Chapter 6
Leah retreated to the apartment before Derrick opened the restaurant to the public. After they had finished eating breakfast she’d watched him combine chopped onion, light brown sugar, ketchup, red wine vinegar, molasses, Dijon mustard, chili powder, minced garlic, cayenne pepper, and kosher salt in the aluminum pan with the drained navy beans. The mouthwatering aroma of spices was tantalizing even before he’d placed the pan on the bottom rack of the smoker under a rack of marinated baby back ribs. He explained that the ribs would shed most of their fat during the first few hours and give the beans the benefit of the pork flavor without too much fat.
Leah had listened intently when he said brining chicken overnight and marinating meats for several days before smoking them low and slow made them Seaside Café customer favorites. She noticed he’d moved around the kitchen with a minimum of wasted motion for a man his size as he grilled crab cakes, sausage and peppers, and cooked string beans with white potatoes, mini corn on the cob, glazed carrots, and wilted spinach in under three hours, and filled the warming trays that had been set up on the buffet table the night before. Although Kayana did not cook during her two weeks off, she did come in after closing to assist Derrick prep dishes, clean the dining room, and set up the buffet table for the next day.
Leah was sitting on the love seat in the living room watching an afternoon talk show when she heard a knock on the door. She got up and opened it to find Kayana smiling and holding a tray covered with a cloth napkin. “I decided to come by early to check on you. Derrick told me to bring this up because you hadn’t eaten since early this morning.”
“Please come in. I was just watching a talk show,” she said, taking the tray from Kayana. “Tell Derrick I appreciate the food.” And she did. Leah had decided to remain upstairs while the restaurant was open for business.
Kayana walked in and folded her body down to the sofa. “You look a lot better today than you did yesterday.”
Leah set the tray on a side table before sitting on the love seat; reaching for the remote device, she turned off the television. “I must admit I’m feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. I’m trying to get through the day without taking a pill. What I’ll probably do is take it before going to bed so I can at least get a restful night’s sleep.”
“I was really surprised when Derrick told me you’d volunteered to make the baked goods for the Café’s buffet breakfast.”
Leah stared at the bundle of herbs on the fireplace grate. It was apparent the brother and sister had discussed her, and she wondered what else Kayana had confided to Derrick. “I made a small pan of buttermilk biscuits for breakfast, and he raved about them. And when I told him I knew how to make bread he asked me if I would bake for the Café.”
“All right, all right, all right,” Kayana drawled, grinning. “Be careful, girl, that you don’t find yourself moving down here permanently like Graeme.”
“Graeme had a good reason for relocating. You.”
“And you don’t, Leah?”
A slight frown furrowed Leah’s forehead. “What are you talking about?”
“Derrick Edward Johnson.”
Her stomach did a flip-flop with the mention of his name. “There’s nothing going on between me and your brother.”
“I’m not talking about anything romantic, Leah, because my brother still hasn’t gotten over losing his wife.” She pointed to the tray. “You really impressed him with your cooking skills, and he couldn’t stop raving about your biscuits and sausage gravy. Why don’t you start eating before everything gets cold.”
Leah had misconstrued Kayana’s mentioning her brother. She removed the napkin to find spareribs, a chicken thigh, baked beans, and wilted spinach. A plastic lid covered the mason jar filled with sweet tea. “Aren’t you going to share this with me?”
“Nah. I had a late breakfast, and Graeme has promised to make dinner.”
“He cooks?”
“He’s become quite accomplished since we’ve been married.”
“Good for you.”
“Now start eating because you need to put some weight back on your bones. My brother happens to like women with some booty.”
Although Kayana knew she was attracted to her brother the way a woman was to a man, Leah was realistic enough to know her association with Derrick would never go beyond friendship. “That’s where you’re wrong, Kayana. I’m in no position to have a relationship with any man for a while until I’m able to heal emotionally. It’s impossible for me to wipe away the last thirty years like someone erasing a chalkboard. Plus, I’m willing to accept some of the blame for the shit Alan dumped on me because at any time I could’ve walked away.”
