Love, Honor, and Betray

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

  “So, when were you going to tell me?” he shouted.

  Charlotte swallowed hard and knew Sybil had already gotten to him.

  “I’m going to ask you again. When were you going to tell me?”

  Charlotte covered her mouth. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it,” she said, moving toward him.

  “No! Don’t touch me.”

  “Please, baby. Let me explain.”

  “Explain what? That you’re the biggest whore of the century?”

  Charlotte locked her fingers in a praying position. “Curtis, please, please, please. Please listen to me. This whole ordeal with Tabitha and Curtina had me all messed up, and I just wasn’t thinking clearly. I was completely out of my head.”

  Curtis jerked his tie loose and undid the top button of his shirt. “I just don’t understand you. I mean, is it that hard for you to keep your legs closed? Is it that hard to sleep with just one man?”

  “No, and I didn’t plan any of this. I was hurt, then one day I was on Facebook, and the next thing I knew I was contacting Michael. After that, one thing led to another and before I realized it, I’d let him talk me into flying down to Florida for the weekend. But I never meant for things to go that far, and I ended it right away. I told him last week I couldn’t see him anymore, and I haven’t.”

  Curtis looked puzzled. “Michael? Who’s Michael?”

  Oh God, please don’t let this be happening.

  “Who’s Michael, Charlotte?”

  She tried answering him, but she couldn’t speak.

  “So, what are you saying? You’ve been sleeping with two different men at the same time? Because I’m talking about this guy named Tom.” Curtis pulled out his cell phone, pressed a few buttons, and shoved it into her hand. “I’m talking about the man who sent me five different naked photos of you and then called me to gloat about it.”

  Charlotte slowly dropped down into the chair, and tears slid down her face. She was speechless and knew there was no sense trying to defend herself.

  “Why don’t you take a look,” he yelled. “Take a look at all of them. The three with just you lying across the bed asleep and looking like some filthy prostitute and then the other two with both of you.”

  “He’s been blackmailing me,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’m sure he has, but did he make you go to that club, get drunk, and then drive to some cheap motel with him?”

  “I told you, I was confused. I was still hurt over all those years you slept with Tabitha. I was hurt over the way you snuck her in and out of your hotel rooms whenever you traveled. Then you brought home a baby, Curtis.”

  Curtis held up both his hands. “Just stop it, Charlotte. Stop all that fake drama, because it’s not going to work this time.”

  “But we’ve both made mistakes. We’ve both done things, and now all we have to do is start over.”

  Curtis laughed. “Start over, huh? You think it’s that simple?”

  “I do. It’s simple because we love each other and we can fix this.”

  “But what about Matthew? What about the fact that he drove to some grungy motel and found you with another man? Is that simple, too? Can you fix that?”

  Charlotte’s heart dropped. Tom hadn’t left out much of anything, and she wondered why he’d done this to her. Why he’d chosen her as a target and acted as though he was trying to fulfill some sort of vendetta.

  “Yeah, I know all about that,” Curtis said, snatching up his keys. “And you make me sick.”

  Charlotte got up. “Curtis, please don’t leave,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Please let me talk to you.”

  Curtis yanked his arm away from her. “Talk to me about what? What is it you have to say that you haven’t said already?”

  “A lot. So, please, just give me a chance.”

  “I gave you a chance when you slept with Aaron, remember?”

  “And I gave you one when you slept with Tabitha,” she shot back.

  “And I forgave you for lying and trying to pass Marissa off as my daughter when you knew she wasn’t mine. And what about this Michael person and that trip you took to Florida? Am I supposed to forgive you for all that, too?”

  There was just no winning with Curtis, and Charlotte no longer had any fight in her.

  Curtis opened the door leading to the garage and looked back at her. “You know it’s over between us, right?”

  Charlotte burst into tears all over again, her chest heaving. “Baby, please.”

  “It’s over for good,” he said and walked out.

  Chapter 43

  Curtis drove to the stop sign located at the entrance of the subdivision, put his truck into Park, and cried his eyes out. His heart ached violently, he was totally humiliated, and the only time he could ever remember feeling such dire pain was first when his mother had passed and then when he’d thought Matthew wasn’t his biological son. How could Charlotte do this? How could she look him in his face, day after day, pretending to be so in love with him? How could she stomach the idea of sleeping with two men almost simultaneously? Was she really that much of a whore? Was sex with multiple men just that important to her?

  Curtis was so angry with Charlotte he didn’t know what to do, and he could literally kill her for hurting his son the way she had. First, she’d treated Curtina like dirt, and Curtis had basically allowed her to get away with it, but now she’d crossed a very treacherous line with Matthew. Curtis could only imagine how that poor child must be feeling after seeing his mother in a motel room with some stranger. He must have been mortified, and now Curtis knew why he’d been so quiet over the last couple of days. He’d been carrying around his mother’s dirty little secret and probably dying inside all the time. He’d been carrying the kind of burden no child should ever have to bear, and Curtis despised Charlotte for it. He hated what she’d done to all of them, and he wanted her to pay. He wanted her to feel the kind of lingering pain that wouldn’t be forgotten too easily.

