Marrying the Millionaire (38 page)

AT THE SOUND OF THE front
door clicking closed, Richmond picked up the glass on the counter
and threw it at the wall. Glass shattered to the floor with a
clinking sound.
Salina asked Russell to
kill her. She wouldn’t dare do that to me.

“
Liar! Liar!” Outraged,
Richmond picked up the letter on the counter. Tempted to rip it in
half, he broke the seal and slid the letter from the envelope.
Clenching the letter in his hands, his eyes skimmed over the
cursive writing on the fancy paper.
This
is Salina’s handwriting.

Heart wrenching, his heart beat fast
inside his chest as he read the letter.

My Dearest
Richmond.

My one and only true
love.

As I sit here writing this
letter on this dark, humid evening, the joints of my fingers throb.
My lungs hurt. Pain grinds deep into the bones of my legs. And my
arms. Every day, as I struggle to breathe, struggle to move, I want
to die.

Yes, darling, I want to
die. No medicine is going to make me get better or save me. I’ve
accepted that. And now that I have, I’m ready to go home and be
with the Lord. As much as I love you and Isabelle, I don’t want to
live anymore. I’m alive, but I’m not living.

Sitting here crying as I
write this letter, I miss walking. I miss running. Planting flowers
in my garden. I miss holding Isabelle. Hugging you. Kissing you.
Making love to you.

Every time I look into
your sad eyes as you watch me die, a piece of me dies, too. Seeing
the somber look on your face hurts worse than this terrible disease
taking my life inside me. Although I know you don’t mind taking
care of me, a once extremely vibrant person, I don’t like feeling
like I’m a burden on you.

After I’m dead and gone, I
hope and pray you’ll find some beautiful woman, inside and out, to
love you and our precious little girl, Isabelle. Because of the
kind of man you are, it gives me peace to know you’ll select your
next wife wisely. You’ll know the woman is right for you by the way
Isabelle loves and adores her.

If you’re reading this
letter, then it means you know that my wish to die was granted. It
also means you know Russell granted me my dying wish and assisted
me with my death.

Crumbling the letter over his heart,
Richmond refused to cry, although his heart did turn to stone. With
his back to the kitchen sink, he slid to the floor while clenching
the letter in his hand. Fighting back his tears, his nose burned.
So did his eyes. He continued reading.

Richmond, I know I had no
right to ask your father to kill me, but I did, and he agreed. As
you know, Russell never treated me like an in- law. He always
treated me like the daughter he never had. Like you, he hated
seeing me suffer. Unlike you, he understood my dying need to walk
and run and play with my daughter and live life to the
fullest.

Lying in a bed, slowly
dying, is not living, my sweet love. That being said, I’m glad
Russell was brave enough to grant me my dying wish and help me
commit suicide.

As hard as I know it’ll be
for you to forgive both of us, you must. If you begrudge your
father and me, you’ll only be hurting yourself.

You’ll end up like
me…alive…but not living.

Forgive, Richmond.
Forgive. Forgive.

Loving you forever and
ever,

Salina

P.S. Thank you for the
wonderful years of happy marriage. You were the best husband a girl
could ever ask for.

Richmond balled up the letter and
threw it across the room. Banging the back of his head on the
cabinet, he hollered, “How could they do this to me? How!
How!”

Russell and Salina had stolen her life
from him. Right now, he couldn’t stand either one of them. Yeah,
Salina was dying. And yeah, she didn’t have much time on Earth
left, but what little time she did have left belonged to him. Call
him selfish, but he’d wanted every single minute of whatever time
God would’ve allowed. He didn’t care if she’d had two weeks left to
live. Or two days. Hell, or two minutes. He’d wanted to spend every
second of her last living days with her.

His eyes strained as he
kept his tears from failing. There wasn’t any way in hell he was
going to let Russell and Salina make him cry. He might be crying on
the inside, but he’d be damned if he shed a single tear on the
outside. He swiped his face hard.
Russell’s going to pay for killing Salina. I’m going to make
sure of it. I’m going to make sure he rots in prison.

