Kevin came up the stairs in a rage. She looked at him and tried to diffuse the situation.
“I’m leaving in two days. You can have the house and the cars. I only want the kids and my things. I just can’t take this anymore.”
Her heart was pounding so hard, she knew he should be able to hear it. Suddenly she wasn’t feeling good about the situation and got up from the bed. She started down the stairs only to have him hot on her heels.
“Wait one damn minute. You sleep all day, and suddenly you wake up, tell me that you are leaving and that’s it. What has gotten into you?”
“Have you not noticed my eyes?” she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Who have you been talking to? Who’s been filling your head with this nonsense? Dee?”
“You have, remember. You wanted a divorce, you asked me so I am giving it to you.”
“Yes, but that was before I knew about the baby. We need to be together until this child is born.”
Things were not going as she had planned. She thought he would be happy to hear that she wouldn’t block the divorce. She was supposed to tell him that as long as he let her leave, she would share joint custody.
“Look, stop for a minute and let’s just talk.”
She opened the closet door, got the luggage and started back for the stairs.
“Stop and listen to me” he said, grabbing her arm.
“Don’t you fucking put your hands on me again, or I swear I will call the police.”
“Where were you today? I tried calling you a hundred damn times, you didn’t answer.”
“I turned it off.”
“So, where were you?”
“Out.”
“With who?”
“With people who care about me.”
“Then tell me this, why do you smell like a man’s cologne?
“I don’t smell anything, and neither do you.”
“Oh, is that what Matthew wears.”
“What…what are you talking about?” she stuttered. “You must be losing your mind, I don’t smell anything.”
“Oh, am I crazy to know that Dee called you with someone named Matthew on the other line and you met with him today. Yep, I heard you make your little plans yesterday, you dumb trick. You play miss innocent, but really you been out here the whole time, fucking around with some other man behind my back.”
“You are something else Kevin. I haven’t been the one cheating, you have. The only person I’ve been fucking is your trifling ass.”
He grabbed her and shoved her into the wall.
“I believe I told you what would happen if I thought you were screwing around on me. Didn’t I?”
She pushed against him and slapped him hard.
“I’ve done nothing with no one but you. Only you. You are the one cheating. Leaving me here with the kids all the time. I have put up with this shit for over three years, coming home with her nasty ass perfume lingering on you like a cheap suit. No more. I’m leaving. You can have her. I hate you! I hate you! How long did you think I would put up with this crap? You coming and going as you please and hitting me. I hope she is worth it, because you are about to lose everything you love.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, you lose, Kevin, your wife, your kids and this baby.”
“Oh, you think you are taking my kids away from me?”
“You don’t think I’m leaving them here do you?”
Kevin screamed, “You think I’m going to let you take my kids, you are totally crazy.”
“Oh, I am not only taking them, but since you can’t keep your hands to yourself, I am going for full custody.”
He grabbed her before she had a chance to move.
“What! You think I am going to let you take my kids, you been out there all day, fucking some man, waltz up in here and say you are leaving and taking my kids.”
“I want them around a man who knows how to treat women, because you obviously don’t.”
“You aren’t taking them anywhere, you slut. Did your new little boyfriend put you up to this? What, you have to suck his little dick? What the fuck did I tell you I would do to you? Huh? You fucking hypocrite.” He shoved her hard and she fell to the floor. “You probably been fucking him every chance you got.”
“Get off of me!”
“When I am good and damn ready I will get off of your whoring ass. Is that who you were with today?”
He slapped her on the side of her head.
“Answer me, were you?”
He got up and dragged her along with him to the window.
“Is he outside somewhere waiting for you? Huh? That nigga ain’t nothing but a punk.”
“What…like you.” She shouted, while pulling away from him.
“Get out of my house.”
“Gladly.” She didn’t bother to pick up the luggage; she grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
“Don’t you ever come back here!” He yelled from the den.
“You think I would dare step back into hell! You can go there your damn self.” She shouted.
“I’ll meet you there,” he shouted back. She stopped in the foyer.
“You know what?” She said while walking back towards him, “You hit me, degrade me, call me every name but my God given one and I have never done anything to you. I am the mother of your children and this child I’m carrying.”
The tears started to fall.” You never loved me, only yourself. You loved the idea of having someone you could control. But no more. I won’t be here to push around anymore. You can have that trick you been seeing, just tell her she better have a good lawyer on retainer, cause you are going to need one.”
She turned to leave, not realizing how close he was to her. As she opened the front door, he slammed it and shoved her into it. He slapped her so hard in the back of the head that her head hit the door then grabbed her by the hair. She flailed her arms wildly, trying to grab his hands then bolted for the office.
“You fucking bitch. I will kill you.”
She reached the office but couldn’t find the phone. He came in after her, closing the door behind him.
“You bitch. Do you think…” he took deliberate steps toward her. “That anyone…” inching closer, “Will put up with this shit!”
