Redemption Of Drowning Chapter 3

Redemption Of Drowning Chapter 3

By : Mariann Carroll, Jason Ray Morton, Dharrsheena Raja Segarran and Melissa Ingoldsby

Teresa couldn't fall asleep. She kept having second thoughts about calling her cousin, Jonathan. She sure didn't miss Danny.

Not hearing his voice verbally abusing her had been very blissful. She's never once felt happy after her marriage to Danny.

Should she not call Jonathan about this? Should she just let her lost husband remain lost?

Then her mind went to her baby. What kind of life would a fatherless child lead? She didn't want to do that to her child.

But then again, does her innocent child deserve a father like Danny? With all these thoughts swimming in her mind, Teresa fell into a restless slumber.

When she woke up, she'd made up her mind. She'd call Jonathan because it would be the right thing to do and she'll have a clear conscience.

Jonathan answered on the third ring, "Hey Tess, what a pleasant surprise at the crack of dawn! How are you doing?"

"Hi Jon. I'm not okay. It's Danny. I need help."

"IS THAT MOTHERF—"

"Jon, please! He's missing! I need your help to find him!"

"Oh! I thought he was still hitting you! He's missing, you say? Well, that's great! We should celebrate!"

Teresa sighed heavily, "I'm pregnant, Jon. Please, I really need to find him. For my child's sake.

"Whoaaa. I didn't kn— Congratulations! I'm sorry for joking around. You know I don't like him for the way he treats you."

"So would you help me find him?"

"Yes. Drop by my office at 8.00 a.m."

"I appreciate you Jon, thank you! See you later!"

"See you!"

Teresa met with her cousin. Jonathon that ran a successful detective agency. He was adept at getting to the bottom of things. For him, looking into Danny's disappearance would be easy.

Given all the information he had, Jon contacted the Coast Guard and inquired about potential boat accidents. Calling around to the different hospitals, he paid off a couple of admissions clerks and found out there was a patient who claimed he was Danny.

When he finagled his way into see Paul Williams, Jon didn't let on that Teresa sent him. Jon never met Danny. He didn't like what he'd heard about his cousin's husband.

Knocking on the door, he let himself in enough to ask if the man was Paul Williams. Danny stared at Jon. He answered with a simple, "I guess so."

Jon entered and asked if he could ask him some questions.

******

Detective Jon does not know how he is going to explain what he found out to his cousin. It seems Danny is in the body of Teresa ex boyfriend Paul Williams. This is an Phenomenon he had never encountered in all his experience being a detective. He would need the help of his FBI investigator buddy Seth on this.

Jonathan and Seth go way back before they both graduated in B.S. Criminal Justice. Seth was great at Forensic Science. He will be the only one to crack this case.

Jonthon called Seth Miller a special FBI agent that deal with X-file. Jonthon share all the information he gathered with Seth.

“I had just solved a case just like this in Michigan, I will get back with you on this, Jonthon. How is your cousin doing? How did she end up with this sleazeball in the first place. Looking up this Williams guy, he has a great reputation compare to her husband character.” Seth often wonder how a sweet girl like Teresa end up with this Danny guy.

*******

Teresa was back home going over things in circles. That happen before Danny left to go fishing without her.

“I don't accept your apology,” Danny muttered.

Teresa’s eyes unintentionally watered. Her nose twitched. “What?” she quietly replied.

Danny gave her a hard look. A look that Teresa knew as well as the back of her hand. A look that had been materializing and fossilizing for five years. Those once seemingly soft Hazel eyes seemed darker now. More alarmed and angry.

She kept quiet. Always quiet. A learned unnatural silence that came from mental and email beatings, sometimes physical. Her shoulders fell and her eyes went sullen. She felt like an old scarecrow that had years of rain, sleet and storms knock her around.

He was sitting on the couch but stood up rapidly and sternly said, “I said, Teresa, I don't accept your apology. It's one thing after another with you.” Danny huffs. “First my uniform wasn't pressed or clean when I woke up. Then, my phone wasn't even charging. Then,” his curly dark hair fell past his forehead as he swished it with a air-blow of his lips to move it out of the way. “Then… dinner isn't even prepared. What do you do all-day? Text your little friends?” He sneered.

Teresa noted the way he would move his hair was one of the notable things he would do that she found attractive, especially when they first met and started dating.

She shook her head. “No. No. I work too. I may not make as much money as you-”

He cut her off with a flat palm in the air.

“Don’t even try to make this about work. I am the one that pays the actual mortgage, and the bills that matter,” he liftes his upper lip and growled at her.

