"Pa-pa."
Maria was holding Liam and taking him downstairs for his breakfast. Like they did every morning, Maria stopped midway through the staircase to let Liam point out at the pictures hanging on the wall. There was a picture he seemed most enthralled by, his eyes lit up when ever he saw it. It was a picture separated by three horizontal sections and in each section showed the three Connor children. The section at the top was taking when they were very young. Maria remembered Liam had told her Barry had to work miracles to secure the original shot. The three children have their back to the camera out by the lake on the Connor property in Dublin. All three siblings are holding hands, Liam and Michelle are grinning at one another and Paul has his right hand acting as a visor on his forehead as he looks out across the lake. The other two pictures are a recreation of the first, only when Liam them are teenagers, and finally when they are adults.
"Yes my own darling, that's your papa Liam, say papa Liam."
"Pa-pa Lee-um," the young boy repeated and Maria kissed his rosy cheeks and patted his light brown hair."
Suddenly Maria noticed something scrawled out in the margins in fine print and leaned squinting her eyes to read it.
I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.
~Ovid's Metamorphoses
How had see walked past the portrait every morning and never noticed the quote before, Maria wondered. She descended the stairs and went into the kitchen setting little Liam in his high chair. She decided she would give him a quick breakfast so they could be on their way to his doctor's appointment with the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Wise. She was looking at cereal options when Michelle walked into the kitchen nearly given her a heart attack.
"Whoa!" said Maria. "How did you get in here Michelle? You frightened me."
Michelle walked over to her nephew grinning and pinching his cheeks. "You gave me a key silly."
"Well what are you doing here? I have to get ready soon to take Liam to his doctors appointment."
Michelle sat down at the kitchen table making her self comfortable. "Have you forgotten our appointment to go see the other doctor Dr. Harrington?"
Maria was exasperated, she had already told Michelle she had to take Liam to the doctors yesterday evening. She was in no mood for arguing.
"Shell I already told you I had plans today that didn't involve stalking some psychiatrist. What makes you think she would have any information on Carla's whereabouts anyways?"
"People confide in their shrinks all the time Maria. Anyways we're not going to hers right away. I am going to accompany you to Liam's appointment, you know for moral support."
Maria was in doubt that this had anything at all to do with moral support as much as it had to do with Michelle making Maria feel indebted to her. Nonetheless she managed to say a thank you, before leaving her sister in law to feed Liam while she went up stairs to get ready. She was not looking forward to this day at all.
"Strange things keep on happening. I wonder perhaps it is all a trick of the mind. Am I being too paranoid? I think I am, because one moment he says he loves me, the next moment he says nothing at all. I think Tony is up to something, I just don't know what."
Dr. Harrington sat patiently in her office awaiting the arrival of Michelle Connor. Frank had insisted she travel back into the city to greet the inquiring woman, so Dr. Harrington ever the obedient servant did as she was told. She had intended to hide away at Frank Foster's country estate listening to all the tapes he kept on Tony's first wife Louise. The parallels between Louise and Carla Connor's testimonials were striking. If anything they only strengthened Dr. Harrington's devotion to Tony. She heard two emotionally damaged women who were just seeking attention and to destroy Tony, because they had misinterpreted his love. Of course when she listened to tapes in Foster's presence she pretended to be horrified and disgusted. This was followed by pledges of allegiance to Frank in his vendetta against Tony, of which the cause Dr. Harrington was still uncertain. She would play the double agent if she must; she just wanted Tony Gordon in the end. Frank only got her to leave his estate when he promised she could take some more cassette tapes with her for listening. So here she was the following Tuesday morning holed up in her office listening to first hand accounts of married life to Tony, from Louise herself.
"He keeps waking me up in the night. Sometimes at 3 or 4 in the morning and it's weird because he keeps pressuring me to take medicine. Tony says I've been out of sorts and that it will help me feel better. But I think I know his game, he wants me to forget about the black eye he gave me."
"He gave you a black eye?"
Dr. Harrington was stunned. She thought all the tapes were self recordings. She quickly rewound the tape and pressed play again.
"He gave you a black eye?"
It was not Louise's voice but a mans. It didn't sound like Franks or Tony's. It sounded older more mature and grave.
"Yes, yes he did. And he held me in the tub under the water until I couldn't breath and I kept scratching and scratching at him, trying to grasp anything that would save me. But he wouldn't stop. His eyes were like a demons."
"I can see the lacerations around your neck Louise. Is this the first time Tony has done something like this?"
"No, no it isn't. But it is the worst that he has done. I really set him off. We had gone into town and I had crossed paths with an old flame of mine. Tony didn't like him at all. I tried to explain that we are just mates now, not even mates just mere acquaintances. I mean the guy is dating an old friend of mine now Olivia."
"I see, and Tony doesn't like it that you decided to talk to Olivia and this old flame."
"Yes, he said I was too pure to be hanging around a drunk like Olivia. You see she often gets herself passed out in a drunken haze in the back of a cabbie. Tony doesn't like girls like that."
"Yet he gives you sleeping pills? They create the same effect, the drowsiness. Combine that with the antidepressants I've already prescribed you, your as good as passed out Louise."
"And that's why I stopped taking them whenever he gives them to me now."
"I wonder Louise, do none of your friends see this behavior in him? Your old flame, what is his name and Olivia."
"Olivia is a party girl and Liam, well Liam has Olivia to worry about he is oblivious to notice Tony's hatred of him."
The doctor paused the tape. Had she heard correctly, had she heard the name Liam?
"So there is no one you can turn to?"
"No."
"My dear girl, you have to get away there has to be someone you can go to. If you don't get away Louise, Tony will kill you."
"Don't you think I know that Doctor. But that's not even what bothers me the most."
"Well that then bothers you more then your own safety?"
"Tony won't just kill me, he'll make his goal to kill anyone and everyone ever associated with me."
"Louise you have money, surely your grandfather won't let him get to you, your brother…"
"Doctor, you don't understand. My family wealth means nothing to him. Tony is smart he has connections. If he wants you dead, you'll be dead."
The tape cut out, and Dr. Harrington felt restless. She needed to talk to Tony and quickly. His parole hearing was coming soon, and he had no idea just how lucky it was that Frank Foster had helped her unintentionally get his enemy a chance out of jail or at least a mistrial. Dr. Harrington couldn't be anymore happy then she was in this moment.