Saving Us (Mitchell Family #6)(36)
Author: Jennifer Foor

She took a sip of her coffee and looked around the room. “One night he came home and said he was in big trouble. He swore that he hadn’t done it, but said I had to be his alibi for the night his wife died. He told me that her father was trying to pin murder charges on him so that their son could be raised by the family instead of him. His wife’s father filed for a petition with the courts giving her sister and her husband temporary custody. We rehearsed what I was supposed to tell the officers when they came to visit me. I did as he said and because of my later testimony, Rick was cleared of the charges. He told me we were going to be rich from the life insurance policy. We started living a different lifestyle and taking advantage of our new fortune. While he fought to regain custody of his son, the father stepped in again and had Rick charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Apparently, he had obtained the computer from their house and on it the police found several searches on the best way to make a murder look like an accident. At the time, I didn’t know this. The insurance company retracted the settlement and Rick was left with nothing. In the meantime, our daughter was born. While I was busy being a new mother, Rick was busy pretending that we were still rich. I had no reason not to believe him. He always had money and seemed to be happy even without being able to see his son.”

“It wasn’t until my daughter was over a year old that I started learning the truth. We’d been married for seven months. Rick would leave for work and come home every night. He spent his weekends around the house. We looked happy to everyone around us, even to our closest friends. But we had secrets. Rick liked to drink at night. He’d come right home and pour himself a drink. After I would put the baby down at night, he liked to get rough with me. At first it was just sex, but it didn’t take long for it to be more physical. He started with hitting me in places that nobody could see, but after two years, he started to just not care anymore. I worked at a hospital and hid the scars easily. I’m sure some people knew that I was unhappy, but not one person stepped forward.” The woman started to cry. She got up and grabbed a tissue. Amy and I looked at each other, but we were both so involved with the story that neither of us knew what to say.

She blew her nose before continuing. “It wasn’t until this one day. I went into work like normal. I was working primarily in the surgical ward of the hospital. I had this patient that had just come out of surgery. During her recovery period, I went to remove her IV’s. She grabbed my hand and stared at my wedding ring. She asked me where I got it. When I told her that my husband had given it to me, she started accusing me of stealing it. It got so bad that another nurse had to come in and take over for me. Needless to say, I was a little shaken up over it. During my break, I looked up the patients name and did an internet search. I found out that she was Rick’s ex-sister-in law. I knew right away that the ring I was wearing had once been his first wives. I felt sick of it. I didn’t want to be wearing something that had been hers. After my shift I went home and confronted Rick about it. He beat me worse than he ever had before. I waited until he passed out and took my daughter with me to a women’s shelter that the hospital recommended to abused patients. We stayed there for four days before Rick came looking for us. Our friends thought I was overreacting. I started saving money and hiding it from him, thinking I could get my daughter away from him. Two days later I woke up to find that Rick had not only moved out, but taken our daughter with him. He left a note that said that he would die before he let another person take away another child. I swore he would come back, but as time passed, he never did. I learned that he wasn’t the man I thought he was. I found out about the money and the debt that we’d incurred. We had fifty grand in credit card debt. He never even worked during our whole marriage. He was running cons on people and taking their money.”

The woman went into a full blown emotional breakdown. “I couldn’t afford a lawyer and the police were little help with finding my daughter. I’ve looked for her for almost sixteen years. It wasn’t until your friend here walked through my door that I learned he had only been living a few states over under a different name. All these years I’ve lived without seeing her beautiful face. I remarried and had another daughter, but there hasn’t been one day that I didn’t think about the one I lost. Heather told me that you would know how I could find her. Please tell me. Where is my daughter. It’s been so long. I just need to see her.”

She was pleading with Amy and until I turned around, I had no idea that she was crying too. How could someone not feel sorry for this woman. Out of anyone that could relate to her situation, it would have been Amy. “I saw your daughter a couple months ago, ma’am. I’m sure Amy would be happy to help the two of you reconnect.”

She smiled and wiped her eyes again. Amy stood up and looked right at her. “He told me that you had abandoned them. I swear I knew nothing about what you were going through. I never would have kept her from her own mother. I swear it.”

The woman tried to smile as the tears continued to fall down her cheeks. It was like I could feel the pain seeping out of her. “I believe you.”

“I promise you that I will help you get to know her. She’s been through a lot too. She moved out a few months ago, after her father started beating on her. I didn’t know it was going on. I was already trying to leave myself. He’s so much worse now. All I want is to be divorced from that man, so that I can have a real life with Conner.”

“I don’t think you understand, Amy. Rick illegally changed his name. I had to wait almost ten years to finally get the courts to allow me a divorce. Part of it was because I couldn’t afford it.”

I stood up. “Wait! Are you sayin’ what I think you are? Are you tellin’ me that Amy was never really married?”

“That is exactly what I am saying. Even if his name was changed legally, which I know it wasn’t, he couldn’t still be married to me and marry Amy at the same time. Now, I’m sure you will need my help and some old documents to prove it, but you are not married to that man. You never were.”

Amy immediately stood up and buried her head into my chest. She was crying so hard that I wanted to cry myself. I rubbed her back and kissed her on the head. We still didn’t have a solution to the Rick problem, but coming to West Virginia had been worth the trip. I looked over at Heather and saw her crying too. I smiled at her. “Thank you, Heather. Thank you so much for this.”