CHAPTER SEVEN

August, 2044



Jessikah Massengill thought she was going to be ill.

She read the report that had come into Nik's office about an attack on teenagers in Maine. Two were still missing, one was in the hospital with life threatening injuries after being sexually assaulted.

That brought back memories in Jessikah that she did not wish to remember. But did anyway.

"Hello, Jessikah," the head tennis coach said to her during her sophomore year of high school; "Mind if I join you?"

She had been in the showers in the ladies locker room, and the male coach came in to "join" her. This had been the second time this had happened.

He pushed her up against the wall of the shower stall and raped her until she bled.

"Remember, Miss Peters, you say anything, and you will not play in next week's match for the state championship," the coach taunted. He then left her there.

It had taken all her strength to get out of the showers, dry off, get dressed, and go home. She decided that she didn't care if she played in the championship match or not. What he was doing to her was against everything she'd been taught by her parents.

If he was doing this shit to her, how many other girls had he done it to, and how many more would he do it to before he was stopped?

Jessikah decided that no other tennis player at Carson High would suffer from this man's abuse of power.

She told her parents. The doctors in the emergency room at the hospital. The police. The school administration.

Soon he would go to trial, where Jessikah would learn that he had assaulted girls for fifteen years. He went to prison with a sentence so lengthy that it guaranteed he'd  never see daylight again. Jessikah and her twin, Mary Grace, transferred to another high school.

Other than her parents and sister, no one else knew of this. Not even her beloved Conner knew until he pressed the issue. She remembered feeling relief after telling him. She feared that he would see her as damaged.

Jessikah shook her head to clear it. Thinking about Conner made her sad. When he died overseas on a mission with his Marine unit, it left a huge void in Jessikah's world.  At least she had their children, and her memories so she could tell Gracie and Conner David what kind of man their father was.

She got back to the task at hand. She set the article aside to fax to Nik later. It was something that he and Senator Donovan needed to see, since it took place in Maine where the Senator's brother lived.

Jessikah wished she could talk to the poor little gal who was the victim of this terrible crime. That with counselling and time, it does get better. She was living proof.

She'd be shocked when she found out that the "poor little gal" she assumed was the victim turned out to be a young man whose name she knew.

Then she really would be ill.

===


Julia hated to take time off from her job at the hospital, but it was mid August when she had to testify in a trial involving her son, Zachary, and her son in law, Jared Walters.

Zach and Jared had caught people on the Summers' property two months earlier trying to steal the small herd of cattle Julia owned, and both young men had taken up weapons and killed three men who had been trespassing. The trespassers, and their accomplices who got away, had seriously injured the family's prize bull, Sarge, and a younger bull called Master Guns. While "Gunny" survived his wounds, Sarge did not. Zach and Jared were later arrested on charges of "intent to kill"; the men's lawyers insisted that Zach Summers and Jared Walters were only defending the family's property and livestock from those intent to take what was not theirs. The lawyer also noted that the Summers' property had signage around the perimeter stating that "these premises will be vigorously defended against intruders intent on committing a crime", and signage that stated that "The bulls can make it to the fenceline in 8 seconds".

"I can attest to the signage," Julia stated in her testimony. "When we first moved to this property after the Occupation had ended several years before, my late husband Ryan Summers had put up the signs even before the animals were ever brought there. It was to discourage the very thing that occurred that led to my son and son in law to shoot the men trespassing on my property. I have every right under the current laws to protect my property and livelihood. Zach and Jared did just that."

The people who brought the charges of murder against Zach and Jared were the two widows of two of the men, and the mother of the third.  They testified how their lives had changed because of what happened to them. 

"Then maybe they shouldn't have been trying to steal what wasn't theirs!" Zach's fiancee Lisette cried out in court.

"No, Lisette," Julia told her quietly but firmly, "that could get Zach in more trouble."

That did not please the proscecutor very much. "Miss Lincoln, I trust there will be no more outbursts," he said to Lisette. "Next time, it's contempt."

"Jerk," Julia said under her breath.

"My boy didn't steal nothin'," the mother, who was currently on the stand, said hotly.

"Ms. Rodriguez," the proscecuting attorney said, "Same goes for you. No more outbursts."

In the end, Zach and Jared were acquitted and were free to go. Zach and Lisette went home. Jared accompanied Julia back to the ranch, then went to his house on the property where Jaime and Serenity waited for him.

Years later, Ms. Rodriguez would sell Mrs. Walters out to the one man Jaime should have been afraid of.

