His Betrayal Her Lies (12 page)

Taylor raised her eyebrow.

“But most importantly, I like you and want to
get to know you better.”

At a loss for words, Taylor reached for the
bottle of water on her desk. After a small swallow, she gave a
snappy comeback. “I’m sure, Kalon, you say that to all your
women.”

The corners of his mouth raised into a slow
smile. “I assure you, Taylor, I have never given a woman a
compliment as great as the one I just gave you. And I don’t have
women, I have acquaintances.”

“Ha!” Taylor relaxed a bit and smiled. “Come
on, Kalon, I know about your reputation. Hell, every woman in
Chicago knows that you change women like you change underwear. I
refuse to fall victim to your womanizing ways.”

Kalon sat back in his chair. Taylor could
detect that he was trying to figure out why his charm wasn’t
working. He popped the collar of his shirt. “Okay, Taylor, I can
see you already have your mind made up about me from other people.
But I never took you to be a woman who would listen to others
before giving me a chance. I can understand if your opinion was
based on personal knowledge but if you want to find out if those
rumors are true, then take me up on my offer for dinner and I won’t
contact you again. The next move will be yours.” He turned and
walked out of Taylor’s office.

That hadn’t played out like she had
visualized it.

The remainder of her day went by slowly. She
couldn’t concentrate on work because her mind was stuck on Kalon’s
ultimatum. Here she was actually contemplating going on a date with
him. She needed and wanted to get him out of her system.

* * *

Rounding the corner to her house, Taylor was
glad to see Ari’s car parked in the driveway. One night with her
husband was sure to erase every thought of Kalon Knight.

She almost bumped into Ari when she opened
the front door. He was standing there looking like he was hung
over. “Hey sweetie,” she said, assessing his appearance then giving
him a kiss. “Rough flight?”

He leaned down and gave her a peck on the
lips, then staggered over to the couch. Plunking down hard, he
rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “Yeah,” he
said, “I guess I’m just tired. I haven’t been home in weeks and
this job is really catching up with me.” Ari let out a yawn.

Four-inch pumps dropped to the floor with a
thud as Taylor kicked them off. She walked over to the couch and
sat next to her husband. When she laid her head on his shoulders,
Ari jumped.

“What’s wrong?’ Taylor asked, looking
surprised.

“Oh nothing, babe. I’ve just been tense
lately. It’s no big deal.”

Taylor knew differently. Something was wrong.
Ari had never shunned away from her touch.

Standing up, he reached for her and said, “I
just want to hold you tonight.”

“I don’t feel like going to bed right now,”
Taylor replied.

“A’ight, I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in
the room.”

Ari left Taylor sitting on the couch. She got
up and fixed herself a vodka and cranberry. Her mind was in turmoil
over this Kalon situation and the issues with Ari and that woman.
There was no word yet from William, the investigator, and she was
quite anxious to see what he had uncovered.

She sat sipping on her drink and thinking
about how little time she and Ari spent together. He seemed tired
and she decided to let him be for tonight. The growing lack of
concern they had for one another bothered her, too. The first year
in their marriage, they were inseparable. Ari would never take a
long assignment because he said the thought of being away from her
was havoc to his senses. Now it was like they were roommates
passing in the night. And their sex life was non-existent. Work and
the problems of life had become their priorities, instead of one
another.

Worrying wasn’t going to change anything.
Taylor got up and showered, then climbed in bed beside a sleeping
Ari.

The next morning, Taylor awoke in her
husband’s arms. She decided that she would spend the entire day
with him. They needed this time together to reconnect and put
everything else on hold.

She rolled over and dialed her secretary.
“Good morning, Mrs. Tab. I’m taking the day off. Please forward all
my calls to my home voicemail.” After giving Mrs. Tab a list of
things that she needed her to handle that day, Taylor rolled over
and kissed Ari on the tip of his nose. She needed to rekindle the
romance in their relationship.

Most importantly, she needed to get Kalon off
her mind.

Ari wriggled his nose and slowly opened his
eyes.

