Chapter Seven

Marie and Ricky had been silent in the car the whole ride to Stacey’s house. Everything was such a huge mess, but at least Chad was finally going to get what was coming to him. Not only had those two airheaded girls heard the woman with Nicholas mention his last name, but Stacey’s doctor had heard Chazz and Chad arguing and heard plain as day Chad admit that he had Nicko kidnapped from his own home not even a week after Stacey and the baby had moved their essentials into the house so they could start sleeping there.
Marie glanced over at Ricky and he was obviously furious. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white and his mouth was pursed into a thin line. And his eyes never left the road in front of him. “Ricky, I… I’m sorry about Nicko, you know we all love him and want him home. But I know you’re plotting how to kill Chad and that’s just not right.” Marie felt completely helpless.
Ricky shook his head, “That bastard, setting up that whole investigation just to keep the eyes off of him.” He leaned back in the driver’s seat and rested his elbow on the door while resting the side of his head on his hand. “When Stacey finds out about this, I won’t have to try and kill him she’ll do that all on her own.”
“How is she?” Marie still couldn’t believe that her best friend of over five years was in a coma and had been for three days now.
Ricky let out a sigh as he pulled into the neighborhood they were heading to. “The doctor said there’s no change. She’s non-responsive to everything and anything, even me.” His voice went quiet with the last two words. How could they have such a strong connection but he couldn’t get her to twitch a finger, flicker her eyes, say something, move something, anything?
“It’s not you Ricky, it’s how these things work. Stuff like that only happens in the movies, or soap operas. This is real life and we just have to pray that God will wake her up; he’s the only one that can get to her now.”
They pulled up to the curb and got out of the car. The garage was left open with a beat up red Honda Accord parked inside and the front door was cracked open. Ricky motioned for Marie to stay behind him as they walked through the open garage and entered into the hall just in front of the stairway that wound upstairs. He looked left and saw the main living room with the couches and tons of boxes just the way they’d left it a few days ago.
He glanced to his right and saw the cracked front door and more boxes lining the long hallway in between. Stepping to his left he slowly walked into the kitchen and saw more boxes and no one in sight. From there he wound around and checked the formal dining room, the front room and the office downstairs before heading up the stairs to check the other rooms.
The whole time Marie was following closely on his heels waiting for someone to jump out and attack them. She may be tough but she could still be startled and she hated surprises like that more than knowing what might happen to her and Ricky if the culprit was still in the house.
Once they reached the top of the stairs, they veered to the right and checked the master bedroom and then the laundry room. The only shut door was the door that had been shut for almost three weeks now. They glanced at each other and as he reached out to turn the knob he could hear a voice on the other side. Both of them leaned closer to the door to try and hear.
It was a woman’s voice, gentle and shaking as if she was crying. “God forgive me. I’ve lost my way and I don’t know who else to turn to or where else to go. I can’t do this anymore; I can’t keep this secret anymore. Please help me God, I have no one in my life to help me out of this mess that I got myself into.” She stopped speaking and just cried for a moment. “I was so desperate for money, so desperate to take the easy way out that I ended up taking the hardest way I could have to get out of my debt and out of that disgusting apartment I wasn’t safe in. Every night I slept with that baby in my arms because I couldn’t bear to think of anything happening to him… What have I done? What have I done?!” From there she burst into sobs and it was obvious she wasn’t going to be giving out any more information.
Ricky turned the doorknob and stepped into the room with Marie following suit. The woman had been leaning over the crib and whipped around and was scared to death that there had actually been someone in the house and now they were in the room with her now. “Who are you?” She asked breathlessly.
Marie stepped in front of Ricky and confronted this mystery woman, “We could ask you the same thing. What are you doing in our friend’s house? And a better question is what are you doing in this particular room?”
Samantha looked towards the ground. “I was praying… I didn’t think anyone was going to be here.” She continued to stare at the floor.
“You still didn’t say who you are and why you’re here.” Marie took another step forward ready to pounce but Ricky pulled her back.
“Marie, I think we need to hear her out. She’s obviously upset about whatever it is that she’s done.” He looked at her. “You know where my son is don’t you?” She looked at him and nodded looking back down at the floor. “Where is he?” Ricky walked up to her and put his hands on her upper arms. “Where is my son?” She looked at him with tear filled eyes.
“He has him. I don’t know where, but he’s going to put him on a plane with a couple that think they’re adopting a baby boy named Joshua.” She started to cry again. “I tried to tell him it was wrong, I wanted out, I wanted to bring him home to Stacey and beg for her to forgive me, but he… he stopped me. I couldn’t fight him and then he pulled a gun out on me.”
Ricky looked into her eyes, “What happened to Nicholas? Is Nicholas alright?” She nodded and started looking a bit pale. She started to sway on her feet and fell with Ricky catching her before she hit the floor. He finally noticed that she was holding a hand on her stomach. There was blood starting to ooze between her fingers and her body started lurching. Ricky’s eyes widened as he realized what happened. “He shot you?”
