I cut my eyes at King. Then what was this whole set up about? I thought.
King stepped back away from me an inch.
“She is?”
What he said didn’t sink in right away. When it did my head flew in his direction. King shoved the gun towards me.
“What?” I stuttered. I took a step back. I knew my eyes had to be as big as saucers.
“I proved my love to you. Now it’s your turn,” he said as if I had actually asked him to kill for me.
I took a deep breath as I tried to calm myself. I felt like the world was slowly disappearing in front of me.
I drifted back to the past where Ashley, King’s wife, was still alive. Two nights after the incident with King and Ellis, I’d awakened to find Ashley sitting on the foot of my bed like she belonged there. The streetlight from outside had the room illuminated so I could see her clearly. She had her long red hair pulled on top of her head in a messy bun. She wore one of those matching spandex workout outfits, red and black from head to toe. I could smell the sweat and perfume wafting off her.
I figured she was just another one of King’s random bimbos wandering around the house. I’d once ran into one that was buck naked drinking orange juice right from the container. I hadn’t even been scared at first, just irked that some random woman was sitting on my fucking clean sheets.
“King’s room is two doors over, if you’re lost?” I said, as I pushed myself into a sitting position.
Her cold green eyes scanned me before she answered. “I’m Ashford’s wife.” There was a definite clip to her voice.
My head involuntarily reared back like she’d hit me.
“His wife?”
She cocked her head and scrutinized me for a few seconds. “You didn’t know?” Her tone didn’t convey just disbelief but anger, like she was mad that I didn’t know, because I should have. She waved her hand giving me a flash of a huge gaudy diamond.
“His wedding was a week after your parents got married. I was there.” She’d divulged voluntarily.
I tried to think back to seeing her, but one redhead blended into another. King had a definite thing for them. Maybe his wife was why.
“But he’s fucked a billion wom—” I stopped mid-sentence.
She chuckled under her breath. “Don’t hold back on my account. I know Ashford. There’s been many women, but you’re the first that didn’t know he was married. Not even his father said anything to you?” she asked.
“No.” I shook my head.
“Why was he fighting with your boyfriend at the restaurant? Are you fucking my husband?” she demanded to know, her nostrils flaring.
I opened my mouth to say something but had a sudden epiphany. I was sitting there having a conversation with what could be some crazy woman. It had been five years since my mother and James’ wedding. How could she have been King’s wife, and nobody ever mentioned her?
I pushed myself from the bed and hopped up.
“Lady, you have to go. If you have a problem, you need to take them up with King.”
“He lets her call him King?” She quietly mumbled then she did a complete 180. She started yelling. “My problem is with you. I want to know all that’s been going on between you and my husband.” She slammed her hand down onto my bed. She eyed me hard, her lip curling in disgust. “Look at you, a fat pig, stretch marks everywhere.”
I did what she said and looked down at myself. I was wearing a cami and underwear. Sure, she was right, my too thick thighs and rounded belly had barely visible stretch marks and I would never fit in a size four. But I thought I looked good with my hourglass shape and fluffiness, so did King. He’d worshipped every part of my body once upon a time, and if I decided I wanted him to again I knew he would.
The petty jealous part of me came to the surface and I told her so. “Your husband doesn’t have a problem with it. He used to try to smother himself between my thighs.” I rolled my hips vulgarly. “Now get out.” I pointed towards the door, then I went to walk past her. She reached out, grabbed my wrist, wrapping her slender fingers around it. Her nails dug into the skin drawing beads of blood. I snatched away and shoved her backwards. She easily steadied herself.
“Bitch, are you fucking crazy? You don’t put your fucking hands on me.” I squared up, raising my fist, ready to defend myself if I had to.
She closed her eyes, then shook her head. When she opened them her green eyes were dark and murky. I took a step, then another away from her until I’d backed into the desk in the corner of my room.
“You’re the reason he wants a divorce. You’re the reason he stays away,” she yelled.
