Revengeful Deceptions (35 page)

“What?” Said Molly, she too looked
in the direction of their table. “Now Dom, control yourself, she's just a bitch
and she's trying to get in the last word that's all, Adam is your husband
remember that, and he seems very tired so cut him some slack . I want you to
take a couple deep breaths before we go back to....” it was too late; Dominique
had already made a bee line for the table just as Renee had walked away.

  
“What the hell was she doing here Adam?” Dominique tried to remain calm.

Thank god she didn’t see Renee
hug me,
Adam thought to himself. He was grateful for small favors.

“Dominique I can't control where
that woman goes and I really don’t care, she's gone now, I’m tired I just want
to go home and go to sleep can we please drop it goddammit!” Adam said through
gritted teeth.

  
Dominique knew that he was tired; otherwise he would have never spoken
to her in that type of tone.

Just wait until we get in the
car,
Dominique told
herself
.

“Adam, answer my question and I’ll
drop it, I swear. What was she doing at our table Adam?” Dominique stayed true
to her word and was relentless during the ride home.

“Goddammit Dominique, you just
don’t know when to quit do you? I said drop it.”

Adam had reached their home.

“Adam don’t talk to me like that,
I’m not a child you know.”

“Well stop acting like one
Dominique, now can we please go inside?”

Dominique got out of the car and
slammed the door before stomping into the condo. Once inside, she had decided
not to let up.

  
“Adam I told you what would happen if I found you around that damn woman
again!”

“Dominique baby, I told you I want
nothing to do with her ever again and that’s exactly what I told her now please
can we go to bed?” Adam pleaded with his wife, his patience was wearing thin
and he was starting to get angry. He was just so damn tired.

“That's great that you told her
that Adam but why did she come over to the table to begin with is what I want
to know.”

  
“Dominique! Stop, will you just fucking stop.” Adam grabbed her. “Listen
and listen good, I said I don’t know why she came to the table but whatever
reason it was I put a stop to it just like you asked. Now if you hound me about
this anymore, you won’t have to worry about leaving because I’ll fucking pack
your bags for you!” When Adam released his grip on her, Dominique looked at him
and with tears in her eyes, made her way into the bedroom. “You’re sleeping on
the couch tonight,” was all she could muster before she broke down in silent
tears. “That's fine with me,” Adam snarled as he shut off the light and soon
feel into a deep sleep.

Dominique washed her face and got
ready for bed. She knew she was over reacting and that Adam had done exactly
what she wanted him to do and told Renee off, but the look in his eyes tonight
made her think that maybe being in love just wasn’t enough. Dominique tossed
and turned in bed.
I need to get away,
she thought to herself as she
packed a small backpack.
I need to go visit my boy's,
she smiled at the
thought.
Adam wants his rest let him have it and besides, maybe we need this
time apart, s
he told herself as she headed out the door.

Sleep did not release Adam until
noon the next day where he awoke refreshed but remorseful as thoughts of the
argument that he had with Dominique the night before came back to him. He was
sure that she had probably lain awake all night waiting for him to come and
apologize. But he had been so exhausted and fell asleep the moment his head hit
the pillow. “I'll make it up to her,” he whispered as he put on a pot of fresh
coffee. “I'll make her breakfast in bed. First let me see if she's awake.

Dominique drove straight through
from Boston to New Hampshire. But once she entered the new state, it was still
dark out, and she grew tired. She didn’t want to continue the drive and risk
falling asleep at the wheel, so she stopped at the first hotel she could find.
I'll
sleep for a few hours then make my way to the cemetery,
she told herself as
she crawled under the covers and instantly fell asleep.

The moment Adam realized that
Dominique was not in the house, and that she wasn’t answering her cell phone,
or returning his calls, he began to panic. He called Molly first who had not
seen or heard from her since they were all at dinner the night before, then he
called his mother, who stated that she hadn’t seen her either.

“Son what happened?” Asked Muriel
now concerned for the safety of her daughter in law.

