The Charge – Chapter 9

It had been two weeks since the stinging headlines about her. Lori saw and heard the snickers of her neighbours as she goes for her morning and evening jog around the neighbourhood.

She knows that they don't like her and at the beginning she pretended that she didn't care but for the past two days, she didn't leave the house. She had to find out who is the woman that Rick is supposedly interested in. After eating breakfast, she took a bath, got dress and left the house.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lori pushed opened the door to a heavy, large mahogany door on the seventh floor in Starlite Plaza. Her smile brightened as the man sitting at the desk in the well furnished office stood up from his seat to greet her. She walked up to him and they embraced tightly.

"When the receptionist called and told me that you were here to see me, I actually looked at the calendar to make sure it wasn't April's fool day."

Lori feigned hurt by the man's remarks and they burst out laughing. She sat down opposite him.

"First things first…how are you?"

Lori shrugged her shoulders. She knew what he was referring to.

"I'm fine. Just hit a bump in the road."

"Just a bump?'

"My relationship with Rick has always been this way. We have our ups and downs."

The man cocked his head at her.

"According to the papers, there is no relationship and it looks like it could be that way permanently."

Lori's jaw tightened at the statement as she looked at the man. Mason is the owner of Semper Investigations Ltd. He looked good for a man in his mid to late fifties. He is of medium built and is almost 6 feet tall. He was clean shaven and had streaks of silver in his hair.

Mason has been her family friend for years. He has known her parents since before she was born and she had dated his son Adam during one of her breakups with Rick a couple of years ago.

When she left him to get back with Rick both Mason and Adam wasn't too pleased. Despite that, they have all managed to remain friends. However, Adam has made several attempts to get back with her.

"I need a favour to ask of you."

"I'm afraid to ask."

"It's nothing illegal."

"It better not be or my answer is no."

Lori was hesitant at first but decided to just spit it out.

"I want you to put someone on Rick." Mason folded his arm across his chest. "I want you to find out who he's dating."

Mason and Lori stared at each other for a couple of minutes.

"He isn't actually dating anyone…remember?"

"You know what I mean! I want to know who this woman is!"

"And when you find out what are you going to do?"

"I haven't gotten to that position as yet."

"I am not comfortable spying on a member of one of the most respected and prominent families in Atlanta, especially when that member is running for Mayor and will most likely win."

"Please help me! I love Rick. I need him!"

Mason studied Lori. He has always loved her as a daughter and she would have been if her mother Elena had given him a chance instead of Lori's father Derek. He was happy when she began dating Adam and was sad when they broke up.

"No."

"No?!"

"I love you Lori but I am not going down this road with you. I am not going to put my business under any scrutiny during this election period should it gets out that my company is looking to expose the future Mayor's lady love."

Lori rose up from the chair annoyed.

"I am very disappointed in you."

"I know. I could live with that."

Lori turned to walked out of the office but Mason called out to her. She turned around.

"Rick publicly stated that this woman is private and it would remain so until she is ready to come out to the public." Lori folded her arms across her chest. "A word of advice…back off of this one. Rick really seems to like her and willing to protect her from the public. Don't make him hate you."

Lori chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Rick belongs to me and not to some mystery woman! ME!"

She left the office.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tyrese stared angrily at Andrea.

"You had no right to do this Andrea! I told you that I would handle it!"

"Don't you dare say that! I have every right! We've been together for 3 years Tyrese and you're still married! I'm tired of waiting! I want to get married and have children! I want to experience motherhood. I want our baby!"

"You don't think I want that for you?!"

"No! It doesn't feel like it!"

"How can you say that?! I was the one who told you that I didn't want us to have a baby until we are married! I want us to get married. I am sorry if I am a bit traditional and prefer not to have a baby out of wedlock!"

"What's the difference?! We are living together already! As husband and wife! We are raising a family! Your family!"

"What are you trying to say Andrea?! Spit it out!"

"I don't know what I'm trying to say! But I do know this. If you think you are going to use me and spit me out like a piece of trash you have another thing coming. I will not let you use me Tyrese! I will not end up like…."

Andrea sucked in her breath as she struggled to finish her sentence. Suddenly, Tyrese's eyes soften. He now understands what this is about.

"This isn't about us." He said quietly, taking a step towards Andrea. "This is about Michonne and what that little f*ck did to her."

Andrea said nothing as she looked away from him. He pulled her close whispering softly in her ear.

"I am not Jeremy so please don't compare me to him. I love you but Jeremy didn't love Michonne. That's the difference between me and him. I…love…you. I will not leave you."

Andrea hugged him.

