Diane's Remembrance (Second Chance #4) (5 page)

“Tony, please don’t go. I promise I will send Karla away. I promise she won’t be a problem anymore.” I beg Tony as he walks down the steps of the apartment complex.

“Diane, I’m leaving and nothing you say will stop me. You’ll have to find yourself a new supplier. I’m done here.” He tells me as he walks out the door. When a tiny sports car screeches to a stop in front of the building Tony jumps in. Leanne waves as she pulls away and I know, in that moment, that I’ve lost.

I stormed up the stairs and fly through the door of my small apartment and run straight into the bedroom. When I open the draw where I keep the cash I am not surprised to find it empty. Tony had taken the rent money as payment from the last hit he’d gotten me.

I run out of my bedroom and down the hall to the small bathroom. As I run I shout to Karla. “Karla, get your butt in gear, we’ve got to go. Now!”

When Karla yells back I rolled my eyes and respond in my usual tone.

“Karla, let’s go. I don’t have time to deal with you right now, but when we get away from here you will be dealt with for taking that tone with me. I am your mother and I demand your respect. Now get in the car before I change my mind and just leave you here.”

Diane is pulled from her thoughts when Carol shakes her. “Thinking about Karla again?”

“Always am.” She answered quietly.

“You sure you wanna do this? You’re scheduled to get out in a few days and you could be with Karla again. But if you do this you’ll be in here a really long time.”

“I’m sure I want to do this. Karla doesn’t need someone like me in her life. When Dr. Peterson came to see me a couple weeks ago I was reminded that I’m not good for my baby girl. She has a good life now, with good people. She doesn’t need me coming back into her like and messing it up again.”

“So you’re going to give up on getting her back?” Carol asked in shock.

“Yep. She is happy and I have never been able to make her happy. All I’ve ever brought her is heartache and violence.”

“I know part of it, but do you wanna tell me more?”

“I let my thirteen year old daughter get raped and beaten by my drug dealer. I let her get beaten by different people, myself included, for almost six years. I was a horrible mother. I’m happy she has someone to look after her properly.”

“So you’re still on for tomorrow then?” 

“Yep. Now I think I want to lay here and rest. The delivery is in about twelve hours and I want to be as rested as possible.”

“Okay. I’ll leave you be.” Carol said and climbed into her bunk.

“Thanks.” Diane said and rolled over and faced the wall.

“Mom, I have to tell you something. Garrett had a woman here last night. They..umm…did it on your bed and then she left.”

Karla tells me while looking at the floor. I know she’s telling the truth, but I can’t let Garrett know that I know. “You stupid little liar. How dare you tell me this crap when you know good and well that Garrett didn’t do anything.”

“But he did, Mom. She had blonde hair and really big boobs. She was as tall as Garrett and had a tattoo of a snake on her butt.”

“You stupid little liar.” Garrett says as he comes up behind her and smacks her on the back of the head. “You didn’t see anything. You just don’t want your Mama to be happy.”

Garrett smacks her again and I turn my back on them. As Karla tries to crawl away from him I walk out of the apartment. I can’t stand to hear my baby girl being hurt, but I can’t bring myself to stop it either.

When I return a little while later Karla is huddled on her thin blanket in the corner and Garrett is passed out on the bed. I look at her for a minute and see that she is still breathing before I crawl into bed beside him. When he rolls over and wraps his arms around me I can see the bruises on his knuckles and realize he’d used his fists this time. Silent tears roll down my face as I think of the life Karla should have had. The life I would never be able to give her.

Diane woke with tears running down her cheeks. In just a few hours Karla’s life would be changed for the better. In just a few hours her girl would never know that kind of pain again.

“Carol, are you awake?” Diane asked and when Carol didn’t answer Diane knew she was sound asleep.

Diane dropped to her knees and folded her hands and prayed like she had ever prayed before.

“Dear Lord, I know I have absolutely no right to ask this, but I want you to watch over my girl. She has been put through hell by me, but I have always loved her the only way I have known how. She deserves the best out of life and she deserves to be happy. Keep her safe like I never did and please guide those who are caring for her. She is theirs now and I know she’ll never want for anything ever again. Thank you for keeping guiding her down the road you have. I know I will never get to meet you, but I know my sweet girl will. Thank you for everything. Amen.”

When she was finished Diane rose to her feet and sat on her bed. “Tomorrow it’ll all be over.”

“Garrett, stop!” I yell as he punches me repeatedly in the side.

“Tell me the truth.” He yells again as he punches my side hard.

“Stop!!” I hear Karla yell as she jumps on Garrett’s back, trying to get him to leave me alone. “I took it.”

“You little brat.” Garrett yells as he slings Karla against the wall. “How dare you steal from me.”

“I took it to get the food you just ate.” Karla tells him as she wraps her arms around herself.

“You liar. Your Mama brought that food home from the bar.” He slaps her hard across the face and she screams in pain. “I knew you were going to be trouble from the moment I saw you in the back seat of that car. Now your lies have caused us more trouble.” He pushes her down onto her blanket and turns toward the door.

“Garrett, don’t leave.” I beg as he opens the door and walks out. He turns to look at me for a second then walks out. Tears fill my eyes as I watch him leave. Once he’s gone I turn to where Karla is huddled in the corner. “You and your lies are always messing things up for me.”

Karla just sits there with her face buried in her knees as I rant at her. When I’m finished yelling I walk out the door and head to the bar where Garrett and I both work.

Diane opened her eyes and looked out the window of the cell. The sky was just starting to lighten and she moaned softly. Today was the day it all ended. Today was the day that Karla would finally be free.

“Mom, Garrett had a party last night. He had a bunch of people here and he had sex on your bed with more than one woman. I know you aren’t going to believe me, but you needed to know.” Karla tells me and I scowl at her. There’s no way I’m going to tell her that I already know about Garrett’s parties and his women. I can’t tell her that I am already suffering the ramifications of his excursions.

