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Yeah, okay.
The reporter from CNN, Mary Sue, as I referred to her, looked more nervous than anyone else in our backyard. We wanted the interview done at home but we kept the servants around to make sure that no wandered off. She was checking over everything, from lighting to her note cards one last time.
“Are you both ready?”
Are you?
“Do your worst,” Liam smiled, giving her a small wink. He was laying it on so thick that the girl seemed unable to speak.
“Take that as an invitation to question him about this dirty secrets…including his addiction to Jell-O.” I smiled, trying to get her to relax. If she wasn’t calm, then this entire thing would go to shit, and I refused to be subjected to another round of a million and five fucking questions. We needed the public to love, if not worship, us.
“I am not addicted to Jell-O.” He turned to me, looking confused as to why I would bring it up, though the smile on his face was real. He turned to Mary who grinned at us. “I am not addicted to Jell-O.”
“It’s horrible. Poor Ethan has to hide some under his pillow.”
“Ethan can’t hide anything. Plus, he only eats applesauce.”
“That’s because there’s no Jell-O left.”
“And we’re on in 3, 2…” the producer pointed to Mary as the camera moved in closer.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Liam whispered to me.
Rolling my eyes, I focused on Mary who had managed to remain calm and steady as she spoke while looking into the camera.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Today I will be sitting with Mr. and Mrs. Callahan for the first time since her disappearance and his arrest.” The camera focused on us and so did she as Liam took my hand into his. “Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, I just have to start off with ‘wow.’”
“We know,” I said with a smile before glancing at Liam. “Believe me, we know.”
“Mrs. Callahan, from what we have gathered so far, all of this started with you getting a simple text message?”
“Yes.” The simplest lie worked the best. “I cannot speak too much on it due to the ongoing investigation, which is so odd for me to say. But what I can say is that I got a text message from a suspected terrorist organization that seemed to be corresponding with a colleague. Our numbers were only one digit off.”
“I’m not sure if that is the luckiest or unluckiest thing I have ever heard,” she replied.
Obviously she didn’t get out much.
“The jury is still out on that,” Liam added…which was more than a little ironic.
“And you, Mr. Callahan, knew of this?”
He nodded. “Yes I did. At first I thought it was a joke and thought maybe we should ignore the cryptic yet frightening message, but since we are public figures, we called a friend in D.C. Before we could even understand the gravity of the situation, the world under our feet began to shift.”
“So you knew your wife was alive and you still offered a hundred million dollars for her return after word that she had been kidnapped leaked?” she asked.
I was starting to dislike her. She did her job well, but those are the ones we had to be weary of.
“Actually, I didn’t know everything at the time,” Liam adjusted. “She had just given birth and I was still in awe. Before I knew it, my mother was telling me that Mel was not in her room and that no one could find her. The panic…the fear that crippled me in that moment is hard to explain. The hospital shut down, and I hadn’t even thought to look at my phone. I just acted…I needed her back, our son needed her. It was only afterwards that an agent came and informed me of the covert happenings. By that point, I couldn’t withdraw my statement.”
She looked so immersed as she turned to me. “Mrs. Callahan, were you scared? Why did they move you so quickly?”
“In all honesty, I was coming down off of my epidural, I couldn’t even move myself. But I believe the CIA intercepted an attack on my life. It was only after I was placed in the safe house did the fear really start to set in,” I whispered, as I wiped the corner of my eye.
In a flash Mary had a tissue ready to hand to me.
Really?
Taking it from her, I felt Liam grasp my other hand and kiss it.
“I think what was worse,” I said softly, “was watching my husband get torn to pieces by the media night after night. Listening to people who knew nothing about him accuse him of all these horrid things, they painted him as a monster. Liam is just not capable of the things they accused him of.”
He squeezed my hand and I knew he was struggling to hold in his laughter.
“I must admit, Mrs. Callahan that I was part of that majority, and I know that no one feels as badly as we do. I apologize Mr. Callahan, but you do understand why we thought you were guilty.”
“No,” he snapped.
Oh, here we go...
“I do not want people to think that we are okay. That this was just a horrid time in our lives and now everything is perfect again. Our lives were drastically uprooted. The media, you, have a responsibility, a duty, to find truth, not to entertain. I was, and am, pissed at you, the media, and the American people. I was found guilty, not because there was evidence, but because of who I am. I accepted your apology but I do not understand it. Give me longer than a week.”
So we were playing good mafia boss, bad mafia boss now. I wanted to be the bad one.
She looked startled and glanced at her producer before looking to her cards and then finally back at Liam.
“Well, Mr. Callahan, what of the law and judicial systems? They were so sure—”
“The Chicago PD has had a target locked on this family for years,” I hissed.
I wanted to be the bad one.
“Are you saying that the Chicago Police Department was willing to put an innocent man in prison just because they dislike his family? That seems unfathomable.”
“More unbelievable than getting a text message from a suspected terrorist organization?” Liam asked calmly.
“Okay, point taken. But why do you think that is?”
I was my turn now. “Many reasons; crime is at an all-time high all across the state, while public trust is at an all-time low, and they wanted to prove themselves. What better way to do it than take aim at this family. But above that, it’s perfectly acceptable to be rich in this country, but not too rich. The officer who testified, Officer Scooter, came to me with pointed questions of this family's wealth. Then, after losing a bodyguard, he accused my husband of setting it up. Thankfully the truth came out before their cuffs did. This was the same officer who led the charges against Liam.”
“The Chicago PD has a systematic problem with competence,” Liam added. “We were told that the Police Commissioner was called by someone in the state office to drop the charges against me, but he refused to because he thought I was paying them off. While I was in jail repeating over and over again that I did not kill my wife; knowing the truth but not able to say anything. I now wonder how many other people have been incarcerated for crimes that they did not commit. I saw firsthand how broken the system really is.”
“Are you going to file a civil suit against the state?”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “We are tired. The only reason we’re doing interviews is because we want all of this to be put to rest without additional speculation. Right now, we just want to focus on our family.”
