Electric, The Resolution, Book III

By Carly Compass

When Gina Parrot, a Catholic, married, mother of four meets Mikhail Vladimir, master of deception, it's Electric! Gina takes on a new job as his Office Manager and has no idea, how in one short year her life will be irreversibly changed. Vladimir's obsession and deception soon have him stalking her without limits. Holding on to her dream of a wholesome traditional life she fights against the current, while forces beyond her control, in the guise of a devastating diagnosis and memories from her past rear their ugly heads to leave Gina to question if she has made the right decision. The electric current between Gina and Mikhail soon cause a violent short circuit that change both or their lives, revealing that things aren't often what they seem when we dig to find the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carly Compass
• Release date: Oct 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311704849

Carly Compass

Carly Compass has a Bachelors Degree in Writing and English from Elmhurst College. She is an avid reader, reviewer as well as a member in good standing of both Phi Theta Kappa and Sigma Tau Delta International Honors Societies. She has a number of short stories under her belt published in: the Prairie Light Review, Black Widows, Web of Poetry, and the Middle Western Voice. Her first series, Electric was published in the fall of 2014 with critical acclaim and five star reviews across the board for all four books. She became a best selling author on Amazon when Book 4 came out to the waiting arms of her readers in April of 2015. Electric, The Beginning Book 1 is available for a free download. Books 1, 2, 3 are also available in a discounted combination set. All books read well as stand alone, but you'll want to read every word and leave no page unturned. Pick up your copy today and let the world know what you think by leaving a review! Carly loves hearing from her readers, feel free to connect across the board on all social media.

Book preview

This Book is dedicated

To all the victims

Of sexual abuse

And Domestic

Violence.

And to

To the memory of

Dorothy Reid.

Her voice was never heard.

Through her

I found my voice

And the courage to speak!

Reviews

Pictorial Review, by artist, Shadrach Del'Monte

Learn more about the artist: delmonte1.wixsite.com/shadrachdelmonte

I just love these images! Sharach really captures the emotion and mayhem in each character. James Spader is the prefect Don Redmen; he looks maniacal and intentional staring you down, daring you to challenge him. Jessica Alba makes the perfect Carlotta Vanburen, with her sultry and shifty eyes. Both Don and Carlotta are not looking at Gina but straight ahead into their futures. Anne Hathaway, as Gina Parrot is looking at the two with very clear concern on her face, wondering if she should trust them. You can see the concern and self-doubt so clearly on her face. This poster is more of a combination of books, 3 and 4...I don't want to give away any spoilers, but this is perfection once again. Thank you so much Shadrach Del'Monte. You have made this author so proud! And yes, I would cast them all if the books were to become a movie.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Family Tree

Pictorial Review

Reviews

Prologue

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3-2

Chapter 3-3

Chapter 3-4

Chapter 3-5

Chapter 3-6

Chapter 3-7

Chapter 3-8

Chapter 3-9

Chapter 3-10

Chapter 3-11

Chapter 3-12

Chapter 3-13

Chapter 3-14

Chapter 3-15

Chapter 3-16

Chapter 3-17

Chapter 3-18

Chapter 3-19

Chapter 3-20

Chapter 3-21

Chapter 3-22

Chapter 3-23

Chapter 3-24

Bonus Chapter

Electric

The After Math, Book IV

Chapter 4-1

Questions for Discussion

About the Author

Contact

Acknowledgements

Thank you Jodi Bernicky for being the first person to traverse through the rough draft of my manuscript. Your insight has been invaluable and I hope you are proud of the finished product. I sincerely hope to one-day return the favor.

Thank you James Bernicky, Esq. for all your legal advice and help with the copyright and trademark. Thank you too for loaning out your wife’s time to me. I really appreciate it and hope you enjoy the novel.

Thank you Linda and Tom O’Connell, your insights and friendships are such a strong support to me, without which I wouldn’t have been able to compete this work.

Thank you Marty Finkelstein for your advice that got me over a hurdle.

A special thank you to all of my online friends.

Many thanks to Devika Fernando, author, your love and support have been immensely helpful. Thank you too for the final edits. You are a linguistic genius!

