Page 47 of For Love & Torture
Before I know it, I have arms wrapped around me, so many arms. And we’re all crying for what we’ve lost. I’ve fought this for so long. It seems there are huge lakes of tears that need to be shed.
Someone starts handing out tissues, and I blow my nose then grab another to wipe my eyes. And then I find Bell, standing there with the box in her hands, watching us all with tears falling from her eyes, too.
As my family pack breaks apart, I go to Bell and hug her tightly. “Thank you. Thank you for coming with me. Thank you for bringing out a man in me who wants to live life right. Thank you, Isabel Sanchez, for being who you are and thank you for loving the jackass I’ve been.” I sway with her in my arms as she and I cry together.
It’s funny how much lighter I feel. How much more sane I feel. I help her dry her tears and find my brother and sisters fighting back more tears as they watch us. Jenny sighs, “You’ve found love, Grant. I’m so happy for you.”
Wrapping my arm around Bell, I give her a smile. “I have found love. Now I just need to prove I deserve it.”
“You deserve it, Grant,” comes Bell’s quick reply.
I don’t say anything out loud, but I know I don’t deserve it quite yet. I have some more changes to make first. But I’ll do them a lot faster than Bell anticipates.
“Should we go back inside and turn the lights out and see if Mom comes to us?” I ask everyone.
Jake nods, and we all head back inside. Only when we get in, we’re all astonished by what we see. Every cabinet door is open in the kitchen. “She’s here, isn’t she?” Becca asks, then shouts, “Mom?”
Bell looks a little pale as she looks up at me. “Wow.”
“Scared?” I ask her. “It’s just my mother. No need to be afraid of her.”
But just as I say that the lights go out. “Oh, hell,” Jenny says.
Something in the living room crashes, and we all pull out our cell phones, using the flashlights on them to see what’s happened. Bell is glued to my side as we head into the other room.
The first thing I notice is the broken glass lying on the green shag carpet. Jake points at it. “It’s a picture of Mom and Dad. Look, it’s been cut in two, separating them.”
Going over to the picture, I pick up the piece that has Dad on it, and Jenny picks up the piece with Mom on it. Something stands out to us as we look at Mom’s picture. There’s a black area where her stomach should be.
“That’s odd. It looks as if it’s been burned,” Jenny says. “But that’s impossible.”
Another crash is heard, and we all turn to find that another picture from the hallway upstairs has been thrown down the stairs, leaving shards of glass sparkling in the lights from our phones.
Jake hurries over to pick up the picture and finds it’s one of Mom all alone. She’s standing in front of a Christmas tree with her hand out, gesturing to it. And right where her stomach should be is another black spot.
I shake my head in confusion. “What the hell does this even mean?”
Jenny looks at me. “Mom wasn’t herself the last few months before they went on their trip. I saw her holding her stomach at times. She was weak a lot too. Her color was on the pale side. I think she’s trying to tell us that something was wrong with her internally.”
I can feel cold slipping around me. “Do you think Dad cut her wrist because she asked him to?”
A hiss near my ear startles me and sends goosebumps to pepper my flesh. “Innocent.”
“Did you guys hear that?” I ask as I take a step backward.
They all shake their heads as Bell asks, “Hear what?”
The hair near my ear stirs as I hear the hiss again. “Innocent.”
“Seriously, you guys don’t hear that?” I turn in a circle to see if one of them is playing a trick on me. But no one is that close to me. “It’s a hissing sound, and it’s saying the word 'innocent'.”
“Innocent?” Bell asks. “Maybe she’s trying to tell you that someone isn’t guilty of what they’ve been charged with.”
“Like Dad,” Jake says. “Maybe Dad didn’t cut her wrist. Maybe she did it to herself.”
Bell clutches my arm. “Maybe you should have her body autopsied, Grant. Maybe you could have some specialist look at the wound. You have to do something. What if your father is in prison for no reason?”
“He admitted he did it.” I look at my brother and sisters. “What could exhuming her body possibly do for Dad?”
