Jaden

Chapter 12
(Lizzie’s Box of Happy Memories)

Sitting in the dining room, she must have read the letter 50 times. By now she had every word memorized, but she could not put the letter down and read it again. She thought of her beautiful daughter, she could see her baby running and playing with the dog her daddy brought for her 6th birthday blond curls bouncing up and down as she played, her sweet little girl whose eyes would narrow in deep concentration when she was trying to put a puzzle together. Her giggles would make everyone laugh with her, and she remembered how excited she would get when daddy came home, she had so much to tell him about the day she and mommy had. Beautiful blue eyes filled with so much life, blue eyes crying when she had to tell her, daddy died.

When she re-married two years later her little girl expressed her happiness for her, and told her that she really liked Henry. Susan Cleary Lancaster was overjoyed that Henry treated her daughter as his own.

After losing John, Susan was devastated. She devoted her life to her little girl; she had no interest to marry again. But then Henry came out of nowhere and put a smile on her little girls face again. She could see her happy and having fun once more, maybe that is why she said yes when Henry Lancaster proposed. At first she felt guilty because she really didn’t love Henry, but to see her little girl happy to have a mommy and a daddy again was all that mattered to her, she in time will learn to love him. She cared for him, but she wasn’t in love with him.

She read the letter for the 52nd time, and then she carefully folded the letter and put it in her pocket. She sat there for awhile thinking, looking at the box that was left on her front steps with the letter she has been reading, wondering what to do next. Sighing sadly she stood up and made her way to her bedroom. She remembered that Henry kept a lock box in his closet. She opened the closet and began rummaging around until she found the box hidden on the top shelf. Henry told her that he kept his gun in there; she also hoped that he kept a spare key for his home office. Henry sometimes worked at home; he turned a portion of the garage into a private office and kept that locked as well. Telling Susan that since he worked for the government, he dealt with sensitive issues and had to keep his office locked. And since his job required that he travel he didn’t really have a physical office to speak of, hence the home office he built. In fact Susan never knew that Henry Lancaster worked in real estate, allowing him freedom to move about.

With box in hand, she then made her way to the garage. She looked around in the garage and found what she needed a bolt cutter Henry used to repair a side fence and used it to cut off the lock on the box, when she opened it and looked inside there was the gun with bullets and the key. Letting out a sigh of relief when the key she found unlocked the door to Henry’s office. Stepping inside she could see a desk pushed up against the wall to her right, and behind the chair was a filing cabinet. Turning on the light on the desk she sat down in the chair and took out the letter from her pocket, she read the letter for the 53rd time. The key she found did not open the desk draw, so with the bolt cutter she used it like a hammer and broke off the front end of the draw pulling it out and spilling it's contents on the floor. She heard a click of metal hit the concrete floor when everything fell out and saw another key when she moved the papers out of the way. This key unlocked the filing cabinet behind her, the key unlocked many secrets hidden from her for years and unleashed so much pain and anger that she never knew existed in her.

Reading the letter again for the 54th time, Susan sat back down on the chair in Henry’s office. She used her cell phone and called his private line, she surprised herself that she could speak so calmly to her husband, can you come home she asked, something very important came up.

Henry drove home in a very pissed off mood. He hoped to go over to the next town to have dinner with Jeanne and her adorable little angel Haley. He was all set up to go when his cell phone rang. It was his wife Susan telling him that she needed to speak with him, more information came in regarding her daughter. Could he please come home she asked. It was very important that he come home now. What could he do? He had to go. Ever since her 16-year-old brat ran away from home, Susan went into a deep depression. He was planning on leaving his wife. But when the bitch ran away, he was forced to endure questioning from the police and the FBI. He just couldn’t leave Susan then, it would raise too many questions.

As he drove he thought about little Haley, a sweet five year old with strawberry blond hair that when he would pat her on the head it felt like silk. He couldn’t wait to sample her charms, and the fact that she is so young would make it easier for him to manipulate. When he met Susan her little girl was eight, she lost most of her baby fat but she was still yummy enough to attract his attention. He snaked his way into the little girl’s heart, complimenting her and buying her gifts. What clinched it for him was when he would talk to the little girl about her father. Building him up like a super hero. Little girls who lost their daddies wanted to know more, and Henry was only too happy to oblige.

After he married Susan, he took his time with his new stepdaughter, winning her trust more and more each day. By the time she was 10, he had sex with her. Susan never knew, he told her daughter, that if she ever said anything to mommy, she would not believe her and throw her out of the house. He was able to keep her under his control and use her as he pleased. But as she got older he was losing interest in her, Henry liked his girls young, real young. The brat became rebellious and getting into all kinds of trouble with the police and in school. She caused all kinds of problems at home too; Susan never understood why her daughter would act out so much. Many nights she cried in Henry’s arm. Sometimes he was successful in his control by threatening violence to her mother; he would beat her but never hit her where the bruises could be seen. Henry enjoyed beating the brat up, and then forcing her to service him. He was starting to get a hard on just thinking about it, he needed to think about something else before he got home. It wouldn’t go over well to show up at the house with a freaking boner in his pants.

