Voices

Chapter 17

As soon as Tamra closed the door of her car Karl slammed her into the side door.

"You're a whore you know that" he whispered in her ear and held her by her hair as he dragged her inside. "Not a word", he warned her as soon as he opened the door.

The babysitter greeted them cheerfully as soon as she saw them but she noticed that Karl had the look of a serial killer. He quickly handed her some cash and ushered her to the door. Tamra, who knew what his attention was, quickly tried to head upstairs to lock the door. She knew that the door was no hindrance. He was strong enough to break it down if he had to. She was halfway up the stairs when she felt him grab her hair again from behind.

"We were just da....."

Her sentence was immediately cut short by a slap across her face.

"You like to piss me off!" he shouted and landed another blow to her head. Tamra immediately began to get dizzy and she felt blood running from her nostrils.

"I'm sorry" she tried to say. She felt her body hit the floor followed by a sharp pain in her head then...nothing.

Tamra squeezed her eyes shut and then reopened them. She shut them again to shut out the blinding light but opened them again. She was in heaven. For a second she thought that this was a good thing, she would get the chance to see her father again; the only man who loved her unconditionally. She thought it would be like old times laughing and conversing with him. Finally, she was free from Karl, he couldn't hurt her here for there was no way heaven would welcome a monster like that. He was Lucifer's best friend and he belonged where devils congregate.

She smiled to herself but then began to panic when she heard voices. She didn't recognize one but she knew the other. She quickly turned her head from side to side and realized that she was in a hospital room.

"What happened?" she heard someone ask.

" I think she was drinking tonight, I don't know how much she had to drink but when she got home she pulled another bottle and just turned it to her head" he heard Karl say.

Karl, he was outside her door talking to someone and he was lying his ass off. He knew damn well that she didn't drink anything. She had at least two glasses of wine at Ava's party but she was perfectly fine to drive herself home.

His assault must have been bad this time if she ended up in the hospital.

"And then what happened?" she heard the person ask again.

She didn't know if the person asking the questions was a doctor or a police officer. All she knew was that she wanted to see her son now that she knew she wasn't dead.

"I was walking our babysitter out and then I heard some noise inside. I rushed in and found her at the foot of the stairs. I figured that maybe she was drunk and lost her balance trying to get upstairs."

Tamra felt warm tears on her cheeks as she listened to Karl. He had no remorse, no regrets about what he was doing to her. How could he blatantly lie like that? She heard her door open and she quickly wiped her eyes and closed her eyes. She heard the door close.

"Thank you, Mr. Solomon, we'll come back when your wife wakes up".

"She hasn't been herself lately, her father passed away a few months ago, and she was close to him" Karl added.

"Thanks for that information, like I said, we'll be back.

Tamra listened for the door to open again but it never did. She felt her eyes getting heavy and within a few minutes she drifted off to sleep again.

Rachel summoned Karl early the next morning. She heard what had happened and she was upset. As soon as Karl arrived at her house he handed Zyon to the maid and went to his mother's office. When he entered Rachel was already dressed to leave to attend her morning meetings across town.

"What the hell did you do?!" she shouted before Karl could say anything.

"Let me explain," Karl said immediately.

"You don't need to explain shit to me! I told you to keep her under control without leaving any marks".

"You know that's not possible! She gets me so angry, do you know how many times she has disrespected me?"

Rachel scoffed and shook her head at her son.

"What?!" Karl yelled in frustration.

"You did this to yourself. I gave Savanna to you on a platter and you made her slip through your fingers''.

Karl sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Savanna is not a woman that could have been controlled, mother," he said.

"Did I ever tell you about how challenging it was for me growing up? I was never the brightest bulb. My father loved my sister more because she was the brains in the family. I struggled in school and my father told me that I wouldn't be anything and that the only thing that I would be good at was opening my legs." she scoffed then continued. " But he did me a favour, his voice gave me power; it gave me the power that I needed to push myself to become this".

She walked over to where Karl was and cupped the left side of his face as gently as she could.

"I love you Karl, you are my son and I'll always love you no matter what. But I love money and power more. Fix this" she said sternly then walked away.

***************

The next day Tamra woke up and saw an unexpected visitor in her room. She frantically reached for the nurse call button to summon the nurse to her aid.

"Relax, if I wanted to kill you I would have done so while you were sleeping," the British accent said with a light laugh.

"What the fuck do you want? "Tamra boldly asked.

Savanna laughed at her as she crossed her legs.

"If you want Karl you can have him okay, I don't give a shit. The only person that I need is my son".

Savanna sighed and smiled at Tamra ." I don't want Karl; not anymore. I heard that you were in the hospital and I wanted to see you".

"To make sure that I was going to die?"

Savanna laughed at Tamra's question and stood. She slowly walked to the door, opened it, and turned to look at Tamra.

"To make sure that another child didn't lose a parent. I hope you feel better soon." she smiled at Tamra then closed the door behind her as she left.

Tamra was left bewildered. Why on earth would Karl's ex come to visit her? The last time they spoke it was clear that Savanna wanted to be with Karl so what changed? This was a mystery that needed to be solved but it wouldn't be solved today. She needed to know if Zyon was okay. She didn't have her cellphone, she didn't have anything with her and it was likely that Karl wouldn't visit or maybe he would to keep up appearances. The facade of being a loving and caring husband.