by H. H. Fowler
“Leroy, don't waste my time, 'cause you've already wasted five years of it playing your silly little games…”
Leroy lowered his chin to his chest, listening to his wife pound the nails of regret into his heart. He couldn't understand how one sin, which happened so long ago, could produce such devastating effects. It would have been better if he'd just died that night. Maybe he would have saved his family from a life of reproach and despair, because they would have buried his secrets in the grave along with him.
“OMG! You have to be Sean and Eric's father!”
Leroy jerked his head up, searching for the unfamiliar voice. His eyes froze on a lanky, auburn beauty who was posing on the threshold of Eric’s bedroom door. She seemed to have appeared from nowhere, and the only thing Leroy thought at that moment was that the devil had come to finish him off. As his attention zeroed in on the sight in front of him, Michelle’s voice briefly faded in the background.
“I can see where they got their genes from,” she cooed, as she played with a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. She didn't have on a piece of clothing except for one of Eric's dress shirts. She looked Leroy up and down as if he were choice meat. “Nice legs, by the way. They didn't tell me you kept yourself in such good shape…”
“Leroy! Who’s that with you?” Michelle screamed.
Leroy recovered just enough to tune back into Michelle, who was yelling into the phone, “Is she another one of your church flings? My God, how many of them have you been seeing behind my back?”
Leroy almost lost it when the girl began to run her fingers suggestively along her neck, “I don't know what is going on, Michelle. Our son, apparently, invited a woman to his room…”
“Don't you dare stoop that low and put this on our son! You expect me to believe you after all the lies you've told me?”
“I'm telling you the truth, woman! I don't know what's going on?”
“Put Sean on the phone!”
Leroy held the phone away from him, turning to the girl for help, which would have been out-of-place if they’d met under different circumstances. “Where are my sons?” he asked her.
“I came here to see Eric. I don't know where Sean disappeared to. Eric said he's coming right back. I thought you were him when I heard your voice.”
Leroy couldn't believe the audacity of this young female, parading around his house as if she were a part of the family. But standing there in just his boxers, staring at her scantily clad body, which was obviously designed to pull his mind into debauchery, was doing some serious damage to his willpower. One thing he'd learned about temptation was to respect its power to entice. He wasn't about to reason with it and he wasn't about to give it space in his heart.
“You can't stay here,” he told her with a tone of finality. “Get your belongings and leave.”
“But Eric told me to–”
“I said to leave! Get out! I will deal with my son.”
When Leroy placed the receiver to his ear again, Michelle had already disconnected from the line.
Chapter Thirty
Shaniece rumbled through her massive collection of sermon DVDs, searching for one that would impress the socks off those two pastors from the Bahamas. It was her only chance to show them her worth and to convince them of her influence to help them garner the wealth and fame they eagerly sought. She would show them through the power of words (along with her impressive resume at Mount Moriah), that she had what it took to take the twenty-first century church to the next level.
They would be fools to ignore what she could bring to the table. Her networking ability, no doubt, would serve as a catalyst to Global expansion of what Mount Moriah would eventually be able to offer the world. And she was positioning herself to spearhead this gigantic revolution. She could confidently say that her game plan was gaining momentum.
For every dam that leaked beyond this point, as she was certain some would, she had a sandbag waiting to seal it up. To her, that meant control. She was aware that as her demands increased, Leroy's patience would gradually ebb away into hardcore rebellion. He would not answer to her tyranny forever. And that would have been a problem if she hadn't thought about the solution years ago. She was sure that Leroy had spilled his guts to Michelle by now. She smiled as she imagined what Michelle was experiencing at this moment. Betrayal? A broken heart? Embarrassment? There was so much filth attached to this story that Shaniece knew it would take Michelle forever to get over it. That sham of a marriage would not survive the cost of Leroy’s mistake. If Michelle really knew the entire thing, from start to finish, she would leave town and never come back. Shaniece was sure of it, because even Leroy hadn’t a clue to what he’d really gotten himself mixed up with.
Her Samsung lit up with a text that she’d been expecting all morning. As usual, he was late, but this time she didn’t mind the delay. Ellie and her son had just settled down for their afternoon nap, which gave her a little time to speak to him alone before she called the general meeting with everyone. She imagined how Ellie’s face would look when she discovered that their brother had been living in Tampa all this time. But of course, Shaniece would explain to Ellie that all of what they’d done was to protect Ellie and her son. She would force a few tears and Ellie would fall for it like rain falling in the wet season.
Shaniece re read the text:
I’m standing outside your front door.
They’d agreed that he would not show up unannounced without texting her first. Being caught together would certainly raise some eyebrows. She buttoned her jacket and pushed her feet into her stilettos, always sporting the professional look. She had an image to uphold, even if she was doing it to impress her brother. She tipped down the steps toward the front door, almost tripping on something in her path. She looked down and saw that her nephew had left one of his building blocks in the middle of the floor. But when she stooped to pick it up, she noticed dozens of them scattered all over the place as if his toy box had gotten blown up by Al Qaeda. She immediately became incensed at Ellie for allowing her son to do as he wished.