Susan never gave up looking for her daughter, every bit of information that came in, every call, anyone willing to talk to her regarding the whereabouts of her daughter; Susan would follow up on it. Henry didn’t care if she wanted to check every lead she could get her hands on, but he had to play the dutiful husband and caring stepfather crap so the police would not decide to sniff up his ass. It helped that the neighbors spoke so highly of him. Playing his role so well, that even the police felt sorry for him. Damn he thought he should get an Oscar for his performance, but it was getting old he wanted out. He put up with it for six years, standing by Susan, holding her hand, and consoling her. Even the police seemed to have given up, why didn’t Susan? This was the last time, he needed to get out. He has done his time as a good husband, murderers get released from prison so why shouldn’t he? All he could think about was the beautiful little girl with the strawberry blond hair waiting for him to become her new daddy.

Susan was back in the house sitting in the dining room again and read the letter for the 55th time, one hand lightly petting Henry’s gun on her lap. She read it again for the 56th time, when she heard Henry’s car come up the driveway. Knowing he would never leave it out there, she read the letter again while Henry parked the car in the garage. She could hear him come into the house through the kitchen’s back entrance from the garage, calling out for her. She noted a tone of annoyance in his voice, but ignored him and continued reading. From the kitchen is a stairway that led up to the bedrooms upstairs, she could hear him stomping up the stairs and calling for her. But she did not reply to his calls and kept reading the letter for the 59th time.

“There you are… what the hell Susan didn’t you hear me calling you?” Henry said, not bothering to hide his irritation, Henry finally found her sitting in the dining room and noticed a big box on the table. But before he could say anything else Susan stood up and gave him the letter she had been reading several times over. He looked at her questionably, but Susan never said a word and stepped away to stand by the table, she placed one hand on the box while the other hand was behind her. He tilted his head to one side in confusion, as he looked at the letter and began to read.

Dear Mrs. Cleary,

Henry snorted when the letter was addressed to Mrs. Cleary and not as his wife Mrs. Lancaster. Already thinking that this was another useless lead and he was about to tell Susan, but then he decided to finish reading just for the heck of it. Soon he would leave her, so why not play the caring doting husband one last time. And so starting at the beginning he read the letter in its entirety.

Dear Mrs. Cleary,
You don’t know me, but for the last four years your daughter and I have been living together. It’s not what you think, she was my best friend, and she was the only family I ever had. I ran away from my home and she took me in. Mrs. Cleary your daughter took good care of me; she even gave me a name, because I never had one. You would have been so proud of her, she was a very good women. Lizzie helped me at a time when I thought all people are like monsters. She helped me understand that not all people are like that, and to keep an open mind. She made me feel good about myself and made me learn to read and write, (still not very good at it, but I’m trying. A friend is writing this letter for me.)She kept me off the streets, and she wouldn’t let anyone hurt me. And when I was scared she would hold me and make it better. It breaks my heart to tell you that Lizzie got sick and she died, my friend said it was Pneumonia, and I promised Lizzie that I would make sure you get her Box of Happy Memories. Inside the package you will find her ashes; she made me promise not to bury her in a coffin. She always told me that if anything happened to her and she died, she asked me not to bury her, she was ok with cremation; I hope this is ok with you too. She hopes you will let her remains sit next to her daddy. In the old shoebox you will find pictures of all her happy memories, she told me that the people she loved and cared about her are in the box. She also wrote you lots of letters that I tried to get her to send them to you, but she was afraid. She loved you so much Mrs. Cleary, and she always talked about you, about how you are the most wonderful mom and every kid should have a mom like you. She told me so many wonderful things about you and her daddy that my friends hand would fall off if he wrote it all down. But when you read her letters you will know how much she cared. She is so sorry about running away and not letting you know where she went, it had nothing to do with anything you did. She knew that you were always trying to help her when she would get into trouble, but she was afraid and ashamed if you knew. She was afraid Henry would be right and that you would throw her out of the house. Please believe me, this is not a lie, but what I’m telling you is the truth. Your husband Henry is one of the worst monsters around, because since Lizzie turned 10 years old, Henry started to rape her. If she said anything he threatened to kill you. Lizzie said she couldn’t live with herself if that happened. To make sure she believed him, he put sleeping pills in your tea one night. And while you were sleeping, he put a gun to your head and showed Lizzie how easy it was to kill you. He did this when she was just a little girl, and so for years he raped her, until she got older then the beatings started because she tried to fight him off. She ran away because she was afraid and couldn’t take it anymore. She really didn’t mean to make you suffer and she would sometimes cry about it. She is so sorry for making you sad. Please read all of the letters in the box, you will know how much she loved you. She never blamed you for anything so please don’t you blame yourself, to have a daughter like Lizzie proves what a wonderful mother you are. I sent her ashes and her Box of Happy Memories, because I knew she would want you to have it, and I felt you deserved to know the truth. I hope you don’t mind, but I kept one of the pictures because I never want to forget her beautiful face. She was everything to me Mrs. Cleary, and I loved her so much.
J

Shaking, his hands were shaking, not from fear but from anger. He looked at the letter J and wanted to know who this brat was, if he found him or her, he would rip this J apart with his bare hands. He kept looking at the words in the letter and realized that somebody knew, and now his wife knew. A delicate hand calmly took the letter away, and placed a kitchen knife firmly in his hand; he frowned in confusion looking at the knife, but before he could react he was looking down the barrel of his own gun. “Fuck!”