Revengeful Deceptions (26 page)

Chapter Twenty Four

“I can't believe we did it squealed
Molly. They were on their way to Hyannis; Dominique would catch the last ferry
to Nantucket and never look back. Muriel was letting her stay at the cottage
for as long as she needed and she hoped that it wouldn’t be too long. With her
new identity she planned to buy a house on the small island but she wanted to
take things one day at a time and care for herself and her baby first. “You
need time to heal Dominique,” Muriel had told her, and she was right, she was
still sore and not feeling herself, it seemed like every time she took a
breath, she wheezed, she had asthma as a child and Dominique was afraid that it
had returned.
I can't wait to get on the island, get to a doctor and get
myself better so I can take care of you little one,
she patted her belly.

Dominique knew that raising a child
alone would be difficult but she was more than ready.
Just imagine what it
would be like,
she thought to herself.
If Adam were here for it all.
She had
no doubt that he would make
an excellent father, he'd be excruciatingly over protective but a good father
none the less.
Child or no child, Adam is finished with me,
she
thought to herself as they drove closer to the ferry.

Muriel knew what the envelope
contained and as she used the box cutter and cut through her husband’s cable
tie, she wondered how he would react. The moment Jonathan was freed he put his
arms around his wife, Muriel felt the warmth of his embrace, it was a warmth
she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“Muriel, I meant every word I said
earlier, I love you and want us to get help. That is if you’re willing to give
me a second chance?” He asked looking hopefully at his wife.

“Jonathan, lets concentrate on the
here and now, things are about to get very problematic for our boy Adam,” she
said turning and looking at her son.

“Well then, maybe we should untie
him now too.” He gently urged his wife.

Brandon was beside himself with
rage, he wanted nothing more to do with these people and yet they still left
him tied up.

“Could I PLEASE get the fuck out of
here?” He cursed.

Muriel and Jonathan looked at one
another before heading towards Adam.

Once Muriel cut off his cable ties,
Adam reached for and opened the envelope that had fallen from his lap.

He let out a choked long puff of
air as he placed his face in his hands, broke down and cried.

“Well guys this is it, wish me
luck,” cried Dominique as she got ready to board the ferry. “You don’t have to
do this, you can go to Adam or we can bring him here. Dominique, I can't stand
to think of you all alone out there on that island.”

“Molly, it’s obvious that Adam
wants nothing to do with me. He made that clear on Christmas Eve. No, I like it
here, and believe me, in a few months the tourists will be arriving and I’ll be
surrounded by people.”

“Yeah but you won't know any of
them.”

“Well you and Neal will come and
stay some weekends and I’ve got Muriel coming as soon as she can get away, this
is fine, this is what we planned remember? This is where I want to be Molly; I
want to raise my baby on that beautiful island. So you guys get going, take
care and thank you so very much for everything! I could not have done it
without you guys, I love you guys.” Dominique fought back tears as she hugged
them goodbye.

After they had released Brandon
from his restraints, Adam, along with his parents nursed their scotches as they
sat in the kitchen. Adam had tried repeatedly to reach Dominique on her cell
phone but it was going straight to voice mail.

“Mom she didn’t tell you where she
was going?” He asked his tone brash. 

“No she did not sweetheart, she
said she wanted to be alone and that she would contact me when she was ready.
That's all she told me honey honestly.”

Muriel did not like lying to her
son. She knew that lying is what got them all
to
where
they were at this moment but she had promised Dominique and she wasn’t about to
go back on her promise. Not until she was sure that Dominique was out of
danger. She knew that once it all sank in for Brandon, he would not go gently
into the night.

“Son she's pregnant with your child,
our grandchild for goodness sake, you've got to find her and you’ve got to make
things right with her.”

“Don't you think I know that Dad?
Don’t you think that I don’t regret not going after her the second she walked
out that door?”

“I know you do son, now think,
where would she go?”

As Jonathan and Adam put their
heads together and tried to figure out where Dominique would have gone, Brandon
had reached Mickey's bar demanding a meeting with Peter DiNunzio.

