Angel's Call Ch. 07-08

Chapter Eight

One night, right after Chris went to bed, his mobile phone rang.

"Chris, there's a man outside who is trying the lock on the door," Mrs. Sanders said silently.

"Call Sergeant Young. I'm on my way." Chris jumped out of the bed and ran out in his pajamas, only taking his coat on his way out.

Some of his neighbors peeked out of their windows to see what caused the screeching sound of his car and some even reported that a speeding vandal was in the neighborhood. When he reached Anna's house a police car was turning around the corner. They checked the outside of the house and found some footprints, samples of which they took. They tried the lock but the man obviously had a glove on so there were no fingerprints.

Chris asked Mrs. Sanders if Anna was awake. She said that she was sleeping; she had taken sleeping medication that night. Then he asked the men to be more quiet and sent Mrs. Sanders upstairs to check on her again. When they were done with statements, Mrs. Sanders asked him if he could stay there. She was afraid. He said that he would but Anna would be curious if she found him in her house in pajamas. They agreed that a police patrol car would wait until the morning in front of the house and in the morning he would send Sergeant Young who will advise that somebody should stay with them.

"That will scare her but I will feel much safer if you stay here." Mrs. Sanders said.

After a long sleepless night he packed some of his things in a small suitcase and threw it into the back of his car. After meeting Sergeant Young in front of Anna's house, they knocked on the door and Mrs. Sanders opened it after a brief check through the peephole and the window on the side.

"Good morning, gentlemen. I can't say how glad I am to see you."

Sergeant Young smiled brightly, "Good morning. I am glad to see you, too, Aunt Melinda. Where is Ms. Collins?"

"Aunt Melinda?" Chris couldn't believe his ears.

"What else can I call my aunt?"

"Mrs. Sanders for example."

"Funny!"

"Anna is in the sitting room right now. I haven't told her anything about last night. Please try not to scare her more than she is."

"I'll give you ten minutes. Then I knock on the door."Chris explained. They had already made a plan. Sergeant Young was to go in first, warn Anna about possibilities of danger then Chris would go in. They were expecting that she would want him to stay.

"Ok."

They went into the sitting room in a row, Sergeant Young at the front and Mrs. Sanders at the back. It was obvious that they had something to tell.

"Good morning, Sergeant. You haven't come for a courtesy visit, I'd say. Do you have any news?"

"Good morning, Ms. Collins. I'm sorry, I don't have much good news for you but we believe that this Stephen might be feeling insecure nowadays because of our probing and might be wondering if it has anything to do with you. I don't want to scare you but there is a slight chance that he might start searching for you, that's why I have come to recommend that you should be more cautious and maybe have someone living with you."

"But there's Mrs. Sanders," Anna stuttered, her face white as snow.

"I mean someone who can protect you. Aunt Melinda can only look after you and the baby."

"Aunt Melinda? I didn't know you were relatives. Never gave a hint when we were at the police station."

"Well, when it became obvious that you'd need somebody to look after you at home, I recommended her to Chris."

"Chris? Is he your friend? This is becoming more confusing. What kind of a game are you playing?" Her mind was overworking. She thought they were part of a plot to return her to Stephen, maybe worse.

Chris chose to knock on the door at that unfortunate moment and Mrs. Sanders, who opened the door, briefed him shortly on what had happened before he entered the sitting room and she headed towards the kitchen.

"Good morning, Anna. I see you've got company." Chris said and deciding to avoid her turned towards Sergeant Young, "Oh, it's you Mark. What's up? Is there any news?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. I had come to recommend a few things to Ms. Collins. I have to get back on duty. See you. Goodbye, Ms. Collins. Think about what I said," Sergeant Young said in a breath and rushed outside to avoid more questioning.

Anna looked at Chris trying to make a sense out of what had happened then gave up.

"Did you know that Mrs. Sanders was Sergeant Young's aunt?"

