Chapter Eight #2
When silence fell, he said, “A woman is claiming that I’m her lawful husband and that I have given her two children.
The man’s name on her wedding license is Weseley Price, one more ‘e’ in the given name Weseley than in my pseudonym.
We’ve already determined that’s not my legal name.
I am devoted to the family that stands here with me, showing their full support.
” He raised his voice to a shout. “This other woman is a dangerous lunatic. She’s mentally ill.
She has threatened me and my wife. Threatened my child.
” Morrison shook his fist in the air as if to show that he would pummel anyone who meant to harm his family.
To Auralia, it seemed performative.
Rehearsed in the mirror.
Morrison dropped his voice to sound pained.
“This woman’s gotten her family involved, and her brothers have threatened my life.
They want me to—quote unquote—come clean publicly about my behaviors and to make arrangements to care for their sister and the children she claims are mine.
A claim that is easily disproven by a DNA test that I fully expect to have done at a reputable company.
This is a terrible scam. Do you know what I think, folks?
” He pulled the crowd along with him by coloring his words with chummy, hurt, confiding hues.
“Knowing I have my day in court on the horizon, these scammers, these swindlers, these frauds chose a low time in my life to blackmail me with made-up charges. They think I’ll pay to keep them quiet.
” He held the mic between his two hands, as if in prayer, lowered his head slowly, and moved it back and forth.
He raised his gaze and let it sweep across the dell.
“What they want me to do is give them a huge sum that is derived from the HONOR charity, thereby depriving Marine veterans of the help that we provide them.”
Auralia’s mouth literally hung open.
What in the actual hell was going on here?
“That’s why I’m here publicly today, claiming my true family, claiming that the money I pay myself from my charitable work is barely enough to make ends meet. Just look at how my family is dressed.”
Auralia had been positioned at an angle, ready for Doli should she pan the camera over for commentary or a closure line. But now Auralia swiveled to face the stage squarely, focusing on what the two women were wearing.
It was too far a distance for Auralia to see the details. Since Doli was twisting her lens to zoom in and pick up that information, they could look at them later.
But from their position, Auralia thought that Sheelah looked like someone’s neighbor.
She looked like someone you’d run into while running errands.
She wore a loose-fitting dress made of a fabric that might be too lightweight for a day like today.
It clung to her legs when the breeze picked up.
It had better styling than a caftan, but it gave off muumuu vibes.
Over that, she seemed to be wearing one of her husband’s hunting jackets.
In contrast, Morrison dressed in a well-tailored suit.
Auralia would bet good money that Mrs. Morrison had planned to listen to her husband talk from backstage, and somehow, he had coerced them onto the stage for this humiliation.
The daughter was in that hard-to-tell age range. She could be anywhere from twenty onward. This was particularly true when her long hair was blowing in her face. She didn’t brush it away or tuck it behind her ear. It was as if the hair was her sanctuary, and that’s how she preferred it.
Dressed in loose sweatpants, an exercise cami, and a man’s hunting jacket. She, too, looked like she’d been dragged onto the stage against her will.
“Look at my wife’s hair. She cuts it herself. She gets her makeup from the dollar store. There’s nothing fine or pretty or high quality about either of them.” Morrison once again hung his head and shook it slowly back and forth.
Dead silence in the field, bated breath.
Morrison said, “Grifters are going to grift,” before raising his gaze to the audience.
“I’m sorry this woman and her family are so deranged.
I pray every night that they will find their way to healing.
But beyond that, I have nothing to do with it.
And I’ll have nothing to do with them. And as far as I’m concerned, I’d sue that woman into oblivion for defamation, but since she hasn’t got anything of value, if I sued her, I wouldn’t even be able to buy my wife a new dress.
” He looked back at his wife, who was compressing herself into the smallest package she could, cowed under these circumstances.
“Now, listen here—”
Then the air snapped just over Auralia’s head, followed by the whizz of a bullet’s shockwave. A mad hornet racing by.
That noise triggered both reporters to sprint for the trees to their left and hide behind the hardwood.
While a human brain isn’t built to process events that unfold at the speed of a flying bullet, a human’s preservation doesn’t need that much to make out the sound of a bullet zinging past and then throw their body out of the way of any follow-up shots.
Auralia’s gaze immediately scanned for Creed and Gator, knowing that they were trained to do the opposite.
They’d be running toward the danger.