"Michonne looks brave to everyone around her but she is hurting so badly. I honestly don't think she will ever let anyone in her heart again. The wounds inflicted on her are so deep."

"Michonne will find love again…I am sure of it. She a good person and someone, somewhere will see this and grab her up and never let her go."

"I hope so. I hate seeing her like this. She is so lonely."

"I am sorry for how I acted just now. You were doing the right thing for all of us. Severing my ties with Karen needs to be done and as soon as this happens we will get married and I will put as many babies as you want in you."

"Promise?"

Tyrese kissed her.

"Promise."~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Karen watched the trees go by as the bus cruises down the highway. The scenery was beautiful but it was the furthest thing from her mind. She cradled her three year old son against her chest.

Although she wouldn't say it out loud…it bothered her that Tyrese has moved on as well. If she was honest with herself, she didn't even expect him to do so. She knows that he loved her but it may not be the same anymore.

Tyrese was a sweet guy. He was kind and generous and loving but despite being in a loving marriage, she found him to be boring. She wanted passion and excitement. She wanted Tyrese to be more adventurous…take more risks.

He was always in cop mood and it irritated her. After having Chelsea and Ariel so close together Karen eventually began to felt trapped in her life. Tyrese took on extra shifts during the week so that he could stay at home during the weekend to spend time with them. But still that wasn't enough for her.

After awhile, she started hearing her mother's voice in her head.

'I gave up everything for you. My life…my identity…my goals...my dreams.'

Her mother hated her own life and she didn't want to feel the same way. So one day when Tyrese was at work, she took Chelsea and Ariel to her mother-in-laws house. She then went back home, packed her clothes and left.

On her way out the door, she left a simple note on a small corner table:

"I can't do this anymore so I'm done. Please take care of our girls."

In hindsight, she knew that that note was tacky and disrespectful to Tyrese and their marriage but she was done compromising. She wanted another life, so for two years she maintained no communication with him.

Within the first three months of her leaving she would get emails and text messages from mutual friends that Tyrese was looking for her and that he was worried…that the girls were crying for their mother.

She had replied to a few of them who she knew would keep her confidence and not betray her trust. After almost a year, she just stopped communicating with anyone from her old life. Suffice to say, the exciting life she wanted was alittle more than what she bargain for.

After a year of leaving her marriage, she met, fell quickly in love and moved in with Damian. For a year, she lived the life she always wanted. They went to fancy restaurants, took lavish vacations and bought expensive clothes and jewellery.

That all came to a screeching halt when the FBI suddenly showed up at their door. Apparently, "Damien" was also known as "Peter", "Otis", "Nicholas" and many others. His real name however was James McKnight and he is a con artist.

He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from credit card skimming. He was part of a small criminal network that they were investigating. It even got worst for her. Many of the things that James bought were secretly bought in her name.

The FBI now gave her two choices. One: to be counted as part of James and his friends' criminal enterprise or work to pay off the monies owed to the credit card victims. Wisely, she chose the latter option.

Two months after the FBI bust, Karen found out that she was pregnant with James's baby. Since then, she has been working her ass off to repay the monies owed and raise her son.

It has been three years now and looking back, she knows she made a terrible mistake leaving Tyrese and the girls. When her son Rocky was born, she cried but it wasn't tears of joy. It was tears of shame, regret and humiliation.

It was that same shame, regret and humiliation that prevented her from calling Tyrese and begging to come back home. So she stayed away and raised Rocky on her own. Now Tyrese's girlfriend has shown up.

It seems like he is moving one with her and marriage is in the cards for them. She needed to see him and her girls to make sure that there is nothing more between them. She wants to tried for a second chance with him and she hope it is not too late.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michonne was glad for the rare three days off that she had. The CIA Director Thomas visit unnerved her. She knows that he is after her and she is trying her best to cross all her T's and dot all her I's.

Since the visit, Rick has had a very hectic schedule and she had been close by his side. Now that she has a few days off she decided to go grocery shopping and run some other errands that have been piling up on her.

Sasha had sent her a dozen emails about abandoned and run-down properties up for sale. She had done a quick check through the properties but eventually told Sasha to choose the ones that had the greatest turn over for the less amount of expenses. Suddenly her phone began ringing while at the checkout counter in the grocery store. It was Sasha.

"I just got word of a real good investment on a piece of property. It's not the usual house rental or fixer upper type of deal but it has considerable potential."

"Ok. I'm still interested."

"Good. Can you meet me now? The auction is actual starting in an hour."

"Yes. I have time. I am off from work for the next three days. Text me the address."

