Stranger In My House -Chapter 20
by lala02


Chapter twenty

[The late 1950's…]

A girl in her late teens was seen running down the cold streets of Macon, Georgia as tears fell from her eyes. She had just received some devastating news. 'Momma!' She cried out as she came to a sudden stop and collapsed to the ground below. The security that Christine Lincoln once felt was over as the death of her mother hit her hard. She couldn't believe it, the doctors had told her that everything was fine, but if everything was fine, then why was her mother dead? She sat there on the ground, her face wet from crying her eyes out and her legs pulled close to her body. Twenty minutes had come and pass before she realized that someone was standing over her watching her intensely. When she looked up, her eyes came into contact with the most stunning pair of brown eyes she had ever seen before and not to mention that the guy with these pair of eyes was down right gorgeous.

"Ma'am are you alright?" the man said to Christine with concern evident in his deep southern voice.

"No… I'm not alright…" Christine said as she dropped her head down to look at her hands.

"Sorry if I seem to be oversteppin' my place but, what could've possibly caused a beautiful gal like yourself to end up here like this crying her eyes out in the middle of street?"

"My problem ain't none of your damn business, so just leave me be!"

"Well damn woman, I was just trying to be a decent man and help you out!"

"I didn't ask for your help, so just back off!" She shouted.

"Fine!" The man said then turned to leave, but was stopped by Christine grabbing hold of his arm.

"Wait! I'm sorry…" She whispered softly. "It's just that my momma died today and she was all I had left."

"I'm sorry to hear to that Ms…"

"Christine Lincoln."

"Ms. Christine, I'm Jackson Knight." He said then held his hand out to her. Christine smiled a bit then took his hand.

[The present]

A week later, the headlines on front of all the papers in Harmony and all over the media in the U.S. still read 'Murder On Raven Hill - The murder of Alistair Crane'. The murder of Crane patriarch Alistair Crane, the assault that landed his son Julian in intensive care at Harmony Memorial Hospital and the disappearance of Dr. Eve Russell was all anybody could talk about.

At Harmony Memorial, Fox was still in shock after what happened that night at the mansion. He was the one that came across the gruesome discovery of his father lying unconscious in a pool of blood over by the couch and his grandfather shot to death leaning against the fireplace in the living room of the mansion. He had been hanging out late with a couple of friends when he decided to return to home to get some sleep. What he walked in on was so disturbing and vile that it made him stop dead in his tracks, drop to his knees and vomit all over the floor. Standing back up and wiping his mouth off, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

Fox was sitting down in a chair next to his father's bed as he held his face in his hands. In the months that followed, he and Julian had become very close and he was proud of the way things had been going. Taking a deep breath, he raised his head up slowly and nearly fell out of his chair for Julian was staring right at him!

"Dear God!" Fox said as he grabbed onto his chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

“Sorry.” Julian whispered.

Running a hand through his hair, Fox then looked back to Julian.

“How are you feeling?”

"What am I doing here? Where are Eve and Devin?" Julian said completely ignoring Fox question as he tried to sit up but grimaced in pain.

"Who's Devin? What happened?"

"She took them…." He said while grimacing.

"What do you mean them?" Fox was puzzled. 'Who the hell is Devin?'

"Your brother and Eve… that woman took them and I have to find them. I will not lose Eve and my son again!" Julian raised his voice. He had to get the hell out of here. Eve and Devin needed him!

"Brother?!"

"My son with Eve. I have to find them, I have to." Julian said quietly.

The way his father looked and the way his voice sounded, made Fox look at Julian in a whole new light. He never realized how much his father loved Dr. Russell until this very moment. Even though Julian was never there for him and his sisters growing up, he was there for them now. And he never understood the depths of Julian's life until now. He now knew that Julian was never a complete person without Eve by his side.

“Okay, calm down and tell me everything.” Fox said.

It took roughly an hour for Julian to tell Fox everything that he knew, everything that happened leading up to that night. Fox was now standing over by the door of Julian’s hospital room. He was trying to make sense of everything he had just heard. He shook his head some. This was too weird to be true, but it was.

“This is all just overwhelming. Liz killed Alistair and the man that Alistair was in debt to was Eve’s paternal uncle… Wow.”

