“Good morning to you, too, Carmella. How are things going?” he asked in a calm manner as if everything was right with the world and the sun was shining down on him alone.
“I was awakened by bill collectors this morning, Nelson, so I’m not having a good morning. But I bet your little girlfriend was able to sleep soundly this morning.”
“Jasmine doesn’t sleep in like you. She has a job to get to every morning.”
Carmella was livid. She had worked her fingers to the bone, making a home for her family and being the perfect hostess for Nelson. “How can you be so cruel as to disparage the work I’ve done for this family? Being a housewife is no longer good enough for you, I guess.”
“No one is belittling what you did for our family. But don’t you think it’s time to get a job and handle your own bills?”
“No, I do not!” You’re the one who left this family. And we have depended on your income for over twenty years now, right after you stopped depending on my income to get you through law school. And I guarantee you that any judge in this town would agree with me.” She was out of her bed pacing the floor. “You are not going to get away with this, Nelson Marshall. If you want to live a double life, then you darn well better find the money to pay for both of them.”
“Sign the divorce papers and then I’ll make sure you get a decent settlement.”
“In your dreams,” she said and slammed down the phone. She was just about to throw it against the wall, when her bedroom door opened and Joy and Dontae rushed in. She’d totally forgotten that Joy was picking Dontae up from the airport this morning. Had he heard her? Oh God, she prayed not.
“Mom, why are you in here screaming about Dad living a double life? What’s going on?”
Prayer wasn’t doing her a bit of good lately. She fell back onto her bed and began screaming and crying—anything to avoid answering Dontae’s question.
“Come on, Dontae; let me talk to you in the other room,” Joy said as she watched her mother fall apart.”
“B-but, what’s wrong with Mom?” He went to his mother and tried to calm her. “Did I upset you, Mama? If I did, I didn’t mean to, so please stop crying.”
“It’s not you, baby,” was all she could say before the tears came again.
Joy pulled Dontae out of the bedroom and then Carmella sat up in the middle of the bed. She grabbed one of the fluffy pillows on Nelson’s side of the bed and held it close to her chest, while resting her face in it. The pillow still smelled of his cologne. Carmella inhaled deeply. She’d always loved the way the Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme fragrance smelled on Nelson. It was woodsy and masculine. The fragrance was not for daytime wear because it could be a bit overpowering, so Nelson only wore it during evening events. When she stopped and thought about it, she realized that he had stepped out a lot of nights without her in the last few months.
She should have been more suspicious… paid more attention to what was going on right under her nose. She threw the pillow across the room, as the fragrance she used to love was now making her stomach curdle. She had been played for a fool and now she had to figure out how she was going to pay bills that Nelson had always assured her that she need not concern herself with.
She had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Art. But she never received her teaching certificate or attended graduate school so that she might be able to teach art in elementary or even at a community college. She’d married Nelson six months after graduation and then she’d had to work temp assignments and receptionist positions so she could bring money into the home while Nelson went on to law school. Once he’d finished school, she’d had their first child and he’d asked her to stay home and raise their children.
Funny thing was, Carmella had always thought she’d gotten the long end of the stick. While Nelson was forced to go out and work for a living and deal with the rat race, she had been able to stay home with her children and concentrate on keeping her home happy. But now that she was unemployable in this new economy, it hurt like a son of gun to realize that she’d actually gotten the short and frayed end of that stick.
4
“He did what?” Dontae exploded. “How come no one called to tell me any of this? Why am I just now finding out that my father has been sleeping with your best friend for a year?”
“You think I knew any of this was going on?” Joy got defensive.
“Well, she is your best friend. And you did let her live with you.”
“She was a roommate. And we are no longer best anything. The woman used me the whole time and threw her relationship with Daddy in my face.” Joy plopped down on the sofa and began crying.
Dontae went to his sister, put his arm on her shoulder and said, “I didn’t mean that. I know it’s not your fault.”
