A Fool To Think

Chapter Sixteen

Danny pulled the car up to the small house and turned off the engine. He had tracked Alex down to a house in Connecticut and insisted on coming with Sam when she decided to go visit him. "Are you ready for this?"

"I don't know yet." Sam replied honestly, staring at the house.

"You don't have to do this right now." Danny told her.

"Yeah I do." Sam objected. "I have to confront him about what he's done."

He undid his seat belt and started getting out of the car. "Then I'm coming with you."

"No you're not." Sam commanded, raising up her hand and making him stop. "You're not coming in with me."

"Why not?" Danny asked, slightly hurt that she didn't want him there.

"Because this is something that I need to do on my own." Sam explained. "Look, I am forever indebted to you for helping me out with this. I don't think you will ever know how much your friendship and support means to me. But this…this is something that you can't help me with."

"But what if he tries something?" Danny asked.

"I'm a federal agent now." Sam smiled. "I can handle myself."

"I'd just feel better if I came with you." Danny admitted.

"I'll be fine." Sam assured him. "Please just stay in the car?"

"Fine." He sighed, knowing that fighting with her wouldn't get her to change her mind about this.

"Thanks. I won't be too long." She unfastened her seat belt and stepped out of the car. Walking across the street to get to the front door was tricky because her legs felt like they were turning into jelly. She mentally chastised herself for letting him have that kind of effect on her.

The house was in a fairly nice neighborhood and looked like it was well taken care of. The smallest of the houses on the block, it was a two story, red brick building. The welcome mat at the front door was a simple black rung with welcome printed on it. Taking a deep breath, Sam pressed the doorbell and waited for whatever was on the other side of the door.

A middle-aged woman that was probably in her late thirties answered the door with a cheery smile on her face. "Hello? Can I help you?"

"I'm sorry." Sam apologized. She wasn't expecting to find a woman here. Danny's search on Alex didn't show that he was married. Taking a step back from the door, she made sure that she was at the right house. "Maybe I have the wrong house. I was looking for Alex Silverman."

"Oh no." The woman assured her. "Alex lives here. I'm Suzanne. I'm just the live-in nurse."

"Live-in nurse?" Sam questioned.

"Yes. For Alex." Suzanne explained. "Are you a friend of Alex?"

"I went to college with him." Sam replied. "I'm Samantha Spade."

"It's nice to meet you Samantha. Please come in." Suzanne stepped away from the doorway so that the guest could enter. "Alex doesn't get many visitors. He'll be really happy to see a familiar face."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Sam mumbled.

"So you didn't know that he is sick?" Suzanne asked.

"No." Sam shook her head. "I haven't talked to him in a long time. What does he have?" She almost felt bad for hoping it was something painful.

"He's been having a lot of kidney problems which has progressed into end-stage renal disease."

"Is it really serious?" Sam questioned. She hated to be the type of person that would hope for someone else's suffering, but couldn't help it. Alex wasn't a good person.

"I'm afraid it's very serious." Suzanne replied. "He's been put on the transplant list but it's already been three months and he's no closer to getting a new kidney. He's been on dialysis for about six months now but that's not a permanent solution. Without a transplant he won't be able to live."

"I see." Sam tried to seem at least a little sad about the news in front of Suzanne because she didn't want to seem like a heartless person. But on the inside she was kind of pleased to know that Alex's life was also in ruins. Like they say, misery loves company. "Can I see him?"

"Yes, of course." Suzanne replied. "He's upstairs in the first door on the right."

"Thank you." Sam gave the woman a small smile before slowly climbing the stairs. She could do this. She could confront Alex—especially now. When she reached the first door on the right, she knocked softly.

"Come in Suz." Alex called from the other side, assuming that it was his nurse.

Sam opened the door. "It's not Suzanne."

Alex looked over at the doorway and his eyes widened when he saw who was there. He thought he recognized that voice and seeing her only confirmed his suspicions. "Samantha." His voice barely came out as a whisper.

"Good. I see that after all these years you still remember me." Sam replied, closing the door behind her and leaning against it.

"How could I forget you?" Alex asked nervously. He could only think of one reason why she would be coming to see him and was afraid that she finally knew the truth.

