Valerie helped Ashley prepare the boxes to take away.
Valerie certainly didn't like helping moving but that immediately seemed like an excellent and legitimate opportunity to look for connections between Ashley and Jackson.
Ashley didn't have much, it seemed that in that house she had lived little and badly, she looked like a ghost, few photographs, some as a child with her grandmother, one of the graduations, no boyfriends, nothing.
Ashley prepared a little bit of cold tea.
"Time out?" She said to her with a smile.
They sat down in the garden.
The sun was blinding.
"You still haven't told me what you're going to do next," Valerie asked her.
Ashley laughed "I didn't tell you because I still have no idea"
"It's just that.." Valerie tried to say "I'm sorry you're leaving, for once I had found a friend."
"I'm sure you'll make a lot of friends in Los Angeles"
"Do you believe? I still haven't been able to find a job and my savings are starting to drain."
Ashely rested the glass on the table, she probably also felt that bond with Valerie aka Leslie, which Valerie also felt distinctly.
"Maybe I have a job for you," she told her.
'Seriously?'
"Well, maybe"
"But what is it about?"
"Before I tell you," Ashley replied, "I'd have to make a couple of confirmation calls, I'll let you know."
"Okay," Valerie replied, "thank you very much, I hope at least it's well paid"
"Ohhh" Ashley told her "believe me, it's very well paid if you play your cards well"
The two resumed boxing Ashely's items.
Valerie opened one of the drawers on Ashley's desk.
'No!' She stopped her "I'll take care of those" she told her.
Valerie immediately realized that there had to be something absolutely important inside that drawer. SHe closed the drawer and looked for a good time to go and photograph its contents before those documents were locked in a box forever.
XX
Dylan could barely stand Milk. He talked too much but what he admired about him was that he didn't seem to care about the rest of the world. He was a very lonely but rather enterprising boy in his illicit trafficking inside the prison.
Several times he had seen him distribute drugs, sometimes even with barter. He remedied a little bit of everything and for Dylan the invitation to buy "good things" always was valid.
Dylan had promised himself never to do this but lately he was thinking that if he was convicted of Ashley's rape then he had lost all so he could start again. He had given himself a deadline, he had thought that if he went back to being a drug addict Brenda would no longer want to deal with him and it would be infinitely easier for her to divorce and leave forever.
Dylan didn't want to lose everything but for some reason the prison had taken away all hope, all strength to fight.
Matt kept telling him that there was nothing new. Matt's choice was forward-looking and made in agreement with Brenda. They wanted Dylan to know as little as possible because they weren't sure about the prison's security systems. If Jackson had corrupted someone in there too. Everything could go wrong if by chance Jackson had found out that now they knew.
For Brenda it was a difficult decision to make, she wanted to give Dylan hope, tell him that if they were good enough and reasonably lucky, everything could end right away.
After lengthy discussions with Brandon, an opposite decision was also made.
Dylan still refused to see her but inside her Brenda could feel him distinctly, that love she felt, and as Brenda slipped into Dylan's dreams so Dylan went to her almost every night.
It was an ancestral and unbreakable connection of which neither of them knew the provenance, the enormous scope, the indestructible force, yet it was there, alive, pulsating, continuing to breathe relentlessly, tormenting and keeping them alive at the same time.
XX
Blanca told to her mother about the doubt that had distressed her until then. Brenda listened to her carefully, for a moment she smiled thinking about when it happened to her and what Dylan's reaction could have been if he had been at home with them.
"I'm sorry mom if I disappointed you."
Brenda hugged her daughter tightly.
"You didn't disappoint me, I wish you hadn't kept everything inside and told me we could have dealt with all this together."
"I didn't want to give you any more worries," Blanca replied, "unfortunately with what happened to Dad..."
Brenda looked at her with a very sweet look "we are always a family and no matter where we are now or where we will be in ten years, we are a family, and you must not forget that. Your father's story is just a further showdown of this family's strength, because the wind can shake the leaves and branches but it can't destroy the roots."
Blanca smiled at her. Her mother always knew how to explain things to her and she knew how to do it in a simple and effective way.
"I'm sorry you didn't tell me that you decided to have sex with Nate but deep down I understand that. You are almost seventeen years old and you are a young and wonderful woman. I'm sure you've thought a lot and that you've chosen a guy you'll never forget all your life Nate will have a place in your heart."
"Is this happened to you?"
"Sure, this happened to me too, with your father, and there wasn't a day when I regretted the choice I made, if I could go back I would choose him and him again, always and forever."
Blanca let herself be pampered by her mother.
"I think we should make an appointment with the gynecologist, I think you never want to feel such a fear again."
Blanca chuckled "definitely no mom"
"I'm going to call Dr. Drivenly" Brenda stood up and Blanca grabbed her by the hand.
"Thank you mom"
Brenda smiled.
Before going out Brenda turned to her daughter with an amused look. It was really true that history was repeating itself.
