Seth’s Perspective
It had been a crazy freaking day. Frankie’s story was heartbreaking and there was little doubt in my mind that we would soon be in the eye of a shit storm, I was happy Zach was in the middle of it all with me. After he dropped Frankie off at Harrington House, he had called his boss to tell him that he had taken on another pro bono client for The Village (seriously, Zach and his firm did so much for us, I kept waiting for his boss to say ‘enough’ and cut us off). We expected some resistance, but his boss was surprisingly elated. The Samuel Willis story had been big news when it first happened, and reuniting an abducted child with his father after thirteen years would be huge exposure for the small but growing firm. Zach promised to go into the office early the next day to debrief the firm on Frankie’s case and their meeting with the detectives. According to Zach, things were going to move quickly. We had to make sure Frankie stayed with The Village and was safe.
Meanwhile, back at home, we had other fish to fry. Despite everything that had happened that day, I still picked up the kids and made it home on time to make dinner and even bake some cupcakes for dessert. While they were cooling on the rack, and Izzy and Ali were playing together in the playroom, I got Freddy to help me set the dining room table.
“Why we eating at the fancy table tonight?” he asked.
“Because Daddy Zach is bringing a special guest home for dinner tonight.”
“Who is it?” he asked curiously.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Is it Grandma Kelly?” he guessed.
“Nope… it’s a surprise, you’ll just have to wait and see” I answered.
He ventured another guess, “is it Ms. Elkin?”
“Nope… it’s a surprise, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
He went on guessing, “Is it…?” Oh my god, he guessed every human on the face of god’s green earth from Che and River to Grandpa West and everyone in between. It was interesting to me how his tiny mind worked, he guessed everyone except his momma. I think Freddy had accepted a long time ago that his momma would be locked away forever so it didn’t occur to him that she would be the surprise guest, that would make tonight an even bigger deal. When we finished setting the fancy table, I rallied all three kids to help decorate the cupcakes. What a flipping mess but it was worth the laughter and smiles. Ali put a little frosting on a cupcake, then licked the spoon, put a little frosting on a cupcake, then licked the spoon, put a little frosting on a cupcake, then licked the spoon… he had the most contented smile on his face as if the world was perfect. Yeah, he was ruining his appetite, but I didn’t care, it was a special night and I loved seeing him happy. Freddy had a different approach, he meticulously spread the frosting on each cupcake, then added sprinkles as perfectly and evenly as possible turning it into a work of art. Then there was Izzy, she worked on one special cupcake for Daddy Sach’s special guest. It had about a pound of frosting on it, half a bottle of pink sprinkles and was a flipping diabetic disaster… but she was so proud of her masterpiece. The three were so hard at work that they didn’t even hear the Jetta crunch up the gravel drive, or the front door open. Daddy Sach and Karen made their way to the kitchen undetected. They stood there waiting for a reaction, Zach had his camera on the kids and was recording the whole thing.
Freddy saw them first. “Daddy Zach, look what we’re…” he said, then stopped dead in his tracks mid-sentence, and did a double take. “MOMMA! MOMMA!” He dropped everything and ran to her “YOU’RE HERE!! YOU”RE HERE AT MY HOUSE!!” Izzy turned around to look then let out this high pitched scream like I had never heard from her before while she squirmed her way out of the booster chair and ran to her momma.
Ali looked around in confusion as he licked frosting off his spoon. Then I heard him murmur quietly, “Momma?” He repeated it a couple times as he looked around and tried to get out of his highchair. I cleaned the frosting off him and let him out of the chair. He walked right past Karen and the other kids and made his way to the front door repeating the word “momma.” I followed him while Zach kept the camera on the happy reunion. Ali, who had not cried for his momma in a couple of months stood there staring at the door whimpering “momma” over and over. My heart was breaking for him. I expected a lot of big reactions and emotions that night, but I hadn’t really thought about Ali’s reaction to the word ‘momma.’
I picked up my little guy and held him as I tried to explain that Karen was Izzy and Freddy’s momma. His bottom lip protruded in a pout that could break the hardest of hearts. I told him that me and Daddy Zach were there, and reminded him about his brother, his sister, his dog, anything I thought would make him happy. Then I started talking about cupcakes, and whatever else I could think of to console him. He wasn’t hysterical, or even upset… he was just genuinely sad and there wasn’t shit I could do about it. Our kids, all three of them, may have been ours, but they belonged to someone else first and those bonds would never go away.
