Her So Called Husband

by Chenell Parker

  “Look y’all, I know I messed up and I know y’all are still pissed with me, but from the bottom of my heart, I apologize.” I said sincerely. I really was sorry for the way that I treated them. They both nodded their heads, but they still didn’t say anything. I really needed them to forgive me and I would do anything to make it happen.

  “Please forgive me,” I begged with tears in my eyes.

  “I forgive you and you know I love you, but you really need to get yourself together, Rika,”Cherice said.

  “I’m trying Cherice, I really am, but it’s hard,” I said as the tears fell from my eyes.

  “It’s only as hard as you make it,” Cherice replied.

  “You made Dre your whole life and now you feel like you can’t live without him. You need to think about your children too.”Charde still hadn’t said anything since we sat down. I knew she would be a tough shell to crack. She was the more vocal and outspoken out of the two of them.

  “You’re starting to lose weight again and everything,” Cherice said.

  “I know I am. My appetite is all messed up,” I cried.

  “Cherika, you need to stop all this shit,” Charde said breaking her silence.

  “Dre is a dog, plain and simple. Don’t you think for a minute that he won’t do her the same thing he’s doing to you? That’s just the way he is. You are a pretty girl and you can have any man you want. You just too hung up on his ass to move on.” I knew she was right, but I didn’t know how to move on and I really didn’t want to try.

  “I know that Charde, but I want a family. That means my husband and children under the same roof,” I said.

  “Girl, please!” Charde said while standing to her feet.

  “I try to keep quiet sometimes, but you need to hear the truth without us always sugarcoating it for you. You are not the only woman that is not with the father of her kids and you won’t be the first to get a divorce either. He’s running around treating that bitch like she’s royalty or something while you sitting at home crying about it. He treats her better than he treats you and you’re his wife. You need to stop making a fool of yourself behind a man who clearly does not want you! Fuck D’Andre Mack!” she yelled.

  If I never knew how my sisters felt before, I damn sure knew now. If that was how they saw me, I couldn’t even imagine what everybody else saw. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I broke down and cried as the truth of my sisters’ words hit me like a closed fist. Everything she said was true. My husband didn’t love me anymore and I had to live with that. I would have to pray for strength because giving up on Dre and my marriage would be the hardest thing in the world for me to do, but I had to at least try. Both of my sisters rushed over to console me as I literally cried my heart out. I needed to get my life back on track fast.

  “Y’all are right,” I finally told them while drying my tears. Something had to change starting with me.

  “Whaaaat!” Charde laughed. “I must be hearing things. You never agree with nothing we say about Dre.”

  She was right again. I was so defensive when somebody said something that I didn’t want to hear.

  “No boo, you’re not hearing things. I have to get it together for me and my kids. I know it won’t happen overnight, but I have to try,” I replied.

  “That’s what’s up,” Cherice said smiling. “Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get some food and drinks in our system.”

  We called our waiter and placed our food and drink orders as we continued to talk and enjoy each other’s company.

  After we left Santa Fe, my sisters followed me home to drop off me and Charde’s car. Cherice wanted to hit up the mall and we were more than happy to accompany her. My kids were with Dre and I didn’t want to be home by myself. I was still feeling down so I was hoping some retail therapy would help to lift my spirits. I know I told them that I would try to get over Dre, but I was having second thoughts already. Just the thought of losing him to another woman sickened me to no end. It was true that I would have no problem finding another man, but Dre was the only man I wanted. It would take some time and maybe a little scheming, but I was getting my husband back one way or another. However, I did it would just be my little secret.

  When we got to the mall, all of us wanted to hit up Victoria’s Secret to get us some perfume and lotion. I was going crazy picking up damn near everything I saw. I was spending the money that Dre had given me for our kids, but I didn’t care. He could afford to replace it. He was spending mad money on Alexus. She stayed fly and never worked a day in her young life.

  I grabbed all of my items and made my way to the register. My sisters were waiting for me since they were already done. I didn’t know who this bitch was in front of the line, but she was buying up the whole damn store. She was taking forever and this was the only register open.

  “Y’all need to open up another register,”Charde yelled as she walked up and stood next to me.

  “Damn right,” I co-signed getting impatient.

  Just then, I saw Alexus’s friend Jada walk up and take some of the bags that the cashier had put to the side. I would know her fake ass from anywhere. It was no secret that she and Alexus were thick as thieves so that bitch couldn’t be too far behind.

  “That’s Alexus’s friend,” I said to Charde, nodding my head in Jada’s direction. We both started looking around to see if we could spot her in there too.

  “Look, don’t come in this mall with all that bullshit! I’m not trying to go to jail cause y’all in here fighting,” Cherice said.

  Cherice was always the voice of reason, but I wasn’t trying to hear that peacemaker shit today. Jada started walking in our direction followed by Alexus. She was rocking blonde highlights now so that was why I didn’t recognize her when she was at the register.

  When I looked at the millions of bags she was carrying, my blood started to boil. This bitch was spending my husband’s money like she had his last name and carried his babies.

