by B. M. Hardin
For some strange reason, I started to cry but I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t sure if I was jealous or if I felt like things weren’t going to be okay. I wasn’t sure why I was crying at all. All I knew was that I felt like crying and I didn’t know how to make the tears stop flowing. It was so hard to trust again once your heart had been broken and sneaking around wasn’t going to make it any easier.
Hearing the music turn down, I knew that Elroy was going to head to the bathroom, just to see if I was still inside. I was right. He turned the knob.
“Why do you have the door locked?” He asked.
I wiped my face and tried to put on a smile as I headed for the door.
“No reason,” I said opening it and walking past him. He followed me, but I didn’t give him any eye contact for a while. I actually didn’t even pay him any attention. My mind was on something else.
Operation: “Find Kera” was in full effect and hopefully for her sake, she didn’t want to put up a fight for Elroy, because on everything that I loved…she would lose. One way or the other!
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CHAPTER V
I was supposed to be at work, but I wasn’t.
I was watching Elroy…and Kera.
I guess that was her. I was sure that it was her.
I’d gotten out of court and taken the rest of the day off. I didn’t tell Elroy that I was on my way, but just as I turned down his street, I caught sight of a woman walking towards his front door, so I kept driving. By the time I circled back around, she was inside, so I parked a little ways away so that I could watch. They’d stayed inside for about thirty minutes, and now I was watching them as they stood by her car and talked.
Of course I’d written down her tag number so now I was sure that I would be able to pull up all of her information and find out what I needed to know. Finally I could see what my unknown competition for the last few years was all about.
I watched their interaction with each other. Elroy seemed to keep touching her arm which had me as hot as hen’s piss! Just tell her that it’s over and be done with it already! Damn!
Finally, they hugged and I just knew that they were going to kiss. Please give me a reason to get out of the car and show my ass today! Please! But they didn’t kiss at all. She got into her car and Elroy didn’t even wait to see her pull off and drive away. He just went back inside.
As she drove by me, I looked away. I’d seen her face, but she didn’t need to see mine. For the most part, she was pretty. Actually, she and I were similar. She looked mixed with something too and we were about the same height and almost the same size. She had a bigger chest and I had a bigger booty but we weren’t too many pounds away from each other.
I took a deep breath and waited to see if Elroy was going to text me. He didn’t, so I texted him. I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he was calling around, checking on applications. I asked him how his day had been going, and all he said was fine. I waited to see if he mentioned his talk with Kera, but he didn’t. He didn’t mention it at all. Maybe he was just waiting to tell me in person.
Instead of going inside, I headed back to my office.
“I thought that you were gone for the day?” My father asked.
“I forgot something,” I said, headed to my office and to my computer. Of course we had plenty of resources to find whatever we needed to know. We used some things to look up the history of our clients, especially their criminal background, so with the little that I had, after some work, I found her.
Kera Wilson. And she was only twenty-five! I was thirty, but Elroy was thirty-three. I was amazed that he’d said that they had been together for five years, which meant that she was only twenty when they met and he was in his late twenties. What could they possibly have in common? And he proposed to her?
She had a few charges; small ones but nevertheless she had them. She didn’t graduate high-school and of course never went to college. She didn’t own a house, or even own her car. She was young, so she didn’t have a lengthy job history, and what was there, was dead end jobs or those that couldn’t exactly be considered careers.
On paper, we were two very different women. It was no secret that maybe I intimidated Elroy a little. I mean I made a lot of money, and maybe he just felt more like a man with her. I wasn’t sure. But I wrote down more than enough of her information and headed back home to Elroy, but when I got there, he was gone.
Once I was settled inside, I called him, but I was surprised to find his phone on the couch.
He left his phone? Now, that definitely wasn’t right.
Immediately I tried his code, but it said that it was invalid. I tried to guess a few other ones, but I still couldn’t get in. He’d had the same code for years, so why change it now? And why would he leave his phone behind?
Maybe he left in a rush. And if he was in that big of a rush; that meant that something had to be wrong. Suddenly I got an idea and headed for my purse. I found the number that I had found for Kera and called it private. I called it about five times but she didn’t answer either.
Well, maybe it was nothing. I was at Elroy’s house so I would be there waiting for him whenever he got there. I took the opportunity to be nosey, but as always, there was nothing for me to see or find. I managed to get a lot of work done, and even cooked something simple for him.
But as it hit eleven o’clock at night and Elroy still wasn’t home, just as I closed my eyes, I knew that without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to have to cut somebody! And surprisingly I slept like a baby, knowing with all of my heart that as soon as I saw Elroy, I was swinging on his ass! So he better be ready!
~***~
“She’s pregnant.” My heart dropped.
“Did you hear me Serenity? She’s pregnant.”
I still didn’t move or even blink.
“She’s three months.”
Instead of punching him like I’d planned to, I grabbed my stomach.
Pregnant? She was pregnant? With his baby?