Mike Wells, thank you for always being there with a quick concise answer. It always amazes me, that you are such a prolific author and still make time to lend a hand. You have been a great influence on me and I have learned so much from you. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.

Nicholas C. Rossis, thank you for helping me with the correct Greek, terms of endearment.

A special thank you to Shadrach Del'Monte for showing me what my books might look like if they were made into a movie. I cannot tell you how much that has meant to me other than to say, thank you.

Janet Noto Lamb for your help with the funeral home scene.

A Big Thank You to Casey Harvell from Fancy Pants Book Formatting, for interviewing me and giving me support throughout the entire process of self- publishing.

Thanks also to the members of my Street Team, Carly’s Comets for supporting me on my cover release party through to the book release. And to all of my online friends, your love, support and kindness are meaningful, valued and appreciated.

Prologue

Gina sat despondent, disheveled and disillusioned wondering what she could have done differently? How did this happen and over such a short period of time?

Was she to blame? Did she ignore the signs? Now, two people whom she loved very much were gone, lost forever. Dead.

She poured over the letters. One line stood out to her: In my mind and heart you will always be with me, and I will carry this into the next life.

Did he hope to have some sort of relationship in the afterlife? Is that why all of this happened? She should have known from that first day she met him. She had a vision. Why didn’t she take it as an omen and just walk away?

Now, all the signs were clear. Hindsight is 20/20. Gina’s mind drifted back to that first day…

Chapter 3-1

And So It Continued

After their date, Mikhail turned up the volume and called her incessantly, saying how he had never felt this way for anyone. He would talk about Gina as a precious gift and her self-esteem needed this, but she was grappling with too much.

I’m tired of all these calls at your house, I’m going to buy you a cell phone so that I can reach you anytime I want, he said insistently.

Gina was nervous about this because she didn’t know how she would explain a cell phone to Brad, but didn’t say anything.

After one week’s time Mikhail was begging Gina to see him again. So Gina loaded up the van with her Avon Catalogues and said, Brad I’m just going to deliver these catalogues, I’ll be back in a couple of hours, and drove to meet Mikhail.

She met him at an industrial park and took the whole case of 100 Avon catalogues and hoisted them into the dumpster and walked over to his van. Hi, she said in greeting and leaned in giving him a kiss, within seconds the passion rose and although it was awkward in the van, Gina got a rush out of the experience. She needed to feel loved and desired and this was the only place where she was getting what she needed.

Full of pheromones she headed back home to resume her evening with the Friday night shows on ABC: Full House, Perfect Strangers and Mr. Belvedere. She sat staring at the television not seeing it and only thinking of Mikhail and feeling the moisture between her legs, he is such a luscious distraction, Gina thought as the kids giggled at the shows they were watching.

Rob’s 10h birthday was coming up and Lisa’s 8th so she had to make plans to celebrate their birthdays and then there was the counseling, and she just started to shift through their bills and try to organize and make sense of them.

Counseling night arrived the following week and Brad refused to go to his individual appointment.

Chapter 3-2

Birthday Parties

The following Friday Gina loaded up her van, this time dumping her catalogues at the office dumpster before heading to the forest preserves. Gina and Mikhail started to kiss, but Gina wasn’t feeling well and Mikhail was more than understanding. Don’t ever feel like you have to do something you don’t want to do, he said as he held her in his arms. So they just sat and talked for about an hour in each others arms before Gina headed back to her house thinking, this is getting expensive, I should just order less catalogues if I’m just going to throw them out.

The last day of school came and went in early June. Rob’s birthday party was going to be at laser tag with about twenty friends. So all she had to do was make a reservation, order pizza, cake and make goody bags for the twenty boys that would attend.

Lisa just wanted to have a girl’s sleepover party. Her birthday was a month after Rob’s. Gina decided to combine their birthday parties for the family. Then she had to plan the sleep over which would require invitations being sent out, ordering pizza, making a cake, and having all matter of goodies. She would also have to rent some videos for the girls to watch at the local video store.