"Blanca?'
'Yes?'
"Maybe we'll wait a bit for this story before we tell your father," she told her.
"Definitely," Blanca replied, giving that semblance of normality, even though Dylan wasn't there, though maybe Dylan couldn't come home.
XX
"I need another break" Ashley had looked out of the kitchen where Valerie was putting away all the utensils "I'm going to the bath for a moment."
"Okay," Valerie smiled, "I'm moving on here."
Ashley looked at her with serene eyes "thank you for the help, anyway, it's weird how a person like you I've only met her now, maybe who knows, if I had met you before..." Ashely sighed.
Valerie kept the smile she already had on her face "I do it with pleasure, maybe when you've settled in wherever you want to settle down, you'll call me and if it won't work for me in Los Angeles I could always come to you" Valerie joked.
Ashely nodded amusedly and then Valerie heard the bathroom door closing.
It was the right time.
Valerie left everything and ran to the desk, opened the drawer and began to look at the papers inside, initially she didn't see anything strange, copies of Curriculum vitae, some newspaper clippings about Brenda and Dylan Mckay. Valerie stopped to watch them.
"What are you doing?" Ashley's voice reached her behind her back.
Valerie closed her eyes then reopened them and turned to her.
Ashley was looking at her with her arms crossed.
"What are you doing?" Ashley repeated "who are you?"
Valerie sighed heavily then pulled out her best art "you still haven't figured it out huh?" She replied.
" what?"
"Jackson sends me," Valerie replied.
"I don't know who he is," Ashley tried to defend herself.
Valerie came up with a bad laugh "and so you don't even know about the two hundred thousand dollars he paid you with and who now wants to recover"
Ashely's eyes widened, how did Leslie know about Jackson, was she telling the truth? Was the one in front of her really called Leslie? Who was it?
Ashley was confused.
"And how do you get the money back?" Ashley admitted.
"Very easy, maybe you don't know that the transfers of Antigua can be withdrawn using a code in the possession of the receiver, that is you, I just need to find the code that I found among other things so my work here is finished and if I can afford it, you're done too".
"I thought you were a friend of mine"
"Yes" Valerie shrugged her shoulders "I enjoyed spending time with you, but I'm not sure I want to be friends with someone willing to send a family man to prison for twenty years and for money, not for two hundred thousand euros. For the record, Jackson promised me 50,000 just to do this simple little job with you," Valerie replied.
Ashley began to get nervous.
"Get out of my house!" SHe shouted at Valerie.
"With extreme pleasure"
Valerie took her handbag and went out throwing a last look at Ashely.
XX
Dylan knew where Milk kept the stuff.
The toilet drawer.. inside the lid. He had seen him tinker with that toilet for weeks. He was sure no one would go to check and he was probably right.
What bothered him was the temptation. What left him breathless was the fear that they would take control and that he would end up in the middle of that mess as he had ended up in the middle of Ashley's story.
He had been tempted to get the voice to the guards but Dylan didn't want any problems anywhere also because he didn't know how long he would stay inside those most hated four walls. He got out of bed and went to the toilet. He pulled up the little drawer. Five small doses of cocaine were inged and hidden from all eyes but not from his eyes. The temptation had gotten stronger. That Dylan, the one who had risen up, the one who had built something had been destroyed. There was almost nothing left of him. He was tempted to take a dose then he would pay for it, Milk wouldn't mind.
A small dose that would then double the next day and then more and more and this Dylan knew. He heard the metal footsteps of the officers and Milk who was returning to his cell. He closed the lid quickly and then went back to his cot to read a book.
Milk came in.
"That stupid lawyer doesn't know how to do his job," Milk snorted heavily.
Dylan just looked at him as Milk threw himself on the bed again.
In a way Milk had just saved him.
XX
Ashley rushed into Jackson's studio. She hated that man, she hated him more than anything else, she thought her debt to him had ended, she believed he would let her go, instead he held her in his hand. He wanted to take all his money, he wanted to blackmail her and cheat her but Jackson had not come to terms with the anger of those who always lived in poverty, of those who saw themselves passing by hundreds of people because they never had a single chance. That money was hers, she had earned it, she had even been beaten by her henchmen to make the story more credible, she would have her own money, she would have her revenge. For him two hundred thousand dollars was nothing, he would probably have used them to light those smelly-smelling cigars he smoked.
Jackson's secretary tried to stop her but Ashley was furious. She quickly opened his Office.
Jackson's heavy, groty figure was sitting at the desk, on the other side a young, cute girl, probably his next victim as she had been.
"Have you forgotten good manners?" Jackson asked her.
"I have to talk to you.." she said looking at that girl who could have been just over eighteen years old.
Jackson looked at her in a bad way. He told the girl to wait outside and let Ashley close the door.
"What do you want?"
"You want to rip me off and I won't let you, I did everything you asked me to do, I framed Dylan Mckay for your pleasure and recente"
"I don't know what you're talking about, and lower your voice."
