Perfect life? Perhaps not

Chapter 19

20 years later
London
“Mrs. Anderson, someone is here to see you. He says his name is Solano.”
“Thank you, Tiffany. Let him in.”
A minute later there is a knock on Kayla’s office door.
“Enter.” Kayla says.
Solano comes in.
“Hello, Mrs. Anderson.”
“Hello, Solano. What’s up?”
Solano closes the door.
“Mrs. Anderson. I sent the letters to your children. It was hard since I didn’t know their names but I think they got them.”
“Thank you, Solano.”
“No problem, Mrs. Now I need to go to another meeting so that I will not be late.”
“Thank you for coming to tell me, Solano. Goodbye now.”
“Goodbye Mrs. Anderson.”  Solano says and leaves.
Before leaving the building he also stops by Natalie’s office.
“Hello Solano.”
“Hello Mrs. Natalie.”
“What do you have for me today?”
“Not much. I only know the names of her children and that her husband hadn’t remarried or even started dating.”
“Thank you, Solano. What are the names?”
“They are Elsa and Thomas.”
“Thank you for your information. Now please leave my office so that George won’t notice your presence.”
“Goodbye.” he says and leaves.
Later that day Kayla comes home to a house which she shares with Natalie and George.
“Why are you coming just now?”
“I was working. I have a lot to do since we had that fire in one of my hotels.”
“George, can we talk in our room please?” interrupts Natalie.
“Sure thing, baby.” says George and follows her to their room.
Kayla goes to her room and finds a note hidden under her pillow. She starts reading.
“Kayla. Solano was at my office today. Your children’s names are Thomas and Elsa Smith Santos. David hasn’t dated since you left. He also didn’t stop looking for you. LN”
In that moment she hears a gun shot from Natalie’s room. She quickly goes there and sees George dead on the floor and Natalie holding a gun.
“Natalie?!”
“Don’t worry, Kayla. It was time for this to happen. Now we are free of him.” she says and shoots Kayla too.
When the police comes they arrest Natalie and quickly transfer Kayla to the hospital. There they find out she isn’t injured as bad as it seemed as the bullet went only through her body but didn’t hit any vital organ.
Meanwhile in Seattle
“David!”
“What is going on?” David says while running down the stairs.
“Did you see the news today?”
“What happened, Solano?”
“They are reporting that George Anderson is dead.”
“How is this even possible?”
“I don’t know – “ Solano says but is interrupted by his phone starting to ring. He answers:
“Solano.”
“Solano, it is me, Kayla. I need your help.”
“Oh hello. How can I help?”
“I need you to represent Natalie in court. She is the responsible for George’s death.”
“You want me to defend her although knowing she is guilty.”
“Yes, I have proof that she did this in self-defense. Please help her.”
“When is the trial?”
“Next week. Please come.”
“I will see you next week.” he says and hangs up.
“Next week is the trial for George Anderson’s killer.” says Solano to David.
“Nice. I will pay you a lot of money to save the killer.”
“What are you talking about, David?” says Bella who just entered the room.
“George Anderson’s dead. He was murdered.” says Solano.
“I definitely want to be there for the trial.” says David.
“What about the Elsa and Thomas?” says Bella.
“What is with us?” says Elsa when coming down the stairs with Thomas.
“You two are going with me to the courthouse to see the trial for your grandfather’s killer.”
“Ok?” says Thomas.
“Why?” says Elsa.
“Look, I know this is not something you want to see but this is very important for me because he was the reason my father died in that accident 10 years ago.”
The day of the trial
Kayla and Christopher are drinking coffee in the bistro near the courthouse. After 10 minutes they leave and go there and find the room where the judge will tell everyone their decision. Few minutes later Solano comes and starts talking to them.
“Solano, what are the chances that my mother doesn’t get punished?”
“We are presenting the evidence of her innocence today but I can’t tell you how much time she will spend in jail.”
“But all she did was protect and save me from him.” says Kayla.
“I know. But the court might understand this otherwise.”
“We will see. Calm down, Kay, this is damaging you. You are still not fully recovered.” says Christopher.
“Mr. Anderson is right, Kayla. Calm down. We need you alive and well on the stand.” says Solano.
