When The Stars Align Ch. 03

My father ignored everything and continued, "Dixon restrained him and calmed Vickie down enough for him to drag her over to you, it was only then she calmed. I called the Sheriff who then called the state troopers. Son this thing just kept going up and up. By the time the Feds turned up there was quite a party going on down there."

My dad chuckled and Dixon just stood and blushed.

"The guy's name is Josh, one of Vickie's security team. He's already rolled over and implicated three of the board members."

Dad stopped talking when he noticed someone standing at the door. Marcus hesitated and my Dad waved him in, it took him a moment but he came in and we shook hands.

"I'm sorry, Josh was one of ours. I picked him for my team so I have to take responsibility for him."

I shook my head. "You can't fight human nature, someone got to him because they knew they could. You're still the head of Victoria's security team and when all this is over you still have a job to do."

We could have said more. We just didn't need too, a man like Marcus took things like this personally. They would do better because they had been given a second chance. Both the girls were alive and would still need looking after. Dad took him outside for a coffee, an hour later he came back alone.

I was in the hospital for another week. It seems when Josh slugged me my brain was bruised and they induced a coma until the swelling went down. The extra few days while I was awake was to make sure there were no after effects.

*******

Dad kept up with the news of the forthcoming trial, I buried myself in work. He would give me the abridged version if I asked; it was rare that I did. Gretchen came home a week later along with Marcus and half the team. Marcus and a new guy called Tony stayed with dad up at the house the rest of the team took up half the rooms down at Candice's boarding house in town. Gretchen and I never moved out of the cabin, hell she refused to get dressed until it was time to leave again.

The day she was going to leave, I placed a ring on her finger. She was pissed that I didn't give it to her earlier. She would have made sure her thank you would have been more memorable than a kiss. She punched me on the arm when I told her that was why she got it on the way out the door. I gave her Victoria's ring as she left with Marcus, the ring was returned three days later with a note telling me that it didn't count unless I was on one knee and to make sure I gave her the ring the first day so she did get to thank me in a memorable way.

Marcus turned up a few weeks later with another note in hand and told me he was under orders to wait for a reply. He sat with Dad and both resumed their chess game as I went and sat down by the creek, my fingers followed the Braille across the page with ease.

My Dearest Husband.

The court date is already set and soon everyone will know when it is. I want so much for you to be there but I need you not to be.

You are my husband and have every right to be by my side. Please Doug, stay away. When all this is over and the newspapers and TV are done with us, I need to be able to return to my old life and with a husband that won't have a camera in his face every waking moment.

Before all this started, I treasured my anonymity. Now I crave it like a starved animal. We know that won't be for months if not years to come, but I need to be able to come to the farm, live a life in our cabin and always in our bed knowing that this island refuge is where Gretchen and I can be free.

The cameras will leave and I pray that we will quickly become old news. But, I desperately want to keep you, Lou-Lou and your father away from that. I even plan to state my full name as van der Vaart rather than Ellington so the papers never make the connection. I am Victoria Ellington and will be to my last breath. So please Doug and from one Ellington to another, do this for me.

I truly love you, with all my heart.

Yours always,

Victoria Ellington

*******

Although Marcus was waiting for an answer to the letter, he never got one until the following day. My thoughts and emotions went from acceptance that I couldn't change the outcome by being there to total rage that my wife would have to take the stand and face three men that conspired to have her killed and the man they paid to kill her.

I personally asked Dixon to keep the man hunting my wife alive. He also knew that I was placing his own life on the line to do just that. The scream into the darkness was born out of frustration. My own wife was asking me to stand aside because she knew that keeping me at a distance kept the press away from the one place she now called home. Every ounce of my being, burned with frustration, a man was born to protect his own.

