Charlotte slipped on her black spandex workout pants and fitted sports tank and sat on the side of the bed so she could put on her socks and gym shoes. Since Matthew would be spending this afternoon and evening with David, Curtis had taken Matthew out to breakfast. And actually, Charlotte was sort of happy they were gone. Relieved was more like it, because she needed some time to cool down. Of course, Curtis had denied seeing Tabitha on Thursday night, but Charlotte wasn’t sure what to think, especially since he had such a long history of lying. Which was why she wondered if maybe she should hire Mr. Perry, the private investigator who had gotten her all the information on Tabitha before she’d even known Tabitha existed. But in all honesty, hiring him again really wasn’t necessary because all she actually had to do was park near Tabitha’s house herself and then wait to see if Curtis showed up.
When she’d tied her Nikes, she went down to the main floor, pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and continued down to the lower level and into the workout room. She set her water inside one of the open slots on the side of the treadmill, straddled the belt, and pressed manual. Sometimes she chose specific programs, but today she wanted to control her activity on her own. She attached the magnetic key, pressed three and a half miles per hour, and took the incline up 3 percent.
After about two minutes, she flipped on the television, searched for CNN, and turned down the volume. She liked watching various programs, but more than anything, she loved listening to her iPod. She could still remember how excited Matthew had been when he’d gotten his and for the longest time, she’d figured it was basically just a gadget for children. But then one day, she’d borrowed his and realized it kept her walking with great rhythm and her time passed very quickly. She hadn’t loved some of Matthew’s music selections, though, and had even made him delete a couple once she’d heard them. But still, she’d been impressed enough to purchase an iPod for herself.
So now she had everything on it from Luther Vandross to Trinitee 5:7 to Howard Hewitt to Mary J. Blige to Yolanda Adams to Beyoncé, and the list went on and on. She was only thirty-one, but she loved music by both young artists and some who were older. She loved gospel and R&B.
Charlotte listened to one song after another and as soon as twenty minutes flashed on the screen, she elevated the incline to 6 percent. She normally stayed on for only thirty to forty minutes total, but she liked doing at least ten minutes of a more uphill climb. So far, in all her years, she hadn’t had any weight issues, but still, once she’d begun doing higher inclines, she’d noticed how much more toned her legs and butt were. Her stomach had always been flat but even that seemed more muscular as well.
As she entered the cool down phase of her walking routine, she heard Mary J. Blige singing “Your Child,” which had been out for a few years now, but still sounded as good as anything current. Charlotte sang along but then suddenly snatched out both earpieces. She must have heard this song more times than she could count, but for some reason it bothered her more today than ever before. Especially when she heard Mary singing about a man denying his own flesh and blood and how he needed to face reality.
She knew the lyrics were on key, but no matter what Mary, or anyone else for that matter, said, she just couldn’t accept another woman’s baby. She knew, just as Aunt Emma had told her, that Curtina was completely innocent, but Charlotte couldn’t help the way she felt. She couldn’t help the anger and resentment she was feeling and all she wanted was for Tabitha and her baby to vanish. She’d even considered offering her a hundred thousand dollars, anything to get her away from Mitchell. Although she knew Tabitha would never agree to it.
When Charlotte stepped onto the carpet, she unclipped her iPod from her waist, sat it on the window ledge, picked up a couple of five-pound free weights, and toned her biceps, triceps, and shoulders. After that, she did fifty crunches and a couple of other abdomen and leg floor exercises.
When she went back up to the second floor, she debated whether she should jump right into the shower or go online to check her e-mail, something she hadn’t done in a couple of days. Matthew and Curtis wouldn’t be home for a while so maybe she would spend some time on the computer.
In her office, she pushed the space bar on her desktop keyboard and waited for the system to boot up from hibernation and when it did, she signed onto AOL. She saw that she had thirty messages but she knew most of it was probably junk. Still, she clicked on the mailbox icon in the upper left-hand corner of the window and scrolled down the list. She stopped when she saw a message with a subject line that said “Re: Your Husband” and actually, if she hadn’t seen those particular words, she would have probably decided it was spam and just deleted it, because she didn’t recognize the address it was being sent from.
But when she clicked the mouse and opened it, she felt her nerves racing.
Charlotte,
I thought long and hard about whether I should tell you this or not, but I really feel you have every right to know…your husband has been with his other woman and his baby five days in a row. He’s seen them every day this week, and if for some reason you don’t believe me, just ask him where he went on Monday after he left the Christian bookstore, on Tuesday, after he left the church, on Wednesday, before both of you went to Bible study, on Thursday after he left the hospital to pray for one of your members, and then yesterday evening between five and seven. He’ll probably deny everything I’ve told you, but I guarantee that every bit of what I’m saying is one hundred percent true.
I’m only telling you this because I think it’s a terrible shame for him to go behind your back the way he is, and if it were me, I wouldn’t let him get away with it. I wish I was contacting you with better news, but the reality is that your husband is the same lying, cheating minister he’s always been.
Sincerely,
A Friend
Charlotte was fuming and had no doubt this message was from Tabitha. What a nightmare this woman had turned out to be, and Charlotte couldn’t wait until Curtis brought Matthew home and for David to pick him up. All morning, she’d been dreading the idea of David taking Matthew on another outing, but right now she welcomed it because Matthew’s absence would give her and Curtis just the kind of privacy they needed. The kind where she could say whatever she felt like with no restraints.