“Yea, I was hoping to find Stacey home by now, but she must still be in the hospital.” From the confused looks on both Ricky and Marie’s faces she realized that they don’t know how she knew anything about Stacey being in the hospital. “Chad told me.” She groaned.
Turning to Marie, Ricky raised his voice. “Call an ambulance!” Immediately Marie flipped open her cell phone and dialed the police. As she rambled on to the police about the situation at hand Ricky kept his attention on the woman dying in his arms.
“I’m so sorry.” She fought to get out as more tears fell down her cheeks. “I should have never agreed to it.”
Ricky could read the guilt on her face. “I forgive you. Everything’s going to be ok. I promise… What’s your name?”
She smiled and replied, “Samantha. Samantha DeLonge.” She closed her eyes, and died in his arms.

* * * * * *

Stacey was a little surprised. “What exactly are you referring to, Father?” He took her hand, and pulled her off the couch.
“Come and walk with me.” He led them to the back door and held it open for her to pass through first. Stacey was greeted by the gentle warmth coming from the sun and stepping onto the cool cushioned grass beneath her bare feet. She took a deep breath in of all the wonderful smelling flowers, grass, water and dirt. As she opened her eyes she smiled when she saw that God was smiling at her reaction to the outside.
“Are you ever going to tell me what’s going on, Father?” Stacey asked as they began to walk to the right side of the small lake that lay before them. God looked out over the fields, “Patience, is a virtue. Remember that my dear.”
Blushing with embarrassment she apologized. “Sorry… I guess I’m just eager to know why God wants to talk with me. I have to admit that I’m a little nervous.”
“No need to be nervous, Stacey, you’re safe with me.” They turned from the bank of the water and began to walk through a field of wild daisies. “And there’s no need to worry about your son either, he’s happy and healthy. I say to you that he will be back in your arms soon enough.”
She smiled. “I knew I could trust you to make sure everything worked out. It’s just so hard not to worry sometimes. Especially when I’m not here.” She let out a soft laugh. “But I suppose that’s what heaven does to you isn’t it?”
“It is, child, it is. Now, the matter at hand that I need to speak with you about.” He stopped and looked her right in the eyes. “Your fiancé. He isn’t a nice man, I’ve tried to help him, but every time he refuses. There’s nothing I can do anymore and I’m afraid he’s almost at the end of the road.” His face softened and he looked sad. “Hard as I try, I can’t save those who don’t want to be saved.”
“I’ve always known that Chad wasn’t that great of a man, but I honestly didn’t think he was bad either. He provides for me, I can’t deny him what he really wants.”
“Wrong, Stacey. That is so very wrong. You have someone that loves and cares about you so very much but you keep choosing to stay in a relationship where he doesn’t even care about your son.”
“He tries… sometimes.”
“Let me show you something.” With a whoosh of air around her all of the sudden Stacey found herself in her hospital room looking at her body in the bed and Ricky’s head resting on their held hands.
“What’re we doing here?” She asked God, he simply motioned for her to watch.
“Things keep going wrong.” Ricky said.
“You’re telling me.” Stacey turned to see Chad standing in the doorway with a disgusting smirk on his face. “What’re you doing here you piece of shit?” He started to walk towards Ricky.
“Hey! Don’t you talk to him like that!” Stacey ran to either side of Ricky and Chad’s face off.
“I asked you a question, man, don’t you speak English?” Chad pressed so close to Ricky their faces were barely an inch apart. “Don’t test me, prick, I won’t hesitate to hit you.”
“The hell you will, Chad!” Stacey felt helpless that he couldn’t hear or see her.
“Dude,” Ricky laughed. “You need a tic tac.” At that comment Stacey let out a chuckle. Right as it seemed Chad was going to punch Ricky right in the Jaw Chazz came to the rescue.
“Everything ok in here?”
“Chazz!” Chad walked over to him. “What’re you doing here brother? Damn, what happened to you, you look nasty.” He grimaced at the look of his brother. “You look like one of them.”
“Oh he did not just say that!” Stacey turned to God and he pointed to have her keep watching the scene unfolding in front of her.
“Now what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Chad?” Chazz folded his arms and walked in front of Ricky and greeted him. “You alright, man?”
“Ya. I’m cool.” Which he obviously wasn’t.
“Hey man, give me a minute with my brother real fast?” Chazz asked. Ricky nodded and as he left the room rammed into Chad’s shoulder.
“That asshole’s days are numbered, I swear.”
“So are yours Chad, once I get out of a coma.” Stacey walked towards Chazz as he sat down next to her bed.
“What’s up, bro? I thought you were in Cali working on the investigation?” As Chazz sat and started talking to Stacey’s bedside Stacey sat next to him watching him closely. “Hey girl, it’s Chazz. I’ve been working like crazy trying to find Nicko for you-”
“His name is Michael.”
“His name is Nicholas, no matter how hard you try and change it!” Stacey was fuming at Chad but turned her attention back to Chazz as he continued to talk to her. “You know I love that little guy. He’s so smart and so damn cute… He looks like his daddy.”
