What's Done In the Dark(72)

Greg glared at me. “Yeah, wifey. Tell her it isn’t true.”

I looked at Paula, then the sea of faces staring at me in shock, then back at Paula, and all I could say was “I’m so sorry.”

“You bitch! How could you do this?” Paula screamed as she dove over the table. I saw my sisters move in to try to pull her off of me, but she was like a raging bull. All I could do was shield my face because Paula was out for blood. Just as I raised my arms I saw my husband, a mixture of hate and sadness across his face, exit out a side door.

The last thing I remembered was Paula’s fist connecting with my face before everything went black.





52


Felise


“OOOOH,” I MOANED. I FELT like I’d been in a boxing match with Laila Ali and hadn’t landed a lick.

“Just take it easy. Sit up.” Mavis was bent over by my side. She was trying to help me sit up.

“Are you sure we don’t need to take her to the hospital?” I heard Fran ask.

My head was pounding and my vision was blurred, but I knew I had no desire to go to the hospital, especially because the nearest one was Memorial Hermann, where I worked.

“I’m okay,” I mumbled, rubbing my forehead. Then I noticed the word whore spray-painted across the hotel room wall.

“What is that?” I asked.

Mavis and Fran frowned. “Yeah, we saw that when we brought you here,” Mavis said. “At some point during the evening, Greg must’ve come up here and done that.”

I shook my head. That must have been why he wanted to use my credit card for the room when we checked in. He wanted to make sure I’d be responsible for this mess.

“Why would he do this?” I said, adjusting the ice pack someone had placed on my jaw. “Go to this extreme?”

“It is low-down,” Mavis replied. “But I told you, all consequences have actions.”

“Not now, please,” I said. I had a bad enough headache. Mavis’s preaching would only make it worse.

“Oh, I’m not trying to preach because I feel horrible for you,” Mavis said.

“Paula, how is she?” I asked.

“She’s not too good. They had to sedate her,” Mavis said.

I fell back against the headboard. “Oh, my God, she’s never going to forgive me.”

“Probably not,” Mavis replied.

“This is all your punk-ass husband’s fault,” Fran said. “I should’ve known something was wrong. Greg is so anal, and he forgave you so easily.”

Fran was right. Now that I thought back on his behavior, I should’ve seen this coming. But my need for redemption had blinded me. My husband never had been a forgiving man, so I don’t know why in the world I thought he’d forgiven me for such a horrible betrayal, and so quickly. I was so blinded by my guilt that I didn’t think about how vindictive my husband could be.

“So, what are you going to do?” Mavis asked.

“I don’t know. I want to try and make it right. I don’t know how that’s possible, though,” I replied. “But I need to talk to Paula.”

“I agree.”

“Girl, are you crazy?” Fran said. “You’d better stay far away from Paula right now.”

“Unlike Fran, I do think you should go see Paula. Try to talk to her,” Mavis said.

“She’s not going to want to talk to me.”

“But you have to try.”

I couldn’t believe I was in this predicament. “One weak moment has cost me everything.”

“It sure did, and if you ask me, Steven got off easy,” Fran said.

Mavis sighed heavily. “I understand the desires of the flesh. I understand temptation, but we can’t get so far gone that we don’t think about the consequences of our actions. We get so caught up in the minute that we don’t worry about anything else.”

My sister with all her preaching was right on the money. That night in the Four Seasons, Steven and I had thrown caution to the wind. We knew it was wrong, but we justified it because it felt right. We never thought about all the people we would hurt. We never thought our story would end like this.

“When bad things happen, most people don’t see it coming. They think that they’re going to be the one that can do this bad thing and everything will be all right. I’m not saying we won’t get caught up in bad situations. But before you take that leap, we should always ask, is it worth it?” Mavis continued.

Even Fran looked like she was thinking about what my sister was saying. And it must have resonated with her because she didn’t say a word.

“I made a mess of everything,” I cried.

“Yeah, you did. But that’s the reason Jesus died for our sins, so that we don’t have to crucify ourselves for them.”