Teresa knew this was the overblown. Her sister Sara often told her that the amount of gaslighting that Danny would do to her poor younger sibling was grosteque. Teresa in fact, did pay a good amount of the bills, approximately a little over half. Sometimes more as he often lost his jobs due to impertience and temper. Danny would repurpose her funds into little things on purpose, and belittle all of her efforts. Cleaning, cooking and household management was all a source of control and estrangement. It meant servitude to Danny and he needed and demanded to be served.

“You half-ass everything. You half-ass even putting on makeup. Your sister knows how to look like a woman,” he scoffed, his tirade still going on like a tired lawn mower engine, gurgling and snapping back.

Finally, he left to another room in the house. She let out a very exhausted sigh. It was not relief. It was pain.

Suddenly, he had on all his fishing gear and said curtly, “See you later.”

She perked up, fixing her hair nervously and standing up. “Are you going on the boat? When will you be home?”

She almost wanted to go with him. To see if they could have one salvageable moment together, a moment to spark their old romance. Danny had bought that boat during one of their anniversaries. She believed it was supposed to be a sign he wanted to spend more time with her, but sadly, it turned into a Danny only gift and she was often left alone during his excursions.

But before she could utter another word, he slammed the front door. She frowned.

‘And his phone is almost dead,’ she thought worriedly, tidying up the couch cushions and eating a few pieces of steak she cooked with rice. Dinner her husband did not touch.

He always smelled of salt water air and bacon when he got home. She used to love his aroma, so sweaty and manly. Now, it made her sick. It didn't help that she was now pregnant. He had no sympathy for her morning sickness.

It made her think of their first meeting and his different he used to be. Or… how she perceived his supposed different personas five years ago to now. It was on a West coast fishing charter and she was an avid angler. Mainly, she loved freshwater trout and fly fishing, but wanted to try sea fishing.

“Bacon? Really?!” she laughed, covering her face. Her face felt hot as she talked to the handsome gentleman. A hazel-eyed, dark curly-haired man that Teresa got weak kneed for.

He mirrored her laugh and smiled, “Well, some swear by Lugworms, Mackerel…” he sighed. “But I do my own personal bait. Bacon with a bit of shrimp. It's a great mix. A secret that I intend to keep to my grave.. So…” he lowered his voice with a twinkle in his hazel eye, “keep it to yourself!”

She giggled and bit her lip. “I have lived in the Midwest most of my life and we used stinkbait and my family’s Lucky Number 13 bullfrog…” she said animatedly and he grinned.

“A lucky frog bait, huh, I like it,” he softly chuckled. “What brings you out to the West?” he leaned against the ship’s deck and blew a bit of his slightly longer, curly bangs away from his eyes. She leaned in closer than she intended, her interest in him obvious to Danny. He felt a strike of pride at his advantage of attracting women. It was easy to get their attention.

“Work. I got promoted to Senior Sales Executive at my company. So I was able to transfer. I always wanted to live near the ocean…” she wistfully crooned, breathing in the whipping ocean wind with glee. “Its my first time out on the waters like this.”

“Well, since it's your first time, you wanna tangle our nets together and try to catch a big-one?” he winked and she nodded.

In a study of easygoing company, the two ungracefully attempted to catch any sort of fish, much to their amusing discontent.

From there, he invited Teresa to dinner and the rest was history...

Or so she thought.

It was only beginning of a tumultuous and turbulent ride that never seemed Stable or as bright and wonderful as their beginning.

And as she finished tearfully cleaning up the dinner her husband barely touched, she felt a buzzing in her jeans pocket. She was starting to get worried as it was getting late and she hadn't received any calls or indication her husband would be home soon. So late, in fact, she was thinking of calling the police as Danny was not responding to any of her messages or calls.

*********

Her Cellphone ringing brought her back to reality, that will make her feel her life has gone upside down.

She checked her phone, almost dropping it. She blinked at the old number and was in shock.

It was not her husband but Paul.

Paul was Teresa’s ex-boyfriend from before she dated her now estranged husband. Paul was a generous and kind person, unlike Danny. She hadn't really spoken to him directly for years.

Suddenly, the phone buzzed again. It was Paul.

“He-hello?” Teresa asked shakily.

“Seriously, woman, do you not answer your phone?”

The voice was startlingly familiar but it was Paul’s voice.

“Da—” she stopped herself from saying her husband’s name. “Paul?”

“I’m about home. Warm me up some of that crap you made for dinner…”

She frowned, her heart pounding.

She couldn't move. This had to be a prank. She went by the door and waited with a helpless curiosity.

Suddenly the slam of her husband’s knock came at the door but when she opened it, she was met with an eyeful of blonde and blue-eyed mystery. Paul. Not Danny.

Now it would take a hundred Lucky 13’s and a miracle to fix what would turn into the nightmare of young Teresa’s life.

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Thank you so much Jason, Melissa and Dharrsheena. You made this Chapter possible with your writing expertise.