How could one be afraid of a threat they're not aware of?

===

Nico's first few days in Hawaii were peaceful and relaxing. She explored the island, sat by the pool at the hotel; went to the beach occasionally. Young men constantly hit on her, which Nico found hilarious. They're young enough to be my sons! she thought.

One afternoon, one of them went too far when he slid his hand down the back of Nico's bikini bottoms. She asked him to remove his hand or she'd scream. He didn't, she did.

He was 19 years old.

"But..." he said when he was removed from the hotel pool area.

"But nothing," Nico said; "Be lucky they're only removing you, and I'm not pressing charges. You never know when you're messing with a police officer."

"You're a cop?" one of the officers taking Nico's statement asked.

"I was," said Nico; "I'm retired now."

"Where?"

"Chicago."

"You're not old enough to be retired! You can't be more that forty!" he said.

"Thanks," Nico said; "I am more than forty though. Most police departments have policies about the health of their members. I qualified for retirement under one of those policies."

"I know what you mean," the officer said. "We have that here, too. In paradise, no less!"

"Being an officer is stressful no matter where you are," Nico said.

"Some guys have all the luck though," the officer said; "Take that older guy over there; he's the owner of the hotel. He's in his sixties, and he doesn't look a day over fifty."

Nico looked, and saw a man with greying, dark hair with his back to her. He had a physique most men would die for.

Kinda like Eddie, she thought.

Then she wondered briefly if this is where he went when he left her in a seedy Chicago motel room nearly a decade before.

Nico thought better of it. But someone was putting money into her secret account every year on her birthday...

She finished up her business with the police officer and went back inside to go to her room and shower. Then she might go downstairs to dinner. Maybe the little boys would leave her alone for once.

===

Almost from the moment she said, "Chicago", Marshall's eyes went to the sound of the very familiar voice.

Nicoletta! he thought in shock; Have you come looking for me?

He'd been watching her for the last two days, hoping against hope that she was his green-eyed angel.

But he remembered that he broke his promise to her, and therefore, in his mind, she was off limits. His arms still ached to hold her and ask for forgiveness. Would she forgive me? he asked himself; Do I have a right to even ask?

Then the phone call came. Someone asking for him by name.

"Mr. Marshall, I'm Stefanie Travetti," the older, but still recognisable voice said; "I'm calling to ask you questions about Nicoletta Nichols."

"Such as...?" he had asked.

"That name is familiar to you, isn't it?"

"Yes," Marshall had replied; "I've met her."

"Mr. Marshall, let's not beat around the bush here," Stefanie said; "You had a brief affair with her nearly a decade ago around the time her husband passed away."

"Well,  yes," Marshall said; "She was an undercover cop then, and I was wanted by the FBI."

"I know all about your involvement in the American Republic Movement, Mr. Marshall," said Stefanie; "Your group was trying to assassinate The Triad. One of The Triad recently became my great grandson's mother in law."

"Julia Summers," Marshall said; "I read the engagement announcement in the online Times-Tribune."

"I see," Stefanie said.

"What's your connection to Julia Summers, other than being the groom's great grandmother?" asked Marshall.

"Nico Nichols is my granddaughter, and after you disappeared from her life, she mourned your loss just as hard as she mourned her husband's. She spent that whole year on bereavement leave," said Stefanie.

"She's your granddaughter?" asked Marshall; "I knew Kit Crowley was her mother. Are you Kit's mother?"

"Yes, Kit was my only daughter," Stefanie said sadly; "I moved to Chicago to be closer to Nicoletta, as she was the oldest of Kit's children."

Marshall thought it all made sense now; Nicoletta had told him the truth about her family while she was undercover. Every lie always had elements of the truth.

"Why have you called me, then, Ms. Travetti?" he asked; "Yes, I know Nicoletta Nichols. I haven't seen her in nearly ten years."

"Nicoletta is planning a vacation in Hawaii in the next few weeks, and I'm paying for her airfare and hotel," Stefanie said; "I'm going to put her in your hotel. Mr. Marshall, you need to give her closure to whatever it was you had together, because she needs it desperately. She has not dated or gone out with any other men in the decade since her husband passed. I think maybe she thinks you'll return to her someday. She'd never admit that to anyone, not even me."

And I'll never admit that I fell in love with her, that I still love her, Marshall thought. Not even to you, Ms. Travetti.

Now, Nicoletta was in his hotel. He'd seen her with his own eyes. Still as beautiful as ever.

Please forgive an old fool, he said to himself.

Oh, God! Edward!

===