He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her towards him.
“Get off of me!”
“When I’m ready.” He back-handed her across the face. “Let’s just see if he will want you after I am finished with you.”
After what seemed like hours, Kevin rolled off of her. He had done every unimaginable thing to her. She had long given up the fight. The more she fought the more pain he inflicted on her. She couldn’t see from one eye and her body was tender.
After Kevin finished with her he said, “let’s see if he wants your ass now.”
He stood and looked down at her.
“Get out of my fucking sight,” he sneered.
She stood and steadied herself against his mahogany desk. She put her hand to her mouth, hoping that it would stop the liquid that threatened to spill from it. It hadn’t worked. She started to vomit. She felt something running down her leg and looked; realizing it was her own blood. Her back was sore; her head felt like a rock had been thrown at it. Her hands were scratched, and her breasts were sore and tender. She could barely lift her arms. Her neck felt as if he had chewed it raw. Her clothes lay in tatters all over his office floor. She tried walking to the door but it hurt so much that she fell to her knees. He sucked his teeth and stepped over her body; leaving her there, like a wounded deer struck down by a speeding car. She vomited again and again. Her stomach started to cramp, and she fell to her knees, crying for the pain to go away. She pulled herself up and made it upstairs. He was snoring so loudly she knew he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. She moved as quickly as she could, covering herself with a lounging dress she found in the closet. The fabric made her body hurt more. She made her way back downstairs and found her purse along with her cell phone. She took his keys from the hook in the foyer and hurried to the garage. She climbed into his car, a feat in itself. Once she was clear of the driveway, she pulled the cell from her pocket and called Matthew, he would meet her at the mall parking lot. Luckily it was Sunday so it would be empty by now.
Matthew arrived first and noticed a car pulling up. Immediately he recognized Cheryl. She opened the door and he noticed that she was struggling to get out. He raced over to her door, and looked at her.
“Please, don’t ask any questions right now. I just need you to take me home.”
He walked beside her and put her inside his truck. He drove to his house and helped her inside and up the stairs. He called for his housekeeper, and asked her to find a robe and bring some water and find the aspirin. He tried getting her to call the police, but she flatly refused. He walked her into the bathroom and he turned the shower on, as she requested. She climbed in and let the water slide down her sore body, as well as the tears.
She heard Matthew going through her purse and heard him on the phone with someone.
“Cheryl, are you alright in there? Cheryl?”
There was no answer so he opened the door and Cheryl was standing in the shower. The bathroom was fogged up; he walked toward the open shower. She looked up at him and he climbed in with her. She began to sob uncontrollably. He took her in his arms.
“Your clothes,” she said.
“They are only clothes. I’m here honey. I’m here with you.”
She wrapped her arms around him and continued to cry. They stood like that for a while. He pulled her up into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He laid her down and covered her. He stripped his clothes off and climbed in beside her and gathered her up into his arms. She continued to cry until she fell asleep.
The police banged on the door until Kevin came downstairs. He opened it, only for the white policeman to announce that he was under arrest. Maybe he shouldn’t have drunk the last of the scotch, because he felt as though he was sucking on a cotton ball. He was stunned. He was led out of his house in handcuffs. The neighbors were truly getting a show; with all of the cop cars out there you would have thought the sniper was on the loose again. He started calling for Cheryl, but she never came from wherever she was.
Kevin called the house once he got to the police station, but no one answered. He called his boy, but of course he wouldn’t be home. He finally called Rebecca and explained that he needed a lawyer because they were accusing him of assaulting Cheryl.
Cheryl was nowhere to be found, so he knew the charge couldn’t be right. If only she would answer the phone and straighten this shit out. Rebecca was there with the lawyer in no time. The police explained that Cheryl had called in a report, however since they could not reach her to come into the station, they would release him until she was located. He and Rebecca went to his house and he was horrified at the site. The den was a mess. The liquor cabinet was open and two bottles of scotch were drained. He went into the office and the foul smell filled his lungs when he walked in. Torn clothes lay everywhere, the door was broken from the hinges and his chair was pushed over and there was blood on the wall and carpet. There was broken glass everywhere.
Someone must have broken into the house, was the first thought that came to Kevin’s mind. He called the police and told them his house had been broken into and to report that his car had been stolen. They came over and took a report and in less than two hours, they called him to tell him that his Lo Jack system had tracked down his missing car. When he arrived at the mall parking lot, the policeman told him that it didn’t appear to be stolen. He wondered who his wife might have met because the doors were locked. The cops said he could take his car so he told Rebecca she could go and he would meet her back at his house. Then he noticed it, her wedding ring.
Oh, out here hoeing around, are we, you will be dealt with whenever you get home.
Cheryl began to stir beside Matthew, who was snoring lightly. As she began opening her eyes, a terrible pain shot through her, like a bolt of lightning.
“Cheryl, are you alright?” she heard him ask.
