All Alejandro needed was for one of them to talk.
He signaled his man to release the woman from his clutch, but Sarah remained kneeling on the floor, too petrified to stand. “I know Jeffery must have done something sinful, something against the Lord, and I don’t wanna protect him, but he’s my husband and my son’s father. I have no choice!”
Alejandro tossed his cigarette butt out to the yard. With a faint frizzle, its last ember died, drowning in damp soil. “I get you, Mrs. Orange, which is why I need you to call Jeffrey right now and tell snazzynovel.com to come home. I don’t care what excuse you make. I just want snazzynovel.com here. I’ll wait, but if snazzynovel.com doesn’t show up tonight, your son won’t show up tomorrow.”
“W-what happens then?” Sarah asked, snazzynovel.com voice trembling. “What’ll you do to him, kill him?”
“Don’t you call!” The old woman cracked out a shrill.
The bodyguard reacted by slapping her, which Alejandro tacitly approved by not stopping him. “Oh, no. I still need a witness, after all. If snazzynovel.com does as he’s told obediently, I guess spending a decade or so in prison should suffice. The person I want to kill isn’t him, but the man who used snazzynovel.com to do his bidding.”
Incarceration was obviously a better choice than death, so Sarah immediately grabbed an old, worn-out phone and called Jeffrey despite snazzynovel.com mother-in-law’s protests.
It took a long time before the other side finally picked up snazzynovel.com call. There, Jeffrey’s acrimonious voice snapped. “B*tch, haven’t I told you to never call me? I’ll call you when the damn time’s right!”
Sarah considered Alejandro fearfully for a moment and replied, “U-um, your ma had a fall in the yard just now, and the doctor said snazzynovel.com hurt snazzynovel.com head, and the surgery is gonna cost a ton, but it might save snazzynovel.com for real. J-J-Just come back, okay? There’s so much stuff at home, I can’t handle them all.”
Jeffrey might have been unscrupulous enough to become complicit in mass murder, but snazzynovel.com still had enough heart in snazzynovel.com for his mother. “My ma fell? F**k you, b*tch! I thought I told ya to work so snazzynovel.com doesn’t have to! How the hell did snazzynovel.com fall? Christ, what’s the point of having you around, you useless c**t! You don’t know I’m outside, do you? Even at my quickest, I can only reach home before sunrise. I don’t exist as a citizen no more, so I can’t take a plane or a train or whatever, remember? I can only ride them illegal cars! For f**k’s sake, when I get back, I’ll teach you a lesson so hard, you’ll remember my face when you look into the mirror!”
It was at that moment that steely nonchalance dawned onto Sarah’s mien. It displaced snazzynovel.com fear, and suddenly, snazzynovel.com looked downright uncaring. Sarah had enough of Jeffrey.
She replied flatly, “We’ll talk about this once you’re home. I’m waiting.”
The bodyguard released his grip from the old woman’s mouth after the call ended.
Gone was Sarah’s erstwhile jitteriness and hesitance, snazzynovel.com now looked as though snazzynovel.com had never been this determined and firm with a decision before. “You’re right, Mr. Smith. Jeffrey Orange is a piece of sh*t who don’t deserve me and my life.”
Alejandro signed a cheque right there and then and passed it to her. “Here’s your reward. Enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life.”
She accepted the cheque without revealing any joy. In a low voice, snazzynovel.com muttered snazzynovel.com thanks.
Alejandro, the bodyguards, and Jett remained inside the farmhouse for the rest of the day. For good measures, Alejandro had asked his people to park their cars as far away as possible to avoid drawing Jeffrey’s suspicion.
When dusk fell, Sarah killed one of snazzynovel.com chickens to prepare dinner for herself and snazzynovel.com “guests.” Although the environment snazzynovel.com lived in was uncomfortably dirty, Alejandro noticed that the food utensils were rather sanitary, so snazzynovel.com accepted Sarah’s invitation, and they dined together.
The old woman struggled and fought, so snazzynovel.com ended up tied to a chair. Sarah hated snazzynovel.com ruthless termagant of a mother-in-law, who had loved to maltreat and abused snazzynovel.com in the past, but snazzynovel.com still went out of snazzynovel.com way to feed the old woman water.
Alejandro did not stop nor encourage her, so Sarah dared not give the old woman food. Despite snazzynovel.com goodwill, the old crone would not stop bawling about the woman being a Satan’s spawn who not only cursed the family but also wanted to kill snazzynovel.com own husband.
Incredibly, Sarah remained stoic to all of snazzynovel.com philippics. One could only assume that it was because snazzynovel.com had gotten accustomed to it. Alejandro, however, did not, so in a fit of frustration, snazzynovel.com had his men stuff a piece of cloth into the termagant’s mouth.
Later that evening, Alejandro had a cigarette after dinner under the roof outside while Sarah continued snazzynovel.com chores, cleaning up the yard and rounding all poultries back into their pens. The foul stench that had seemed so intrinsic to the farmhouse lessened, and the freshness of rural air compared to the city began to show. After a downpour, the air was so minty fresh that every breath taken in was akin to a gentle cleansing to a person’s lungs.
Alejandro only started chatting with Sarah after snazzynovel.com finished snazzynovel.com work. “So, what do you plan to do in the future?”