A Scandalous Love Affair

by Jessica M.

  I asked the doctors not to put the baby monitor on me because I hadn’t notified everyone of my pregnancy, and they agreed. Now on the edge of my bed, sat a high Meesha laughing at a scared Adonis running out of my hospital room.

  “Oh my god! Why would you do that Meesha?”

  She shrugged. “So, that nigga up here looking all innocent and shit knowing he fucking his wife’s sister. I hate niggas like him for real. Taking advantage of people and shit.”

  I understood where Meesha was coming from, but that wasn’t her battle. It was mine and she had no right to tell her brother or confront Don.

  “The last thing Don did was take advantage of me, but you know what, it wasn’t your place Meesha! Leave! Right now!” I screamed, pointing towards the door.

  Meesha wasn’t laughing anymore. I guess she knew I meant business.

  “Are you serious right now Kash?” Her face was stern and her voice had a certain seriousness to it.

  “Meesha, let’s go! She wants friends that will sugarcoat shit for her ass. She did a fuck move fucking her sister’s husband and now she’s pregnant. That shit is messed up all the way around and it doesn’t matter how she tries to play it. I wouldn’t want to be friends with a grimy bitch like that anyway.” Messiah was looking at Meesha as he spoke the entire time, like I wasn’t even there.

  His words hurt.

  They stung me.

  I wasn’t that person he portrayed me to be. The shit with Don and me wasn’t planned. But his words tugged at my soul.

  That wasn’t who I was. I knew what it looked like, but still, it wasn’t at all who I really was. I was loyal, loveable, and all of that. It just happened. I was there when my sister wasn’t. Our bond turned into a friendship and then a relationship. I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not Karmen. It was her who drove her husband away, and I was there to pick up the pieces. If not me, he would’ve found solace in someone else anyway. Don wanted attention that his wife wasn’t giving him. That wouldn’t have changed whether he ended up with me or someone else. Now, I was stuck with a baby and my man had gone back to his wife. It sounded twisted as hell. But right now, that was my truth.

  Without saying another word, Meesha grabbed her things from the table next to the door and left with Messiah in tow.

  I prayed Meesha didn’t go running her mouth to anyone else.

  Asking the nurse to bring me something to help me sleep, I wanted to escape this nightmare.

  Not Sure How Much Later….

  Stirring in my sleep, I saw my mother in the corner reading a book. My mother loved to read, bake, and sew, but she hardly did any of it since she was always on her wifely and church duties. Hoping to pretend to still be asleep a little longer, I wasn’t ready to face my mother. I knew the first thing she would do was ask the question I had been dreading.

  It was something about being a mother. She knew everything even without looking.

  “Don’t play with me Kashae Howard, your ass is awake.” Her attention was still on her book.

  Closing the book and stuffing it in her bag next to the chair she sat in, she finally stood. My mother was so dang pretty. I had no idea why she put up with our dad and his mess. She deserved better. She was a good catch. My mother stayed working out and keeping herself up. Any man would be lucky to have her on his team. My dad was a good man, but he could get a lesson or two in treating my mother right. I wasn’t as vocal about the way our father treated my mother, not like Karmen was, but I guess it was because I didn’t want to be in grown folks’ business. See, Karmen didn’t care about that. If it came up, it came out, and she didn’t care whose feelings got hurt.

  “Are you ready to talk?”

  My mother approached the hospital bed with her eyes trained on me. I couldn’t even keep eye contact with her.

  “Nope.” I twisted my body with my back to her, but leave it to my mom to walk around the bed so we were facing one another again.

  “Not an option. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you, but demanded. What have you gotten yourself into Kash? What happened to our daughter? You’ll always be my baby and I love you, but Kash, what’s going on with you?” she pleaded.

  I wanted to tell her everything, I really did, but my mouth wouldn’t let me. If I shared with my mother my truth, everything would end. My father would be hurt. My sister would be hurt, and I could possibly ruin my dad’s dream of keeping his church. I didn’t want to be the reason for that.

