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"You gotta come over," Maddox breathed into the phone. "There's something I have to show you."
"Oh, really?" Sailor answered, rolling her eyes into her head. "I'm kinda busy today. Clyde's here, and we're getting ready to go to the lake."
"Pleassssssse," Maddox begged. "It'll only take a few minutes. It's…it's real important."
"All right." Sailor sounded reluctant. She didn't want to waste precious time with Maddox. They were meeting Beth and Eric for a picnic lunch.
Clyde's eyebrows rose in question marks when Sailor hung up. She explained they would have to swing by the Kelley's trailer before going to the lake.
"I'm not into it either," Sailor remarked wearily, "but Maddox sounded desperate. I must see what she wants."
"Yeah, okay." Her companion frowned. Clyde avoided the old trailer park. It simply wasn't his style to walk amongst the broken-down, rusty mobile homes. He called it the graveyard. "You go in to see her, and I'll wait at the bus stop." He decided that was as far as he would go.
"Ah, c'mon, Clyde. Just for a minute. I promise I won't stay." Sailor stood on tiptoes and pecked her boyfriend's lips with hers. "More where that came from," she sang.
Clyde agreed reluctantly. He was getting closer to consummating his relationship with Sailor. Any morsel she threw his way was worth it if he could get closer to making love to her. Sailor grasped his hand and headed toward Maddox's house.
Sailor drew in her breath the moment she walked through the door. She could cut the atmosphere with a knife. A newborn baby lay on the couch wrapped in a frayed blanket. Enola and Jack sat on either side. Both wore heavy frowns. Michael slumped in a nearby chair, his face furrowed with premature wrinkles.
"This is Jessica." Maddox's voice wavered. "My new sister."
Sailor and Clyde looked down at the baby. It was hard for them not to gasp in surprise. Clyde cast a sideways glance at Jack, who met his eyes with a smug expression. Clyde took a quick step backward. Sailor felt awkward. She muttered a feeble congratulations and remained glued to her spot.
"How nice for you," Sailor stated, swallowing a throat lump. "She's…uh…she's pretty." It was all she could think to utter. No one acknowledged her statement.
"I'll walk you out," Maddox offered, linking her arm with Sailor's. The girls rushed through the door with Clyde on their heels. "That's not my father's baby," Maddox continued hastily. "Mikey and I both looked the same when we were born. Both of us are Kelley's. That baby's not a Kelley."
Sailor didn't know what to say. The facts were obvious. Jessica was Jack Meadow's offspring. Enola's affair with Jack was out in the open. Sailor shifted her sneakers in the gravel, creating a spiral. Clyde stood close beside her. His eyes urged her to say goodbye.
"Jack's the father. Can't you see?" Maddox continued, hastening her words. "My mother stole my boyfriend." Tears trickled down her swollen cheeks.
"I…I'm sorry, Max," Sailor stumbled. What could she do? What could she say?
"I…I love him," Maddox sobbed. "I love him, and she stole him away." She clenched her fists at her side. "I hate her."
"Okay." Sailor glanced toward Clyde. They both felt uncomfortable. "Look, we really gotta go. I'm sorry."
Sailor slumped her shoulders and walked away. There was nothing she could do to relieve. Maddox's stress. Gabby and Clyde both warned her against becoming involved in Maddox's problems. Although her heart ached for her long-term friend, she had to walk away. Maddox cried out her name once before the couple turned the corner. Sailor continued to walk.
"What a mess," Clyde finally stated. Sailor nodded. She could not speak.
Maddox watched her friend's retreating back. Her tears quickened, streaming from her cheeks. Inside, her fragile heart broke. She lost her boyfriend to her ungrateful mother and her best friend at the same time. Her life shattered like a broken mirror.
Maddox began to walk. Her feet plodded along the road with no direction. Conflict crowded into her throbbing brain. Revenge. The word grew large and red. It pushed aside all her raging emotions. She stopped in front of the white clapboard church. Pastor Priam's car stood outside. Maddox climbed onto the porch and pushed the large doors open. The old pastor knelt in front of the altar, praying.
Maddox cleared her throat. The pastor looked at her with rheumy eyes.
"How can I help you, my child?" he asked, rising. He recognized Maddox, although she never attended his services.
"My father's raping me," Maddox blurted. She didn't realize what she was going to say. The words tumbled out before she could think clearly.
"Come." Pastor Priam led the way into his office. He offered Maddox a seat and took his own behind the large oak desk. "Tell me about it, child."
"It started a few months back," Maddox sobbed. She covered her face with her hands for drama. "He gets in my bed at night and touches me. Then he puts in penis…"
"Okay. That's enough." The pastor leaned against his chair. Silence rose between them. "Will you talk to the police if I phone 911?"
"Yes!" Maddox exclaimed. She sat back. A secret smile formed behind the serious frown she showed the pastor. She would get back at Enola through her father.
Maddox spoke at length to the two female police officers who appeared at the church. She gave them convincing descriptions of what occurred in her bedroom at night. Maddox agreed to go to the hospital with them for a rape kit. It showed conclusively that she had endured regular abuse but without DNA.
