Chapter 43
First of all, his name wasn’t Danny Russell. It was Seth Corbin. He was one of the agents investigating a secret gambling organization fronted as a sports medicine affiliate that targeted Minor League Baseball. He had been working the case for over a year. With the stink from the gambling in major league baseball that happened a few years back, the agency and the Minor League Baseball commission were trying to keep an eye on illegal gambling involving players.
As a pitcher, David was one of the few players in the system that helped the odds in favor of the gambling organization, by co-coordinating certain plays and pitches on certain players, so the games weren’t as honest as they appeared to be. The mechanics are tricky and only a skilled player with plenty of monetary motivation could orchestrate.
David was in the Major League when the gambling scandal went down that shocked America. He watched his friend’s career evaporate in smoke, right before his eyes. During the years he was a pitcher in the league, he was honest. But age and a slight injury shifted his Major League career into Minor League. This meant less money that what he was used to making and also a big drop in his status on the sporting totem. Something David found hard to swallow.
I met David before he fell into the gambling scene. It was also before I got famous with my writing. The first year and a half was wonderful. Then I began to make more money than he did. It was something he couldn’t stomach. His greed made him an easy target for the gambling mob bosses to manipulate him into working their schemes.
The FBI got wind of the gambling ploy and began to investigate. Through a source that was willing to talk, they learned which players were involved. David was one of the most valuable players entwined in the moneymaking racket. His performance began to slip when he found out I was pregnant.
We hadn’t planned on a pregnancy. In fact I was on the birth control pill, but for some reason it didn’t work one time and I got pregnant. To my face, David was overjoyed. But from what Agent Corbin told me, he was play-acting just for my benefit. Many of his colleagues and friends told a different tale. He was livid, feeling that I was trying to trap him. He had never wanted to be a father but was now going to be one against his will. Because he wouldn’t face me with the truth, it festered inside and he couldn’t concentrate on the games. The coach benched him on a few and it cost the gambling association a lot of money.
On the night that I lost the baby, David and I had been to dinner at a fine restaurant. We were walking to the car, which was parked in the restaurant’s parking basement. We were at the top of the stairs and were just about to descend when two burly men came up from behind and grabbed David, pulling him aside. I was naturally alarmed. David told me to go on to the car, but I refused too, because I didn’t know if those men were going to rob him or do something worse like kill him. They spoke in hushed menacing tones. Whatever they said caused David to get struggle against their hold. They began to beat him with their fists and then one of the produced a small pipe. David managed to push one against me, causing me to lose my footing. I fell forward down the stairs, tumbling over and over until I landed in a heap at the bottom on the concrete parking lot.
I don’t know if the men stayed or ran. All I could remember was excruciating pain, as I felt myself go into pre-mature labor. I was five months pregnant. The image that stays with me today is of David standing at the very top of the stairs, looking down at me while I laid there at the bottom, blood darkening my evening dress. I screamed that I was losing the baby and he just stood there, not moving. I tried to stand but I couldn’t. All I could do was scream out “No” with every contraction. Someone finally came to help, breaking David’s trance but it was too late to save the baby.
That was the end of our relationship. I knew in my heart that he murdered my baby with his failure to get help immediately. But David wouldn’t leave me alone. That’s why I escaped to the beach, to get away from him and away from the reminder of my loss. I wanted that baby. To me it was a product of love, a part of David and me; for us to treasure forever. David’s explanation for my fall and the attack on him was that some men tried to rob us. He refused to give them his wallet or the car keys and they beat him. I was accidentally pushed down the stairs by one of the men. Both ran when they saw that I was hurt. David allegedly was knocked unconscious and didn’t know I was injured. But he was lying. Still I protected him, even thought I knew the truth.
My financial state was a mess due to David’s greedy hand. He always owed someone or needed something, always promising to pay me back later. I believe him, because I loved him, refusing to listen to friends who tried to get me to face the truth about David. I felt that he was going through a midlife crisis and would one day get his life together. In my heart I had made a vow to stick with him through thick and thin. When I became pregnant, I hoped that he would get his life together, so we could have a happy future together as a family like mine, gut only better, because we would love our child as much as each other—not each other and then our child.
Little did I know that David had been having an affair with Melinda Jones, Perry’s ex-wife. How ironic that fate brought me to Perry! David had approached Gene about writing a book on his life as a Major League Baseball pitcher. Gene was all for it, thinking that a book was exactly what David needed to get his life focused. As the deal was being negotiated, Banning House got wind of the deal and underhandedly stole David away from Wine and Roses. Melinda was the one you cinched the deal. Gene didn’t tell me about David’s book deal, because he was disappointed in David and he knew it would crush me.