My eyes darted towards the door. I regretted backing myself into a corner. Shit was about to get out of hand.
“King,” I yelled for him knowing that my momma was out trying to drown her sorrows in alcohol. I’d heard King stumble his drunk ass in. He needed to get his bitch. If she was his wife, I didn’t want any smoke with him for beating her ass. We were already on bad terms.
Her eyes darted back and forth between me and the door nervously “Shut the fuck up,” she tried to whisper under her breath.
I opened my mouth to yell for him again and that’s when I saw it. The butcher knife in her hand. Ironically, I knew it was from our kitchen downstairs, probably the sane one I had pulled out the day my momma took Spellman away from me.
My chest constricted. Before I could ask her what she was doing she yelled and lunged towards me. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I picked up the desk lamp beside me and swung. Crack! I heard it connect with her head. Warm liquid sprayed my face.
She fell to the floor and didn’t make another sound.
It took a minute for my brain to catch up to what had happened. When it did, I freaked out. I ran to King’s room to wake him up. I couldn’t even fully explain to him all of what happened.
“I killed her,” I kept screaming while he kneeled over her body.
“Calm the fuck down,” he yelled. I jumped but quieted. He pressed two fingers to the pulse on her neck. “No, you didn’t.” I calmed even more then, but nervously rocked on my heels. I just wanted him to drag her out so I could start to forget what had happened. I made up my mind then I was moving. I would take the help Ellis had offered. I couldn’t stay in that house any longer. My momma was walking around in a funk because James had finally left her a week earlier. She was being a real bitch.
“I didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” he said out of the blue.
So, it was true. I ignored the burning feeling in my chest, I said, “I don’t care, just get her out of my room.”
He sneered up at me. “You honestly expect me to believe that you don’t care?”
I folded my arms across my chest and cocked my hip. “Yes,” I lied. I did care a lot. Sometimes I cared so much it kept me up at night. I didn’t know how to physically stop wanting King. There was no way I’d show it, though.
I could see the hurt that flashed in his eyes when he lifted his head.
His wife whimpered and her hand moved to her head. “What happened?” she moaned as she tried to sit up.
King continued looking at me. His voice got low and ominous.
“I understand. You just don’t think I love you anymore because of this mess with her and the baby.” His voice cracked when he said baby. “I married her because I thought I loved her, then you gave yourself to me and I knew she wasn’t the one meant for me, you were. I forgive you and still love you. I can prove it.”
Before I realized or even imagined what he was about to do he put his hand over his wife’s nose and mouth and pressed down, cutting off her air. She started to fight in earnest. She kicked out and flailed her arm, clawed at his hands.
I was frozen for a half a second. Then I reacted. I had shoved him off her before I even knew I was doing it. He jumped up. He got in my face. We started yelling at each other, neither one of us paying attention to what his wife was doing, which was a big mistake. Somehow, she
got up. I watched over King’s shoulder as she stumbled in our direction. I thought she would attack him. She had every right to, but instead she pushed past him.
“Get away from him,” she screamed and lunged for me. He caught her mid-air, but she swung wildly. She was able to slash my face with her fingernails. “He’s my husband,” she kept screaming.
Stupid bitch. I had saved her life and she was still trying to attack me?
When King pulled her off me, I turned away. Unable to watch what would happen next, I left the room. I didn’t care what he did with her.
He came downstairs five minutes later. He sat on the sofa next to me.
I flinched away when he reached out to wipe my tears away. “She won’t try to hurt you ever again.” Roughly he grabbed my face and rasped, “Look at me.” He didn’t force my head around, but his grip on my jaw tightened until I faced him. “I’d never let anyone hurt you, Eden. You never have to worry about her again, ever”
I knew what he meant by ever. I shivered. Just thinking about it caused my heart to speed up. I tried to swallow but found it difficult around the lump that had lodged in my throat.
