in my home to gather anything she left behind. ”
He smiled and shook his head. “Three months before Hank Patterson came to see me in DC, she sent me a birth announcement for their third child. No malice, nothing mean, just an update of her life.”
“Wow, I don’t know if I should say I’m impressed or shocked by your reaction.”
“Don’t be shocked, be impressed.”
“Why?”
“Because through our entire relationship, we were friends with benefits. Looking back, I can now say that we gravitated toward one another because yes, we wanted to be with someone, but no, we didn’t want to settle down and have a marriage with kids.”
Ilsa studied him and cocked her head to the side when she saw something in his expression. “What is it?”
Jason sighed deeply, settled back into the corner of the couch, took her hand in his, and stared off into space before he started talking. His voice was a monotone with no feelings in his tone nor his expression, it was like he had checked out, and he was talking about someone else.
“I grew up in a toxic family. I know a lot of people say that, and I’m sure that’s true, but my parents were narcissistic assholes.
I was child number four of seven. When I was thirteen, they forced me to work to bring in money for the home.
Dad would work when the whim took him, Mom never worked a day in her life.
She got pregnant for the oldest when she was seventeen.
All of us kids are eighteen to twenty months apart.
” He shook his head sadly. “Whenever I brought a paycheck home, they were there with their hands out. I was never even able to keep a dollar for myself. After about a year, my boss happened to bring me home on a payday. It had been raining for three days and my parents wouldn’t come and pick me up.
He saw what they did. When I went back to work on Monday, this was on a Saturday, he asked me about it. ”
“You told him the truth?”
“Yes, regardless of what they said or thought, I never lied. After that, my boss gave me a raise, however, my check still reflected the same amount, and anything from that raise went into a bank account in both our names with the stipulation that I couldn’t touch it until I turned eighteen.
All through high school, I worked that job and was given substantial raises, they didn’t know about them. ”
He smirked as he looked at her, and her stomach fluttered again.
“He and his wife made sure I had something to eat on the days I worked, my parents said they didn’t have enough food to feed me, what with the other kids.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, none of my older siblings worked.
By the time I left for college, with the help of my boss and his wife, they were twenty, twenty-two, and twenty-four, or thereabouts.
No college, no trade school, no job. They demanded our mother and sisters wait on them hand and foot.
According to them, they were grooming my sisters what it’s like to be a stay-at-home mom and wife. ”
Ilsa snorted a laugh and looked at him with wide eyes. “How would they know? If they wanted their sisters to be trained for a traditional household, then they needed to go out and earn the money while they stayed home.”
Jason grinned. “That’s what I told them, but they didn’t grasp of concept of what I was saying.
” He shook his head sadly. “Fast forward to the day I left. Because I wore nothing but hand-me-downs, and they were in rags, I left for work like I usually did. It was raining, and I had to walk the three miles one way to work. However, my boss was sitting in the driveway to pick me up. Oh, in case I didn’t mention this, this all took place in Florida, and I worked in an orange grove.
If the fruit wasn’t in season, I worked around the barns just to keep a job, and my parents off my back. ”
He looked off into the distance with a small smile on his face as he took up the story again.
“That day my boss picked me up, I made sure I had everything I would want to take from home with me. It wasn’t much, but there was a photograph of my grandparents that I treasured.
Other than that, I didn’t have anything.
All my college applications I used my boss’s address.
That’s where all the acceptance and rejections letters were sent.
I filled out eight applications, and was only rejected by one.
I was also given a full ride scholarship. ”
“Wow, impressive.”
“Thanks. Anyway, after we left my house for the last time, we immediately drove to the police station.”
“Oh my god, why?”
“My boss knew them. Even though this was in Florida, it was still a small town, and everyone knew everyone. We went there to explain I was eighteen. Oh, I was able to snoop in my parents’ papers and get my birth certificate and social security card.
When I had them, I gave them to my boss to hold onto.
