She upended the purse on her bed and shook it, watching carefully to see if something deadly would skitter out. If there was a bug inside, she wasn’t going to reach in again; not blindly anyway. Damn, she thought, when she saw the huge, almost blindly brilliant diamond, roll out of her purse. It was the one Omar gave her; the diamond Wendy had held when she fell to her death from Omar’s condominium. There was no doubt this was the same diamond.
Omar must have put it there, she thought. Maybe it was some kind of bribe to show the wealth he would bestow on her if she followed his wishes without question. That was certainly something she would never consider. Omar was evil and just plain nuts if he thought she could be swayed by expensive gifts.
As she held the diamond, she found it felt ice cold, but also seemed to warm her hand. There were so many legends about diamonds, and crystals in general; how they were magic, how they healed, how they gave strength, and how they were commonly used in enchantment spells. Magicians peered into crystal balls to divine the future.
The odd thing was, as she held the diamond in her closed palm, she felt a lot of her strength returning. It was like her body was filling with sparkling energy. Also, her pain diminished dramatically.
Maybe the gem really did have magical powers. If so, it would be nice to know how to use it effectively to get out of this deadly predicament, because she knew that eventually Omar would deem her superficial. He’d get her eggs and get rid of her, since she could incriminate him in many of his nefarious, perverse schemes.
The one thing Michelle didn’t recognize from her purse was a plain white envelope that had fallen out of it. Hoping to find some cash, she took it out. It wasn’t sealed and she pulled out a folded document. As she did so, some photographs fell out of the envelope. She shuffled through them, bewildered. Pictures of herself and Omar. On the beach at night. She was wearing a long, white, formfitting dress, that looked like a wedding gown made of satin. She had white flowers, like tiny Orchids, braided through a small tiara with sparkling diamonds on her head. The tiara was attached to a veil that hung just past her shoulders.
She was smiling. Omar was beside her, wearing a tuxedo.
Michelle unfolded the document and her eyes opened wide, shocked. It was a certificate of marriage. Michelle Montgomery and Omar Satinov. It was signed on the bottom. She recognized her own signature.
Michelle heard the squeaking of rubber soled shoes. The nurse was coming back down the hallway. She quickly stuffed the document and pictures back into her purse and tucked her arm under the sheet, afraid Dondi would notice that the IV wasn’t dripping anymore.
Dondi came back inside, setting a bowl of green Jello in front of Michelle. “Dessert.”
“Thanks. You mentioned my sister is in the room next door?” Michelle asked, still in a state of astonished disbelief from her discovery of those photos, trying to act normal.
Maybe Leilanie had clothes in her room that she could take to flee the hospital. Slim chance though, since Leilanie was about a foot shorter than she was.
“Yes. She’s such a sweet girl. She just got out of surgery an hour ago. You can go visit her in a while, she’s asleep now.”
Shit. It sounded like Leilanie had already been implanted with an egg, Michelle thought. Could this nightmare get any worse? It seemed, from the pictures, that she was really married to Omar. How could that have happened? Why couldn’t she remember something so important?
Michelle closed her eyes and tried to see the pictures of herself and Omar on the beach and create it as a reality.
Flash: She was shivering because the gown was cold satin. It was night and she had trouble walking on the beach in fashionable silvery white high heels that kept sinking into the sand. She had to hold on Omar’s arm to keep from falling over and he finally picked her up and carried her through the dark night.
Flash: It seemed like a waking dream. Clouds were moving past the moon and producing shadows over the ground as Omar strode toward an altar made of wood, covered with flowers. Behind the altar were tall tiki stakes with flames burning atop them, illuminating the beach.
Flash: Gazing around, Michelle saw a few people standing as witnesses in front of the altar in a circle, but realized she didn’t know them. She could hear the rushing ocean waves in the background, otherwise all was silent. A man in a black suit was standing in front of the altar with a bible in his hands.
She felt Omar lower her so she was standing in front of the dark-suited man. He looked like a real minister.
“Ms. Satinov...Michelle...did you fall asleep?”
Michelle opened her eyes and saw Dondi bent over her, peering at her anxiously.
Michelle blinked away the memories and smiled at the nurse. “Yes. Just for a moment.”
She was married! Now Michelle remembered parts of that night like a dream sequence. She recalled earlier that evening, feeling woozy and dizzy, wondering where she was and why she couldn’t move, as two women dressed her in the gown. She saw Omar, standing behind them, watching with satisfied and predatory eyes.
She wanted to fight them, but she was so tired and sleepy, she realized she must have been given some powerful sedatives. There were still blank spaces to her memories of the night before.
She remembered Omar whispering threats at her out of the side of his mouth, while simultaneously smiling at the camera. If she didn’t smile