Gina set a date and made calls for the family birthday party too, inviting the aunts, uncles, grand and godparents and cousins to attend. She didn’t invite her side of the family. She finally came to the conclusion that she didn’t want them in her life. She didn’t actually want Brad’s family in her life either, but she did it for her children. Brad’s family pretty much ignored Gina so she didn’t even have to speak with them. All she had to do was give them a time and date. Of course she would have to get the house set up. Then it was just a matter of watching them arrive, eat pizza, light candles on the cake twice, once for Rob and once for Lisa. Then listen to them butcher the Happy Birthday song with their monotone voices followed by May the Dear Lord Bless You, ending with Sto lats a Polish song meaning, may you live 100 years. No one could articulate or pronounce the words to the song correctly after being in this country for so many years and passing it down through the generations. After cake they would finally open presents and then it would be over. She could do it? She told herself, It's fine. It was for the children after all.

Chapter 3-3

Regret

Mikhail called Gina’s cell phone that he had bought her. She only used it to talk to him. He insisted that he needed to see her and asked her to meet at a local high school parking lot.

It was a hot late spring evening as Gina drove to the high school’s desolate parking lot. A funny feeling fell over Gina as she drove to meet Mikhail two towns over, the realization that she was living a double life overwhelmed her as she grappled with what she had been doing. When she was with the kids she was preoccupied with her diagnosis and thoughts of Mikhail. When she was with Mikhail she was overwhelmed with thoughts of being caught. Gina felt cheapened sneaking around in parking lots. She felt too distracted from her children too.

After what Gina could only describe as a quickie, Mikhail held the used prophylactic out the window.

Don’t! Don’t throw that out there. Wrap it in a napkin. Look, there is a garbage can right over there, Gina said pointing to the garbage can by the light post as the prophylactic hit the ground. Gross! I can’t believe you did that, she said sickened by the experience. She had to stop and ask herself yet again what she was doing. Their torrid affair was smoldering down to embers and Mikhail could feel Gina slipping away. Gina shut off the cell phone and dropped it between the seats of his van as she said good-bye to him.

This is not the answer to my problems, Gina thought on the drive home. She felt dirty and stupid for doing this. She knew that she had already decided to stay with Brad, so she just had to end this. That one evening in his office was seductive. Actually it was the best sexual experience she had ever had, but now these last few times tainted that memory and turned it into something cheap and sordid. That visual of the prophylactic in the gutter was the end for her.

She went home and took a shower, all the while thinking about all she had yet to do. Her mind, her attention needed to be with the kids. She didn’t know how long she had left to live and there was so much she still had to do.

The phone rang while she was making dinner, Hello, she said holding the phone on her shoulder.

Why did you leave your phone in my van, Gina? came the angry voice from the other end.

I’m in the middle of cooking dinner. Can I call you back later?

Penny found the phone Gina. She gave it to my wife. Then my wife called the phone company and had them fax over the itemized account and now she knows that I’ve not only stayed in contact with you, but that I bought you a phone too.

Look, I’m here with the kids. Penny found that phone in your van so didn’t Enrick or Hans leave it there? Isn’t it a work phone? Isn’t that how you stay in touch with your guys? I have to go, Gina said and hung up the phone.

Gina mindlessly cooked dinner, feeling a little threatened by the tone in his voice. She had to discourage him and the only way she was going to do that was by just being brutally honest about her situation. She was in an extreme amount of debt. She had a terminal illness. She had to raise four children. She needed to get rid of him already. She had to set aside those feelings and ignore the longing she felt. As much as she felt she had a connection to him unlike that which she had for her husband, it did not matter. Stringing him along was not good for anyone involved. She had to stick to her guns and end this relationship that was serving no one.

Chapter 3-4

Emergency

The next morning, Gina took the kids to the pool. Gina always picnicked on the grass so that she could bring food and drinks. The concession stand was too expensive. Rob ran off to play with some friend, while Lisa and Amanda played with Duncan by the zero depth pool not ten feet away. Gina was smoothing out the blanket when she heard her name called. She looked in the direction of the fence behind her and there was Mikhail.

She waved to him and he motioned for her to come to the 7ft Tru-link fence. Gina got up from her blanket thinking; this is too much, now he is following me.

Hi, what’s going on? she asked.

Tonya sent Penny on a witch hunt last night and Penny found a box of prophylactics. Tonya called her counselor and she is moving out with the kids this weekend.

I am so sorry to hear that, Gina said