If they were going to be staying with her, they'd better warm up to her rules or she'd ship their tails back to Brandon so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them. She wasn't about to be anyone's maid, and as soon as Ellie got up from her little nap, she would let her know that. She paused and took in a deep breath. It was no good getting worked up over nothing. If she tried sending Ellie and her son back to Brandon now, her plan was as good as dead. Ellie would do something stupid that would expose them and spoil everything she’d worked to put in place.
She didn't expect her brother to be looking like a shell of himself when she pulled open the door.
“Boy, what the heck happened to you?” she asked him. “Must I tell you, you look a good mess!”
“And it's exactly how I feel, Shaniece,” Phillip said, as if his own voice annoyed him. He slowly lifted his head from the wall and staggered two steps toward her. “Safe to come in?”
With Phillip standing so close to her, Shaniece suddenly got a whiff of either Jack Daniels or Bacardi. Maybe he’d mixed the two, she thought, but one thing she could say for sure was that his breath was unbearable. “I see you brought some of your friends with you.”
Phillip scratched his head. “Friends?”
“You so blithering drunk until you can’t even think,” she snapped. “How are you supposed to understand anything I’m about to say to you in this state? This is not the time to be losing it, Phillip. We’re on the home stretch.”
“Home stretch?” He chuckled to himself, and then parked his glassy eyes on his sister. “I was doing quite fine before you dropped this silly proposal on me. I had a life, and I had a woman that loved me. I gave up all of that for what?”
“I didn’t put a gun to your head, Phillip.”
“In many ways you did, sis. You promised me the world. You said that all of my financial hardships would be taken care of–”
“Don’t you fo
rget we did this for Ellie,” Shaniece hissed. “That bastard took advantage of our sister and almost got away with it!”
“No, sis. Ellie didn't want this. And, I can see why. Just look at the person you've become. Look at me. We're two miserable peas in the same pod.” He allowed his head to fall on Shaniece's bosom and he began to cry. “I don't know if I can go on pretending with Tayah…”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Phillip!” She pushed him away from her, and then brushed his tears from her jacket. “Man up and stop this silly whining! Now, you listen to me and you listen good. I don't know if this is you or the alcohol causing you to act like a fool, but you better get your head out of your butt and grow some backbone. I've worked too hard to get to this point in my life and I will not let you, Ellie, or anyone else, stop my progress.”
“I can't do this anymore, sis,” Phillip sobbed. “The secrets are killing me. I feel like I’m losing my mind. I almost choked my wife to death…”
“Well, good! She probably deserved it. I am very angry with you, Phillip. After all I've done for you and Ellie, this is the thanks I get?”
“You've made my life a living hell,” Phillip growled. “How long you expect this charade to last?”
Leroy had asked her the same question, but she had a different answer for Phillip, one sure to get his attention. “I've promoted you to Head Deacon and have placed you on an annual salary. How does eighty thousand dollars sound to you? That should shut you up and solve your problems I think.”
Phillip raised his head and stared at his sister in disbelief. Her black eyeliner and her straight brown hair that fell just below her neckline made her look like an ominous vixen. “You think money answers everything, don’t you?”
She folded her arms as if she dared her brother to challenge her response. “It does. I’m sure you could think of quite a few things to do with the money.”
Truth was; he was in desperate need of the money. Thinking about Vell Gibson and his henchmen, prowling around his business in that black Caddy sent chills crawling through his body. As he’d learned, they weren’t the type to double-cross. He owed them sixty thousand dollars. “I didn’t get the check from you this week. You said you were gonna drop it off to me.”
“I did, but I changed my mind. I thought it better to create a steady flow of income for you. That way you could handle your business, instead of always coming to me.”
“For eighty thousand dollars you expect me to stay in this sham of a marriage with Tayah?”
“You will do more than that.” Shaniece pointed a well-polished finger at Phillip. “Get yourself together and stop drinking your senses away. Furthermore, you need to start thinking about having some children…”
Phillip laughed, but he was far from being amused. “Children? Impossible.”
“What do you mean impossible?” Shaniece was genuinely confused. “Tayah is not barren, is she?”
Phillip couldn’t answer his sister, not because he was afraid, but because it hurt too much to admit that he was the cause of the problem. Tayah hadn’t anything to do with it. He didn’t even feel like a real man. He had to wonder if this was his punishment for going along with Shaniece’s ridiculous plan. This was not what he’d imagined for his life. Shaniece had better watch her back, because the God of the Paxtons was fighting on their behalf.
“Phillip! What’s the matter with you?” She gripped him by his arm and shook him. “Don’t tell me that Tayah can’t get pregnant. Have you been having sex with her regularly?”
“Once a week, sometimes, once a month.”
“No wonder. How do you expect her to get pregnant if you hardly sleep with the woman?” Shaniece calmed herself a bit. “Anyway, we can always adjust that. First, you need to take shower. I want you to be fresh and clean when you go back home to her tonight. I want you to romance her–”
“I can’t have children…”
“Make sure to run her water in the tub and put – what did you say?”