“But didn’t you tell me you stayed because of your sons?”
Leah picked up a knife and fork and cut into the tender chicken. “That’s what I told myself when they were boys, but when they left for college I should’ve left with them. But I stayed for another ten years hoping things would change, and it got even worse. By then Alan didn’t even care if I knew he was screwing around with other women, when before he’d attempted to hide his affairs.
“It never dawned on me that I was an abused wife until Alan hit me. In my naïveté I’d believed a man had to physically assault a woman for it to be considered abuse. And when it came to arguments we would engage in verbal confrontations that usually ended without a resolution.”
Kayana leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees. “I don’t envy you, because I don’t have the temperament to have ongoing verbal confrontations with my partner. I say it once or maybe twice, then I’m done with it.”
Leah chewed and swallowed the perfectly smoked meat. “Did you argue a lot with your first husband?” She knew Kayana had married a prominent Atlanta doctor who’d cheated on her with his colleague and got her pregnant.
“No. James and I would occasionally have our disagreements, but they never escalated to shouting matches.”
“What about Graeme? Are you saying that you and Graeme agree on everything?”
“No, Leah. We understand that we happen to be two very different people that love each other but are willing to respect the other’s opinion.”
Leah stared at the contents on her plate. “The problem was and still is that Alan never respected me. I believe it boosted his ego to find a much younger woman fawning over him and he used that to his advantage when he set out to seduce and failed to protect me from an unplanned pregnancy.”
“But you married him,” Kayana argued softly.
“He only offered marriage because I refused to have an abortion, and he didn’t want his family’s name sullied by becoming an unwed father.”
“He’d asked you to get rid of his baby?”
“Yes. He was only weeks away from announcing his engagement to another woman and claimed I was fucking up his life.”
“Why didn’t he wrap up his meat?”
Leah laughed. “That’s the same thing I told him.”
Kayana stretched out her legs. “What I can’t understand is why men tend to blame women for getting pregnant, when they refuse to wear condoms.”
“I don’t know, Kayana. Although I regret giving Alan so many years of my life I will never regret sleeping with him because of my sons. For some reason I always saw Caleb and Aron as boys and not as grown men until they dropped everything in New York to fly down to see me. I’d always protected them, and then the roles were reversed when they sought to protect me from their father.”
“Good for them. I’ve had clients whose sons couldn’t care less about their mothers who have sacrificed everything for their worthless behinds.”
“Does Graeme have children?” Leah asked her friend.
“No. He and his late wife never had any, and that means we’ll never become grandparents.”
“Don’t forget that you’re an auntie. And we aunties are notorious for spoiling our nieces and nephews.”
Kayana reached up and tightened the bandana covering her hair. “I hear you. I remember when Derrick’s daughter was born, and now all she talks about is going to college.”
“Has she selected a school?”
“Yes. The University of Florida.”
“Isn’t it in Gainesville?” Leah asked.
“Yes. It’s my sister’s alma mater, and it’s where she met her husband. They’d settled in Gainesville after she got a teaching position at one of the public schools, while Errol went into law enforcement. They had three kids—two boys and a girl—before my ex-brother-in-law decided he wasn’t cut out for marriage. When Derrick confronted him, he claimed he and Jocelyn couldn’t agree on how to raise their children. My mother went down to Florida to live with her, and last summer Deandra went down for a visit and decided to stay and finish her senior year. Derrick really didn’t want her to stay because she’s his last link to her mother, but after a while he gave in. I told him she’s growing up and becoming more independent and there’s going to come a time when he has to let his little bird leave the nest.”
Leah knew Kayana was right. She’d gone through separation anxiety when her sons announced they had applied to colleges in New York, Massachusetts, and California, and not Georgetown University, where generations of Kent men had attended and graduated. When they’d received their acceptance letters from New York University and Yale, both decided on NYU. Alan had made certain to rent an apartment for them in a building where visitors would have to be announced by a doorman and deposited enough money in their bank accounts so they wouldn’t resort to eating ramen noodles like many college students who’d run out of money.
