If You Only Knew by M. William Phelps Read Free Book Online

Jean hauled off and slapped Vonlee across the face. Then she screamed: “You are a liar! Nothing but a liar. Liar! Liar! Liar!”
    Vonlee was humiliated. “No, Billie, it’s true. . . .”
    â€œLiar. Stop lying to me.”
    Vonlee started to cry. This was, she recalled later, “like a scene out of a movie.”
    â€œBillie, I am not lying to you,” Vonlee said through tears. “It is happening all the time now.”
    â€œLiar!” her aunt continued yelling.
    Vonlee calmed her down. They spoke without yelling.
    â€œWell, I don’t believe you, Vonlee. Simple as that. Tell you what . . . I’m going to step out of the room next time and watch . . . see what happens.”
    â€œYou go right ahead,” Vonlee said.
    The next day, as they were sitting in the formal room, Billie Jean gave Vonlee the eye and announced she was stepping out of the room and would be back in a few minutes. Don was sitting across from Vonlee.
    According to Vonlee, as Billie did this and walked out of view, Don stood up, came over to her and laid his body on top of hers. He was rubbing on Vonlee, she claimed. Touching her all over, fondling her breasts again.
    â€œCome on . . . come on . . . ,” Don said, according to Vonlee.
    Billie Jean came out of the shadows and stood over them, red-faced and alarmed. Don had been talking of divorce lately. He knew Billie Jean was bleeding his bank accounts dry with her gambling and spending habits, and he was threatening her with cutting her off of the finances. This was a definite threat to Billie Jean’s way of life. Without Don, Billie Jean really didn’t have anything. One could argue—and Vonlee would certainly be the one leading the charge—that Billie Jean married Don for a second time because she missed the lifestyle Don had provided. She married the guy for his money.
    â€œYou bastard!” Billie Jean screamed as she stood.
    Don jumped off Vonlee, surprised by his wife’s presence.
    â€œYou go right ahead and try to divorce me now,” Billie Jean said. “You see what happens.”
    â€œCome on, Billie,” Don pleaded. “I’m just playing around.”
    â€œI got something on you now, you bastard!” Billie Jean screamed.
    Then Don changed his attitude. “You know what, Billie,” he said, giving up on his let’s-make-peace offering. “I don’t give a shit what you do. I want to take her—your niece!—upstairs right now and I want to fuck her. I’ll do whatever I want, damn it all! I want to fuck her,” he said in his wife’s face. “You hear me . . . I. Want. To. Fuck. Her.”
    Billie Jean was livid. “How dare you . . .”
    â€œYou’re a bitch! A bitch from hell!”
    Vonlee was horrified. She got up and walked away from the two of them as they continued screaming at each other.
    Billie Jean tried to say something, but Don wouldn’t allow her to finish. “You’re a bitch from hell, Billie Jean, and your kids are spawn from the Devil—you’re Satan. A fucking disgrace to women. I don’t give a shit what you think. I would fuck Vonlee right here in this house while you’re in it.”
    Billie Jean was fuming. She started to say something.
    But Don wasn’t finished. “I want my damn thirteen thousand dollars you owe me for the credit card bill. You promised me that you would stop gambling. You know our agreement . . . you promised me.” Don was right on her now. In her face. “If you don’t stop, I am going to take the credit cards away from you.”
    Billie Jean had no comeback.
    â€œI’m canceling the credit cards,” Don said as he walked out of the room.

CHAPTER 9
    ON MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2000, after Dr. Ortiz-Reyes returned to the office, he participated in the normal morning meeting. The Monday meeting was designed to review cases from the previous weekend and talk about them.