Chapter Twenty-One

 

Darius sat still as a statue. Every muscle in his body coiled, bracing for a mile-high drop onto cement. Each brain cell pinged for attention. He stormed into the living area, tugging at the neck of his T-shirt to get more cool air to his burning skin. The confined space of the room wasn’t large enough. He cut a wide path, including the bedroom, as he tried to digest what he’d just heard. This was not happening. Not to him. Not now. Not with Melissa. This was someone else’s bad dream. His ears roared with panic.

The story had to be false. There was no way this could be his life. Maybe this was Dan’s idea of garnering the attention of the press. But why would Melissa agree to these types of antics? What about the pictures? They looked real.

His cell phone rang. He darted back into the bedroom and picked it up. His mother’s number appeared on the display. She watched Sunny Kincaid more religiously than him, so he ignored the call. He had no answers for her.

The pounding on the door roused him back to reality.

“Darius, are you in there? Let me in,” Dan called.

Darius snatched open the door and glared at Dan. “What the hell have you done this time? You’ve gone too fucking far,” he yelled.

Dan threw up his hands. “I certainly didn’t put out this trash. Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were getting divorced? Instead of letting a big mouth gossip break the news, I should have done it. I could have used a tidbit like that to our advantage.”

Darius choked back the vile response swelling in this throat while clenching his fists. His fingers grew numb but he couldn’t release them. “Advantage. Are you outta you mind? This shit has no advantages. This is my life. This is real.” He fell on the sofa and turned his attention to the ceiling. His hands covered his face. “What the hell is going on?” he muttered.

“You mean to tell me you didn’t know anything about this? I thought Melissa was on the up and up, a good one.”

The muscles in his stomach ground to a hard knot. This announcement was as surprising to him as it was to the people seated in the audience. Was this how his father felt when he finally found out about his mother’s betrayal?

He couldn’t trust the words to come out coherent, so he only shook his head.

“What do you want me to do?” Dan balanced on the edge of the chair across from him and steadied his gaze on Darius. “Have you called Melissa to get to the bottom of this? Maybe the whole story was fabricated. You know how the tabloids operate.”

“You’re right. Let me call her. Stay here.” Darius picked up his cell phone, carried it into the bedroom, and closed the door. Even before he dialed the number, his heart told him the story was true. The smiles, the tender words, all had been a farce. And like his father, the one person he trusted the most had betrayed him.

He pressed Melissa’s contact button and held his breath. She answered the phone with the same enthusiasm as always.

“Melissa--”

“Darius, what’s up? Is everything okay? You sound funny.”

“I just watched the show.” He tried to control the anger in his voice.

“Okay, I know. You always watch. But I need to get ready to get out of here. What’s up?”

He cleared his throat. “You filed for divorce?” Anger burned a hole in his stomach. The line was quiet for several moments too long. Her silence was the admission he’d hoped against. He closed his eyes to digest the information. Red flashes of light popped behind his lids. He fell against the bed.

“Darius, it’s not what you think.” She was talking fast now as if by hurrying to explain she could soothe everything and stop their world from spinning off track. “I went to see a lawyer at the first of the year. I thought we were through, but I never signed the papers. I swear to you…”

He pulled his hand down his face, to stop the explosion in his head. “So, it’s true, Melissa?” He wanted to sit up and rant, but his body refused to cooperate.

“Darius, it’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

“Don’t you think you should have explained before you decided to see a lawyer? At the very least right after your visit. Isn’t that what most people do? Before I made a complete fool of myself. I’m running around thinking we’re in this great relationship and making plans for us and you’re taking legal action against me. I guess it’s just a coincidence she happened to have a picture of you and Rob hugging.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

“Melissa, don’t lie to me, I saw the picture. I can’t talk to you right now. This is just too fucking much.”

“Darius, are you going to let me explain?’

“I think you’ve said enough. I don’t know what you can say to fix this.”

“But, Darius--”

He disconnected the call.

****

Melissa pulled the receiver away from her ear and stared at the phone. The finite tone in his voice had a ring she hadn’t heard before. Her heart raced so fast it skipped several beats. “This can’t be happening.”

She dialed his cell phone number, but her trembling fingers pushed the wrong button and the text screen popped up instead. She cancelled the function and tried again. After one ring, his voice message came on. “Darius, please call me back. Let me explain.” A steady stream of tears rolled down her face, the salty taste lingering in her mouth.

Instead of putting on her pumps and heading out the door like she’d planned to do only moments before, she sat on the edge of the chaise with the phone in her lap. There had to be a way to make this right, but she couldn’t think of anything. Her thoughts refused to move past the anguish in his voice. The tears wouldn’t stop.

Turbo sprawled out at her feet. An hour later, the two of them were in the same position. She’d dialed Darius’s phone every ten minutes and left the same message.

“Please let me explain.”

When his voice mailbox was full and wouldn’t allow her to leave another message, she crawled into bed and pulled the sheet over her head.