2

Chapter Two

When they walked in the door, her phone started going off again like it did most days when they got home. One or more of her siblings would be calling to try and understand how she was now the one who would receive the most from the payouts, and then she would go and ignore her parent's funerals. Deanna was tired of talking in circles with them. She knew what the money was really for. It was for her silence. Her father, or the person she had thought was her father, had set up the meeting with David and had demanded he stop and release the girls he was holding. Calling that meeting had caused his and his wife’s deaths. He had planned it out, so it did.

Deanna hadn’t realized how much the man had planned out in advance. Somehow he knew that Deanna would question where they were. He also assumed that Deanna would want to demand something of David, and that would lead to his firstborn son’s downfall. Basically, Deanna had found out when the lawyer had called to talk with her privately about some papers that were nothing short of a confession of his and his wife’s wrongdoing without really confessing outright. He knew Deanna was the one who would want the truth.

The money was a payout to keep the truth under wraps, though. He wanted her to remain silent as much as possible. Even in death, the man was trying to control her. She wanted nothing to do with any of them. Her siblings thought it was unfair until they heard the reason the will had been changed. The family secret was out by her father’s own admission to each of the children in a letter. They still wanted to hear it from her. They wanted all the details that she knew, even though she was disgusted with the whole thing.

David had tried calling her from jail multiple times. He even tried to have one of her siblings patch him through knowing she might answer for someone else. Deanna trembled with rage when she thought of anything he did. He was not going to get into her head and scramble any more in it. She had enough of that from her childhood. The news came out that anything he was charged with, he was going to counter with insanity.

“Are you going to answer that?” Max asked with a chuckle.

“I wasn't planning on it.” She replied as she set the phone down on the table and walked away to go check the mailbox. When she pulled out the stack of papers in the box, she was surprised to see handwritten letters addressed to her. She had only given the address to the lawyer, so she was confused.

“What is that?” Max asked as he saw the large stack from the mailbox.

“I don’t know,” Deanna replied as she then saw the forward sticker on all of them. They were all addressed to the lawyer and then forwarded to her. She opened the first one, and it was a letter addressed to her, but as she read, it became more graphic on the things the writer wanted David to do to her. Deanna threw the letter on the table. “This is disgusting.”

“What is it?” Max asked as he picked it up and started to read, threw the letter.

“Fan mail for Dave.’ She said, and he dropped it with a face. “Why am I getting it?”

“You won’t answer him. You took his control away. Now he is trying to take it back. You and the girls are the only victims who survived him.” Max said, “He is again trying to play with your mind.”

“As if he didn’t do enough damage already,” Deanna replied, and he chuckled.

“I don’t think he did all that much to you physically. Mentally you are still here with me, so it is all good.” Max said. “Don’t let him get the power again.”

“I don’t plan on it.” She said as she opened another and money fell out. “Are you kidding me?”

“Some fans do that in hopes they will gain favor by “helping” out with legal fees and things,” Max said.

“Fans of who?” She asked, “They are addressed to me, but they are written for David.”

“Deanna, they are for you to read. Like I said, your brother probably joined one of the serial killer dating sites and now has a way of getting to you through them. He knew this would upset you.” Max said as he looked at her as she was looking at the stack of thirty letters.

“Can you get a box?” Deanna asked.

“For?” he asked as he went to the garage and brought a box into the main room by where she was.

“David is a control freak. If he has these people writing me through the lawyer, then he knows no one else knows where I am. He will only release tiny bits of information to get a reaction from these women. He might release details to them the police don’t know already.” Deanna said. “So I am going to open them and check for money and then toss them into the box without reading them. Then we will turn it over to the police.”

“You are correct, as always,” Max said as he kissed her on the forehead. “Do you want me to order something for dinner?”

“Sure. This may take a while.” Deanna said as she opened another letter and a fifty fell out. “Unbelievable.”

“More?” Max asked as she was typing into his phone and not looking up.

“I think we will have to start a fund with this or something. Maybe give it to Larissa.” Deanna said.

“Have you talked with her lately?” Max asked as he did look up.

“Her mother won’t let her. I understand why, of course, but it still stings.” Deanna said. “Last I heard it was confirmed she was pregnant and was in the second trimester. Ulie was sparred from that fate.”

“That is good,” Max said with a sigh. “So, do you know if she was going to keep going?”

“Her mother was making her,” Deanna said. “Again, money rules. A child born from this would get a huge payout from David’s part of the estate.”

“Money should be the least of everyone’s worries,” Max said.

“Greed runs rampant in my family. It seems with all the other illnesses they seem to have.” Deanna replied as she opened each letter one by one. Everyone but the first of them contained money ranging from twenties to hundreds. She knew her brother was up to something with each letter, but she couldn’t figure out what. She tossed the opened letters into the box and decided she didn’t care. They would find something good to do with the money instead of David’s evilness.

She continued until the doorbell rang, and Max went to the front of the house. It had been too soon from when he ordered the food for it to be there. Instead, she got up and walked to the front to see Max shaking his head. She walked closer as the mailman was there again with cartons of letters. Ten cartons of letters and they were still being unloaded from the mail truck. “What the hell?” Deanna asked.

“Looks like we will be busy opening,” Max said as he looked at her.

“All of them?” Deanna asked, “Those are all for me?”

“I am afraid so,” Max said as he began bringing the boxes in the house. She stood and watched as the mailman trying to figure out how she was so famous. He was looking her up and down. She sighed and started to help, as well. She didn’t want to deal with anything else right now. She could hear her phone going off again.

This was never going to end, she thought to herself. She looked to where Henry was now standing next to the box bins filled with letters. “presents?” Henry asked.

“No, Henry.” Deanna said, “Just a headache for mommy.”

“And daddy.” Max said as he lifted the last of the now fifteen box bins and placed it in the house. “if mommy gets a headache, we all get one.”

“I don’t think that is the way it works,” Deanna said as she looked at him.

“Well, if you have a headache, that means it would be pointless to tease you until you punish me,” Max said, and she looked at him with her mouth open.

“Really in front of Henry?” she asked.

“Sweetheart, I said we have mind-blowing sex in front of him earlier. I don’t think he understands what either thing means, but I will be damned if your dumbass brother gets you thinking about him, and you ignore me.” Max said as he pulled her close to him.

“Greedy,” Deanna said with a slight smile.

“For you to punish me? Yes, I am very greedy that way.” Max said. “We should figure out some sort of system to open these quickly. Cause I don’t want to deal with this all night. I have some more plans.”