  Tears slid from my eyes and down my cheeks. My mother grabbed a tissue from next to the bed and wiped my face. My mother and I weren’t close. Like I said before, I was close to my father and Karmen was close to our mother. My mother would probably never talk to me again if she found out I was pregnant by my sister’s husband. She did not condone going outside of your marriage. She said God did not like that and your place in heaven would be revoked. She said though we all were human, there were just some things that God didn’t tolerate, and one of those things was messing with married men and women. She was adamant about whomever Karmen and I got with not having a wife or significant other. Although she preached about it from the time when we were young girls, I still messed up.

  I prayed God understood that I really believed my sister’s marriage had ended and didn’t strike me down.

  “Are you pregnant Kashae Howard? Don’t lie to me either,” she added.

  Still silent, I couldn’t find it in me to say yes because the next question would be by whom, and that was not an option. I would never tell my parents that Don fathered my child.

  “Answer me right now Kashae!” She raised her voice, making me jump.

  I cried harder and her eyes never left me.

  “Are-you-pregnant?” Her tone was firm like she wanted to rip me a new asshole.

  Finally, nodding my head up and down, my mother broke down. Falling to her knees, she held on to the edge of the hospital bed railing.

  “Oh sweet Jesus, help us all,” she started praying out loud, begging God to forgive me.

  This was the beginning of my end.

  Rev. Harvey Howard

  Kashae was talking out of her head, so I needed to get some air. Heading in the direction of my old church, I wanted to touch bases with Maddox to see how things were going while I was away. Maddox was a few years younger than me with a good head on his shoulders, so I felt good about leaving the church I built from the ground up to him. He knew the ins and out of my church since he had been attending for years with his family. He was a good leader and I had no doubt he’d take my old church to new heights.

  Pulling my into the parking lot of the church, I only saw two cars. I’m sure the new car belonged to Maddox and the other was my daughter’s. True, there were a lot of cars like Karmen’s, but since I knew she was always helping with the books, I knew it had to be her. Karmen and I never saw eye to eye, but she was good with the church finances—I couldn’t deny that—so Maddox keeping her on was a good decision.

  Still having a key, I used it to see if it still fit and it did, so I unlocked the door and headed inside. Smiling because this was where I started my journey with Christ years ago, it brought back so many memories. My family was nowhere near perfect, but just thinking about how much God had given me was truly a blessing. My family held a lot of secrets but God forgave, and I was grateful for his grace and mercy and how he kept covering my family even in our wrongdoings. Walking the halls, tears welled in my eyes at how far I had come.

  Snapping me from my thoughts, I heard a horrific scream coming from the direction of the pastor’s office. Rushing to Maddox’s office, I shoved the door open to find him hovered over my daughter from the back. Doing what any father would do, I pulled my weapon from my hip. The world was crazy, so I got a license to carry the year my baby girl was almost raped and I never left home without it.

  Aiming my loaded weapon in his direction, I was ready to bust one in his ass.

  “MADDOX, GET THE HELL OFF MY DAUGHTER!”

  “Rev
erend, it’s not what you think.” I kept my weapon on him as he backed off Karmen, but she was still screaming and jumped up when she saw me. Running full force in my direction, she fell into my arms.

  My weapon was still drawn as I used my free arm to cradle my daughter. Karmen and I were never affectionate, so I knew she was hurt.

  “Dadddddddy, he raped me!” she sobbed, and I lost it.

  Hearing those words made me go back to the night those hoodlums tried to rape Kashae and I wasn’t around to protect her. Well, I vowed no one would ever violate my family again. Sometimes people thought you could be played with because you loved the Lord, but I was about to use this nigga as a living example.

