Married Men (59 page)
Authors: Carl Weber
“Don’t you do this to me, Kyle Richmond. Don’t you die on me. You understand me? I want you to wake up,” I sobbed. “We’ve got three little girls at home who need you. And they love you more than anything in this world.” I hesitated. “And so do I. So wake up baby. I can’t live without you.” I covered my tear-stained face because I couldn’t look at him like that anymore. God, I wish I had told him how much I loved him before this happened.
“How? How could something like this happen?” I lifted my head to stare across the bed at Jay.
“Something went down between him and Val and he got hit by a car,” Jay said abruptly. “We don’t know the rest.”
“Val? The one he got pregnant?” Just the sound of her name made my blood boil. “What does she have to do with this?” I looked to Jay for an answer but he never even glanced my way. “What does Val have to do with this?” I asked again, this time more sternly.
“I’ve got everything to do with it. This whole thing is my fault.” We all turned toward the door, and there she was. Val, the home wrecker. The bitch that took my man, and like she said, the reason he was in that hospital bed. She was standing at the door with a bouquet of flowers like she was part of the family, and my first instinct was to get up and smack the shit outta her. She had some fucking nerve coming to the hospital.
“What are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough? Or have you come to finish what you already started?” I yelled.
“I just came by to see how he was doing. They wouldn’t tell me over the phone.” I kept looking her way, but she wouldn’t make eye contact.
“Yeah, well, he might die. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“No,” she said weakly, tears running down her face.
“So, what happened? How the fuck did he get hit by a car?” She looked at me then at Kyle before speaking. I got up to take a step toward her, but Allen stopped me.
“That car wasn’t supposed to hit him,” she said quietly.
“No shit, Val. Tell me what happened,” I demanded.
“I was in the street. It almost hit me, but Kyle pushed me out of the way.” Tears were streaking down her face now. I almost felt sorry for her—at least until she told me the rest of her story.
“We got in a fight about your divorce and he kicked me out of his apartment. I was so mad at him I wanted to teach him a lesson. So I brought an ice pick and slashed his tires. I never thought he would come downstairs as fast as he did to stop me, but when he did, panicked. I ran into the street. I’d be the one lying in that bed if it wasn’t for him. He saved my life.”
She began to cry uncontrollably. She must have felt like the entire world had come crashing down on her shoulders and it was all her fault. She looked like it, too. Not only were her eyes red and swollen from crying but her weave was all over the place and it looked like she hadn’t combed it in days. Her pants and blouse were all wrinkled and stained with brown spots that looked like mud. I swear she looked like she’d been sleeping in them last night. Matter of fact, the more I looked at those spots, the more I think she did sleep in those clothes, ’cause those stains weren’t mud at all. They looked like dried-up blood. Probably Kyle’s blood.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I swear to God, I didn’t want this to happen. I love him,” she sobbed, glancing over at Kyle’s motionless body.
“You said you were fighting about our divorce? Why would you fight about us? Weren’t you two supposed to be getting married?”
“I wanted to get back together with him, but he got upset when I brought up your divorce. I wanted to celebrate us, but he was still mourning you,” she managed to explain through her tears.
“What do you mean, get back together? I didn’t know you weren’t together.” I gave her a puzzled look.
“We broke up that night I told you I was pregnant. He told me to lose his number and that he didn’t wanna be with any woman who could lie about that.”
“Wait a minute,” I demanded. “Lie about what?” She glanced at Kyle instead of me. “Hey, don’t look at him. He didn’t ask you the question. I did.”
“I know,” she replied meekly. “I’m just ashamed of the answer.” I didn’t feel sorry for her anymore. I wanted to kill her.
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” I asked slowly.
She shook her head silently. I suddenly understood how Diane must have felt when she got those pictures and realized Wil wasn’t lying. I felt like shit.
“You fucking bitch! I would have never divorced him if I knew that! You did that shit on purpose.”
“Calm down, Lisa. We’re in the hospital,” Allen warned.
“I’m not gonna calm down!” Allen’s words made me even angrier. He should have been yelling at her, not at me. I don’t know where it came from, but I reached out and grabbed Val by the neck, trying to choke the hell out of her.
“Oh shit, Allen. Get her!” Jay jumped out of his seat.
I squeezed Val’s neck tighter, pleased that she was gasping for breath. “This is all your fault, you fucking liar! He’d be home with his kids if it wasn’t for you!”
“Stop it! Stop it right now!” I heard a man’s voice yelling but paid it no mind. I wasn’t about to let go of her until she was dead. “I said stop it! This is a hospital, not a wrestling ring! I’m not going to let you jeopardize my patient.”
“Let go of her, Lisa! The doctor’s right. This is not good for Kyle.” Allen tugged my arm until I finally let go of Val’s neck. It wasn’t until then that I realized what I was doing. My rage subsided and I broke down. I succumbed to a fury of emotions and the reality that we might lose Kyle. I was blaming Val, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was my fault for not believing him in the first place. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face. My knees got weak and I lost all the strength in my body as Jay grabbed hold of me. Allen pulled Val out of the room, and I could hear him in the hall convincing her it was time for her to go.
“I want you all out of here,” the doctor demanded. Jay tried to guide me toward the door, and I followed as best as could on my weak legs.
“Lisa, Lisa, don’t go.” We all froze when we heard the raspy voice. Jay was the first to speak as we all turned to face the bed where Kyle lay.
“Look! He’s awake.” Jay was ecstatic, and I could feel the joy spreading in the room. After all the tension, it was like we were witnessing a miracle.
“Please, don’t go,” Kyle gasped again.
“Oh baby. I’m not going anywhere.” Tears ran down my face as I went to his side.
