The Ultimate Betrayal (22 page)

M
elanie upped the speed on her treadmill from 4.2 to 4.8 miles per hour. She'd been power walking for nearly a half hour, but every three to four minutes she'd been having to take it down a bit. She felt as though she couldn't comfortably walk at her usual pace, because when she did, she struggled to breathe and her heart beat well beyond the normal range. But in order to burn the necessary amount of calories and feel the release of endorphins to feel better, she needed to finish off the last few minutes at top speed. She was only planning to stay on for thirty minutes, but already she was starting to feel wiped out again. Her face and body were also drenched in sweat, something that didn't usually happen with such severity.

Melanie fought to keep up her desired speed, but when she couldn't, she dropped it back to 4.2. Still, she couldn't seem to catch her breath the way she needed to, so she dropped it to 3.5. When that didn't seem to do much, either, she slowed the treadmill to 2.0. She held on to the rails, panting and waiting for her heart to stop pounding, and when it didn't, she stopped the machine and went up to the main floor. That flight of stairs alone took everything out of her, so instead of continuing up to her bedroom, she walked into the family room and lay across the sofa. When she did, her cell rang. She sat up to look around for it, but the room started to spin and she felt dizzy. She thought she saw flashing lights, but when she squeezed her eyes together, they disappeared. Her phone stopped ringing for a few seconds, and then it rang again. This was when she realized it was coming from the kitchen, and she pried herself off the couch and went to answer it.

“Hi, Dad,” she said, pulling a bottle of water from the refrigerator and heading back into the family room.

“How are you feeling?”

“Okay. Just finished working out.”

“You sound exhausted.”

She lay on the sofa again. “I'm fine.”

“Sweetheart, I'm really getting worried. You seemed a little weak today, so maybe you should stop exercising for a while. Just until you feel better.”

“I've been thirsty the last couple of days. Probably just a little dehydrated,” she said, turning up her bottle of water.

“I really wish you would've spent the night over here. Especially with everything going on with you and Brad.”

“I just need to be alone right now.”

“But that's not good. Even if you don't wanna come here, why don't you call Alicia? Go stay with her and Phillip.”

“Alicia…Alicia…she's my best friend.”

“Yeah, and that's why you should head on over there.”

“They live in Orlando now,” she said.

“Who lives in Orlando?”

“Alicia and…you know his name…you know…that minister at the church.”

“Sweetheart, are you okay?” Andrew said. “You don't sound right.”

“I have to get dressed for work. I have a lot of patients this morning.”

“Sweetheart, it's not morning, it's evening.”

Melanie heard her father speaking, but she couldn't decipher what he was saying. She tried to ask him to repeat it, yet when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She fought to say something, but soon her eyes fell heavy and rolled toward the back of her head. In seconds, everything went black.

Alicia drove along I-90 East, praying God would stop Phillip before he did something crazy. For an entire hour, Phillip had forced her at gunpoint to circle around Mitchell, but thirty minutes ago, he'd instructed her to head toward the interstate. He hadn't given a single reason for doing so, but she had a bad feeling about it. Especially since Levi lived in that direction.

Phillip poked her harder in her right side with the gun. “I did everything I could to make you happy. Everything.”

“I know that, and—”

“Don't you say one more word. Not unless I tell you.”

Alicia swallowed hard, trying not to cry.

“Why couldn't you just be faithful to me? Why did you have to turn into a worthless tramp?” he said, poking her with the gun again.

Alicia prayed one prayer after another in silence.

“The first time, you hurt me so badly I wasn't sure I'd ever get over it. And then I was dumb enough to start seeing you again. Even after you ruined our marriage with that drug dealer and married that thug pastor. After all that, I still loved you and took you back. I believed you when you said you were sorry, that you would do anything to be my wife again, and that you could never love anyone else. You lied about everything,” he said, sticking the gun in her side, this time much more forcefully.

Phillip took his other hand and turned her face toward him.

“Phillip, please don't,” she said, trying not to yell. “It's dark out here, and I can't see the road.”

“Stop whining. There's hardly any traffic at all.”

“We can still run off the highway.”

He let her chin go. “Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe an accident is the answer to our problems. With death, there's no more pain. I just preached about this very thing yesterday. The wages of sin is death.”

