All My Sins

A vinyl

I can't thank all of you enough for the support that you've given my story... I am sorry that I am so inconsistent with my updates. I'm definitely guilty of trying to piece everything together perfectly for you all, but know that I'm never going to give up. I'm sorry also if this chapter isn't exactly up to par, but I can't work on it anymore. 

On the Sixteenth floor of the Motor City Casino Hotel was a restaurant. Within this restaurant were small tables and cotton white linen wrapped chairs. A far wall was made entirely of glass, which served as a magnificent view out to the city of Detroit. Here is where Paul Rosenburg sat with Denaun Porter, waiting for one of Paul's old associates to meet them.

Denaun had begun to heavily indulge in several glasses of expensive champagne. While he was eager to have gotten a call back from Paul and this meeting had only enticed more of his excitement, he'd already allowed his mind to run away with extremity.

"I don't want you saying too much during this, Porter. I know how these guys like to do business and if you just let me take the wheel on this, we'll be better off."

A waitress arrived at their table and laid out two plates of appetizers which Denaun picked into immediately.

"Keep the food and drinks coming, then." Denaun spoke, feeling somewhat buzzed.

Paul would never have admitted it, but he too was excited. He would never have told Porter either, but it was a very good sign to hear back from so soon about mere drafts that had been mailed out a few days before.

And as Rosenburg looked down at most of Detroit, the city lights winking amongst the black sea of the night, he felt a sense of power and that familiar sense of worth within a universal industry begin to flow through him again.

Marshall fell asleep in the recliner beside Maureen's bed. However, Maureen had a harder time with being comfortable enough to steady her breathing. She slept only in thirty minute intervals.

Spurts of great pain overcame her frequently, and in these times she would all her gaze to rest on Marshall. His breath was steady paces and his large chest seemed so strong and durable, far more than hers. And for this she envied him. It was after these long gazes at him that Maureen found a sense of comfort that managed to cradle her back to sleep.

Marshall could hear the groans of discomfort that penetrated her sleep. He opened his eyes slowly and saw that her sweat caused her hair to matte to her scalp and dark circles beneath her eyes gave way to her exhaustion. Then Marshall saw the tube following out of the side of her hospital gown, the tube that kept her lungs from collapsing entirely. A night had never drug on so slowly. It was at the precipice of dawn, Maureen felt so hot and so sick, she saw no other choice but to wake him.

"Marshall!" She whispered insistently.

Woken very suddenly, he dropped to his knees from his chair, immediately at her bedside.

"What's wrong, baby? What's wrong?"

"Can you please get me some water?"

Marshall poured her a generous cup of water and watched her drink urgently. Once she set her cup down, she spoke to him in a whisper.

"I can't understand why this happened." 

"It was just an accident, Maureen. They can't always be avoided."

But he could tell that this explanation would not satisfy her aching wonder. Bad things sometimes happened to the best of people, Marshall knew this. And despite his somewhat superior age, still had trouble understanding why this was the way that the world worked.
So he pitied Maureen for having such a hard time with understanding it. He wished that peril was something she would never have to face and that he could take that inevitable bullet for her.