Authors: Eve Montelibano
One rainy night, he got a call from a frantic Alana, asking for his help. He rode a taxi going to her place. He arrived at her husband’s junk yard in that remote part of South Brooklyn, where Hal Cavalleri ran his scrap metal business...
He was shocked when he saw the bloody scene.
Alana’s husband was lying on the floor, blood oozing from his body. She jumped to her feet and ran toward him, embracing him tightly. “Daryl!”
He hugged her. She was shaking. “What happened?” he managed to say, his eyes riveted to the unmoving body on the floor. Hal’s eyes were still open but now sightless.
Alana gripped the front of his shirt. “He hurt me! He wanted to kill me! He...he choked me...Oh Daryl, I didn’t mean for this to happen!”
“What did you do, Laney?”
“I didn’t mean to do it, I swear I didn’t! Oh God...!”
He shook her shoulders. “What did you do?!”
“I shot him...”
“Oh God...! Is he dead?!”
She nodded, tears running down her cheeks. He noticed now that her face was badly battered, her right eye swollen from what could have been a heavy blow. Her lips were bleeding profusely.
“I had to, Daryl! He wanted to kill me! He was so furious!”
“Why...?”
“He found out about us!”
His entire body went cold.
“He would have killed me and he threatened to kill you, too! ”
His knees threatened to buckle.
“The police will put me in jail! I will surely go to jail for this! Oh Daryl, what shall I do? I don’t know what to do!” She dropped to her knees and sobbed.
Her naked suffering was ripping his heart to pieces. He loved this woman and he knew that her husband was mentally, emotionally and physically abusing her all their married life. He knelt beside her and took her in his arms. “Laney, shhh.”
“Daryl, please, help me. I don’t want to go to jail.”
He let go of her and stared at her. “How?”
“You’re still a minor. The law won’t give you a heavy penalty for this. You may even get acquitted!”
“I don’t understand...”
“If you will take my place, your sentence will be light.”
He was horrified at what she was suggesting.
She gripped his arms. “Please, listen to me, Daryl. I didn’t intentionally kill him. I did it to defend myself. But the police won’t see it that way. I’m twenty-seven. They will put me in jail. I can’t survive jail, Daryl. I will die in there!”
“Laney...I—”
“Please, I beg you, Daryl!”
The tears that ran down her bloody face tore at his insides. Had he witnessed Hal beating her, he would have killed the bastard, too!
“Tell me what to do,” he finally said.
“You will tell the police that you were just passing by and you heard us fighting and I was crying out for help. You went into our house and tried to mediate. Hal was holding a gun, threatening to shoot me and when he saw you, he threatened to shoot you, too. Then you struggled with him and the gun went off twice, hitting the ceiling. You were able to get his gun from him but he won’t stop and he continued attacking you...and so you had to shoot him, to protect yourself and me. You fired two successive shots, hitting him in the chest. You killed him in self-defense. It was self-defense, remember that!”
Fear gripped him. “Laney...”
“This is the only way, Daryl, please, help me! We have no time! The police will come any minute now!”
Dazed and overwhelmed by the urgency of the situation, he agreed.
She then told him to pick up the gun lying on the floor, near Hal’s body. He wordlessly obeyed her.
She told him to fire two shots at the ceiling.
He did and he cringed at the crack of the gunshots that rent the air.
“Remember, we don’t know each other. Think of an alibi why you’re in the vicinity. Be consistent. I love you, Daryl. I won’t leave you. Never. We will be together soon. Now, give me your phone.”
He gave her his cellphone.
“Don’t tell them you have a cellphone, okay?” He just nodded.
She kissed him and ran screaming out of the door.