Matthew had left with David about ten minutes ago, and Charlotte was curled up on a chaise in their bedroom sitting area, reading a novel. Her initial plan had been to confront Curtis as soon as Matthew had left the house but she’d decided that maybe it was better to wait. Wait and see if he would come up with some lame reason why he needed to leave the house. Right now, he was walking toward the armoire but Charlotte kept reading or at least that’s what she wanted him to think.
“I know you’re not happy about David, baby, but it’s really amazing how well he and Matthew are getting along.”
Charlotte never looked up.
“So I guess you still don’t have anything to say.”
Again, Charlotte refused to look at him. Never even moved a finger.
“Hey, I forgot some of my notes at the church, so I need to run by there to get them.”
Now she lowered her book onto her lap. “Oh, okay, then why don’t I get my shoes so I can ride over there with you, and after that, we can get something to eat.”
She was suddenly and purposely more cheerful toward him than she’d been in weeks but Curtis stood there with what appeared to be a shocked look on his face, obviously not expecting that she would want to go with him.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. It’s just that I was planning to work on the rest of my sermon while I was there so that I won’t have to worry about doing it when I get back home. I was even thinking I could go pick up something for us right now from Big Italy’s, so we can eat dinner before I go.”
“You know, actually, that sounds good because that way I can keep reading, and I won’t have to go out.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Curtis went into the bathroom and then came back out. “Do you mind calling it in?”
“That’s fine. Do you know what you want?”
“What are you having?”
“Lasagna.”
“Then I’ll have the same.”
“Is that it?”
“I think so.”
When Curtis left, Charlotte called the restaurant and placed their order, and they told her everything would be ready in about twenty minutes.
Now she was back on the chaise again, reading. And she kept reading until she heard Curtis coming in with the food and then went down to the kitchen. All twenty-five copies of the infamous e-mail she’d received were either spread out on each counter, taped to the refrigerator, or positioned all across the island and now Curtis was reading one of the copies he’d just picked up. The look on his face was worth a million bucks, and it was the reason Charlotte hadn’t argued about him going to the restaurant to pick up carryout. She’d wanted time to print the copies and then display them in a way that would catch Curtis off guard. She hadn’t even thought of doing it until he’d made that dense and deceitful claim about needing to run by the church, but now she was glad she had. It was petty, she knew, but petty was exactly what her lying, scheming husband deserved. That and then some.
Curtis turned to look at her. “Baby, I am so sorry. I wanted to tell you but I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
Charlotte looked at Curtis as if everything were great and wonderful in their lives, went over to the glass and wooden cabinet, pulled a silver-rimmed plate from their stack of casual china, took a knife and fork from the drawer below, and came back over and sat down.
Curtis gestured with the e-mail toward her. “Who sent you this?”
Charlotte took the lasagna out of the bag but didn’t say a word.
“Baby, I’m telling you right now. Tabitha means nothing to me, and I’ve already made that clear to her. I told her face-to-face that I love only you, and that I’m committed to you.”
Charlotte opened the container, cut a square of lasagna, and placed it on her dish.
“I know I messed up but as God is my witness, baby, I haven’t touched Tabitha in any way. Whenever I go over there, I spend the entire time with Curtina.”
Charlotte lifted the selector, turned on the wall-mounted flat-screen TV, and cracked up when she saw JJ making some crazy face at Thelma. She loved every rerun of Good Times she’d ever seen.
Curtis sat down next to her. “Baby, talk to me.”
Charlotte took a bite of her food and laughed at JJ again.
“Baby, please.” Curtis’s tone was loud.
“Please what?”
“Please let’s work this out.”
“You know, I practically begged you not to go around Tabitha, but you did it anyway. So, as far as I’m concerned, we have nothing else to say.”
“I don’t believe you. I just don’t believe you’re taking such a cruel stance on this when you’ve done the same thing to me. And twice for that matter.”
“You’re right. But this is different. In your situation, you were able to be a father to Marissa without ever having to deal with Aaron. But with Curtina, I’ll have to deal with Tabitha all the time and I’m not doing it.”
“Well, what about David? I’m dealing with him, and I’m fine with it.”
“Yeah, but it’s only because you know David and I didn’t sleep together while I was married to you, not to mention that was years ago.”
“But you and I were still seeing each other, and then you led me to believe Matthew was my son when you knew full well he might not be.”
“Nonetheless, I’m through arguing with you about this.”
“So you’re still saying I can’t see my daughter?”
“No. Not anymore. I told you over and over how I felt, but as of this moment, you’re free to see her whenever you want to. You do whatever it is you feel you have to do.”
“But where will that leave us? Are you saying you want a divorce?”
“I’m not saying anything of the sort.”
“I hate this.”
“Why?”
“Because somewhere in your heart you had to know it wasn’t right for me to disown Curtina. I mean, baby, what if she was your child and I wasn’t having anything to do with her?”
“But that’s just it.” Charlotte spoke coldly. “She’s not mine, and frankly I couldn’t care less about her. You hear me. That’s your baby. And I’m telling you right now, I’d better never once catch you bringing her around Matthew. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want you telling him about her and if you do, I’ll take you for everything you have. I’ll make you wish you never laid eyes on me, let alone married me. Now get out of my face.”
Curtis went outside, got into his SUV, and Charlotte resumed eating her dinner.
She ate one bite after another but couldn’t help wondering if Curtis really thought she was going to allow these visits with Tabitha to continue—allow him, Tabitha, and Curtina to pretend as though they were this happy-go-lucky family, living happily ever after. She wondered if he was naive enough to believe she would ever accept any of what was happening when her own little girl had died so tragically less than two years ago.
If he did, he was dead wrong.
And in for a rude awakening.