CHAPTER 13
Martin had a hard time sleeping the night of Shelby's phone call. He got up early Monday morning and took a jump flight to Seattle. His first stop from the airport was the police station. When he got inside and inquired about his son, he found out that he was no longer there. He asked for all the paper work regarding the incident and they made a copy for him. He than called the hotel and found out that Scott and Shelby had already checked out and were headed home. The only choice he had now was to head home himself and face the problem head on.
Scott and Shelby arrived back at the Barringer house Monday morning. They were running a day late but with all that had happened, it was to be expected. They decided to skip school since they would have missed the first two hours anyhow. Scott took their suitcases upstairs and put them both in his bedroom. He couldn't believe that Shelby could actually stay in his bedroom now with him.
He heard Shelby yell for him to come downstairs so that they could open up all the wedding gifts that they had received. It was almost like Christmas with all the excitement of opening all the packages. Scott just sat back and watched Shelby really getting into the scene. She had to make pros and cons about everything that they had received. Most of the stuff they got they couldn't use until they had a place of their own so a lot of the stuff had to be stored away.
Martin had gone right back to the airport to catch the next flight back home. He decided that while he was waiting that he would kill time reading the police report that was given to him. He was slouched over being comfortable in his chair when he got to the part about why the man had approached Shelby. He practically bolted out of his chair. Right there in black and white it confessed what Shelby had done for a living at one time in her life. If there had been a wall in front of him, Martin would have put his fist right threw it. This was going to be one hell of a long flight home until he could get home and get his hands on his son.
After lunch, Scott and Shelby were relaxing in front of the TV since they never got the chance to do it back at the hotel room. They were snuggled up together watching some romantic comedy when the front door swung open and in pounced Martin. Without saying a word he grabbed Scott by the arm and dragged him into the den slamming the door behind him. He shoved Scott into a chair and threw the police report at him.
"Well hello to you too dad!"
"How much do you really know about the girl that you married?"
"What? Is this a trick question dad? What are you talking about?"
"Do you know why the guy that you assaulted was hitting on Shelby?"
Scott was starting to get where his dad was going with the questions. "Because he was a perverted asshole looking for a free fuck."
"Exactly. And why do you think that of any girl at the hotel that day that he just happened to have singled out Shelby?"
Scott felt like kicking himself because he had set himself up for that one. "Ok, so you just happen to find out some past history about Shelby. SO WHAT?"
"Well you've got great taste in women SCOTT."
The conversation was beginning to get louder and louder as each one tried to out shout the other one. "YEAH, WELL MAYBE I SHOULD BE ENVIOUS SINCE YOU JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE MARRIED A PEDOPHILE CHILD MOLESTER."
Martin turned sharply and backhanded Scott across the face so hard that it made his lip split open and bleed. "There is a difference between marrying someone that you don't know everything about and marrying someone when you did. My son will not be married to a prostitute."
Scott was wiping his mouth with the back of his shirtsleeve. "What are you getting Alzheimer's dad? I've already married her and theirs nothing you can do about it now."
"Don't get to comfortable with the new bride because I'm going to have your marriage annulled as soon as I can."
"You can't do that."
"I can and I will."
Scott got up to leave the room and Martin grabbed his arm. "Where do you think you are going?" Scott jerked his arm away and got right into his father's face. "I'm leaving and I'm taking my wife with me."
"You're not leaving anywhere. I still have custody of you and you haven't finished school yet."
"If you have this marriage annulled than I will have nothing to do with you for as long as I live. Don't forget that she is still having my baby."
"Are you 100% sure that it is your baby? How do you know that she wasn't sleeping around?"
Scott gave his dad a discussed look. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that." He turned and walked out of the room. He walked over to Shelby who was sitting in the living room trying to figure out what all the yelling was about. Scott's mother looked at him and knew that something was wrong.
"Scott what's wrong? What happened?"
"I can honestly say that I actually hate my father sometimes. I can't stay here mom. Shelby and I can't stay here."
"What do you mean you can't stay here? Where will you go? Both of you are still in school and Scott you don't have a job. Tell me what happened and I'm sure that we can work things out."
"Mom you don't understand. Dad has this pride thing going for him and he can't face the fact that neither Shelby nor I are perfect. He found out about Shelby's past and he can't accept it so he wants to have our marriage annulled."