After the kids let Karen out of their grip, she acknowledged Ali. “Hey cutie, you must be Ali. I heard a lot about you little guy, you are cute!” She said as she took him from my arms. Karen had heard all about Ali from the kids, but he was never with us for any of the visits to the detention center, so this was their first meeting. Karen didn’t know his past, but her mothering instincts kicked in and she bounced him on her hip and diverted his attention like a pro. Soon he was out of his funk. Izzy, however, was not sharing her momma with her new little brother. She quickly got Karen’s attention again, Karen handed Ali back to me as Izzy showed her every Barbie in her arsenal, then she and Freddy took their momma on a tour and showed her their home with Petunia following behind making sure the stranger stayed in line and didn’t mess with her kids. They were so flipping excited, but Ali… Ali was clingy for the first time in a while, he was missing his momma.
After the tour we all sat down to a cheesy chicken dinner that I had invented a while ago and the kids loved. I also made a tossed salad and some crescent rolls… nothing even close to fancy. “Oh my god, this is the best meal I’ve had in almost two years” Karen raved, I just kind of chuckled with pride… my quick dad-meal was better than prison food.
Freddy asked Karen question after question as his six year old brain tried to comprehend his mother’s new found freedom. “Do you have to go back to jail, momma?” he asked.
“Not if I’m good, little man.”
“Where will you sleep? Here?” he asked, then looked at me and Zach almost begging for permission. “You can sleep in Izzy’s top bunk.” He said thinking through the possibilities.
“Oh, thank you for that offer, sweetie. But I have to live on my own. I have a cute little apartment to stay in. I got a new job today to thanks to Daddy Zeff.”
“She’s gonna work with Ray Ray at the dry cleaners” I said as I took a bite of the chicken… I admit, it was pretty good if I do say so myself.
“I woke dao too.” Izzy said, making me and Zach laugh (Izzy to English translation: ‘I work there too, mother. I’m sure I could teach you a few things’). The dry cleaners was between Mrs. Mavis’s and Freddy’s school, so I stopped there regularly with Ali and Izzy during carpool. Ray Ray always let Izzy work the foot pedal for the garment conveyer, and ring up our order on the cash register. She loved it and considered herself employee of the year.
“Yes, you do” I said.
“Maybe you can teach your mom some stuff” Zach suggested with a smirk.
“Yeah, I do dat” Izzy said with a nod as she ate dinner. It was a very pleasant dinner, the kids were happy, Karen was getting comfortable, and I didn’t feel threatened. After dinner, I brought out the tray of cupcakes. “I maked dat one fo you, Momma” Izzy said with excitement as she pointed to the pink frosting smothered monstrosity in the center of the serving tray.
“For me?” Karen asked with feigned excitement. There was no way in hell she could say no to those beautiful brown eyes, so she did her damnedest to choke down the fruits of Izzy’s labor of love. Karen stayed until Izzy and Ali went to bed, she even tucked Izzy in.
I drove here home so Zach could prep for his meeting. Freddy begged to come with, so we let him stay up a little late and ride along, he even got to see her new apartment. I wasn’t one hundred percent he understood the entire situation until the ride home when he said, “I’m glad they let Momma out of jail. I hope she doesn’t do somethin’ bad again.”
“I think she’s going to do her best to be good. She was so happy to be with you guys tonight.”
“I liked having her at my house too” Freddy responded. “But me n’ Izzy still get to live with you and Daddy Zach forever like you said when you ‘dopted us. Right?”
I choked up a little, “Yup. Forever and ever. We’re a family.”
“Yup. A really good one!” Freddy said with a giggle. God, I could not love those kids more. We talked the rest of the trip home; he was such a little man. When we got home, he went straight to bed, I usually told him I loved him when I tucked him in, and he’d say he loved me too. That night, it was the other way around. “I love you dad” he said when I kissed him good night.
“I love you too, buddy” I replied.
“Yeah, I know” he said with a smirk before I turned out the light. It was a great night.
I went down to the kitchen where Zach was camped out at the island getting ready for his meeting in the morning. While he was working, he told me what happened at the meeting with Frankie and the detectives. “He told them his story, answered their questions honestly, and they took copious notes, they said everything he told them lined up perfectly with what was in the file from thirteen years ago, and he filled in several blanks for them, including the whereabouts of his mother. They’re going to follow up on what he told them and promised to let him know if they tracked down his father. Oh, and they promised extra security around Harrington House and the BroMax Candle plant just to be safe.”
When he finished, I told him about my meeting with the board, and then my conversation with Freddy, “I think he understands what’s going on. Damn, he’s so smart.” I talked while Zach typed and got his stuff together.