“What do you want Caruso? He's
busy.” One of DiNunzio's private body guards said.

“It's not Caruso, its DiNunzio.”

“What the fuck are you talking
about man, you're taking too much of that shit.”

“You go in there and you tell Mr.
Peter DiNunzio that his son Brandon, son of Muriel Caruso, the woman he raped
34 years ago is waiting to see his dad. You got that? Or shall I say it again?”

  
The body guard stood stunned for a moment before opening the door to
DiNunzio's office and closing it silently behind him. Moments later he emerged
and motioned for Brandon to follow him. As he closed the door behind him the
burly bodyguard watched as Brandon went into DiNunzio's arms into a welcoming
father and son embrace. “Welcome home son.” The crime boss boomed.

Muriel had told Jonathan to call
DiNunzio and tell him that Brandon was on his way and that he knew everything.
Instead of DiNunzio being angered or upset he simply said, “Well it’s about
time you told my boy the truth.” He then slammed down the phone.

Jonathan wasn’t sure how to react,
after all he had raised Brandon since birth, took care of him, nurtured him as
best he could and it was all over now. Brandon had not so much as said, thank
you dad for raising me or thank you mom for taking care of me, no he turned
willingly to DiNunzio without so much as a second glance at the two people who
called him their own for over 30 years.

“Let's hope that he finds the life
he really wanted Jonathan,” was all that Muriel could say.

“Happy fucking New Year.” Adam
grumbled, he finished his drink in one gulp and felt defeated, Brandon had
succeeded in ruining his and Dominique's relationship and now she was pregnant
with his child and she was alone. He'd let her down she told him and she was
right, but hearing those words had broken his heart.

Although Adam was sure that through
his many contacts and investigators he would find Dominique, it was four months
later and his searches and inquiries had turned up nothing. Not even when he
had sent one of his investigators to New Hampshire had it turned up any leads.

“This lady doesn’t want to be
found.” One of the investigators had told Adam.

Maybe they were right,
he
told himself.  He wasn’t sure if he could stop his search for Dominique,
especially since she was carrying his child.

As Dominique sat in the waiting
room of her obgyn, she anxiously flipped through a magazine. She was almost
five months pregnant now and was starting to show, her visits to the doctor had
become more and more frequent. This pregnancy was nothing like when she was
pregnant with Teddy, he had been a joy. But this time, Dominique found her
asthma had returned with a vengeance and she was eating every five minutes it
seemed. Her doctor had told her that it was quite normal and Dominique knew
that each pregnancy was different but between the frequent urinary leaks and
the swollenness of her breasts and ankles, she was more than ready to give
birth, even if she did have several more months to go.

Dominique was told that she could
get dressed while the doctor left the examining room. The nurse knocked softly
on the door.

“Miss Reid, the doctor asked that
you stop in his office before leaving.”

“Sure,” said Dominique, “is
anything wrong?”

“I'm sure everything’s fine he just
needs a word.”

I hope it had nothing to do with
the name on my insurance card
thought Dominique; she had done what Rob said
and only used her alias Jocelyn Reid for when she went to the doctor or ordered
things online.
Well if it has raised suspicion, I'll just use the credit
card,
she thought as she knocked on the doctor’s door.

“Miss Reid come in. Miss Reid I’ve
got to put you on bed rest.”

The words stung Dominique. “What is
it
doctor
, what's wrong?”

Panic set in and her heart began to
race.

“Miss Reid, this pregnancy has made
you severely anemic. Your baby isn’t getting enough oxygen, and I don’t have to
tell you what that means, so we need you to be on complete bed rest to see if
there is any improvement.

You'll need someone to look after
you.”

Dominique knew that Muriel would
drop everything to come and take care of her but her visits now were fewer and
fewer as Muriel was giving 100 percent of her time to counseling and making
things better between she and Jonathan.
No, I’ll hire a nurse if I have to,
thought Dominique.