“Nothing, I mean we had a fight but
nothing that warrants her leaving.”

“What kind of fight Adam?”

“It was nothing mom, really, it’s
just that I’ve been working on this damn case and I’ve been so tired and
Dominique wanted to go out to dinner, so we went to dinner and then I ran into
Renee...”

  
“Renee? What the hell is she doing back in the picture?”

“I don’t know mom, she just
happened to be in the restaurant. Anyway, Dominique got mad and then the whole
thing just escalated from there, by the time we got home I blew up at her, I
grabbed her and I said some things I know I shouldn’t have. I know I should
have nipped it in the bud last night but I was just so goddamn tired I fell
asleep and when I woke up she was gone.”

  
“Oh Adam, god only knows where she could be, you don’t think something bad
has happened do you? I mean even though the police claim that he's got an alibi
the night of the fire, Brandon is still out there Adam.”

“Mom I am sure Brandon has nothing
to do with this, at least he better not. Listen, I’m going to make some more
calls.”

“Son do you want your father and me
to come over?”

“No stay there, she might show up
looking to talk to you.”

“Okay son but the minute you hear
from her let us know.”

“Will do mom, I’m sure she's fine.
Bye.”

Maybe I’m overreacting,
Adam
told himself,
maybe
she just stepped out to
do some shopping or go for a drive. I'll give her one more hour, if no one's
heard from her, I’ll go out and look for her myself.

By the time Dominique had checked
out of the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat it was one o'clock in the afternoon.
She had stopped by the florist shop and bought two bouquets of flowers to put
on Stephen and Teddy's graves along with a pumpkin for Teddy.
He loved
Halloween,
she reminded herself. Although the day was cold and damp when
she arrived at the cemetery, Dominique had planned to spend as much time as she
could with her boys, she hadn’t been there in over a year and she didn’t want
them to think she'd forgotten about them. “No matter how much Adam wants me to,
I’ll never forget you Stephen,” she whispered to herself.

   
Adam had not been able to wait the hour for Dominique's return, he was
dressed and out looking for her within twenty minutes. As he drove down
familiar streets looking for any sign of her, the thought came across him that
maybe his half-brother did have something to do with her disappearing and he
drove directly to mickey's bar to find out.

  
He knew that the police had questioned Brandon about his whereabouts the
day of the fire and it seemed he had a solid alibi; he had been at home with
his father having dinner. Adam knew that anyone who was acquainted with Brandon
or his father for that matter knew that they did a lot of things together, but
having dinner on a Saturday night wasn’t one of them. But until someone could
prove it a lie, the police cleared him of any involvement.

   
Even though it was the middle of the day, the regular drunks and
DiNunzio thugs stood lazily around the dark and dingy bar. Adam got a few
disapproving grunts and daggers as he walked towards Brandon.

“Look what the cat dragged in!”
Slurred Brandon, he was already on his way to becoming good and drunk.

“Brandon, we need to talk, is there
someplace we can go?”

“Are we going to have a
problem?”  Mikey, the owner of the bar looked in Brandon's direction.

“Hey Mikey, it's alright, smirked
Brandon, this here is my half-brother, Adam, he's a big time lawyer. Ain’t that
right Adam? I heard you were representing that guy there, you know the one who
robbed and beat that convenience store owner? Yeah the owners name is George;
you know he is a good friend of mine. How could you represent a thug like that?
Well it’s none of my business little bro, I hear another gangs got it out for
him so it looks like even if he does win he loses. But I sure as hell wouldn’t
want to be standing by his side when that time comes.” Brandon said with a
wink.

 
“I didn’t come here to discuss my case Brandon, so stop with the
bullshit and tell me what you did with my wife!”

“Oh hey, listen, I heard about you
and your lovely wife losing the baby. Sad thing that, imagine losing not one
but two kids, sucks don't it little bro?”

Adam could take no more of his
brother’s antagonistic comments; he grabbed him by the collar and yanked him
off his seat.

