A Husbands Triumph

Katie grunted as she pushed the door open with her back, her hand full of groceries. Normally she would have waited until the weekend; however, after returning from lunch, she and all the administrators were told to go home for the day. Which seemed rather odd, but then again, she wasn't privy to what was going on with the Dean and his cronies half the time.

Juggling her keys and the bags, she closed the front door, almost tripping on a small pair of shoes. With a sigh, she stepped around and made her way through the house. The house was so much cleaner when Kimme was around. Dinner was made on time, the house was cleaned, the kids were bathed, and all she had to do was supervise. Then eight months ago, her housekeeper simply disappeared.

It annoyed her because things were going so well. Katie had been thrilled with having her cake and eating it too. Obviously, one of her associates thought that the housekeeper would eventually be a problem, even though they denied any wrongdoing. A small part of her crushed the guilt associated with the situation as she set the bags on the counter and looked around, confused.

The dishes and counter were cleaned. But they had not been when she left in the morning.

"I could never abide a dirty kitchen," a familiar voice called behind her.

Spinning around, Katie stumbled back against the counter. "How?"

A ghost sat in her kitchen, a woman dead these past twenty years.

"I still have the keys, and you never changed the locks," she replied.

Confused, Katie leaned forward and whispered, "Brian?"

The other woman frowned, then demurely took a sip of tea. Setting the cup down, she said, "It's Bianca now. The Federal Judge thought I should have some say on my name. Since I now look a lot like my grandmother, I thought it appropriate as there was no way I would keep Kimmie."

"Right," Katie nodded, filtering the thought that a Federal Judge got involved. "Well, let me get the rest of the bags, and you can tell me what you have been doing."

"Sit down, Kathryn," her ex-husband said.

"In a moment, Brian, I mean Bianca, there are frozens in the trunk," Katie explained as she started for the door.

"Sit down, Kathryn," Bianna commanded, causing her to stop. "Now."

Giving one last forlorn look at her escape route, Katie shuffled over to the kitchen table and sat. Then gasped, seeing the tin of cookies.

"Oh, I see that you recognized them," Bianca said with a smile. "Do you remember our first Valentine's together? I guess we were what ten at the time."

"Eleven," she whispered.

"Right, well, your mother told me you hated chocolates, so I bought these instead."

"Then we sat on my parent's porch and ate them." Katie gave a small, sad smile. "I remember. Brian I..."

"It's Bianca now, Kathryn," her ex-husband said with some heat.

"Why are you calling me by that name? You have always called me Katie."

"Because Katie was the girl I would have taken a bullet for. Kathryn is the bitch who did this to me," Bianca explained while pointing to her body. "Now take a cookie and have some tea; it's your favorite."

Katie could only stare at the cup.

"It's not poisoned; if I wanted you dead, it would have happened eight months ago," Bianca explained with a smile in her voice. "Came pretty close too."

Looking up fearfully, his ex-wife asked," Why?"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Really, so on our tenth anniversary, you drug me, then your friends castrated me, gave me ridiculously large breasts, and used an experimental drug to change my skin color. Oh, and the reason for all this was that I had the nerve to want to take a sabbatical from my job for a year and care for the kids."

"Brian."

"It's Bianca; you more or less killed your husband," she growled. "And the kicker, you offered me the job as your housekeeper. And said if I made a fuss, you would make sure I never saw the children again."

"I," Katie tried to explain, but her ex-husband continued.

"Although I should thank you. Those same friends of yours wanted to kill me. It seems that my plans on spending time at home would interfere with you spreading your legs with the whole college facility and half the judges in this county."

"I never wanted to see you hurt, Bianca," Katie whispered.

"You have a funny way of showing it. But thankfully, I really don't remember a lot of that time as Kimme. My doctor explained that the horrors of what you had done caused me to detach myself from reality. I do remember that you treated me well, so you're not a total evil bitch."

Taking a sip of tea, Bianca continued.

"Then, a few months later, everyone decided to finish what they started. I guess you felt bad since you reduced the size of my breasts. But, still, your friends decided that besides cleaning our house, I could also entertain business associates like you. At least my doctors said the SRS was professionally done, so I can thank you that some hack didn't mutilate me any more than you had already done. And then, eight months ago, everything changed. Do you know what happened, Kathryn? You must remember the day before I disappeared."

Katie could only shake her head.

"Little Sally, our daughter, called your Pimp, I mean your boyfriend, daddy." Bianca sighed. "My whole world shattered. Everything you had done came back to me. All I could do was stumble back to my room before I passed out."

"I remember; I did check on you. I was worried; I thought you were sick." Katie insisted.

"And I almost killed you then," Bianca explained. "I was so close to grabbing that brass lamp from the guest bedroom and beating you to death, along with your boyfriend."

Katie sat back as if slapped.

"But the kids were home. That's the only reason why you're still alive. Thankfully for your sake, the psychologist I have been working with has also helped me with my anger issues. Instead, I left, and Kevin and Marie were happy to take me in. Of course, you remember them, although you were both smart and dumb to cut off any contact. After all, Tom was my best man at my wedding and would immediately recognize your new housekeeper."

"So, you have been living with them?"

"Actually, I live with my fiancée. Remember Audrey Marks, the professor you hated who taught physics? The one that sued the college because of their discriminatory practices and won?"

Katie frowned.

"Ahh, yes, you do remember her," Bianca laughed.

"But she's a lesbian."

Bianca shrugged. "So am I. Audrey wanted to join us, but instead, we convinced her to pick up the kids from school along with Child Services."

"Wait, what? Children Services? Why are they getting involved," Katie panicked, realizing her world was crashing to the ground.

"Besides that, you'll be arrested in the next few minutes? Well, it's a formality, as I haven't seen them in eight months, and I don't look like dad or Kimmie anymore."

"Arrested?"

"Indeed, you and your friends will have quite the rap sheet - prostitution, bribery, human trafficking, drug distribution, racketeering, murder, and attempted murder."

"I didn't try and kill anyone," Katie exclaimed.

"Oh, so you don't remember when the doctor told you that the amount of drug that he used on me would cause my liver and kidneys to fail in three to five years? What's sad was that when the FBI picked Doctor Azure up a few months ago, he was more concerned with my well-being than my so-called wife. He even had the means to reverse some of the damage, so that's why I now look more like Sophia Loren than Halle Berry."

Katie then felt more than heard other people entering the kitchen. Looking over her shoulder, she could see two men and a woman wearing FBI windbreakers.

"These good people will give you a choice, which was more than you gave me at our anniversary dinner. For some reason, I still love the girl I shared a tin of cookies with so many years ago. Tell them everything, Katie, and honestly, work with them. Besides being the college bicycle, I know you kept all of their records and passwords. And don't look for those three county judges that pushed through our divorce and my name change to help you. Judge Wheeler, I am told, ate a bullet around lunchtime, and the other two are in custody."

"If I do, will I be able to see my children?" Katie asked, sobbing.

"With supervision, as you will never be trusted with Michael. I mean, someday you might get angry with him too and decide to mutilate his body."

"I would never do that," she cried out.

"Why would anyone believe that after what you did to your husband?" Bianca sighed, looking tired, then stood up. "Well, looks like my job is done. You didn't scamper off anywhere while they arrested most of the college administration. And Kathryn, seriously, I'll give you the same choice you gave me. If you don't work with the FBI, I'll make sure you never see the kids again."