A part of me wished that I could stomp his dick off and kick it into five o’clock traffic. But I couldn’t move. I could barely even speak but I knew that I had to.
“I thought you said that you haven’t had sex with her.”
“I haven’t…in three months.”
No! No! No!
That’s not what he’d told me! I remembered the conversation verbatim. I’d asked him more about them having sex and he’d told me that they hadn't had sex in a long time. He’d said that the last few times that he’d seen her, she had been on her period and that he couldn’t remember the last time that they’d been intimate. That’s what he’d said to me.
“So it’s yours?”
“I’m sure it is.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’m sure it is Serenity. As I said, I was engaged to her too. As far as she knew, we were in a committed relationship.”
“So now what?” I didn’t even know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. One minute we were planning to work things out and then the next minute this woman, this same woman, was pregnant.
“Now, I have to make the right decision; the best decision for my unborn child.”
“Meaning what? Meaning you and her are going to be together?” I already knew the answer before he opened his mouth.
“Yes. I think that’s best. I’ve always wanted a child, and now that I’m about to have one, I guess I just want to be there every step of the way.”
Over my dead body! Or maybe over hers!
That should be me pregnant! Not her! I was the one that he was supposed to be marrying! Not her! I was the one that had been there for him, non-stop for the past three years! Not her!
Elroy started fiddling with his keys. I wondered what he was doing and then I saw him remove the key from his key ring and reach it in my direction.
“I’m sorry Serenity. I really wanted us. A baby just changes everything. It’s only right th
at I try to be a family with her and give my child a chance at the perfect family. I never had that. But I at least have to give it a try. I love you. And I’m sorry.” Elroy laid the key on the coffee table and walked towards the door. It was the next day, after I was home from work and after he hadn't come home the night before. He’d said that she’d called him saying to meet her at the hospital and he’d left in a hurry, leaving his phone behind. There is where he’d found out that she was pregnant.
My eyes felt extremely heavy as Elroy mumbled a few things, and then he was gone. Just like that. He was gone.
How could I have been so stupid?
“Ahhhh!” I screamed and flipped over the coffee.
“What the fuck!” I jumped to my feet and continued on my rampage, all the while screaming at the top of my lungs. I flipped over the 60-inch flat screen TV. I punched at the walls and threw everything that I could get my hands on.
“Pregnant! She’s pregnant! By Elroy? Oh no, no bitch! Not by my Elroy! He’s mine! He is going to be my husband! Not yours! But mine!” I roared as though she could hear me. I threatened her even though she was nowhere in sight. Even though she probably didn’t even know that I exist.
I continued to destroy my home, fantasizing that it was him or her that I was doing the damage to.
Just as I reached to grab the mirror hanging on the wall next to the door, I froze. I stared at my reflection. The mascara mixed with my tears was racing down my face as though it was dripping ink. I was so mad. I was so hurt. I was so disappointed. I felt betrayed. I felt used. I felt like a fool. And I was nobody’s damn fool!
As rage took over me again, instead of throwing the mirror, I banged my head against it instead. Immediately the glass shattered and blood dripped from my head and down my face. Blinking repeatedly until I was no longer dizzy and ignoring the throbbing pain, I tried to see my reflection in the shattered mirror. And I didn’t like what I saw. I saw a broken image; a broken woman with a broken heart. I hated myself for loving him. I hated him for loving her. And I hated her and the baby that she was carrying, because he was already in love with it, even though the baby wasn’t even here yet.
Suddenly, I had an idea. If the baby was what was standing in the way of me and Elroy, then there was only one thing left for me to do.
Get rid of it.
And while I was at it, I might as well get rid of her too.
I moved my curls away from my face and smeared the blood with my hand. At the end of the day, her blood was going to be on Elroy’s hands. It was his fault for what happened to her next. Not mine.
I mean, he really thought that he was just going to ride off into the sunset with some young wife, and a new baby? He really thought that it was going to be that easy? After all of the time and love that I’d invested in our relationship? Oh no. Oh hell no! I just couldn’t let that happen. This wasn’t some book with a happy ending. This was my life. My life that he’d played with, but the joke was going to be on him.
Little did they both know, I was the only wife that Elroy was going to have…ever! And I could bet my life on that. Or better yet, I could bet hers.
~***~
I stood, watching them through her window.
They were sitting on the couch. Cuddling. Watching a movie. He kept touching her stomach and all she did was smile.
Humph. I’ll give you something to smile about. I screwed off the lid to the gas can and I walked around the house, all the way around, twice, pouring the gasoline on the ground. Every thought in my head was wicked. Every feeling in my heart was pure evil. Burn baby, burn! And they were going to burn too!
Now, what in the hell did I do with those matches?
I sat down the gas can and I checked my pockets. I was going to grill their asses, Cajun style, as soon as I found them. Where are they? Maybe I left them in the car.
I headed back to get them and just as I found them and shut the car door, a loud car full of men pulled up about two houses from hers.