Regaining his composure, he pulled his
cell from his pocket and dialed 911. “911 operator. How may I help
you?”

“
I’d like to report a
mur—”

Squeezing the phone tight in his grip,
Richmond threw the phone across the room and grabbed his hot face.
If Salina killed herself, then so be it. Stumbling to his feet, he
flung open the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, then popped the
cap.

Chugging the beer, leaning
against the refrigerator, his mind hopped to Kayla.
Ah, Kay, you should’ve never kept something so
drastic from me.
I can’t trust you. You
and I are done. For good.
Finishing off
the beer, he grabbed another one. And then another. Another. And
another.

“
RICHMOND. ARE YOU IN
HERE?” Hearing the sound of his mother’s voice, Richmond stirred.
Lying on the floor inside the kitchen, clenching a beer bottle to
his chest, his eyes slowly peeled open. His head throbbed.
“Richmond. Oh God, no.” Standing over him, his mother stooped
beside him and touched the side of his stubbly bearded face. “Did
you sleep in here last night?”

“
I must have,” Richmond
said, smelling alcohol on his breath. Glints of the morning sun
seeping from the window shined on his face. Squinting against the
bright rays while looking up at his mother, he sat upright, then
stood. Empty beer bottles lined the counter; some were in the sink,
too. His clothes reeked with alcohol. His eyes lowered to the
balled letter on the floor, then back to his mother’s face.
“Where’s Isabelle?”
I don’t want her to
see me like this
.

“
She’s over to Sandella’s.”
Leslie caressed his spine. “Your father paid me a visit last night.
He told me that he killed Salina and you know. I’m so sorry for
what he did to you. So sorry.”

Richmond pinched the bridge of his
nose. “I could kill him for what he did.”

“
I know you can. Come.
Let’s go sit in the den and talk.” Nodding, Richmond followed his
mother into the den and sat on the sofa next to her. Wrinkling her
nose, Leslie obviously smelled the liquor absorbing his clothing.
She caressed Richmond’s arm. “I know you’re angry with your father,
and you should be. What he did is unforgivable. However, I want you
to do just that. I want you to forgive your father.”

Richmond’s heart jolted. His head
jerked. “No. You’re asking too much. I’ll never forgive Russell for
helping Salina commit suicide.”

Leslie cupped Richmond’s hands. “I
know you don’t want to hear this, but as your mother, I feel
compelled to tell you this—dying may have been what was best for
Salina. No. it wasn’t best for you. And no, it wasn’t what was best
for Isabelle. But it may have been best for Salina. She was
suffering, Richmond. Bad. I can’t even imagine living in pain like
she did. Can you?”

Suffering on the inside, crying
inwardly, Richmond shook his head. “You’re right. She was in a lot
of pain. It killed me seeing her like that. Seeing her suffer broke
my heart. Sometimes when I hugged her, she’d say it
hurt.”

“
The doctors had said it
was only a matter of time before she died. In her mind, she’d be
more alive in Heaven than here on Earth. Now that she’s gone, she’s
free of pain. God couldn’t take the sickness from her body, so he
took her spirit…from the sickness.” Leslie’s lips curved upward. “I
can see Salina in Heaven now. Jogging like she used to. Planting
flowers like she used to. Walking and talking like she used
to.”

Imagining Salina full of life in
Heaven, warm bathed his aching heart. “As much as Russell hurt you,
I can’t believe you’re here defending him.”

Leslie nodded. “Yes. Your father hurt
me. He’s hurt all of us. I forgave Russell a long time ago for what
he did to our family. I forgave him for myself, not for him. You
see, when I was holding on to all that anger and bitterness, I
wasn’t living the life God intended for me to live. But when I
finally let go of the hatred for Russell, God stepped in and took
care of him for me—Russell hasn’t truly been happy himself ever
since he left me. God is dealing with Russell on a level that
neither you nor I or anyone else can. Russell’s conscience alone
will kill him. That’s why he had that heart attack. It wouldn’t
surprise me at all if he had another one and ended up
dying.”

