"How could you do this to ME?" I heard groggily.
I was laying down, quite comfortable really, in a very dark dim lit room. There was a lit fire place off to the side and the warmth it gave was welcoming. I could hear the fire crackling before I opened my eyes, and that voice. That voice I wouldn't be able to forget no matter how much time had passed since the money had ruined everything.
"You can't be serious" I said sitting up slowly to get a better gage of the situation. "Do you have any idea how much worse you are making things?" The panic in my chest returning as I recalled the events before I was struck.
"Daddy!" I heard and froze. My daughters high pitched squeal of delight making me more confused than the way Simone was staring me.
I looked towards the door to see my daughter running towards me, clean and healthy. Almost as if nothing was wrong.
"Daddy did it work?" Izzy asked?
I was thinking about how crazy it felt to have her back in my arms before I understood her question.
"What do you mean baby?" I asked her.
At this point I was looking around the room again, still trying to figure out where I was. The fire snapped off to the side, spooking me for a second, but also bringing forth my anger. I looked again at my daughter, who was eight now, and could see she could sense my distress. I tried to soften my look, so she was comfortable enough to be honest.
"Mommy said Tobi was the best Daddy, it was fun!" she went on, clearly not understanding my change in posture.
"Who's Tobi?" I asked my daughter Izzy but turned my stare towards her mother allowing my look to darken again and standing up. The room spun around me before I knew what was happening, and I was sitting back where I had started, confused as I was as when I had first gotten up. Then I remembered who Tobi must be. She loved to hire professionals, as regular men most likely wouldn't be a good match for me. Even now being so out of shape I still had the mind of a fighter, life hadn't taught me much else growing up.
"Tobi was also fired for mishandling my most valuable items." Simone said, her first time saying anything yet. Her look stayed the same, judging me.
"Mommy give Tobi his job back he was only scared of my actress scream." Izzy said, to which Simone replied.
"That he was Izzy, but when a man is expected to be responsible, and is unable to hold that expectation he loses value. Tobi is finished in this family." She finished finally looking at Izzy with that look, who pouted and removed herself as she usually did when confronted. She was such a bashful girl, but at times I worried about how much of a leader she was. I had high hopes for her. I tried to get up again to ask her where she was going but my stomach was turning over in pain and nausea.
"They weren't supposed to touch you, just get you to come quietly so we could finally talk. You have avoided this for long enough" Simone said. I could see her shadow through my closed eyes getting closer and could smell her. Her scent was amazing, which brought thoughts of years of love and happiness to mind, but only for a moment.
"What's wrong with my head?" I asked her, I hadn't felt this much pain since the gas station. "Why in the world would you bring them for me? And why is Izzy excited about what happened? Who took her?"
"Where is the money?" she cut me off.
She was here after three years of running. I always knew she would see me face to face after we had split up, I just didn't think it would be this painful. My head was killing me.
"You don't have a right to the money Simone. My head would have never been broken in the first place. How is your brother Coop?" I asked with a sneer.
Coop was the man a few years back who had broken those wine bottles on my head. At the time I didn't know it was her brother, but when I found his report on the P.D. website, Simone's name had been listed as next of kin. That's why she was so upset. When I had found out, I left her. No words, no letter, no phone call. I just left. There was no way I could become a tycoon by suing for something that my wife's family had done. At the time I felt I had no choice, funny how time repeats itself, here I was again.
"Conner" she started softly, walking closer "I didn't recognize him. It had been thirteen years since I saw him last! I didn't even know they let him out!" she said. Her words full of passion. She used to be my rock. Life hadn't given me much to hold onto since the split, aside from money.
"He's still your family Simone. How would he know me? Why would he attack like that? If you haven't seen him for thirteen years, how did we end up in the gas station together?" many of the questions popping from stored thoughts, this conversation being on my mind a bit over the years.
"Stop" she said, finally sitting down next to me. She was too proud to try seduction, and I knew what she was doing. Growing up I had developed abandonment issues, she was playing right into them. Always liked to strike the parental pose when she was trying to get me to see sense.
"We were married." She said, caressing the side of my hair with the tips of her fingers. She knew me too well, she was my weakness.
"And your brother decided to try to kill me for some sick joke we played fourteen years ago." I finished for her.
Coop was never around much when Simone had been young. With her being so much older we tended to pick on him too much. One joke went bad though, causing some serious damage to Coop's current girlfriend at the time. Nobody had known she was allergic, or how fast it could harm someone. As a result, from a bad "Plate switch prank" she had ended up hospitalized for seven weeks, and eventually dying from something unrelated. She had been prone to sickness before we had ever made that mistake. Coop still blamed me. So, did her parents, but her grandmother had talked to me at the funeral. She had given me the advice "Don't let this torture you, the doctors couldn't stop the spread." With a tear in her eyes. Cancer strikes again. Too bad Coop couldn't tell the difference.
"Not such a funny joke was it Conner?" a voice said off to the side of me. It wasn't the voice of my wife.
I went to full alert immediately, but there wasn't much I could do. My head had already been swimming, and my wife bringing up all these memories had come with a bit of buried emotion. He was behind us, that I could tell. The way Simone froze at the sound of his voice told me she hadn't expected him either. This was bad, as I recognized the familiar click that told me he was done playing with wine bottles.
"Coop stop." My wife tried to get out as she turned to look behind me. Even now I could see her beauty, and her integrity. Too bad this was her family's fault.
"Don't tell him to stop" I said sitting straighter. "Coop you have no idea what's going on. You haven't been right since Kayla passed away. I know we messed up, but we didn't kill her." I tried to go on, but he had had enough.
"Ya Ya Ya," he began, and I could feel the cold steel of something touching the back of my head now. It felt so lifeless but so deadly, it was hard to listen to anything he was saying but I did my best. I heard the gun handle pull back and closed my eyes again. This wasn't the first close call I have had, and the peace of seeing death arose in me. I was ready.
"So much talk." I heard right before the explosion.