The Ex Chronicles

by Penelope Christian

  The red sports car pulled off first, then Wade followed her and as Jasmine pulled in behind Wade, she asked me, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Yeah, I already know where they’re going.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I just want to know for sure.”

  We were so close to the downtown Marriott that Wade and his woman could have walked. But again, he gave his car to an attendant, and holding hands, they walked inside.

  That’s when I lost my cool. I wanted to bust into that hotel, find their room, ram through the door and beat the man that I’d married to a pulp. The only reason I didn’t was because my sister kept me restrained in the car.

  “It’s not going to do anybody any good if you go in there and go ghetto.”

  So, I sat and sobbed. And then when they came out almost two hours later, I really sobbed. Because they came through the doors laughing and holding hands. Another woman was making him laugh now. Our marriage was over.

  When they got into their cars, Jasmine asked, “What do you want me to do?”

  “Follow her,” I said. My mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts and questions. I wanted to find out more about this woman – at least wanted her name.

  I was shocked when she pulled into the parking lot for WakeMed hospital.

  “Oh, my God. He’s been saying he was spending time in the hospital. I guess he wasn’t lying.”

  We pulled right behind the woman, but she didn’t notice us. Jasmine turned off the ignition as the woman grabbed a white doctor’s jacket from the trunk. When she walked toward the hospital, my sister jumped out. I followed her, but she waved me back.

  “Let me handle this,” she said.

  I only got inside the car because I wouldn’t have known what to do anyway if I came face-to-face with her. But after about fifteen minutes, I wished that I’d gone with Jasmine and when twenty minutes passed, I was ready to go in and find my sister. That was when Jasmine trotted out of the hospital.

  At first, Jasmine didn’t say anything. Just clicked the camera icon on her phone and turned it toward me. I watched the video begin…

  “My name is Jennifer Hodges and I didn’t have anything to do with illegal gambling. I had no idea that Shon Spencer was the head of a gambling ring.”

  I frowned. “Who’s Shon Spencer?”

  “Just watch,” my sister said.

  The video continued, “I just met him two months ago on the Sweet Sensations dating website.” Then, her voice raised a few octaves. “I promise, I didn’t know he was involved in illegal activity and I will not be seeing him again.”

  Then, while the camera was still on Jennifer, I heard Jasmine’s voice.

  “Okay, I believe you. But you understand this is an active investigation.”

  “Yes.”

  “And so you won’t say anything about talking to me?”

  “No, of course not. I don’t plan on ever speaking to him again.”

  “That’s good. Because he’s a dangerous man. And he’s been having you followed.”

  “Oh, God,” Jennifer said with tears in her eyes. “Do you think I’m safe?”

  “You are. We’ll make sure of it.”

  “Thank you,” Jennifer said before the screen went black.

  I waited a few seconds before I said, “So….”

  Jasmine jumped in, “Wade posed as some guy named Shon. He’s been hanging out on a dating website.”

  “But she talked to you….”

  “Because I told her I was a federal investigator.”

  “Wow!” I said, in awe of my sister as well as in shock about my husband.

  I didn’t say another word, not even when we returned to the hotel. All I did was cry. I have no idea how much time had passed when my sister handed me a glass. I took a sip of the wine and cried. Took another sip and cried some more.

  While I drank and cried, my sister called a friend, setting up an appointment for me to speak to a divorce attorney. When she got off the phone, Jasmine sat across from me. “I know you’re hurting, I know you’re upset, but you’re going to have to get it together because there is one more thing you have to do.”

  “W-w-what?” I stammered.

  “I want you to get on the website and meet Wade or Shon or whatever his name is.”

  “W-w-what?”

  She repeated her request.

  “W-w-why?”

  She explained, “You need to have all the proof and I read this scenario once in a novel.”

  “A novel?”

  “Yeah, you can get some good ideas from novels. Anyway, this woman hooked up with her husband on this website to trap him. Only when they met, they got back together. But don’t you do that,” she warned. “Wade doesn’t deserve you.”

  Spoken like a loving sister.

  I was too hurt and drunk to think about my sister’s plan. So, I just laid my head down and was so grateful for sleep.

  When morning came, I wanted to roll over and close my eyes, but Jasmine had to return home to her husband and no matter what, I was going to have to face Wade one day.

  “Don’t let him know what you’re going to do,” Jasmine said as she dropped me off. “You always want to have the upper hand in situations like this.”

  Solemnly, I agreed, then hugged my sister before she drove away, leaving me feeling lonelier than I’d ever felt in my life. I stepped into our home, glad that Wade wouldn’t be home for hours since now I knew he was doing all kinds of things during work and after work. Inside the kitchen, there were flowers on the kitchen counter.

  I missed you, I can’t wait for a home cooked meal.

  I imagined all the things I could do to his home cooked meal, since he thought of me as no more than his personal chef. I tossed the card back onto the counter, then took my bag into our bedroom. I didn’t even unpack before I stripped and climbed into the bathtub that I’d filled with very warm water and vanilla bath salts.