“Look at what she’s done to your pretty face,” he said. He leaned in to kiss the scratches on my skin. He paused and lingered when he got to my lips. “I have to go, Eden.” Just as he said that the doorbell rang. “Go to the guest bedroom and shower, but before you do that stuff your clothes into one of the trash bags in there. Leave them outside the door. Don’t come out of the guest room until I tell you.”
Everything he said to me went in one ear and out the other. He pecked me on the lips. “Go now, Eden.” He walked over to answer the door. He was talking to two of the guys from the hotel when I slipped out of the side door into the garage. I was barefoot wearing nothing but my cami and panties.
I quickly grabbed my spare keys from the junk drawer. I got in, cranked up, hit the garage opener and backed out. I was turning into the street when King came running out of the house. He ran to the end of the driveway then just stood there. I watched him through the rearview mirror. He looked downright evil, like he was ready to cause me pain. I trembled. I would explain to him I just needed a minute.
I was reeling from the violent grip of anxiety that had overtaken me. I knew I shouldn’t be driving, so I parked down the street at the park, climbed into the back seat of my car, then I cried myself to sleep.
When I woke up it was light out. I checked the clock and saw it was after nine in the morning. I panicked because I had an exam that morning. I tried my hardest not to think about what happened with King. I reasoned that if he hadn’t killed his wife she probably wouldn’t have stopped until she’d killed me. She seemed deranged, but she was married to King, so that was to be expected.
I crawled back into the driver’s seat and drove back home.
When I got there my momma had already packed my bag. She told me King had let her know I ran James away. “Why and how would I do that, Mother?” She slapped me. Instead of hitting her back like I wanted to, I grabbed my bag to leave. Fuck her, she wanted me gone. I would leave. I opened the door just as King was pulling into the driveway. A squad car pulled in right behind him.
He stared at me with so much malice it unnerved me.
Time seemed to slow down after that. King got out of the car. His white t-shirt and blue jeans had blood on them. He stood like he was waiting for something. The officers rushed him, slamming him to the ground. Momma rushed out past me yelling at the officer “What is going on? That’s my son.”
I later learned that King had went to Ellis’s house thinking I would be there, when Ellis told him I wasn’t King had assaulted him.
The whole time everything was going on I just stood frozen like someone had pressed pause on life, watching it all unfold. It was weird, because the look on King’s face as he was shoved into the back of the car was almost serene, like he was okay with being arrested.
I always wondered why. In the end I begged Ellis to not press charges. He didn’t, but King still went to jail. The cops had searched his car and found a gun. He was found guilty of possession of an unregistered firearm. In Florida that was a mandatory five years.
After that I had nowhere to go, so I moved in with Ellis. We moved to Georgia and I transferred to Spellman. I put the past behind me, somewhat. I tried to act normal. I finished my freshman and sophomore year of college before Ellis and I got serious. I thought marrying him would be the first step in the right direction.
He turned out to be worse than King, in my opinion. At least King had loved me. Ellis turned into a nightmare. He seemed to hate me but wouldn’t let me go. He forced me to drop out school. He didn’t want me to have friends. The sex that was already mediocre from the beginning turned terrible. Some night his dick wouldn’t even get hard. He would blame that on me. Then his parents started asking for a grandchild, so of course we had to give them one. We tried but couldn’t. For a year I thought I was the one with the problem.
King’s hand on my shoulder brought me back to reality. He held the gun out for me to take. “Do it.” He circled me. “Kill him. Prove to me that you never loved him, that it’s always only been me. You want to do it. You’ve dreamt of killing him. This is your chance. You say you love me, prove it. You started all of this. End it,” he taunted. “I showed you I’m willing to sacrifice it all for you, that I love you,” he said sounding less calculating.
“Why did you look so at peace that day?” I asked, ignoring the gun.
“What day?” he nodded.
“The day you were arrested.”
He paused; his brow creased as if he was contemplating it. A lascivious smile slowly spread across his lips.
