Page 90 of Broken Bonds

Lorraine Lambert opens the door and stares at me with wide eyes, then a slow smile appears on her face.

“Mr. Kral,” she squeals, putting her hands to her chest and giving me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “What a wonderful surprise.”

Mr. Kral? Isn’t that a little too formal?

“Good morning,” I reply, not knowing how to refer to her. At the end of the day, this is the first time we’ve seen each other. “And it’s Lionel.”

She smiles and I see relief in her eyes. She’s a mature version of my wife, the same blue eyes and slim build, although Stella is taller.

“Has Stella come with you?” she asks looking for her daughter as if she were hiding behind my body.

“I would like to talk to you about that. May I come in?”

Those words leave her breathless for a couple of minutes until she seems to compose herself and apologizes. She opens the door wider, inviting me to go into a small living room.

The house is old but well cared for, and like Stella’s place is meticulously clean and feels like home, you can feel a loving family lives here. There are pictures everywhere, the house smells of fresh coffee and something else. That makes me smile and the feeling of longing in my chest deepens. That’s what Stella did when she got to the cavern I lived in, turned it into a home.

Yes, I built it, but the one who gave it true meaning was her. Only her.

Lorraine, as she said I should call her, starts crying as soon as she hears the account of what has happened. From what I’ve discovered in the past few weeks.

“My daughter is innocent,” she cries, thick tears rolling down her cheeks. She does it in a heartbreaking way, I can’t help but imagine Stella doing the same. Damn, this isn’t getting any easier. “You can’t take her to jail. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

She can be sure I feel the same, what I want is precisely to protect her. “I must find her, Lorraine. If they get to her first, then I’m afraid something very bad may happen.”

“We should call Felicia,” she says, wiping her cheeks with the disposable handkerchief in her hands. “If Stella is going to contact someone, it will definitely be her. They are very close, you know?”

I’m proud to say that I know that about her. When we were together, all those days while I was recovering from my injuries we had time to talk, to get to know each other. I treasure each of those moments, they are precious to me. Since then I carry my wife burned into my soul. That’s the place where she belongs, because she has made it her home.

Felicia Lambert-Haralson is Stella’s father’s sister and a force of nature. As soon as she enters the house she glares at me. I’m positive my wife trusted her with the problems she had with me since the wedding. I know I’m not her favorite person in the world.

I start my story again. At some point Felicia gets up from her place on the sofa next to Lorraine to slap me.

“He deserves it so badly,” she yells after Lorraine gasps her name.

Regretfully, I hate to admit that she’s right.

“There’s something else,” I tell them. “Shortly after getting married, Stella transferred a significant amount of money to an account that she manages but is under your name, Lorraine. Do you know where that money came from?”

Lorraine looks at me with wide eyes, not blinking. Her brain has short-circuited.

Felicia is the one who breaks the heavy silence that fills the room. “She doesn’t know, but I do. I gave that money to her.”

The news has taken Lorraine by surprise, her reaction can’t be faked. Those blue eyes, so much like Stella’s, don’t hide a thing, they’re too expressive.

“But, Felicia, where did you get it from if we barely have money to pay the bills?”

This pair seems very close, they bicker like sisters.

“It’s the money that the insurance company paid out after my brother passed away,” she begins to explain, moving her hands a lot, but her eyes are fixed on mine. She’s very sure of every syllable that leaves her mouth. “Lorraine has no brain for money.” Those words earn her a hard look. “Don’t look at me like that. You know it’s true.” She pauses to give my mother-in-law the stink eye. “And Stella was just a little girl, so I started the claim process and took care of keeping the money in an account. After she married the other man, I thought she wanted to buy a house, so I withdrew the money, I put it in a box, and wrapped it as a gift. I thought that they would be delighted with the news, but Stella told me what was happening between you, we talked about it for a long time. We decided that it was best to put it in Lorraine’s account, after all it’s my niece who handles everything.”

There it is, I knew there was a logical explanation. Something deep inside was shouting that my Stella couldn’t have been part of this macabre plot.

When she showed me her love, it was because she really felt it.

Damn, it sucks to think about the past. I hope that my mistakes have not ended our future.

“So,” I say after we have talked for another forty minutes, I’ve also asked them questions about the hive. It’s an important topic for Stella, so it’s also for me. We’re already walking toward the door. “Will you tell me if Stella contacts you?”

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