  Letting off one round, Maddox’s ass hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

  Adonis

  Storming out of the hospital room, I had no idea why Kash would tell those nobodies our business. We agreed that no one could know about the affair until I divorced her sister and because that wasn’t the case now, being that my wife was pregnant, then no one should’ve known about us. She knew I was pissed too. I could tell she wasn’t expecting her loud mouth friend to say anything, but that’s the reason we said we would keep it between us. Something so delicate couldn’t be shared with anyone. If it got back to Karmen about me and Kash, my life could be ruined. Karmen seemed to be this newfound woman expecting a child, but there was no doubt in my mind if she got word that Kash and I were sleeping together, the old Karmen would surface so fast and cause me to lose everything.

  That wasn’t a war I was ready to fight. I couldn’t believe Kash betrayed me like that. I never thought she’d go against me. I knew she was hurt when I admitted to sleeping with Karmen and I was sure that was the reason she was also in the accident, even though she hadn’t actually admitted it to anyone, but I knew that was why she was driving so fast. She was hurt and angry about what I had done, and I understood that, but I never wanted to see her hurt.

  Right now, our main focus had to be what to do about her pregnancy. Kash could not stay pregnant. It wasn’t good for any of us. The best thing she could do was end it. I didn’t like it, but there was nothing else to do. Hopefully, I would be able to get her alone soon so we could figure things out.

  With her parents in town, I didn’t know when or how I’d get her alone, but we had to do something before anyone else got wind that she was expecting a baby.

  Getting in my ride, I headed to my office to do a little work. Work had been the last thing on my mind but if I didn’t get back on track, I knew soon my bosses would be on my ass. They were hard asses and hated slackers. The only reason I think they hadn’t called me on my shit already was because they knew I was having personal issues at home, and they knew I was good at what I did.

  Making it to my job, I went straight to my office to make a cup of coffee. Once my coffee was done, I sat at my desk scanning all the paperwork I had yet to complete. Just as I was about to tackle this load, my secretary’s line rang. Picking up, Rita seemed agitated.

  “There’s a lady here to see you. I explained that you see people by appointment only, but she is very persistent, sir. A Mrs. Marlene Wells.”

  “Ummmm, I know someone by that name, but I haven’t seen her in years, but yea, ok, send her in.”

  Placing the phone receiver back in its place, I stood as my personal assistant Rita walked through with a long-time school mate in tow that I hadn’t seen in years.

  When she walked in my office, she looked even better than I recalled. Briskly walking over to greet me, I pecked her on the jaw.

  “Hey, if it isn’t the beautiful Marlene Wells.” She pulled away from the embrace smiling.

  “Hey, and if it isn’t the handsome Mr. Adonis Nash that all the ladies wanted, but never got the time of day.” She giggled.

  Marlene was the fine, quiet type. A lot of chicks bullied Marlene because she was one of the finest chicks in the school, but she never had any back up. She kind of just sat back and took it. My wife took advantage of it big time. Back in the day, Karmen was a bully because not only was Karmen pretty, she was popular and had money, unlike a lot of other people. My wife had some nasty ways as a teenager, but as she got older she let it go. Well, most of it anyway. Marlene had a thing for me in school like most of the chicks, but I only had eyes for my wife.

  Being a bad boy, I was looking for a chick to make me better. I knew it sounded crazy, but that’s the truth. When you’re from the hood, you want something and someone different so you often looked outside of what you were used to and for me, that was my wife. Even when I dropped out she begged me not to, but going against that, she still stayed two toes down, never downing me for dropping out. Instead, when my wife finished design school, she leveled up and used her connections to help me out. True, once we got married she’d always say what she did for me during arguments, but she did help me get to the next level in my life.

  “So, how’s big New York City treating you? And the husband? My bad, you want coffee?” I questioned while pulling a chair out for Marlene to sit in.

  “No thank you, and all is well on my end.” She was still smiling.

  “Well, I hate to be so direct and to the point, but I’m busy as hell here today, so what brings you by?” I sat at my desk facing Marlene as I sipped my coffee.