“I knew that day even if I went to prison for ten years, I’d be in your head for every day of those ten years. You wrote me once a month for nearly four years even though I never responded. You say you didn’t come back here for me. But you didn’t leave when you found out I was here. You could have gone to a hotel. I’m in your head, Eden, your heart.” He reached out to tap me on my chest. “Your soul.”
I cut.my eyes at Ellis, uncomfortable at the fact that he was hearing one of my secrets. The letters I’d sent King I’d sent out of guilt at first, then it just became a habit.
King snapped his fingers in my face. “You don’t have to feel bad. Ken has a secret of his own.” He turned away from me to face Ellis. “Don’t you?”
Ellis glared at King.
King waved his gun towards him. “Should I tell her, or will you?” King paused long enough to make sure he had my attention. “Well, since you don’t seem to want to tell her…” He sounded giddy.
Ellis stood up from his chair so fast it fell over. The bang startled me, I jumped.
King’s reaction was to aim the gun at Ellis’ head. “Sit your ass back down.”
Ellis hesitated for a few seconds. King tapped the gun with two fingers. He nearly growled. “Pick the fucking chair up and sit down or I won’t let her shoot you. I’ll gut you like a fucking pig and I’ll take my time.”
Not even waiting for him Ellis to comply, King turned to face me while pulling my right hand into his, acting as if I would need comfort for what I was about to hear. He retrained his gun on Ellis
Nervously, I chewed at my bottom lip waiting on bated breath for what would come next. I knew about the affairs. I knew about his vasectomy. What more could there be?
King pulled out a cellphone that had to be at least four years old. He scrolled through it for several seconds His tongue was stuck between his teeth. He did that when he was excited.
When he found what he was looking for he turned the phone in my direction. I took it.
The shock of what I saw had my mouth falling open. The first picture was Momma on her knees in front of Ellis. My stomach roiled. I almost dropped the phone. My head snapped in the direction of my husband.
“This is from back in high school.” Ellis still had his toned body. I didn’t even know E
llis and my momma knew each other then.
The world felt like it shifted on its axis.
Ellis looked about ready to murder King. His face was a mask of rage. He looked how I felt. His eyes kept darting towards the gun, like he was considering going for it.
King laughed drawing my attention. “When I told you to stay away from him it was for your own good,” he said, with a condescending smirk on his lips. “Boy Wonder is a local mother fucker, literally. Long before I knew he was interested in you I saw him going in and out of the hotel I was holed up in with all the local cougars, your momma was one of them. I told him to stay away from you or there would be consequences.” King sighed and sneered at Ellis. “But your husband likes to play loose and fast with his life.”
I took a tentative step back, raised my hand and massaged my temples in an attempt to stave off the migraine.
“You want to shoot him now?” King asked eagerly.
Aggravated, I glared at him, while my mind kept replaying all the times my momma came to visit me. Her and Ellis acted like a couple. One incident in particular came to mind. I couldn’t sleep so I got up to get a glass of water. I caught Ellis coming out of the guest room where she slept at like four in the morning. I hadn’t even questioned it. I hadn’t cared. But now I felt dirty.
“You knew this entire time?” I asked King in a small voice because that’s all I could manage with bile in my throat. I dry heaved. I had exchanged fluids with my momma.
Before King answered I turned to Ellis, our eyes connected. I needed answers.
“Why would you marry me? Why force me to stay?”
He shook his head at me. “I didn’t even know she was your mother until the day of the wedding. I stopped when I found out. It lasted until she told me about your secret phone calls and visits to him.” he spat out. “She wanted me, you didn’t. Not while your King was in the picture.”
“What secret calls and visits? There were never any visits or phone calls,” I sputtered. “My momma?” I felt like I needed to walk away before I lost my mind. “All you people are fucking crazy.” I made a move to leave the kitchen. King grabbed my shoulders.
King: Darker Than Romance Page 10