“You stupid little liar!” I yell and slap her face. “You are nothing but a trouble maker and I am so tired of your jealously and lies.” I slap her again.

Garrett walks up behind me and pushes me to the side. When his fist connects with her face I turn and walk out of the apartment. I can’t stand to see her hurt, but I can’t do anything to stop it. I hear Karla screaming down the hall, but I keep walking. I can’t help her.

I’m at work for about an hour before I see Garrett walk in. His knuckles are bruised and torn so I know he really hurt Karla this time. I can’t handle knowing my girl is laying in that apartment hurting. When Garrett goes into the bathroom I duck behind the bar and sneak out the back door.

When I silently enter the apartment I see Karla curled on her blanket and I walk over to her. She is breathing, but unconscious so I leave her there and head back to the bar. I seek out my supplier when I get there and pull him out the back door.

“Roger, I need a hit. I will do whatever I need to for it, but I have to have it now.”

“Oh, Diane, honey, you know what I want.” He tells me and I immediately reach for his belt. Once I free him I drop to my knees. Before I can do anything else I see flashing blue lights. Roger jerks away from me and takes off running, but I stay where I’m at. This is a good thing.

Diane’s eyes popped open at that last thought and she saw that the sun was fully up now. She looked at the time and noticed that she only had an hour before she had to be at the hospital to get the pills after the drug delivery. “Just enough time for breakfast”, she said out loud to herself and walked out of her cell. When she got to the cafeteria she smiled as she looked at what was for breakfast. “Not a bad last meal.” She whispered and took a seat at the table.

“Diane, you ready?” Carol asked as she sat beside Diane.

“I’m ready.” Diane reassured her and smiled wickedly. “I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”

“Good. Give me about fifteen minutes and you can make your move.”

“Works for me.” Diane said and stood from her seat. “I’m going to head back to our cell before anything starts. That way no one will question me coming out to see what’s going on.” Diane told her and when Carol nodded she walked away.

Once back in the cell Diane reached under her mattress and pulled out the small stack of letters she had written to Karla. She sat down on her cot and leafed through them for a second before she pulled out the first one she’d written and read it. This is the letter telling Karla about her father and how she came to be in this world. As she read it she wondered if Karla had been in contact with Alexander’s children. She assumed they would track him down, but even if they did she knew he was dead. She had searched for him when her parents died and had discovered he’d died in a car accident, which explained why he never followed through with his threat.

When she heard the commotion in the hall she knew it was time so she tucked the two letters she wanted Karla to get right away back under her mattress, laid the note to Carol on her pillow and tucked the other letters under Carol’s mattress. She hoped Carol could be trusted to do what she wanted her to do. She took a deep breath, wiped the tears from her cheeks and stepped into the common area just as Carol punched a guard.

Once everyone surrounded the fight she slipped past them and started walking quickly to the medical wing of the jail. When she slipped past the small nurse’s station no one even bothered to look up and she smiled. This was going to be a piece of cake.

She made it to the locked closet where all the drugs were kept and grinned and pulled a small key from her pocket. She looked at it for a second before she inserted it into the lock and opened the door. After checking the hall to make sure it was still empty she stepped into the small room and closed the door behind her.

As she looked around at all the different meds she searched out three that she knew would accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. When her eyes locked on them a sly grin crossed her face. She snatched the three bottles from the shelf and grabbed the small bottle of water she had taken from the cafeteria earlier from her pocket.

When she opened the first bottle she poured ten of the small pills out into her hand, tossed them into her mouth and took a drink of water to swallow them. Once they were down she poured out ten of the next pill and swallowed them down a few at a time. When she opened the last bottle her hands were shaking, but she took out ten of those as well and swallowed them quickly.

Once they were down she grabbed the first bottle and took five more, just for good measure then put all three bottles into her pocket. She knew she wasn’t going to make it back to her cell, but she wanted Carol to think she had at least tried to get the drugs to her.

She cracked open the door and looked around before she opened it fully and stumbled out. Before she made it five steps she collapsed. Her head hit the floor and her world went black.

****

“We pumped her stomach, but she isn’t waking up. Maybe we should contact her family.” Diane heard some say from afar.

No, no, no. no. My sweet Karla cannot see me like this. Please go away and let me die.
Diane thought as she strained to hear what the doctor was saying.

“She has a daughter, but I don’t know how to get in touch with her. Maybe if we contact Captain McGraw we can find out something. I know he visited her several times in the first two weeks she was inside.” It was Jason, one of the guards from the jail, who was talking. “I’ll give him a call and see if he knows how to contact her daughter.”   

NO!! I don’t want Karla here. She’ll know what happened soon enough and I don’t want her to see me like this.
Diane listened again, but didn’t hear them say anything else as they walked out the door. She knew she was dying and wished death would come already.

As thoughts filled her head she let them take over.

“Karla, Ann, where are you?” I say in a rough whisper. I can’t hear the men anymore, but I’m afraid they’re still close. I need to find my two best friends and we need to get out of here.

I open my eyes and can see the sun starting to rise over the lake and I know that we will be missed in just a little while. I also know the men are gone so I roll over onto my stomach and start crawling toward the cabins. I make it about five feet when my hand lands in something cold and sticky. When I look at my hand I see it’s covered in blood and I start screaming. I scream and scream and scream until arms wrap around me.

“Oh my, God.” I hear someone say in the distance. “Karla and Ann are dead.”

“NO!!!” I shout and start to pull out of the arms restraining me.

“Diane, honey, calm down. You’re hurt and we need to get you to the hospital.” I hear one of the camp representatives say softly, but I can’t calm down. My two best friends are dead and I should be too.