A Tortured Soul

Chapter 47

While Justin waited, (not so patiently) for the DNA results to come back, Tatiana noticed he had been drinking more and more as the days passed. He was barely ever sober, even when he was working. She grew concerned and decided it was time for her to step in. She began to spend every waking moment with him, laughing, joking, dancing, in the living room, anything she could think of to keep his mind busy so he wouldn’t stress and drink. At night they would crawl into Justin’s bed and watch a movie together until they fell asleep, she would curl up next to him and pretend to be asleep so he wouldn’t get up for a drink when his mind drifted from whatever movie they were watching. Two weeks passed before Justin remembered his troubles, he had been so caught up with Tatiana, his mind slipped into a happiness he had never felt before. As they laid on the couch cuddled together like an actual couple watching TV waiting for Max, JT and Jessie walked into the living room and smiled. “Are you to a couple now?” Jessie asked excitingly. “What? No!” Justin defended jumping up realizing he had grown strong feelings for his best friends’ sister. “I can’t, she is JT’s sister!” he continued. “Dude, relax, its fine. Great actually!” JT said wrapping his arm around Jessie. “How is that fine?” Justin asked confused. “Think about it. I have known you since daycare, and I have always thought of you as a brother. If you two get together and everything works out, you really will be my brother, by marriage of course, but that’s good enough for me!” Justin was stunned, he hadn’t thought of it like that before. Tatiana sparked with excitement at the thought of marrying the man she had dreamed about since she was little.

Max ran inside with a large envelope in his hand interrupting the conversation. “I haven’t opened it yet, and Marge and Jason are here.” He blurted out quickly before the two unwelcomed guests stormed in behind him. “Well, go ahead, lets see the results!” Marge said rubbing her hands together. She had been waiting for this moment for years, since she herself wasn’t always one hundred percent sure which man was Justin’s biological father. She wanted to do one a long time ago but couldn’t do it without Jason finding out. Deep down she knew Justin was Max’s kid, but she hoped it would turn out he was Jason’s. Max looked at Justin for approval before doing so, he nodded ready to learn the truth. Max was shaking to the point of not being able to pinch open the prongs. Tatiana reached for the envelope and offered to help. Max handed it to her, she opened it, and handed it back. He eased the two pieces of paper out, one telling the results, and one showing the results. A smile found its way across his face as tears formed in his eyes and he handed the papers to Justin, then fell backwards onto the couch allowing the tears to flow freely. “What? What? What does it say?” Marge asked frantically unable to read Max’s emotions. “Max is my father.” Justin said softly. Tatiana cupped her mouth waiting patiently for Justin to respond to the news. Jason fell to the floor and Marge froze. Her fear was true, and it was staring her right in the face. “No!” You are lying!” She said snatching the paper out of Justin’s hands to see for herself. “No! No!” Marge yelled ripping the paper to shreds causing the floor around her to look like it had just gone through one of Tatiana’s confetti parties.

She ran to Max and began pounding her fists into him as if he were her personal punching bag. Jessie ran over and jerked her off him throwing her to the floor. Jason popped up and immediately ran after Max as well, but this time Justin was the one to aid Max. He jerked Jason backwards causing him to spin around and land a hard fist into Justin’s jaw. Realizing what he had just done Jason paused and watched as Justin spit blood onto the hardwood floor. Justin’s eyes turned red like they had when they had a falling out at the prison. He stood up straight, staring Jason directly in the eye, smiled, and in on e flawless motion he pulled his knife from his pocket, charged at Jason lifting him off the ground with his back against the wall, and slammed his knife into the base of Jason’s throat. His pleading eyes begged Justin to stop but he didn’t care. He thought Justice was finally being served, it was payback for all they had put him through. He kept twisting the knife allowing more and more blood to spew out. There would be no more abuse or surprise visits from Jason.

Marge watched in horror unable to speak or move, in her mind she was screaming for Justin to stop trying desperately to pull him off. Max was shaken by the whole experience. Tatiana was scared to no end, JT and Jessie both thought, ‘Its been a long time coming’, and were almost unfazed by the act.

Justin gazed deep into Jason’s eyes waiting for all signs of life to disappear, as soon as they did, he jerked is knife out of Jason’s throat, made a quick phone call, “I need you to dump something for me.” , hung up, and began to walk to the bathroom. “Well, I’m going to take a shower, no I’m not taking clothes with me, yes I’m coming out naked, so if you don’t want to see than be gone by the time I come out!” A giggle came from Jessie and JT simply smiled. Max said he would be back for work in the morning and left, Marge stormed out, and Tatiana sat on the couch in disbelief. ‘How could he be so calm after doing something like that?’ she thought. Her nerves took over and she began to fear exactly how much damage Justin could cause. She loved him and knew his history with Jason and Marge but feared what he could do.

The next day Max and Justin were in the office room catching up on work and ignoring what happened the day before, both unwilling to discuss it. Two police officers showed up banging on the door. JT feared Justin was about to be locked up for good for killing Jason, or worse, the death penalty. ‘Shit! Justin your stupid friends didn’t hide the body very well.’ He thought to himself as he opened the door and his heart began to pound. “We need to speak with Justin please.”
“Ok, one second, I will go get him.”
“Thank you.”

JT rushed to the office room and told Justin the cops were in the living room waiting for him. Unfazed, Justin stood and made his way to the living room and shook the officer’s hands. “What can I do for you gentlemen?” Justin asked calmly. They glance at each other and said, “Actually, we are here to deliver some bad news.”
“Oh?”
“Your mother, Marge Talors, was found dead this morning, her neighbor spotted her hanging from her back-patio’s ceiling fan. From the looks of it so far, we suspect suicide, but some things aren’t adding up so we are still investigating, and we can’t find your dad.”
“Wow, that’s weird, he wasn’t anywhere in the house?”
“No, we have checked it. DO you have any idea where he might be?”
“No sir, I mean they were just here yesterday I don’t understand. You don’t think he killed her took off do you?”
“We don’t know yet, I’m sorry, but we can keep you updated on any new information we receive.”
“Oh no! My mom is gone!” Justin blurted out fearfully throwing himself to the floor and covering his face. “I’m sorry for your loss.” The officer said placing his hand on Justin’s back as a sign of condolence. As soon as the cops left Justin stood up dusting himself off and looked at Max with a smile on his face, “Back to work!” he said cheerfully walking back to the office room.

Later that night Justin flopped himself down on the couch and pulled Tatiana in for cuddles, which he had grown accustomed to. She leaned into him gently, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Tatiana, I know what I did may have scared the shit out of you, and I’m really sorry about that. Over these last few weeks that we have been spending together, I have realized that my feeling for you have grown. I can’t shake them and believe me I have tried. I think we belong together, so…” he paused and took a deep breath preparing himself for what he was about to say. He stood up gently helping her to her feet, then took a knee and pulled out a beautiful sparkling diamond ring. “Tatiana Thomas, I’m in love with you, you have helped me through a lot, I know you have been dreaming of this for a while, you don’t hide it very well just so you know that…” he said pausing to smile and wink at her and then continued, “Will you marry me?”