"Scott just go upstairs and calm down. Nothings going to happen to your marriage. I'll go and talk to your father and we will work things out. Don't do anything drastic just yet. Think real hard about this. You have no money and you will need to provide your Shelby and the baby. It's best that you stay here and we will work things out."
Susan went to go find Martin and discuss things with him. Scott looked over at Shelby and saw the ashamed look on her face. Her head was down and he saw a single tear drop slide slowly down the side of her right cheek. He went over and wrapped his arms around her and ushered her upstairs. They walked into the bedroom and Scott sat her down on the bed. He knelt down in front of her and tried to console her.
"Don't worry about what my dad thinks Shelby. It doesn't matter. I love you and that's all I care about."
"You don't understand Scott. This is twice now that my past has come back to haunt me. Maybe it's best if you don't have anything to do with me. You'll be able to live your life without always having to look over your shoulder at my sins."
"Why so I can live alone with myself and my own sins? No thank you. We both have a past and I remember us both saying that we vowed to love and honor each other in good times and in bad times. Have you forgotten our wedding vows already? We just said them three days ago."
Shelby reached up and grabbed Scott around the neck for a huge hug. "I love you Scott. I just don't think that I deserve you sometimes."
"Everything will be alright. I just need to make a phone call. You look tired. Why don't you rest for now and I'll talk with you later." He planted a nice kiss on her waiting lips and laid her down on his bed. He pulled the comforter over her and walked out of the room.
Scott went downstairs to see how much success his mother had at talking to his father. She told him that things would be stressed for awhile but he would eventually come around. He had to leave to go into the office and they would all three sit down tonight and talk about things. Scott decided that he didn't want to hear about what his father would say later. He was going to take matters into his own hands and he called his grandfather.
He asked his grandfather about what it actually meant for him to own stock in the company and what was expected of him in order to get a monthly salary. He got all the details even down to the exact pay that he would get. The only stipulation regarding all this was that Scott couldn't be eligible for any of this until after he turned 18 years old. Edward sensed that something was wrong and that's why Scott was asking a lot of questions. When he confronted Scott, he related the whole scenario back to him. His grandfather told him that he would help him out. He had to make some phone calls and he would be back in touch with Scott later.
An hour and a half passed when the phone rang again. Scott hurried and answered it before anyone else in the house could. His grandfather laid out the perfect solution for Scott and Shelby. He bought a nearby condominium and told Scott that he and Shelby could move in anytime. All the paper work was done through fax and all he had to do was go down to the front office and pick up the key. Edward would take care of the monthly utilities and he would send Scott a check every two weeks in order to buy groceries and anything else they might need. He was sending Scott a Platinum Visa Card to purchase anything he needed to furnish the condo. There were only three rules that Edward made Scott promise to keep in order to live in his own place. First was that he would continue to go to school everyday and maintain at least a B average. Second was that he needed to respect the place and not tear it up and third was that he needed to remember to act like an adult now and be a responsible person. Once Scott agreed to those terms than he was own his own.
Susan had gone shopping which was perfect for Scott because it would make leaving a lot easier. He went upstairs to wake Shelby.
"Shelby I've got a surprise for you. You need to help me pack as much as we can. You pack the clothes and I'll go put all the gifts into the car."
Shelby sat on the bed still a little groggy from being wakened up. "What happened. Did your dad really throw us out?"
"No. Do you trust me? I told you that I've got a big surprise for you so you need to hurry before my mom comes back from shopping."
Shelby obeyed without another question because she did trust Scott with all her life. Once they were finished loading as much as they could in their car than Scott proceeded to the address that his grandfather had given them. It was only 3 miles away from the School so Scott found it pretty convenient. Scott pulled his car into the parking lot and told Shelby that he would be right back. The curiosity was killing her and it seemed like forever before her new husband came back. He came back grinning from ear to ear.
"Ok you're really enjoying yourself here. You want to share the excitement that I see in your face."
"Do you still trust me?"
"I'm here aren't I?"
"Ok than you have to come with me." He took her by the hand as he looked for the apartment number that would soon be their new home. When he found it, he took out the key and gave it to Shelby.
"What's this?" she questioned him with confusion.
"This my dear wife is our new home. Just yours and mine. No mothers and no fathers to tell us what to do any more. We are now officially on our own. Are you going to stand outside all day or are you going to open the door?"