“I just can’t believe any of this is happening. Daddy and Mommy always seemed so happy. They went to church together for goodness’ sake.” Joy was simply outdone over the things that had transpired over the last few days. Her father’s betrayal had shaken her core beliefs and she was now having second, third, fourth and fifth thoughts about her upcoming wedding. On paper Troy was a good man…a good catch. But would that paper be tarnished twenty years from now?
“We’ve got to do something. We can’t just sit here and let Daddy get away with this. I’ve never seen Mama cry like that.”
“I know Dontae, but what can we do?”
“Let’s go talk to Daddy,” Dontae suggested.
Joy folded her arms around her chest. “I don’t have anything to say to that man.”
“Well I’ve got a lot I want to say, so if you’re not going, I’ll just drive myself.” Dontae grabbed the keys to the three year old Mustang his father bought him on his sixteenth birthday and headed out the door.
Joy went into the kitchen, spread some vegetable cream cheese on a wheat bagel, poured orange juice into a glass and grabbed a banana. She then took the light breakfast to her mother’s room. As she placed the plate on the night stand, she told her mother, “I’m leaving for class, but I need to make sure that you’re going to be all right.”
Carmella struggled to lift her head from her pillow and then flopped back down. “I’m just tired, Joy.”
“I know you’re tired, Mother. And I understand. But I don’t want you getting sick over this.”
“Let me lay here for a little while longer and then I promise I’ll get up and eat something.” Carmella closed her eyes and appeared to shrink back into her bed.
Joy couldn’t bear to see her mother like that. And knowing that her father caused the pain was crushing. She didn’t want to see him, which was a problem, because she worked for her father. Three days a week after school, Joy made her way to Judge Nelson Marshall’s office to clerk for him. Her father wanted her to see what working lawyers did all day as they came in and out of the courthouse. Joy was in her last year of law school, with only two more classes to go before graduation. But at that point, she was so confused that she didn’t know what to do.
She had picked her major because her father had been an excellent lawyer and was now an incredible judge. But the fact that he turned out to be such a lousy husband outweighed it all. So, even though she went to class like a good little law student, she absorbed absolutely nothing of what had been taught that day. Instead of going to work, she went back to the apartment that she had all to herself and typed up a resignation letter for her father, the judge.
She then walked around the elegant, two bedroom apartment that had been her home for the last two years and simply waved goodbye to the rooms. She had enough sense to realize that every action deserved a reaction. She was going to quit her job, so her father wasn’t going to be in the mood to continue paying her rent. And besides, he now had a girlfriend and a wife to take care of, so the twenty-three-year-old daughter would just have to fend for herself.
Her cell phone rang. She sat down on her sofa and pulled the phone out of her Gucci bag, saw that it was Troy calling and answered, “Hey babe.”
“Hey yourself. I was just calling to check on you. I haven’t heard from you in a couple of days and just wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
She kept meaning to return his calls, but then something else in her suddenly dysfunctional family life would happen. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been ignoring your calls, it’s just that my mother is really having a tough time dealing with what my father has done and I’ve been spending my time with her.”
“I understand that.” Troy paused and then asked, “Have you talked to your father?”
“No, and I don’t plan to either,” Joy quickly remarked.
“Joy, I don’t want you to get upset with me, but he is still your father. You can’t ignore him forever.”
She rolled her eyes. Men… they were all in cahoots together. Joy was quickly learning that you couldn’t trust them. Who knew what Troy was doing behind her back? And then she wondered just what type of behavior Troy would expect his children to accept from him. “So, I guess once we have children and you do me dirty, you think they should just continue giving Daddy a hug and kiss, never mind what you did to their mother.”
“Joy, where is this coming from? I don’t have plans on doing you wrong. Our children will never have to decide between their mother and father, because they will always have both of us.”
She harrumphed. “That’s what you say now. But just let me have two or three children, and gain a few pounds, then we’ll see about that wandering eye of yours.”
“What wandering eye?” Troy sighed. “Look Joy, I can see that you’re going through a difficult time. But I need you to understand that I am not your father. My name is Troy Anderson and I love you.”
