Read Love, Lies and Scandal Online
Authors: Earl Sewell
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General
JESSE
"O
h, hell no! What do you mean she said she's pregnant?" Regina asked as she and Jesse drove up the departure ramp at Chicago's Midway Airport.
"She lied just to get more money and to try to delay the divorce proceedings. We were arguing so badly that the judge went ahead and made an amendment to compensate her for her unborn child."
"Did you have sex with her?"
"Hell, no. I told you the bitch told a bald-faced lie! But I got her back. As soon as we got in the hallway, I told her not to come back to my house unless the police were with her."
"Whew! I can't take all of this drama. Between you and Angela, ya'll have enough material to write a daytime soap opera."
"This ignorant shit that JoAnn is trying to pull is going to backfire on her. Which airline are you flying?" Jesse asked.
"Southwest," Regina said. Jesse drove down the departure lane and stopped in front of the Southwest terminal.
"Well, you have a safe flight and tell Angela I said to keep her head up."
"This is my third time flying out there to support her through this crisis she's going through. Be thankful that you don't have cameras in your face and some news reporter asking you about your feelings."
"Yeah, I don't envy her at all," Jesse said as he got out of the car to pull out Regina's luggage.
"I'll call you to remind you of when I return," Regina said. Jesse set her luggage on the ground and hugged her.
"Have a safe flight," he said.
"I will." Regina raised the handle of her suitcase and walked inside the airport.
Getting JoAnn and her belongings out of the house proved to be a bigger challenge than Jesse had initially anticipated. Instead of coming at a decent hour to retrieve her belongings, JoAnn, with the police, arrived at 2:00 a.m.
"I'm here to pick up some of my stuff." JoAnn stood at the door, two police officers behind her.
"Are you crazy? Do you know what time it is?" Jesse snapped.
"Sir, can she just get a few of her belongings so that we can go?" asked one of the officers.
"Come on in," Jesse said, and was about to follow JoAnn around the house to make sure that she didn't take anything that wasn't in the court order.
"You wait here with me, sir. My partner will go with her."
"Okay," Jesse said, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it was. Once JoAnn had gathered enough of her belongings, she left, but not before saying she'd be back for some of the furniture she was entitled to.
Just as promised, JoAnn came back at very inconvenient hours to pick up the remainder of her belongings. When the last of her things were finally out of the house, Jesse was able to breathe a little easier. But he missed his daughter being in the house with him and that pained him horribly.
At the end of the three-week waiting period, Jesse was back in the judge's chambers with his attorney. JoAnn had been ordered to bring documentation supporting her pregnancy claim.
"Ms. Walker--" the judge referred to JoAnn by her maiden name "--do you have documentation from your physician stating that you are pregnant?"
"I miscarried," JoAnn answered bitterly.
"I knew your ass was lying!" Jesse pointed his index finger at her. "You're just doing this to make my life hell!"
"Get your damned finger out of my face!" JoAnn yelled back at him.
"That's enough!" The judge stopped them. "Okay. Let's cut straight to the chase here. Mr. Robins, the divorce decree will be amended so that you don't have to worry about paying additional money for child support."
"Wait a minute. He got more of the furniture than I did. I want the flat-screen TV, the stereo and the bedroom set," JoAnn said.
"Ms. Walker, I'm going to deny your request. The meeting is adjourned."
"I'm so glad you're out of my life!" Jesse said to JoAnn once they had exited the chambers.
"You haven't seen the last of me," JoAnn roared back. "If I have to live in misery, I'm damn sure going to make sure that you do, too."
Jesse ignored her and left her standing in the middle of the crowded hallway.
Time moved on and Jesse began to settle into his new life and his newfound peace of mind. However, JoAnn, as promised, didn't make it easy for him. She constantly interfered in his relationship with Trina. She denied him his visitation by making sure that at the times specified for him to pick up his daughter, she wasn't home. Then JoAnn filed a false police report saying that Jesse threatened her and she feared for her life. The police issued a restraining order, which pissed Jesse off because it interfered with his visitation with Trina.
"How am I supposed to pick up my daughter if I can't be within one hundred yards of you, JoAnn?" Jesse called JoAnn up and blasted her when he was served with the restraining order.
"Well, I guess you can't see her now, can you?" JoAnn answered him.
