Robert stops the black Audi in front of Catherine's house. He looks over his shoulder to Tom in the backseat.
"Is this it?" He nods. The three men step out of the car and walk toward the front door.
"So do I like ring the bell or do we just walk in?" Tom asks, his voice sounds nervous.
"We can just walk in, but you have to steady your voice first. You don't want to seem weak." The bold man dressed in a black leather jacket to his right says. Tom closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, it doesn't work though, because he is still panicking.
"You know this is kind of a leap of faith, I mean what if it doesn't work. Then we just made everything worse." He says very fast
"You know I'm not going to lie to you kid. it is a leap of faith, but we will never know if it works if we don't dive right in." Tom hears from his left.
"All right, all right, all right, all right. Let's do this." He steadies his voice and opens the door.
Catherine is sitting on her favorite chair with a glass of red wine. She is dressed in a red glitter dress with, of course, killer high heels. She is obviously shocked when the three gentlemen walk in. You can see it in her eyes, but in a heartbeat she had put on her poker face already.
"Robert Downey Junior." She stands up and walks toward him. "Didn't expect to see you again." Robert, obviously not impressed, has a poker face on as well. She takes a step to the left, standing in front of Tom.
"Thomas Holland. Are you enjoying America with your girlfriend?" A chuckle. Tom's fear is gone, all he can think about now is freeing Scarlett from this nightmare, take her home and celebrate Christmas Eve. Catherine takes another step to the left again .
"My husband. Or should I say ex-husband, Norman Wilson?"
"I highly prefer ex-husband." She takes a step back, now leaning against the couch.
"What can I do for you on this delighted Christmas Eve?"
"Easy, let Scarlett go." Tom says.
"Anything but that." Gerard is now in the back of the living room with his arms his arms crossed. "We have a contract, you know."
"But Norman, what will happen if Scarlett filed a suit against Catherine?" Tom asks as a play.
"Well I think-" Norman gets cute off by his ex wife,
"She is not going to do that, because you don't have evidence and it will only make things worse."
"But let's say we do have evidence." For a split second Tom saw the shock in her eyes.
"You remember the night we were so drunk and you drove us to another club. Then you crashed us into a few other cars. Before anyone could've noticed, you put me, unconscious , in the driver's seat and ran away. The reason why I got arrested and put away." Catherine doesn't respond.
"And you also remember that I was the one who had to get rid off any evidence. That was my job before you got promoted as her whore. " That last one was to Gerard. Catherine still didn't say anything, her face was turning more pale with the second.
"This right here." Norman reaches to a pocket inside his black leather jacket and pulls out a tape. "Is security footage on which you can see who really drove that night. I forgot to throw it in a lake." He uses the bunny ears to point out that he didn't threw the tape away on purpose. Gerard walked toward Catherine and is now standing beside her and is prepared to do anything.
"So the deal is easy. You let Scarlett go tonight within ten minutes or we call the cops and turn you right in. It's up to you." Catherine is now tapping with her foot and fidgeting with her hair. She knows that she is with her back agains the wall.
"I'm dialing." Tom grabs his phone as a threat.
"I can still hurt Scarlett." Gerard's low voice says.
"Yeah, no, because we have leverage on you too."
"Like shit, you have no evidence."
"No, but we do have a pattern. Scarlett, Chris and have you forgotten about Michael." Norman's voice sounded cold before, but now you can hear the pain in his voice for the kids. Gerard doesn't know what to say. But hen he whispers something in his boss's ear which makes her face get a little bit color again.
"I can just beat you guys up and hold you hostage."
"Three against one? Come on be realistic. We have you by the balls." Tom wanted to smile so badly, but had to keep his poker face on for the act.
"Fine. I'll shred the contract, but-" She stands up coming closer. "if you do show anyone that ever I will hunt you down when and where you least expect it, break every bone in your body, lock you up and let you starve to death."
"That is very specific." Catherine raises her brows and makes a face like she could have done it more specific than that.
"So I'm free?" They hear Scarlett's voice from the stairs. Micheal is sitting beside her. They were catching up in her bedroom when Scarlett heard familiar voices coming from the living room. Her heart was pounding the second she saw the three men standing in the living room. Tom nods his head very fast and puts on the biggest smile since what feels like forever. Scarlett releases a breath she didn't know she was holding. She runs down the stairs on her dirty black sneakers. Tom meets her half way. Tears are rolling down both their faces. They hug, Tom holds her so tight. He whispers in her ear,
"I'm never letting you go." After a few seconds Scarlett looks up from Tom's shoulder to her father who she hadn't see in over a year.
"Go." She pulls back and runs toward her father. She thinks she saw a tear rolling down his face.
"Dad!" She jumps into his arms.
"Princess!" Scarlett's tears of happiness fall onto her father's shoulders. Scarlett always loved to hug her father, because he has a belly you can really hug him good. He gives her a kiss on her forehead.
"I missed you so much."
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you Tom." The two boys are sitting on Scarlett's bed as she is packing all of her stuff as fast as she can. She hs the biggest smile on her face.
"I wish I could say the same. I just don't know who you are."
"His name is Michael, he is an old friend of mine." Scarlett replies to Tom's question. She grabs another bag for her jeans.
"Where do you know each other from?"
"When we were younger we lived in the same house for about a year. And we met again a few weeks ago and I have been checking up on her every week."
"I really appreciate it mate."
"Done!" Scarlett stands up and looks at the seven bags full of stuff.
"At least you had enough clothes." Scarlett rolls her eyes. The boys each take three bags and Scarlett takes one. When walking down the stairs Tom asks,
"Are you doing something tonight Michael?"
"No, I don't really have plans."
"Would you like to spend Christmas Eve with us?" Scarlett smiles at her boyfriend from behind. Typical Tom.
"I'm not sure man, I don't want to be a pain in the ass or anything."He sounds a little bit shy. Typical Mike.
"Come on. It is the least I can do. And it isn't exactly a regular Christmas Eve so I don't see a reason why you shouldn't come." He sounds so thankful to him.
"All right I'll come." Micheal smiles. He never really had much friends, because it is not easy to make friends in his line of business. So he has never really been invited to like a Christmas dinner other than to handle some business.
YOU ARE READING
A leap of faith
Romantik"It's just not fair that this insane thing is happening to me right now. It's just not fair that has to infect the most important people in my life. It's just not fair that during the time I'm supposed to live my life and have fun, I'm hurting and...
