The Real Housewives of Adverse City

by Shelia E. Bell

  Peyton looked at the passage that she’d seen and read numerous times before. Today, it came to life for her, but instead of helping her, it increased her worries. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and….” She heard Derek and the other housewives reading. Her heart muscles tightened like octopus tentacles. What if I lose my baby? What if she comes and takes Liam away from me? She felt her body grow limp but there was nothing she could do about it. It was almost like one of those out of body experiences that she’d heard people talking about on television.

  “Are you all right?” she heard Derek whisper in her ear at the same moment his arm wrapped around the backside of her waist, steadying her.

  “Yes,” she whispered back. “Just a little lightheaded.” She slowly sat down on the pew. Derek followed.

  The remaining congregation sat down at the end of the scripture reading. Peyton looked up and caught Avery staring at her. “You all right?” Avery mouthed without saying the words aloud.

  Peyton nodded.

  “You want me to take you home?” Derek asked.

  “No, I’m fine. Probably stood up too fast and the blood rushed to my head. I’m good now,” she convinced Derek. If only it was that easy to convince herself.

  ●

  Avery volunteered to take Meesha’s kids home with her after church. She was taking Lexie and Heather to get pizza and decided to make a small party out of it. Meesha’s boys loved to hang around Avery because she had a way with kids.

  Carlton and Meesha drove home alone in silence. When they walked inside the house, Carlton laid his Bible on the table in the family room, removed his Tom Ford suit jacket, and loosened his tie as he made the trek upstairs.

  Silence lingered.

  Meesha went upstairs too, taking off her hat as she climbed the winding staircase. If Carlton wanted to give her the silent treatment because of the decision he made, then so be it. She was hurt but she was not one to beg, never had been, and she wasn’t about to start now. She would keep praying and relying on God to work things out.

  Inside their bedroom, they both undressed. Meesha changed out of her chic fit and flare dress and put on her robe. Tying the belt tightly around her petite waist, she put on a pair of her favorite shoes, some multi-colored clogs.

  Carlton was still getting undressed when Meesha left him in the room and went back downstairs.

  Downstairs and in the kitchen, she looked inside the refrigerator and removed the containers of food that Yulisa had prepared for today’s dinner. Yulisa was off on Sundays and some Saturdays, so she made sure the family had full course meals prepared that only needed warming up or minor prepping.

  Meesha paused for a minute when she heard Carlton coming downstairs. She listened as his footsteps told her that he was going toward his study.

  Opening each container and examining the delectable looking dishes, she started to fix herself a plate, but then stopped and left out of the kitchen, leaving the containers sitting on the counter.

  This was not going to keep going on the way that it was. Carlton was going to have to tell her something and he was going to have to tell her today. This silent treatment was for the birds and she wasn’t having it.

  She opened the door of the study. Carlton was at his desk staring out the picture window at the landscaped yard that they paid an arm and a leg to a gardener to maintain. Inside the door with arms folded, she boldly asked, “When are you leaving? I mean, why do you want to stay here if you want a divorce so badly?”

  Carlton didn’t respond, at least not with words.

  When he looked at her, Meesha could swear it looked like the man had been crying. But if that was the case, why? He’s the one who wanted out of the marriage.

  Carlton pushed back from the mahogany desk, got up, and like superman in a leap and a bound, he was less than a foot away.

  “You’re so dang sexy.”

  Meesha frowned. What was he doing? Playing with her? Toying with her heart?

  Another small step and Carlton stood in front of her. Without saying another word, he grabbed her into his arms, using one hand to close the door to the study and pushing her against it. Slowly, yet with firmness, her body was sandwiched between him and the wall while he voraciously kissed her. His hands played her body like she was a fine tuned instrument. His breathing was hard and rough, as he seemed like he could devour her.

  As badly as she wanted to push him away, she couldn’t. Carlton was an expert lover and their sex life was never lacking. But why now? How could he be kissing her and touching her this way if he was so unhappy with her? She was growing more confused by the minute. She slightly nudged him as her mind tried to ask the questions her body didn’t care about.

  “You…want,” she tried talking, but his touch, his kisses, his warm breath against her neck rendered her speechless.

  Carlton’s tongue cut off her breath. She gasped when his hand went underneath her robe. He loosened the belt on it and gained total access to her.

  After their steamy lovemaking, Meesha was left weak and trembling. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned to walk out of the study.

  “Hold up. Where are you going?”

  Meesha looked at him. “What kind of games are you playing? I don’t understand you. You tell me the truth, or you can pack your bags and leave right now. I won’t let you use me for your own selfish satisfaction. Whoever it is you’re divorcing me for, I suggest you go to her to get your rocks off.”

  With that being said, Meesha stormed out of the study. She hurried upstairs to their bedroom, and went straight to the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she allowed the flood of tears to flow as she turned on the shower and stepped underneath the jets of warm streaming water. Her body heaved as she cried for the demise of life the way she’d known it. Where had things gone wrong? Maybe Carlton was going through some kind of crisis or maybe he was ill. He was willing to lose his family, possibly his church, and all for some other woman. It didn’t make sense.

