Almost twelve hours later, the front door opened to admit Beth. She put one foot in front of the other and made her way to the couch. Almost falling into the soft cushions, she lifted her swollen feet up after kicking off her shoes and closed her eyes immediately.
JC had been upstairs, trying to decide if he should call the police when he heard the door open. He had paced all day from window to window, counting the minutes and seconds that she was gone. Like a flash, he took the stairs in three bounds. Skidding to a stop, he saw her hair lying over the arm of the couch.
“I have been worried sick, where have you been?” He said in a controlled voice.
“Out partying and drinking all day – where do you think I’ve been?” She never opened her eyes.
“I was concerned – I am still concerned about you.”
Her eyes popped open to glare into his. “Concerned, this is how you show concern?! You sleep with another woman; don’t call me – your wife! You cancel my credit cards, clear out our joint bank account, and leave me pregnant with only $1000 to my name. This is how you show your concern?” She yelled her frustration.
Immediately he sank to his knees next to her head and reached out for her hand. Before he could grasp it in his, she pulled it away and tightened it into a fist. He sighed at the damage he had caused.
“Beth, I am so sorry. I was completely in the wrong in this whole situation. You know how stubborn I can be and I had convinced myself that you would come crawling back to me when you realized that I would never ever cheat on you especially not with that woman. If I could go back and change that night I would, but I can’t. I also didn’t cancel your credit cards or empty that back account. I couldn’t believe it when Chris told me that so I did some checking…” This time when he reached for her hand, she didn’t protest, but neither did she hold his back. She let hers lie limp in his. “Leah apparently decided she wanted me for herself so she planned it all out when her cousin, Susie, got the job as my assistant. Somehow, she convinced Susie to cancel the cards and close the account. I trusted her so I never looked at the accounts, believing that there was money being deposited every month.”
“You really expect me to believe that?”
“Look, I know that words probably don’t mean anything to you right now, but believe me when I say that I’m here to stay.” He tried again. “Where were you all day?”
“Working.”
“I know I don’t have any right to tell you this now, but I want you to quit. You don’t need to work and I want you to rest for you and the baby. Don’t do it for me, do it for our baby. Please.”
“I can’t. What if you change your mind and leave again, taking all the money.”
Standing suddenly, he left the room for a moment, but when he came back he was carrying his checkbook. Sitting on the coffee table in front of her, he began writing a check. Tearing it out, he handed it to her. “This is everything that I have in the checkbook. Take it and deposit wherever you want. That money is yours and you don’t even have to tell me where you put it. I don’t want access at all, that’s yours. But you should also know…” He started pulling out cards and bankbooks. “Before I flew here, I fired both Leah and Susie, my lawyers are also in the process of prosecuting them. But anyway, I took the opportunity to get your cards reinstated with the condition that you will be the only one to ever cancel them. Here you have access again to our joint account. This is what I want you to use for anything – don’t use the money that is just yours.”
Beth simply stared at the items in her hand. She didn’t know what to think. He had shattered several arguments that she had been building in her mind.
JC decided to press onward while she was trying to take it all in. Casually, he asked, “When’s your next doctor’s appointment?”
“What? Oh, I don’t have one.”
JC tried to suppress his alarm. “Do you want me to make you one? I’d like to go with you next time.”
Mentally shaking herself, she finally looked at him, responding without thinking. “Where I go you don’t need an appointment.”
Brow furrowed in confusion, JC tried to figure out where that would be. “What kind of doctor’s office doesn’t take appointments?”
“You have to have health insurance to go to a doctor’s office, I use the free clinic.” As the last words left her mouth, she froze, not planning on admitting that. Immediately she dropped her gaze and struggled to sit up. His hand on her arm didn’t even slow her down. However, the spasm in her back did. Her body was rebelling against her spending so much time on her feet.
“You are using the free clinic?” His voice was sharp.
“What did you expect me to do? I had to see a doctor to make sure the baby was okay.” Her gaze was on the floor, not seeing the pain that crossed his face.
Like an old man, he made it to his feet with great effort, looking down at Beth’s lowered head. Anger overtook every pore in his body and he stalked away before he did or said something he would regret. If Susie and Leah had cancelled Beth’s health insurance, this took the problem to a whole other level. They were now playing with fire – affecting the health and well-being of his wife and child. The front door slammed behind him as he dialed the phone number for his lawyer. They would regret their actions for the rest of their lives.
***
Jumping a little when the door slammed, Beth shook her head. It hadn’t taken long to make him angry enough to leave. Well at least she knew where she stood. Beth knew she needed to eat, but her feet were so swollen that she decided to just grab something from the kitchen on her way upstairs to the shower and bed.
After bring amazed at the amount of food that JC had purchased, she grabbed a couple of granola bars and a banana. At least he had bought food before storming out of their lives again.
The shower felt so wonderful she didn’t want to get out and spent longer under the hot water than she had planned. Getting out she dried off and put on the last pair of pajama pants and shirt that fit over her stomach. Not bothering to blow-dry her hair, she quickly twisted it in a braid and headed to bed before she collapsed.
Upon exiting the bathroom, Beth stood in shock. JC had come back and had pulled the covers back, inviting her to lie down. He walked through the door, carrying a tray of food.
“Good, you’re out of the shower just in time. Come on, get comfortable in bed and you can eat something before you go to sleep.” He set the tray down on the dresser, waiting to help her into bed.
“What are you doing?” She remarked dumbly.
“Helping you get ready for bed, why?”
“I thought you left.”
JC turned a startled look her way. “I’m never leaving you again. I merely stepped out to call my lawyer. I didn’t know you thought that I had left. If I had known you were thinking that, I never would have left the room. I just wanted to spare you my anger – you don’t need to deal with that right now.”
Beth didn’t know what to say so she simply made her way over to the bed in silence. JC piled the pillows against the headboard so she could recline against them as she ate.
“What are you hungry for?” He started listing off the items on the tray and Beth answered absentmindedly, studying JC intently – looking for something she couldn’t define.
JC noticed her blinking sleepily – it took her longer to open her eyes with every blink. Hurriedly, he lifted the tray away and helped her slide down under the covers so she rested fully on her back. She let out a sigh of relief as her muscles relaxed and closed her eyes.
JC stood over her for a long while, listening as her breathing deepened. Unwilling to even take the tray downstairs, he quickly undressed and climbed into bed behind her. Last night had been the best night of sleep since this whole ordeal had started. Why he had waited so long to see and touch his wife would be something he would spend the rest of his days trying to figure out.
