The doctor finally released Denise, and Denise went home with Melanie. Anne arrived a few hours later. As the women sat watching television, there was a knock at the door. They all froze. Anne looked through the peephole and saw flowers on the other side.
“Someone is delivering flowers – should I open the door?”
“Yes,” Denise replied, hoping Andy had sent them. “Go ahead. It’s fine.”
Anne tipped the delivery person, and handed Denise the flowers.
“Who are they from? Quick read us the card!”
“Denise, I am so sorry for everything. Please take me back. I promise I’ll change. I’ll do whatever you ask to save our marriage. Our baby deserves a happy, unbroken home. All my love, Mitch.”
The three women sat in stunned silence, before Melanie spoke up.
“You can’t be considering this.” Her face was stern. “Look what he’s already done to you!”
“I’m not considering it,” Denise replied flatly. “My baby deserves a loving, abuse-free home. We’ll never have that with Mitch in the picture.”
Anne and Melanie heaved sighs of relief.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Anne said. “I was worried you might fall for his shit.”
“I can’t. I have to do what’s best for the baby.”
Ralph appeared at the door, and they all settled in for the night.
As Denise prepared to go to work in the morning, there was a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” Ralph said, his tone gruff. “Just in case it’s Mitch violating the restraining order.” Andrew stood on the stoop, and Ralph let him in.
“My shift is over, so I’m here for day shift,” he smiled. “Everything ok?”
“Fine, except that Mitch sent Denise flowers with a sappy message. Thankfully, she’s not falling for it.” Andy’s face clouded.
“So he’s already starting. Great. Poor Denise.”
“I’m ok, Andy, really,” Denise responded. “He’s not going to charm his way back into my life. Enough is enough. I’m done.” She straightened up some, and held her head high. “I’m buying a divorce kit that has all the paperwork in it, so I can file divorce this week. I’m serious. It’s over.” Her friends all smiled in relief.
“Are you going to ignore his note from the flowers? You’re not going to respond are you?”
“No, I’m not going to respond. Being served with divorce papers will be response enough, I think. On that note, I really have to head to work. Andy, here’s your house key. I’m making extras for Melanie and Ralph, and for Anne. I really appreciate you all helping me and staying with me. You have no idea how much it means to me.”
Denise grabbed her car keys, and headed for the door. “I’ll keep in touch if anything happens.” She turned to Andy, “I’ll try not to wake you when I come home for lunch.”
“No worries. I’ll enjoy the company if you do.” He smiled at her warmly. “Have a good day.”
The front desk buzzed Denise at about ten o’clock that morning.
“You have an envelope here. Dropped off by a friend, she said her name was Shelley.”
“Thank you, I’ll be right down.”
The Post-It on the outside of the envelope read: Mitch asked me to drop this off for you. Call me if you have a response letter to send to him and I’ll deliver it.
Denise went to her desk and read the letter: Denise, I know you must be scared and confused, and I don’t blame you at all. All I can say is that I’m sorry – so very sorry – for hurting you like I did. I have no idea what got into me. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I promise this will never happen again. Please answer me so I know what you’re thinking. All my love and apologies, Mitch.
Denise folded the letter, opened her messenger bag, and placed the letter in the manila folder that contained the Restraining Order copy. ‘What he doesn’t realize,’ she thought, ‘is that he’s violated the Order twice now by contacting me. Time for an arrest warrant, I think,’ she picked up the phone and dialed the police.
Mitch was at work when the police arrived to arrest him. He flew into a rage.
“I didn’t go anywhere NEAR her!” he snarled. “She’s ruining my life for no reason at all!”
“Sir,” the officer began calmly, “the Restraining Order clearly states that you are not to contact her at all by any means. You sent her a note with flowers, and had a friend drop a letter off to her at her place of business. These are CLEAR violations of the terms. I’m sorry, but you are under arrest.”
Mitch used his one phone call to reach his parents. “Mom, she had me arrested for violating the Restraining Order. There is no mention in that damned paperwork saying I can’t send her flowers. What the fuck is her problem?”
“Relax, Mitch. We’ll bail you out as soon as we can get the bond money, and we’ll hire a good lawyer.”
“Okay, but I need you to do me a couple of favors in the meantime…”
Mitch instructed his mother to close the savings and checking accounts, putting all the money into new accounts under his and his mother’s names only. He also instructed her to have the attorney draw up custody paperwork for the baby. ‘If nothing else worked, this will work for sure. She won’t risk losing custody of her child. She’ll surely come back to me now. No money, no access to funds and a custody battle looming ahead of her will get her to come to her senses,’ he thought.
That night, while Mitch slept in jail, Andrew’s friend who ran the background check on Mitch called Andy at work with the results.
“Andy, there was an incident at the college your friend and her husband attended where a Resident Assistant went missing. The body was never found, and the man was presumed dead. This happened about eight years ago, when your friend and Mitch were Juniors in college.”
“Holy shit!” cried Andrew. “Was Mitch ever a suspect? Was he involved? Can you send me the reports?”
“Mitch was the prime suspect, and witnesses and residents that were interviewed said that the RA had been hitting on Denise a week or so prior to the disappearance. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough evidence or enough of a case to make the charges stick. Plus there was no body found, so they couldn’t prove foul play.” His friend ruffled through some papers. “Yea, I can send you copies of all this stuff. It’s pretty dark, actually. Like everyone knew Mitch had killed him, but he covered his tracks so well, no one could ever prove it.”
“Damn,” Andy breathed. “I need to sit down with Denise and go over this. I’m just not sure how to bring it up. Thanks for getting back to me on that. Things are getting bad here, so I really needed that info right about now. You rock, man!
“No problem, Blake,” his friend chuckled. “Glad I could help in the nick of time.”
It wasn’t until the next morning that Mitch was released from prison, after his parents paid his fine. At that point, he took off and disappeared.
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