The Ex Chronicles

by Penelope Christian

  The Ex Chronicles

  By

  Penelope Christian - LaKesa Cox - Yvette Danielle - Christina Grant - Meredith E. Greenwood - Elle Jaye - Lamesha Junior Johnson - Princis Lewis - Sharon Lucas - Tamika Tolbert Lucas - J.P. Miller - Michelle Mitchell - Dwon D. Moss - Cheryl Cloyd Robbins - Venita Alderman Sadler - J.L. Sapphire - Jeida K. Storey - Adrienne Thompson - Brenda A. White - Karen E. Williams

  Houston, Texas * Washington, D.C. * Raleigh/Durham, NC

  The Ex Chronicles © 2016

  Brown Girls Books, LLC

  www.BrownGirlsBooks.com

  ISBN: (Digital) 9781944359287

  (Print) 9781944359294

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means including electronic, mechanical or photocopying or stored in a retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages to be included in a review.

  First Brown Girls Publishing LLC trade printing

  Manufactured and Printed in the United States of America

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It is reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped” book.

  Table of Contents

  Too Old to Marry By Lakesa Cox

  For her sixtieth birthday, Rhonda wanted to celebrate with her tight-knit family. And what better time to break the news that she was divorcing her husband of forty years. The announcement sends her family into shock when indiscretions and secrets are revealed.

  That’s the Way Love Goes By Adrienne Thompson

  After twenty-five years of marriage, Marcus makes an announcement that no wife wants to hear, but his wife’s response proves to be the real surprise. In the end, what will become of their marriage?

  Never Too Late By Cheryl Cloyd Robbins

  Kelly didn’t know she needed love, until love walked out the door. But when the world crumbles around her, will it be too late to discover she was wrong?

  Pursue. Conquer. Destroy By Yvette Danielle

  For Veronica, if you wanted to know how well a man would take care of a woman, just look at his shoes. When she meets Randolph for the first time at a local sandwich shop, his shoes do not disappoint. He fits all the ‘must haves’ on her list, and Veronica is overtaken by Randolph’s advances and passionate pursuit. But she soon discovers that while shoes can make a man, they tell you nothing about who he really is.

  The Ex I Never Had By Christina Grant

  The decision to remain friends instead of lovers is hard, but after two decades should these two ‘friends’ give ‘love’ a try?

  Best Ex Ever By Meredith E. Greenwood

  Six years and still no commitment, do you continue to love or do you just leave? Tiffany has endured all of the ups and downs during her on-again, off-again relationship with Keith. But when their relationship hits an all-time low, Tiffany is faced with the toughest decision of her life. Does she hold on to her faith and hope of becoming his wife, or is it time to let go and finally make Keith her ex?

  Shame By Penelope Christian

  Maven Brooks’ life is perfect with her movie star best friend, and sweet-natured fiancé. But when her fairytale begins to unravel, what lengths will she go to save it?

  Circle of Life By Sharon Lucas

  Most think of the circle of life as a cycle that ends with death. But when the inevitable happens, Jill finally grasps that it is never-ending circle that is reborn through the seed of other lives.

  Losing Lily By Jeida K Storey

  Nothing cures a broken heart on Valentine’s Day like alcohol, but not even tequila can prepare Heather for an unexpected encounter with Hunter — the only person who causes her to face her greatest joy and deepest sorrow.

  Fool Me Once By Lamesha Junior Johnson

  Jayla was overjoyed to reconnect with her childhood bestie, Keona. But, when Keona stumbles upon information that might catapult her career, will she be tempted to betray her friend?

  Not Daddy’s Girl By Brenda A. White

  Madison Brown grew up feeling like an outsider smack dab in the middle of a family of five. Although she questioned her identity often, she never imagined the day she’d find out the truth. Her reality will send her spiraling as she seeks revenge on everyone in her path. What twenty-one-year-old secret is her family keeping?

  The Ex-Factor By J.L Sapphire

  What was intended to be a one-night stand between Taye and Michelle ended with her getting pregnant. Taye did the honorable thing and married her, but even a good man can only take so much and when he needs affection he’s not getting from his wife, he turns to his ex.

  Online Secrets By Venita Alderman Sadler

  Tiffany and Wade Gentry have been married for over 20 years. When their youngest daughter leaves for college, Wade buries himself in work and Tiffany starts to feel neglected. Is her new website the answer to her loneliness?

  Her Sister’s Boyfriend By Tamika Tolbert Lucas

  When money-grubbing opportunist, Kendall James, hears of her ex’s fortune, she wants him back. But he has moved on with the most unlikely person… her twin sister. Has Kendall lost him for good?

  Only BeWeave By J.P Miller

  Agent Suzanne Godlock accepts an assignment to investigate Only BeWeave Salon & Spa in Flowery Branch, GA. In some ways she approaches the assignment in the same manner that she has countless others since joining the FBI but in other ways she lets her guard down. Now, as her loyalty is in question, will she lose it all for her newfound friends?

