Star Bright (2 page)

She froze when she felt
something trail up over her long hair, leaving a tingling track of
cold fear. She hated being touched and if Ricky walked in and
spotted her, she would hate being touched even more, with a bruised
filled body.

Please don’t
touch me, please don’t touch me
, she
chanted in her head unable to utter a word, or move her paralyzed
limbs.

She inched her
head away and swallowed a whimper when the warm hand stroked her
hair on the side of her head.
This
couldn’t possibly be happening. Couldn’t he read the sign on the
wall, no touching the waitresses, that’s what it said and yet he
was doing the exact opposite or was he a selective
reader!

She felt her
chest tighten and her breath shorten as her mind kept chanting the
four words engraved in blood and fear in her mind and on her
body,
please don’t touch me, please don’t
touch me.

“
You smell as
good as you look?” the hoarse, scratchy voice whispered wetly in
her ear and echoed repeatedly in her mind, tightening every muscle
in her body in terror.

She forced her legs to
move and took a side step away from him counting the fear away as
she took in deep breathes to wake up the rest of her body. “Please
take a seat.” She managed to whisper with a shaky voice. She didn’t
dare turn to look at him, she couldn’t, and his voice was enough to
torture her.

She would always hear his
wet, hoarse voice uttering those words everywhere she went and with
every man she was forced to speak to. She wasn’t going to make it
worse by putting a face to it.

The man chuckled, taking
a seat opposite his friends. Maria kept her eyes on the table away
from her new ghost. She clutched her fingers as a small fiery
temper boiled inside her.

Great! He
just had to laugh, that’s going to haunt me too! Why don’t I just
look at him and complete the package.

She blinked back her
tears and bit her lips together. The fire inside her was quickly
turning in to pity. She hated her life and herself even more. She
was such a coward for letting herself get to this point. A
spineless, cowardly chicken too scared to get out of the hail storm
thundering down on her.

Maria took a deep breath
then took out her notebook, pulling herself out of the pity hole
she so often spent most of her time in, long enough to put on a
fake smile and take their order. “What would you like to
have?”

One of the men looked her
over, undressing the little clothes she had on with his eyes.
“You.” he blurted out.

“
I’m not on the
menu.” She responded turning around and walking to the back room.
She pulled her jacket out of her locker and shrugged it on. She sat
down on the bench with her purse held on her lap, silently waiting
for Jane to finish up so they could go home. She knew she would get
into trouble for leaving those jerks unattended, but that would be
child’s play compared to what Ricky would do if he walked in and
found her with them.

Maria took a deep breath
and fought the urge to look around the diner for Ricky, fearing he
might at any second attack her for the idiotic remark. The thought
of another beating sent a cold chill down her back and it also made
her angry that she lived in constant fear. She hated men. If she
could, she would take them all out, starting with Ricky, then this
asshole at her table and then maybe find her dad and kill him too.
If he bothered to visit once in a while, he would have taken care
of Ricky like a father should and she would finally breathe
easy.

She hated men.

All men.

Every single
one.

They were like roaches
infesting the world, never dying. And if one did, another one would
be born to replace it and pick up the trend of objectifying,
hurting and using women like toilet paper.

Michael was a child, so
he didn’t count.

Chapter Two

In New York, Dave paced
his compact office, thinking of the best argument for his pro bono
client. She was fighting her rich ex-husband and his new trophy
wife for custody of their children. He was shocked at how
incompetent or corrupt her previous lawyer was. He had been
incapable of getting her out of the weak prenuptial agreement she’d
signed, and had allowed her to sign an iron clad postnuptial
agreement during their separation. She left the marriage penniless
and now her ex-husband wanted to take the only thing she had left,
her children.

Dave sat back at his desk
in a huff, “That quack gives lawyers a bad image.”

As he again went through
all the contracts his client had signed, he heard a knock on his
door before it swung open.

“
Dave, there is
a Sharon on the line for you.”

Dave looked up from his
paper work and stared at his secretary. She was half in the office,
her red hair hanging loosely against her shoulder as she smiled at
him sweetly. Dave had noticed the efforts Carol went to, to make
herself attractive to him, but he didn’t dare suggest that he
noticed, which was difficult. He looked at her, “Who’s
Sharon?”

She moved in from behind
the door, her left leg slightly lifted to cross her right,
accentuating her long legs further and she smiled wider. She
thought the short skirt wasn’t doing its job right. But it was,
Dave who just didn’t have the energy to juggle an affair, a
difficult wife, his work load, court cases and a one year old baby.
He was stretched out enough, now that he was garnering for senior
partner.

“
Sharon is your
new nanny. She says it’s six and she needs to leave. Mrs. Greer
isn’t home.” she said Mrs. Greer with noticeable distaste. Dave
gave her a cutting look, but he didn’t reproach her. He had two
women in his life, his wife and his secretary and he was already at
war with one of them and Amy was enough.

He began packing his
paper work but left them, he didn’t have time if he was to get home
to his daughter, just in case the new nanny decided to leave. He
picked up his jacket and his briefcase and rushed for the door, but
Carol blocked his way and stared up at him with seductive eyes.
“Please pack my paper work and put them on my desk. I’ll be back
early tomorrow to finish up.” he pulled the door open wider, but
she moved and stood smack in the middle of the door way.

“
Anything to
make your life less stressful,” She raised her hand and wrapped his
blue tie around her finger, “Is there anything else I can do for
you?”

Dave looked at her,
tempted to throw her on the office desk and ravish her and just
unknot his body. She was asking for it and he did need a good shag
to relax, but his daughter needed him, “I’ll let you know,” he
pulled his tie out of her hold and gently pushed her aside, “Right
now I need to get to my daughter.”