Shelby took the key and inserted it into the keyhole. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. They stepped into a beautiful but vacant apartment that was spacious with cathedral ceilings. It had a nice balcony that over looked a pond and a step down living room. It had one mater bedroom and another smaller one that would become the baby's room some day. At first Shelby just stood there with her mouth and eyes wide open. She turned to Scott and asked, "Is this really ours?"
"Every last square foot." Shelby than took off running from room to room saying, "Scott look at this and look at that."
Scott got a big kick out of her little girl attitude. This was one side of Shelby that he had never seen before. He walked into the master bedroom and saw Shelby standing in the middle of the room with her hands wide open. "Look how much room we have. My living room at home wasn't this big. We could put a king size bed in here."
"You could put a swinging trapeze in here if you want to. This is your home and you can do what ever you want to with it. I'm going to leave all the decorating up to you."
"How did you pull this off? I can't believe your father would . . .
Wait a minute. Did I hear you say earlier that we needed to hurry up and leave before your parents got home?" Scott nodded his head. "Than they don't know about this do they?" Scott shook his head no. "But how than?"
"My grandfather. I kind of forgot to tell you about a wedding present that he gave us on the airplane when you were asleep."
"Keep talking, I'm listening."
"Well it appears that he gave us 5% stock in his company. We now make 5% of his millions a year. It doesn't go into effect until I turn 18 but he decided to help us out until that time comes."
"You're going to have to work for him when you turn 18 aren't you?" The excitement was going out of her voice now.
"Well not exactly. He wants me to go to college first and then we'll see."
"But Scott don't you see. He isn't doing all this for nothing. He will expect something from you in return at some time in your life."
"And what's wrong with that? You're starting to sound like my father."
"Maybe it's because your father seems to know more about what your grandfather is capable of than you. Are you forgetting that he kidnapped you and then held you prisoner by making threats against me? I know you mean well Scott but you seem to be going through this with blinders on."
"Shelby, my dad was going to get our marriage annulled. My grandfather puts us up in our own home so that we can stay together. What choice would you have made?"
"Ok Scott. I'm sorry. I do trust you and your instincts. I just want you to know that if all this backfires one day than I'll still stay by your side and support you."
"Thank you. What do you say? Shall we christen our new bedroom?"
"But there's no bed in here yet."
"That just gives us more room to roll around." They started kissing and ended up dropping to the floor as they made passionate love for the first time in their home.
Martin had a hard time sleeping the night of Shelby's phone call. He got up early Monday morning and took a jump flight to Seattle. His first stop from the airport was the police station. When he got inside and inquired about his son, he found out that he was no longer there. He asked for all the paper work regarding the incident and they made a copy for him. He than called the hotel and found out that Scott and Shelby had already checked out and were headed home. The only choice he had now was to head home himself and face the problem head on.
Scott and Shelby arrived back at the Barringer house Monday morning. They were running a day late but with all that had happened, it was to be expected. They decided to skip school since they would have missed the first two hours anyhow. Scott took their suitcases upstairs and put them both in his bedroom. He couldn't believe that Shelby could actually stay in his bedroom now with him.
He heard Shelby yell for him to come downstairs so that they could open up all the wedding gifts that they had received. It was almost like Christmas with all the excitement of opening all the packages. Scott just sat back and watched Shelby really getting into the scene. She had to make pros and cons about everything that they had received. Most of the stuff they got they couldn't use until they had a place of their own so a lot of the stuff had to be stored away.
Martin had gone right back to the airport to catch the next flight back home. He decided that while he was waiting that he would kill time reading the police report that was given to him. He was slouched over being comfortable in his chair when he got to the part about why the man had approached Shelby. He practically bolted out of his chair. Right there in black and white it confessed what Shelby had done for a living at one time in her life. If there had been a wall in front of him, Martin would have put his fist right threw it. This was going to be one hell of a long flight home until he could get home and get his hands on his son.
After lunch, Scott and Shelby were relaxing in front of the TV since they never got the chance to do it back at the hotel room. They were snuggled up together watching some romantic comedy when the front door swung open and in pounced Martin. Without saying a word he grabbed Scott by the arm and dragged him into the den slamming the door behind him. He shoved Scott into a chair and threw the police report at him.
"Well hello to you too dad!"
"How much do you really know about the girl that you married?"
"What? Is this a trick question dad? What are you talking about?"
"Do you know why the guy that you assaulted was hitting on Shelby?"
Scott was starting to get where his dad was going with the questions. "Because he was a perverted asshole looking for a free fuck."
"Exactly. And why do you think that of any girl at the hotel that day that he just happened to have singled out Shelby?"
