Teddy Baer

By James Douglas Bozarth

Teddy Deere is a young overweight girl who marries Max Baer. She is wrongfully convicted of robbing her father’s bank of cash and bearer bonds by the prosecutor Maxwell Mason who hates bad girls. He makes her serve her full term in prison. Teddy’s father disowns her. She breaks her nose in a prison fight, looses massive amounts of weight and her hair goes white. All this while in prison.

When she gets out Teddy’s entire existence is changed. She is alone in the world. She divorces her husband. She avoids the public. Her Uncle gives her a job in his store with an apartment he owns, but a model’s broken leg makes Teddy, now called Teri Cole, go into a dress show in a wedding dress. Teddy falls in front of the prosecutor who falls for the new Teri. She tries to avoid him, but he relentlessly pursues her. He denounces Teddy in his effort to be elected Senator.

In anger, Teri plots her revenge.

Then her former husband, the real criminal, comes back into her life.

What else can go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664183346

Book preview

Chapter 1

Today was to be the best and the happiest day of Teddy Deere’s entire life. She was going to be married to Max Baer. Teddy Deere was as happy as she could be even though she was being married in the courthouse by a circuit judge rather than in the church by a priest as she had always wanted. She had desired a large wedding but her father had refused to pay for any marriage for her. It was not time yet for a wedding, he announced. She was much too young and irresponsible.

She raced up the stairs to the civil court judge’s office dragging Max by the hand behind her as she ran. She pushed open the door to the office. She pulled Max into the office as she rushed in and pushed him up to the counter of the area. She was ready to be married, now!

The receptionist did not look up from the file she was flipping through one page at a time. She ran her finger down each line carefully. It appeared that she was looking for something in particular. She was not interested in having someone bother her.

Max said, Ma’am, we would like to get married.

She, without looking up, waved the pair over to the next receptionist with an irate hand.

Teddy shrugged, frowning as Max strode over to the other desk. He repeated, We would like to be married.

The judge looked up from his desk in his office through the open door between the two rooms. He smiled as he came out to shake hands with the newlyweds. He pulled them into his office. He pointed them to the chairs in front of his desk.

The two newly-to-be-weds sat down. Teddy held onto Max’s hand which was limp in her firm grip. She put the limpness down to his nervousness at the marriage ceremony. When the judge had carefully printed the information on the marriage form, he called in his secretary and another secretary from across the hall into his office. He needed two witnesses to the wedding ceremony to make it legal.

He placed the two secretaries to one side as he stood in front of the pair of matrimonial patrons.

Clearing his gruff throat, the judge peered at the paper in his hand as he asked Max, Do you Max Baer, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do you part?

Max smiled at Teddy with a strangely crooked grin on his face. He said, I do. Teddy wondered at the look on his face. He did not seem to be completely involved in the ceremony.

The judge turned to Teddy. He asked, Do you, Teddy Deere, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do you part?

Teddy squealed in happiness as she squeezed Max’s hand in both of hers. I do, she cooed.

By the laws in the State of Texas, I now pronounce you husband and wife. As he turned back to get the papers, he waved his hand in their direction. You may kiss the bride-- Teddy jumped into Max’s arms with a great big kiss as the judge continued, --after we sign the marriage certificate.

Teddy reddened as she turned away from her new husband to sign the certificate. After Max signed the certificate, the two secretaries watched the judge sign the paper, then they each signed the certificate. The judge’s secretary took the papers into the front office to make copies. She made several copies of the certificate, keeping one for her records and handing the rest to the judge. He handed each celebrant a copy of the papers.

Teddy bounced out of the office with her arm tightly curled in her husband’s elbow. She was now free of her father’s disturbing, sometimes crushing, influence. She was now a married woman. In a few hours she would have some sex and be a complete woman. That would show her father that she could think for herself, that she was independent. She was going home with the man she was to spend her entire life with.

As they left the courthouse, Max looked at his watch. He nodded. In the middle of the sidewalk he turned to his new wife. Baby, he said. I have some good news for you. He reached into his coat breast pocket. He pulled out an envelope. This is a present for you from your father. He wants you to get it righat after we were married.

What is it?

This is a letter I got from your father.