She didn’t respond. She wanted to, but for the life of her, Joy couldn’t fathom the appropriate response. Love seemed like this empty word people loosely threw around. Because what did love really mean anyway? It certainly didn’t mean that the person would stay with you through sickness and whatever else came your way.
“I’ll talk to you later, Joy. Just give me a call when you feel like talking, okay?”
“All right, Troy. Thanks for calling,” she said as if responding to a caller who had just given condolences for the death of a family member.
She put her cell phone back in her purse, stood, and got ready to leave her apartment when the house phone rang. She rarely received calls on that line. Only family and Troy and Jasmine knew the number. She stepped over to the phone and recognized the number as one that was coming from the county court system. But it wasn’t any of the numbers associated with her father’s office so, being curious, she picked it up.
As she said, “Hello,” Joy was informed that she had a collect call from Dontae. What in the world is that boy doing calling me collect? Couldn’t he have gone back over to Daddy’s office and made the call rather than using one of the pay phones? She accepted the call and then asked, “Boy, don’t be calling me collect. I am a poor college student and I can no longer afford such luxuries.”
“Sis, I need your help. I’m in jail.”
“You’re where?” She was shouting, but she couldn’t help it. The last thing she ever expected her studious and athletic brother to call and say to her was that he was in jail. Lord, help them all. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Just come and get me, okay? I don’t want to spend the night in this place. They say I can be bonded out for five hundred dollars.”
She loved her brother, but she had just spent all of her money on her annual end of summer shopping spree and didn’t have five hundred dollars to her name, or on either one of her credit cards. “I’ll get you out, Dontae. I’ll be there as soon as I get my hands on the money; don’t you worry.”
The minute she hung up with Dontae, she picked the phone back up to call her mother. But then she thought better of that. Her mother was already dealing with so much that Joy didn’t want to bother her with this. She dreaded what she was about to do, but she had no other choice than to call her father.
When he picked up the phone he said, “There you are. I was wondering why you didn’t come to work today.”
She didn’t respond to that, instead she said, “Daddy, Dontae is in jail and I need five hundred dollars to get him out.”
“I know where Dontae is,” he said calmly.
“Oh, so have you already paid his bail?”
“No, and I don’t intend to. He can spend the night in that cell and think about what he did,” Nelson responded.
“Excuse me?”
“That brother of yours came to see me this morning. I took him to lunch and then gave him the address to my new house and asked him to come by this evening so we could talk some more.” Nelson let out a frustrated sigh before he continued. “Instead of waiting until I got off work, Dontae went to the house and threw rocks through the window. He even busted out the windshield on Jasmine’s car.”
“Okay, but why did you call the police on him?” Joy asked, her temperature rising by the second.
“I didn’t call the police on him. Jasmine did. But I was in total agreement with her. No son of mine is going to get away with acting like that.”
“Oh, so you have no mercy for Dontae, but you think your actions deserve a get-out-of- jail-free card?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nelson asked.
“Are you going to give me the money for Dontae or not?” She was done with their conversation.
“I told you. I’m going to do what’s best for Dontae and let him sit and think about his actions.”
Click. She slammed the phone down so hard, she hoped that her father’s eardrum burst on impact. But people like Nelson Marshall never found themselves in harm’s way. They just somehow always found ways to hurt others.
Joy hated disturbing her mother with something like this. But she had no other choice. She picked the phone back up and dialed her mother. The line was busy. Joy waited ten seconds and then dialed again… still busy.
She didn’t have time to sit there and wait for somebody to help her. Joy left her apartment and raced to her mother’s house. She dialed her number twice from her cell phone while en route, but the line stayed busy.
She pulled up to her mother’s house and jumped out of the car. She unlocked the front door and rushed into the house. It was five in the evening. Her mother was normally in the kitchen, cooking up something good at that time of day, but she wasn’t there. It didn’t seem as if the kitchen had seen any activity the entire day. Joy left the kitchen and took the stairs two at a time, headed to the master bedroom.