  I Will Love You So For Always By Dwon D. Moss

  Tangie’s life is set to music. So is her love for Khalid. Their high school puppy love evolves into a full blown grown-up love. But when REAL situations infiltrate their REAL love, will their REAL decisions lead to an Amazing love or leave them All Cried Out?

  Tangled Webs By Elle Jay

  A sixteen-year-old lie resurfaces when Michol is forced to face her ex. Relationships, both new and old, will be tested when what was done in the dark comes to light.

  Memory Full By Princis Lewis

  Paige has finally achieved everything she’s ever wanted. But when a lost love returns, he forces her to revisit the darkest parts of her memory and now she must decide whether to give into hidden desire or follow the path she so carefully designed.

  The Plot to Take Over Washington By Michelle Mitchell

  Tracee and Wallace were close colleagues until he learned she was being considered for a promotion over him. Seeing a side of Wallace that she deplores, Tracee keeps her distance and warns her friend Charis to do the same when she finds out the two have been dating. When Tracee and Charis discover that Wallace has plans for them both, they will have to come together to avoid being casualties of love and war.

  Intuition By Karen E Williams

  Why would a strange woman be waiting for Diane’s husband at the hospital after his minor surgery? She seeks her answer with a tire iron and power swing.

  The Ex Chronicles

  Letter from the Publishers

  Dear Reader,

  Brown Girls Books is excited to bring you The Ex Chronicles, a collection of short stories that delve into the topic

  Thank you for your support of this amazing group of writers. We were overwhelmed with the volume of submissions to this collection, and narrowing it down was extremely difficult. But we’re excited at the final twenty that were chosen. And we hope you will be, too!

  What you don’t see is that behind the scenes, the contributors have created a strong sisterhood and a support system to assist in their personal and professional aspirations.
That makes us at BGB, extremely proud.

  Brown Girls Books was established to give publishing opportunities to new and established writers. We are excited about the opportunity to introduce you to fresh voices and reintroduce you to fan favorites. Our titles include something for everyone. We work very hard to bring you quality reading material that not only satisfies your hunger for good books, but that also gives talented writers the opportunity to tell their stories and have their voices heard, which is at the very heart of Brown Girls Books’ existence.

  We know that we would not be a success without your support. So thank you! And enjoy this amazing collection!

  The Brown Girls Books Team

  Too Old to Marry

  By LaKesa Cox

  Here we go. Another birthday. I swear it seems like the older I get, the faster they come around. At least I can say this birthday will be one to remember.

  ‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear ma-ma, happy birthday to you!’

  I’m staring at the cake covered with sixty individual candles while my immediate family members sing to me. First there’s Mark, my firstborn – thirty-six years old, never married, recovering drug addict, still trying to find his way; Melanie, my middle child – thirty years old, successful nurse, single mother of a three-year-old, who’s bitter because her baby daddy married someone else; Malik, my baby boy, my ‘I didn’t know I could still get pregnant’ child – twenty-four years old, recently graduated college and a new father with a three-month-old daughter and a new fiancée; then there’s my husband, Lewis. We’ve been married for forty years, high school sweethearts. I followed him around the world when he enlisted in the Army, became the perfect Army wife and mother. I remember how I used to feel about Lewis back then, my first and only love. Now the very sight of him gets on my nerves.

  I’m sure it was my firstborn, Mark’s idea to put all those candles on the cake. He probably thought it would be funny while I’m wondering if the smoke detector is going to go off from all the smoke when I blow them out. Melanie is struggling to keep her three-year-old from putting his hands on the cake and burning himself on the candles. Malik has his three-month-old daughter in his arms and his fiancée, Tracey, is standing protectively beside him.

  I look around at my children and grandchildren, thinking to myself how much they mean to me. Between the stress of Mark battling drug addiction, Melanie’s baby daddy drama and Malik taking six years to graduate from college because he couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do with his life, it’s a wonder I made it to sixty. And that’s just a fraction of my stress. Lewis has spent half of our marriage running around with younger women, having bastard babies. There was one I was pretty sure of and probably more that I don’t even know about.

  Well, today was going to be the day I make the announcement to the kids. I promised myself I would wait until Malik graduated college and since he finally graduated three weeks ago, it was time.

  “Blow out the candles, Mama!” Melanie says.

  “Move the babies back before the smoke gets in their eyes. Mark, all these candles, I swear. I know it was your idea.”

  They all laugh.

  I wait for Melanie, Malik and Tracey to move their bundles of joy away from the dining room table, far enough so they won’t have to breathe in any of the smoke after I blow out the candles. Everybody cheers, the room fills with smoke and luckily the smoke detector doesn’t go off. Now they have started to sing Stevie Wonder’s happy birthday song. This has gone on too long.

  “Okay, okay, enough of the singing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Since all of you are here, your father and I need to talk to you. Take a seat.” My formal dining room table has seating for six, which was just enough for the adults. Melanie, Malik and Tracey, who were standing in the doorway of the dining room and kitchen waiting for the smoke to dissipate, sit down with Mark and Lewis. I’m standing at the head of the table and Lewis is seated at the opposite end, scowling at me. I know he doesn’t want to have this conversation today since this is supposed to be a day of celebration, but I don’t want to wait any longer. The way I see it, this announcement is a celebration for me, too.