She’s right. Russell’s
going to die one old, miserable man with a guilty
conscience.
Sitting there speaking with
his mother made Richmond’s heartache soften. “I guess I can’t blame
Russell completely. Salina does bear some of the responsibility for
what happened to her.”

“
Yes, she does. And if
you’re really honest with yourself, you as well as I know those two
were close. I think Russell loved Salina more than he loved me.
Other than Isabelle, I can’t think of anyone else he’s loved more.
Sometimes he’d come to me, crying his eyes out over Salina’s
illness.”

“
I’ve never seen him cry
until last night.”

Leslie patted Richmond’s shoulder.
“Russell said something about Salina had left a video?”

“
Yes, she left a
video.”

“
Where is it?”

Richmond’s gaze transferred to the
marble counter inside the kitchen. “On the kitchen counter. I
haven’t watched it yet.”

“
Mind if I watch it with
you?”

“
No. I’d actually like
that.” Richmond was no mother’s boy, but right now he needed his
mother more than she’d ever know.

Leslie clicked on the television,
plopped the CD in the DVR, then retreated to the sofa beside
Richmond.

As Richmond sat on the couch focusing
on the television, an image of his wedding day with Salina appeared
on the screen. Everyone, including his mother and father, was in
the photo.

Leslie laughed. “I sure wish I was
that skinny again. Back then, I was so fine, you couldn’t tell me
nothing.”

Richmond chuckled. “You still look
great, Mom.”

Laughing, she playfully hit Richmond’s
thigh. “Quit lying. I’m old and pudgy now.”

“
You’re too hard on
yourself. You look great,” he restated.

Suddenly, a nice clipping of Salina
giving birth to Isabelle appeared on the screen. He was standing
beside her hospital bed, grabbing her hand, helping her push
Isabelle from her womb. Remembering that special day, he
smiled.

“
Oh, look at Isabelle,”
Leslie said, watching on in delight as Isabelle was birthed into
the world.

Richmond felt a warm glow move
throughout his system. “Seeing my daughter born was one of the
happiest days of my life.” More images of their entire family
displayed on the television. Pictures of Suade and Dirk. Sandella
and Braylon. Russell and Leslie. Drake and Willa. God, those were
the good old days, Richmond thought, his heart smiling, as well as
his lips. The video ended.

His mother looked at him with delight.
“Wow. That’s was a nice video Salina left for you. She’s trying to
send you a message.”

“
What message do you think
she’s trying to send?”

“
She wants you to forgive
your father, and her. She wants you to keep living and have more
days like on the video.”

“
Yeah, that’s what she said
in her letter.”

“
I think you should listen
to her. Russell told me that Kayla thought her grandfather had
killed Salina and had kept it a secret from you.”

“
I thought I could trust
her,” Richmond snorted.

“
What sense would it have
made for her to tell you something she wasn’t sure about? Put
yourself in her shoes. If you’d fallen in love with a woman, only
to find out one of your relatives may have killed someone dear to
her…would you go confessing if you weren’t for certain?” Richmond
hesitated. “Don’t answer it. Just think about what I’ve said. Kayla
makes you happy. Don’t let what Russell and Salina did ruin your
relationship with her. Kayla is not at fault here.” Leslie wrapped
her arms around Richmond and gave him a big hug. “I’m headed home.
Call me if you need me.”

Richmond confessed, “Thanks for coming
over. Your being here has helped me see things clearer.”

Smiling, Leslie patted Richmond’s
shoulder. “That’s what mothers are for. You may be grown, but
you’re still my baby. Gon’ always be my baby.”

Richmond chuckled. “I know, Mom. I
know.”

After Leslie left, Richmond took a
long, hot shower, then reread Salina’s letter. He also watched the
video again. Sometime later, he sat in a chair on his deck and read
Russell’s diary.