Socio

This time, the doctor did more than just walk her to her apartment door. She actually came inside the dumpy studio apartment with her. "I wasn't kidding when I said it was small and ugly." The expression on the doctor's face said she agreed, although she remained polite and said, "But it's neat and clean-looking." That much was true. "I'm Queen Diva of the house and home department. I cook, I clean, I decorate, and I make a mad bubble bath, too." The doctor giggled and then Shannon introduced her to her rats. Shannon liked that she wasn't creeped out by them. Soon, Dr. Warren suggested they head out for an early dinner. "I'm up for that but I'm low on extra cash right now, as cheap as this place is, so we have to be a bit picky." "No, we don't," said Dr. Warren on the way down the stairs from the second-floor studio. "Not if I'm treating and if you like Chinese." "I love Chinese." Although Shannon felt very comfortable with the doctor, she couldn't help but feel like they were complete opposites at the same time. How often did doctors become friends with those who were broke and didn't have much of a social life? After they were seated in the restaurant and the waitress had taken their order, Dr. Warren said, "I hope you don't mind my doing so, as I realize you may want to tell people your side of whatever happened with your family before they Google you, but I did so on my break and came up empty." Shannon nodded knowingly. "That's because my name was changed. As I said, though, I have no problem telling people. It's just that they usually think I'm making it up for some crazy reason. But here goes if you're ready." The doctor placed her forearms on the table and nodded. "My parents were happily married at first and everybody envied them because they seemed like such an ideal and perfect couple. I was their only child, too. We started off struggling but then they found success in running a local diner. It wasn't a huge success but enough to be able to pay the bills on time, even if there still wasn't much extra money. They finally had some real security and didn't have to worry about whether or not they would be able to make bill payments on time. That was good enough for them." The waitress brought their drinks and set them down before them. "It'll be just a few more minutes," said the pretty Asian girl. The doctor smiled and nodded. Shannon continued when she was out of earshot. "Eventually, my father hired a waitress who was nearly twenty years younger and absolutely gorgeous. Like she just stepped off some modeling runway or something like that." The doctor now gave her a dubious yet knowing look. "It's obvious where I'm going next, huh?" Dr. Warren nodded. "So yeah, they started having an affair. I was about eight years old at the time. I don't know how long it took my mother to catch on, but when she did, she gave Dad the usual ultimatum a scorned wife gives her husband. It was either she or the mistress. Although my dad promised my mother that it was she he would choose, he would joke with his mistress, whose name was Katia, about hiring a hitman to get my Mom out of the picture." The doctor shook her head and grunted in disgust but didn't say anything. She continued listening patiently instead, eyes studying hers along the way. The waitress approached their table with their meals and the conversation stopped long enough to place their napkins in their laps and begin eating. "By the time I was ten, Katia finally found someone who would do the job. It took her a couple of tries, but they finally got some nineteen-year-old kid to do it. He insisted on being paid fifty grand to make the hit." Dr. Warren chewed slowly, still eying her intently. Shannon took a bite of her orange chicken and swallowed before continuing. "My father convinced the kid to accept a payment of just ten grand up front, saying he had no way to be sure he would follow through with the job but he assured him that he would happily fork over the rest of the money once the job was done." The doctor gave her head another solemn shake of disgust. Shannon sipped some of her Diet Coke and then went on. "Everything went according to plan for the most part, with one big twist in the end. Mom went to bed around 10 PM, and the guy was to show up shortly after that and was instructed not to knock on the door so as not to get Mom's attention. Dad was on the lookout for the kid instead." Dr. Warren put a forkful of egg foo young in her mouth, both horrified and fascinated by Shannon's story. "When he let the kid in, he gave him the gun he was to use to shoot Mom in the head while she slept. Now, I was in the next room sound asleep, barely fifteen feet away." The doctor’s eyes widened. "The guy was ordered not to go anywhere near my room, of course. He was simply to go straight down to the end of the hall, walk around the foot of the bed, and then shoot Mom in the head. The head of the bed was against an exterior wall, so Dad later said he wasn't worried about me accidentally getting shot," Shannon explained, not bothering to hide the disgust from her voice. "My father then told him to wait a few minutes in the living room before he came down the hall to do it because he wanted to be in the bedroom at the time to help make sure everything went as planned." The doctor shifted with discomfort but Shannon could tell the discomfort was about her concern for her and not that she couldn't handle hearing the story itself. "I woke up screaming and terrified by the blast of the gunfire, as I'm sure you can imagine." The doctor nodded sadly. "Next thing I know, my dad was telling me everything was okay and that I was safe but to stay in my room. He said the police were on their way. I huddled in the closet, terrified until the police arrived a few minutes later. Of course, that seemed like hours." Another sad but understanding nod from the doctor. "It took them a few minutes to convince me it was safe to come out. All I remember was my dad hugging me and me crying for Mom but I think deep down inside I knew she was gone even before I was told that she was." "Where was the hitman? On the run?" "Oh, no. Not even close. He was dead." The doctor's brows shot up in surprise. "You see, what Daddy dearest didn't tell the hitman was that he had another gun that he was going to use to shoot him dead with and then claim self-defense. This way, he not only got to have the mistress of his dreams but he also got out of having to pay forty more grand and worrying that the kid may grow a conscience one day and spill the beans." The doctor snorted with disgust. "Only someone did spill the beans." "The dream mistress?" Shannon shook her head. "No. The first guy Katia tried to get to do the job. The case blew wide open rather quickly when he stepped forward. Katia turned state's evidence against my dad. She testified against him in exchange for a lesser sentence. She got something like twenty years. Dad got life." The doctor shook her head sadly, warm chocolate brown eyes full of compassion and empathy. "Another thing my dad messed up was the window." "The window?" Shannon nodded. "After the guy shot Mom and Dad shot the guy, he kicked out a window to try to make it look like someone had broken in. He may have been smart enough to kick from the outside in, but the window was too small for anyone to climb through in the first place. So that blew out the home invasion theory rather quickly." "Wow," the doctor said sadly. "Where did you go from there?" "To live with my maternal grandparents. My last name was changed from Krueger." Shannon sat back in the booth with a sigh. "So now you have something to Google."