Sometimes life has a way of influencing my stories. Such is the case with this story. Fair warning, this story will be in three parts. In a way it's a deviation from my normal stories. I hope you all enjoy.
Just to let those of you know, who follow 'The One' and 'She's Special', no I haven't forgotten about them. I will have more chapters posted for both of them later this week. As with all of my stories, any and all feedback is welcome. Good or Bad.
~honeywldcat~
Prologue
Why does it seem that life always has a way of kicking your butt?
Denise thought to herself. After being married for ten years, she thought for sure that she knew what to expect from her husband. Cooking his meals, cleaning his laundry, working odd jobs when it was convenient for him, and raising their seven year old son should have been enough, but apparently not.
Denise fumed, "Lying, cheating, sorry son-of-a-bitch!"
After opening the cell phone bill which just happened to list all incoming calls and show an astronomical bill that she had no idea how to pay, she saw the same number listed over and over. Over five hundred text messages were sent from her husband's cell phone to that same number. At first, she tried to convince herself that it was a mix up. Some screw up that the phone company made.
After talking to the phone company, she realized the screw up was her complete and total faith in her husband. It took about thirty minutes to find out who the phone number belonged to.
I should have known,
played through her head. He had been making trips to a new shop that the company he worked for had opened at least a couple of times a month. She thought it odd when he said that cell phone coverage was iffy at best there, but she trusted him and let it go. Never in a million years would she have thought that Joe would have cheated. He was her best friend, the one person she had always been able to talk to.
Sure he had been acting distant lately, but Denise just thought that was due to stress at work with his new promotion. Not that he was screwing around. She wanted to rant and rave and went to pick up the phone to call a friend, then realized that she didn't have a friend that wasn't a friend of both of theirs. Somehow over the years, she had lost touch with the people she used to be close to. Denise's life revolved around Joe and Michael.
For the first time in years, she felt that familiar feeling of her old self emerge. The person she used to be, the one who spoke her mind and actually wanted to be known as something other than Mrs. McCarty or Michael's mom. How did she just let this happen? How does a person go from being an individual to just being someone's wife or mother?
Sitting on the bed that she shared with her husband, she thought back to when she lost herself, when she no longer felt the need to rock the boat and do the things she wanted. That's when the tears started. Her whole being rocked to the core with sobs tearing through her body, a grief so horrid and strong that it felt like a heavy blanket smothering her. Not only was she grieving for the loss of her best friend and husband, but also for losing herself.
When the phone rang, she had half a mind to just let it ring. The thought of talking to anyone right now, wasn't something she felt like she could do. In the end, practicality won out. It could be an emergency.
Tentatively she answered, "Hello?"
Anger rushed through her veins at her husband's voice, "I won't be home until late tonight. I have to handle a few issues with the shop."
"Well, hello to you too, honey. My day is just perfect, thank you for asking." She sarcastically interrupted.
"Sorry, I'm just busy. Someone is calling in, I have to run. Don't wait up."
"Joe?" She waited to hear him respond before adding, "Do me a favor, will you?"
He sounded exasperated, "What, Denise? I have to take this call."
"Tell Lisa hi for me." When only silence met her response, Denise laughed, "Yeah, your silence just told me the whole truth." With that she slammed the phone onto its base and picked it up, base and all, shattering it against the bedroom wall.
From that point on, her day went to hell. Between crying and trying to go about her daily routine, she felt lost. What was the point? Like it ever mattered what she did or didn't do. Giving up on getting anything done, she walked outside. As a rabbit hopped across the yard, she realized that she would get through this even though it didn't feel like it. Yes, it hurt, but life goes on. Somehow she would pick up the pieces of her shattered remains, if only for her son.
At the end of the day, Denise was bone tired. Her whole body ached. Knowing that she would have to actually speak to Joe at some point didn't help. After making sure Michael had a bath and brushed his teeth, she settled in to read him a bedtime story.
Tears threatened to fall again as her son asked, "Where is Daddy?"
She tried to smile at Michael, but new it was weak at best. Rubbing his hair away from his face, "He had to work late. Do you want to call and tell him goodnight?"
Michael shook his head no and asked, "Why doesn't he want to be with us?"
Denise couldn't stop the tears that fell from her face, "Oh, baby. Your daddy loves you, don't ever think he doesn't."
It's me he doesn't want.
"Don't cry, Mommy." She wanted to stop, but couldn't. How could Joe do this to them? His actions not only destroyed her, they also hurt their son. For the first time, instead of her soothing her son's pain or sadness, she held on to him like he was her lifeline.
A few hours later she awoke to hear someone walking through the house. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was going on midnight. Denise placed a gentle kiss on her son's forehead and quietly left his bedroom. Once she pulled the bedroom door shut, she took a deep breath. She hated the thought of what she had to do. It was time to face her husband.
As she made her way to the kitchen, the sound of cabinet doors slamming echoed throughout the house. Leaning against the kitchen island, she pointed out, "Michael is asleep, you know."
When Joe looked at her, she saw the hatred radiating from his eyes to her. His tone was clipped, "And?"
Denise wrapped her arms around her waist, "I'd rather him not hear what is said between us right now."
He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. Twisting the cap off, he tossed it on the counter. She watched as he drank half of it in one gulp. Denise waited until he set the beer down before she asked probably the dumbest question of her life, "Why?"
His response hurt her more than anything anyone had ever said to her before, "I love you, Denise, but I'm just not in love with you anymore."
That was a non answer if she had ever heard one, so she asked the second dumbest question of her life, "Are you in love with her?"
Another non answer, "I barely know her." He sighed, "Listen, this has nothing to do with her. It's us. I should have left four years ago when you lied to me. I shouldn't have let things go this long. I don't want us to hate each other and that's what will happen if we continue."
Confused she asked, "Four years ago? What are you talking about?"
"You lied to me over the car insurance. You said it was paid and you didn't pay it."
Denise recalled that argument. He knew she had forgotten to pay the bill. At the time money was tight and she had gone grocery shopping, not realizing until it was too late that she had forgotten to pay the car insurance. "Are you joking? That's really why you started screwing around?"
He sighed, "It's more than that. I know you had an affair, all those late night calls. You telling me that it was your mom calling at four in the morning."
"What are you talking about? I never said it was my mom calling. It was my cousin. Are you accusing me of having an affair with my cousin?" Denise couldn't believe what he was saying. Was he really trying to put this off on her?
Numbly she listened to all of the offenses he spouted off that she supposedly committed. From what he was saying it was all her. Denise thought back to the time when her cousin called just about every night for six months. He had been going through a horrible time in his life. The woman he was married to had a miscarriage and left him. Not to mention that his sixteen year old son was staying in trouble, acting out. As Denise listened to Joe with half an ear, she couldn't believe that she did as Joe asked back then, when he told her that he didn't want her to have anything to do with David anymore. To please her husband, she broke all ties to her cousin. She hadn't spoken to him in almost four years. At the time when David was going through hell and needed someone, she turned her back on him.
How could I have done that to my own family?
She really looked at Joe, trying to see some resemblance of the man she once knew and loved. Over the years he had really let himself go. He had gained at least a hundred pounds since they married. Finally, she spoke up, "So, in other words, to sum it all up, I'm a lying, cheating whore, that you no longer love. Good to know. There is one problem with all of this. You can't stand people who lie, right?" She could she his face turn blood red, which meant his temper was getting to him.
