Revengeful Deceptions

by Ursula Dukes

“See Adam, wasn’t this a great idea?”

  Renee asked when Adam walked back into the living room. When he had excused himself for a moment, Renee noticed that his cell phone was vibrating. “He doesn't need any distractions,” she whispered as she deleted the text messages and missed calls from his wife. “I hope you liked the pasta, she said, unzipping her boots and sitting close to Adam on the sofa. “Now how about we watch a movie?”

  “Renee the pasta was very good and thanks for loading the dishwasher but I think it’s time for you to go. Dominique will be home soon and I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.”

  “Oh? What idea is that Adam? You've got to tell her not to be so insecure, I mean after all we're just friends having dinner. But Adam, can I just say that I can't believe that your own wife treats you like this, I mean she gets up and takes off on a vacation after all that you've been put through.”

  Adam got up from the sofa. “Renee, you know nothing about my wife so please don’t make assumptions about circumstances you know nothing about. Now dinner was great but it’s time for you to leave.”

  Just a few more minutes, Renee told herself as she made no attempt to get up from the sofa.

  “Oh Adam, your over reacting as usual, I can remember there was a time when you would beg me not to leave. Come on baby, I just want to make you feel good,” she said pulling him back down to sit beside her.

  Adam knew what she was up to, her touch felt good, but it wasn’t the touch of his wife and that was the only touch that he longed to feel again.

  “Hey Dom, mind if we come in and use the bathroom?” asked Molly who was already out of the car and heading towards to elevator.

  “Of course not, come on.”

  Renee timed things perfectly, she knew that Dominique was on her way home and with Adam sitting next to her, it would only take one lingering kiss to cause Dominique’s world to come crashing down. She wanted Adam and the fact that he was married to Dominique meant nothing to her.

  “Come on Adam, just one movie please?” She begged, eyes pleading and moving closer towards him.

  Adam was surprised at how easy it was to turn her down. “Come on Renee time to go,” he said as he took her hands in his and pulled her up off the sofa. When he did so, Renee grabbed him in an embrace and planted her lips on his just as Dominique, Molly and Muriel were entering the condo. The three stood stunned as they watched Adam push Renee off of him. Muriel and Molly turned towards Dominique and watched the color drain from her face.

  “Oh we weren’t expecting you back so soon.” Renee sighed.

  “That's quite obvious, get out of my house,” Dominique said as calmly as she could. Even though she had never met Renee, Dominique knew instantly that it was her.

  A little while after she'd met Adam, Dominique had found a picture of Renee on his cell phone and wondered why he still kept it. This picture of the woman who used him and supposedly broke his heart. It all makes sense now, thought Dominique. He never stopped being in contact with her.

  “And if I ever catch you near my husband again, you will regret it. Now get the hell out Renee,” Dominique said, never taking her eyes off her husband.

  She only had to take a step forward to show Renee that she meant business.

  As she gathered up her things, Renee looked at Adam with lust in her eyes. “Call me,” she said to Adam before smiling coldly at Dominique and walking out the door.

  Molly and Muriel looked at each other; they weren’t quite sure what to do. The situation was getting more and more awkward.

  Adam broke the silence. “Dominique I know what this looks like but please believe me when I tell you she kissed me, I did not want that woman to touch me.”

  Dominique walked over to her husband and slapped him hard on the face. “Adam, I know that things weren’t going well between us and that I have been distant, but I never thought that you would ever consider straying.

  And with your ex none the less. A woman who you told me yourself, wanted you only for your money Adam, how could you? Do you know I came back here wanting to work things out with you, wanting you to meet me here and you’re already here but I never expected this! No wonder you didn’t return my calls and text messages.”

  Muriel gently interrupted. “Dominique honey, we're going to get going. Adam, you disgust me."

  “Mom, Dominique please wait, don’t do this. She threw herself at me, I was pulling her up to get her to leave and she threw herself at me. You've got to know that I would never... Dominique please.”

