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Carol stomped to where she’d parked her mother’s car. These people, she thought, were going to pay for treating her like this. And as soon as she and Jake were back together, she was going to have a party to end all parties. No matter what Jake said about it.

“He’s going to have to toe the line for a bit now to get me back in his good graces. I’m not going to have him think he can do this to me again. I might not ever fully trust him again, the bastard.” Carol sat in the car and laid her head on the steering wheel. “Why are people so mean to me?”

She wasn’t going to cry. Not over this. Lifting her head, she stared out the window to see couples with brats going into the mall. Carol hated children of all kinds. Not just kids, but anything small and needy. They were nothing but parasites for the most part, dirty, nasty, ankle biting parasites.

Carol had known this woman once who had three of the little buggers, all of them just as evil as the next. And when she’d been asked to hold one of them, a screaming thing, she told the woman to go fuck herself. There wasn’t any way she was going to touch it.

“It’s just a baby, Carol. You might want to have one of your own someday. I’m sure that Jake would be a great dad.” Carol just shook her head. “Come on. I need to change the other two and you’d be helping me out.”

“Drown it. Hell, drown them all.” The woman looked shocked, so Carol thought she’d make sure she understood. “Seriously, you should wrap them in a trash bag and toss them in the river. It’s not like anyone would miss them. Everyone knows what a horrible drain they are on you and your family. It’s what I’d do if I found I’d waited too long to have it taken out of me. Christ, just get rid of them.”

Being asked to leave the house hadn’t been that big of a deal. Carol didn’t care much for the company of other women anyway. And she’d always known that they were well beneath her in status as well as beauty. Carol could have been a contender, if not the winner, of any beauty contest she’d entered. Everyone knew that; that’s what made them hate her. She looked over at the mall.

No one wanted to sell her anything. And every time she told them her name, even the lowliest of clerks, they just told her that without money or credit cards, they couldn’t help her. Jake was going to have to work very hard in suing everyone that had been rotten to her this week. Starting with that little shit that ran the hair shop she’d been in just now.

“The only person in the world I thought I could talk to, and he turns me down for the all mighty money.” Carol wanted to go in there and teach him a lesson, as she had her mother, but the security team, the fat little fuckers, had told her to get out. “Why couldn’t he have just fixed my hair for me? Why? Why? Why?”

Starting the car, she noticed that two police cruisers were entering the lot. They had their lights on and the sirens blasting as they flew past her. She knew that someone had said they were calling the police. Why would anyone care if she had messed up the place a little? It wasn’t like Jake couldn’t fix it for her. Or her daddy.

She thought about her mother and wondered if she’d been taken care of as yet. Carol thought she probably should have told someone that she was in her room, but she had left her door open. Christ, her mother was a pain in the ass most of the time. And if she died, well, Carol would be better off not having to listen to her harp all the time. Carol did regret that she didn’t lay something down first to take care of the mess. She only hoped that there was a good carpet cleaner in the house somewhere. Besides, her daddy would be better off without her mother anyway.

Carol decided it was well past time to talk to Jake. He was going to have to give her a key sooner or later, and while the carpet and mess were being cleaned up at her parents’ house, she could simply move back to her home. And while she was out and about, she could go ahead and get new things. The place, she knew, was going to need her touch after Jake living there all this time alone.

“He’s probably just been living on that ugly couch and eating out all the time. He never could do a thing without me.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He could do a lot more around the house than she could. “I cannot wait to get back home. Jake will have learned his lesson by now.”

She remembered one time when she’d been having her hair done, coming home and finding him in the kitchen baking a cake of all things. When she’d confronted him about it, telling him that it wasn’t going to be good because it wasn’t bought, he’d told her it was for his grandma. It was her birthday or something.

“Grandma loves strawberry cake. And I told her I’d make one.” Carol watched him as he spread the buttery icing all over the thing. “You don’t have to eat any of it if you don’t want. But I will. It’s my favorite cake. What’s yours?”

“Store bought. Not this.... Why on earth are you bothering with that old bat anyway? She’s not even nice to me, Jake. You should just cut her out of your life so that I can be happy.” He just stared at her. “She’s going to die soon anyway. If you cut her out now, you won’t have to think about anything but me.”