Anyway, at the police station, we showed them my ID, told them who I was, and explained that after we went to the bank, then the store to pick up some items, I was getting on a bus and heading to North Carolina State University.
I was not a runaway, I am not into drugs, or a wild child, stuff my parents told my boss over the years.
“Thankfully, there were several officers there that knew me and my family.” He looked at her with a smirk.
“They had been called to the house several times when my older brothers would get drunk and cause a scene. I was either working, or on my makeshift bed. Yes, I had a mattress on the floor to sleep on. I was never in any trouble. After leaving the police, we drove directly to the bank, and we were able to withdraw all the money he had put away over the years. I had to promise not to spend it all in one place. When I saw the amount, I refused to take it, because there was no way in hell the extra raise money could add up to fifty thousand dollars in five years’ time. ”
“Damn, do you think he contributed to it?”
“I do, but he denied it. From the bank we went to the local department store and I didn’t know this, but back then, there was still lay-a-way, and when I accepted going to NCU, my boss’s wife contacted them for a list of items I would need for the dorm.
She put them on lay-a-way, I only had to pay like ten dollars to get them.
I’m talking bedding, toiletries, and some clothes.
We purchased a suitcase or two, and more clothes for me, oh, and shoes.
I was able to wear some of the new clothes out of the store.
We then went out to a late breakfast, and then to the bus station.
I never looked back. However, I did correspond with them all through college. Now we do the Christmas card.”
Ilsa nodded, and thought of his story, then turned to look at him with her brow furrowed.
“What?”
“How long did it take your family to realize you were gone for good?”
Jason grinned and laughed. “Three months. When the gas and electric was shut off for lack of payment.” He grinned harder.
“It was the middle of summer in Florida, the heat wave was days where it was well over one hundred degrees, and they lost the air conditioner.” He shook his head as he chuckled.
“Everything was good until my cousin was arrested and he’s the one that contacted my family.
They came, not pounding on my door, because they didn’t know where I lived, but they came to my office and tried to demand money from me.
Oh, and I don’t know if I said this earlier, but my older brothers still weren’t working, and two of my three sisters were there with their husbands and children.
They started crying that I abandoned them and am depriving my nieces and nephews of a good life. ”
“Oh, god, what did you say?”
“I told them that they needed to get off their lazy asses and get a job. I was not responsible for their problems. Then Mom and Dad tried to say I owed them because of all the money they spent raising them. That’s when my boss at the prosecutor’s office informed them that parents are financially responsible for their children from conception to eighteen years of age.
She also told them that she knew they forced me to get a job at the age of thirteen, and if they would like, she could contact someone in the state of Florida to go after them to pay me back the money they stole from me after forcing me to work.
They quickly left after signing those papers to never talk to me again. ”
“Oh, wow. Wait,” Ilsa said in confusion. “Where was the other sibling? You said there were a total of seven. You, your three older brothers, and two younger sisters, that’s six. Where was number seven?”
“At the time of that meeting in North Carolina, I had no clue. I didn’t even think about it.
After they left, I reached out to my former boss to ask.
” He shook his head again and chuckled. “It turns out my parents did the same thing with her as they did with me, forcing her to work at the age of thirteen. She went to him and explained it all. He did the same with her he did with me. Except instead of leaving the state for college, she went down to Miami University. She became a physical therapist, and somehow ended up working for the Miami Dolphins. Whenever she went home, the family tried to get free tickets from her, and she got them tickets one time.” His grin this time about split his face in two.
“The highest seats in the nosebleed section behind the opposing team. They arrived in their Dolphin gear, but while in their seats they were surrounded by the opposite team’s fans.
The Dolphins lost that game, and my brothers started some shit.
Everyone in the family was arrested. The kicker?
” He didn’t wait for her to respond. “They were banned from ever stepping foot in the stadium ever again.”
Ilsa looked up at him with a smile, and then sighed contentedly when they settled down and it wasn’t long before they both fell asleep. When Kevin returned, he laid a blanket over them, then went to his own room, leaving them in peace.