Alicia mentally prayed the Lord's Prayer over and over and kept driving.

Phillip pointed the gun at her temple. “So tell me. What is it exactly? Is it the way he makes love to you? Is he really that much better than me?”

Phillip had told her not to say anything, so she pretended she didn't hear him.

He jabbed her side with the gun. “Answer me when I'm talking to you.”

“It wasn't anything like that. I told you, I didn't sleep with him.”

“Liar!” he screamed. “If you lie to me one more time, it'll be the end for both of us.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” she said, fearing what he might do next. “When I slept with him six years ago, it just happened. I never planned for it, and it certainly wasn't because he was better than you.”

“Then why did you keep going back? Like you couldn't get enough of him?”

“I don't know. I made a huge mistake. I was young and stupid.”

“You're still stupid.”

“I'm sorry for the way I treated you.”

“Are you sorry for what you did back then or what you're doing now? Because you and I both know you slept with that fool Friday, Saturday, and today. Just admit it.”

“Phillip, please, let's turn around and go home. I'll do whatever you want.”

“You don't need to do anything except drive.”

“Where are we going? Can I at least call to check on Melanie?”

“If you were so worried about her, why did you ditch her to go be with your man?”

“I told you, it was the only way Levi would leave me alone.”

“What did I tell you about lying to me?”

“I wouldn't do that, Phillip. I'm your wife.”

“No, you're a dirty whore who doesn't deserve to live. Now keep driving.”

Phillip's phone rang, and Alicia glanced over at him by reflex. He pulled it from the holder attached to his belt and answered it.

“Hey, Pastor,” he said, raising the gun back to Alicia's head, this time cocking it. “Oh, I'm sorry to hear that,” he continued. “Is she conscious?…No, Alicia and I decided to get away for the night, so we're downtown Chicago…Oh, that's because her phone is off,” Phillip said, looking at her.

Alicia wanted to scream as loud as she could. She wanted to tell her father everything, but having a gun pressed against her head stopped her.

“I was just gonna call and tell you I wouldn't be in tomorrow,” he said, sounding as innocent as always. “I'll be there Wednesday, though…Of course…No problem at all. I'll tell her, and you have a good night.”

He rubbed the gun down the side of her face. “That's a good girl. See? You kept your mouth shut, and you're still alive.”

“What did my dad want?”

“He tried to call you, but your phone kept going to voice mail.”

“You made me turn it off, remember?”

“And it's staying off.”

“Why was he calling?”

“Melanie was rushed to the hospital.”

“Oh my God, is she okay?”

“I'm sure she'll be fine. Just like last time.”

“Phillip, we have to go back.”

“You just keep driving. It'll all be over soon enough.”

“What does that mean?”

“I already told you,” he said, suddenly breaking into tears and sobbing. “The wages of sin is death. It's the only way to fix all this.”

For the first time since they'd gotten in the car, Alicia knew for sure Phillip was going to kill her. He was also going to kill Levi. She'd wanted to believe he would snap back to reality, but if anything, he was slipping into a deeper state of insanity. Which meant she had to do something. Anything. If she was going to die, it wouldn't be without a fight.

Alicia pressed on the accelerator, zigzagging her Mercedes from lane to lane, hoping a state trooper saw them.

Phillip cocked the gun again. “You either slow this car down or so help me…”

Alicia swerved over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes so violently, their heads and bodies jerked wildly. She threw the gear into park, unbuckled her seat belt, and jumped out. She hurried into the middle of the highway, waving her hands, hoping to flag down the next vehicle that drove by. But Phillip rushed over and dragged her back toward the car.

“Let me go,” she screamed, but when he pointed the gun in her face, she knocked his arm away so hard, it fell out of his hand. They both dove at it, but when they hit the ground, Phillip landed on top of her. Still, Alicia grabbed the gun, and Phillip tussled with her, trying to take it. He was much stronger than she was, but she held on to the weapon with all her might. They scuffled and fought, and suddenly the gun flew a couple of feet away from them. Phillip stretched his arm toward it, but Alicia wrestled closer to it as well. They scrapped and brawled like the enemies they'd become…until the gun finally went off.

