A Man Overboard by Shawn Hopkins Read Free Book Online Page B

repeated blows to the steering wheel only hurt his hand. What the hell was he going to say to Joseph? How were they going to get past this? And why couldn’t he get a hold of Viktoriya?
    The dotted lines of I-95 continued coming at him, northeast Philly along with the next chapter of his life growing nearer. It was a chapter he wanted to curse the author for, but not while still hoping for His help.
    About ten miles from the house, an internal numbness started taking over, chasing an unstable emotion from the pilot’s chair and establishing cold stoicism in its place. It was a mutiny that he knew wouldn’t last long, but for now the ability to not feel was a welcomed one.
    Their house came into view as he turned down the street, and he saw that the driveway was empty. He frowned, wondering where his mother-in-law and son could be. He’d have to wait longer to deliver the news now. But maybe that was a good thing, maybe it would buy him more time to wake up.
    Daddy, where’s Mommy?
    Come here, buddy. There’s something I have to tell you…
    As he pulled into the driveway, he decided he’d call the FBI while waiting for Joseph to get back from wherever the countess had taken him. His friend Donny was a Philadelphia cop. He could put him in contact with the FBI.
    Struggling with both his bag and Stacey’s, he attempted to slip the key into the front door. But it pushed open when his bag slipped off his shoulder and swung into the door. Are you kidding me? He’d reminded Viki over and over again to keep all the doors locked. He crossed the threshold and stepped into a house that he knew would never feel the same again.
    When he entered their bedroom, he was instantly bombarded with an endless parade of memories and the familiar feel of Stacey’s presence. For a second, everything seemed normal, that it had all been a bad dream. He half-expected her to walk out of the bathroom wearing a teasing smile and the pink lingerie they’d discussed the last time they were here. Like everything between then and now had taken but a fraction of an instant for him to imagine, Viktoriya still on her way, the flight yet to be caught, the ship not boarded. But she didn’t step out of the bathroom. She was floating somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, her beautiful body now bloated and pecked at by fish.
    The numbing coldness was still present, and this time the thought failed to take him to his knees. He took out his cell phone and dialed Donny. As the ringing sounded in his ear, he sat down on the bed that he’d shared with Stacey for five years, wondering where this twisted road would lead him.
     
    * * * *
     
    Six hours later, the sun now beginning to set over the homes across the street, Joseph still hadn’t shown up with Mother Russia. Maybe she’d taken him to Sesame Place for the day. Maybe she finally decided to “run away.” He smiled at the thought, remembering the last conversation he’d had with Joseph.
    That’s silly, Daddy. Grandma can’t run. She’s too old…

    Sudden movement outside the kitchen window dropped his heart into an open abyss, causing him to take a deep breath. The time had come to destroy his son’s sense of innocence…of justice and fairness, to turn everything he knew about the world upside down. The news, like a switch thrown on one of life’s twisted tracks, would send the four-year-old swerving off in a different direction and away from the balanced structure meant to stabilize him. Without a “faithful” Grandmom to rebuild his life as Jack had in the wake of his disaster, Joseph’s world would become one of pain, confusion, and uncertainty.
    But it wasn’t Viktoriya’s big Buick pulling into the driveway, just his neighbor taking out some trash.
    Jack stepped out the side door and walked to the chain-link fence separating his property from the next. “Hey, Steve,” he said over the fence.
    Steve looked up from the trashcan he’d just dropped some bags in, and surprise