by Nicety
“Well,” Blake cleared his throat as he waved us off. “I guess I’ll leave you two to it then. Feel better, Kel and again congrats.”
“Thanks, Blake. Tell Sam I’m going to text her tomorrow, since she never answers her phone when she’s working.”
“It’s the oddest thing, isn’t it? A CIA agent who doesn’t answer her phone. Hmm.” Trent was obviously pouring salt on an already open wound.
“Why do you have to be such an asshole?” I swatted his arm as the door clicked behind Blake.
“I’m not. I’m just saying, while he’s over here bringing you flowers he needs to be finding out who his wife is banging while she’s on all these so-called “assignments".”
“Okay, you don’t have to do air quotes, Trent. She’s a fucking CIA agent. That’s what they do and we don’t know the nature or danger her position puts her in. But you could at least be more sensitive to your friend. It’s gotta be the hardest thing for him to deal with, her being gone all the time like that.” My head shook with sympathy for him.
“Well, she needs to quit her job and make her man the number one priority then. Otherwise, she’s gonna lose him. You women pulled that orgy thing thinking that was gonna keep us around and it did, but after awhile the affects of that is going to wear off,” Trent chuckled as if he was popping his collar for the gift I had given him.
There was a cool breeze flowing through the house that calmed my nerves, soothing them to the core. If it weren’t for that I would probably have knocked the living daylights out of Trent’s ass. He begged for my forgiveness and for me to take him back, yet he was still acting like the asshole he was no less than a day ago. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as I closed them hoping to fall asleep on him and the conversation, while he rubbed my aching limps. But every time I closed my eyes I saw that bitch’s evil face, taunting me about having had my man wrapped around her bony ass finger.
The silence was golden and I was beginning to feel more relaxed than I had in months, when my phone rang from inside of my purse. My eyes darted quickly to him before looking over at my purse sitting on the floor near the door. Trent glanced over at me as if to tell me to leave it be, but for some reason my curiosity wanted to at least know who it was.
“Uh, I’ll get it for you babe.” Trent reluctantly rose from his seat, heading over to snatch the phone out of my purse. “Oh…”
“What?”
“It’s…it’s her.” It looked as if Trent’s face would become one with the brightly lit phone’s screen, that’s how hard he was staring down at it.
“I can’t believe this bitch is actually calling my damn phone. Why haven’t the police caught her yet?” I took the phone, annoyed by the absolute thought of her.
“You have to give it time, baby. They have to catch up to her first. She’s probably on the run or hiding out. No person in their right mind would sit still when they are wanted for some shit like battery or attempted murder.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Still, I don’t like the fact that she can contact us at any given minute,” I sighed.
“So we’ll block her number. I’ll call Sprint later today and have her number blocked from sending us texts and calls. How’s that? Does that put your mind at ease?” Trent stroked my face lovingly.
“It would if she didn’t know where we lived too.”
“And, I will have the locks changed and the police on speed dial so that if she shows up they can catch her ass. She will pay for what she’s done to you and our seed. Trust me.”
“I guess so.” The whole idea of having to uproot my life and rearrange it because of her only depressed me more and it read like scripture in my facial expression.
“Tell you what. How’s about we go up to that little resort in Wisconsin we went to for our honeymoon. We could pack a few things really quickly and spend the entire week up there. It’ll be just the two of us, enjoying the beautiful nature scenery and getting back in tune with our marriage. What do you say?”
“It sounds good, Trent. But I can’t just leave work like that and you have work to do yourself and I have patients—“
“You were attacked at work. I’m sure your boss will understand if you take an extra few days off,” Trent interrupted my rant. “Besides, working on us is way more important than my job and your patients, doctor.”
It was the first time he had made me smile since he started being nice. Believing him and what I actually felt about us being over was playing tug of war in my mind. After you’ve done all you can in a relationship and you finally have it in your mind to give it all up, it’s more than hard to back track to being in love with that person all over again. Forgetting the past would definitely be hard and as I rubbed my belly, I knew it most definitely wouldn’t happen overnight. Divorcing him was a plan I didn’t feel I should deviate from.
“I guess we could try that.” Instead, I decided to be nice and go on this vacation with him. If nothing else, I will get some much needed leisure time in.
Chapter 14
Sunday Evening
“Oh my gosh. I swear I can’t believe we’re back here already. That week was so much fun I’m actually sad to be back here.” My smile was so bright astronauts could see it from space.
“I know right. Back to reality it is. Are you going in to work tomorrow?” Trent sat our three heavy travel bags down in front of the door, as he pulled the house keys out of his jeans pocket.
"Even though you ended up being called to work anyway but I was still good." I smiled.
"My bad babe. But you know when duty calls..."
“Yeah. I think I’m finally ready to get back into the swing of things though. Besides, it’s good for me to keep my mind on positivity right now. My boss says he needs to speak to me about the whole incident and as far as I’m concerned, that’s last I’m going to discuss that shit at work.” My fingers rubbed the small bump on the back of my head knowing that I would probably live with that scar forever.