“Michael doesn’t look anything like that dead beat!” Stacey was shocked at how fast Chad’s brother flew up and got in his face.
“You think you’re so slick don’t you? You think that just because you’re Chief of the mission that you can say and do whatever the hell you want. Well I’ve got news for you, brother, your luck has just run out.” Then he turned and sat back at Stacey’s hospital bed.
“What, my dear brother, are you talking about?”
“Everyone knew you had something to do with the disappearance of Nicholas. Even Stacey. Only difference is that Stacey actually believed you didn’t because you have this ‘fake’ investigation going on.”
She threw her head around and walked right up to Chad. “Fake? The investigation is fake?!”
“You thought you had it all worked out. You just made one little mistake and now Jethro is headed to the head council to prove your guilt. All we needed was one, minor, clue. We knew if we could come up with just a single piece of evidence against you that the head council would demote you and put you on probation if not have you exiled from the corporation. But just as Pops and I were losing hope on finding a loophole or anything tying you to Nicko’s disappearance something popped up on our GPS screen. And you’ll never guess what we saw.”
Stacey’s hands curled up into fists. “It was you?! YOU had my precious baby boy taken from his bed?! I’m going to kill you!” She went to throw her hands around his neck but as she did she found herself back in the field of daisies with God right behind her. “Take me back!” she started yelling at him. “Take me back so I can kill that son of a bitch for taking my son!” She couldn’t hold in her tears anymore so she just let them flow freely as all the emotion she had been trying to hide she ran up to God and grabbed his shirt.
“Let me go back, let me go!” She could hardly stand but God wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. And just let her cry. “Why? God, why would he do something like this?”
God brushed the tears from her face and placed the palm of his hand on her cheek. “You’re so trusting, Stacey, so much so that you can’t see when something so dark and sinister is standing right in front of you.” As more tears fell from her cheeks she bit her lip and shook her head. “Why couldn’t I see it before?”
“You didn’t want to.”
“So where is he? Where’s my baby?”
“With Chad’s sister. Samantha.”
Stacey gave a look of confusion. “Chad doesn’t have a sister… well he did but she died a few years ago.” She looked into the Father’s eyes and knew she was mistaken.
“She didn’t die years ago Stacey, but she will be dying tonight.”
She was bewildered. “How can you just know all of this and let it all happen?”
“I don’t let anything happen. People have free will and I can’t make them do things that they don’t want to. Just how I couldn’t make you see that your fiancé was an evil man until I showed you he was.”
“This just doesn’t make sense. Why would she agree to something like that?”
“She lost her job and was living in a bad apartment in a bad area of town, she became desperate to get out and when she asked Chad for help, he blackmailed her into kidnapping your son in order to get what she wanted. When she found it was too much for her to handle, she begged for my forgiveness. And she shall have it.”
She shook her head. “He never told me any of that. Why didn’t she call me or even Chazz?”
“Chad threatened to kill her if she tried to communicate to anyone outside of him. Chazz had no idea his sister was still out there until she activated your sons GPS that’s in his silver bracelet that you had on him.”
“But how would she know about that? I thought only Chad and I knew about that.”
“Samantha is a very bright woman. And that bracelet Chad gave to you before he knew that Nicholas wasn’t his, what did he say when he gave it to you?”
Her mind flashed back to when she had a very swollen belly and a different Chad standing in front of her. “Here I have something for you, baby. Close your eyes.”
She did as she was told with a grin on her face. Chad placed a little black velvet box in her hand as she opened her eyes and opened the box to see a little silver bracelet with the inscription ‘little miracle’ on the flat band of the bracelet.
“Oh, hun, it’s beautiful! But what’s this little black bump under here?” She flipped the bracelet to discover a black bump about the size of a pea.
“It’s a GPS. Our parents bought one for each of our kids before they passed away. All my siblings got one too.” He smiled and kissed her.
“All? You only have Chazz remember?” She laughed.
“Right, just Chazz.” He agreed and suddenly Stacey was back in the field once more.
Shocked she looked at God with the question in her eyes. “Yes, child,” he answered. “He knew even then that she wasn’t dead. And only Chazz, Samantha and Chad knew of the device.”
“So she turned it on on purpose then?”
God nodded. “She wanted to do the right thing, and knew that her brother that was good would be watching for it. I love you, my child.” He kissed her gently on the forehead. “But our time is up, three days is long enough to be in a coma.”
“Three days?! But there’s still so much I need to ask you about. How am I going to know where to find Nicholas?” Suddenly it seemed like a storm was swarming around her and steadily pulling her farther and farther from the sweet warm man that she felt safe with. “No! God, please just let me stay a little while longer, I’m not ready to face everything yet!”
He was already gone. And the storm was so loud she couldn’t bear it and covered her ears with her hands. “Clear!” She heard a woman yell and felt a painful jolt in her chest. “Clear!” She heard again. “Clear!”