I stood still and waited for them to go inside the house but they didn’t. They talked and continued to play the music and then I saw Kera’s porch light come on. Uh oh! Hoping into the car, I sped off, hoping that no one was paying me any attention.
Damn it!
I was going to light their asses up like a Christmas tree. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Back to my original plan then. Someway, somehow, Kera and that baby had to go!
~***~
I walked out of court knowing that I could have won that case. My closing argument sucked! I knew that if I could have just been focused, I would have won. But I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about anything these days other than Elroy and Kera.
My mind and my thoughts were always all over the place, and I couldn’t seem to focus on anything, or anyone else. I was always wondering about Elroy, or trying to figure out what could be done about Kera. And every time I even heard the word “baby”, I had to force myself not to slap the shit out of somebody! The situation consumed me and on top of having such a poor performance at work, I was barely sleeping and I was lucky if I remembered to eat, at least once every day. I was stressed, depressed and everything else in between and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it one bit.
I’d thought that dead and overcooked Rodney had broken my heart, but what I’d felt then didn’t even compare to what I was feeling now. I was miserable. I was broken. I was irrational. And maybe even obsessed.
To keep my father off of my back, I went back to work after court and attempted to get some things done but by three o’clock, I told him that I was going to work from home for the rest of the day. Really, I was headed over to Kera’s.
Of course I’d gotten her address from my online search too, and I’d been back plenty of times since that night I’d wanted to burn the house down. I watched her and her house so much that I’d fallen asleep in the car a few times. I was thinking. I was plotting. I wasn’t going to just let her have my man.
Elroy had been over a few times that I’d been there. One time that he was there, I threw a brick through his back window. He had to know that it was me, but he never called to accuse me. He never called me to say anything at all.
Just as I turned down her street, she passed me, going in the opposite direction. Instead of doing a U-turn and making myself noticeable, I pulled into a nearby drive way and turned around. I caught up to her and followed her from a distance.
She had the same exact car as Elroy’s; just a different color and she didn’t have rims on it either. I couldn’t help but wonder if Elroy had purchased it for her. He’d probably gotten it when he’d got that big settlement check. We were only in the beginning stages back then, so I definitely wasn’t keeping up with his money, or wondering where he was spending it. It wasn’t until it had started getting low, and once he started to complain about it, that I started trying to help him find ways to invest it. But he hadn't listened to me anyway.
We drove for a while and my mouth opened wide when I noticed that she was stopping at a bridal store.
What the hell was she doing here?
If she thought that she was marrying Elroy, she was wrong. Dead wrong!
Maybe she was a bridesmaid or something. Maybe she was picking up something for someone. There was no way that she and Elroy were actually going through with getting married. No. He just wouldn’t do that. He still didn’t have a job and he would have to be settled before he made a commitment like that. Yeah. I knew him enough to know that he wasn’t doing anything like that, without the money.
I didn’t hesitate to go in behind her but I kept my distance and I kept out of sight. She spoke to the woman at the counter, and then the woman reached her a dress from the back. She headed to the dressing room to try it on. There was a big black bag over it so I wasn’t sure if it was a wedding gown or not, but I was about to find out.
Still on the other side of the shop, I waited impatiently for her to come out, and finally she did.
Ugh! I was furious! Sh
e looked gorgeous. The wedding gown hugged all of the right places and she looked like a princess.
And then reality reminded me that she was the enemy and that she was preparing to marry the man of my dreams.
He was going to marry her? He was really preparing to marry her after giving me a thousand excuses? He was going to marry her without a job?
Not in this lifetime!
Walking hastily out the door I pushed over every mannequin that I passed on the way out and I heard the clerks say something behind me but by the time that they made it outside, I was pulling off. There was no way in hell that I was going to let her marry Elroy!
Watch! She was not marrying my husband! She was not marrying Elroy! My vision became blurred for some reason and the way that I felt in the inside, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I’d officially snapped! What little rational thinking that I had left was gone and there wasn’t a damn thing that anybody could do about it!
Somebody was going to die! Somebody was going to die! Somebody was freaking going to die! And that somebody was going to be Kera! And I meant it too!
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CHAPTER VI
“If you don’t hit her, you don’t get paid!” I hung up the phone, just in time. Just as the doctor walked in.
I’d been trying different things to either get rid of Kera, entirely, or at least make her lose the baby.
I’d had Big Nate doing so much dirt for me, that I no longer had any favors left from getting him off on all of his charges. I was now offering to pay him to get things done. I was desperate to get rid of her and I didn’t care how much it cost me! I’d had him mess with her brakes, causing her to get into a wreck. I watched her from a far get out without a scratch. I even followed her to the hospital, but the very next day she went shopping for baby clothes so as far as I knew she was still pregnant. Next I’d had him break into her house, and try to scare her to death. He even beat her up a little bit, hoping that it caused her to have a miscarriage or something, but after the police left that night, she didn’t go anywhere; no hospital or nothing. But instead, Elroy came to stay with her and had been there ever since.