It was past eleven when he shut his laptop and said, “well, I’m as ready as I’m gonna get.” I took that moment to thank him for all his help with Frankie, and everything else he does for The Village and the guys. He was sitting at one of the barstools at the kitchen island, I spun him around to face me and kissed him. It was a kiss of gratitude… not only for all he had done for The Village, but for everything! Our kids, our life together; some things in this world were full of uncertainty and drama. Zach was not one of those things. He was my rock, I could always count on him, not to mention he was the hottest, sexiest fucker on the planet. At some point during my sweet, innocent, tender kiss of appreciation, my hand fell to his naked knee. It caressed its way up his meaty thigh and into the leg hole of his sweat shorts, his warm. Low hanging balls brushed the top of my knuckles as I continued to caress his inner thigh. I took my other hand and did the same to his other thigh. Both my hands caressed his inner thighs and teased his balls. I pulled one of my hands out of his shorts and couldn’t resist the urge to sniff it. I inhaled the musk of his balls… it was my kryptonite. The scent of Zach killed all my inhibitions and drove me mad with lust, it was a natural aphrodisiac.
After a few minutes of kissing and groping, I dropped to my knees and tugged at the waistband of his sweat shorts until its unflagging magnificence sprung free and gave me a love tap on the cheek. I licked it playfully while I looked up into his scintillating hazel eyes, they cut through me like a hot knife through butter. That was it, I was gone. I started to ravage his hard member, deepthroating him and pressing my nose against his pubes until I couldn’t breathe and had to come up for air. I stroked his slippery cock with my hand while I caught my breath then went back for more… feeding my Zach addiction. Zach leaned back on the barstool as he spread his legs to give me better access. I sucked his cock and massaged his low-hanging man orbs, occasionally snaking a finger underneath to tap on his sweet, tight hole. I went at it like that for a while until I put my hands behind his thighs and pushed his legs up. He adjusted himself in the stool, slinking down and pulling his knees to his chest as he moaned/sighed/whimpered in pure ecstasy. His tight, underutilized sphincter was right there, begging for a full-on tongue assault. Zach was a self-proclaimed top, but we both knew he loved to be fucked, he just hated to admit it. It only happened on rare occasions, but I was determined to make that night one such occasion.
Some people turned to drugs or alcohol to relieve stress, I turned to Zach, he was my drug of choice. I ate that hole like I was a four hundred pound man at a Golden Coral buffet at closing time. Zach was freaking euphoric as I lapped and spit my way inside him. There is no way in hell he could’ve been comfortable all scrunched up on the barstool like that, but he didn’t care. After I ate my fill, I stood up and gave his ass a hard smack then dropped my jeans and spit on my raging hard cock. Without asking, without warning, without any more foreplay I entered my husband.
“Shit! You could warn a guy” Zach scoffed as he continued to hold onto the back of his thighs. I plunged in deep and fast and kept the pace going. His complaints turned into groans of pleasure as he leaned into the hard fuck. He was jacking himself off and eventually shot his load onto his chest and his own fucking face. His ass ring grabbed my plunging cock, pulsating around it forcing spurt after spurt of pearly warmth out of me and sucking it deep into his ass. We both kept pumping until we were dry. When we finished, I did something that surprised even me… no shocked me. I ate my own cum out of his hole… Zach pushed it out and I lapped up every drop before licking my way up his body and licking his cum off his chest and face. Then I gave him a wet, cummy kiss, sharing my bounty with the man I loved. After we caught our breath, we made our way up to bed where I spooned him to sleep for a change.
The next morning, Zach was up and out of the house before the kids were even awake; he had a big day ahead of him. I got the kids up and rolling, there surprisingly didn’t seem to be any aftermath from Karen’s visit. Izzy was singing away, Ali seemed to have forgotten about his momma again (that was bittersweet), and Freddy was telling Teddy about hi momma coming over for dinner. He seemed to have talked out his concerns in the car on the way home last night and was processing the new situation in a healthy, mature way (not what I expected). All in all, it was a calm ride in, had I known it would be the only calm point in my day I would have savored it more.
BA was all over me the second I walked in, “Officer Andy and some detective are in the therapy room talking with Frankie, you’re supposed to join them.”
“Isn’t he supposed to be at work?”
“They came lookin’ for him so I called Ricky and he sent him over” BA said.
“Shit, call Zach and let him know what’s going on, tell him to stand by, I may need his help.”
“Roger that” BA said as I passed by her desk and went into the therapy room. Frankie looked up at me and let out a sigh of relief.
“Hi Seth, good to see ya’ again” Officer Andy said. “We were just letting Frankie know that we found his father. He moved to Nashville a couple of years back, but kept the same phone number.”
“He wants me to call him, I was waiting for you” Frankie said as he looked to me for support.
The detective asked Frankie if he was ready, then dialed the number. “Mr. Morris, this is detective Grubbs from the Wilmington Police Department calling again, how are you?” We listened as the men spoke, finally he said, “I have your son here, he’s anxious to speak to you” then he handed Frankie the phone.