  Curtis watched as the car behind waited for a few seconds and then drove around him. He didn’t even know what to do at this point. Or where to go, for that matter. He was so beside himself, so furious, and he wanted revenge. He needed retribution, and with the way he was feeling he didn’t see what would be so wrong with that. What harm would there be in sleeping with Sharon when Charlotte had bedded two men? To him, all this meant was that it was time he leveled their playing ground. Time he showed her how the game was truly supposed to be executed—time he showed her that, compared to him, she was a mere amateur.

  But then there was this ugly feeling of guilt that he couldn’t seem to shake. Not about anything that had happened between him and Charlotte, but about the awful thing he’d done to Tom. Curtis dropped his head back onto the headrest and replayed their phone conversation from earlier this evening.

  “Long time no hear from,” Tom had said, but Curtis hadn’t recognized his voice.

  “Who is this?” Curtis had asked.

  “Tom Johnson. Remember my wife, Patricia? The woman you had an affair with a number of years ago? You know, when you were pastor of Truth Missionary Baptist Church? And while you were engaged to your second wife?”

  Back in the day, Curtis had slept with so many women, there was no telling who this man was talking about. So, he still hadn’t been able to place her.

  “Remember how you came to visit her one afternoon and ended up sleeping with her in my bed, and my twelve-year-old son came home early? Remember how he walked in on the two of you?”

  It was then that Curtis had recalled everything and couldn’t have been sorrier for it. “Tom, I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry, and I’m a totally different person now.”

  “Sorry? What is sorry going to do? My son was so upset, he ran back out of the house, got on his bike, and was hit by a car. It took him over a year to fully recover, and even today, he still has a few aches and pains in his legs. Then, on top of that, once my wife had that affair with you, she kept on having
affairs with other men and then one of them finally killed her. She tried to end things with him, but their relationship turned into a fatal attraction.”

  Curtis hadn’t heard about that, but he’d still felt sorry about it, and yes, he felt partly responsible for Patricia’s actions.

  “So, you see,” Tom had continued, “you ruined my life, and it took me years to get it back on track. First, I lost my wife to you, no matter how brief your affair was, then, I lost her to other men, and finally to death. And I almost lost my son to that biking accident he was in. All because you were lowdown enough to sleep with my wife, in my house, in my bed.”

  “Like I said, Tom, I’m sorry and if there is something I can do. Anything. I will.”

  “No, there’s nothing you can do for me. But over the last two weeks, I’ve done a whole lot for you. I’ve slept with that tramp wife of yours twice and then invited your son to come see his no-good mother at the motel she met me at on Saturday.”

  “What?” Curtis had said, not wanting to believe any of this.

  “That’s right, and he was hurt beyond imagination. I saw the kind of hurt in your son’s eyes that I saw in my son’s eyes years ago. But that still wasn’t enough to make me feel better about any of this. You know, they always say revenge is best served cold, so when we hang up, I think you’ll see what I mean. Oh, and tell your wife she should have answered my calls this afternoon. I’ve never liked being ignored, and this is the result.”

  “So, you actually sought out my wife just to pay me back?”

  “No, see, that’s the real beauty in all of this. Maybe even divine intervention, because I didn’t go looking for her. She just so happened to show up at the club on a night I was there, and I recognized her. Knew her right away, and that’s when the wheels started spinning in my head. I saw the perfect opportunity to trash your seamless little world just like you did mine, and I took it. And I must say, I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.”

  Curtis had no words to speak, so he didn’t.

  “So, you don’t have anything to say?” Tom had asked.

  “Just that I had no idea I’d caused you so much pain or that your wife had been killed.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t, but at any rate, Reverend Black…you go straight to hell,” he’d said and hung up.

  Curtis remembered how he’d felt completely numb, how he would have taken back every one of those times he’d slept with Tom’s wife if he could. But his numbness had only worsened when his phone had beeped and those five photos had come through. Curtis had been staggered by all of them, but for some reason, the two pictures Tom had taken of him and Charlotte together had hurt him the worst. Even now, Curtis still couldn’t shake the images from his mind. In one, she’d been lying on her side with her back to him and with no space in between them; and in the other she’d been cuddled up close, facing him with her head on his chest like she was in love with him. She’d looked as though she’d been sleeping like a baby and had experienced the time of her life, and this had destroyed Curtis’s spirit. It had damaged his soul and cut him to the core.

  Curtis blinked back more tears, put the gear into Drive, and sped out into the main street. He drove all of two seconds before bright lights blinded him, and another vehicle crashed into the side of his SUV.

  Chapter 44

  I’m here for my husband,” Charlotte said, rushing to the ER reception desk. “Curtis Black.”

  “Oh, yes, Mrs. Black,” the young woman said. “They just brought him in by ambulance not long ago, so I’ll get someone to come out and speak to you.”

  “Is it possible for me to go back there with him?”

  “I’m sure you’ll be able to eventually, but please just give me a second to get one of our ER folks.”

  Charlotte looked around the waiting area, then back at the other receptionists, and then down the hallway. This just couldn’t be real, not with all that she and Curtis were already dealing with.

  “Mrs. Black?” a thirty-something man said.