During the negotiations with Banning House, David and Melinda began an affair. According to Gene, the affair had to of started a few months before I got pregnant, because that was the around the time that Wine and Roses was negotiating David’s book deal. Beginnings don’t matter now, only endings.
As a pitcher, David was one of the few players in the system that helped the odds in favor of the gambling organization, by co-coordinating certain plays and pitches on certain players, so the games weren’t as honest as they appeared to be. The mechanics are tricky and only a skilled player with plenty of monetary motivation could orchestrate.
David was in the Major League when the gambling scandal went down that shocked America. He watched his friend’s career evaporate in smoke, right before his eyes. During the years he was a pitcher in the league, he was honest. But age and a slight injury shifted his Major League career into Minor League. This meant less money that what he was used to making and also a big drop in his status on the sporting totem. Something David found hard to swallow.
I met David before he fell into the gambling scene. It was also before I got famous with my writing. The first year and a half was wonderful. Then I began to make more money than he did. It was something he couldn’t stomach. His greed made him an easy target for the gambling mob bosses to manipulate him into working their schemes.
The FBI got wind of the gambling ploy and began to investigate. Through a source that was willing to talk, they learned which players were involved. David was one of the most valuable players entwined in the moneymaking racket. His performance began to slip when he found out I was pregnant.
We hadn’t planned on a pregnancy. In fact I was on the birth control pill, but for some reason it didn’t work one time and I got pregnant. To my face, David was overjoyed. But from what Agent Corbin told me, he was play-acting just for my benefit. Many of his colleagues and friends told a different tale. He was livid, feeling that I was trying to trap him. He had never wanted to be a father but was now going to be one against his will. Because he wouldn’t face me with the truth, it festered inside and he couldn’t concentrate on the games. The coach benched him on a few and it cost the gambling association a lot of money.
On the night that I lost the baby, David and I had been to dinner at a fine restaurant. We were walking to the car, which was parked in the restaurant’s parking basement. We were at the top of the stairs and were just about to descend when two burly men came up from behind and grabbed David, pulling him aside. I was naturally alarmed. David told me to go on to the car, but I refused too, because I didn’t know if those men were going to rob him or do something worse like kill him. They spoke in hushed menacing tones. Whatever they said caused David to get struggle against their hold. They began to beat him with their fists and then one of the produced a small pipe. David managed to push one against me, causing me to lose my footing. I fell forward down the stairs, tumbling over and over until I landed in a heap at the bottom on the concrete parking lot.
I don’t know if the men stayed or ran. All I could remember was excruciating pain, as I felt myself go into pre-mature labor. I was five months pregnant. The image that stays with me today is of David standing at the very top of the stairs, looking down at me while I laid there at the bottom, blood darkening my evening dress. I screamed that I was losing the baby and he just stood there, not moving. I tried to stand but I couldn’t. All I could do was scream out “No” with every contraction. Someone finally came to help, breaking David’s trance but it was too late to save the baby.
That was the end of our relationship. I knew in my heart that he murdered my baby with his failure to get help immediately. But David wouldn’t leave me alone. That’s why I escaped to the beach, to get away from him and away from the reminder of my loss. I wanted that baby. To me it was a product of love, a part of David and me; for us to treasure forever. David’s explanation for my fall and the attack on him was that some men tried to rob us. He refused to give them his wallet or the car keys and they beat him. I was accidentally pushed down the stairs by one of the men. Both ran when they saw that I was hurt. David allegedly was knocked unconscious and didn’t know I was injured. But he was lying. Still I protected him, even thought I knew the truth.
My financial state was a mess due to David’s greedy hand. He always owed someone or needed something, always promising to pay me back later. I believe him, because I loved him, refusing to listen to friends who tried to get me to face the truth about David. I felt that he was going through a midlife crisis and would one day get his life together. In my heart I had made a vow to stick with him through thick and thin. When I became pregnant, I hoped that he would get his life together, so we could have a happy future together as a family like mine, gut only better, because we would love our child as much as each other—not each other and then our child.
Little did I know that David had been having an affair with Melinda Jones, Perry’s ex-wife. How ironic that fate brought me to Perry! David had approached Gene about writing a book on his life as a Major League Baseball pitcher. Gene was all for it, thinking that a book was exactly what David needed to get his life focused. As the deal was being negotiated, Banning House got wind of the deal and underhandedly stole David away from Wine and Roses. Melinda was the one you cinched the deal. Gene didn’t tell me about David’s book deal, because he was disappointed in David and he knew it would crush me.
During the negotiations with Banning House, David and Melinda began an affair. According to Gene, the affair had to of started a few months before I got pregnant, because that was the around the time that Wine and Roses was negotiating David’s book deal. Beginnings don’t matter now, only endings.
penned by Painter Lady at 3:50 PM
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