“Welcome back baby. How was your day?” I welcomed Rolan cheerfully, excited to see him after everything that had happened that day.
Uncle Joe’s screams of pain had soothed me a bit but then I needed to see my husband desperately.
“Quite stressful. I have something to discuss with you babe. It is for the best that I want you to know. Ashley is here. I brought her in today rather than tomorrow.” He explained, and everything Kiara and I had spoken about began to replay in my head.
“Okay, honey. I am listening.” I said, forcing a smile.
“Wilson has been arrested.” He announced, and I felt my head ringing from the shock of the news.
“Wilson? Arrested? What could he possibly have done? He was the sweetest and kindest soul!” I exclaimed, tears filling my eyes.
“Well, he killed someone. An innocent person. Burnt her body. If not for the fact that he had confessed to me, I would never have known.” Rolan said, his voice sounded dejected.
“You were responsible for his arrest?” I exclaimed, anger suddenly rising in my chest.
“He came to me. I wanted to let him go, but he refused. He wanted to pay for his crime, I could not stand in the way of that. And it is better than it came through me than through those power-hungry fools he had serving with him.” Rolan explained.
Whatever had happened had left him so shaken, that he was having a hard time keeping a tight rein on his emotions.
“Mrs. Edna! Poor Mrs. Edna, she must be so sad, babe. I have to go and see her. And why has Ashley not sought after me since she came? Where did you put her?” I asked him, but my face fell when I saw his face.
“Rolan, that’s not all, is it?” I asked him, hoping that nothing had happened to any of them.
“Well, baby, Mrs. Edna was responsible for everything. She has been feeding Wilson and Ashley the wrong prescription pills for years and messed up with them mentally. Hence, Wilson committed the murder.” Rolan said and the world swayed. I clutched my stomach and struggled to sit down.
“Baby, are you okay?” He asked me, kneeling beside me and placing a hand on my back to comfort me.
“Oh my. She did not seem to be that kind of person. She had even told me about all the sacrifices that she has had to make for her family because of their health history.” I said, losing my fight to the tears that ran down my face.
“Well, she killed her parents and killed her husband. She also killed the grandmother of the girl that Wilson had murdered so she could hide the truth.” He said, and my eyes flew open in shock.
“It is not true. That cannot be true! Mrs. Edna would never do that.” I yelled. Rolan held me close as I sobbed on his shoulder, unwilling to believe that someone who had been so kind to me had been hiding a lot of secrets.
“It is true. We read her diary. One of the things on her bucket list was to dismember a pregnant woman. She had your name as the sole target. Wilson saw that, and it was when he made up his mind to stop her
“We have taken her to a mental facility, a car away, in the north. She will be there until the end of her days. She has bipolar and everyone around her who did not have to, left her because she did have to pay for it.” He continued. My heart could not take any more of whatever shocking news he had.
“Stop Rolan. I can’t believe all of these things. Where is Ashley? I need to find Ashley?” I screamed and ran out of the room.
I went around the hallways screaming her name but received no response. Rolan was pounding behind me seconds later, throwing a shawl over my shoulders and fixing a slipper for me as I walked around.
“She is by the lake. You are screaming, baby. It’s quite late. Everyone has gone to bed by now. Let’s not be loud about it, okay? I don’t want anyone to know what has happened to her.” He explained and I nodded in agreement.
She must have been through so much. Getting the shocker of your life that your family members are not who you imagined they were, and then moving to a different environment.
“We need to find her,” I whispered and he nodded.
He led me out of the house to the west side where I saw one of the most beautiful lakes. Ashley was sitting at the edge of the lake alone.
The ashtray beside her was filled to be brimmed as the smell of tobacco rents the air. She had another cigar in her mouth and was puffing the smoke calmly into the cool evening air.
“Ashely,” I called out to her gently.
“Pandora!” She exclaimed and ran into my arms like a child.
“It’s okay, Ash. It’s okay. I am here. Everything is going to be alright.” I comforted her as my tears fell freely.
“She is my mother. How could she have hurt us so much and for so long? She even killed father.” Ashley cried bitterly, her wails disturbing the peaceful aura that the lake embodied.
“I am so sorry about that, Ash. And about Wilson, too.” I said as she cried harder.
“I do not know how to feel. I would never forgive her Pandora. I don’t know how to. Trying not to be mad has also been so hard, too. We suspected her all of these years yet did nothing, and now it has become so much sacrifice to pay.” She said and calmed down a bit, I wiped her eyes with the handkerchief that Rolan had brought along with him.
“I am going to keep you safe. I promise you. You will never have to feel that way ever again.” I promised as I held her deep into the night, under the watchful gaze of Rolan.