"You know what? I'm declaring war on you, JoAnn," Jesse barked at her viciously.
"I declared war on you a long time ago," JoAnn said, and then laughed.
"That's okay. I will go back to court as many times as I need to," Jesse answered. "And if you keep fucking around, I'm going to apply for sole custody of Trina. I will not allow you to keep me from seeing her! Do you hear me! That's my daughter! Hello? Hello?" JoAnn had hung up the phone on him.
Jesse called his lawyer, who advised him to take his divorce decree and restraining order to the local police department and make arrangements for JoAnn to pick up and drop off their daughter there. No sooner had Jesse got off the phone than he did that. It made him happy that several police officers sympathized with him. An officer assisted Jesse by calling JoAnn and informing her that she had to honor the court order, and she had to bring Trina to the police station so that Jesse could have his visitation time.
As for the dating game, Jesse was confident. At thirty-nine, he felt that he was still fairly young. He was in great shape, he was handsome, college educated and a business owner. However, dating wasn't as easy for him as he'd hoped. He went on a date with a forty-seven-year-old lawyer named Bridget, whom he was interested in getting to know better. She was a full-figured woman with a nice personality. However, when she said she hated housework and had a maid, he got the impression that her house was nasty. Then there was Karen, a beautiful woman with honey-brown skin and freckles. Karen was in her early fifties but didn't look it.
"I need a man who will go to church. Every night I'm at church and on the weekends I'm there all day. The world is coming to end, you know. I can just feel it. All of this strange weather, global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis--you just wait. Those who aren't in the church praising God will burn in hell." Jesse had always considered himself to be a religious man, but Karen drove him crazy with doomsday conversation.
Jesse decided that dating someone his own age might be better. He met Darlene, a thirty-seven-year-old schoolteacher who'd been in and out of a series of bad relationships with a variety of bad men.
"But you are so different," Darlene said to him. "So much nicer and smarter. I know we've only known each other for a short amount of time, but if you're feeling the same vibe that I am, I know that we could settle down and start a family together." Jesse decided that she was certainly not the woman for him.
Jesse decided to dip a little deeper and try dating a young woman in her twenties. He met Denise. A twenty-six-year-old fashion buyer for a national retail chain.
Denise was like him. She loved to run and had been a cross-country runner during her college years. Although Jesse was thirteen years older, he didn't think their age gap mattered that much until he went out partying with her and her girlfriends. He'd gone to a club on the north side of Chicago, owned by rapper Kanye West. They walked into the club together and Denise introduced him as her date.
"Hi, nice to meet you," said all five of her girlfriends. Jesse kept looking at their faces and how young they were. Each one of her girlfriends reminded him of his daughter, Trina. As the loud hip-hop music played, Jesse tried to understand the words.
"Who is this?" he asked and all five of her girlfriends looked at him as if he was totally out of touch.
"That's rapper Lil' John," Denise said to him.
"Why doesn't he clear his throat?" Jesse joked, but no one laughed. Denise asked Jesse to dance with her. When Jesse hit the dance floor, he was confident that the moves he'd used for years would still work. As he danced around, he noticed Denise's five girlfriends laughing so hard at him that they had tears in their eyes. Jesse tried to ignore them, but when Denise realized how outdated his moves were, she took him by the hand and they left the dance floor. Jesse stopped dating Denise for several reasons but the biggest one was that every time he looked at her pretty young face, he felt like he was dating his daughter.
Over a twelve-month period, Jesse continued to date, but in each new person he found some flaw that he didn't care for. If anyone reminded him of JoAnn, even in the smallest way, Jesse immediately severed all communication. Eventually he gave up on the dating scene and took some time to do some soul searching. It was then that he realized that it wasn't the women he was dating who had the problems, it was him. Jesse realized that he was carrying baggage. He was carrying baggage from years of misery with JoAnn, and until he was able to get rid of it, he'd have a difficult time trusting anyone enough to build a new relationship.
ANGELA
I
t was 6:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve and Angela was sitting on her sofa wearing nothing but a Mary J. Blige concert T-shirt and her panties while painting her toenails and watching television. The weatherman, one of her coworkers at the television station, was reporting that a snowstorm would be arriving on New Year's Day dumping a total of seven to eight inches of snow.