Leah had tried not to be the anxious, overbearing mother who called her children every week to find out what they were doing and waited for them to contact her. She and Alan drove up a few times, checked into a Manhattan hotel, and met with their sons for dinner and occasionally attended a Broadway play. It was during those visits that she’d felt as if they were truly a normal family. However, the charade was short-lived once she and Alan returned to Richmond. That was when Dr. Henry Jekyll turned into the evil Edward Hyde.
They managed to live separate lives while sharing the same roof, and for Leah it was more than okay. The year the twins turned six, after earning her graduate degree, she returned to the Calhoun Academy to teach, and twelve years later she was appointed headmistress. She knew she never would’ve gotten the position if she hadn’t been Mrs. Alan Kent.
“My sons have left the nest, and I believe they don’t want to return.”
“They’re planning to live in New York permanently?”
Leah nodded. “That’s the vibe I’ve been getting from them.”
“Didn’t you mention that your husband’s family has a law firm in Richmond?”
“Yes. His uncle’s sons are now managing partners.”
“Are they Kents?” Kayana asked.
“Yes. They are Kents down to the marrow in their bones.” Kayana gave her a quizzical look. “Why do you say it like the name Kent is a deadly communicable disease?”
“Because anyone I met claiming Kent blood treated me as if I had a contagious disease or had the audacity to talk about me where I could overhear what they were saying. My mother-in-law has done an excellent job of maligning me because I wasn’t her first choice as a daughter-in-law.”
“And the woman Alan had been dating came from the so-called right family?”
“Bingo. Justine Hamilton looked like Liz Taylor with her dark hair and violet-colored eyes. Men gawked at her because she had natural double D’s. And it helps that her family is old money.”
“Was she as young as you were when you first met Alan?”
“No. She was in her mid to late twenties. And I’d overheard someone saying that she was pressuring Alan to marry her.”
“If Alan was in his thirties, then when he met you it couldn’t have been that he was just into young girls. Look at yourself, Leah. You’re no slouch in the looks department, and you’re extremely bright. How many people do you know that graduate high school at fifteen and then get accepted into one of the country’s elite colleges on full scholarship?” Leah searched her memory about the girls she’d taught and met at her school. “Only one, but she was sixteen and was accepted into Harvard.”
“There you go, Leah. Alan probably saw you as a novelty. You were young, vivacious, stimulating, and probably very sexy.”
Leah blushed. “I’ve never thought of myself as sexy.”
“And why not? Because your husband chose to sleep with other women?”
“I don’t know the answer to that, Kayana. Alan is what I call a serial cheater.”
“I’ve counseled beautiful, intelligent women who were dating or married to men who cheated, and when I tell them their significant other is insecure they don’t want to believe me. I try to get them to see that if he was able to get them, then his ego tells him he can get others. And when I use the analogy comparing human behavior to those in the animal kingdom, that’s when they get it. Remember last year when I said women will go after one another over a man, when in the animal kingdom it’s the males that fight each other over females.
“Hypothetically, think of the alpha male lion with a pride of ten lionesses or an alpha wolf in a pack with the same number of females. They will fight to the death to keep all the females if they’re challenged by another male, although they can only mate with one at a time. Even if Alan had married his Liz Taylor lookalike, he still would’ve cheated on her, while expecting her to be the dutiful little wife willing to have his children, host his dinner parties, and turn a blind eye to his peccadillos.”
Leah couldn’t control her burst of laughter. She smiled at the cook, silently admiring her flawless, nut-brown complexion with orange undertones, large brown eyes and delicate features in a small, round face and knew why Graeme Ogden hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
“Have you been reading Cherie’s historical romance novels?”
“No. Why?”
“Because that’s where you’d probably read about peccadillos.”
Kayana made a sucking sound with her tongue and teeth. “I could’ve been less delicate and said fuckin’ around.”