“Listen, before we go in here, I just want to say something,” Trent began turning face to face with me. “I was a jerk. I should have never questioned your loyalty to me back in the day. I should’ve listened to you and asked you what was going on first before assuming the worst.”
“Ya think?” By now, my eyes naturally rolled at everything he said.
“I know I deserve that. But I was in the wrong frame of mind during that time. This vacation has given me a lot of time to think. You gotta know that I never meant for any of this to happen and I never meant to hurt you, babe. I’ll never hurt you again.” His voice oozed with sincerity with the stench of untruth.
“I know.” The lie flew from my mouth before I could even think to say it.
“We’re going to move forward with our lives and nothing will hold us back. We’ll get through this, you’ll see and we’ll be damn good parents to our baby.”
When he spoke about the baby, I could see a certain glimmer in his eye. It was as if the baby was the only thing he was holding on to, like it was the only thing keeping him on the straight a narrow with this marriage. We had such a good time this past week with no arguing or fighting, that I never wanted it to end. But I couldn’t help but to continue to think that his love, compassion, and attention should have been given to me a long time ago. It was something that plagued me the entire vacation even though I kept quiet about it.
“Yeah, good parents.” I turned my attention on the evening sky that was increasingly becoming darker.
“I love you, Kel.” The glimmer was still prevalent in his eye. “I mean that, I really do.”
“Um, you need some help with that key there, buddy?” I dodged the bullet of having to say it back.
“Naw, I got it. I don’t know why it’s not turning.” Trent fumbled with the lock for a few more minutes. “Oh shit. I totally forgot. The locksmith said he put the new key under the flower pot.”
“Right. I forgot you got the locks changed.” I slapped my forehead gently with m
y palm.
“Yeah, he said he left the rest of keys on the kitchen counter. I had him change them all, from the front to the back.” Trent reached under the pot snatching the waiting key and opened the front door with ease.
“I see you weren’t playing with that, huh?”
“Nope. I told you to trust me. Ya man’s got this.” He winked his eye my way as we laughed. “And, once I figure out which one of these bags our phones are stuffed down in, I’m gonna turn them back on and call Sprint for the block on her number.”
Trent was supposed to have been done the phones but considering that our vacation became the top priority the day we left, I didn’t bug him about that at all. At some point, he had gotten the door locks changed and that was a step in the right direction of him making me feel a little safer. We stepped inside the darkness of the house, dragging our bags behind us and setting them on the floor. We closed the door and disarmed the ADT system.
“The lights aren’t working.”
“What do you mean the lights aren’t working, Trent?”
“They aren’t working. I’m flicking the switch and they aren’t coming on.”
“Well maybe the fuse blew or something. Go check the circuit breaker box.” My voice exuded demand.
“Okay, hold on. Let’s not jump to conclusions. Maybe the bulb is broken or something.” Trent was always one to be hardheaded, wanting to run with his own thoughts rather than anyone else’s.
“Well you look for a bulb, I’m going to check the circuit breaker box in the kitchen.”
Heading towards the kitchen, my feet tripped over something on the floor. It was large and hard yet soft at the same time. I was able to catch myself from falling by grabbing the nearby leather chaise. I stepped over it only landing on top of some paper. I could see Trent’s figure in the distance as he came back around the corner from the back of the house. The outdoor lights from the patio could only stretch so far but it casted a shadow on everything it touched.
“Babe, where are you?”
“I’m right here, Trent. I tripped over something trying to make it to the damn kitchen.” I slid my feet across the floor hoping to bump my toes against anything else before I tripped again.
“Don’t go fucking with that circuit breaker box. I’ll do it.”
“Trent, I got this.”
“No, pregnant wife of mine will be touching anything that could potentially be dangerous to our baby.”
“Ugh, you are becoming unbearable to live with.”
Trent raced over to the kitchen area, ducking and dodging the debris below him. He tripped over the long thing on the floor in the same area that I did but he bounced back up like it didn’t faze him. In no time he was standing next to me in the kitchen, shoving me gently out of the way of the breaker box. It annoyed me that he wanted to keep me out of harms way, but it was in a sense, rather cute. With the flick of his hand, he hit the main switch pushing it up roughly as it clicked and locked into place.
The house lit up like a tree on Christmas Eve night. Our eyes widened almost as simultaneously as our mouths dropped open. My eyes searched the living room as I moved closer to the debris noticing that everything was completely and utterly destroyed. The couches were all cut up with the stuffing spewing out of it like the back end of a turkey. Trent’s computer office area was demolished and the screen to his computer was busted with glass shattered everywhere. I looked over at the large object that I had tripped over discovering that it was a life size dummy replica of Trent with his name written in red paint.
“I can’t believe she still got in here and fucked up our house. How did she get in here?” My voice was solemn.