Scott felt like kicking himself because he had set himself up for that one. "Ok, so you just happen to find out some past history about Shelby. SO WHAT?"
"Well you've got great taste in women SCOTT."
The conversation was beginning to get louder and louder as each one tried to out shout the other one. "YEAH, WELL MAYBE I SHOULD BE ENVIOUS SINCE YOU JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE MARRIED A PEDOPHILE CHILD MOLESTER."
Martin turned sharply and backhanded Scott across the face so hard that it made his lip split open and bleed. "There is a difference between marrying someone that you don't know everything about and marrying someone when you did. My son will not be married to a prostitute."
Scott was wiping his mouth with the back of his shirtsleeve. "What are you getting Alzheimer's dad? I've already married her and theirs nothing you can do about it now."
"Don't get to comfortable with the new bride because I'm going to have your marriage annulled as soon as I can."
"You can't do that."
"I can and I will."
Scott got up to leave the room and Martin grabbed his arm. "Where do you think you are going?" Scott jerked his arm away and got right into his father's face. "I'm leaving and I'm taking my wife with me."
"You're not leaving anywhere. I still have custody of you and you haven't finished school yet."
"If you have this marriage annulled than I will have nothing to do with you for as long as I live. Don't forget that she is still having my baby."
"Are you 100% sure that it is your baby? How do you know that she wasn't sleeping around?"
Scott gave his dad a discussed look. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that." He turned and walked out of the room. He walked over to Shelby who was sitting in the living room trying to figure out what all the yelling was about. Scott's mother looked at him and knew that something was wrong.
"Scott what's wrong? What happened?"
"I can honestly say that I actually hate my father sometimes. I can't stay here mom. Shelby and I can't stay here."
"What do you mean you can't stay here? Where will you go? Both of you are still in school and Scott you don't have a job. Tell me what happened and I'm sure that we can work things out."
"Mom you don't understand. Dad has this pride thing going for him and he can't face the fact that neither Shelby nor I are perfect. He found out about Shelby's past and he can't accept it so he wants to have our marriage annulled."
"Scott just go upstairs and calm down. Nothings going to happen to your marriage. I'll go and talk to your father and we will work things out. Don't do anything drastic just yet. Think real hard about this. You have no money and you will need to provide your Shelby and the baby. It's best that you stay here and we will work things out."
Susan went to go find Martin and discuss things with him. Scott looked over at Shelby and saw the ashamed look on her face. Her head was down and he saw a single tear drop slide slowly down the side of her right cheek. He went over and wrapped his arms around her and ushered her upstairs. They walked into the bedroom and Scott sat her down on the bed. He knelt down in front of her and tried to console her.
"Don't worry about what my dad thinks Shelby. It doesn't matter. I love you and that's all I care about."
"You don't understand Scott. This is twice now that my past has come back to haunt me. Maybe it's best if you don't have anything to do with me. You'll be able to live your life without always having to look over your shoulder at my sins."
"Why so I can live alone with myself and my own sins? No thank you. We both have a past and I remember us both saying that we vowed to love and honor each other in good times and in bad times. Have you forgotten our wedding vows already? We just said them three days ago."
Shelby reached up and grabbed Scott around the neck for a huge hug. "I love you Scott. I just don't think that I deserve you sometimes."
"Everything will be alright. I just need to make a phone call. You look tired. Why don't you rest for now and I'll talk with you later." He planted a nice kiss on her waiting lips and laid her down on his bed. He pulled the comforter over her and walked out of the room.
Scott went downstairs to see how much success his mother had at talking to his father. She told him that things would be stressed for awhile but he would eventually come around. He had to leave to go into the office and they would all three sit down tonight and talk about things. Scott decided that he didn't want to hear about what his father would say later. He was going to take matters into his own hands and he called his grandfather.
He asked his grandfather about what it actually meant for him to own stock in the company and what was expected of him in order to get a monthly salary. He got all the details even down to the exact pay that he would get. The only stipulation regarding all this was that Scott couldn't be eligible for any of this until after he turned 18 years old. Edward sensed that something was wrong and that's why Scott was asking a lot of questions. When he confronted Scott, he related the whole scenario back to him. His grandfather told him that he would help him out. He had to make some phone calls and he would be back in touch with Scott later.