Leah laughed again. “That’s exactly what they do, Kay. They fuck around until they get caught.” Then without warning, she sobered. “When I went with Alan to what I later found was his love nest, I had no intention of sleeping with him. At the time I didn’t drink, but after three glasses of champagne I was so out of it that I couldn’t have protested even if I wanted to.”
“Were you a virgin?”
Leah shook her head. “No. I’d slept with one boy in college. When I look back in hindsight I have to admit it was the best lovemaking I’d ever experienced up to that time.”
“That’s because Alan wasn’t some bumbling college kid.”
“You’re right about that. It was the first time I had multiple orgasms.”
“It’s called baby-making fucking,” Kayana said, grinning.
Leah’s eyebrows lifted slightly when she recalled Alan’s unbridled lovemaking. It was the first and last time he’d made her lose herself in the throes of ecstasy. “You’re right about that.”
“I’m going to ask you a personal question, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want. But did you and Alan have a normal sexual relationship after you were married?”
“It all depends on what you consider normal. He never touched me throughout my pregnancy. And I’d gained so much weight and even more after I delivered the babies that I’d moved into another bedroom after Alan called me a fat sow. I had to increase my daily caloric intake because I was breastfeeding two babies. Not only was I dealing with the extra weight, but also my so-called loving husband’s insults, and postpartum depression. One day I was watching a daytime talk show and the topic was about women who wanted a makeover because they felt their husbands no longer found them attractive. There was footage of six months of before and after, and that’s when I decided I needed to change my life, not for Alan but myself. It took months, but I finally lost the weight, joined a health club to work out, and I took one of Alan’s credit cards and maxed it out when I filled two walk-in closets with new clothes, shoes, and accessories.”
“Did he complain about you spending so much money?” Kayana questioned.
“No. With Alan it was never about money but family honor. He was only concerned about image and how people viewed and related to him. We were invited to a fund-raising event, and people were talking about my transformation, and that’s when Alan realized other men were looking at his wife. A couple of days later he came into the bathroom while I was taking a shower naked and fully aroused. Although I was ovulating and horny as a mink I told him I wasn’t in the mood.”
“Talk about payback,” Kayana whispered.
“No shit,” Leah said, grinning from ear to ear. “I made him wait four months before I moved back into his bedroom. In the interim he’d leave gifts under my pillow. They could be a pair of earrings, bracelet, or necklace. If he was going to treat me like a mistress, then I was willing to play the part, because I knew he was still sleeping with other women. When he asked me what I wanted for our third anniversary I told him I wanted a pair of diamond earrings totaling four carats.”
“Were those the earrings you wore when you came here last year?”
“Yup.”
“Did you give him some?”
“Not right away. He probably thought I didn’t like the earrings and then came through with the diamond eternity band. After eight carats of diamonds I figured he’d earned at least a couple sessions with the woman whom he’d married.”
“No! You actually held your pussy hostage until he delivered the goods?”
“Yes! But only after I was fitted with an IUD. I’d asked for jewelry because if I left him I’d be able to sell them for top dollar. And knowing how vindictive Alan can be, I wouldn’t put it past him to take my name off his credit cards.”
“Did you sell them? Because I notice you’re not wearing your bling.”
“A couple of days before I left Richmond I cleaned out the safe in my bedroom suite and put everything in the safe deposit box in the bank where I have an account. I plan to leave them there until after my divorce. If my sons ever get married I will gift some to my daughters-in-law. And if they have girls, then my granddaughters will get the rest. I’ve told Aron and Caleb one of the conditions of my divorce is I intend to resume using my maiden name.”
“Why does it sound as if you’re ready to exorcise Alan Kent from your life?”
Leah closed her eyes. She’d just disclosed things to Kayana she’d never told another soul, and that included her mother. She opened her eyes and sighed. “If I’d had more good years with Alan than bad, I probably would still be with him. But once he put his hands on me it was all she wrote.”
“Good for you, Leah. You can’t imagine how many women stay with men that use them as punching bags to vent their frustrations or insecurities.”