  
“Listen you piece of shit, if you've done something to my wife I swear
to god, I’ll kill you, you hear me Brandon? Now what did you do?”

By this time several of DiNunzio
thug's had Adam in their sites and none were about to yield.

Mikey rushed behind Adam and
jamming a glock in his back said,

“I want you out of my bar now! Beat
it, whatever beef you got with the kid, you take it up with his old man
DiNunzio you got that?"

Adam threw up his hands and cursed
as he stormed out of the bar.

“What the hell was that all about?”
Mikey asked as he put away his gun.

“I don't know but I tell you one
thing, the sooner my half-brother and his wife are out of the picture the
better off I’ll be.” Brandon muttered as he gulped down another shot. It was at
that moment that he realized he hated his half-brother even more than
Dominique.

 Chapter Thirty Five

After checking a few more places
and finding no sign of her, Adam had become angry and frantic. Dominique still
wasn’t returning any of his calls and he wasn’t sure if it was because she was
still angry with him or if she simply couldn’t get to her phone. Either way if
she didn’t return by nightfall he was going to have to call the police.
There's
one more person I have to call first,
he thought to himself, he couldn’t
believe he had not thought about calling her best friend Pam, surely if
Dominique was upset she would call or go to Pam.

  
“Hey Pam, it’s me Adam. Listen, have you spoken to Dominique? I'm trying
to get in touch with her and I thought maybe you heard from her.”

Adam could hear the panic in her
voice. “No we haven’t heard from her Adam, what happened? What’s going on? Oh
my god don’t tell me she's missing Adam. Hang on I’m getting my husband.”

  
Adam frowned at hearing that, he knew that Rob worked for the FBI and
that although they had been cordial, Rob had never really warmed up to Adam,
especially after what happened last Christmas Eve. He was Stephen's best friend
and only wanted Dominique to be happy, but so far it looked to Rob like Adam
was causing her nothing but more grief.

 
“Listen Adam, I don’t know what went on
between you two but if something’s happened to her or if I find out that you’re
the reason why she's missing, you and I are going to have a problem you got
that? Now I’ll see if I can get some kind of trace put on her phone. But I
don’t have to tell you that if you don’t hear from her soon Adam you’re going
to have to involve the police. If I find anything out I’ll let you know,” Rob
slammed down the phone.

I should have never called,
thought Adam,
well at least if they are able to put a trace on her phone,
maybe they will be able to locate her. I should have never let the argument get
that far,
he told himself, “God let her be alright.” He quietly sighed.

The sun was setting by the time
Dominique had finished her visit with Stephen and Teddy, she had given them the
flowers and placed the pumpkin on Teddy's headstone. She even brought a pack of
permanent markers to decorate the pumpkin while she spoke softly to them, and
when she was done, her body was numb from the cold, but she felt a lot better.
Before leaving, Dominique told her boys that even though she didn’t visit as
often as she should, she knew that they were alright and that they were taking
care of the baby she had lost and that she would think about them always.

It was now nightfall and Adam felt
completely helpless. He held his cell in one hand and the home phone in the
other, Dominique had been gone... he had no idea how long she had been gone
because he had fallen asleep. “She could have left last night,” he swore to
himself. “Shit! Why didn’t I go to her last night? Goddamn! Please god give me
a sign, just to let me know that she's alright and that she's not lying in a
ditch somewhere hurt or worse.”

    
When she tried unlocking the door, Adam swung it open.

“Dominique!” He shouted. Even
though his body felt like hugging her, his mind told him to shout at her.
“Where in the hell have you been? I've been worried sick, we all have! Answer
me!” Adam was so distraught that he reached out and grabbed her once again,
this time Dominique pulled his hand off of her.

  
“Adam what has gotten into you? I went to Stephen and Teddy's graves, I
needed to get away.”

“Oh and I suppose you didn’t think
to leave me a fucking note or I don’t know Dominique, pick up your cell and
return a phone call?” He argued as he followed her around in need of answers.