“I love her.” She told him it was a wasted emotion to love someone as mean as her. “Grandma isn’t mean to me.”

“So you’re implying that it’s all me? That I’ve somehow caused her to dislike me?” Jake didn’t say anything, but continued to ice the fucking cake. “Jake, I have never done a damned thing to the old bitch. She’s just not nice.”

“You are forever mean to everyone.” Carol asked him why he’d say something like that. “Because it’s true. We don’t have a staff because I can’t afford to pay the type of people that would be willing to work with you. You are even somewhat bitchy to me.”

Her anger, always so close to the edge, had her lashing out. Knocking the cake to the floor and hearing the bowl break made her feel wonderfully good. And when Jake looked at her, she could see his own anger and she was empowered by it. But all he did was get down on his knees and start to clean the mess up. She thought, right then, she hated Jake as much as she did anyone that had crossed her.

After that, it had been a game for her to see just how far she could push him. It never worked. He would just walk away from her, no matter what she said or did to him. And it had made her madder still that he’d not beg her to forgive him. So she’d left him, leaving him alone in the big house to see how he liked not having her around.

Frowning, she pulled up in front of her house. There were moving vans there, as well as large men who looked like they stank. She got out of her car and approached the one that looked the cleanest. Didn’t men know that to smell was an abomination to mankind? She thought about giving him lessons on what was proper attire, too, when he turned and looked at her.

“I want to know what you think you’re doing at my house.” The guy just stared at her and she wondered if he was retarded. “I said, what are you doing to my house? I haven’t given you permission to move things in here.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are. We’re working with Mr. Stout and Mr. Winslow.” She told him Jake Winslow was her husband. “Oh. Well, I’m not sure then. We went to a place on Main, picked these things up, and were told to bring them here.”

“I want you to stop taking this shit into my house, right now.” The man didn’t move to do as she told him. “Are you stupid as well as ugly? I said to stop taking things into my house. I have a set way things are to be put and standards that are high. None of these things are what I would put in a doghouse, much less my house. Now, have them take it all out.”

Instead of doing as she wanted, he pulled out his phone. After pressing a few buttons, none of which she could see, he walked away from her. Just turned his back on her and walked away. No one did that to her, not anyone. But just before she reached out and snatched his neck, he held out his phone to her. He said it was her ex-husband.

“He’s not my ex, damn it. I want you to stop saying that.” Taking the phone from him, she growled low when she heard the laughter. People had better start being nice to her or she was going to have to make a few calls herself. “Jake. I don’t care for what you think you’re doing to my house. Who is this Stout person, and why would I want his things in my home? I have lovely things on order.” He laughed harder. “You’re beginning to piss me off.”

“Really, because I thought you already were. When you killed your mother.” Good, her first thought was, her mother was no longer a problem. “Your dad is dead as well, in the event that you’re wondering. He killed Belinda then himself yesterday.”

“Why would he do that? Christ, now what am I supposed to do? I thought he’d be thrilled that she was gone. Stupid man. Well, at least I’ll inherit the money finally. Now I really can order all the things I wanted. But we have to clear up this problem with you moving someone’s things into my home, Jake. I don’t think you understand style at all.” He didn’t say anything and she assumed he was thinking of ways to make it up to her. “I need for you to reinstate all my credit cards now. We’ll have plenty of money to cover my spending, what with my parents gone. Also, you’ll need to write down some names for me. I want you to take them for all they have. People have been really mean to me today.”

“Did you not hear me? Your parents are both dead. Murder/suicide. They’re dead.” She waited for him to get to the point. Apparently he thought he’d made it.

“Jake, they’re gone. I knew it was going to have to happen eventually. I mean, they were old and all. They just saved me the trouble of having to find a nursing home for them both. Really, this is much better.” The men were still unloading the truck. “You should really talk to the man here. He has it in his head that he needs to finish this job and I want him to stop. Also, I’d very much like for you to come home. We have a lot of things to talk about. First of which is my credit cards and how you’re going to make all this up to me.”