“Hello, um Dad?” Frankie said in a weak, timid voice. He listened then repeated, “Dad? Dad… it’s really you” the emotions overcame him, and tears poured out of his eyes as he ugly cried. “Yeah, yeah, it’s really me, Samuel” he laughed through his tears, “Yeah, I’m alive. I thought you hated me” he eked out before he turned into a bawling mess. He cried as he listened to his father speak for the first time in thirteen years. He did his best to regain his composure and have a conversation. They spoke for a long time, then Frankie said, “I can’t wait to see you too” and handed the phone back to Detective Grubbs.
I went over and hugged him, “How ya’ doin’ buddy?”
He was still sniffling, “Good. He said he loved me and never stopped looking for me. He’s in his car on the way here already. He left Nashville early this morning and should be at the police station around 5:00.” He looked up at me and said, “I’m gonna see him today!”
When the detective hung up, he said, “Well we took his statement over the phone last night, and between his statement and yours we should have enough evidence to pull a warrant for your mothers arrest, the DA is working on that this morning, it may take a day or two.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“Well, we know she’s in Polk County, Florida so we’ll work with the Sherriff’s office there to have her arrested. They’ll hold her as a fugitive from justice until we can get her extradited back here where we’ll detain her until her trial.”
“What about Gary” Asked Frankie.
“Well, as of now the DA doesn’t have enough evidence to issue a warrant, they have to prove that he was an accomplice, they still need to compile that case… but the case against your mother is pretty strong.” Detective Grubbs explained.
Frankie turned so white he was almost translucent, “he’s gonna find me. He’s gonna find me and come after me” he said starting to panic, “he… he… he’s gonna kill me.” He looked around the room as if he was planning his escape, he was scared shitless. “I need to leave, I… I… need to go before he finds me.”
Officer Andy walked up to Frankie and put a hand on his shoulder, “You’re safe here, son. This place has alarms and cameras, and we’ll make sure we have officers watching the place 24/7” Frankie didn’t look convinced. “We all got you son. We’re on your side” Andy did his best to reassure him. “I know this is a big ask, but I suggest you go back to work and shake all this off for now, nothing is going to happen for a day or two. You can come to the police station tonight to see your dad after we talk to him.” Again, the police were on our side and tried to help Frankie, but this was all too much for the scrawny little guy. After some more conversation, Officer Andy and Detective Grubbs left, and Frankie promised to go down to the station later that night.
Just as the police left, Zach entered, all lawyered up in his suit with one of the firm’s partners at his side. He introduced Dale to Frankie (I had met him at the Christmas party),
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I came as soon as BA told me the detective was here. Frankie, you need to make sure I’m around whenever you talk to the police. Okay?” Zach almost scolded. Then the two bombarded Frankie with questions about his conversation with the police.
Frankie looked at them like a deer caught in the headlights. He was just over-freaking-whelmed.
I politely said, “Zach, lay off. He’s had a rough morning” then I updated the two lawyers on the conversation with Frankie adding commentary. I think hearing me recap it helped him wrap his head around it all.
“I’ll pick you up and take you to the police station to meet your dad tonight. Okay?” Zach offered changing Frankie’s entire demeanor.
Frankie nodded, “Yes. Thank you.” It was clear he wanted, no… needed all the support he could get. After the lawyers left, I walked Frankie back to work, Che, and River were all over him asking about what happened, River seemed to have gotten over his jealousy, or at least put it aside considering the circumstances.
Meanwhile, I explained everything to Ricky and warned him that things might get crazy at the plant and at Harrington House. I told him we were on high alert and that the police department would be giving us a little extra attention. Max and Chip had already debriefed him on the situation, and told him how to deal with the press, if he got any press inquiries they were to get pushed to Chip immediately. “I’ll keep an eye out for everyone, Zach” Ricky said in a reassuring voice.
I had a Zoom Call scheduled with Chip for the afternoon to go through our talking points, since I was the official spokesperson for The Village. But despite the looming chaos, it was still business as usual at The Village. I went back to the office and worked on the usual grant proposals and budgets, in between my sessions with Villagers. There was a lot to do, and the day flew by. My meeting with Chip snuck up on me. He and I met alone for about a half hour to discuss talking points and the official statement to the press from The Village should we need one. Everything was Chip written, board approved, and ready to roll out if needed… it was all also subject to change as the situation unfolded. After our one-on-one, Rodney and BA joined us to discuss protocol since the two of them would be in the middle of the shit storm with me. I hate to admit it, but my biggest fear was BA’s mouth… oh my god, I could totally see her going off on some pushy reporter wo got in her face. She promised to be on her ‘best gotdamn behavior.’
As of that moment, things were still on the DL, but once Marnie Morris, a.k.a. April Willis was arrested and charged, things would likely get crazy for our little village. We were ready… well as ready as we were going to get.
To be continued…