One minute later, Sasha sent the address to her as she finished pay for her items.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Michonne pulled up at the address, she was taken aback by the size of the property in question. It was three storey building and potential buyers were already lined up outside waiting for the auction to begin. Sasha greeted her.

"Christ Sasha! I don't think I could afford this building."

Sasha folded her arms across her chest.

"Tell that to someone who hasn't been your real estate agent for years Michonne. You could retire if you want to with that fat bank account you have."

Michonne eyed her.

"I only have that money because I am not a big spender and I had a separate account from Jeremy. He was dumb enough to think that all the money I made from the sale of the properties I had invested it all back into the rental properties."

"That divorce was the best thing to ever happen to you. I know it doesn't seem like it now but trust me…it is."

Michonne merely shrugged as she followed Sasha inside. The auction was about to start.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The owner of the building was Mr Anton Wilfred. He is a senior citizen and still lived in the building. The property had a lot of history. Michonne was thrilled as she has a Major in History from Georgia University.

Mr Wilfred explained that the building was once used as a rehabilitation centre for amputees and war veterans who were homeless. Presently a soup kitchen is also being run but has been temporarily closed for the past two weeks because of lack of donations.

Since he has retired he is unable to maintain the property and now has to sell. However, there was a catch. He said that part of the auction sale included an agreement that the building could not be torn down to make room for a parking lot.

He argued that the building itself has historical and symbolic value and should remain as such. Mr Wilfred also demanded that the soup kitchen be reopened and maintained on the property. Those terms and conditions didn't sit well with some of the potential owners.

They argued that the purchaser of the building should be able to do whatever he wanted with it. Mr Wilfred stood his ground and said that the terms were binding for 15 years after which the owner could do with it as he wished. Upon hearing this many people left and there was only eleven people remaining. The bidding began.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After an hour Mr Wilfred accepted the highest bid at $375,000.00. Michonne smiled broadly and accepted congratulations all around from the other participants. After taking Mr Wilfred's banking information, Michonne called her bank and had the money transferred into his account.

Michonne signed the sales agreement and she became the proud new owner of her biggest and most expensive property yet. For the next hour, Michonne spent it talking to Mr Wilfred on the running of the soup kitchen and what is needed to get it opened back up immediately.

He explained that he have kept in touch with the non-profit organisation who ran the kitchen and promised to have them call her. Michonne declined, instead suggesting that he make all the arrangements and passed it unto her attorney Andrea and her real estate agent Sasha.

Since Michonne have been buying and selling properties for sometime now, Andrea had suggested that she opened a separate account in which to deposit all the monies into it and to only use it for business expenses.

Looking back at all the mess that happened with Jeremy, besides divorcing him, it was the second best decision she had ever made in her life. After giving Mr Wilfred Andrea's number, Michonne left.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michonne spent the second day at her grandmother's cottage on the lake in Michigan. Out of all the properties that she owns it was her most valued. It was so peaceful. The sound of the birds and squirrels in their natural habitat was soothing to her soul. The leaves that would fall during bouts of gentle breeze fell on her, tickling her skin.

She swam in the lake running besides the house and ate several different fruits from the trees surrounding the property for most of the day. Now that it was a cool evening, bare foot and clad only in a short black pants and a white cotton vest she laid down on the grass in a nice pile of leaves and stared up into the trees.

This place is too beautiful for her to be here alone. She should be sharing it with someone she loved. She should be sharing it with someone who loved her back. She wanted her children to be born here, like she was.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe this is how it is supposed to be…her alone, by herself. She should have kids by now…two or three…two boys and a girl would be nice. She should be watching them playing in piles and piles of leaves with her husband and their father besides them.

She should be looking out through the kitchen window, smiling at them…her heart full of love and contentment as she stirred a large glass mug of lemonade with a platter piled high with tuna and cheese sandwiches on the counter next to her.

She had so many plans. What was the point of her working so hard for with no-one to share it with? The money she had saved was to put into college funds for the children. All that is now just a distance memory.

Her marriage has gone to shit. All she has now is her work. She got married early so that she wouldn't have to be still searching for love. She was in love and though she was loved. Maybe that was her mistake.

She didn't know what love is. Maybe she should have spent the time searching while she was young so that she wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking that she knows what love is. It was a lesson learnt and a hard one at that.

A cool breeze began blowing, causing some loose leaves from the pile she was on to churn around her playfully. Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was the final day of her days off. She spent the better half of the morning getting good news from Sasha and Andrea. With hard work from all parties involved the soup kitchen was ready to be opened.

