The O'Connells Box Set

Chapter 30

Bars clanged, voices echoed, and Reine held a folded blanket as her cell door closed. She knew she needed to pull her head from the horror of what she was living and instead focus on surviving life behind bars again. The same women were here, she knew, although she hadn’t seen them yet, and the same guards had welcomed her back, but now there was the giant hole in her heart of having had her daughter ripped from her again.

Worse was Manny Meskill and the way he looked at her, talked to her. She knew whatever fate had in store for her, he’d see she didn’t get a break. She put down the blanket on the thin mattress in her isolated cell, her legs sagging, remembering Karen, who’d fought and yelled and tried to stop Manny and the prison guards who had shackled her and transported her back to this place she now didn’t think she’d ever be free of.

She heard the key in the lock, the steel door open, and turned to see the dark face of the guard, a large woman she’d always been wary of. Collins was her name. She was standing there, holding the waist chains. Reine remembered too well what had happened in the beginning every time she left her cell, being high risk. Apparently, she started back at square one.

“Your lawyer’s here,” Collins said. “Come on, you know the drill.”

The guard shackled her wrists to the waist chain around her baggy jumpsuit, and her ankles were shackled too. She stood there stoically, because this was life behind bars. A hand gripped her arm, and she was escorted down the concrete hall, remembering her original charge and how the warden had told her this was what happened when she did what she’d done to a cop. High risk, her, Reine Colbert.

It was degrading now, and she said nothing because the ache inside her had left her numb. She wondered how long it would be before she earned privileges again, the freedom she’d earned there in prison before her dad’s lawyer had finally won her release. Worse, she had no idea when the clock would start ticking again, counting down the time she had to serve. It could be worse this time, and she figured that was likely what Karen was there to tell her.

She stopped in front of the visiting room, and the guard unlocked the steel door. There was another guard inside, she saw as she shuffled in, taking in Karen, still pregnant, her hand on her stomach and alarm in her vivid blue eyes. She realized someone else was with her, Marcus, the sheriff himself, and she felt an anger burning inside her. She knew if the cuffs came off, she’d likely jump him, hit him, do anything to hurt him.

“Reine, I’m so sorry. Come and sit down. Please take those off,” Karen said as the guard pulled her over to the metal chair and sat her down. All she could hear was the clang of chains, the guard’s hand still on her. Reine had to look away, past the embarrassment and the hurt of being treated like an animal. Having Marcus there made the situation even worse.

Damn Karen for bringing him!

“No, can’t happen,” Collins said. “Orders of the warden.”

Right, the warden who’d greeted her and looked at her with not an ounce of empathy. She’d never forget the coldness in her words as she’d said, “Welcome home. You’ll wish you hadn’t screwed up.”

But then the hand was gone, and the door closed, and she took in the empathy she thought was in Karen’s face. She dragged her gaze away because she couldn’t not look at Marcus, whom she’d willingly given her daughter to and thought she would go to her grave hating. He stared down at her, his arms crossed.

“Are you here to grind me into the ground and tell me I’ll never see my daughter again, how I screwed up and you’ll make sure I spend a long time in here?” Reine said. She dragged her gaze over to Karen. “You brought him?” She knew she sounded accusing as she took in this woman she believed had cared and done the best for her. Now she wondered, for Karen, if this was more about protecting her family.

“Reine, that’s not why Marcus is here. I wouldn’t bring him to do that, and he wouldn’t do it.” Karen looked over to her brother, sounding as if she’d gone a round or two with him. “Marcus is here because he found the jewelry.”

The knot twisted in her stomach, and all she could wonder was why, and how. “So is this where you tell me you can’t do anything for me and that I’ll never get out because of the theft?” She couldn’t look at Marcus. She wished he’d leave.

“But you didn’t take the jewelry,” Karen said. Why did she appear so confused?

Reine didn’t know why, but a laugh burst out, and she couldn’t stop. Then she started crying, but she couldn’t wipe the tears from her face as they spilled out. She shook her head at Karen, who appeared alarmed. “You think that matters?” she choked out. “I knew as soon as the accusation came out that it wouldn’t matter. So where did you find it, hidden someplace in my suite? Tell me where it was planted. I know it won’t matter, because anything I say, no one will believe me.”

“I believe you, Reine.”

Had Marcus really said that? She turned to the man who had put her there. She knew he couldn’t have said that.

“Excuse me?”

Karen was looking at her brother in an odd way. Reine didn’t understand what this was.

“It was found at a jewelry store, brought in yesterday on consignment,” Karen said. “Apparently, from the description, it sounded like you, but the name on the register was Valerie Donnelly’s.”

Reine found herself dragging her gaze over to Marcus, realizing that was likely why he had the look he did on his face, the look of a lost puppy. Or was it shame?

“I had my deputy get a warrant for the surveillance camera,” he said. “We paid a visit to the Hirsts, and imagine my surprise at how much Valerie resembles you, Reine. I don’t even know where to begin in saying I’m sorry.”