Teddy took the letter in her hands. She stood staring at it for a while. She was afraid to open it because she was sure it was some bad news about the marriage. She slowly extracted the letter from the envelope which she recognized as her father’s business letterhead. Shaking, she opened the letter. What she saw had her jumping in surprise. It was a present for $250,000 in cash and $750,000 in stocks. She was a millionaire. She was so happy. Her father did love her. She hugged her husband.

What is in the letter? he asked.

It is a present from my father. He has given me--us--a million dollars.

That is wonderful. He also told me to tell you to get the monies and securities right now from his secretary. He has to be in a bank meeting in Dallas today but he wants you to have it right after the wedding.

Skipping with joy she got into the small, fairly old car in the parking lot, holding the letter clutched tightly in her hand. She went to her father’s bank. Max drove into the parking garage. He drove the car up the ramps until he reached the fourth floor of the garage. He pulled into a parking space that was no where near any other car. Teddy wondered why he did that but she was too happy to have her father’s letter to wonder why Max came so high in the garage away from the other parked cars.

Go and get your present. I will wait here so you can have all the fun of getting the money and securities.

Teddy nodded. She kissed him on the cheek as she got out of the car. She ran to the elevator. She waited for the elevator to arrive, shifting her feet from one to the other. She was so happy her father had given them so much money. He must love her very much, she thought, even though he rarely showed that he did. The elevator opened. Teddy entered the cab. She waved at her husband as the door closed. She dropped down two flights until she arrived at her father’s floor.

Teddy approached her father’s office with a quick stride. She started to go inside to thank him but his secretary stopped Teddy.

Chapter 2

Your father is not in the office right now, she said. He is in Dallas for a meeting with several members of the speculators for the bank. May I ask what you are wanting? How can I help you?

Teddy held out the letter to the secretary. My father gave me some money and some securities as a wedding present. Can I have them, please?

The secretary sat back in shock. She took the letter. She opened the envelope and removed the letter with two fingers. She spread the letter on the desk. She studied it carefully. The letter was on her boss’s personal letterhead for the bank. She stared at the signature. She thought it was his. It looked like his, but she wanted to be sure it was his.

Damn, she sad. I do not have time to do this right now. The accountants are coming tomorrow for a surprise inquiry into the accounts, to go over our records to check that we are still in compliance. I have way too much work to do for this right now.

She excused herself to Teddy. She walked into Mr Deere’s office. She needed to get his okay for the letter. She picked up the telephone to call Dallas. Unfortunately her boss was in a luncheon meeting without his phone on so that she could not contact. With a frown, she looked at the letter again, reading it carefully. It told her to give Teddy $250,000 in cash and $750,000 in negotiable securities today. She exited her boss’s office.

The secretary slowly sat back at her desk while she stared at her boss’s wayward daughter. But there was nothing else she could do. The letter giving his daughter the monies was clear. Mr. Harrison’s orders were very plainly written out.

The secretary called a few office workers to get Teddy the cash while she personally worked on the bearer bond securities to change the ownership of the stocks. Teddy watched as the papers piled up on the desk. She watched them mount higher and higher. She was thrilled as the papers became a huge pile fully an inch and a half high. Finally the other workers came in with the money. The secretary counted the cash and counted the securities. Teddy signed the paper that said she got the money and securities. She knew that she had to thank her father for the present. She scribbled a note to her father. She handed it to the secretary. Please, give this to Daddy when he gets back from Dallas.

The secretary took the note and nodded quietly. She had done what her boss had ordered her to do, but she was still not happy at the transfer of so much money without hearing from her boss personally, face to face. After Teddy had gone the secretary tried to call again but her boss was still not available to her. The secretary sat in agonized silence before shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She turned back to the task of making sure that the rest of the bank’s monies were in proper order.

Chapter 3

The newlyweds went home, where she changed into her night gown waiting for her new husband’s approach. Teddy thought about what she was about to do. She was about to become a real woman, not just a girl. She absently told Max that they would have to do the thing quickly because the bank auditors were coming to the bank tomorrow to check the records and they needed to be there early.

Max had not heard anything about that. He had to return a small amount of the cash in his drawer he had