M
elanie heard beeping monitors and slowly opened her eyes, trying to focus them. Her vision was blurred, but the more she blinked, the clearer her surroundings became. First she saw a ceiling and a bright light, then she looked to her right and saw a salt-and-pepper-haired nurse standing over her, smiling.

“Melanie? Do you know where you are?”

“I'm assuming the hospital.”

“That's right. How are you feeling? Are you having any pain?”

“No.”

“Good. Your parents are here, but I'll be back to check on you, okay?”

Melanie watched the woman leave and then looked to her left. She wasn't surprised to see her father, but when she noticed her mother she wondered if she was hallucinating.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Andrew said.

“Hi, Dad.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

“You really scared us this time,” Gladys said. “You have got to start taking better care of yourself.”

Melanie wasn't sure how to take her mother's
caring
words, because rarely were they sincere.

“What happened to me?”

“Don't you remember us being on the phone?” Andrew said.

“No.”

“Well, we were talking and all of a sudden you sounded confused. You were saying things that didn't make sense.”

“How long have I been here?”

Andrew looked at his watch. “Maybe three hours or so. Oh, and we called the pastor, and he said he'll be praying for you.”

“What did the doctor say?”

“They're still running tests, but when he was in a little while ago he told us that your potassium and sodium were down to life-threatening levels,” her father said. “Your heart rate was sky high, too, and the rhythm was off. He said they'll be doing an ultrasound on your heart tomorrow morning.”

“Is it Dr. Romalati?” Melanie asked, not wanting to hear any more of what her father was saying.

“No, you have a different one this time. He's just as nice, though.”

“They say you're anorexic,” her mother blurted out. “That you likely haven't eaten in days.”

“I've had a lot going on.”

“But you still need to eat,” Andrew said. “You can't go on like this. If you keep this up, the doctor says, you'll be a lot worse off than you are now. He says you'll die.”

Melanie looked away from her parents.

“She got this thing from you,” Andrew said to Gladys, and Melanie glanced back at them.

Gladys frowned. “Excuse me? What kinda fool talk is that?”

“You've got the same thing. The first year we were married, you used to have some of these same health problems. But somehow you learned how to eat just enough to stay thin and not get sick anymore. You're still anorexic, though, if you ask me. And you pushed this child here to lose so much weight, she didn't know how to stop.”

“That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,” Gladys said. “You don't know what you're talking about.”

“Stay in denial all you want, but I'm tired of being quiet. Melanie needs help, and I'm gonna see that she gets it. I'll tell everything if I have to. Even about that year you made yourself throw up after every meal. You were in the hospital for a whole week behind that.”

Melanie stared at them and saw how ashamed her mother was. Melanie waited for Gladys to call her father every vile word imaginable, but all she did was sit there. Earlier today, her mother had been pretty cordial, too, and now she was letting Melanie's father expose her secrets and say whatever he wanted? Melanie wondered what was wrong with her, and why she was being so pleasant. Why her personality had suddenly changed for the better. More important, why she was sitting at Melanie's bedside like a loving, sympathetic mother when she hadn't treated Melanie this way her whole life?

Melanie lay there thinking about her medical condition. Did she really have an eating disorder? She hadn't thought so, but she'd be lying if she said it was normal to feel as exhausted as she had over the last couple of months. Then again, until she'd lost down to her current weight, she'd seen with her own eyes how fat she'd still looked. And anorexia was something that usually occurred when a woman was much younger than Melanie. She knew that much just from the little she'd studied about it in nursing school.

Melanie's parents sat there, not saying anything else, and Melanie lay there with her eyes closed, thinking about Brad. How could he do something like this to her? Pretend that he was so in love with her when all along he was sleeping around with someone else? Melanie also thought about Alicia and how sorry she was for the way things had turned out between them. She'd been angrier than ever with her, but now as she lay there wondering if something was wrong with her heart, her issues with Alicia didn't matter. She just wanted to apologize, because she needed her best friend to be there for her. She was going through so much, so fast and all at once, and Alicia was the only person who could help her through it.

Melanie wiped tears from her eyes, but then there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” she said.

The door eased open, and Brad rolled inside with his wheelchair.

“What are you doing here?” Melanie said.

Gladys stood up. “We should go, Andrew, so they can talk.”

“No,” Brad said matter-of-factly to his mother-in-law. “You're part of the reason all this happened.”