A beat passed, and she noticed Kayana staring at her. Picking up the napkin, she dabbed her mouth. “Do I have spinach between my teeth?”
Kayana blinked as if coming out of a trance. “No. It’s your hair.”
Leah ran a hand over her hair. “What about it?”
“Did you get a perm? Because last year it was stick straight.”
“No. When I was a little girl I had naturally curly hair like Orphan Annie. Once I reached adolescence the texture changed, and now it’s wavy. After I wash my hair I always blow it straight.”
“It looks nice wavy.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Kayana’s compliment was what Leah needed to make her less conscious of her face. Once the bruises faded completely she planned to forgo makeup and put her freckles on display. Twenty-four hours ago, when she opened the door and walked into the Seaside Café it signaled a rebirth of her new life as the adult Leah Berkley. “I know I haven’t said it, but I want to thank you and your brother.”
“There’s no need to thank us, Leah. Even though not many locals live on the island we tend to look out for one another.”
“You forget that I’m not a local.”
“If you live here before the Memorial Day weekend and/or after Labor Day, then you’re a local.”
“I’m definitely here before Memorial Day, so I guess that makes me a local.”
“Own it, girlfriend.” Kayana stood up. “Derrick’s probably wondering what happened to me.”
Leah picked up the tray. “I’m going down with you. I can clean off the tables and sweep up the dining room while you guys do what you do in the kitchen.”
Kayana took the tray from her. “No, you’re not. You need to stay up here and out of the way, because I have to move tables, chairs, and sweep and mop the floor.”
“You do all that?”
“Who do you think is going to do it, Leah?”
“But . . . but don’t you have help?”
Kayana rolled her eyes upward. “This is not the Kent mansion where we employ help twenty-four-seven.”
Leah recoiled as if she’d been slapped. “You didn’t have to go there, Kayana.”
“Yes, I did, Leah. Derrick and I operate a business where we depend on the good will of those who live on this island to choose to eat here when they could just as easily prepare their own meals. So, nine months out of twelve we’re on austerity. And that means no waitstaff. We still must buy food, pay for utilities, send out laundry, make repairs, and perform janitorial duties. We don’t expect to make much of a profit between September and May, but we also don’t want to rack up losses.”
“What if you close down during the off-season?”
“The Seaside Café has only closed during the off-season for holidays and special family events. Derrick closed for two weeks late last year to attend my wedding in Massachusetts and then to spend time in Florida with his daughter. Derrick and I have talked about closing Saturdays and Sundays, but we’re still up in the air about that. Even though we’re now closed on Sundays, it’s always been a tradition with the Johnson family going back to Grandma Cassie to close on Easter Monday.”
“If you’re having a problem with cash flow, have you thought of getting investors?”
“We don’t have a cash flow problem, Leah. It’s about . . .” Her words trailed off. “Maybe one of these days Derrick will explain it to you. After all, he’s the financial genius with degrees in accounting and finance. I’m leaving now, and I’ll see you tomorrow. I hope you feel better.”
Leah realized she’d just been dismissed when Kayana turned on her heel and walked out. She’d registered a change in her friend’s voice and body language when she’d mentioned investors. There was no doubt she’d insulted her.
She wanted to tell Kayana that it was an honest question because she’d mentioned being on austerity for the nine months vacationers did not come to the island. Most resorts, whether in warm or cold climate, depended on vacationers to keep them viable. Her sons had gone to Park City, Utah, to ski during the Christmas holidays. If there wasn’t enough natural snowfall, owners were forced to make snow to keep the resorts open in order to maximize profits.
Leah was aware that the Café was a family-owned restaurant that had to compete with fast food and chain establishments in the nearby town of Shelby. However, for anyone vacationing on Coates Island, the Seaside Café was their go-to place to eat where they were guaranteed delicious, home-cooked meals, large portions, and friendly, courteous service. Although she’d rented a bungalow with a kitchen when she was last here, she’d found herself coming to the Café to eat breakfast and dinner. She would occasionally order several takeout meals she planned to reheat in the microwave whenever she needed to finish reading a book before an upcoming book club meeting.
