Not Us 3: Odette & Ford

**Chapter 23**

**Descriptions of torture and abuse from a POW. This is all fiction, but it can be triggering if this has happened to someone. If you cannot read it, please write on my wall or DM me and I will fill you in on the PG-rated version.**

Odette's POV

We sat at the table for another two hours listening to his Dad recount what happened with his Mom. It was like a switch flipped. Some days she was all about finding him, convinced he needed saving after hearing no news the first year he was gone, then just extreme sadness that he was most likely gone forever. After Ford left for his mission, he had letters that were sent to his parents and me. Mack delivered the ones to them.

"He said he wouldn't be able to contact you except for once or twice and only if it was life or death," he explained, "And your mother...it was like something in her just...changed," he shrugged, "Like her light slowly went out. She would talk about all the things you didn't get to do yet, and how you might never get to do them. Then it shifted from things you weren't going to be able to do, to things she was going to miss out on. I don't know how to say it. She just changed. She went from being this incredibly happy woman to over time telling everyone you were away on some mission and would likely come home in a body bag. What did you write in her letter? She burned it and wouldn't let me see it."

"I told her I was going on a mission. That I couldn't give her any details about it and I might not even come back alive." He shook his head, rubbing his fingers across his forehead.

"She started drinking. A lot about a year after you left. Then she swears she saw you on the news. She said she saw some news reports in Italy and saw you. She called the consulate and said you were an American citizen who needed help. I told her to hang up the phone because if that was you, she could have put you in jeopardy." Ford's expression turned dark suddenly.

Darker than I'd ever seen it. He looked downright murderous.

"I need to make a phone call."

He stood up and walked out without saying anything to anyone. He just turned and walked out of the room, and out the back of the house. I looked at Briggs and then his Dad. What the fuck was that?

"After thinking she saw him in Italy, she would watch the news all the time. She wouldn't go out with me anymore. She would only watch that damn news channel. When we got the call that he was back in the States from his former CO, we wanted to fly out, but he told us that wouldn't be smart. He needed time to work through some mental struggles he was having. She wouldn't hear of it. She decided he was the same boy from high school. The one who would listen to everything she suggested. She got these, hair-brained ideas, that if she found a girl who lived close, she could keep him near us. She could have him near her and he'd never be in danger or away from her again. It was like her maternal instincts went into overdrive or something."

I shook my head. Hoping and praying I don't ever turn out like her if any of our kids decide they want to join the service like their father figures. If they do...I just want them to return home. Safe. And I'll support them however I can. I just...I don't know what to think. "So, when she saw me and the kids," I started, and he nodded, confirming what I suspected.

"She was livid. She thought her grand plans were all shot to hell. She thought if we could 'play nice' and get here she could convince him to come home and live with us."

Wow.

"Thank you. You're welcome to stay in the guest house as long as my brother-in-law, here, says it's fine with him." Briggs nodded at my ask, and I excused myself to find Ford. I was feeling very anxious all of a sudden. I felt like I needed to get to him, like he needed me. I walked out the back door and didn't see him, so I walked to the pool house. He wasn't in any room there. I heard a scream as I came out and looked at our house. I broke into a dead sprint when I heard another scream.