"You made me report a rape, your idiotic men beat me to make it look the most credible thing, so that you could throw your shit at Brenda Mckay and her husband and get out of your shit and now you want to rip me off."
"Listen bitch" Jackson replied "you just did a job for me, you couldn't even get fucked by Mckay... imagine how good you are and I paid you now tell me what the fuck do you want?"
"You sent that woman to take it all back"
Jackson looked at her strangely, he had no idea what she was talking about.
"You're just paranoid, you're crazy."
"I'm going to the police to tell the truth about what happened, that it's all fake... I can ruin you in a second," Ashley said.
Jackson lit his cigar and looked at her with a metal look, then burst into a loud laugh. He stood up by the neck Ashley pulling her head back.
"You won't, You're just a dick-sucking bitch, because I'm able to ruin you more than you can do to me" Ashley knew what Jackson meant was that she wouldn't get out of that building alive.
"I decided to give you one last chance," he said, " now you face the process, you take the money I gave you, your four rags, and you forget about this story. I'm the one who pays you the lawyer, I'm the one who decide if you live or die. No trace of you will remain.. no one will come looking for you because you are alone in the world. Don't think you can fool me."
Ashely sat down. Jackson was the evil done person. She could see him, she smelled the terrible smell.
Ashley decided to transfer her money immediately. It was such a simple thing she hadn't thought of.
SHe wanted to disappear as soon as possible.
She wouldn't even show up at the trial. She didn't give a damn that McKay was convicted, Dylan was even a good person and for the first time she felt remorse for what she had done to him. But she had no other feelings, they had been taken away from a life of serious difficulties.
When Ashley walked out of Jackson's office she was devastated. She knew she had little time, that he wouldn't leave her alive.
She put on a huge pair of sunglasses.
Jackson called his handyman Mills. And he gave him exactly the order to make Ashley disappear that same night. Not to wait too long. A clean job. No one would look for her.
What Jackson didn't know was that the FBI was listening to everything and had recorded every conversation over the past few weeks.
Since Matt had turned to the prosecutor to tell him what they had discovered, but the prosecutor had denied his cooperation, the investigation was closed, Dylan was guilty, since Brandon had gone to Christine and explained everything to her, that Dylan needed help, that all of them needed someone to listen to them.
Christine didn't have to be prayed to, Jackson was a shady person. Bad. One of those on which the FBI but also the underworld would have gladly put their hands.
XX
Matt showed up in front of Judge Marvey's room who had given 30 minutes to hear what lawyer Durning had to say.
Simone Winston arrived shortly after.
"You never give up," she whispered to him.
"Never," he said.
"I hope it's worth it otherwise Marvey will get pretty pissed off and your client will be finished."
Matt gave a conscious smile.
"I think I'll accept the risk."
The two lawyers sat down before the judge.
Matt opened the document holder. He cleared his voice and began to speak.
XX
Milk had been punished, he had started a canteen fight and the guards had taken him and sent him to isolation. Dylan thought that when he got out of that little cell he would be dumber than before.
He sighed trying to write something, he came up with an idea for a novel set in prison, like the Count of Montecristo, he wrote some notes, only in prison you have a lot of time to think and maybe write, the irony of fate: time. The most precious thing a person owns.
Dylan's attention shifted back to the toilet lid. He had wanted to take some stuff and not think about anything, for once to be able to sleep or feel the feeling of cheerfulness he hadn't felt in months.
He stood up and walked over to the lid.
He wanted to resist Dylan, desperately but he didn't have the strength.
He clenched his fists and sat down again.
For a game of imagination or maybe he was really there, the Indian was sitting on his cot staring at him.
"Philip what are you doing here?"
"My pain is over," the Indian told him, "and I'm not really here."
"Did they free you?"
The Indian smiled bitterly "let's say I freed myself. I died Dylan and the great spirit allowed me to come here."
"Are you dead?"
"I hanged myself in my cell"
Dylan was confused, he thought maybe he was going crazy.
"No, you're not crazy, Dylan... I know what your thoughts are for me, and I thank you, it's nice to have someone who loves you, don't feel sorry for me anymore, I've had good things from life but I didn't know how to keep them, I wish you did it instead, love Dylan deeply, love and live, you
"I don't think I'll get my old life back"
The Indian smiled, "I think so instead. You will. You were a good friend Dylan. Sooner. Don't give up. It's time for me to go. Finally."
The sound of footsteps made Dylan's gaze take off for a moment. When his eyes returned to the cot the Indian was gone.
The guard opened the cell. Dylan imagined that Milk had already returned.
"McKay get your stuff," he ordered the guard.
'Why?' Dylan asked with lost eyes.
"The charges against you were to withdraw," the guard told him in a gentle tone, "you're free to go."
Dylan was shocked, he thought he didn't get it right.
"Come on Dylan" the agent told him "it's time to go home"