It took him eight minutes
to get to the office parking, way too long for him. He pulled the
car out and drove as fast as possible to his Manhattan home. All he
could think about was the stranger taking care of his daughter and
how instantly she could turn out to be a kidnapper. He resented his
wife and how irresponsible she could be. This was one of the times
he felt sure that she didn’t care about their daughter at
all.

Dave married Amy fresh
out of college. They were in love, at least he was. She just loved
the idea of being the wife of a future big shot lawyer, which he
presently was. She had a law degree but she opted not to work, she
wanted to have fun while she was still young and Dave was earning
good money in his first two years as a lawyer. They traveled, went
to exotic places, tried out new things, went skiing, mountain
climbing and partied, they had a wonderful, never ending honeymoon.
They were the ‘IT’ young couple everyone wanted to be, until she
got pregnant, and then everything was shot to hell.

She got completely
hysterical when she found out. She didn’t want a baby, she didn’t
want to get fat and loose her figure and she most certainly didn’t
want to stop enjoying life to take care of a child. She said she
was too young to be a mother at the age of twenty eight, which Dave
found ridiculous, but he always chocked all her complaints up to
hormones and the fear of being a new mother. Dave was scared too,
but he was excited about being a father, he always wanted children
and he looked forward to it. He only figured out that she was
serious when a clinic called to confirm an appointment for her
abortion. He got so furious, they fought the whole night about it,
she got erratically fumed when she found out he cancelled her
appointment. She threatened to leave him if he didn’t let her do
it, he promised to have her arrested for murder and he would
personally work the case against her and make sure she got twenty
to life. She didn’t doubt he would, he’d managed to win cases that
seemed impossible on several occasions. That marked the end of the
argument and their relationship. She moved out of their room, and
for the next seven months they barely even spoke.

Once their daughter was
born, he thought he would get his wife back, but he got just the
opposite, a more resentful woman who hated him for chaining her
down with a baby. From the moment she first held their daughter, he
could see the anger and resentment she had for the infant and in
that same moment, he stopped loving the wife he once
worshipped.

He pulled into his drive
way to find a strange woman standing at the door. He got out of the
car and walked towards her, praying that she was Sharon and not an
eye witness to his daughter’s kidnapping. When he got closer she
smiled at him, he just stared at her, not at all sure if he should
return the smile or not. He did. Just in case it was Sharon. She
must have met his wife and he didn’t want her to think they were
both sore.

“
Mr. Greer?”
Dave nodded waiting for bad news. In his line of work, there was
always bad news. She extended her hand to him, her smile widened,
“I’m Sharon.”

Dave let go of a relieved
breath and shook her hand, “Nice to meet you,” He looked at her
properly, she looked sixteen, “Thanks for watching my daughter.” He
ushered her inside and closed the door behind him. He caught her
staring at him, a naughty gleam in her eyes.

“
I could stay a
while until your wife comes back.” Her smile widened. She looked at
him, appreciating what she saw. Dave was handsome and had a face
that pulled attention to him. Amy used to say that his blue eyes
hypnotized her, but she didn’t like the fact he had changed his
brunette, boyish hair cut, to a more mature cut. She didn’t like
mature. Dave was attractively tall and lean. He didn’t take the
time to work out, but his eventful life kept him well in
shape.

He put his briefcase down
and took off his jacket. He was too tired for another seduction
attempt especially from jail bait, “How much do I owe
you?”

She swung on her heels
and stared at him under her lashes, “How about I come back tomorrow
and we can discuss that then?”

“
Before or
after your parents get me arrested for statutory rape?” he smiled
at her surprised reaction. He took out a hundred dollar bill from
his wallet and gave it to her, “Thank you. Where is my
daughter?”

“
She’s upstairs
in her crib.” She picked up her jacket and walked to the door. Dave
was about to go upstairs before she stopped him, “Mr. Greer, as a
child speaking on behalf of another child, you need to find someone
who’ll always be with Elizabeth. Your wife left the door wide open
with a note pinned on it. It’s a good thing I got here when I did.”
she opened the door and left.

Dave stood there for a
minute consumed with anger. He hated Amy more now than he ever did
before. He rushed upstairs to his daughter’s room, she was sound
asleep in her crib, looking like the little angel that she was. He
felt guilty of how her mother didn’t love her, the only thing he
could do was love her for the both of them. He wanted to divorce
Amy, but he knew she would fight for full custody just to hurt him,
then she would leave her with more strangers who might not turn out
to be as good as Sharon. The thought of losing his daughter, to any
one, especially Amy, was a nightmare he was not willing to live.
There was nothing else to do and there was no visible option yet,
apart from staying married to the witch.

Chapter
Three

Maria watched Jane drive
away before she went into her home. Edna was wonderful enough to
take care of both their kids while they were at work. She went into
her son’s room to watch him sleep, she loved doing that, it gave
her the peace that she badly needed. She went to his bed and sat
down next to him. Edna always said he looked like Miguel, but Maria
could see some traces of Ricky and she hated it. He had his brown
eyes, his chin and a stare that scared her when he got mad because
she could see more of Ricky in it than her beautiful son, but the
rest he got from her or Miguel.

She reached down and
kissed his forehead. He stirred awake and turned to face her, his
fists rubbing his sleepy eyes, “Mama.” he whispered.

“
Hi honey, go
back to sleep.” She pulled the covers higher under his arms. He
stretched his arms out for a hug. Maria bent down and held her son
tightly against her. She loved him so much, she was sure it was
what kept her alive.