"Oh God," Angela said. "Why did I move back to Chicago?" She questioned her decision although she knew that her reason for coming to Chicago was to follow a job opportunity. Angela had purchased a two-bedroom high-rise condo just south of the city in the community of Hyde Park. She had a magnificent view of Lake Michigan as well as of the Museum of Science and Industry. There was a twenty-four-hour guard on duty and she even had valet parking.
She put the cap back on her nail polish and picked up the remote and changed the channel. She stopped when she came across an episode of a program called
Cheaters.
The producers of the show hired an undercover investigator to follow cheating boyfriends and husbands around and videotape their activity. Once enough evidence was gathered, the girlfriend or wife would be shown the video evidence and offered the opportunity to confront their cheating mate in the act.
I should have called up
Cheaters
on Will's no-good ass,
Angela thought. She watched as a husband confronted his wife in the act of having sex with her husband's boss in the back of his car. A part of Angela wanted to watch the drama unfold but she decided that there was no joy in watching the suffering and humiliation of someone in the middle of an emotional crisis. Angela turned the television off and glared at the lifeless screen as she recalled all of the hardship she'd gone through with Will just over a year ago.
After she'd had Will removed from her home while several cameras were rolling, she'd slammed the door shut, closed all of the curtains and unplugged the phone from the wall. Angela had then gone into the guest bedroom, locked herself in and cried so hard that she'd given herself a headache. The following day, Angela had tried not to watch television but she couldn't help it. She sat on the sofa in the family room watching news reporters and fans of her show smear her name and pick her life apart.
"Respected journalist Angela Rivers, who created the talk show
Love, Lies and Scandal,
has found herself in the middle of her own scandal. Her husband, Congressmen Will Rivers, has apparently been involved in numerous sleazy affairs. Several other women have come forward claiming to have had an affair with him," said the news anchor. "Miss Rivers was brutally attacked on her show by one of her husband's lovers." Once again the network showed the clip of DaNikka swinging her fists at Angela.
"We've spoken to citizens to get their reaction."
"I don't think that Angela should be giving advice to her guests about love and relationships when she can't keep her own man happy," a woman on the street, wearing a weave that was platinum gold in color, said.
"I think that Will Rivers should step down. How can he possibly be a public servant dedicated to helping poor people and then turn around and exploit the very people he's trying to help? I feel sorry for the citizens of Oakland, sorry for his wife and sorry that I voted for him," said another man.
"I think it's just horrible to exploit young women who are obviously in crisis. There is just no excuse for that. And I feel sorry for Ms. Rivers. I can't imagine what she must be going through," said a woman with long, blond hair. Angela couldn't take any more so she turned the television off. At that moment, Will had walked in the front door.
"Angela," Will called out. Angela refused to answer him and contemplated calling the police once again to have him removed.
"If you're somewhere in this house calling the police, please don't do it," Will said, swiftly moving from room to room trying to locate her. "Oh, there you are." Will breathed a sigh of relief.
"So now you're going to ignore the restraining order, as well?" Angela quickly hid her tears; she wouldn't allow him to see her weakness.
"I have no place to go, Angela."
"Go back to one of the chickenheads you've been sleeping with."
"I know this is difficult for both of us. Angela, please." Will sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the room.
"Please what?" Angela barked.
"Look. I can understand you're angry. You have a right to be. I can understand the restraining order and calling the cops on me. You were looking to get revenge, but we need to set aside the rage and anger right now and pull together."
"Have you lost your ever-loving mind? In case you didn't pick up the huge hint, it's over."
"No, it's not over! We can work this out, Angela. Everything can be fixed," Will tried to assure her.
"This can't be fixed, Will," Angela screamed.
"I'll admit that I have a problem, but I'm not some monster." Will raised his voice. "I'll go to therapy. I'll do whatever it takes. I just need you to be with me right now." Will humbled himself. "I can't go through this alone."
"I don't have any sympathy for you at all. You've hurt me in a way that is indescribable. You come in here asking me to be strong for
you.
What about me, Will? What about what I'm suffering through? Who's going to be there for
me?
"
"I'll be there," Will quickly answered.
"I don't want you to be there. You've lost that privilege. I don't even want to be near you. Every time I think about what you've done, my stomach turns sour. I'm disgusted with you."
"Everything was consensual," Will argued. "I never took advantage of anybody."
"Did you know that girl was underage, Will? Tell me the truth."