“I was as shocked as you are now when I first heard it. Look, I need to get out of here now, Eve and Devin need me.”

“Alright… I’ll see what I can do.” Fox said. “I have to tell Whitney and Simone before I get you out of here alright? They’ve been worried sick about Dr. Russell.”

“I understand. Go on, I’ll be waiting for you to return.” Julian said then closed his eyes.

After leaving the hospital, Fox headed to his car and drove over to the Russell home. He had called Whitney a head of time to let her know that he was on his way. Pulling up in the drive of the Russell home, Fox looked to his right, lowered the passenger window and saw Whitney and Simone heading his way.

“Fox what’s going on, your voice sounded urgent on the phone.” Whitney said as she opened the passenger door and got in. Simone did the same also.

“My father is awake and he knows who has your mother.”

“Oh my god, are you sure?” Simone asked.

“Yeah.”

“Who has my mom Fox?” Whitney asked in a serious tone.

“Her paternal uncle.”

“What?!” both girls shrieked.

“I know you don’t understand and I’ll tell you both everything later, but right now, if we’re gonna get your mom and Devin back…”

Whitney held her hand up.

“What does Devin have to do with this?”

“You know him?” Fox asked.

“Yeah, I met him a while back…” Whitney suddenly stopped. Fox was keeping something from her. “What is it Fox? What aren’t you telling us?”

Fox sighed.

“Devin… is my dad and your mom’s son.” He said and waited for her reaction. The reaction that came was something he didn’t expect…

[late 1950’s]

Shortly after Christine and Jackson met, they started going out. He was head over heels in love with her and didn’t think that he could live without her in his life. He brought her into the family business and the two of them would be later known as the most ruthless and deadliest team in the Knight syndicate and all over Georgia. Bonnie and Clyde had nothing them. To those who knew about them, they seemed unstoppable. He introduced her to his father Raymond shortly after bring her in and had yet to introduce her to his younger brother Claude, who was out of state on business. But that all changed one night when Claude came home.

Claude Knight had been away from home for almost a year. He had to handle a little business issue that came up in Florida, but it took longer than he planned. Once the situation was settled he decided to head on back home. He really missed his pops and his older bro. He wasn’t use to being away for so long. He had this idea about surprising them instead of phoning ahead. And now here he was, standing at the front door of his brother Jackson’s house. He had his own set of keys and didn’t have to knock. Once he opened the door, he dropped his bags quietly by the door and placed his keys back inside his pocket. He listened for a bit, before he heard some noise coming out of kitchen. A sneaky grin appeared on his as he walked slowly to the kitchen area, but when he got there, the grin he was sporting disappeared as his mouth dropped open. Standing in front of him was a naked woman bending over the stove with a spoon in her hand as she checked to see if the spaghetti sauce was too hot.

Christine was in the kitchen making dinner for Jackson since she knew he would be coming home early tonight. She came up with the idea of cooking nude to surprise him. She was bending over the stove to check her spaghetti sauce, when she felt a pair of eyes on her. A smirk appeared on her face as she turned to meet Jackson, but instead screamed as a man she didn’t know was staring at her.

“Who the hell are you?!” She shrieked.

Claude was still staring at Christine and before he knew it, he was on the floor with a knife to his throat.

“Hey chill baby, I didn’t mean to stare!” Claude hollered. “I’m Claude Knight… Jackson is my brotha?!

“You better not be lying to me you me bucket motherf***er!” She sneered as she pressed the knife closer to his neck.

“I’m not, I swear!”

Christine slowly moved off of Claude, but still had the knife pointing at him. She walked slowly over to the counter since her robe was there and put it on, never taking her eyes off of him. A few minutes later, Jackson came walking in and stopped to look at what was going on.

“Hey Chrissy baby I’m home…” He stopped, then looked at the man to his left. “Claude?”

“The one and only.” Claude said as Jackson walked up to him and gave him a big hug. Jackson then looked to Christine and noticed she had a knife in her hand and a murderous gleam in her eyes.

“Baby what’s going?” Jackson asked.

“Nothing baby, it was just misunderstanding.” She smiled then walked over towards him and planted a passionate kiss on his lips.

After that incident, the lives of Jackson, Christine and Claude would never be the same again.


Chapter 21
Chapter 19
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