An hour and a half passed when the phone rang again. Scott hurried and answered it before anyone else in the house could. His grandfather laid out the perfect solution for Scott and Shelby. He bought a nearby condominium and told Scott that he and Shelby could move in anytime. All the paper work was done through fax and all he had to do was go down to the front office and pick up the key. Edward would take care of the monthly utilities and he would send Scott a check every two weeks in order to buy groceries and anything else they might need. He was sending Scott a Platinum Visa Card to purchase anything he needed to furnish the condo. There were only three rules that Edward made Scott promise to keep in order to live in his own place. First was that he would continue to go to school everyday and maintain at least a B average. Second was that he needed to respect the place and not tear it up and third was that he needed to remember to act like an adult now and be a responsible person. Once Scott agreed to those terms than he was own his own.
Susan had gone shopping which was perfect for Scott because it would make leaving a lot easier. He went upstairs to wake Shelby.
"Shelby I've got a surprise for you. You need to help me pack as much as we can. You pack the clothes and I'll go put all the gifts into the car."
Shelby sat on the bed still a little groggy from being wakened up. "What happened. Did your dad really throw us out?"
"No. Do you trust me? I told you that I've got a big surprise for you so you need to hurry before my mom comes back from shopping."
Shelby obeyed without another question because she did trust Scott with all her life. Once they were finished loading as much as they could in their car than Scott proceeded to the address that his grandfather had given them. It was only 3 miles away from the School so Scott found it pretty convenient. Scott pulled his car into the parking lot and told Shelby that he would be right back. The curiosity was killing her and it seemed like forever before her new husband came back. He came back grinning from ear to ear.
"Ok you're really enjoying yourself here. You want to share the excitement that I see in your face."
"Do you still trust me?"
"I'm here aren't I?"
"Ok than you have to come with me." He took her by the hand as he looked for the apartment number that would soon be their new home. When he found it, he took out the key and gave it to Shelby.
"What's this?" she questioned him with confusion.
"This my dear wife is our new home. Just yours and mine. No mothers and no fathers to tell us what to do any more. We are now officially on our own. Are you going to stand outside all day or are you going to open the door?"
Shelby took the key and inserted it into the keyhole. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. They stepped into a beautiful but vacant apartment that was spacious with cathedral ceilings. It had a nice balcony that over looked a pond and a step down living room. It had one mater bedroom and another smaller one that would become the baby's room some day. At first Shelby just stood there with her mouth and eyes wide open. She turned to Scott and asked, "Is this really ours?"
"Every last square foot." Shelby than took off running from room to room saying, "Scott look at this and look at that."
Scott got a big kick out of her little girl attitude. This was one side of Shelby that he had never seen before. He walked into the master bedroom and saw Shelby standing in the middle of the room with her hands wide open. "Look how much room we have. My living room at home wasn't this big. We could put a king size bed in here."
"You could put a swinging trapeze in here if you want to. This is your home and you can do what ever you want to with it. I'm going to leave all the decorating up to you."
"How did you pull this off? I can't believe your father would . . .
Wait a minute. Did I hear you say earlier that we needed to hurry up and leave before your parents got home?" Scott nodded his head. "Than they don't know about this do they?" Scott shook his head no. "But how than?"
"My grandfather. I kind of forgot to tell you about a wedding present that he gave us on the airplane when you were asleep."
"Keep talking, I'm listening."
"Well it appears that he gave us 5% stock in his company. We now make 5% of his millions a year. It doesn't go into effect until I turn 18 but he decided to help us out until that time comes."
"You're going to have to work for him when you turn 18 aren't you?" The excitement was going out of her voice now.
"Well not exactly. He wants me to go to college first and then we'll see."
"But Scott don't you see. He isn't doing all this for nothing. He will expect something from you in return at some time in your life."
"And what's wrong with that? You're starting to sound like my father."
"Maybe it's because your father seems to know more about what your grandfather is capable of than you. Are you forgetting that he kidnapped you and then held you prisoner by making threats against me? I know you mean well Scott but you seem to be going through this with blinders on."
"Shelby, my dad was going to get our marriage annulled. My grandfather puts us up in our own home so that we can stay together. What choice would you have made?"
"Ok Scott. I'm sorry. I do trust you and your instincts. I just want you to know that if all this backfires one day than I'll still stay by your side and support you."
"Thank you. What do you say? Shall we christen our new bedroom?"
"But there's no bed in here yet."
"That just gives us more room to roll around." They started kissing and ended up dropping to the floor as they made passionate love for the first time in their home.