"I didn't know it until today," Chris tried to answer without lying and then went to Angela and had her giggling a little bit. He had bought a new rattler which seemed to interest her for a while but every time she tried to hold it, it dropped. Chris had endless patience with her.

Anna spoke after a period of silence, "Did you arrange her to be my house help?"

"I think you know the answer to that."

"I had told you once I didn't need you. Would you do me a favor and go now? I'm sick and tired of seeing you around all the time. I've had enough of your pity and enough of your time. Go and don't come back," she said in a bitter voice.

That wasn't what he had expected. He had hoped that after the sergeant's visit she'd turn to him and let him stay with them, not ban him from their lives. His heart was torn into pieces and it hurt so much that he wondered if he had a heart attack. This was if possible worse than he felt that night when he had found out about Lisa and George. He hadn't thought about them for weeks.

He ran out, not even kissing Angela. He bumped into the door because he couldn't see it through his tears. Anna had shut him out again. The first time, when she was still at the hospital, he had managed to stay near her, but this time it hit him like a train. He felt he didn't have any hope or energy left now. He was falling into depression. The depression which he had started to fall into on the night he found his ex-fiancee with his roommate; the depression into which he didn't fall because he found Anna and Angela and taking care of them took his mind off of things. He made it to his car and drove out of the city into the wood cabin where he and his father spent time when they needed to be away from it all.

Mrs. Sanders came to the sitting room some time later wondering why Chris didn't console Angela when she was crying but he wasn't there. Anna was also crying cuddled in a fetal position. She immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"Anna, what happened here?"

"Nothing."

"Then it is for nothing that Angela's crying her lungs out and you don't even seem to notice her and where is Chris?"

"I-I told him to go," she said between sobs.

"What? Where? I go too if he goes. Have you lost your senses?"

"To whereever. He's already gone."

"Ok, I ask again, what happened here? If you don't give me a convincing explanation, I'm out of here this moment," Mrs. Sanders asked insistently.

Anna tried to dry her tears but some still came down. She had no explanation for what she did, even to herself and she was surprised that she felt torn apart and sad to see Chris go. There was an ache in her stomach which clenched every time Chris came into her mind.

"I asked him if he knew you were a relative of Sergeant Young and if he arranged you to be my house help."

"And you didn't like the answer, one of which was 'not until today' and the other 'yes'?"

"Something like that. I am crazy that he is there all the time, trying to control my life, pitying me, playing with Angela, like he has to."

"Excuse me, but is your vision ok? You seem to have lost it completely. This man is not doing anything he doesn't want to, not pitying you but trying to help you so that you can return to a normal life. He cannot keep himself away from you or Angela because he loves both of you," Mrs. Sanders interrupted, clearly angry this time.

"Loves us? Did he tell you that?"

"Of course not. I just happen to have eyes on my head which you lack. He's coming here with nice flowers almost always; they're the ones in the corridor, on the table here, in the kitchen, upstairs, all around. He's saved you from the alley, given you his blood when you were in the operating room, had your house cleaned and prepared, paid your due bills before you came home, bought all that you and Angela would need so you wouldn't have to worry over that and, yes, arranged for me which was not a service provided by the hospital anyway."

She continued feeling her anger bubbling and about to burst, "He paid for Angela's hospital bills, and has been supporting you since you came out. He even bought a car seat for Angela and all the decorations in her room is his work and he doesn't even say a word to you. He bears all the torture you make him bear because he doesn't want you to feel in debt to him but you, pigheaded lady, are blind enough not to see the love he has for Angela which he showed freely in front of you and if I have a word that little angel knows who is the good and who is the bad guy around here."

"Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you all this but as he is gone and I'll be going shortly, it doesn't matter. It probably won't have any effect on your rock hard head anyway. So, go on pitying yourself. You have lost a year, I know it was a hard one but you have your daughter and your whole life ahead of you. It will be a long lonely one by the looks of your behavior. Good bye."

After this long speech which Mrs. Sanders managed to utter in a single breath, she turned around and left for good.

*

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