Andrea had given Mr Wilfred the necessary monies needed to buy food items. He in turned reached out to the people who once ran the kitchen. They worked through the night, preparing the food items and have spent the whole morning cooking so that their doors could be opened for a late lunch.

Mr Wilfred cried when he saw how smoothly everything was coming together and was overwhelmed when even some of the previous auctioneers showed up to lend support and admitted that they were wrong about his idea of having the building remain and to be of a public service to the community.

Michonne assured Mr Wilfred that she will be there as soon as she can to help serve meals and share in the joyous occasion.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was 2pm when Michonne finally pulled up in front of the building. She could hardly believe her eyes. There were long lines of persons waiting for their hot meals and smiling faces coming out.

Tables and chairs were placed on parts of the side walk to accommodate the persons who couldn't be seated inside because of the lack of space. She parked and went inside. Once inside, she saw Mr Wilfred speaking to a couple of teenagers and directing them. when they moved off, he came over to her.

"Oh my God! I didn't expect this!"

"We have dozens of random persons dropping in asking to volunteer in here!"

Suddenly, he hugged her.

"Thank you for making this happen!"

"You don't need to thank me. You had a vision and you stuck to it."

He smiled.

"It is a good thing to. A lot of people approached me to buy this place over the past couple of years but I refused. Their main motivation seemed to be making a profit. This building has so much more to offer than dollar and cents."

"Thank you allowing me to be part of your vision."

"Thank you for believing in it."

Michonne looked around.

"So…where do you want me?"

"Are you kidding me?! After everything you have done for this place I don't want you to do a single thing. Just sit back and relax."

"I am sure you could use an extra pair of hands to do something."

"No Michonne! I insist. Just relax."

He hurried off to attend to other persons who also wanted to volunteer. Michonne walked around the centre and lend an extra hand wherever she can. She talked to a couple of the persons waiting for meals and asked listen to some of their life stories. Mr Wilfred glanced over at her as she handed out two plates of food. He smiled.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was 6pm and Rick was on his way home from a three day trip from Canada. He needed to wrap up all his investments he had abroad so that there will be no accusations of impropriety on his part with his personal and public duties if he is elected mayor.

The agents that were on his temporary detail until the regular agents returned picked him up at the airport. He dressed as inconspicuous as possible so that he could pass through the crowd at the airport with ease. He also had instructed that the agents dressed the same as well.

He was dressed in an acid wash blue jeans, white t-shirt, brown jacket with a black cap pulled low over his face. The agents were just dressed in blue jeans and colourful shirts. He smirks at their attire but it did the job. They pass through the airport unnoticed.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rick was on the phone talking to his mother when he saw a small crowd at a building. He instantly recognized it as one he had tried to purchase almost 2 years ago. The owner refused and now it was vibrant with life again with a "Newly Reopened" sign at the front. He told the agents to stop and he got out of the vehicle.

He looked at the few people going in and out of the building and decided to go in. He saw persons eating at tables and other people busying tidying up and attending to other persons. A young woman walked up to him.

"Can I help you?"

When Rick turned to her, she instantly recognized him. She gasped in surprised and he put a hand up to his lips.

"Shhhhh."

The young woman nodded excitedly.

"It is an honour to have you here Mayor." She whispered.

Rick chuckled.

"I am not mayor just yet." He looked around. "Can I meet the owner?"

"Sure!"

She rushed off and came back with Mr Wilfred. From his smile, Rick realized that the man knows who he was. Rick recognized the man as well.

"I don't know if you remember me but…"

"I know who you are Mr Grimes and I remember you trying to purchase my building from me."

"Yes." Rick looked around.

"I was told that you wanted to speak to the owner. That isn't me anymore."

"What?"

"Don't take this the wrong way Mr Grimes but it wasn't that it didn't want to sell the building. You just wasn't the right person."

"What does that mean?"

"I had certain conditions that had to be met and quite frankly I didn't think that you would be willing to meet those criteria."

"You didn't give me a chance."

"That may be so but I think I made the right decision."

"Hmmmmm. Well I really must meet this person who made such an impression on you."

Mr Wilfred nodded and Rick followed him in to back.~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michonne was in the kitchen washing up dishes when she heard the footsteps behind her. She didn't turn around.

"I will be with you in a minute."

"Take your time. Just wanted to you to meet someone who would have been the owner of this building before you."

After a couple of minutes she turned around and sucked in her breath when a familiar pair of sky blue eyes stared back at her.

"Michonne…this is Rick Grimes, our future mayor. Rick…this is Michonne, the new owner of this place."

The biggest teeth baring smile appeared on Rick's face.