“I’m not going to do any of those things. You and I? We’re done.” She started to tell him they’d be done when she said so, but he cut her off. “Those men are going to do their job, and you’re going to leave them alone or so help me, Carol, I will have you arrested. Which, by the way, you might be anyway.”

“For what?” He said that she’d beaten her mother to death. “No, you said that she was killed by my daddy. I had nothing to do with that. Besides, who really cares if she’s dead or not? Not me. I’m thrilled to know that she won’t be around to nitpick every little thing I do.”

The line went dead and she threw it away from her. She was sick of this, people, especially Jake, acting as if she wasn’t important to them. Damn it, she was married to him. He seemed to have forgotten that along the way.

Finding the man who she’d first spoken to, she told him to stop taking things into the house.

“I’m not going to do that. And don’t think I don’t know what you did with my phone there. Mr. Winslow, he’s a good man, and you’re shitting on his day.” She asked him how this was her fault. “You’re not married to him. Or won’t be. You left that man in a lurch. You did the leaving, not him.”

“Whatever.” Since she couldn’t get him to do as she wanted, Carol decided it was time that she did things on her own. Going into the back of the big truck, she was pissed because it was empty. Jake had done that, distracted her so that he could sneak in this other crap.

As she made her way to the house, she thought of all the color she was going to add just to the living room. The walls would be an eggshell so as not to distract from the color of the vibrant key lime color of the couch. The pillows would be a flush color, with bright spots of other colors. Even as she was thinking of the throws she’d have specially made for the room, two men stepped in front of her, blocking her way.

“I live here.” Neither of them moved. “Look, guys, I’m not in the best of moods right now. But if you don’t get the fuck out of my way, I’m going to hurt you both. And then call the police. This is my fucking home.”

“Not according to the man we just spoke to.” She asked him who that might be. “Jake Winslow. He said to keep you from the house and to hold you down on the ground if need be.”

“You most certainly will not. This is my home and I want you to get out of my way.” She was getting really sick of this shit. “I swear to Christ; I’m going to own you when my husband is done with you. Get out of my way.”

They backed her up. Carol was so mad when she found herself on the sidewalk in front of the house that she screamed at the top of her lungs. Several of the neighbors came out, most of whom had had nothing to do with her since she moved in. Glaring at them didn’t make them scurry into their homes either. Carol was pissed. Then she heard the sirens.

“Good. Now we’ll see who gets to keep me from entering my own home. Fuckers, all of you.” As she stood there waiting, she started clicking off the things she was going to do now that she had more money. Jake would have to fork over a bit more than he had been willing to before. A lot more, as a matter of fact. She was so deep in thought that she was startled when the police were standing in front of her.

“I want you to arrest these pricks. They’re blocking me from entering my home, and are putting furniture in there that I had no say over.” She moved to the house again and was blocked again, this time by the men in blue. “I don’t know what is up your asses, but I’ve had about all I can take of people being stupid around me. There are days when I think the entire world has gone fucking retarded. What the fuck is up your ass now?”

“Ms. Lane? We’re going to have to ask you to come along with us. We have a few things to discuss with you about your parents.” She said she wasn’t Ms. Lane. “But you are. We have a warrant out for your arrest. Now, I would suggest that you come along….”

“You’re not going to arrest me, you moron. I’m not going anywhere but into my home. And then I’m going to clean house. Quite literally. Everything in there is going to come out and get burned on this front lawn.” Laughter had her turning, and she saw the men who had moved all that crap into her house watching from the front porch. Flipping them off, she turned back to the police. “Now, as I was saying, you are going to get the fuck out of my way before I have to hurt one of you. I just want to go in there and make plans.”

“Your mother is dead. Your father too, did you know that?” She said that Jake had told her. “Did you hurt your mother, Ms. Lane? Before you left the house yesterday morning, did you hurt her?”

“Yes. So? She pissed me off.” The officer looked at his partner then back at her. “What is it? I have shit to do.”

“We’re going to have to take you in, Ms. Lane. There are a few questions you have to answer.” She jerked her arm from him when he touched her. “Ms. Lane, I’m going to cuff you if you don’t come along peacefully.”