"I suppose it would be fairly hard to forget someone after you completely ruin their life." Sam pondered.

"Look, I was a different person back then…"

"Save it." Sam cut him off. "I don't want to hear any pathetic attempt to apologize."

"But I am sorry." He rambled on. "After getting sick I realized how wrong I was to do that to you. I was just so angry with you and Martin for what you did to me and I wanted to get back at you two…"

Sam interrupted him. "So you planted video cameras in my apartment and sold the videos on the Internet, framing Martin so that I would think he did it and break up with him? You made me lose faith in the one person who I trusted with my life."

"In my mind it was a fair exchange." Alex explained. "You two got me kicked out of college. College was the one thing I cared about most in this world. I thought if I could ruin your relationship, if I could ruin the one thing that you two cared about most in this world, then we'd be even."

"First of all, Martin and I didn't get you kicked out of college." Sam told him. "You did that yourself when you raped those other girls and tried to rape me. And secondly, we're never going to be even. Not only did you violate my privacy and exploit me in a way that is disgusting and illegal, but you framed an innocent guy and made me believe that the man I loved and trusted was a monster."

She closed her eyes and shook her head as she paced around the small bedroom. "What you did is inexcusable and unforgivable on so many levels. You're a stunted piece of slime who deserves every bad thing that happens to you."

"I know." Alex replied.

"I have to know though. How? How did you do all of this? How did you manage to frame Martin so well?"

"It wasn't easy." Alex told her. "It took a lot of time and planning, but I had plenty of time since I wasn't in college anymore."

"How did you get the cameras in my apartment?" Sam asked.

"I kept track of yours and Kelly's class schedule, and one day when I was certain that you were in class but Kelly was in the apartment, I paid a guy to act like a repairman. I had him tell Kelly that he was hired by your super to do some maintaince work in your bathroom." Alex recalled the whole scheme, which he had considered to be brilliant.

"I made sure that the guy came to your apartment at the perfect time so that Kelly had no choice but to leave for class right after he dropped by. So once Kelly was out of the apartment, I slipped in and set up the cameras."

"And you put them in gifts that Martin had given me." Sam reminded him.

"Yeah. I thought that once you found out about the website, you would try to figure out where the cameras were and you'd figure that Martin had given you the presents with the cameras already in them. I thought you wouldn't consider the possibility that the cameras were added in at a later time."

"And then you set up the website and made that look like it was created by Martin." Sam pressed him for more explanations.

"Yeah. That wasn't too hard. I just registered the website under his name and spread around rumors that he was the one that set it up. That was the easy part." Alex told her.

"How did you make sure that I found out about it before the wedding?" Sam asked out of curiosity.

"I paid some guys to call you and harass you about it." Alex explained. "Are you going to turn me in to the police?"

"I'm not sure." Sam confessed. "It depends on when the statute of limitations runs out. If it's possible, I am turning you in. You need to pay for what you've done to Martin and myself."

"I know I don't have the right to ask you this, but can't you please not turn me in? I mean, look at me! I'll probably be dead in a year anyway." Alex pleaded.

"If I actually cared about that, I might be moved to just say ok let's forget about it." Sam replied in a harsh tone. "But I don't care about your sickness and I don't care about you. Any compassion that I would normally feel for someone in your position doesn't apply to you because you don't deserve compassion or kindness."

"You have caused so much damage here and I don't really care if you're sorry or not. Now that I have solid proof that you are the one behind the whole thing, I can't just let you get away with this."

"What kind of proof do you have?" Alex asked, confused. He thought that he had covered his tracks pretty well.

"I have a paper trail that leads straight to you and I have this." She pulled a small tape recorder out of her purse.

"You've been taping me?" Alex asked, becoming furious with her.

"Yes." Sam smirked.

"You bitch!" He angrily shouted.

Sam laughed. "What's wrong? You don't like being taped without your knowledge or permission?"

"No I don't!" Alex yelled. If he had the energy to get out of bed, he would try to get the tape back from her.

"Well just image what it as like for me when I found out that you had been taping me without my knowledge or permission and then selling it to strangers." She pointed out. "Goodbye Alex." Without another word, and ignoring his pleas to come back, she exited the room and then headed back to Danny's car.