  Carlton decided against following her, and instead went into one of the guest bathrooms downstairs, where he took a quick shower. With a towel draped around his Adonis body, he went into the kitchen. Containers filled with food were laced across the countertop next to the refrigerator. Meesha had obviously taken them out of the fridge with the intent of warming it up.

  He looked inside each container. After getting a plate from the overhead cabinet, he began placing food onto his plate, and then warmed it in the microwave. Sitting down to eat, he prayed first before diving into his food. While eating, he remembered that he’d left his phone in the study. He got up, went to retrieve it, and while on his way back to the kitchen, it started ringing. Looking at it, he hesitated then pushed Ignore. The phone started ringing again. Again, he pushed Ignore.

  Sitting back down at the table, Carlton stroked his smooth bald head. His text message notifier chimed.

  “u can run but u cant hide. Answer da phone.”

  Carlton read the text message and replied. “busy.”

  “need to see u.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Nothing impossible. I need to see u or mayb it’s ur wife I need to b talkin to.”

  “Leave her out of this.”

  “Meet me n 30 min @ Adverse City Park.”

  Carlton got back up from the table and went upstairs to get dressed. He’d had enough. It was time to handle this situation once and for all.

  Chapter 21

  "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all." Oliver Wendell Holmes

  “How much do you want?”

  “Who says it’s your money I want? Why don’t we try to make a go of this? I’m clean and sober. I want to make things right. I need you to believe me,” Breyonna sat next to him on a bench at the lake.

  It was a perfect day. The weather was delightful, the sun beamed, but not too hot. The park was bustling with life.

  “That’s it, I don’t believe you. I haven’t s
een or heard from you in years. You think you can just show up here and invade my life, not to mention your son’s life. Have you ever stopped once to think how it would affect him if he found out that I’m his father? That is, if I really am his father.”

  “Oh, you’re his daddy all right. You know it and I know it. I’ve loved you since college and you know it. I thought you loved me, too. Why else would I keep sleeping with you whenever you came to Memphis.”

  “Stop it already. You’re delusional. Who’s to say how many men you’ve slept with since you got on that horse and went mad,” Carlton said.

  “Well, I’m not on anything now. I’ve been clean for a while. And I know it can work between us. I know it can. Our son is old enough to understand that people make mistakes. I did what I thought was best for him back then. I told you that you had a kid, but because I was strung out, you didn’t believe me. I know I stayed too high to think straight. But Peyton could have convinced you. She could have told you who he was just as easily as I did. It’s not like I didn’t tell her whose kid he was.”

  “You’re lying. I don’t believe Peyton would keep something like this from me for all this time, that is if she suspected that the boy was really mine.”

  “Well, you better believe it. You and I both know that Peyton has always been nothing but a selfish, think she so mighty, witch,” remarked Breyonna. “She couldn’t have you, so I guess she kept the boy all to herself. She was so in love with you back in college, so since you didn’t feel the same way, maybe she thought our kid would give her some solace. Who knows what she’s thought all these years, and who gives a rat’s behind anyway. I know I don’t. All I’m here for is my kid. I could care less about Peyton and her feelings.”

  Carlton looked at her with disgust flowing from his eyes. “You’re the one who traded him to her for a thousand bucks, so I wouldn’t be so quick to throw Peyton under the bus. Thank God she was the one who rescued him. No telling what kind of life he would be living if it wasn’t for her.”

  “Sounds like you’re trying to make her out to be some kind of saint. I’m glad she took care of him, but it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s your kid, Carlton. Our kid. Don’t you care about that? Or are you scared your little first lady wife will up and walk out on you, and that mega church you established will throw you out on your face? Is that what’s scaring you? You think you’re going to lose out on all those millions of dollars that you rake in? You’ve always been so weak,” she said in a spiteful tone.

  Carlton prepared to stand up. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to any more of your nonsense. Until you can prove that kid is mine, leave me the hell alone, Breyonna. Go crawl back into the ditch you came from.”

  Breyonna grabbed hold of Carlton’s arm. “I wouldn’t be ready to jump up and leave so fast if I were you. I’m not high anymore, Carlton. I’m thinking clear and straight.”

  “What exactly does that mean?” Carlton asked, rolling his eyes at her and sitting back down in his seat.

  “I won’t hesitate to tell anyone who’ll listen about the secret you and Peyton are hiding. If you want to be sure that Liam is yours, then I’m ready to have a DNA test. You see, when I was using, I admit that I couldn’t take care of my kid and love him the way he deserved to be loved. I was too far gone, but you, well you were no saint either. Just because you got your act together doesn’t make you better than me. You and Peyton think just because you live here in Adverse City that you have it made. But we’ll see about that. Just wait until I talk back to Peyton. She knows I’m serious.”

  Carlton looked at Breyonna like he could strangle her. His eyes were dark and his mouth was set like he was biting down hard on his bottom lip.

  “Are you telling me that Peyton knows you’re here in Adverse City?”

  “Ha-ha, of course, she knows, stupid. You mean to tell me she hasn’t called you up to spill the beans? Hah, umm, I wonder why.” Breyonna laughed loudly.

