Ok, I have no idea what happened with the whole third chapter becoming the first chapter, (yeah….I'm new) but it's fixed now….I think….if not, let me know and I will once again challenge the technology gods….
Disclaimer: still, in no way, my creation…although, I at times, tend to pretend they are…
I hope you enjoy this one….thanks so much for all the tips and kind wordsjust to let you all know, I too am excited to figure out the reason behind the attack….it's still a mystery on my side….
Let it all begin….drum roll?
CHAPTER FOUR: Daddy Dearest
"Sanford Cohen. I swear to god if you hurt one hair on my daughter's head, I will kill you."
He heard the booming voice from down the hall. Sandy had stepped out of her room to grab a cup of the lukewarm coffee.
Caleb.
He never called Caleb.
Caleb had found out on his own. That man never missed a beat in this town.
"Sandy I mean it," The old man approached him with the force of a prowling lion.
"Where is Kirsten? I want to know why I was woken up by the Newport Daily asking for information about my family's welfare."
Caleb was standing directly across from him. He was looking at the man with pure vengeance.
"Sandy I called and no one answered. I stopped by the house. I saw the yellow tape. I was turned away by one of the officers. They told me you were here."
"Yeah."
"Yeah? That's all you have to say? Where's Kirsten?"
"Caleb, before you go and see her, you need to calm down."
Calm down? What had happened to his daughter?
Caleb stared directly at his son-in-law. The man looked 20 years older then he had two days ago. He was not smiling. He was not being the smooth Sandy Cohen, Caleb had quickly learned to loathe.
Caleb knew something was very wrong. He once again looked at Sandy.
His voice quieter, more patient, but still filled with urgency, "Where is my daughter?"
"Some people." Sandy's voice cracked.
"Some people broke into the house last night. Kirsten was home alone."
Home alone. Caleb thought. Alone.
"They were there for her."
What? For her?
"Excuse me?" Caleb did not understand what Sandy was implying.
Sandy had a hard time continuing. He'd never actually been physically afraid of Caleb. But Sandy knew, when it came to his daughter, Caleb's gloves were off.
"They attacked her. Tied her up."
Caleb could feel an immense amount of anger rising within him. He tried to take a breath. He bit his lip. He looked at Sandy with contempt.
"Caleb, they raped her."
Raped her.
His daughter.
He didn't know how to respond. He felt dizzy. He felt a pang in his heart that he hadn't felt in years.
Was he having another heart attack?
No. This was different.
Caleb recognized it.
It was pure, raw pain.
It wasn't sugar coated and rational.
It was a feeling he had only gotten once before.
The day his wife died.
Seth had cried with his mother for over an hour.
Neither saying anything. Neither moving.
Just crying.
His eyes were sore, puffy and red. There was no way he could cover it up, but Seth didn't care. From this moment on he would gladly shout to the world his love for his mother and that yes, he did cry with her.
He would do it all over again.
His father had walked in on them. He looked at his son, he looked at his wife and he walked out.
Seth had wished he would have stayed.
He couldn't imagine what his father was thinking, feeling.
Seth knew his father's world revolved around his mother.
He knew his father was boiling with rage.
He felt it too.
They kept it in. For her sake.
But Seth wondered.
Was she angry too?
"Mom, I'm going to go kick some ass." He tried to bring some humor in the emotionally dripped room. She smiled at him, whipping away the last of her tears.
"Seth, don't say ass and no you are not." Even in her moment of weakness, raising her son right was the utmost importance.
He cuddled up against her, doing his best to not hurt her in anyway. He held her like she used to do with him.
"Mom, I love you."
He had all the money in the world and yet no amount would make this disappear from her life.
"They did it to hurt me." Sandy spoke quietly. His head bowed to the ground. Playing with the paper cup in his hands, he looked to his father in law.
"What do you mean to hurt you? They should have just shot you. She did nothing."
Caleb was right. He wished they had just shot him.
"They left a note." Sandy told him the whole story…at least the parts that he knew.
Caleb sat in silence the entire time.
"Sandy, so help me God. If my daughter did not love you so much…"
Caleb stood up and began to pace around the already small waiting room.
The sharpness of his words caught Sandy off guard. He could tell Caleb was in an extreme mode of destruction.
"What are they doing for her?"
"Caleb, she hasn't slept much. She's exhausted, physically and mentally. The doctors are giving her as much medicine as they can. Seth's in with her now."
Caleb kicked the metal garbage can, trying to gear his anger towards anything other then Sandy's head.
He was trying so hard to process all of the information. There was so much that had been done to her, to the family. His breathing was inflamed, rushed.
One, two, three, four…calm down…one…two…
"What are you saying Sanford?"