  I hadn’t heard from Marlene Wells in so long and I wanted to know what she wanted. Usually unannounced guests only bought new problems, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what that would be in Marlene’s case.

  “I thought maybe we could catch up and talk. I was visiting my family and I thought I’d stop to chop it up with an old friend, that’s all.” For whatever reason, when she spoke, this time it didn’t seem genuine.

  Marlene and I were cool in school and even attended a few study groups together during high school, but when I dropped out I didn’t want to face anyone. I was too ashamed. My parents’ addiction was getting to me. I was a high schooler. I shouldn’t have had to worry about what I’d eat or if bugs would fall off the wall every time I sat down on the couch or opened the door to our apartment. Family was there and helped when they could, but it still was damaging just to know my parents were both crack addicts.

  I was born with crack in my system and often referred to as a miracle baby for living, but I looked at it like a curse. I was doomed because of what I was born into so I just gave up. The conditions became too much for me and I couldn’t concentrate in school, so I let it go. I regret that decision every day of my life, but it was what it was, and I thank God I had a person like Karmen in my life that pushed me to be better. Anyway, once I dropped out, I didn’t see many school mates after that. I did, however, bump into Marlene at the store a few times before she married and moved, but other than that, it was never anything with us. So, this stopping by to catch up story, I wasn’t buying it.

  “What’s up Marlene? I’m not buying it, sorry.” I shrugged, clasping my hands together as I waited for her response.

  “Ok, since you put it like that, it’s about Karmen.” She sat straight up in the chair.

  At the mention of my wife’s name, I was confused about what she wanted. My wife didn’t fuck with Marlene on that level, so if she thought she was coming in here to talk shit about my wife, she was about to be put out on her ass. That’s one thing I’d never tolerated. Another person would never be able to put my wife down in front of me. She was a bitch most times, but no one would get away with disrespecting her in front of me. Period.

  “Let me say this Marlene. Think about what you’re about to say about my wife because disrespect will not be tolerated.” I stared her dead in the eyes so she would know I meant business. Like I said, I never had an issue with Marlene, but she had better choose her words wisely or this would be the last time she talked to me.

  “Wow! If she only appreciated you Adonis.” She smirked.

  “Listen, I already said I had hella work to do today, so say what the hell you need to say or dismiss yourself. I don
’t have time for the games.” My patience was wearing thin at this point.

  “Too bad she doesn’t know what she has.” She nodded slowly.

  Over the mind games, I stood from my chair. Her time was up.

  “It was nice to see you Marlene, but you can leave now. If you intended for this to be a bashing of my wife session, you are sadly mistaken.”

  “Bash your wife? Your wife does a fine job of bashing herself. Sit your ass down, Adonis. Trust me, you want to hear me out.” Now, the fake smile was gone and her face held a scowl.

  Not taking orders from a person I didn’t give two fucks about, I stood, leaning against my desk with my feet crossed at the ankles. Arms folded over my chest, Marlene was talking right now or I was calling security to toss her ass out like a bag of trash.

  “Get on with it Marlene.”

  “If you insist. Well, I’m in town to visit family, like I said, but it was at my mother’s request. My mother has been very upset. She learned some disturbing news.”

  “Ok, and what does that have to do with me or my wife?”

  “Tell your wife to stay away from my father or I will ruin her hoe ass.”

  Confused was only one word I could use to describe my thoughts. I had never heard Marlene speak like this before. The quiet, shy Marlene was now out the window and the bold, fierce one had appeared out of nowhere. What the hell was she talking about?

  “What the hell are you trying to say Marlene?”

  “I’ll show you.” Whipping her cell phone out, Marlene scrolled and then shifted her phone in my direction.

  Leaning forward to get a good look at what she was trying to show me, the wind was sucked right out of me. It was a photo of my wife, with her breasts showing, tongue stuck out, and the recipient was none other than Marlene’s father, Pastor Maddox Wells.

  To Be Continued!