The one time she took the jitney into town and then called an Uber to take her to the twenty-four-hour supermarket in Shelby to purchase the ingredients she needed to host a club meeting, it’d felt strange to take a number at the deli counter and wait to be called. Since becoming Mrs. Alan Kent, she did not go to supermarkets to shop for groceries, because Adele had assumed the responsibility of planning all meals with the live-in chef. Even after her mother-in-law was transferred to the nursing facility, the live-in chef and housekeeper remained on staff.
Once she was off the pain meds and clear-headed, she had to research a lawyer willing to represent her when she sued Alan for divorce, knowing it was going to become a herculean feat to get an attorney willing to challenge Judge Alan Kent. Leah didn’t want alimony or even a settlement. She just wanted to be legally uncoupled and have the right to resume using her maiden name.
Fortunately, she’d been able to save ninety percent of her salary from the Calhoun Academy and had deposited the funds in a separate account, but that would change once she returned from her medical leave. Leah knew she would have to withdraw money from the account to purchase a small house or condo. She smiled. Life as Leah Berkley would be vastly different from her life as Mrs. Alan Kent, and she was looking forward to the time when she could go around Richmond as an independent woman in charge of her own destiny.
She closed the door, locked it, and headed for the reading room. Before she left the island last summer she, Kayana, and Cherie had selected the first three books they wanted to discuss. Leah had chosen to lead her discussion with Memoirs of a Geisha. Kayana’s choice was Love in the Time of Cholera, and Cherie had chosen The Alienist.
Although many titles were available in electronic formats, Leah still preferred holding a physical book. And if she wanted to reread a section, she would slip strips of paper between the pages. Picking up Caleb Carr’s best-selling title, she decided to read The Alienist first because it covered forty-seven chapters in five hundred pages, and it would take time for her to jot down notes. Cherie had mentioned it was a dark period piece set in New York City at the dawn of the twentieth century, when Theodore Roosevelt was the New York City Police Commissioner.
She settled into an armchair with a matching footstool and opened the book and was hooked from the very first sentence. It was January 8, 1919, the day of Theodore Roosevelt’s funeral. Leah had to give Cherie kudos because the printed words on the page pulled her and refused to let her go until she had to stop and turn on a table lamp. The afternoon had slipped by so quickly that she’d lost track of time.
Placing a bright-pink slip of paper from a stack she carried when reading, she closed the book and set it aside. The mini fridge in the apartment was stocked with bottled water, juice, and wine. Leah knew drinking wine was out of the question because she was taking prescribed medicine that made her drowsy. She opted for water instead.
It was only seven and much too early for her to go to sleep, so she decided to watch television for a while. She found herself moving slowly after sitting for hours, but the discomfort wasn’t enough for her to take a pill. She’d just settled down to watch an all-news cable channel when her cell phone rang. Leah smiled. The programmed ringtone indicated a call from her mother.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, baby. I was just calling to find out if you’re coming to Kentucky during your Easter break.”
Leah bit her lip. How had she forgotten that she’d promised her family she would come to Kentucky when school closed for the Easter week? But there was no way she wanted them to see her looking like she did, because there was no guarantee all the bruises and abrasions on her body would’ve disappeared by that time. Perhaps if her complexion were darker they wouldn’t be so evident.
“I can’t, Mom.”
“Why not, Leah?”
“Because I had an accident.”
There came a pregnant pause before Madeline asked, “What kind of an accident?”
“I fell down the stairs.” Leah knew it was a half lie. She’d fallen down the stairs because Alan had deliberately pushed her.
“What! When?”
“It happened almost two weeks ago. I tripped and fell and hit my head. I was in the hospital for a little more than a week before the doctor discharged me.”
“Why didn’t you call me or your father? Why didn’t Alan call us?”