“I don’t know. Maybe she did this before the locksmith came to change the locks. I’ll call him in the morning and ask.” Trent rubbed his head stressfully as he headed towards the staircase. “What the fuck?”
“What now?” I rushed over beside him to see what he was staring at. “Oh my God. This bitch done came in here and trashed our house to the max and nobody saw shit.”
“That’s it. I’m calling the fucking cops, now. This shit has gotten way out of hand.”
“None of this shit would be happening if you would’ve just kept your damn dick in your pants.” My scream echoed throughout the living room.
We stared down at the words: I will not be ignored. It was written in red paint as well, along the beige carpet draped across our stairs. I reached down touching it to make sure it was really paint. It was and it was still rather damp as well. Trent was fussing with both his and my phone, impatiently shaking them as if that was going to make them load any faster after he pressed the power button.
“Kelly.” His voice was grave and low. “Look at your phone.”
I moved towards him taking hold of my phone, as I stared down at the screen. “This bitch is truly crazy.”
My finger scrolled through hundreds of missed calls and text messages all by the same number, hers. She had been calling and texting every hour on the hour since last Monday night. Trent and I stared down at six days worth of her temper tantrums on our phones like we were caught up in some sort of real live fatal attraction. He looked at me as I looked at him, staring into each other’s eyes already knowing what the other was thinking.
“I don’t have time for this shit. You call the police. I’m going upstairs to take a bath.” Throwing my phone to the debris ridden floor in front of him, I listened to it crunch as I tiptoed over the paint and headed upstairs to clear my mind.
In the bedroom, our clothes were all removed from the closet and spread all around on the floor. At first glance, it seemed as though they were only scattered on the floor to create a mess but after taking a closer look I noticed that Trent’s clothes were all cut up. My clothes were intact but his were all cut up into so many little pieces that it was hard to fathom someone sitting there spending that much time to make clothing confetti. The same words were painted on the bedroom wall above our bed, with the paint dripping down, leaking onto whatever was in its path.
Slowly I began to undress, tossing my clothes on the floor along with the others. I was in no way about to attempt to clean up shit especially if the police could use it as evidence. I didn’t care to speak to them about anything, feeling as though they were not going to do much more than what they were already doing about the situation. It seemed nothing would stop that crazy bitch and every fiber of me regretted even fucking with her.
Heading into the master bath, I flicked the light and immediately felt as though the wind had been kicked up out of me. The scene before me took me aback. The floor was peppered with a red substance that differed from the ones in the other rooms. There was so much red, I almost forgot that the floor was porcelain white. A dummy that shared my likeness sat on the toilet in my white underwear. Her face was painted up with my makeup, which was also conveniently scattered across the floor. The middle finger on one of her hands was sticking up while the rest were bent and pinned to the wall as if to say, fuck you. In lipstick, those same words were written across the mirror in pretty cursive script.
“Agh!” I screamed from the top of my lungs covering my mouth to help silence my terror. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“What? What’s wrong, baby?” Trent came rushing in. “Damn.”
“Isn’t that the lady’s dog from across the street?” I asked pointing to the floating carcass in the pool of blood in the tub. “The knife is still in its poor little body. How could one dog spill so much blood?”
“I don’t think it’s only blood, baby. It’s too watery for that. It looks like a little bit of blood mixed with red wine,” Trent replied, kneeling down to the large puddle and picking up a fallen wine glass and bottle. He stepped back pulling me with him. “Hell I don’t know. I can’t even tell what that shit is in that tub. But if it is, I think we’re going to have to offer our sincerest condolences in hopes that she lets us buy her a new one.”
“You did this, Trent. You started this
chain of events, now you fucking fix it or I will.” I snatched my arm from his grasp, covered my mouth and headed back down stairs.
Chapter 15
Monday Morning
I was eager to get back to what I do best. Trent had made a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns of which I ate and had a second helping. He was staying at home, waiting for his new office equipment to arrive that his boss gladly paid for. He knew what a great man he had in Trent, so he was always willing to extend an arm to him whenever he needed. Trent was working from home for the week, so that he could be there when I got home to massage my feet. I was thankful for his generosity and kindness even though my thoughts about divorce were still impending. For the moment, that had been placed on the back burner, until all of the commotion died down or until that bitch, Tara was jailed, whichever came first.
Silently I chanted the immortal words to Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman as I strutted through the office door. Yeah, I was feeling myself because things were finally going my way for a change. To the outside person looking in, I might have been the stupid, gullible, yet loving wife. But in retrospection, the big picture was that despite all of the shameful looks people were giving me as I strutted past, that man was at home waiting on me, as he should have been.
"Good morning, Kel," Mona, one of the assistants to my boss who was currently taking over until they hired someone new, greeted me.
"Morning, girl. How's it been around here?" I asked grabbing the wad of mail she handed me.
“Hmm, I just got here a few minutes ago. But word on the street is that the big man wants to see you in his office, pronto. We were all told that if we see you to tell you that you should hit his office before doing anything else.” Her lips curled over.