She pulled at her hands, but they didn’t move from where they were shackled to the waist chain. Her nose was running, and she tried to move her face to wipe it on her arm, sniffing loudly. “Valerie, the old woman’s daughter?” She looked from Marcus to Karen and back.

“I saw the surveillance myself,” Marcus said. “Valerie took the jewelry in and put it on consignment. I have a statement now from the owner of the jewelry store. I’ve spoken with Pete again from Better Way Homecare, who said Valerie called him, accusing you of taking the jewelry, and he had no reason to believe she could be mistaken. The homecare nurse who shouldn’t have left you said that was Pete’s decision. He’d added an additional visit for her to handle, so he called her at the last minute and told her to leave you there to clean up. He said it was fine.”

“It was fine?” she cut in, because it seemed she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. “I told Ivy I wasn’t supposed to be alone there, that I was supposed to go with her. My gut was screaming no, but I didn’t argue because I needed to keep my job. You know the parole rules. I was also meant to work only until one thirty, but I was told not to cause a problem, to give extra, to work for free without complaining. The daughter was supposed to be back by two, but it was after four when she walked in. Meanwhile, I was dealing with her mother, who walked out the front door after breaking a pot in the kitchen. I couldn’t do my job because there was an old woman there who couldn’t look after herself, so I had to do it. And her daughter was stealing her jewelry, selling it? I was the perfect scapegoat. So when am I getting out of here?”

She saw the exchange between Karen and Marcus, the way he shut his eyes and breathed out, and her stomach knotted.

“You did charge her with theft, right?” she said. Why was it that Marcus didn’t want to answer?

“No, I can’t, because she has power of attorney for her mother and everything she owns. She’s saying she forgot, and her lawyer said it was a misunderstanding.”

Reine didn’t think she’d heard right. She looked over at Karen, because here she was, having been classified as high risk and tossed back in a cell, and she hadn’t done anything to deserve it. “This is a joke, right?”

Karen shook her head. “Unfortunately, it’s not. But we’re working on getting you out of here. We’ve gone to the DA about this, and even though charges won’t be pressed against you for the theft, there is the matter of your revoked parole. The DA isn’t too willing to un-ring that bell, saying the parole officer already indicated your refusal to follow the rules because you showed up on Marcus’s doorstep. The system doesn’t exactly work in your favor.”

Reine shook her head and shut her eyes. She didn’t want to hear any more, because she’d been down this road before. “No, no, no, you’re saying I’m stuck here?”

Karen slapped the table in front of her. “You listen to me, Reine. It’s political posturing because no one wants this to get out, not Better Way Homecare, who cut corners and let an ex-con stay alone with an elderly woman, and not your parole officer, who works for the state and would rather see you locked away than admit he screwed up and yanked your parole based on unfounded accusations. You’ll have to go back before the parole board, but the state is already saying they will not allow all the circumstances of what transpired to be admitted in evidence, because the only thing they care about are the rules they set…”

“Yeah, I know, to stay away from the O’Connells,” Reine said, cutting Karen off and putting all the venom she could into a glare at Marcus. “You have my daughter, and you just had to take it to my parole officer. Well, you got your wish, Marcus. I wish I’d never met you, yet now you have my daughter. The only thing I ever wanted was for Eva to be safe. Everything I did and have done is for her.”

He leaned on the table, and she wished he would get the hell away from her. “I know, Reine. I don’t know what to say other than that I’ll find a way to fix this. We’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

She was nodding, but she didn’t believe a word. She had enough anger to go around. “Sure, Marcus, I’ll believe it when I see it. Ask yourself how easy it was for you to believe a lie. People who apparently matter more were automatically believed over me because I have a record, no rights.”

“I know it’s not fair, Reine…”

“You’re kidding, right? When Eva and I were on the streets, I never realized we’d been put there by the class of people you’re protecting. It seems they can say and do anything, create a lie about me and have it believed without even needing to prove it. There’s something so fundamentally wrong here. I’m not a stupid woman, but I don’t believe a word you say. Let’s say you do manage to get me out and fix what you’ve caused. Where does that put me? Back to visiting a parole officer who’ll be looking for another way to toss me back in here, another story about why he had to hit me. Then there’s my daughter. I already know you expect me to just walk away and stay out of her life.” She shook her head, not caring how bad he felt. “I hate you, Marcus O’Connell. Now please leave.” She looked back at Karen. “And don’t bring him back here. Are we done?”

She heard the door bang behind her.

“We’re done here,” was all Marcus said.

Karen walked over to her, her hand on her swollen belly. “Keep your head down. I’ll get you out of here,” she said. Then she was gone with her brother.

A guard reached for her arm and helped her up, and she allowed herself to be led back blindly to a tiny concrete cell, knowing she’d be there until the warden decided she wouldn’t be. This time, when the image of her sweet daughter slipped into her head, she pushed it away.