They continue to talk until the judge comes into the room. Kayla doesn’t notice that her children and David also walked in at the same time as herself and Christopher. When the guards bring Natalie inside Kayla soon realizes that Natalie is pale and can barely walk on her own. She whispers this to Christopher who is also very worried for her health.
“Mrs. Natalie Anderson, please come to the stand so we can hear your statement.” says the judge.
Natalie stands up and goes to the stand and starts.
“Your honor, the man that I killed (and yes I confess) had me and Kayla Smith de Santos as hostages. He only used us to get money for his illegal business for twenty (20) years. Last week when Kayla came home, he started bullying her again and that was the moment I decided to kill him. I took him to our room with an excuse to talk to him and when he told me that he was thinking of hurting Kayla sexually I snapped and shot him.” she turns to Kayla and continues “I did this for you, Kay. I am sorry you had to be shot also but I needed everyone to know that you had nothing to do with the shooting.”
“Thank you for your statement. Does any of the lawyers have any question for Mrs. Anderson?”
Trial then continues with both lawyers asking her questions. But then the judge calls Kayla to the stand.
“Mrs. Smith de Santos, how do you know Mr. Anderson?” asks Solano
“He is my biological father who I met 21 years ago.”
“Mrs. Smith de Santos, can you please explain the events that led to this day?”
“Of course. We met when I was in Vienna as part of the Erasmus work program. This was 21 years ago. We started talking on daily basis after I was hospitalized because of stress. He invited me to come spend some time with him and he used me for paying his debt. But I never paid it because I hated him a lot after finding out he arranged marriage for me. So I got married and left him in New York to live in Seattle with my husband. Later I also found out that I was pregnant. An hour after I gave birth he came into my room and started blackmailing me that if I don’t go with him, he will kill my family from Slovenia and all my friends and of course my children. I couldn’t let that happen so I went with him. He took me to London and forced me to open a hotel there to make him money.”
“He made you live with him for 20 years? Why didn’t you leave?”
“Because I was still scared that he will kill them all. Until he died I was scared.”
“Did Mrs. Anderson ever try to do something against you?”
“No, never. She was the only positive thing in my life for those 20 years. She was always nice to me, helping me and everything.”
“So you don’t think she wanted to hurt you by shooting you?”
“No, I don’t. I know Natalie enough to know that she was searching for a way out for years.”
“No more questions, your honor.” says Solano and sits down next to Natalie.
“Do you have any questions for Mrs. Smith de Santos?” the judge says to the other lawyer.
“No, your honor.”
Natalie faints and falls off the chair. Kayla rushes towards her as Christopher does the same.
“Mom!” says Christopher.
“Natalie, please open your eyes for me.” says Kayla
“Give us some space.” the paramedics say.
Kayla and Christopher move away and Christopher runs behind the paramedics when Kayla sees Solano give a piece of paper to the judge and to the other lawyer. She then rushes behind Christopher and sees David and her children in the courtroom. She catches Christopher a moment before the paramedics close the door and asks “Can I go with you as well?” “Sure thing, Miss.” She hopes into the vehicle and they drive off to the hospital. When they get there they are told that Natalie didn’t make it. Christopher started yelling at the staff until Kayla hugged him and he started crying. Soon after Solano came.
“Chris, Kayla, I have news for you. I know what killed her.”
“Spill, Solano, spill.” says Christopher.
“She was intoxicated. According to the amount of poison that she had in her blood, she had to be exposed to this for years. I think it would be a great idea that you get checked too, Kayla.”
“Already going. By the way Solano, what was on the paper you gave to the judge in the end.”
“It was her tox report. In jail they did some analysis and they confirmed it but they couldn’t save her life.”
“Let’s get you tested, Kay.” Christopher says whipping tears from his face.
“Let’s go.”
After a few minutes the doc came out with Solano close behind him.
“Kayla Smith.”
“Yes, doc.”
“Your tox report is clean. You were not exposed to the poison.”
“Thank god I get to keep my sister.” says Christopher.
“That’s right, Chris.” says Kayla.
“Now, let’s go prepare the funeral.” says Christopher.
So they started to prepare the funeral.