Chapter 8
The car pulled up to a hotel a few blocks from Alicia’s. The driver helped her out, and Dee was on the sidewalk before anyone could even think about shooting the bodyguard’s charge.
“It’s fine,” Alicia said, placing a light hand on Dee’s arm. “I’ll try to keep this brief.”
“Got a feeling that there ain’t nothin’ brief about that woman, ma’am.”
“Let’s get this over with.”
They entered the hotel lobby with nary a look at any of the help. All the driver had been told was that Alicia wanted to meet a friend who was from Chicago. He would park and take a break until Alicia wanted to go back to her hotel.
“Are you Alicia Colbert?”
Alicia nearly jumped out of her skin as a man in dark sunglasses approached her. Dee immediately put herself between the two people until the man held up his hands.
“I’m her,” Alicia said.
“Come with me, please. Ms. Johnson will meet with you in a secure area.”
“That guy’s a bodyguard too,” Dee whispered in Alicia’s ear. “I could take him.”
“Hopefully, you won’t have to.” They entered a small, private lounge where only Julia sat by the fireplace – no fire blazing. She immediately stood and gestured to another chair. Dee stood back, arms crossed and eyes never looking away from the scene.
Julia sat back down in her chair. The man in the dark sunglasses disappeared into a corner. She’s not even married to Russell anymore, and she still has a bodyguard. Alicia didn’t like where this was going.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me.” Julia’s entire personality had changed.
No longer looking over her shoulder, the woman was poised, soft-spoken, and dare Alicia say…
confident? This is what I expect from a well-bred woman, good enough for an arranged marriage like the one she had.
Alicia had no business being in the same room as this woman’s daughter.
Ah, there it was. The downside to seeing the real Julia Moreau.
“I take it that no one but your bodyguard knows that you’re here? ”
“Danica is working late tonight, and I’m still of no consequence to anyone else.”
Julia’s smile was not warm. “Everyone but Russell, I’m sure.”
Alicia swallowed. “He may or may not have threatened me.” Dee’s eyes drilled into the back of her head. I’d like to see you take Russell Moreau on, Dee, but he’s got more bodyguards than the president. “He’s made it clear that I am not the right material for his daughter.”
“Let me guess.” Julia leaned back in her chair. “He’s shopping for a suitable match. That family is big on their arranged marriages. That’s how I ended up in that mess.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Colbert. I married that man willingly.
” Julia rolled her one good eye at the memories of her younger self.
“I was incredibly na?ve. My whole life, my family told me that I would be the wife of one of the greatest men in the country. I only met Russell a handful of times. He seemed taken with me enough.” She pulled her front bangs away, giving Alicia a better view of the massive burn scar running from her forehead to her throat.
“I didn’t always have this. It’s a token of my marriage. ”
Alicia stiffened in her seat. “How did you get that?”
“I’ll get to that.” Julia pulled a small box from her breast pocket. Inside was an ornate diamond ring. “The day I put on this ring, I signed my life away to the devil himself.”
“He abused you.” That wasn’t hard to believe. Russell Moreau definitely had some good ol’ boy skeletons in his 2600 sq. ft. closet.
Julia nodded. “From the first night. I was a virgin. Nothing could have prepared me for what I endured.”
Someone in the room suffered from a sharp intake of breath. Down, Dee. “I’m so sorry.”
Was there a fly in the room? Julia swatted something with her hand.
Memories? “I told myself it was worth it. I was Mrs. Moreau. People respected me. I controlled entire properties and had access to hundreds of millions of dollars. On the surface, I was a happy woman. When I found out I was pregnant, I convinced myself that Russell would ignore me and leave me be for most of my life, especially if I gave him a son.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. Once.”
“I don’t understand.” Alicia’s fingers tangled between her legs. “I thought Danica was an only child.”
Another sad sigh echoed in the room. “She is. Shortly after she was born, I found out that Russell would never leave me alone. I was his to control and make suffer. Bad day at work? He took it out on me the moment we were in our chambers. He had a doctor on his payroll who kept me presentable for the public. Russell always knew how to strike me without leaving me with a visible bruise. Anywhere but my thighs, anyway.”