She couldn’t speak because the pain was getting worse. She began to curl herself into a ball, hoping that it would ease the pain. She reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Cheryl!” he said a little louder.
“Oh God!” She screamed out. This pain was nothing like child birth. Matthew bolted up.
“Cheryl, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“It hurts! It hurts!” is all she could mutter.
“What? What hurts? Baby you have to tell me.”
“Matthew please, please make it stop!” She grasped his arm and held her stomach. She knew exactly what was happening.
“What? What? Honey please, you have to tell me.”
“Matthew,” she gasped, “I think I’m losing the baby!”
Kevin arrived back at his house and saw Rebecca’s car parked in the driveway. “What?” he asked her, when she gave him a disapproving look.
“You did this Kevin?”
“What are you talking about?” he said as he found some vodka and poured himself a drink.
“Do you really think you need to be drinking? These are her clothes and they smell like the cologne you were…I have seen her wear this before.” Rebecca began to pace. “Did you and her have an argument?”
“Look, as far as I know, Cheryl has not been here yet. So I have no clue as to what you are talking about.”
Kevin’s phone rang and he was more agitated when he hung up. He took another swallow from his glass, drained and refilled it.
Rebecca asked if anything was wrong and who was on the phone, but he declined telling her. He instead told her that he needed to go out for a few minutes. He typed the directions into his GPS system and headed in that direction. Kevin pulled up in front of the office complex. There were no other cars around except for a couple of delivery vans. He had to make sure not to walk close to either one of them; someone could be lurking inside. He approached the building; having the uneasy feeling that someone was watching. He rode the elevator to the third floor like he had been instructed. When he stepped off, he noticed lights at the far end of the hall. He wasn’t going to be a punk about this.
Kevin stepped from the elevator and called out. When no answer came he continued to the end of the hallway.
“Let’s skip the hellos and get to it. What the fuck do you want?” Kevin asked as he found the office where the light came from and saw him sitting behind his desk.
“Don’t you want to at least know who I am?” Matthew asked.
“I already know. I thought I recognized your voice. You called my house a while back, right? When all along you have been fucking my wife. She is probably with you right now, isn’t she? She thinks I don’t know about you and her. I heard your little plan the other day. Her making plans to come and see you. Is this where she comes? What, you can’t spring for a cheap hotel room?”
“Partna, you got it all wrong. I am not sleeping with your wife, I’m only her friend. She needed someone to listen to her. Someone who wouldn’t put his hands around her throat or hit her whenever she had something to say.”
“My marriage is none of your business. I don’t know what she has been filling your head with, but what goes on in my marriage, is my business”. Matthew stood from behind the desk and moved around to where Kevin was standing.
“Does that include raping her?”
“You better watch yourself. You don’t know who you are fucking with.” Kevin said.
Matthew inched closer to Kevin.
“Oh, but I do. You like to hit women, and then degrade them, and then you take what isn’t yours to take.”
Matthew and Kevin stood face to face.
“You might want to back up partna.” Kevin said.
“Naw, I think I’m right where I need to be,” Matthew said. “Cheryl is my friend and I don’t like my friends being treated like this. She came to me earlier and could barely move.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You need to know what you did, didn’t go unnoticed.”
“I’ve already told you, that what goes on in my marriage is none of your concern.”
“Oh, but you see, it is. When I looked at her, with her eyes swollen, and bruises everywhere, it became my business.” Matthew bumped past Kevin.
“Oh, are you trying to scare me?”
“No nigga, I’m not trying to scare you. Right now I am just trying to get you to feel what she must feel like, right before you hit her.”
Matthew raised his arm, causing Kevin to step back.
“Why don’t you just let Cheryl go and let her find someone who will treat her like she ought to be treated?”
“Oh, is that someone you? Did she tell you that I asked her for a divorce and she begged me not to leave her? Yep, cried like a baby. Then she fucked me real good, that’s probably when she got pregnant. She is nothing but a conniving bitch, which will stop at nothing to get some weak ass brotha, like you, to believe she is so innocent. Did she tell you that she fucked me so good last night, that she had me hollering? I guess she didn’t,” he said with a laugh, “That bitch sucked my dick like a newborn on the tittie.”
Matthew grabbed Kevin and had a handful of his shirt.
“Nigga, I suggest you let me go. Someone knows I came here and now that I have your name, it wouldn’t be hard to report you.” Matthew gave him enough of a shove to send Kevin backwards.
“Get the fuck out of here!” Matthew shouted. “Oh, but one more thing, give her the divorce and anything she wants. But this, between me and you, this isn’t over partna, count on it.”
Kevin was shaken. Who in the hell does he think he is? He is only the man fucking her, I’m her damn husband. I will gladly give her ass a divorce. I have been trying to do this shit for weeks, and here she got this dude thinking I’m the one who doesn’t want it. God only knows what she has been telling this fool and this nigga got the nerve to be threatening me. Oh Cheryl, you will be dealt with.