The news Keithe had received from the other end of his cell phone was still a blur. It had caused a sporadic seizure to come upon him. Thankfully for him a side rail was able to allow him to have just a one-man accident without any major injury.
By the time Keithe came to, Bishop Perry was standing over him, praying for his complete healing. When the paramedics found Keithe, they dialed the last number in his call log. Giving Bishop Perry the hospital’s location, the bishop made his way to Keithe.
After Keithe regained his momentum in the hospital room, the bishop had shared with him all that had transpired and all the findings between Stoney and Michelle. Thrown for a complete loop, Keithe couldn’t grasp that for fifteen years he’d been married to someone he didn’t even know.
“Maeshell,” Keithe whispered. Hearing all the details from her past from someone who had only gotten to know her for a short amount of time himself, made pain sting Keithe’s heart.
“But how? I mean, when? Stoney? Michelle?” Keithe couldn’t get his questions together for all of the events that had puzzled his mind. Before he could get the answers he needed from the bishop, Michelle made her way into his hospital room with a bandage on her head.when she walked in to see Ky standing close to her husband, she didn’t know in which direction to run. Then, anger, instead of embarrassment, crept in.
“Deacon. I didn’t mean to meddle or add harm, but…” Bishop Perry looked at Michelle, shook his head, and stepped closer to Keithe. “But my daughter was at stake. She’s pregnant, and I just couldn’t let this go by,” Bishop Perry explained.
“You just couldn’t go on with your happy life, huh? You want to tell so much about my life, did your wife ever tell you she had AIDs or have you been living life with blinders on yourself?”
Before Bishop Ky Perry could respond and let her know that Kendra did indeed have HIV/AIDs, but that the disease didn’t have her, Keithe cut him off. “Michelle, wait a minute.” Keithe tried to pull himself up from lying flat.
“No. It’s all right, Deacon. My wife?” Bishop pointed to himself, wondering why he even made an effort to call Michelle and let her know about her husband’s accident, especially if she was still going to possess ignorance. “My wife?” he asked Michelle again with deep security about him. “What my wife is not is a liar, a cheat, or a manipulator. You know what, Michelle? I’m not going back twenty years with you. I’m not wasting my time on you.” Looking at Keithe, Bishop Perry said, “I’m happy all is well, Deacon. “
“The same for your daughter, Bishop,” Keithe eased from his dry lips. “Do you know what will happen to Stoney?” shaking his head, he looked over to Michelle and thought she ought to be the one to tell her husband. “She,” the bishop said, pointing lazily at Michelle. “Um. Michelle.”
“I pressed charges. Yes, I surely did. What do you expect of me? Your mistress came after me in our home—” Michelle was cut off.
“My mistress!” Keithe yelled. “Are you kidding me?” he looked back and forth between Bishop and Michelle. “Didn’t you tell her?”
“No. No, I…I didn’t. I thought that ought to come from you.”
“Tell me what?” Michelle stood up straight on both of her feet. “What, Keithe?” she took a step closer to her husband’s bedside. “Well?”
Finally making up his mind to sit up in the hospital bed, Keithe was drained of all the drama that had crowded his days and nights and knew the end had finally come.
“Michelle, Stoney isn’t my mistress. Yes, I met her through Mike up in Dallas, but she’d been living there for the past year or so. She’s been…” he had to go on. “She’s been searching for her mother for quite some years. She pieced together that you and I were married.”
“So? and what? she came on to you; you fell for the sob story? what? what, Keithe?” Michelle asked.
“No, Michelle. Stoney is your daughter.” he released the news Michelle hadn’t seemed to grasp. “So that scar, Michelle”—he pointed at his wife’s midsection—“Wasn’t for naught. I know your real name is Maeshelle.”
Now it was her turn to look between the two men who had her cornered.
“Wha…” Michelle couldn’t seem to complete her thoughts. “How…I mean, she must have me mistaken for someone else. I don’t have any…” That quickly she had forgotten Bishop would know the lie she was about to tell about not having any kids.
“Michelle. There is no need to even try…” Before Bishop Perry could finish his sentence and before she could complete her thought, Michelle’s knees must have felt what she knew. “Marcus,” was the only thing she could release from her thoughts before her body made contact with the floor.