“I confessed to the accidental killing and pleaded self-defense. Alana and I lied to my lawyer. We pretended not to know each other. She destroyed all evidence that would link us together. She testified in my defense. She was a very convincing witness, a battered wife who bore all the physical marks of abuse and it helped that Hal was a known mean bastard in that neighborhood. High level of alcohol was found in his body which corroborated her claim that he was violent when he got drunk. I came out positive in the gunshot residue analysis and with my willing confession, it was an easy trial. However, I couldn’t prove pure self-defense as I trespassed into Hal’s property and supposedly fired two shots to his chest which the jury thought was overkill. They thought that I could have rendered him helpless with just one shot. My lawyer advised a plea bargain of imperfect self-defense and I accepted. After three months of deliberation, the jury sentenced me to two and a half years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.”
“But you were a minor! You should have been tried in a juvenile court. You would have been acquitted.”
“There were juvenile courts but with a violent death involved, intentional or not, minors were tried as adults. I found that out during the trial. But even then, I still wanted to help her because I saw how she was helping me during the trial. I fully believed I was saving an innocent woman from spending her whole life in jail. I...I loved her. I thought she loved me.”
It was clear, Alana manipulated the young Daryl. By playing the abused wife, she appealed to his protective instinct. Idealistic and in love, he played to her very tune.
“I was into my first year in prison when Alana stopped communicating with me. I found out she’d transferred to LA and married a movie producer. The thought that she left me to rot in there to seek greener pastures in LA and fulfill her dream of becoming an actress really angered me. I felt abandoned and betrayed.”
Crying silently, Celine hugged him, feeling his pain, even after all these years.
“The death of Faye turned me into a new person. I lost all my ideals and became very bitter, angry and vengeful. When I finally got out of prison, I sought Alana in Hollywood to use her for my own selfish gains. I blackmailed her into helping me become an actor. She owed me big and I was going to make her pay. Fortunately, Alana was already in a position to help me and she did help me make it in Hollywood.”
Dare recounted a marriage built on lies. He hated Alana for making him forsake Faye in order to save his lover from going to prison. But their shared secret made them dependent on each other, too. It finally ended after three years with more betrayal from Alana. Dare found out that Alana wanted to be free of her personal hell and she used Dare to achieve that. She premeditatedly killed her husband and convinced Dare it was self-defense. After their divorce, Dare had Alana discreetly investigated and he found out another more painful betrayal. Alana had collected a huge insurance from her husband’s death.
“I could have forgiven her if she only used me to get rid of her abusive husband. But that insurance told me something else. I couldn’t believe it, Celine.”
“Oh Dare...” She hugged him tighter, wanting to absorb even half of his pain. How could a person go through so much suffering and still survive a good man?
Celine didn’t want to hate Alana because the woman was already dead, but for a moment, she really did. What Alana did to Dare was unforgivable. But she was amazed at how Dare treated his ex-wife despite everything. He still took care of Alana to the very end. He was just too good to be true.
They made sweet love afterward. She wanted to blot what he told her from her mind. It hurt so bad to even think about it. She wanted to heal him of all his pain. Make him feel brand new.
She would strive to do that every day of their lives together.
“It was kind of true, you know?” Celine said thoughtfully as she lay in bed with Dare, basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking.
“What, baby?”
“When you gave me the phoenix, you lost your luck. Look what happened to you.”
“No, baby. I didn’t mean it that way when I said that.”
“But how else can you explain it?”
“I met Alana before I met you so it can’t be that. You are the best thing that happened to me.”
“But you went to jail after you gave your amulet to me. You lost your talisman. You had bad luck after bad luck since then.”
“Not all bad luck. I got lucky in my career.”
She caressed his chest. “Was it very hard? In prison?”
“Yes. I had to fight for my life in there every day as if it was my last. But I was tough and they learned quickly that they had to kill me or I’d kill them if they’d dare touch me. One time, I got sick and I thought I would die. I had a very high fever. That was one of the reasons why I fully believed that I would never have children. The doctor who tested me for fertility later told me the fever may have severely damaged my reproductive system.”
She giggled at that. “Really? You got me preggers the first time!” She tapped her belly. “You were a crack shot, honey. Your sperm found my egg right away! It was love at fight sight!”