“I’m ... sorry ... about everything,” he whispered as I leaned as close to his face as I could.
“Oh Kyle, you don’t have to be sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I love you.” I stroked his face to wipe away the tears that had fallen on him.
“I love you, too.”
47
Rose
“Waaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa!”
“Damn! Where the hell is he?” I ignored the baby’s crying and peeked out the window. I’d been pacing back and forth to the front window for the past hour, waiting for the mailman. It was a little after four and he should have been here by now. He always came around three.
“Waaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa!”
“Jesus, Jonathan, will you shut up?” I yelled as I walked into the nursery. As I suspected, the little pain in the ass had spit out his pacifier for the tenth time today. God, I couldn’t wait until he was old enough to go to day care, ’cause that’s exactly where he was going. I swear I never realized how much I hated kids until I had one of my own. I stuck the pacifier in his mouth and breathed a sigh of relief when it shut him up. What the hell was I thinking about when I decided to have a baby? He spit out the pacifier again and I had to stuff it back in his mouth again.
“Y’know, I can’t wait till your father gets home,” I muttered. The phone rang and I ran to the living room, thankful for a distraction from that screaming baby.
“Hello?”
“Rose, it’s Allen. I’ll be home in about ten minutes.”
“Okay, baby, how’s Kyle?” I made sure I asked about his friend ’cause the night before I hadn’t bothered and he cussed me out. I couldn’t believe it. Allen almost never even raised his voice. But lately every time I opened my mouth, he had something smart to say.
“He’s good. Although the damn guy won’t shut up now that he’s awake.” Allen’s voice sounded dull, like he was drained. He’d been at that hospital for almost two straight days. When he got home, I was going to have to pamper him a little. “What’s Jonathan up to?”
“Oh, he’s been asleep most of the afternoon,” I lied, praying the little brat wouldn’t start hollering. “You still at the hospital?”
“Nah, Jay, Wil, and I are at Margarita’s Pizza Parlor on Jamaica Avenue.”
“Oh, that’s the place with the really good pizza everybody talks about, right? Get me two slices.”
“You got two-slice money?” I jerked my head away from the phone. Why was he being so cheap all of a sudden? It wasn’t too long ago that I could ask for a Coach bag and it would be home before he was. I guess it was time to remind him who was boss.
“I got something better than money, and you ain’t had none in a long time,” I told him in my sexiest voice. Allen and I hadn’t made love since the baby was born, and I know he had to be fiending. Besides, I missed being intimate with him. Truth be told, I really loved the guy. “What d’ya think of that?” I giggled.
“No thanks. I’d rather have the money.” His voice was dead serious, and I held that phone in my hand with my mouth open wide. Allen had never declined my advances before, so I figured it had to be a joke.
“Very funny, Allen.” I could hear Jay’s laughter in the background.
“Did I say something funny?” He was playing with my emotions and I didn’t like it. I never thought Allen could hurt my feelings, but ever since his mother died, he’d been doing a lot of that.
“Look, just bring me a slice. I got another call coming in.” I clicked over without saying goodbye. He’d better not be messing with nobody.
“Hello?”
“Rose?” I almost peed on myself when I heard Ray Johnson’s voice. Where Allen was everything good in my life, Ray was everything bad. Ray was a small-time con man who was trying to make it big. Regretfully I used to mess with him every once in a while when Allen couldn’t afford something I wanted. I’d given him the boot a few months after Allen and I got engaged, but he still called every so often since we had a little business to finish. Thank God that would be over soon, ’cause he was getting on my last nerve.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, talking real fast. “I told you not to call me at home, Ray. My husband could’ve answered the phone.”
“Well, he didn’t, so what’s the problem? How’s my son?”
“He’s not your son. And I wish you’d stop saying that.” He laughed and I felt like hanging up. “What do you want, anyway?”
“You know what I want. I want the same thing I wanted yesterday and the day before. I want my share of the insurance money,” Ray growled. “I did my part, now give me my money.”
“Look, Ray, you’ll get your money when I get the check. I haven’t got the check yet, okay?” I tried to make my voice sound calm, reasonable, but it was getting hard.
“When my pops died, they paid my mom two days after they got the death certificate. It’s been two weeks and I want my money, Rose. Or am I gonna have to tell your husband why his little boy doesn’t look like him?”
“Goddammit, Ray! Don’t you dare threaten me!”
“You call that a threat?” he laughed. “That’s not a threat. A threat would be me going down to the cops and telling them you hired me to kill your mother-in-law. Now that’s a threat.”
“Who you think you’re foolin’?” I hoped my voice sounded more confident than I felt. “You wouldn’t do that ’cause you got just as much to lose as I do.”
“You think so? I’ve been to jail before, Rose. I know what to expect. Do you?” That thought gave me a chill.
“Hold on. I think I see the mailman. I’ll call you back later.” I was grateful to end the conversation. I hated talking about what we had done. I just wanted the act to be erased from my memory so I could live happily ever after with my riches. I hung up and ran to the door impatiently. The mailman handed me my mail like he’d been expecting me. He should have been, considering the way I’d been hounding him lately. I thanked him and went back in the house.
“Damn! Where the hell is it?” I threw the envelopes on the sofa. “Where the hell is my fucking check?” I sat down, trying to calm my nerves, but of course the baby started crying. I ignored him and picked up the phone.
“New York Life Insurance,” a female voice answered.
“Can I speak to Mr. Murphy?”
“Please hold.” I waited nervously until I heard the insurance agent’s deep voice come on the line.
“This is Mr. Murphy. Can I help you?”
“Mr. Murphy, this is Rose Jackson. I still haven’t received my check.” I didn’t have time to exchange pleasantries with this man. I just wanted my money.
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