  I soaked away the tension as the situation settled in my mind. My husband was having an affair. Probably multiple affairs. By the time I got out of the tub, I felt better. Not better in the sense that I felt good about Wade. But I’d accepted it and now I agreed with Jasmine. I needed to have the upper hand so that I could get whatever I wanted out of this marriage.

  Inside the kitchen, I relaxed some more as I poured myself a glass of wine, then prepared chicken stir fry and rice.

  After fixing a hefty plate, I sat in front of my laptop and logged onto SweetSensations.com. I let the homepage just sit there for a while. Did I really want to do this? Didn’t I already have enough on Wade?

  But my sister was older. And wiser. So after taking many more sips of wine, I created my profile:

  Name: Angela Cole.

  Age: Thirty-ish.

  I answered all the other questions, said that I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and then I found a photo online of some random woman to use as my profile. The picture was cute enough, not as cute as me, though.

  That thought made me sad. What was it about me that made Wade want to do this? I pushed that thought away along with the wine. This was not my fault, this was all on Wade.

  I completed my profile, uploaded everything, and before I could stand up, a bing came over my laptop.

  I had a hit already. My heart beat faster as I sat down. Was it Wade?

  No. Some guy named Brandon:

  You’re cute, want to go to dinner tonight?

  Wow! He worked fast. But all I did was smile. I had no plans of responding.

  But Brandon gave me the confidence, so I stayed on the site and searched through the photos. There were so many – black, white, Asian, Hispanic. How was I going to find him?

  Then, another bing.

  I sighed. Maybe I shouldn’t have put such a cute picture up there.

  I opened the message and my jaw almost hit the floor.

  Shon: Hello Angela, I’d like to get to know you better.

  I had to steady my fingers.

&
nbsp; Hi Shon, how are you?

  Shon: I’m good. What about you?

  I’m just getting in from work.

  That wasn’t a complete lie. I’d just prepared a nice lunch and if I were doing what I wanted to do with my life, making lunch would’ve been working.

  Shon: You’re in the pharmaceutical business, I’m a lawyer. Are you originally from NC?

  I told him that I was from Virginia and he told me that he wanted to show me around the area.

  Really? That was fast. No wonder he was always tired with me.

  But I just had to ask him the one question I wanted to know. I took a deep breath and typed:

  Are you married?

  His answer came back right away.

  Shon: Divorced.

  It was like a kick in the gut.

  I guess I took too long to answer because he came back with:

  Shon: Don’t let the divorce scare you. My wife wasn’t career-driven, she was lazy, didn’t work. I had goals and she didn’t.

  If someone had been telling me this, I wouldn’t have believed it. There was no way that Wade was saying this. I was only home because of him. I’d always had my dreams, but I’d put him and our daughters first. That’s what I was supposed to do. That’s what he told me he wanted.

  Shon: What about you? Are you married?

  No. I never found anyone worthy of me.

  Then, I added:

  Maybe that will be you. Let’s pick this up later.

  Shon: I can’t wait to spend time with you. I’ll be waiting.

  I didn’t bother to say goodbye, just slammed my laptop shut. Then, I called Jasmine and told her.

  “Perfect,” she said. “Next time print out the conversation and email it to me.” She gave me more instructions and told me I had to keep up the charade for at least a week. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to do that, but since I wanted to nail Wade, I was going to do the best that I could.

  After hanging up from Jasmine, I went about doing what I would normally do, focusing first on dinner. I thawed frozen Salmon, then barbecued it, serving it with a side of “dirty” rice. I kept the plate in the warmer until I heard Wade pull into the garage. By the time he got out of the car and came into the house, his plate was on the kitchen table and I was curled up on the sofa in the living room.

  “Hey, Beautiful.”

  I took my eyes away from the television and looked up at him. Those two words used to melt my heart; now they felt like a stab in my heart.

  I didn’t respond, but he didn’t seem to notice. I guess his mind was on other things, other women. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I only saw one plate on the table; you’re not eating with me?”

  I shook my head. “I ate earlier, I’m not hungry, I don’t like Salmon.”

  He frowned a little, then chuckled as if he thought I was telling a joke. “Okay.”

  That was the end of it. I didn’t have to put on much of an act after that because when he finished eating, he didn’t even bother to come into the living room. He went to our bedroom and I fell asleep on the couch.

  It was eleven when I woke up and went into our bedroom. Wade was sound asleep, but when I slid into the bed, he rolled over and wrapped his arms around me. He held me and I cried myself to sleep in his arms.

  For the next few days, I kept our normal routine, cooking, keeping a clean house. Then, while Wade was at work, I handled my business the way Jasmine advised me. I gathered all of our information: bank records, life insurance policies, our wills and everything I could find on Wade’s financial interest in his law firm.

  Then, I met with the attorney, Phylicia Lynnwood, who had been working with my sister. The two had hired an investigator and when the attorney showed me all that they’d found, I was even more stunned.

  “It seems that your husband has been quite busy on this website,” Phylicia told me as I looked at the folder. “He’s connected with at least ten women.”