He chuckled and touched her belly reverently. He kissed her nose. “You’re so funny, you know that?”
Then he was serious again. “I survived prison. But what I couldn’t take was when Faye died and I wasn’t allowed to go out and see her. I didn’t see her grave until I was released.”
“Oh, honey...”
“It’s okay. Doesn’t matter now. When I started making money, I had Faye exhumed and cremated and I brought her ashes with me here in LA.”
“Where did you put her ashes?”
“Inside that urn atop her grand piano.”
“Oh. I have to make her acquaintance later.”
“I think it’s time to let the wind take her. Where do you think we should let her go?”
“Hmm, over the Phuket Mountain Range?”
“Great idea. Let’s do that.”
“So...what was your real name?”
“My original name was Daryl Smith.”
“Smith? How boring!”
“Yeah. I had always liked Montgomery, you know, from Montgomery Clift. So the first thing I did when I got out of prison was legally change my surname. I wanted a clean slate.”
“It was prophetic, too, when you introduced yourself to me then as Dare Montgomery. Who would have thought?”
“I always knew I was going to be an actor. What happened to me only fueled my ambition. I was very driven.”
“You’re probably the most prolific actor of the decade.”
“Don’t you just love that? It made me rich.”
“I’m rich, too.”
“Are you going to pay rent here in my mansion?”
“No. I’m a very special guest with premium privileges.”
He hugged her. “I want to make love again, baby.”
“Are you really okay with Alana now?”
“Yes.” He gave her shoulder a love bite.
“Good. Because I want us to really start on a clean slate, too. No more residues from the past.”
“Deal. Now, can we...?” He started nuzzling her neck.
“Speaking of clean slates...I have some pre-nup conditions.”
Dare groaned. “Can’t that wait? I’m in the middle of a more important business here.” His hand cupped one breast.
She slapped his naughty hand playfully. “No. Listen!”
He gave an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, let’s hear it.”
“Here’s my deal. For every year that we are married, you give me ten million dollars.”
“Wow, what are you, a lunar stone? So expensive!”
“Take it or leave it. You can’t afford it?”
He grunted. “Of course, I can.”
“Good. Next...for every baby that we make, you’ll give me twenty million dollars. Child-bearing is hard, you know?”
He whistled. “I didn’t know making babies could cost me this much. What if I want a hockey team?”
“That’s your problem, not mine. Next, if you stray, you pay me one hundred million.”
“Whoa! I guess that’s my dick’s cue to go really exclusive. But provide a lock and wear the key around your neck because in my line of work, a lot will wanna touch it.”
She slapped his chest but laughed at the thought of locking his family jewels and holding the key.
“Anything else, Mulan?”
“If we divorce and you are the one who wants out, I will ask you nothing for myself. Just help me take care of the children.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to be free. To be happy,” she said softly and kissed the tip of his nose.
His blue eyes glistened with naked emotion. He touched her face with his fingertips.
“I can’t be any happier now, baby. I’m in heaven. Okay, I agree to all your conditions.”
“Are you very sure?”
“I’m in my thirties now. We’re looking at sixty years together, give or take and then I’d be dead. I’d be bankrupt by then anyway since you’ll have all my money so I might as well stick with you till the end.”
She laughed. “You have a point there.”
“Now...you wanna hear my conditions?”
“Sure.”
He brushed his lips on her forehead. “For every two years that we are married, we renew our vows.”
Her eyes went limpid with all the love she felt for him. He always felt reborn every time he’d look in those expressive eyes. She hid nothing from him.
He kissed her eyelids. “For every baby that you give me, I will love you more.”
“Oh, Dare.”
“If you stray...” He paused.
“Yes...?”
He kissed her lips and lingered there. “You won’t,” he finally said with a superior air.
Her brows furrowed. “Why not?”
“Because I am your ultimate dream guy. You have loved me for like two decades. You will love me forever.”