To stand in front of them and defend them all with our dying breath and yet I was being asked to stand aside. To trust in others to do what us Ellington's and the Dixons of this world would do out of instinct and that was to protect our own. Once again, I found myself looking down at the creek. The moon was my only guide as I sought an answer to my wife's plea to stay away and let the law do its work. To allow Victoria to take the brunt of this so that people like my daughter would never have the knowledge of doing something as simple as walking down the street without the fear having camera's thrust into her face.

Victoria's anonymity was everything to her and she wished to pass on that gift to Lou-Lou. Yet to do that she had to stand in front of the cameras and have the worlds press finally see her. My mind was still in chaos as the sun came up and caught me sitting at the waters edge, the rays danced across the water changing colors as it traveled down stream. The warmth of the day filled me with pride, I understood her better now. Just as I would stand against the tide to defend my family, which was exactly what she was doing.

She was protecting her young; Lou-Lou was everything to her. She stood tall against the storm that approached because family was just as much on her mind as it was mine. I was seeing this part of Victoria for the first time and I believe that letter was simply her way of telling me she wanted this so she could protect us as we protected her. It didn't stop me from wanting to pull her across my knee and slap the dumb bitch, but I knew why she sent that damn letter now. I didn't like it but I agreed to it.

Dad said he planned to watch the whole trial. Dixon and I went hiking for a month. I couldn't sit and watch it, seeing both my girls on TV and not holding their hands as this went on, went against every thing I was brought up to believe. We look after our own and right now, I had to trust others to do just that.

A month later Dixon dropped me off outside dad's house. I was still fishing around for a key from my rucksack when a voice I hadn't heard for awhile spoke.

"Mr. you had better shave and have at least a shower and then a bath before you come to our bed and especially between these legs or you can use your hand until you do. You look like Grizzly Adams."

That didn't stop me from grabbing Gretchen and hugging her as I swung her around, she squealed and punched my chest but I simply didn't care anymore. Hell, I even got a kiss out of her before she remembered her threat.

"How long have you been here?"

Gretchen's face turned serious, when she explained that both she and Victoria turned up three and a half weeks ago. The trial all but collapsed when one of the board members decided to cop a plea and turn states evidence against the other two. With his and Josh's testimony Victoria was no longer needed, they got back as quick as they could but I had already gone native and since Dixon was with me there was no telling were I was.

"I'm telling you now buster you have one pissed off wife on your hands."

Her cell in hand she quickly dialed and although I only heard one side, it was enough.

"He's back. I'm amazed you can't smell him from there."

"Are you kidding, I wouldn't touch him with yours the way he is at the moment."

"Just tell Marcus to execute plan A and hang on for the ride, he's had everything on stand-by for two days now ready for this call."

"Well, I'll do my best but he looks and smells disgusting, I'm not letting him in the cabin like he is at the moment."

"Ok bye."

She closed her cell and pointed at me.

"Shower first and then bath, and if there is nothing floating to the surface I may join you for the bath. That is after you have a shave. Oh, and by the way, welcome home husband of mine."

Under Gretchen's watchful eye, I showered at dads and the shaved. True to her word she even made me shave twice telling me that there was a months worth of 'yuk' on my face and it needed shifting. When she was happy I was given a robe and marched back to the cabin, Gretchen dropped a bag containing my clothes on the porch next to my dad and asked him if he would burn them later just to make sure whatever I had brought back with me was actually dead.

Dad laughed so much I didn't hear his reply. I made us coffee's and Gretchen ran a bath, she even watched me sit in it, ignoring my erection but carefully watching in case anything did float to the surface. Once satisfied she undressed and climbed in across from me, minutes later her legs were on my shoulders as we went at it like bunnies. We tossed some towels over the water now on the bathroom floor and continued fucking each other on the soaking towels.

The hummer skidded to a stop by the steps to the cabin. Marcus just managed to get the door open before Victoria opened it herself, he helped her to the cabin door and then walked away to join dad at the house, that chess game still needed a few moves before either one of them would concede.