  “Muriel, would you take your son home with you because I can't stand to even look at him.”

  “I am more than capable of leaving on my own Dominique but first you’re going to listen to me.”

  As Molly and Muriel slipped out the door without being seen or heard, Adam made a move towards his wife.

  “Don't you come near me Adam.” Dominique shuddered as she wrapped her arms around herself. She felt like falling apart but did not want to give Adam the satisfaction.

  “Look Dominique I know you’re angry with me right now and you have every right to be, but listen to me, nothing happened and nothing was going to happen.”

  “Oh so what you’re telling me is that you had her over for what? What were you planning Adam?”

  “Okay Dominique she came over and cooked dinner then she asked to watch a movie and I said no. I told her that it was a bad idea and that you would be coming home and I wanted her to leave. That’s got to count for something.”

  Dominique looked into his eyes when she spoke. “Adam, things should never have gotten this far don’t you see? You should have never invited her over to begin with, so whether or not you wanted her to go is irrelevant at this point.” Like a child who had just been scolded, Adam lowered his eyes to the floor.

  “I understand that and it was a mistake. I should have never allowed it to happen. I was feeling sorry for myself and neglected. She's been calling the office and sending me messages. And with all that's been going on between us I was naive and stupid and I thought I could just go to dinner and that would be that.”

  “Naive Adam? You call that being naive? I call it being as asshole Adam plain and simple.

  Now I’ve listened to you long enough, you need to leave. I need to wrap my head around all of this and don’t you ever and I mean ever use feeling neglected as an excuse Adam because it’s a sorry excuse.

  How do you think I feel? I would have liked to see your face if you came home and I was in another man's arm's kissing him. Adam please get out,” she said, her voice quivering now as the tears began to fall. Adam hated to see her cry, he knew that he was the cause of it and had he not been so selfish, he would be holding his wife in his arms instead of being forced out the door.

  “Dominique can we please talk about this? I love you and I am so sorry that all this happened. I know it was my fault and if you'll give me another chance I’ll make it up to you, I promise Dominique.”

  “Adam I’m not going to ask again, if you won’t leave then I will.” Dominique reached for her overnight bag. “No, I'll leave Dominique, but please tell me that you'll think about everything that we've been through, the good and the bad.

  I know you still love me and if I could change things I would, but I can't so all we can do now is work on getting us back to the way things used to be. Please tell me you'll at least think about us okay?” Adam asked reaching out to her.

  Dominique let him touch her, she let him put his hand on her shoulder and when she didn’t pull away he pulled her to him. Dominique buried her head in his chest and let the tears fall down her face. She was sobbing so badly that she began to shake.

  “Oh Adam, what's happened to us? I know I haven’t been myself lately, but we lost our baby and I am just now starting to get over that. I feel like I went through it alone, you recovered so quickly but I did not. I love you so very much. How could you hurt me like this?”

  Adam held her tighter.

  “I'm so sorr
y Dominique. You mean the world to me and in a moment of pure stupidity I allowed a stranger in. But then I came to my senses, I did. Just please can we sit and talk about this? I swear to you I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  Dominique had never felt as safe as she did in his arms. She hoped that he wouldn’t let go but she knew that she had to.

  “Adam,” she said with tears still in her eyes. “I still need you to leave.”

  “Please give me another chance,” Adam said before he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. The moment he left, Dominique felt as if her heart had stopped. She wasn’t sure of what to do next, should she file for divorce? Should she wait and see where things went? Should she find Renee and chop her up into little bitty pieces then scatter her body into Boston Harbor? The way she was feeling at this moment she could have done all three and it wouldn’t have made her feel any better. “How am I going to get through seeing him at work every day?” Dominique put her face in her hands and wept.

  “Adam what in god's name were you thinking son?” Jonathan shouted.