  “You shut up your mouth,” Carlton ordered, looking around like he was trying to see if there was anyone in the park who might have overheard their conversation. “You think she believes your lie about me being her kid’s father? She’s no fool. She knows better.” Carlton’s frown deepened as he got up from the bench and looked down on Breyonna’s pencil thin frame.

  “Why don’t you ask her for yourself. Let her tell you what she believes,” Breyonna retorted.

  Breyonna was once a gorgeous woman. Her once flowing blonde locks now looked like brittle strands of straw. Her green eyes were set in hollow eye sockets. There was a time she dreamed of being a super model, but all her dreams were dashed when she became an addict.

  Breyonna had always been a risk taker. She experimented with pills then cocaine and then on to heroin. She first met Carlton in college. He was messing around real tough with Peyton at the same time, but Breyonna didn’t care back then and she didn’t care about Peyton now. To her, Peyton was nothing but a spoiled rich kid who treated others like they were beneath her. They ran in the same circles and even called themselves friends, but truth be told, Breyonna never really liked Peyton.

  Unlike Peyton, Breyonna was kicked out of college and she returned home to Memphis, strung out and a disappointment to her parents who had worked hard and long hours to send her to college. She looked at herself as a total failure which made her do even more drugs to hide the fact that she had let her parents and herself down.

  Breyonna told Carlton that she was pregnant with his kid after one of his pop up visits to Memphis, but of course, he didn’t believe her. Why would he when she was nothing more than a drugged out trick. He used her to get him drugs whenever he came to town and a little sex outside of his marriage. He did, however, give her some money after telling her that if she was indeed pregnant that she was in no position to have a kid. He urged her to have an abortion, and she agreed.

  Since that incident, Carlton had returned to Memphis once or twice. Like always, he got in touch with Breyonna. He didn’t ask about a kid and she didn’t mention having one, so he assumed she had gone through with having an abortion or that she was never pregnant in the first place, and if she had been pregnant, it wasn’t by him. Whenever he came to Memphis, which wasn’t often, all he ever wanted from Breyonna was a chance to chill, get away from his strict family upbringing by smoking a little weed that he laced with cocaine, and of course mess around with Breyonna until it was time for him to return to his all so perfect life in Florida.

  Before she resurfaced, Carlton didn’t know what had happened to Breyonna or if she was even still alive. He definitely did not know that when Peyton lived in Memphis back in the day that she’d ran into Breyonna. Peyton had never mentioned anything about Breyonna to him and all he knew about Liam, was that she had adopted the kid.

  The last time he went to Memphis, which had been years ago, he couldn’t find Breyonna to hook up with. He went by the apartment where she used to live and the leasing manager told him that he believed she had been busted for drugs and was locked up. He shrugged it off and on top of it all, he hadn’t returned to Memphis since then. Now, here she was, interrupting his life and threatening to destroy everything he had worked hard to achieve. He couldn’t let her do that. He had to find a way to make her go away.

  “Look, let’s stop all of this unnecessary bickering and do right by our kid. It’s not too late.”

  Carlton looked at Breyonna like he was seeing her for the first time. He realized that something wasn’t quite right with her. The drugs she’d been on all these years had obviously affected her state of mind because if she thought he was going to be with her she had to be crazy. And if she thought for one minute that he was going to let her pin some illegitimate kid on him, she had to be even crazier.

  “Look, you know that’s not going to happen. I have a wife and a family of my own. If you love your son like you say you love him then you wouldn’t want to disrupt his life. He’s a good kid and he has a loving family.”

 
Breyonna popped up from off the bench and positioned herself directly in front of Carlton, almost meeting him eye to eye. “He’s our son! And I know you can’t be saying that Peyton is better than me. I’m that boy’s mother. I did what I thought was best for him at the time.”

  Carlton tried to reason with her by coming off like he was genuinely concerned and empathetic. “I’m not saying you were a bad mother. You’re right. You did what you had to do. But keep in mind, I had no idea you even had a kid, Breyonna.”

  “Yeah, that’s because you’re the one who told me to kill him. It’s not like you would have won father of the year yourself.” Breyonna flailed her arms and started pacing nervously back and forth. “Just because you got money now and you all up in that highfalutin church, preaching to all those uppity, hypocritical, judgmental rich folks, you want to snub your nose at me? If they knew who you really were, I wonder what they would have to say about you then, Carlton. And as far as Peyton goes, what does she have to say about you being that kid’s daddy.”

  Carlton looked like he’d swallowed a bug.

  Breyonna suddenly stopped talking and pacing and looked at Carlton. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you looking like…hold up.” Breyonna stopped in mid-sentence and started laughing and pointing at him. “Ohhh, I see. You two have never talked about it, have you? Well, well, well. Isn’t that funny? It’s definitely a small world after all. Of all the churches, the cities and towns Peyton could have gone to, she ends up being in Adverse City and a member of your church, with your kid in tow.” She started laughing again. “Talking about something to write about. Now that’s a story that needs to be at the top of a bestseller’s list.”