A police car arrived at the trailer the following day. Michael Kelley was taken in for questioning. He did not understand the charges at first. His daughter accused him of rape. He insisted he never touched Maddox. Michael Kelley hadn't touched his wife in months; he hadn't had sex with anyone. It never occurred to him to rape his daughter.
Michael barely had the energy to get through the day. He sometimes worked odd hours and all through the night to repair rundown appliances in the trailer park. He was too weary most days to sit up straight. Sex wasn't the top priority in his life.
Two police officers drilled him throughout the day. Michael responded to their good guy/bad guy routine in a trance. His concentration dwindled. Did he say 'yes' or 'no' to their constant interrogation? He hardly knew. Michael Kelley scrawled his name to a confession at three o'clock in the morning. He spent the night behind bars.
"I didn't do it!" Michael shouted at his court-appointed lawyer.
Mr. Swift laid his confession before him. Michael stared at it, his eyes blurry from lack of sleep. He shook his head dolefully.
"I did not rape my daughter," he exclaimed again.
The lawyer sat back and nodded. It was a routine case for him. They all claimed innocence; they were all guilty. He would mount a lackadaisical defense, but there was never a chance of getting them off.
"Maddox Kelley, your daughter, claims you raped her on multiple occasions," Chuck Swift stated. "You signed a confession in accordance with your daughter's accusation. How do you account for that?"
"I don't," Michael countered. "I can't account for anything. I'm tired. I…I want to go home."
Did he want to go home? Michael wondered. He considered the situation. His wife, Enola, had a new baby who looked exactly like his daughter's boyfriend. Jack Meadows. The name burned into his brain. Enola had deceived him for months, and he hadn't noticed until the baby appeared.
Michael Kelley rubbed his palms against his face. He looked even more weary when he glanced at Mr. Swift. The story of his wife's deceit fell from his lips. His daughter's boyfriend, he thought, sudden awareness filling his mind. The answer became crystal clear.
"Revenge," he finally muttered. "It's all about revenge."
"Revenge? In what way?" Chuck Swift's interest grew.
"My wife deceived me with my daughter's boyfriend," Michael replied, his voice growing stronger. "Maddox is plotting revenge."
"By claiming you raped her?" Mr. Swift leaned forward.
"Certainly." Michael sat back, full of confidence.
"Explain."
Michael Kelley became alert for the first time in years. He had to defend himself against Maddox's accusations, accusations he knew nothing about. Michael talked about Enola and Jack. He spoke about his life as the trailer park's maintenance supervisor. He provided the best life he could for his wife and children. His wife threw all his attempts into his face. Enola deceived him with Jack Meadows.
Maddox was always a willful child. She ran wild from an early age. Michael thought her friendship with Sailor Kent would soften his eldest child. Sailor was steady and reliable. It didn't work. Maddox shoplifted what she wanted, what Michael couldn't afford. She lied to get her way. She was lying about the rape.
Maddox sat in a police interrogation room that was dissimilar to the stark one Michael sat in. She sat beside a policewoman on a comfortable sofa. There was a toybox in a corner with a small table and chairs. Magazines lay on a coffee table with an easy chair beside it. Maddox retold her story while Michael babbled to his lawyer.
Officer Jan Stapleton felt sorry for Maddox. The young girl wore a frayed sweater and a short plaid skirt. Old Keds adorned her feet with gray socks that were once white. Jan had heard Maddox's story many times over. Young girls raped by their fathers. It disgusted her.
Officer Stapleton led Maddox out of the interrogation room hours later. She cringed when her fellow officer, Mark Flint, simultaneously brought Michael Kelley into the corridor. Maddox gasped and clung to Jan's hand. Tears built up in the young girl's eyes.
"Why? Maddox, why?" Michael asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"You raped me!" Maddox screamed. She pointed an accusatory finger at her father. "You raped me," she repeated dramatically. "I hate you!"
Michael's face turned pale. He stammered a few unintelligible words. Mark Flint tightened his hold on his prisoner's arm. Michael tried to break away. Maddox continued to scream without words. Tears flew from her puffy eyes. Turning, she pressed her face into Officer Stapleton's breast.
"Get him out of here," Jan Stapleton ordered. Her voice rose with authority.
Officer Flint pulled Michael Kelley away. Michael sat in his cell, staring at the bars that caged him. Sorrow filled his heart. His rotten life suddenly became more rotten. He couldn't live with the wretchedness of his daughter's accusation.
Officer Jan Stapleton returned Maddox to her trailer park home. Enola and Jack looked up when Maddox entered. She raced past them with tears in her eyes. Slamming the door, she plunged onto her bed. An evil smile crossed her face, and she congratulated herself. She fixed everyone, or so she thought.
The telephone rang shortly after midnight. Maddox listened to her mother's murmuring voice. Her bedroom door opened with a bang. Enola stood in the doorway, looking down at her daughter.
"I hope you're satisfied," Enola stated blankly. Maddox sat up in bed and glared at her mother. "Your father committed suicide. He used his sheets as a noose and hung himself. Happy?"
Maddox's heart hardened. She didn't care. She'd never really known her father. He was just a person…an object to use or abuse. Maddox was emotionless.
"Are you?" Maddox retorted. The door slammed. Maddox turned her face to the wall. Through it, she heard Mikey sobbing.
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