Carol slapped him, hard enough to knock him back on the ground. Then before she could say a word, she found herself down on the ground as well, with someone sitting atop her. And no matter how many times she told him to remove himself from her person, he dug his knees deeper into her back. Then he jerked her arms around behind her and tied them together.

Someone was going to pay for this. Jake was going to be very busy taking all these asses to court when she spoke to him. He might even let her have a limitless spending spree when she was finished with her list.

~~~

Jake hung up the phone and sat still. Several million things were running through his mind right now, and not one of them seemed to pause long enough for him to get a grasp on them to sort them out. He looked up when he heard someone say his name. Grandma was sitting there looking at him with the strangest look on her face.

“I take it you know.” He asked her which thing that would be. “Carol has been arrested. She hit an officer at your home about an hour ago. They were taking her in to ask her about her mother’s death when she turned on them. She’s a fool if she thinks this is going to just go away.”

“I know. I just heard. She’s asking them to call me to come there and bail her out. I told them to lose my number.” She told him good boy. “What else? I’m sure there is plenty.”

“There is, but we’ll talk about them one at a time. Not in any particular order, but we’ll get to them. I spoke to Forrest. He said he was worried about you.” Jake said he was fine. “Are you? You look a little freaked out. Is that a term to use in these kinds of situations?”

“I have no idea.” She nodded. “Forrest said he was going to ask you to speak to his dad about dinner tomorrow night. Did you?”

“Oh yes. I had a great deal of fun with it as well. Did you know that at one time, Ranford Stout and his wife were employees of mine? I just remembered that when I saw his fat face an hour ago. He’ll be there, by the way.” Jake nodded. “Do you want to tell me why you’re gathering the banes of your lives around you? Not me, of course, but the rest of them?”

“We were going to wait and tell you all at once, but I need to tell you now. Forrest and I think it would be better for you if we did.” He told her what Forrest and he had found out. “So, my parents’ not going to the wedding wasn’t because they hated me or Carol; they weren’t there because of the deal he’d made with Tyler Lane.”

“What did they expect to happen? That she might kill you?” Jake said he had no idea. He was hoping to find out tomorrow night. “I see. And you’re telling me early so that I can have my gun at the ready when he says he did it?”

“No. I wanted to tell you in the event that you didn’t want to show up. It’s going to be nasty.” She said she had no doubt that it would be. “So, we’ll understand if you tell me no. I wouldn’t be there either if I didn’t need to know what the hell they were thinking and why they did this to me.”

“Money? Is there money involved?” He told her he would tell her at the dinner. “Forrest made some calls and got someone to take a peek, didn’t he? I knew that he had some very talented friends that could do things less than above board. What are you going to say to him? And if I were you, I’d not go at this alone.”

“No. Forrest is calling in a couple of his friends that are going to act as witnesses. There is also the new system that we’re having put in the house. It was being put in before this thing with Father, just in the event that Carol showed up and tried something stupid. Which I guess she did.” Jake leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I feel like a rabbit in a hole. I mean, the night I came home and found my house devoid of Carol was the best thing I’ve ever had happen. And now it seems like everything that can go wrong has.”

“But you met Forrest. That has to be something good.” He looked at his grandma. “Honey, you’ll get through this. I know you will. And once it’s all over.... Good heavens. You’re going to tell them all of it, aren’t you?”

He laughed, the first one he’d had in a bit. “Yes, we’re going to tell them that Forrest and I are lovers and that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives making each other happy. If we can ever get things back to a reasonable state of normalcy.”

“I don’t think you’ll want normal again now. And I’ll be there. For the simple pleasure of seeing their faces when you tell them.” She rubbed her hands together. “Jake, my boy, this is going to shake a lot of trees now. You see if it doesn’t.”

He hoped so. He really did. He was pissed off and exhausted. Not a good combination when it came to having long overdue conversations with his parents or his lover’s father. Grandma told him that she was taking them out to dinner and that was final.

He called Forrest to let him know. Tomorrow they were going to come in and pack up his office here. Then he’d be moving his work to Stout and Winslow. Jake could not wait. And then that night, they’d have the dinner party of their life. He just hoped he’d get a chance to have some fun too.