“Because Alan wasn’t home at the time,” she lied. “The housekeeper found me unconscious and dialed 911.” Leah lied yet again. It was something she hadn’t done in the past with her parents, yet at forty-nine she had become quite proficient at hiding the truth.
There was no way she was going to tell her mother what had happened because it wouldn’t end well for Alan. It wouldn’t matter to Larry Berkley that his son-in-law was a judge; he would do more to the man than push him down a flight of stairs. What Leah should’ve done was call her parents as soon as she was released from the hospital and downplay the seriousness of her ordeal.
“There is no excuse why he couldn’t call us, Leah.”
“I supposed he panicked. But he did call Aron and Caleb.”
“Are they there with you now?”
“No, Mom. They had to go back to New York. I’m in North Carolina staying with a friend. I’ve taken a medical leave from school because I don’t want my staff and students seeing their headmistress looking as if she’s been in a brawl.”
“Are you on the island where you spent your vacation last year?”
“Yes. It’s perfect to relax.”
“Your friend doesn’t mind putting you up?’
“Not at all. I plan to stay here through the summer and then go back to Richmond in time for teacher orientation.”
“What is Alan saying about this?”
“He has no say in where I choose to go.”
There came another noticeable pause. “Are you and your husband getting along?”
Leah shook her head although Madeline couldn’t see her. “Not really. I’m seriously thinking about asking him for a divorce.”
“Do you actually believe he’s going to go along with that?”
“I really don’t give a damn, Mom. My sons are out of the house living their own lives, so there’s nothing keeping me with him.”
“You know I never wanted to interfere in your life from the time you told me that you were pregnant with Alan Kent’s baby, but if you had hinted that you didn’t want to marry him, your father and I would’ve given you our full support. I’d rather you’d had your twins without marrying. I would’ve quit my job to babysit them while you furthered your career. But what Alan wasn’t going to get away with was not giving you child support. He would’ve paid through his ass or I would’ve gone to every newspaper in the state to report that a man in his mid-thirties had taken advantage of an eighteen-year-old girl.”
Leah’s mouth opened when she heard her mother’s proposed threat. And if she’d gone to the press Leah knew it would’ve ruined Alan’s chance of getting a judgeship. “Everything worked out all right, because if it hadn’t been for him I never would’ve been appointed headmistress of the school.” Other than fathering her sons, Alan using his influence to get her hired and subsequently rehired at the prestigious private school where she’d eventually become headmistress was the best thing to come from her marriage.
“It was the least he could do to boost his wife’s social standing among those other phony people who believe their shit don’t stink!”
“Mom! When did you start cussing?”
“I’ve been cussing for a long time. I just don’t let my kids and grandkids hear me. When I turned forty something inside me changed. Things I used to ignore I couldn’t anymore. I have to assume it’s the same way with you now that you’re in your forties.”
Leah wanted to tell her mother that she’d begun cursing Alan even before she’d married him, and it had continued for nearly three decades. “You’re right. I’m ready to as they say live my life by my leave. I’ll come and go when and wherever I want without having to check in with a husband.”
“You’re luckier than a lot of women, who believe they’re stuck in marriage with no way out. Every mother that has a daughter should preach to them to get an education so they can have a career where they don’t have to depend on a man to take care of them. I was luckier than a lot of girls in my school that found themselves pregnant and the boys they were sleeping with ran faster than a cheetah to leave town, because your father and I talked about getting married when we were both juniors.”
“That’s because Daddy is one of the good guys.” Leah chatted with her mother for another ten minutes as Madeline brought her up to date about what was going on in the lives of her grandchildren. They’d become the sun, moon, and the stars to the older woman.
Once she ended the call she felt bad about lying but knew it was necessary. She would lie again if it meant concealing the truth as to how she’d sustained injuries serious enough for her to spend ten days in a hospital. But if Alan decided to fight her, then all hell would break loose once she had the hospital release her medical records. And if need be, she knew her sons would also testify against their father. However, she hoped it wouldn’t come to that, and they could end their marriage amicably.