"You need to hold it in…She's a mess."
We're all a mess.
Ryan had heard the words Sandy spoke to Caleb. He knew from Kirsten's injuries, there was more to the story. He hadn't realized it would be so brutal.
Raped. Tied Up.
These things happen in Chino, not Newport Beach.
Ryan was at a loss. Ever since he had become a part of the Cohen family, Kirsten did everything she could to accept him as her own.
She was more of a mother to him then Dawn had ever been.
Ryan thought of the time Kirsten had come to the jail. How she jumped when one of the inmates approached her, how easily scared she had become.
Someone worse then that had invaded her home and she was by herself.
He immediately cursed himself for not coming home. For staying out late and for having fun.
He should have known.
Ryan reacted in the only way he knew how to.
Violently.
He punched the wall in the bathroom, he kicked the stall door. He lashed out, yelling random words.
"Why did this have to happen to her?" he shouted to no one.
Caleb walked into Kirsten's room with a bouquet of flowers and a few gifts. After his discussion with Sandy, he walked down the halls of the hospital, quietly calming himself down.
Making himself presentable for her.
He found the gift shop two floors down from her room. It was filled with baby gifts, flowers, care cards. Caleb looked up and down the rows of cards.
Get well soon? No.
Sorry for your loss? No.
Congratulations on your new baby daughter? Definitely not.
There was no 'I will do anything to kill the bastards that hurt you' card.
He settled for one that simply said, "Little girl, I love you."
He was pulling out his wallet to pay when he first saw it.
A small, velveteen rabbit. Just like the one he bought Kirsten the day she was born.
He had gotten her the book one year and would read it to her over and over again. She was convinced it was written for her, and her alone.
She had loved the stuffed animal. For years, she couldn't sleep without it. And one night she even tried to stay awake, in hopes of seeing the toy come alive.
But by the time she left for college, the poor toy was so damaged, her mother insisted on throwing it away. After a bit of convincing, Kirsten finally obliged.
"I'll take that too." He told the clerk. She smiled at him.
"Do you want it wrapped?"
"No, that's okay. I'll just take it."
He signed the slip for his credit card and left the shop.
Before entering her room, Caleb took one last breath. Sandy had warned him about her appearance. He promised she wasn't in too much pain.
Any pain his daughter felt was too much.
He could hear his grandson talking, laughing. Should he really interrupt?
"Hey Grandpa." Seth spoke.
Too late.
Caleb walked into the room. Immediately there was a tension.
"Kirsten, uh, how are you feeling?" He was at a loss for words. He didn't know what to say to his daughter. He had to take in her bruises for a moment.
Those bruises should not be on his daughter's face.
The purple marks on her wrists, the raw skin surrounding her lips.
He had known what to expect, but could never have prepared himself for reality.
"Caleb, you can actually enter the room." Sandy urged him.
His feet felt like they were stuck in concrete.
Distance is good, he thought.
But this was his daughter.
"Hey guys, why don't we let Caleb had some time with your mother."
They were going to leave him alone with her? Had they not sensed the extreme anxiety filling the room?
"I don't want to leave her." Seth whined.
"Yeah well, lets go anyways," Ryan pulled his brother from the bed.
They nodded at each other as the three left the room.
Now it was just him and her.
He knew he had to say something.
"Uh, it's raining out."
It just sort of slipped.
First rule of business, when it doubt talk about the weather.
That was not what he actually meant to come out of his mouth. She looked at him, amused.
"Is it? Well, that's good to know."
Kirsten didn't know what to say to her father. In a sense, she was just as uncomfortable as he was.
"Are those for me?" she asked pointing to the flowers and bag he was holding.
She had always loved presents.
"Uh yeah, it's silly really. I just found it in the gift shop downstairs. It reminded me of you."
He handed her the gift bag, and placed the flowers on the table next to her window.
"Those are beautiful." Kirsten acknowledged motioning toward the vase. The flowers he had gotten her were a mixture of Kirsten's favorite and of her mother's.
Orange lilies, purple irises and white daisies. An odd combination, but the splash of color easily brightened up the pale room.
Kirsten dumped the contents of the bag onto her lap. She first noticed the rabbit that lay on top of her.
He remembered.
She instantly began to drop tears into her lap.
"Kirsten, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
She picked it up and felt the soft fur. She looked at her father with pain filled eyes.
"Daddy, I was so scared."
Caleb sat alone in the private waiting room. He could feel himself coming undone. The stone cold business man inside of him no longer existed.
He felt lost.
Caleb Nichol never felt lost. He was always in control.
Always.
Today he wasn't. Caleb didn't know if he would ever be in control again.