“Hey, handsome,” Taylor purred. “I thought we
should spend the whole day together.” He smiled up at his wife, her
hair tossed around her shoulders. “I like the way you think,” Ari
said in a groggy voice.

Taylor teased him more by placing kisses on
his throat and moving down to his chest. She licked both of his
nipples. He took in a deep breath. She knew all his hot spots.
Sticking her tongue inside his belly button, she licked around it.
She then blew lightly from his belly button down to his waistline.
Ari alternately balled his hands up and then flattened them as she
continued. She moved lower and kissed his inner thigh never taking
her eyes off him. When she took his dick into her mouth, Ari’s body
bucked and he made a hissing sound.

Taylor flipped her body around so they were
in the sixty-nine position. He spread her butt cheeks and licked
from her crack down to her clit. She felt her orgasm building from
the depth of her stomach. Ari always knew how to make her come. He
stuck his tongue into her hole and moved it in and out. He came at
the same time she released her juices into his mouth. Ari licked
ever drop.

“Damn, baby, that was great,” Ari exclaimed.
He lay on the bed spread eagle a couple of seconds, then got up to
take a shower.

“I thought we could go out and get some
breakfast,” Taylor yelled from the bedroom.

“What did you say, babe?” Ari shouted back
from the shower.

Taylor got up and slid in the shower behind
her husband. He dropped the soap, then picked it up with a laugh.
“Dang, woman. You scared me.” Taylor lathered his back and
whispered into his ear. “After this shower, we should go get
something to eat.”

“Girl, you know the way to my heart,” Ari
said, turning around and taking one of Taylor’s nipples into his
mouth.

* * *

Driving down Butterfield Road, Taylor noticed
a black Bronco trailing them.

“Where do you want to eat?” Ari asked from
the passenger seat.

“I don’t know,” Taylor said. She was still
focusing out her rear view mirror at the truck making every turn
she was making. It was riding her bumper. She made a quick turn
into a Wendy’s parking lot and the Bronco pulled in right behind
her.

“Why did you stop here?” Ari asked.

The woman in the truck jumped out, waving a
bat.

Taylor asked, “Do you know someone who drives
a black Bronco?”

Just when he turned to address Taylor,
something smashed the back window. They both ducked down and
shielded their heads from the flying glass. The woman with the bat
came on Taylor’s side of the car, pulling at the door handle. Ari
lifted his head and looked right into the eyes of Maci. She swung
the bat at Taylor’s window and the glass shattered but didn’t
break. Ari jumped from the car to grab the bat from Maci. She
wasn’t letting go though, and they started to struggle.

Taylor leaped out the car. Ari hadn’t gotten
the bat out of the woman’s hand yet. She took a swing at Taylor.
Taylor jumped back, as the woman began screaming at Ari.

“This is why we can’t be together because
you’re messing with her. What about your daughter and her needing
you at home?”

Taylor stood back, dumbfounded. Ari was still
trying to restrain the lunatic from swinging the bat. He pushed her
away.

“You need to leave, Maci, and go back home to
your daughter.”

Taylor felt herself losing control. Her
temperature started to rise. This was the woman who had been
terrorizing her. She wanted to kick her ass but the bad publicity
this would have on her company and her father was not worth it.

How stupid she was for not confronting Ari
about his unfaithfulness earlier. Instead of making him face up to
it, she had tried to make herself believe the lie that he wasn’t
messing with this woman anymore. No woman would act the way this
woman was acting today unless she had a broken heart and the man
was giving her hope of a relationship together. But that didn’t
excuse the fact that she was taking her anger out on the wrong
person.

They needed to leave now, before the police
came. Taylor couldn’t afford for the media to get wind of this.
When she tried to get in the car, the woman reached behind Ari and
grabbed her ponytail. Taylor’s head went back and she instinctively
turned and punched the ghetto wild woman in her mouth.

“Get in the car, Ari. We have to go,” Taylor
screamed at the top of her lungs.

Ari pulled Maci away from the car and held
her hands down. Taylor jumped in the vehicle and put it in drive.
Ari ran, jumped in, and slammed his door as Taylor sped onto the
expressway ramp across the street from the parking lot.