“I’m the problem, Shaniece. It’s me! The fertility specialist told me I can’t have chil–”
Shaniece drew back and slapped the taste out of Phillip’s mouth. He recoiled in shock.
“Now, you listen to me,” she scolded. “Go take a shower, and then go back home to that woman and do as I say. Don’t you dare disgrace this family’s name with your foolish talk. You will have children and you will leave behind a legacy. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will make certain of that.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Tayah stepped in front of the long mirror to get a picture of how she looked in her emerald green evening gown, which pulled in her waist and flared out to her ankles. The fabric was smooth and lustrous, like Princess Satin used frequently in wedding dresses. Her glossy, thick hair was tossed in an updo, held steady by two Japanese hair sticks. She stared down at her feet, and turned from side to side to see if her open-toe shoes added or took away from the look she was going for. Her jaws relaxed into a pleasing smile, as she gently picked up her necklace from the nightstand and then snapped it around her neck. Only one thing was missing: Phillip.
They'd agreed that he would be her escort to the festival's volunteer banquet; to help her celebrate a night of giving back to the community, but at a quarter past six with no sign of him in sight, she knew she had to make this move without him tonight. He was becoming quite a bore. A few weeks ago she would have been fuming mad, but lately so much stupidness had happened between them that she was feeling okay about not having that fool around. She didn't need a drunk embarrassing her tonight, but by the same token, she didn't want to go to the banquet alone. She wanted to share the joy of tonight with the people she loved. She doubted her parents would be there, considering the drama they were trying to deal with, which was colossal, compared to hers. She preferred that they thrash that church stuff out at home, rather than create a scene in front of her friends and associates.
Maybe she should call Abraham. He was like a father to her. She was sure he would have no problem escorting a beautiful woman to the event. But it was so last minute, and with the event beginning in forty-five minutes, she knew it would not be fair to impose such a request on him. However, there was one other person she could call, but she dared not. She dared not revisit that embarrassing scene from this morning, but if she were to be honest with herself, somehow, that embarrassment had unfolded into something else. But it’d been there all along, hidden beneath her fear of exploring the unknown.
The signs were real and she couldn’t ignore them any more than she could ignore the growing rift between her and Phillip. Even more so, she couldn’t ignore the effect Dominic was having on her brains. Thanks to Phillip, his dirty accusations only added to her confusion.
Although she tried, she couldn’t get the image of Dominic’s body out of her mind. And she knew better than anyone not to entertain thoughts that would only intensify her ungodly desires. However; it was a struggle for a young, hot-blooded, woman in her predicament, craving the attention of her husband. He hadn’t touched her skin all month and the last time that he did, it was dull and unimaginative. He was not the type to be big on romance – he gave a hug here and there and a kiss in between. He gave a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day and a perfume set on her birthday. The gifts were the same every year.
Suddenly, she chided herself. Who was she kidding? She could rationalize all she wanted; she was only making excuses to indulge in her lust for a man who wasn’t her husband – something she needed to quit doing while she was ahead. She quickened her pace when she saw the clock strike six-thirty. If she didn’t leave then, she would definitely be late.
She grabbed her emerald green, velvet purse and was about to stuff her BlackBerry in it when she noticed the blinking red light. She paused and contemplated checking it. She’d made peace with her husband not accompanying her tonight, but she really didn’t want to read some lame text from him explaining why he couldn’t make it. He’d been doing that a lot lately
and it bugged the heck out of her. She checked it anyway and immediately the tips of her ears flamed when she saw that it was from Dominic.
Haven’t heard from you lately, but I hope that your night will be as radiant and as breathtaking as you are. Only thing though, I wish it was me next to you and not Phillip.
Now why had he allowed the devil to use him to say that? Tayah thought inwardly, but she couldn’t stop the smirk that pulled her freshly painted lips into a pout. If he only knew, Phillip was not going anywhere with her, at least, not anytime soon. Her heart was beating so fast that she had to take a seat on her bed to catch her breath. Dominic always knew what to say, and how to say it, all at the right time. She could really use the company tonight, but she didn’t know how to ask him. This would have been so easy to do before all of these strange feelings started coming over her.
Thank you. And it seems you just might get your wish. Phillip will not be able to make it tonight.
She reread it and then pressed Send. She smiled, knowing this tidbit of information would make Dominic very happy.
You for real? Girl, why didn’t you say something? Just give me the directions and I’ll be there. Wait. Do you want me to pick you up?
Why couldn’t Phillip show her this much attention? she thought, as she typed her response back to him.
No, that’s okay. I’m running a bit late. I’ll meet you there.
Aw’ight, girl. No sweat.
She stood up, still dizzy from the exchange. This wasn’t right, God knows this wasn’t right, but it felt so good. Besides, what harm was there with two friends being there for each other, especially, when both of them were going through similar circumstances. They’d both been let down by people they cared about. As far as she was concerned, she didn’t see anything wrong with it. She took one final look in the mirror and then made a quick exit through her front door.
7:15 p.m.