Alicia was going to vomit.
“So, I ended up pregnant again. Danica was still a baby for all of it. She and the child inside of me were the only things that gave me strength. I went through everything for my children. I couldn’t wait to get them away from their father.
I told myself…” Julia dabbed her cheek with a handkerchief.
“I promised I would raise them right. I wanted them as far away from Russell as possible. Easy enough. He wasn’t interested in them. Only me.”
“Nobody knew?”
“Of course people knew. Everyone working directly beneath him knew. My bodyguard, who was supposed to protect me, knew! Those bastards would stand back and watch as my husband struck me for coming back an hour late from the doctor’s. I’m sure they heard me screaming plenty of times as well.”
Oh, my God, make this stop.
“When Eddie was born, I knew something was wrong. He didn’t cry.
He didn’t want to touch anyone. He wouldn’t eat.
If the doctors didn’t tell me he was breathing, I would have thought he was dead.
Nobody could tell me what was wrong. They kept him in the NICU.
I was there when he died. Russell was not. ”
Alicia clutched her stomach. Sympathy pains? Sympathy heartbreaks? She wasn’t a mother, but she felt that shock as instinctively as she experienced fear and sadness. “I’m really sorry. That sounds awful.” What else could she say?
“All I understood was that my baby had brain damage. Brain damage! They asked me if I had fallen while pregnant. Yes. Many times. Every time I fell, it was because a man pushed me.”
Alicia didn’t want to hear this anymore. What could she do?
“I was so depressed that I barely functioned. I didn’t care what anyone did to me.
They could kill me. The only thing that kept me going was Danica.
Someone had to take care of her, and I didn’t trust the nannies Russell hired.
He was sleeping with most of them. Treated them better than he treated me.
” Julia scoffed. “I didn’t care. I had my daughter. ”
“So, what happened?” Alicia had a feeling she would regret asking that.
“I existed on nothing but my daughter for several years. I’ll never forget how old she was the last time we spent a day together. Seven. She was in first grade. Very bright girl. She had always been intelligent.”
“She is intelligent.”
Julia nodded. “I know. I follow her in the news, and from what people tell me about her. I’ve tried many times to contact her, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
If Russell knew… our daughter may be a grown woman, but my ex-husband carries the most power.
At any rate, I don’t think Danica would believe me.
My ex-husband has done everything to turn her against me. ”
“I never got that impression,” Alicia said. “She doesn’t speak of you with any malice.”
“Be that as it may, there’s nothing I can do now. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I suppose you want to know what finally led to me leaving that man.”
“Do I?”
“You should know. I came home one day to find Danica back early from school. Russell was there. I didn’t find out about the fight at school until much later. All I saw was my husband threatening my daughter the way he always threatened me.”
Alicia shuddered to imagine anyone threatening her girlfriend like that. Does she even remember? How often did it happen?
“I did what any mother would have done. I intervened. I finally made that useless bodyguard of his calm my husband down and stop terrorizing his daughter! Who has to do that?” Julia pushed the handkerchief across her eyes.
“That day, I told him I wanted out. I couldn’t take it anymore.
It was one thing for him to hurt me. To hurt my daughter, though?
That girl never did anything wrong. Even if she did, how was it right to do that to her?
When I tried to take Danica with me, every single body on the security staff got in my way.
They cut me off from my daughter that day.
I screamed. I called my lawyers. I called my mother.
Nobody would help me. Nothing scared me more than leaving my daughter to that monster.
Not only what he could do to Danica… but how he would raise her! ”
Alicia couldn’t look her in the eye any longer. This explains a lot. Danica never spoke of her father fondly. She thought that was a side-effect of a distant relationship… but now…
“I didn’t go down without a fight. I hired all the best lawyers I could afford.
They got me a lot, too. I got one of the properties.
I got a ton of alimony. I received more than what was my fair share of investments, but I didn’t get what I wanted most. I never got my daughter.
Russell got full custody, and I couldn’t even visit Danica any longer.
His lawyers argued that I was abusive… and that useless judge was either stupid enough to believe it, or he was paid off. I don’t like either option.”
“So, how about the…”