Taylor pulled the car over and started
beating Ari with her fists. “Damn you, Ari. Why the hell did you go
fucking around on me?”

He ducked and dodged her punches.

“You think I’m a stupid bitch. I already
knew
about your little infidelity.”

Ari looked stunned.

“Your little bitch already wrote me a letter
about your daughter.”

A shocked Ari sat paralyzed, accepting her
physical and verbal attack.

“You put my life in danger this whole time.
You knew who was doing this stuff to my car and you didn’t say
anything. You sat there like the punk you really are. I hate you.”
Taylor didn’t recognize her own voice. She had never spoken to him
like this but what could you expect from a year of built-up
frustration? And this time, this Maci woman had crossed the line.
Maci put her hands on her; that was something Taylor was not going
to accept.

She fumed and panted like a raging bull as
she eased back into traffic and drove home. Pulling up to their
house and putting the car in park, she dismissed Ari with words she
never thought she’d say to him. “I will be back in four hours and I
want all your shit gone.”

Ari tried to explain his side.

Taylor cut him off. “Don’t say shit to me.
Just get the fuck out my car and get your shit.”

He opened the car door but didn’t get out.
“Please hear me out. I’m sorry for all of this. I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t know what Ari?” She started
pounding on the dash board. “You didn’t know she was fucking crazy?
Or you didn’t know I would ever find out? Or you didn’t know I
would put your ass out? Tell me exactly what you didn’t know.”

Ari opened his mouth again and Taylor waved
him off. “I don’t care what you have to say, just get out. I was
the fool for trying to believe in you. I was waiting to see if you
were going to ever tell me about this woman and child. And then
silly me started to think the whole thing was a lie, that it was
just somebody out there lying on you. Wow, stupid me.”

He looked at her, his eyes begging for a
chance to make it right. She refused to look his way. Ari got out
of the car and Taylor made the tires screech on the pavement as she
pulled off.

Driving around Chicago for what seemed like
hours was all Taylor could do at first. She didn’t want to talk to
anyone about this. Right now all she wanted to do was think. She
found herself at the lakefront looking out at the sparkling water.
A couple was walking along the bike trail and holding hands. They
stopped to kiss then snickered when they had to separate to let a
group of cyclists go by. Tears started to run down her face. She
never thought she would be in this situation. Her Briggs family
upbringing had never prepared her for this type of deceit.

Six hours passed before she felt comfortable
going home. She didn’t want to run into her husband at all and felt
sure that by now he had left. She had to turn off her cell phone
because he wouldn’t stop calling. On her ride home, she thought to
herself, “How do I go on now?”

* * *

Ari sat parked outside of Maci’s house for
hours. He thought about busting down her door and choking her to
death. He could plead temporary insanity. Her causing an
altercation was something he never saw coming. He thought they had
an understanding and she accepted his marriage because she knew
there could never be anything serious between them. He was a sucker
to think that he had it all under control.

He was confident that after Taylor calmed
down, he could explain things to her and she would take him back.
He would just paint Maci as a crazy woman that he only messed with
one time, and she got pregnant. If Taylor accepted that, he might
not have to kill Maci after all.

It was a little after midnight when Ari
arrived at his brother’s Wicker Park home. Jay was the menace in
the family. Their parents never thought Jay would amount to
anything. As kids, he always got into trouble at school and in the
neighborhood. Ari kind of envied Jay because he did what he wanted
and people never pressured him to excel. Ari had never had the
courage to rebel. That had bothered him throughout his
childhood.

He let himself into Jay’s house using the
spare key under the doormat. The alarm went off, followed by a loud
shout.

“Who is it?” Jay barked from the back
room.

Ari came further into the living room and lay
down on the couch. “It’s me, bro,” he yelled back.

Long dreadlocks swinging behind him, Jay came
walking into the room with a towel wrapped around him. He began
drying his hair. “Why you over here so late?” Adjusting his towel
around his waist, Jay took a seat in his recliner. He looked over
at his brother’s gloomy eyes.