“I know you're not gonna blame all this on me?” Gladys shot back.

Melanie was confused. “Brad, what does my mother have to do with you having an affair? And how did you even know I was here?”

“One of the deacons of the church saw your parents, and I called down to see if you were here. I just took a chance, but how are you feeling?”

“I want you out of here. Just get out.”

“Not until I say what I came to say. Look, I know I was wrong. What I did was the worst, but Jessica meant nothing to me. Nothing at all, except she got pregnant. I never slept with her after that, but I wanted to be a father to my baby. So, last year, I helped her with medical expenses, bought everything the baby needed, and I gave her child support. You didn't know it, but that's where most of that thirty thousand dollars went. And Jessica was fine with our arrangement until a few months ago, when she said child support wasn't enough. She wanted ten thousand dollars a month or she was telling you everything.”

“Andrew, let's go,” Gladys said.

“No,” Andrew declared. “I wanna hear every bit of this.”

Brad secured the wheels of his chair with each safety latch. “And that's why I've been withdrawing money every single month. But when you and I kept arguing about my so-called stock losses, and I saw how much it was tearing us apart, I told Jessica I was done. I told her I would give her a reasonable amount, but that was it. That's when she told me that it was your mother's idea for her to blackmail me in the first place.”

Melanie looked at her mother and so did Andrew.

“I'm leaving,” Gladys said, heading toward the door.

But with Melanie's room being so small, Brad quickly released the wheels on his chair and backed it against the door.

Gladys stepped closer to him in a huff. “Please move out of my way, Brad.”

But he ignored her. “Yes, that's right. Your mother here found out about the baby, and she told Jessica that if she
didn't
blackmail me, she would tell you everything and Jessica wouldn't get another dime. Said she and the baby would never see me again. So for the last five months, your mother has collected half of every ten-thousand-dollar check I gave Jessica.”

Melanie tried to register all that she'd heard. “Mom, is that true?”

“I don't have to explain anything. And anyway, if you'd lost weight like I told you, this lowlife husband of yours never would've had an affair in the first place. I kept telling you what would happen, but you wouldn't listen.”

“Lord have mercy on your soul,” Andrew told his wife. “Gladys, you've done some pretty awful things in your life, but nothing as foul as this. You betrayed your own daughter for money?”

Gladys rolled her eyes at him and then told Brad, “Will you
please
move out of my way?”

Brad gazed at Melanie with pleading eyes. “Baby, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you as soon as I got home on Saturday. But after I told Jessica she wasn't getting another dollar, she lost it. She kept calling my phone, and next thing I knew she was flying through a red light.”

Melanie glared at Brad and then at her mom, blinking back tears. “Both of you make me sick. And I want you out of here.”

Brad leaned forward. “Baby, I know you're hurt, but you have to forgive me. Please don't end our marriage. Give me a chance to make things up to you.”

Tears flowed down the sides of Melanie's face. “If you don't leave, I'm calling security.”

“You don't have to call anybody on me,” Gladys replied. “I'll leave on my own.”

“I still don't believe this,” Andrew said. “You've been doing all that complaining about me not working, yet you've collected twenty-five thousand dollars?”

“That's
my
money,” she said. “It's put away, and that's exactly where it's gonna stay. All those bills are
your
responsibility.”

Melanie watched her mother acting as though she hadn't done a thing. Then she looked at Brad and pressed her call button for the nurse. She would get her mother and Brad out of her room one way or the other.

“Are you staying or going?” Gladys asked Andrew.

“You go ahead. I'm not leaving Mel all alone.”

“Suit yourself,” she spat.

Brad finally wheeled himself away from the door, and Gladys strutted out of the room.

“Baby—” Brad started, but Melanie cut him off.

“Brad, there's only one thing I want from you and that's a divorce.”

“Baby, I made a mistake. I'm not perfect, and you know how much I love you. This whole thing has been eating me up inside ever since it happened, and I'm sorry I hid it from you. Just let me fix this. I'll do anything you want.”

“Please leave,” she said.

Tears fell from Brad's eyes, and while Melanie still loved him, she didn't feel sorry for him. He had deceived her, and now he had to live with the consequences. She would suffer as well, but their marriage was over.