  “Dad I wasn’t thinking alright? You know how manipulative Renee can be, she got the better of me and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. She set me up good and you want to know the worst part? I couldn’t wait for her to leave, I knew the second I opened the door that it was a mistake. But she pushed herself in, just like she always has when I was against something. What am I going to do Dad? Dominique is so angry with me; I don’t know what she wants.”

  “You’re going to have to give her time son; she walked in on you kissing your ex-girlfriend. That's a lot to absorb and now that she's returning to work it will be ...”

  “Wait back up Dad; did you say that Dominique is returning to work? When did this happen?”

  “Well maybe if you weren't fooling around with Renee, Dominique would have had the chance to tell you herself, “Muriel said in her most sarcastic tone.

  “Adam, Dominique has made a lot of changes and she's ready to come back to work. Had you not put yourself in that asinine situation, she would have told you that she was sorry and that she loves you, that's why she was so anxious to get back home after our spa trip; she wanted to get home to you. But you certainly ruined that didn’t you?” Muriel said before storming out and slamming the door to her husband’s office.

  “You’re going to have to try to win her back son, make her feel like she is the most important thing in the world to you.”

  “She is the most important thing in the world to me Dad, I messed up and I’m going to fix it. I don’t want to have things become like...”

  Adam hoped his father wouldn’t catch on.

  “Like what I did to your mother right? You can go ahead and say it Adam. I admit I made my mistakes and disrespected your mother, but thanks to Dominique we are more in love now than we've ever been. You know, we'll be celebrating not only our wedding anniversary this coming weekend, but our renewed commitment to each other. And we expect both you and Dominique to be there, so take some advice from someone who’s been there, tell Renee to stay the hell away from you and fix this with Dominique son, fix it before it’s too late.”

  Dominique ignored the calls and texts from Molly and Muriel asking if she was alright. She loved her friends dearly but had no desire to go over what had happened only hours ago. Not only was she going to have to see Adam at work but she was expected to go to Muriel and Jonathan's anniversary party. She couldn’t not go; she couldn’t do that to her friend. Muriel had been there for her and she wasn’t going to let Adam stop her from congratulating her friend. You can do this Dominique, you’re not the one who did anything wrong, She told herself.

  Adam arrived at work early, he wanted to be able to see Dominique and hopefully get a chance to talk to her before things got busy. It was her first day back on the job and he was sure that she would be inundated with work.

  Dominique wanted to look her best. Not only for her first day back at work but to show Adam what he was missing. She chose a snug fitting black pencil skirt which she paired with a turquoise body hugging cardigan and a pair of black suede pumps. This ought a get his attention, she told herself as she turned around in front of the full length mirror.

  Dominique was welcomed back by her co-workers and the moment she arrived at her office she felt as if she never left. Yes it was just a simple clerical job but it was one that brought about a sense of normality in her otherwise chaotic world. Who knew that a job she accepted in order to seek her revenge would turn out to be a job she so desperately needed.

  Dominique saw Adam the moment she and Molly entered the conference room for the morning meeting. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked as if he hadn't slept. Serves him right, thought Dominique as she glanced at her husband. If anyone knew what was going on, none of the co-workers showed any signs of it as each individual went on about their daily work. Dominique was thankful no one had mentioned the fire or losing the baby, she hoped to put those things behind her and now she wanted to concentrate on repairing, if she could, she and Adam's marriage.

  Goddamn she looks good enough to eat, thought Adam as he stared at his wife. She was torturing him he was sure of it and even though he didn’t get any sleep last night, seeing Dominique looking like her old self caused him to fill with desire, he wanted her so bad he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  He wanted to take her into his office, clear off the desk and make love to her. But given the circumstances of her hating him for what he'd done he thought she might object. Maybe I’ll start with flowers and a lunch invitation, he thought to himself as he ordered red and white roses.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Adam's emails to his wife went unnoticed, if it did not have to do with work, she automatically deleted the messages. Finally, not being able to stand it any longer, he made his way to her office.