Will paused for a long moment and then looked into her eyes. "Yes. I knew she was underage."
Angela hung her head in shame.
"Angela, baby. Listen to me. I'm going to fight this case, and once this is all over, I promise you, as God is my witness, I promise I will never do anything like this again."
"I spoke with a friend who is a lawyer, Will. She called me the moment the story broke. I asked her how much time you'd serve if you were convicted. And she told me you could serve up to four years in jail plus face civil lawsuits. You're not innocent in this crime, Will. I know it. You know it. And all of the media vultures know it. You've ruined everything we've worked so hard for. Our lives will never be the same. And even if you somehow walked away from all of this scot-free, I wouldn't want you back."
"Angela, think about what you're saying. What about the time we've invested in this marriage? What about our vows--for better or for worse--till death do us part?"
Angela had to laugh to keep from crying. "You should've thought about all that when you were out there getting your groove on."
"We wouldn't be in this position had you agreed to participate in my sexual fantasies," Will snapped. "It's because of you that I had to go outside our marriage to be satisfied! If you'd come to the sex clubs with me like I asked, and if you'd tried being bisexual like I asked you to, we wouldn't be dealing with this situation."
"Motherfucker, have you lost your damn mind!" Angela completely lost it. "I am not going to bring another woman into my bed and have sex with her. I am not going to some sex club filled with diseased souls humping everything that moves. You knew that I was a woman of integrity when you met me. You knew that I wasn't some trick-ass whore!"
"I had a right to be satisfied! If you weren't woman enough to do the job, it was my right to find a woman who could!"
"You went and molested a young girl, you dirty son of a bitch!" Angela stood up. "I don't want you in this house. You need to pack your bags and go live someplace else."
"Oh, no. You're not putting me out of my own damn house. I will burn the motherfucker down before I let you put me out of it." Will held his ground.
"Okay." Angela smeared away her tears. "Then I'll go." She went into their bedroom and removed several suitcases from the closet. She thought Will was trailing behind her, but he wasn't. She packed her suitcases and then placed them in her car. She went back into the house and found Will sitting in his office on a phone call.
"I'll be back for the rest of my things. And you can expect a phone call from my attorney."
"Hang on a second." Will placed the caller on hold. "Angela. You don't have to go. Stay. Please. I can fix this. I can make it go away."
"Goodbye, Will!" Angela said coldly as she turned her back on him and left. She drove herself to a hotel.
Will stepped down from his position as congressman and was eventually convicted of statutory rape and misuse of public funds and was sentenced to three years. Angela petitioned the court for a divorce from Will and it was granted. She sold their home and once she received her share of the money, she had left California behind and come to Chicago to start over.
The loud ringing of Angela's telephone startled her out of her memories. She leaned across the sofa and picked up her cordless phone.
"Hello?" Angela asked.
"What's the deal, pickle? Are you all set to party tonight?" It was Regina.
"I guess," Angela said.
"Come on now, Angela. Don't fake me out, girl. I got tickets to the hottest New Year's Eve party in town."
"The weatherman said that it was going to snow," Angela complained.
"Girl. You are in Chicago now. Snow doesn't mean a damn thing to us. Now, if I have to come over there and drag you out of the house, I will do it. You're coming out tonight."
"Okay," Angela conceded.
"Damn, trying to get you and Jesse out for some fun is proving to be a real damn challenge."
"Wait. Are you talking about your cousin Jesse? Is he coming with us?" Angela asked.
"Yeah. He had planned on going out of town, but he had to cancel his plans because the manager of his store had to have emergency surgery after she fell on a patch of ice and broke her ankle."
"Ouch." Angela cringed at the thought of breaking an ankle.
"I called him up to ask what he was doing tonight, and he said that he'd planned to spend the evening watching television. So I twisted his arm so he'd come hang out with us."
"So Jesse is doing well with his sporting goods store?"
"Yeah, you can ask him all about it when you see him."
"Okay." Angela perked up. "I haven't seen Jesse in ages. It will be nice to see him again."
"I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, as well. Now get dressed because I know your ass is probably sitting in your condo half-naked with the heat set on hell trying to keep warm."
Angela laughed, happy that her old college roommate knew her so well.
"I'm not going to keep you from getting dressed. Just make sure you meet me in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel on time."
"Okay. I'll see you there," Angela said and hung up the phone.