The Masked Emotions Series Book Five Redux: Loving

POETIC JUSTICE

KELLY

For as long as Kelly lived, she had always believed in karma. "When you do good things, good things will happen to you in life, but in small doses. However, if you do bad things, it will come back to you tenfold." It was something her Trinidadian neighbor used to tell her and she always believed it. There was the night she stole her mother's car to go to a party at Mitch Dossey's house, where he got a bit too handsy and rough, and Samuel came to her rescue. Sure, he got his ass kicked like he always did whenever he stood his ground, but he saved her and she gave her virginity to him, which resulted in her getting pregnant. In turn, caused her mother to get fired and forced to take a bribe. Bad karma. When she refused to have an abortion and was kicked out of her mother's house, thanks to her old neighbor she had a place to stay, and through that generosity she had Hope. Good Karma. She decided to just be a mother, devoting her life to her daughter, and was blessed with many beautiful and caring years.

When Samuel came back into her life almost two years ago, she thought it was fate giving her a second chance to tell him about his daughter, but instead, he told her about what he had done. Instinctively, she wanted to get as far away from him as possible, she tried to call the police, but she saw how tormented he was his guilt, and his need to kill himself; she decided to stay by his side, which resulted in his mother getting her fired. Bad Karma. However, it led him back into her life, and seeing how vulnerable he was, how broken, she realized she still had strong feelings for him and had sex for the first time in four years, and ironically, it was with the same man who took her virginity; the only man she ever been with and ever since her life has been getting better with a man determined to fix the wrong he has done. That incident reinforced her belief in Karma and fate, and for a while, she thought life was perfect.

She was married to Samuel, she had their second child, and his semi-nightly nightmares had stopped. His constant self-loathing vanished. She believed that Karma allowed him to have a sense of peace in his life. She was there for him through every painful step, and through that love, she thought she was helping him. However, he told her what was happening to him, what was being done to him by a woman named Olga, and at first, she was furious. She smacked him, pulled his hair, punched him, and even held onto his throat, asking him if this was what he needed to feel human again, he should have allowed her to do it, not a stranger, much less a woman. Yet he remained silent and she saw that he was happy with the abuse.

At first, she wanted to leave him, but she wanted to hear everything that was done to him. After listening to him, she didn't understand, perhaps she couldn't, but he has been better, happier. So with a heavy heart, she smiled at him and told him to keep doing what he was supposed to do. She believed that eventually, his penance would work out. Then Karma began to shine in his favor. The punishment would now stop, he looked whole once again, and she was happy for him. A split second, that's all it took, a split second and Karma reminded her that it was far from over. Their daughter was almost kidnapped, and Samuel was lying in a hospital bed with a broken wrist on his right hand and three broken fingers on his left. He had a broken nose, his left eye was swollen shut, and he had five broken ribs and a slight concussion.

The men responsible were taken by two men in suits and she swore that one of the men was the contractor who had built William's nursery. She knew karma could be cruel, but Samuel had tried to redeem himself, but she guessed it wasn't enough to balance everything. She looked toward the hallway and stared at the interstate of patients, doctors, and family members rushing past the door and realized that she was the only one in their inner circle who was beside him. She understood why Martha couldn't come. She was taking care of the children. But not a single soul from the law firm visited him, none of their couple friends, not a single representative from his survivor of rape organization. None of their neighbors asked about him. It was like everything he had ever done to redeem himself was all for nothing and it was breaking her heart.