  I couldn’t even front, the little bitch was bad. I was far from ugly, but my shape wasn’t what it was before. My weight had been up and down over the past few months because Dre had me stressing like crazy. She had flawless skin and her shape would make anybody do a double take when she walked by. I could see why Dre fell for her the way he did. He was a sucker for a pretty face and a fat ass. No matter how much weight I lost, that was the one thing on my body that never went away.

  They walked past us and Alexus had a smirk on her face that I wanted to knock off. I couldn’t just let her walk past me, so I dropped everything that I was holding and followed them out of the store.

  “Cherika, don’t start nothing with that girl,” Cherice said as she followed close behind me. I ignored her and kept walking behind my targets.

  “Something funny hoe,” I yelled as I walked up on the both of them.

  They both kept walking, but didn’t say anything. Alexus was laughing and that only added fuel to the fire. They walked through the food court towards the mall’s exit with me hot on their heels.

  “Cherika you look like a damn fool following behind that girl. We just talked about this earlier. Leave it alone and lets go,” Cherice said.

  “Fuck that!” I yelled.

  “I want to know what’s so funny since she keeps snickering and shit.” I know I was making a fool out of myself, but I didn’t care. I hated this girl with a passion. If she had come into the picture, my family would be intact. At least that’s the way I saw it. I was just about to stop following them when they stopped at Dre’s car. My face dropped and I got mad all over again. This was the same car that he refused to let me drive when we were together. They started loading their bags into the trunk, completely ignoring me and my sisters. That only made things worse.

  “Scary ass,” Charde said as we continued to stand there.

  Alexus was far from scary and I knew that first hand, but for some reason, she didn’t feel the need to entertain us today. I guess she had enough of us because sh
e finally spoke up.

  “Bitch, I’m far from scary. Just ask your sister,” she said to Charde.

  I was already in attack mode so her word sent me right over the edge. I tried to run up on her, but Cherice stopped me before I could. A few people started gathering around us as we screamed and yelled at each other in the parking lot. The mall security was headed towards us so I knew I wouldn’t be to get to her once they came. Charde and Alexus were still screaming at each other when security walked up on us. My sister told me about Alexus pushing her when they were at the tattoo shop so I assumed she was still mad about that.

  “Bitch you going hard behind a nigga that’s not even yours. Maybe it’s because you sucking his dick too. Tell your sister how you give her husband head every chance you get. Nasty ass bitch!” Alexus yelled.

  My whole world stopped when she said that. I didn’t have any more fight left in me. That had to be a lie. Dre and Charde hated each other so there was no way possible they were fooling around. I knew my sister had a ratchet past, but I hope that past didn’t include Dre. That would be too much for me to deal with.

  “Don’t be quiet now. You weren’t quiet a minute ago. Tell your sister what the deal is,” Alexus continued to yell.

  Through it all Charde remained quiet, but her silence spoke volumes as far as I was concerned. I knew my sister better than anyone else did. She was guilty.

  “Y’all have to leave or I’m calling the police,” the security guard told us.

  “Come on y’all,” Cherice said. Alexus and Jada got in the car and pulled off as my sisters and I searched the parking lot for Cherice’s car.

  When we found the car, I stood in front of the door, blocking it so Charde couldn’t get in. I wanted some answers and she was going to give them to me.

  “Tell me she was lying, Charde,” I said while looking in my sister’s eyes.

  She dropped her head, but didn’t respond. I couldn’t believe this shit. She was the main one who was always on my back about leaving Dre, but she was the same one who was fucking him behind my back. I hauled off and slapped her across her face. I followed up with a series of punches to her body until Cherice pulled me away. “Cherika stop! Are you crazy?” Cherice yelled pulling me away.

  “Let me go! That bitch is the main one bad mouthing my husband, but she go behind my back and sleep with him,” I cried.

  “I never slept with him, I swear,” Charde said crying.

  “Oh I forgot, you just sucked his dick,” I yelled sarcastically.

  It was bad enough that Dre kept hurting me; now my sister was doing the same thing. I didn’t know how much more I could take.

  “I’m so sorry, Cherika,” she cried. “I know I was wrong and I swear it’ll never happen again.”

  “Why would you do it in the first place?” I asked her. I wanted to know what I had done to her that was so bad that she would do me so wrong. I loved my sisters with everything in me. I shared everything with them, but my husband was supposed to be off limits.

  “It was a mistake. I don’t have an excuse or a reason why it happened, but I am so sorry. Please don’t let this come between us,” she said crying. How could something like that have gotten past me? It just didn’t make sense.

  “Tell me the truth, Charde. Did you and Dre ever have sex?” I asked the question, but I was afraid to get the answer.

  “No, I swear we never had sex. That was all that happened between us,” she said while looking me in my eyes.

  I knew she was telling the truth because she made eye contact with me. I really wanted to hate my sister, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have a big family so we were very close. So many bad things were happening to me lately and I truly believed that I was being punished for my past.

  “Let’s go y’all. Maybe we can go somewhere and talk,” Cherice said.

  “Yes. I need a drink,” I said as we all piled into the car in route to wherever alcohol was sold.