  For years we have been putting up a façade of a marriage for the sake of the kids – twenty years to be exact – acting as a united front, when in reality, our marriage had dwindled us down to roommate status. Sure we loved each other, but we hadn’t been in love for a long time.

  It’s been easy to cohabitate since our work schedules have always allowed us to live together without having to see each other much. He works the overnight shift for Nabisco cookie factory after retiring from the military years ago, while I work the day shift at the post office. Getting married a couple of years after we graduated high school, Lewis entered the Army and we had been stationed at different places all over the world before we decided to move our family close to Richmond, Virginia where we’d both been born and raised. When he was in the Army, Lewis seemed to be committed to me and our kids, but after his twenty year stint, he retired and we settled into our beautiful home in Goochland County (a suburb of Richmond). That’s when things changed.

  It all started with him reconnecting with this woman named Linda who he dated before me in high school. We hadn’t been back in town a full month before he ran across her at a gas station. The next thing I know, I was hearing about Linda and Lewis sightings and started smelling perfume on his clothes that didn’t smell like mine.

  Throughout the years, Linda kept her claws in Lewis and from what I hear, her nineteen-year-old son is Lewis’s. Of course Lewis swears up and down her son is not his, but if you threw that boy in a bag with Mark and Malik, you wouldn’t be able to tell any of them apart. Then there were the countless other women, too many to name with rumored “love” children sprinkled amongst them. Here again, Lewis denies having any other children other than ours.

  So I got tired of being sick and tired and told Lewis a few years ago it was over. We argued about it, fussed, and finally he gave up because he knew it was inevitable.

  One would think he would be happy to get a divorce so he was free to do the things he’s been doing behind my back. I know what people were saying about me and how foolish I must look based on what Lewis was doing. But my focus has always been to raise my children in a two parent home, make sure they grew into adults who had memories of it, and not be a struggling single parent. I watched my mother do it with three kids my entire life and if it meant I had to be miserable for a little while for the sake of my children, it was worth it to me.

  How did I do it? I wonder the same thing. I guess it’s sort of like working a job you absolutely hate, day in and day out, but the pay is so good and so are the benefits so you just stay. People do it every day. Heck, I know several people on my job who are going through the motions and have been for over twenty years, despising the job and counting down to retirement. I guess you could say that I am about to embark on a marriage retirement.

  “What’s wrong, Ma?” Malik asked, breaking my train of thought.

  “Nothing’s wrong. But I thought it was time we let you all know that your dad and I are getting a divorce.”

  They gasp in unison, and oddly enough, they are all surprised.

  “Divorce? Why?” Melanie asked.

  “Well, your dad…”

  “Your mother doesn’t love me anymore, that’s why,” Lewis interrupts. Typical, he would try to put it all on me.

  “Really, Lewis? You want to paint that picture? Go down that road?”

  “Tell them the truth, Rhonda. This is all your idea. You don’t love me anymore.” Before I have a chance to respond, Lewis does the unthinkable – he breaks down and cries. Well, in actuality he makes the sound and gestures of a person crying, but not a tear in sight. His “crying” causes me to burst into uncontrollable laughter, which angers my children.

  “Ma, why are you laughing? It’s not funny, you’re hurting our daddy,” Melanie says.

  “
Mom, really, how could you laugh at a time like this?” Mark chimes in. Malik has since handed his baby to Tracey and moved closer to Lewis to console him. Tracey is staring at me like I’m the Grinch who stole Christmas. I realize I’m looking more and more like the villain in all this just because Lewis decided to attempt to shed a few phony tears. I’d been crying for years, tears they never had the privilege of seeing.

  “Hurting your daddy? Hurting your daddy? Does anybody in this room know about hurt like me? You know what? It’s not important. We’re divorcing and we thought you all should know. That’s it.”

  “But why? Why, Ma?” Melanie is on the verge of tears. I swear that girl is too sensitive for her own good.

  “Melanie, your daddy and I made this decision together, right Lewis?” I look to Lewis for affirmation, but instead, he cries harder. This must be a joke.

  “Lewis, seriously? Is this how you want to do this?”

  He continues to make wounded puppy sounds and everyone is surrounding him, consoling him. Not only is this completely out of character for their military father, I don’t think any of them have ever seen him cry.

  The more I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry either. Even when his father passed away last year, he didn’t make a sound or shed one tear. I keep focusing on his face, waiting for some water to well up in his eyes, but they’re dry. It angers me a bit, because I’m the person who’s been hurt for years, cheated on for years, crying for years. But instead, the children are at the other end of the dining room table, rallying around their father and treating me like a traitor.

  “Lewis, should we tell them about Linda?” Yeah, it was an immature move, but the buffoonery going on at the other end of the table was getting on my nerves. As expected, Lewis perks up and forgets about his “crying.”