Hostage of the Heart

Lamb Chop (Twenty)

"Oh, God," Desiree groaned. Evil. She used to believe that everyone had at least an iota of goodness in them, yet within minutes Victor proved to her that wasn't true. He was most definitely quite evil. "You made your sister kill Marie?"

"No, it was my pleasure to personally take care of the latest Mrs. Alan Redding." When Marie arrived home from work, she discovered Victor seated in the dark within her bedroom. She would have bolted, yet the gun he held on her encouraged her to remain. Prompted to sit on the bed while he occupied the chair at her vanity table, she did so without question. He then explained who he was and what he wanted her to do if she cared about her incarcerated daughter's safety. If she complied, Piper would be unharmed. If she refused, Piper wouldn't need to serve out the remainder of her sentence as she would be leaving the prison in a body bag.

Although he hadn't seen his father since he was a child, Victor remembered his penchant for handguns, so he asked Marie to retrieve it. Not bothering to lie that her late husband didn't own a gun, she grabbed the lockbox from the back of the closet while Victor watched her every move. Key located in the nightstand, she opened the steel container with a shaky hand, revealing two handguns along with a couple boxes of ammunition.

Since Marie had zero knowledge of how to load them, Victor asked her to select one and then instructed her how without touching anything despite the latex gloves effectively covering his hands. After he told her to place the ready gun back in the box, he placed a writing tablet and pen on her lap, making her write while he dictated her suicide note. Errant tears staining the page, Marie penned every word Victor spoke.

Once she signed her name, she tucked the letter into an envelope and sealed it with her saliva. Letter placed on the nightstand, she was told to retrieve the gun, slide it between her lips, and pull the trigger. With tears rolling down her face, it took Marie a good half minute to obey.

Victor held the expression of a person fondly thinking back on a memory. "I remember it like it was yesterday. That bedspread of hers already had a busy pattern so imagine how colorful it looked once her blood and brain matter joined the decorations?"

Vision blurring with tears, Desiree was required to blink rapidly in order to view him. It occurred to her that he was much too reprehensible to be human. How could a person have given birth to and raised someone who obviously didn't comprehend the meaning of the word morals? She was positive that this poor excuse for a man didn't possess a conscience. "Why would you kill her mother?"

Victor shrugged. "It was important to me that Piper suffer as much as possible, and she loved her mother, so I decided to remove her from this world. Marie gave her family, hope, love, someone to turn to once she was released from prison...that bitch didn't deserve any of it after what she did to my father. Piper eliminated my father so I eliminated her mother, and I tried to pack as much guilt into that suicide note as possible. What the hell are you crying for?" Moving toward Desiree, a large hand roughly wiped the tears from her face. However, it didn't do any good as more continued to fall.

"That's all you women do--cry and complain. Marie and my mother were two peas in a pod, but I'll at least grant Marie the credit of having stayed with my father. My mother," he sneered the maternal title, "she didn't respect him. Not enough, which was why he had to regularly lay into her. Emily too. Me? Not so much because I listened and I paid attention and I loved and respected him unconditionally."

Victor started pacing again. "He was my idol...taught me such valuable lessons. And then my mother betrayed him. While he slept--and I think she drugged him--she awoke Emily and I in the middle of the night and forced us into the car. Emily didn't seem to mind, but I was livid. Driving down the street, claimed we were going to have better lives, that she had a new job in a new state. My life was just fine with Alan Redding." Victor's chuckle was devoid of humor. "Redding. Not even our last name anymore as my mother detested him so much that she had it legally changed to her maiden name. Like she was on a mission to erase him as much as possible."