She was the one thing that kept him going after his wife had died. She had held him up, she allowed him to be cruel, she sacrificed herself for him.
Because that is who she was.
Is.
Her smile, her laugh. The way she always had a solution to every problem.
She was her mother's daughter.
And every moment of every day, he saw the love of his life in her.
While he was alone in the room with her, he held her as she cried. Kirsten had tried to tell him what had happened. She got upset and began to hyperventilate.
Right there in his arms.
"Dad, it hurts, please."
He called the nurse to give her some more medication. Thankfully Kirsten instantly began to feel the effects. She began to fall asleep in his arms. And he watched her for a few moments. Studying her. Until it became too much and he had to leave.
The pictures in his head haunted him. The images of her.
He could see his daughter struggling for her life. He could see her crying out in pain.
He wanted to know who did this.
Sandy walked into the small room. He took a seat next to Caleb, offering him a cup of coffee.
Caleb sharply refused. Instead he motioned for Sandy to come sit by him.
"You know Sandy, when Kirsten was four, I left for my first prolonged business trip. I hated to be away from her, but for her future, for the business's future, I knew I had to go."
"Daddy." The young girl looked up at him with eyes that pleaded: Stay.
Her blonde hair, tied up in her signature pigtails framed her small face. Concealing the tears she didn't want to fall.
But she said nothing, even at four, his daughter knew her place.
As the silent sufferer.
"Kiki, we talked about this last night. You know I have to go to New York for a few days."
She nodded her head. She knew.
But she wished he would pick her.
Caleb walked over to his daughter and patted her on the head.
"You be good for mommy and the nanny okay?"
Once again she nodded, silent.
"I'm going to miss you, Sweetie."
He left that morning with her watching him from the window.
Caleb wished he could say he noticed her. He'd always took advantage of her love. He wished he could take back the years of neglect geared toward his family. But he'd done what he thought was right.
"She's been crying since you left." His wife told him two days into the trip. "She won't eat anything. Cal, I'm worried about her."
"Put her on the phone Katherine." He could hear his wife calling the young girl from across the house. He immediately put on his stiff upper lip.
"Kirsten Nichol. Young lady, we need to have a talk."
He could hear her sniffles in the background. She hadn't said anything.
"I miss you, Daddy."
Caleb felt a pang in his heart, and although he wanted to comfort her, he knew he had to get a message across. This was only the first of many business trips.
"You need to stop your crying, listen to your mother and grow up. You are not a helpless baby anymore. If you were, we'd still have you in diapers. Are you listening Kirsten?"
She hiccupped, "Yes."
"Now, I want you to go into that kitchen and eat your dinner. What you don't eat tonight, I will tell your mother to give you again tomorrow morning. Do you understand?"
"Okay." Kirsten handed the phone back to her mother.
He could hear her sobbing in the background.
"Cal, what did you say to her?"
"I set the standard Katherine. She has to learn not everything in this world is going to go her way. She needs to toughen up."
"She's stubborn just like you."
That was the last time his daughter shed a tear in his presence.
Caleb didn't know how to comfort her. He only knew how to rule her. It's how their relationship ran. He would tell her what to do, and she would obediently do it.
"I don't want it to be like that anymore." Caleb spoke defeated.
For the first time since he and Kirsten had gotten married, Sandy realized his father in law was human. For the first time, Caleb didn't come across as the asshole he seemed determined to be.
For the first time, he let down his walls and became a loving father, dedicated to his child.
"I should have been there for her more."
"Caleb, listen. You can not even imagine how bad I feel about this. She's my wife."
"Oh, you feel bad, so that makes everything okay? Sandy, she's my daughter. They weren't kidding when they said a daughter is yours for life. Think about your love for Seth and multiply it by a thousand. That doesn't even equal the love a father feels for his daughter."
Caleb chocked back a sob. He turned away from Sandy, taking a breath of air, he continued.
"A father is supposed to watch over his daughter. He is supposed to protect from anything that can harm her. He is supposed to be there for her when the world shows its ugly head."
Caleb looked at Sandy in a way that gave him chills. Caleb wanted to be comforted.
He could only think of one response.
"So is her husband Caleb."
The two men sat staring at each other. Both realizing they were the only two men Kirsten wholeheartedly trusted and that night, neither of them had been there for her.
Okay, that is Four….it took a lot more thought then the other ones. I hoped I captured the families responses well….if not tell me and I'll work on it…..as always, your reviews bring a smile onto my faceespecially in this time of darkness and despair otherwise known as MIDTERMS……
Next up: Kirsten actually gets to go home...for real this time...and she gets a visit from the police...I haven't written it all yet, but let me tell you...the one after five (aka six) is good...at least i think so...