John Francis

Carol threw out those words, knowing she had been right all along, that Amanda was only out to use her son. She watched as the words seem to reverberate around the room, her eyes never leaving Amanda’s face.

The moment of triumph she had anticipated never came. Amanda’s face whitened the most unnatural shade of pale Carol had ever seen and before she herself could do more than blink, Amanda hit the floor.

What?!? She fainted? Damn! Is she that sick?

Carol knelt beside the fallen woman, feeling her forehead, wincing at the heat radiating from her. She wanted to believe it was just her illness, that she had just stood too suddenly, that she was sicker than she had realized…but the truth had been there.

In the seconds after she spoken those two words, when Amanda’s face had whitened unnaturally, the shock in her eyes could not have been faked.

She didn’t know. Holy mother of god, she didn’t know!

Quickly dialing her cell, she reached one of her younger sons.

“Matt? I need you at Jon’s house, right now. Hurry!”

Carol started putting cool clothes on Amanda’s forehead, trying to rouse her from the faint. She wasn’t able to lift her back into the bed, but Matt was there before more than ten minutes had lapsed and he was able to get Amanda back into bed.

“Mom, what happened?” Matt looked between the two women, one still out, the other with an almost fearful look on her face.

“I came by to check on Amanda with Jon out of town and found her on the floor. She’s pretty sick, Matt.”

“No kidding, ma, where’s Linda?”

“She has the week off.”

“Should we get someone to stay with her?” Matt was also concerned about leaving her, knowing Jon would be seriously pissed if he found out she had been left alone while so sick.

Carol startled at those words. “No, no, I’ll stay with her. I just couldn’t get her back in bed. We’ll be fine, Matt.”

Knowing his mother’s attitude towards Amanda, Matt found this more than a little odd, but it was his mother and after making sure nothing else was needed, he left, saying he would check in with her later.

~~~

Amanda slowly woke, her head pounding, her stomach rolling, and quickly reached for the bucket beside the bed. A minute of dry heaves only made her stomach hurt worse and did nothing for her aching head. She closed her eyes and lay back down on the bed. She knew she had just had the worst dream of her life and was thankful beyond words that it had been only a dream.

“You didn’t know, did you?” The voice came from a far corner of the bedroom.

A small moan escaped Amanda’s parched lips as she recognized the voice. She knew now that it had not been a bad dream.

“ … No, I didn’t know …” Tears choked her words as she spoke.

Tears suddenly fell freely as she made herself look at Jon’s mother, expecting to see triumph on her face. Instead, for the first time, Carol seemed to be looking at her with something other than barely hidden contempt.

Clutching the bedpost as she rose, Amanda turned her face as she whispered.

“… please go away … please … no more … ”

Carol stood, indicating the folder that was still on the bed. Her voice was actually soft when she spoke.

“It’s all there, Amanda. Do the right thing. Don’t drag Jon into this. If you love him, don’t do this to him.”

“ … I’ll leave … because I do love him …”

She looked at Jon’s mother and whispered so low Carol almost wasn’t sure she had heard her correctly.

“…you’ve won…”

Amanda’s eyes then closed, tears streaming down her face. Carol stood for a moment looking at her, wondering if she should do this, if she could do this. When she thought of what the press would do to her son if they found out his fiancée was married, and to a drug dealer, she knew she had to do it.

She left the room without another word and made her way out of the house.

~~~

The first page of the report spelled it all out. In stark black and white.

She had no choice.

The note to Jon was the hardest thing she had to do. Compared to that, packing with a temperature of 103 degrees was a breeze.

Amanda left the cash and credit cards and all the jewelry he had bought her, with the exception of one item. She couldn’t make herself take off the bracelet he had given her. It was all she would take.

Dizzy with fever, making several unscheduled trips to the bathroom for her heaving stomach, she was finally able to go downstairs where she went into Jon’s office. She got a large envelope and put the cards and jewelry inside. Holding her left hand with her right, she sat for a moment in his chair at the desk, then with a sigh took off the ring and put it inside with the other items.

She picked up a pen, tears blurring her eyes, and wrote.

~~~

When the cab driver arrived, he put her small carry-on into the trunk. As Amanda was about to get into the cab, Steve, one of the three men assigned to her security, came around the house to the car.

He called out. “Amanda! Where are you going?”

She sighed, not prepared for the question.

“Hi Steve. I, uhm, I’m on my way over to Mrs. Bongiovi’s house. She knows I’m sick and that Linda is away, so she offered to have me come over there.” Her face burned slightly with her lie and she saw a bit of skepticism in his.

“Then I’ll drive you over.”

Her head was shaking ‘no’ even before she started talking. “No thanks. The cab is already here and I’m just going over to Jon’s mother’s house.” She got inside the cab to forestall anymore questions.

“Let’s go.” She quickly addressed the driver and closed the door.

Steve stood there for a few moments, watching the cab leave the gated estate. He was supposed to accompany her when she went out, but he had never been given actual instructions as to what he was supposed to do if she refused.

As the driver left the estate, turning onto the main road, he asked his passenger the address of their destination. Sitting, face turned to the window, Amanda didn’t hear him until he repeated almost gently “where to ma’am?”

Turning slowly to face the older gentleman, she gave a ghost of a smile.

“I have no idea.”

A frown crossed his face as he looked at her more closely.

“Ma’am? I need to know where you want to go.”

“To a hotel by the airport?” She asked wearily.

“Which one?”

Her answer was a sigh.

“It doesn’t matter.”

The driver gave her another look in his rearview mirror, saw the tears she had been trying to hide, and drove off.