Chapter 4 #2
“You had more than six hundred thousand dollars stashed around your home. And from what I understand, you never paid anything for where you were living, nor anything else that I can find. Did you really tell the paperboy that you were to get the newspaper for free because you paid your taxes? You do know that the government doesn’t have anything to do with the newspaper that you were getting for free, don’t you? ”
“I know the laws better than you do.” She saw the shocked look on his face and was happy that she’d been able to put it there.
“I want you to demand that my son and so-called wife pay me more money. And while we’re on the subject of money, I want all the money back that I had saved in my condo.
They had no right to touch that, as it was mine. ”
“You have a lot of demands for someone who is chained to the floor like a convict. Which, by the way, you are.” He laughed at her, and she saw red.
Her head was hurting her so bad right now that she couldn’t see straight.
Everything was in a haze for her, and she was going to be sick.
It would serve them right if she were to just lean over and puke up that sham of a breakfast that she’d had this morning.
“I’m taking a twenty-minute break so that you can compose yourself in a better manner.
After that, I’m going to figure out the best time to have a court hearing against you.
For what I’ve seen of your actions today, it’s left no doubt in my mind that everything that has been said about you is true. ”
He was gone before she could form her next demand.
The bastard just walked away from her like she was nothing.
Well, by god, she’d show him. When he came back, she was going to demand that he do right by her and let her go.
She had people to knock around, and they might even end up dead.
She’d had enough of being the nice person in all this.
Hanna was told to sit down, and she had to.
Not that their ordering her to do so had anything to do with it.
She was sick with a headache, and she wanted something for it.
She knew what would cure it. A nice fat payday from her son, as well as her guns back.
She’d had to work hard at getting them, and she wasn’t happy that someone had taken them from her when she had plans.
She was going to make her son do what she wanted, or she was going to simply kill him.
Something that she should have done when he was just a baby.
Damn it, she just wanted things to go her way for a change.
By the time the judge came back, she was sick.
Her chest was crushing her, and she had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be better until she saw a doctor.
Damned people would rob her blind, too; she knew how they were.
When told to stand up, she couldn’t do it.
There was just too much pain in her body for her to do much of anything but be in pain.
“I think I need a doctor.” She slumped forward in her chair, and if not for the chains on her, she would have fallen on her face.
As it was, she was having a hard time thinking, too.
Just as she was beginning to think that all was lost, she felt herself being laid on the floor.
“You’re going to get me dirty, damn it.”
In her mind, that’s what she said, but it sounded gibberish to her.
Someone was asking her questions about medications, and all she could think about was that they cost money that she didn’t want to spend.
The pain was getting worse, and it was all she could do not to cry.
But that would be undignified, so she didn’t let herself do that.
But she could feel the tears rolling down her face as someone spoke above her.
She didn’t know what they were saying, but for whatever reason, she thought it was important.
Closing her eyes against the pain, she felt her heart break.
~*~
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Charles. I want you to know that I did everything that I could to save her.” Charles said that he knew that, too. “I’ve spoken to her doctor, and he said that she was a time bomb just waiting to go off. She should have been taking better care of herself, he told me.”
“She more than likely thought that she’d live forever, knowing her the way that I do.
” Charles sat down, then stood up again.
“I should do something, but for the life of me, I can’t think of a single thing that needs my attention.
It’s like I expect her to come through that door and tell me what an ungrateful cur I am.
That was her favorite thing to call me was a cur.
I wonder what she was thinking when she didn’t take her meds like she should have been. ”
“Like you said, she more than likely thought that she was going to live forever. At least outlive you.” He didn’t know what to say to the older man but how sorry he was.
“Had she been in a hospital setting, I might have had the equipment to bring her back. But I fear her quality of life wouldn’t have been all that good. ”
“I have to admit that I’m sort of relieved that she’s gone.
I know that’s a horrible thing for someone to think about their own mother, but the thought of her not being around bothering me anymore is a blessing.
” He said that he understood. “Yes, I suppose you would. You’re a good man, Kahana, and I’m glad that you were there for her when she died. She’s really gone, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s gone.” They talked about the arrangements that needed to be made, and then he asked him if he’d thought about what he was going to do now.
“I mean, the trial will still go as planned so that a lot of people can get their closure. Her money will go to compensating those people that she wronged as well.”
“I cut ties with her years ago. I made it legally binding that her debts were her own and had nothing to do with me. I think that made her angriest of all, me telling her that I wanted nothing to do with the debt that she incurred. She believed that she should have been able to charge anything she wanted or deserved back to me, and I wasn’t having it. ”
“Smart man. I’m betting that Axel would tell you the same thing.” He said he’d told him about it when they’d been gathering evidence about her activities. “I’m betting that he tells more people about that when he has a chance as well. I know that I would be.”
“Is she really gone, Kahana? I know that I keep asking you that, but I just can’t wrap my mind around her being dead.
She’s been a terrible part of my life for so long that I find that I can’t think beyond her being around to upset me again.
” He told him that she was well and truly gone.
“Good. I’m beginning to feel better about that, too.
She didn’t die of a heart attack, but plain and pure meanness.
It’s small wonder that she lived as long as she did with as mean as she was.
I swear there isn’t a person around that will mourn her passing.
” He looked at him. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe I said that to you. ”
“That’s all right. I understand. You do realize, for as much as I disliked her, I tried my best to save her the other day.
” He said that he did understand that, yes.
“Good. I don’t want there to be any question later about how I didn’t try my best. I treated her like every other patient that I see. ”
“I know that. You’re a good man and a better doctor.
” They shook hands, and then Charles hugged him.
“My life will be better from now on. I didn’t realize how tense she made me feel all the time.
And while she was in jail, I felt a little more at ease because I knew that she couldn’t get to me.
Isn’t that terrible to think of your own mother that way? ”
“No. She brought it all on herself.” Charles agreed.
He didn’t mind him repeating himself all the time.
He’d been given a great blow, and he wanted to be there for him.
If it took him repeating his questions to him for him to help, then that’s what he’d do.
He’d answer them like he’d never heard them before, each and every time.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do about a funeral?
I’m to understand that she didn’t have a will made out either. ”
“There was a will, but it was made when I was just a little boy. It has who was to care for me in the event that she died before I turned into an adult. But the rest is the same. She didn’t have anything unless my dad provided it to her, so she had nothing to leave.
There isn’t even an insurance policy. I don’t think she planned on ever dying.
Or at least she planned to outlive me.” Kahana said he was sorry about that.
“Don’t be. I was lucky in that I had a wonderful wife as well as two of the best children.
Charlie and Milly have made me a grandda, and Mac is married now, so there might be children from her union.
I couldn’t be more proud of the people they married either.
Axel and Milly are just like my own children when it comes to them being part of my family. Yes, I’m a very lucky man.”