Gretchen and I were waiting for Victoria as she came through the door. She didn't seem to object when we ripped her clothes off, dragged her into bed and proceeded to double-team her for the next hour.

To the sound of all three of us still wheezing, Victoria said, "Can I have my ring now?"

That set Gretchen and me off and we couldn't stop laughing.

"Well, I was going to ask when I came through the door but you two couldn't wait."

The pause was momentary before she added, "Mind you neither could I."

*******

Dad gave us the cabin and the land down to the creek as a wedding present, the girls cried when he handed them the deeds. Victoria sat Lou-Lou down and had a girlie talk. She wanted her to come and live with all three of us. My daughter only agreed if she could have her own room and we promised to sound proof it. Gretchen told me that was one of the few times Victoria had ever blushed and was at a loss for words.

Victoria asked Marcus to walk her down the aisle and give her away. It was his turn to be at a loss for words. I wonder how often a bodyguard gets to hug his boss. His wife smiled through the whole ceremony and took loads of pictures of him giving his boss away on her wedding day, when he went and sat with her for the rest of the ceremony both of them had tears in their eyes.

The minister didn't see me holding onto Victoria and Gretchen's hand when it came to say 'I do' the other two bridesmaids maneuvered themselves into a position to make sure the wedding guests didn't either. Lou-Lou and Becca made great bridesmaids although three months later I did get a call from Becca cursing me for getting her pregnant again.

When I reminded her that I had nothing to do with it, she told me that Wendell wouldn't let her out of her bridesmaids dress until he did her in it. When I asked her if it were a boy would she call it Doug, the words 'cold day in hell' came loud and clear as the phone went down. The next day we emptied the only flower shop in town and sent her the lot, she didn't send them back so we must have done something right.

Soon after the wedding, both the girls needed to return to Boston. Gretchen called it the night of the long knives. Victoria totally decimated the board, ridding all influence left from the three treacherous board members. By the time the dust had settled, there were now six new board members in place and every single member of the board now took up the slack that both the girls had been doing for the last two years.

Her grip on power within the board room was such that even Gretchen had to persuade her to tone it down or she would end up spending more time in Boston looking over the shoulder of every board member than she would at home with her husband.

Both the girls insistence that our marriage to each other would work was shown when Shauna came onto the scene. Victoria and Gretchen spoke less of that language of theirs around Marcus now, when Victoria mentioned that with Gretchen spending time at the farm she would need a live-in assistant. Marcus mentioned that his daughter would be leaving college in a few days and could well put that degree in business management to good use. It seems the interview lasted as long as it took Victoria to map out Shauna's face.

Shauna thinks its great living in one of the most secure buildings in the country and the bonus being her own father is the head of security. Of course women being women, it didn't take Shauna long to notice that both the girls wore identical wedding rings. She asked her dad if they were gay since she had never seen a husband, her mom showed her the wedding pictures and reminded her that she was taking exams at the time of the wedding so they didn't take her with them.

The girls individually rotate between the farm and Boston, and make time to be here together as well, I never know sometimes which one of my wives I'm going to bed with. The girls just smile and remind me that that's what makes our marriage more fun, I am a realist and both have admitted that when they are in Boston or on a business trip, they still sleep together. Hell they had been sleeping with each other for years before I had met them, why would I stop them now I'm married to both of them.

We did modify the cabin here and there. The bathroom got a bigger shower and we added another room. Lou-Lou got her wish and lives with us, so we added a bathroom to her room as well as the soundproofing she asked for. She still yells at us to keep the noise down from time to time. We tell her, "We didn't hear her complaint over the top of the soundproofing."

I'm still an independent and still play with bits of engines. Both the girls are now avid NASCAR followers, although they have politely declined another go around in one of the cars, after the first time.

The one time I actually felt our ideal world might come crashing down around our ears was because of Matthew. Well that's not quite true, the words that left Victoria's lips were 'honey I'm pregnant'. What happened next showed me how sensitive Lou-Lou still was. Those three words that I believed I would never hear again had just been spoken by my wife on her return from Boston.