  We ended up at a daiquiri shop in New Orleans East. It wasn’t as crowded as it usually was so we decided to go in and get us a table.

  Once we got our drinks, we sat at a table in the corner. Charde and I had a long and much needed talk. She explained to me how everything happened. It was no surprise that Dre was the one that approached her. Although I forgave her, I couldn’t trust her anymore. She would have to work hard to earn that back. She could have told me when he came at her, but she chose to entertain his advances. This wasn’t the first storm we had been through so I knew we would overcome this one as well.

  if I could forgive Dre for constantly cheating on me, then I could do the same for my sister. Charde didn’t have the best reputation and Dre was a sucker for some good head so it wasn’t hard to see how they ended up together. He had a lot of explaining to do as well since he was just as wrong as Charde was.

  “I’m ready to bounce. This has been a long ass day,” I announced to my sisters, after about three hours of talking and drinking.

  “It sure has,” Cherice replied. “Let me run to the bathroom before we go.” When Cherice got up, Charde used that as an opportunity to talk to me again.

  “I know it’s gonna take some time to repair our relationship, but I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to regain your trust,” she told me, squeezing my hand.

  “I know it won’t happen overnight, but I just want us to work on it,” she continued. I smiled at her and nodded my head, letting her know that I heard everything that she said. Forgiving her was the easy part. I would never be able to trust her around my husband again. There’s no telling how long this secret would have been kept if Alexus hadn’t said anything. I had many more questions to ask, but I was tired of talking about it for the time being.

  After a few minutes, Cherice came running back to the table.

  “Guess who I just saw at the polka machine in the back?” Cherice yelled excitedly.

  “Who?” Charde and I said simultaneously.

  “ Keanna’s messy ass,” she replied.

  “Who is she back there with?” I asked standing to my feet.

  “I don’t know. I saw her when I went to the bathroom. She playing on the machine in back corner. She didn’t even see me.”

  “I’m going back there,” I said walking off.

  “No. You can’t do anything in here. We all going to jail if you do,” Cherice said. I knew my sister had a point, but I was itching to get to that hoe.

  “Let’s just go outside and wait until she comes out,” Charde suggested.

  “It’s almost one and they should be closing soon.” That was a good idea. After all, she had to come out sooner or later.

  When my sisters and I got outside, I noticed Keanna’s car immediately. I guess I wasn’t looking for it before so I didn’t see it. We got in Cherice’s car and pulled up two spaces from where she was parked and waited. My adrenaline was pumping and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Keanna. The whole time she was feeding me info about Dre and Alexus, she turned out to be the one that put them together. Even though it was never confirmed about her doing the DNA test on Troy and Drew, she was guilty until proven innocent. She was the only suspect in my eyes. Nobody else had a motive.

  After waiting for about forty-five minutes, we finally saw Keanna coming outside looking down at her phone. As soon as she got close to the car, we jumped out on her ass.

  “What’s up Keanna?” I asked.

  She grabbed her chest as if I scared her, but she appeared to be unfazed by our sudden appearance.

  “Girl, you scared the hell out of me. What y’all doing out here?” She asked like everything was all good. I hope this bitch didn’t think this was a friendly visit because it was far from that.

  “Don’t worry about what we doing here. What I want to know is, why would you hook Dre up with somebody else knowing he was married? Then you want act like you were on my side when you were the cause of all this shit happening in the first place.” I was waiting for her ass to lie, but I guess she knew it was use
less.

  “First of all, I didn’t have to hook your so called husband up with nobody. He was a hoe when you met him so he was going to cheat regardless. But while we’re asking questions, I have a few to ask you,” she said while snaking her neck.

  “Out of all the niggas in the world, why would you fuck Troy?” She asked.

  “Then you did the shit in my house, in my bed all while you were smiling in my face. And on top of all of that, you got pregnant for the nigga and tried to put the baby on my cousin. Yeah, I know all about the DNA test,” she said with a smirk on her face.

  “Bitch, I guess you do know about it since you were the one who did it,” I said.

  “I sure did,” she replied in a matter of fact tone.

  “Dre was gon’ leave you for Alexus anyway. I just sped up the process.”

  I was done talking after she said that. I ran towards her swinging and got a few licks to the side of her face. She dropped everything she was holding and started swinging back. A few people came out of the daiquiri shop to watch what was going on. Keanna quickly got the best of me as she pulled my hair and slung me to the ground. She was about to kick me in my face when my sisters jumped in and started swinging on her.

  I got up and joined them as they punched and kicked every part of Keanna’s body. She was trying her best to keep up with us, but she was outnumbered. A few minutes passed before two bouncers came outside and broke up the ruckus that we were causing.

  “Y’all hoes can’t fight. Y’all had to jump me,” Keanna yelled as she was being helped up from the ground. “Bitch, don’t get mad with me because a youngster took your husband!” she yelled, pissing me off even more.

  “Get in y’all ride and leave before I call the police,” one of the bouncers said to us.

  He didn’t have to tell us twice. We rushed over to Cherice’s car and burned rubber getting out of the parking lot.

  “That ho made me break my nail,” I complained as we drove away.