“Doctor are there any nurses on the
island that I may hire?”

“Absolutely Miss Reid I’ll have
reception give you a list of very reputable ones. And don’t worry, you'll be
fine. This is just a precaution, Miss Reid.”

Dominique walked out of the office
shocked; she could not believe that she needed complete bed rest.
I mean
I’ve been feeling bad,
she thought to herself,
but not that bad.
“This isn’t good,” she whispered to herself as she dialed Muriel’s number. When
Dominique told Muriel what the doctor had told her she wanted to drop
everything and rush to her side.

“Dominique I’ll be there as soon as
I can,” she said, her voice panicked.

“NO Muriel, you'll do no such
thing, your finally able to work things out with your husband, I’m not going to
come in between that, no. The doctor gave me a list of nurses that he says are
more than capable. I'll be fine Muriel, me and the baby will be fine.”

Even as she said the words,
Dominique was worried. She didn’t want a stranger coming in and looking after
her, but she would have no choice.

“Muriel, I’ve gotta get going on
this list here,” she said voice cracking, so let me go and I’ll call you soon.”

“Dominique let me at least come out
for a few days, please.”

“Not necessary Muriel, listen the
best thing you can do for me right now is work things out with your husband,
I’d like to see one nice thing come out of what we did.”

“Are you sure Dominique?"

“Yes I am now
hang
up you; I'll speak to you soon.”

Muriel knew that her friend would
hate the idea of having a stranger taking care of her. No, she needed a friend.
Muriel knew that since things didn’t go exactly as planned and that she and
Jonathan were going to try and work things out, it meant that she wasn’t going
to be able to be there for Dominique like she had hoped.

But she knew that there was someone
who drop everything to be there for her and whether she liked it or not,
Dominique was going to have to accept Adam's help.

“Hello Adam its mom calling, can
you stop by the house honey? I think we need to talk.”

Adam sat stone faced and clenching
his jaw while his mother explained to him that she knew where he could find
Dominique.

“You mean you knew all along and
you kept this from me mom? Did you not learn anything from what happened on New
Year’s Eve in this very house?”

“Adam honey I’m sorry, I was
respecting Dominique's wishes honey, please try and understand she and the baby
have been doing alright Adam but now... her voice trailed off.”

“Mom, what is it? What’s wrong?”
The panic rising in his voice.

“Oh honey I got a call from
Dominique just today and she told me that the doctor has put her on complete
bed rest honey. She's anemic and it seems that the baby isn’t getting enough
oxygen, plus her childhood asthma has returned and if she gets upset or goes
under duress, she needs to use her inhaler. Adam I told her I would go to her
but she insisted that I stay and continue working things out with your father.”

“And that’s why you called me? You
want me to go to her.”

“Yes Adam. I want you to go and
take care of them, don’t you see, this is your chance; you two can start over.”

“Mom, it’s been four months, what
if she doesn’t want to see me?”

Muriel put her arms around her son
and giving him a reassuring hug said, “Adam Caruso, Don’t you give her that
choice!” That woman loves you and she's carrying your child for heaven's sake
now you go be with her and your baby.”

  
As Adam headed home and started packing his bags, he hoped that his mother
was right; he hoped that Dominique was still in love with him because he was
certainly still in love with her.

Although it was early May,
Dominique was glad that the tourist season wouldn’t begin until Late May early
June, she had never been on the island during its peak season but from the
stories she's heard from the locals, things were gonna get pretty crowded.

She didn’t mind the crowds at all;
it was being pregnant and being in the crowds that would bother her.

“You'll be here just in time for
all the fun,” she said to her swollen belly.

She had woken up early to start
calling the names on her list but a sudden craving for bacon over took the urge
to hire a nurse.

As she sat at the kitchen table
going over the list, she heard the sound of a car outside.
That can't be
Muriel,
she told herself.
Muriel always called before her arrival on the
island, no, it couldn’t be Muriel.
Dominique reached for a knife but
thought better of it.
Just in case it is Muriel,
she thought to herself.