What neither of us realized at the time, is that my daughter was on her way out of her bedroom when she heard Victoria tell me. The door to her room slamming shut told us both so much, the destruction of her furniture had both of us running to her room with me sticking my shoulder into the door to unlock it. Restraining my daughter, while my wife tried so desperately to calm her took its toll on all three of us.

Lou-Lou had the strength of anger, despair and years of nightmares. I ended up lifting her off her feet in an effort to restrain her. Two people that loved that child so deeply and we could do nothing, as she screamed at both of us, her words coming so fast that neither one of us could understand any of it. We had to remove her from her room and Victoria wrapped her in her arms. When we finally got her calmed, we all sat down in the day room.

Other than tears between all three of us, not a word was spoken for a long time. Victoria and I sat stunned at what our daughter had done and still unclear as to why. Gretchen found us in the day room a half hour later, non of us willing to question Lou-Lou but ready to wait her out and let her speak first.

When she spoke, it damn near broke all our hearts. "You're going to die just like mommy did and daddy will die inside all over again."

Victoria burst into tears and wrapped her arms tighter around our daughter. I went to hold her, but was pulled back by Gretchen, who pulled me further away from them. I had known this woman well enough to understand the look in her eyes when she pulled me away not to resist.

"Your choice, therapy or let your wives deal with this?"

Well, that was a no brainer question, although to this day I still wonder, at how these two women can understand so much at such a young age and have their own version of dealing with things. Gretchen closed Lou-Lou's door and pulled me into ours.

"Get the sheets off the bed and pull the mattress outside, we need to make room in the day room but that can't be helped. Once we are done you, need to get into town before the store closes. We need a large tub of chocolate and a tub of strawberry ice cream and I'm sorry my husband, but you have to stay at the big house tonight."

It suddenly dawned on me what she was doing and all I could do was smile and shake my head, both my head and my heart knew that she was right. The girls were going to have a damned slumber party in the middle of the day room and between all three of them, get to the demons in our daughter's head.

I also added two boxes of tissues to her impromptu list, knocked once and left it all by the front door before joining dad to watch the Monday night football game. The next morning I found all three on the mattress in PJ's and wrapped in each others arms, I still have that picture, not only in my head but I took one with my phone as well. It sits above the fireplace and constantly reminds me of the tightness of the bonds that all three of these girls have.

Lou-Lou got to rub creams onto Victoria's stomach during the day to help with stretch marks, I got the evening duty. Matthew was born eight months and a day later and our daughter dotes on him. A year after that of course I was asked to bring the mattress back into the day room, I was then handed Mathew and told to go and watch the Monday Night game with dad again.

It's not often a man smiles when he's kicked out of his own house. It seems dad knew ahead of time, this time around and had moved Mathew's crib in as well. I have that picture of the next morning right next to the first one and of course our daughter performs her duty on Gretchen's stomach with as much diligence as she did with Victoria. The only thing that spooked me was that eight months and one day later, well it spooked me, the only thing the women did was shrug their shoulders and say 'so what', Sarah was born.

Victoria is still worth loads of money. When I asked her once how many zeros, she replied more than the fingers of both hands. That did make me pause for a moment, but then she still goes to the bathroom and leaves the door open when she does, so that much money hasn't made her posh.

About a year into our marriage dad was reading the paper to Victoria while I was in the workshop. It seems the local council said it was going to have to close the library, due to the budget cuts. It didn't take folks long to figure out whom the mysterious benefactor was that kept it open or who added another wing to the local college eighteen months later. She still always asks either Becca or Lou-Lou to go to anything that needs a ribbon cutting though.

Ten years on Victoria Ellington can still walk down Main Street and be recognized by all the folks that live around us. Not once has anyone published a picture of her in any paper.

The End.