Family Affair (4 page)

Chase smiled and kissed her ear. “Yes, that is how we Brookdale’s do it.”

The End

Thank you reader and I hope you enjoyed my debut short story Family Affair. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please post your review now! Up next is Family Values, go to the next page to get a preview.

Family Values

Prologue

Victoria rolled over and looked at the clock. It was after one in the morning and, once again, the other side of her huge, lonely bed was empty. She wondered what his excuse would be this time, because she’d heard them all before. Unless he’d died, there was nothing else he could use.

Sighing, she reached for the lamp on her night table and turned on the light. Her bladder is what had woken her, and even though she didn’t feel like making the short walk to her master bathroom, she stopped stalling and went. She sat there a couple moments after she was done, her mind wandering. She thought back to when the times were somewhat good with her and Maxwell, and how he used to at least pretend he loved her.

She knew she had twisted his arm and given him more than a subtle nudge to marry her—it was more like a shove, because she knew she was perfect him. She had molded him into the man he was. And after all her hard work and sacrifices, he had the nerve to have another woman. He had the audacity to have a low-class whore on the other side of town. An area anyone with class or standards would shy away from, but somehow, Maxwell found a way to venture to his mistress’ slum neighborhood four or five nights a week.  

Victoria knew she couldn’t make him stop. Her attempts to combat the situation always ended with him walking out on their conversation. All she could do was threaten his job at her father’s company because he’d probably help her pack her things if she threatened to leave him.

“Why do you continue to do this to us?” She sighed and stood up.

After flushing and washing her hands, she headed down to the kitchen to pour herself a glass to keep her company until her husband decided to come home. She sat in her favorite chair near the window and propped her feet up to make herself comfortable while she alternately gazed out the window and watched the clock, hoping she’d see his BMW roll into their driveway. At 1:51 a.m., she finally saw his headlights approach. Downing the last of her wine, she ran up to their bed, got in, and pretended to be sleeping.

Shortly after, Maxwell came in. He turned on the lamp on his side and she could tell he was trying to move around quietly.

She decided to talk to him again. This time, she planned to get answers. “Where have you been, Max?” she whispered.

He paused and turned in her direction. The look he gave her let her know he was surprised by her voice. “I was out with a few of the guys from the office.” She knew he was lying.

“That’s the third night this week. When are you going to spend time with us? Your children need their father,” she hissed.

“Look, Victoria,
don’t, okay. I’ve had an extremely long day and I want to shower and get some sleep.”

“Do you talk to her the way you talk to me?”

“Her who?”

“Don’t play games with me, Maxwell. I’m not a fool and I know you’re seeing someone else.” She just wanted him to admit it.

“I’m going to shower,” he said and walked out on her again.

She sat up, too furious to just go to sleep. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. She sat up and waited for him to finish his shower. She peered at him when he came out and stepped into his boxers, hoping he’d say something.

“So you’re not going to be honest with me? You’re going to keep up this innocent act? I know there is someone else, Maxwell. You’re warming someone’s bed, because this one is empty and cold.”

“Victoria,
it’s late okay. Go back to sleep. I’m tired and I’m not doing this dance with you tonight.” He got into bed and buried himself underneath the covers after turning off his lamp.

Tears burned her eyes. “I love you, Maxwell. I’ve always loved you,” she whimpered.

Silence

“I do,” she added.

Still nothing

Victoria grabbed a Kleenex in the dark from her nightstand. She knew exactly where the box was and didn’t need light to locate it because she normally cried herself to sleep the four or five nights a week her husband was gone.

By the time he was snoring, she was crying uncontrollably. She wondered how he could be so heartless and do that to his family. She didn’t understand how he just didn’t live up to the vows that he’d made to her and be around to help her with his children. She just wanted answers.

~

The next morning, Maxwell got up and went down before Victoria to make breakfast for his two little ones and got them off to school. He was filling his coffee mug when his wife walked into the kitchen.

“Where are the kids?”

“School, Victoria. It’s after eight-thirty,” he said, looking at his watch.

She leaned over and looked behind him, so he assumed she was verifying the time on the microwave.
“Can’t believe you let me sleep in. That was nice of you.” She went over to the coffeemaker to pour her a cup.

He closed his briefcase and then grabbed his coffee to leave. “I wanted to give you a little break.”

“Can you give me something else?”

He stopped. “What, Victoria? What would you like for me to give you?”

“The truth!” she shouted.

Maxwell looked at the desperation and worry in his wife’s face. “All you need to know is that I did what you wanted me to do, and now I’m doing what I want to do.”

Her brows rose into high arches and her mouth dropped open. “What, Maxwell? That makes no sense. Explain to me exactly what you mean?”

He put his briefcase and coffee on the island and took a deep breath. “You knew day one that I didn’t want to go through with this, but I let you talk me into this sham of a marriage. I told you, Victoria, that I didn’t love you the way you loved me. But I let you convince me that all I had was cold feet and that I’d learn to love you. Yes, I take full responsibility for not calling off the wedding back then, when I knew I was being forced into something I didn’t truly want to do. That was mistake number two for me. Asking you to marry me after your father gave me an ultimatum to both keep my position and make his daughter an honest woman or to move on without you and my position was mistake number one.

“We said we’d wait a couple years before we had children, and then what, two months later you were pregnant with Emma. And not even a year later, after you knew how upset I was about you purposely getting pregnant with Emma, boom, you were pregnant with M.J. Now, Victoria, don’t get me wrong, I love my children, but I can’t pretend that we have this perfect marriage anymore. You can either give me a divorce or you can stop asking me questions every time I come home late.”

Her eyes welled and her lip quivered. “So that’s it. I’m supposed to let you cheat on me without dispute. I’m supposed to allow you to keep some whore on the side and smile and not ask questions,” she cried.

“Either that or you and I can go to the lawyers and end this now. I’m here because you want to uphold the perfect marriage image. So, either you let the world in on the truth about us or back off!” he barked and grabbed his briefcase and headed for the door.

~

Victoria saw that he’d left his coffee. She grabbed it and ran out behind him.

She snatched the door open and was about to yell out profanities and give him his coffee, but her neighbor, Jim, was approaching her drive to converse with Maxwell.

“I’m sorry, dear, you forgot your coffee.” She smiled and handed it to him.

“Oh, thanks, babe. You know how I need my morning fix,” Maxwell returned.

“Good morning, Jim. How is Edna?” she asked.

“She is doing much better now. Hopefully she’ll be cancer-free after the treatments are complete.”

“Well, we hope so. To lose a spouse would be devastating.” Victoria smiled and looked at Maxwell.

“It most certainly would be,” Max agreed, smiling back at her. She knew he didn’t want to exchange fake pleasantries, but he went along with it.

“Yes, it would be,” Jim said. “And I can’t imagine the rest of my life without her. You know we’ve been married now thirty-two years.”

Still looking at Maxwell, Victoria replied. “Oh my, thirty-two years is a long time to be married to someone. I hope Max and I get there.”

Max interrupted her long-term marriage dreams. “You know what, Jim, it was nice seeing you, but I have to run. I have a meeting and I can’t be late.”

“Oh, of course, of course,” Jim said.

“So what time shall I expect you this evening,” Victoria asked purposely in front of Jim, hoping he’d say by dinner.

Maxwell smirked. “It may be late, so don’t wait up,” he said and got into his car.

It took every muscle in Victoria’s body not to say more. She let him drive away and then continued to chat with Jim a few more moments before going inside.