  “Dominique I keep trying to email you but you keep deleting them,” Adam stood frustrated in the doorway.

  “That's because they aren’t work related and if they aren’t work related I don’t have to read them, what do you want? Shouldn’t you be making a play date with Renee?”

  “Dominique there's nothing going on between Renee and me. I came down here because I wanted to ask you to lunch, we need to talk and we can't do it here. Please let me take you to lunch Dominique, you’re still my wife and I want to take you to lunch.”

  Dominique knew she should refuse him, but he looked so pitiful that she accepted his offer. Just hearing the word “yes “come out of her mouth made his heart skip a beat. “Dominique thank you for accepting my lunch invitation, you won’t regret it I promise. Where would you like to go? I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” he said excitement filling his voice.

  Anywhere as long as I’m with you, was what she wanted to say. “It doesn't really matter; I probably won't have much of an appetite to be honest.” Was what came out of her mouth. “Okay, okay; shall we go to that little Italian restaurant around the corner? Say about one o'clock? I'll be back here at one and we'll go to lunch okay?” Adam smiled at her. He was so happy he could barely contain it.

  “Yes Adam, one is fine,” Dominique smiled back. She would go to lunch with him but that was all, in her heart she had already forgiven him but she wasn’t about to let him know that. She'd wait, she would tell him how much she loved him during his parent's anniversary party, it was four days away. And she hoped to last that long, she wanted him back at home, and back in bed next to her.

  “Dom, I’m so glad you’re going to work things out with Adam,” said Molly, who had been worried about her friend. “You two have been through too much together to give up now and as long as that skank Renee stays away, you guys will be alright.”

  Dominique laughed, “Oh don't worry about her, if she even so much as shows her face around here, I’ll have her thrown out on her ass. It's not that I don’t trust Adam, it’s her I don’t trust and if she thinks she can get her claws into him, she is sadly mistaken. I’ve got no problem
telling her that if I ever run into her again. But, she would do best to remove herself from the picture all together.”

  “You got that right Dominique but for right now you need to focus on you and Adam, no one else matters and this lunch date is a start, just don’t be too hard on him Dom.”

  Dominique smiled a sly smile. “We'll see Molly, we'll see.”

  As one o'clock approached, Adam was right on time. He and Dominique walked the two blocks to the restaurant. Adam felt like a teenager when he held out his hand to his wife and she reached for it and held on tight. After they had talked and ate lunch, they talked some more.

  Dominique told Adam that she still needed time and that she wasn’t ready for him to return home yet. “I respect your decision Dominique and I know it’s been hard on you and I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. We are going to have our happy ever after and if you think about it, things have gone so horribly wrong in our lives, that they can only get better. We're going to have a family again Dominique.”

  “Adam what if I told you that I didn’t want to try anymore to have a child, I mean what would you say to that?”

  “Dominique I would say that I understand if you don’t want to have any more children.”

  “Yes but would you resent me for that Adam?”

  “No Dominique, you've been through a lot and you've lost two kids already, I wouldn’t want to put you in that position again unless you were completely positive that you wanted to try again. That question, am I to take it that you don’t want to try again?”

  “No I do. I want to start a family with you, but I want to work on us. We need to work on us. There can be no Renee in the picture Adam, I won’t stand for it. If I so much as see her around you or if you call or text her or anything like that Adam, I’ll leave you. It's that simple.”

  Adam threw up his hands in surrender, “She's gone, she's no longer in the picture, you have my word.

  I am so sorry that I hurt you Dominique, can you please forgive me?”

  “Adam, ever since Sunday I have tried to get that image out of my head, and it's going away, it’s going away slowly, but it’s going away. Please don’t rush me into forgiving you, I just want us to be able to move past this and that’s why I'm not ready for you to come back home but I will be soon, I promise. I just need a little more time Adam. I love you with all of my heart, but I need to make sure that I can forgive you.”