  “Yes,” she said and he shook her hand.

  “I’m Jason Carthell, one of the physician’s assistants on staff here, and if you could just step over here, I’ll give you an update on your husband.”

  “Thank you,” she said as they walked a few feet away.

  “Your husband was in a pretty serious car accident, and right now the doctors are working to get him stabilized. He’s suffered a number of injuries, but once we can get a series of tests done, we’ll have a lot more details for you.”

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “As I said, we’re working on him right now, and of course, we’ll do all we can. I’m sorry I don’t have more information, but I promise we’ll keep you updated as often as possible.”

  “Thank you,” Charlotte said.

  “You’re quite welcome.” He keyed in a code on the electronic door lock, then reentered the examination room area.

  Charlotte went over to a row of chairs, took a seat, and realized she still needed to call Janine. She’d called Matthew as soon as the police had rung the doorbell to tell her the news, but he hadn’t answered. She hadn’t been shocked, obviously, not with him still not speaking to her, so she’d resorted to sending him a text message instead. Then, during her drive to the hospital, she’d called Alicia and her parents.

  Another twenty minutes or so passed. Charlotte signed all the medical consent and insurance authorization forms one of the staff had brought her. Then Matthew and Janine hurried inside together.

  “Mom, what happened to Dad?” Matthew said, walking over to her.

  “He was in a pretty bad accident.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. It happened right outside the subdivision entrance and once the police ran his license plate number for his address, they came to inform me.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” she said, crying. “They’re in with him now, and hopefully, we’ll know something soon.”

  Janine sat down next to her best friend and hugged her. “I’m so glad you called me.”

  “Thank you so much for coming, J.”

  “Did the police say how the accident occurred?” Janine asked.

  “No. They didn’t say much of anything at all. Although, it may have been because they knew I needed to get to the hospital.”

  Surprisingly, Matthew took a seat next to her, and Charlotte put her arm around him. She was worried sick about Curtis but glad Matthew was talking to her. “Your dad is going to be fine, Matt.”

  “You don’t know that, Mom.”

  “I do know that, and if he were sitting here right now, the first thing he’d say is we need to keep our faith strong. So, that’s what we have to do.”

  Matthew didn’t comment, and Charlotte knew he was scared. She was, too, but she tried not to let him see it.

  Not long after, in walked Aunt Emma, Anise, and Curtina. Charlotte still hadn’t spoken to Aunt Emma in a couple of weeks, so she was sure Matthew had been the one to call them.

  Aunt Emma hugged Charlotte. “So what are the doctors saying?”

  “We’re still waiting to hear something.”

  “I’m so sorry this has happened,” Aunt Emma said.

  “I am, too,” Anise told her.

  “Thank you for being here.”

  “Of course. We wouldn’t be anywhere else at a time like this,” Anise added.

  Curtina walked in front of Charlotte, smiling. “Mommy.”

  “Hi, sweetie,” she said. “How are you?”

  Curtina kept smiling and then moved on to her brother.

  “Hey, little girl,” he said, picking her up.

  Finally, a nurse came and directed them into a family consultation room, and two doctors entered only minutes after.

  “Mrs. Black,” the younger of the two said, shaking her hand, “I’m Dr. Mason, one of the general surgeons, and this is Dr. Rumeister, one of our pulmonary specialists who just so happe
ned to still be here this evening.”

  “Nice to meet you both.”

  “And I assume the rest of you are family as well?” he said, looking at the others. All but Janine said yes.

  “This is our son, Matthew,” Charlotte told him. “And this is my stepdaughter, aunt, cousin, and my best friend.”

  “Good to meet all of you. Okay, well, we’ve now had a chance to evaluate things a little better and do some preliminary tests. And what we know so far is that he has a pretty bad concussion, a number of skin lacerations, a slight cervical spine fracture, and a pneumothorax—or, in layman’s terms, a collapsed lung.”

  “Oh my God. Will he need surgery?” Charlotte asked.

  “Dr. Rumeister can explain that part for you,” Dr. Mason said.

  “Not necessarily,” Dr. Rumeister said. “But right now, our main concern is his blood pressure, which is way too low, and also his heart rate, which is far too elevated. These conditions are both due to the collapsed lung situation, but we’re hoping his lung will correct itself within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours.”

  Charlotte didn’t like the sound of this. “But what if it doesn’t?”

  “Then we’ll need to go in with a needle to remove air from his pleural cavity. Then, if that doesn’t do the trick, we may have to do surgery and possibly remove damaged or scarred portions of his lung. This will then allow the lung to begin healing the way it should. But again, this is only if it doesn’t heal on its own.”

  “Will his cervical spine fracture affect his ability to walk?” Anise asked.

  “No,” Dr. Mason said. “It’s pretty doubtful, but he may have some neck pain for a while. If the injury had been to his spinal cord, we would have had reason to worry, but fortunately it wasn’t. But again, we’re going to keep working to get him stabilized and will keep you updated.”

  “We appreciate that,” Charlotte said.

  “Do you have any other questions?” Dr. Mason said, scanning the room.

  “No,” Charlotte said. “I think that’s it for now.”