  There were tears in my eyes when I looked up at her.

  “Don’t worry,” she said with a forlorn look. “This is going to work in your favor. I’ll have the divorce documents ready for you next week.”

  It was hard, but I continued to play my part. Right after finding out how many women my husband had been with, I had to go home and get back on the website. By the third day, Wade’s conversation turned sexual. He talked about his secret fantasies and the things he wanted to do with me. It was all filthy, grimy, and turned me off. But, I didn’t let him know. In fact, I turned it up, told him I couldn’t wait to meet him and suggested our first meeting.

  “Why don’t we get together on Monday?” I asked.

  “Monday? That’s three days from now. I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

  I convinced him that he could and told him where I wanted to meet for dinner.

  “Just look for the lady in all black,” I said, thinking that it would be perfect to mourn the loss of my marriage.

  Then, I suffered through the weekend, listening to him calling me Beautiful, staying in the living room late into the night, not even wanting to get into the bed with him.

  The only time I felt good during this time was when I stepped away from the computer and I began to dream. I began to think about all the years that had gone by and I wondered how I could make the future great for me.

  By Monday morning, I had a mixture of excitement and anxiety, especially when Wade told me over breakfast that he was going out of town for the night.

  “It’s a business meeting that came up suddenly.”

  “Really… suddenly,” I said, sipping my coffee. It was surprising. He was sure about me, or rather Angela. And he planned on spending the whole night out?

  I didn’t ask him questions the way I normally would and now, of course, I wondered how many of his business trips in the past had been rendezvous with women?

  He kissed my cheek, and the moment his car rolled out of the garage, I called the locksmith and alarm company; things were changing right now.

  It was hard to concentrate on everything I had to do and by noon, I wished that I had set up a lunch with Wade, rather than dinner. But I was able to go through the paperwork for my new business, then take my time getting ready for my date.

  Though absolutely nothing was going to happen with me and Wade, I wanted him to see the best of what he was giving up. So, I wore a black form-fitting dress with five-inch heels. I curled my hair and let it hang loosely, before I applied some makeup and my favorite red lipstick.

  Then, with the four portfolios in my hand, I got into my car. So many thoughts were going through my mind as I drove. This restaurant meant so much to me. It was truly the place of my new beginning.

  I arrived a few minutes late – on purpose – I wanted Wade to be sitting down when I walked in. I had called ahead, giving the staff instructions on where I wanted Wade to be sitting, far enough away so that he would think I was Angela, at first.

  My legs were shaking as I walked inside, greeting everyone. I was at the maitre-d’s stand when Wade spotted me. I gave him a little wave. He stood, he smiled and I walked toward him. With each step that I took, his smile faded more and his head tilted as if he were trying to figure something out.

  I was doing the total opposite, my smile got wider the closer I got to him. By the time I got to his table, his smile was frozen.

  “Hi, honey, or should I call you Shon?”

  “What are you doing here?” His voice shook.

  My voice was surprisingly steady. “Sit down!”

  He did as he was told, but started stumbling as soon as his butt hit the seat. “I…I can explain,” he stuttered.

  I held up my hand. “No need for you to explain, but let me introduce myself. My name is Angela for the night.”

  I could actually see his hands trembling. “Relax dear; I just have some things to give you,” I said.

  I handed him the first portfolio. Slowly, he opened it and took in the copies of our financials, his business
financials, and our wills. Then, I gave him the others, and his eyes widened when he saw the transcripts from his sweetsensation account. The third portfolio contained a copy of the restraining order I filed. There was only one I held onto.

  When I slipped the last folder to him, he hesitated and I wondered if he knew what was coming. But the way his eyes widened even more when he read the first page of the divorce petition let me know that I’d totally shocked him.

  For a long time he sat there looking from the portfolios to me. Not one word escaped his lips. So since he had nothing to say it was time to end this.

  But before I could say anything, the waitress brought the bottle of wine that he ordered.

  “Oh,” I said, holding up the bottle of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache . “Expensive.” Then to the waitress I said, “He’ll be paying for it.”

  He waited until the waitress walked away before he sneered, “I’m not doing this with you. I’m not leaving my house; you’re not getting a dime.”

  I raised my eyebrows, surprised at his reaction and mine. Did he really think he could fight me on this with the evidence I had? But what was better than that was that I was pleased with how calm I felt.

  “Honey, you are already out my house, and as for that dime you were just talking about, I’m going to get a whole lot more. Something like half,” I said. “Oh yeah, all your assets are frozen as of this afternoon and I informed your partners about your escapades with women.”

  His eyes got so wide I almost laughed.

  “Why would you do that? What does the firm have to do with this?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the company’s money that you used.” I paused as his eyes watered.

  “How could you!” he yelled. Then, he looked around and lowered his voice. “I can’t believe you.”

  I didn’t care about the tears in his eyes. “You can’t believe me?” I shook my head. “Get out of my restaurant right now before I have you thrown out.”

  “Excuse me?” His face was etched with confusion.