Winning Back His Wife (5 page)

The morning after their fight, Caleb stood behind his wife
as she pulled the comb through her hair. Wrapped only in a towel, Neela paid no
heed to the man staring at her in the mirror. They hadn’t said one word to each
other since Caleb’s eruption last night.

He knew his behavior last night was inexcusable and he also
knew he needed to fix this. Stepping closer he placed his hands on her upper
arms with every intention of drawing her back against him but she cried out,
yanking herself out of his grip. Her hand went up to rub the spot he had just
touched and it was only then he saw the ghastly patches of blue skin.

“Neela…” He stepped forward but she shrunk away. Last night
he had been so angry, he hadn’t given one thought about the possibility that he
may have physically hurt her, but in the light of day, seeing the ugly bruises
that had resulted because of his loss of temper, made him sick.

“God, baby…I’m sorry. God, what did I do?” When he put out a
hand to touch her, she turned and sped off to the sanctuary of the bathroom,
locking him out.

She didn’t speak to him for four days and Caleb felt like
every kind of fool possible. He bought her flowers but found them in the trash
the next morning. Dinner time was a silent affair and by the end of the fourth
night, Caleb was ready to grovel for her forgiveness.

After dinner they stood side by side doing the dishes, the
deafening silence a strain on Caleb’s senses. Unable to stand it anymore, he
threw the kitchen towel down and reached for her, turning her to face him.

 “I’m sorry.” She didn’t look at him. Instead her gaze
settled somewhere on his shirt button.

“Neela, please baby, look at me.” When she didn’t, he
reached for her hands that hung loosely at her side, turning them over to
examine the fading bruises on her wrist. He groaned in agony when he saw how
large they were. Bringing them up one at a time, he placed gentle kisses along
the discolored patches of skin.

 Lowering his head he attempted to see her face but she just
turned away.

“Neela, I’m sorry for hurting you. Can you please forgive
me? I hate this silence between us.” After what felt like eternity without a
response, he tried again. “Sweetheart, I know you’re angry with me and I don’t
blame you. I lost my temper and I am sorry. I should not have reacted the way I
did. I should have tried to understand how you must have felt when you saw Lori
and me. I love you babe and I wish I could take back the things I said and did
that night but I can’t. Just please forgive me and I promise I won’t ever hurt
you like this again. Please” She sniffled and when a teardrop landed on his
hand Caleb felt as he had just been dealt a physical blow to his chest.

“Oh God, baby, please don’t cry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.
God, please don’t cry.” Releasing her hands, he pulled her into his embrace.
When her crying finally subsided, he raised her face to his. Kissing away the
remnants of tears that lingered there; he then kissed her cheeks, her nose, and
her lips. She finally relaxed and leaned into him opening her mouth to allow
his kiss.

“Mmmm, God, I love you so much,” he breathed into her mouth
and then she surrendered to his touch.

****

Every function, party or benefit that followed this one,
ended in a fight. Neela never tried hard enough to fit in. She would whine
about how tired she was and always complained about not feeling well.

Lori continued to be an issue between the two of them. He
and Lori remained friends and Neela made no attempt to hide her dislike of the
other woman. She demanded that he stop seeing Lori and he refused. No woman was
going to tell him what to do. Lori was his friend and Neela would have to
accept that. They would argue for hours after and then not speak for days.
Their sexual chemistry would always overrule and they always ended having
fantastic makeup sex but the underlying issue always remained. Neela never
tried hard enough.

Caleb became frustrated and snapped at everything. After
every fight he would find himself searching out Lori. She was a woman; she
would understand why Neela was reacting this way. She would listen patiently as
he carried on about his marital problems and never once blamed or criticized
him. Lori really was a good friend. He couldn’t understand why Neela saw her as
a threat. If she trusted him a little more, things would be much simpler.

Four months into their marriage Caleb wanted to host a
private dinner party for a client. They were getting ready for bed when he
broached the subject. Neela had been awfully quiet for the past couple of days.
Her excuse was the usual - she wasn’t feeling well.

“Neela, I have a client flying in from Spain next Wednesday.
I invited him to dinner to discuss business. I would appreciate if you handled
the arrangements.”

She stopped in the middle of making the bed and glared at
his back, where he was standing at the mirror drying off.

“You offered to host a party before you even asked me. Caleb,
I’m sorry but I can’t,” she continued fluffing the pillows.

The towel stilled in his arms and he turned to face her.

“What do you mean you can’t? Maybe you didn’t understand me.
I wasn’t asking you, I’m telling you. You are my wife and it’s expected that
you host this dinner.”

“Maybe
you
didn’t understand
me
. I am not your
maid and I do not appreciate you making arrangements and then telling me about
them. I said I can’t host your dinner and I mean I can’t.” She didn’t look up
from what she was doing.

He was in front her in few strides, twisting the pillow out
of her grasp, flinging it across the bed.

“Neela, I am not going to argue about this. This dinner is
important. I need to sign Mr. Salvaro if I am to take Wilder Inc.
international.” It was a difficult task to control the anger that was boiling
inside. He was so sick of her excuses.

She moved past him to stand at the foot of the bed.

“I understand Caleb, but I haven’t been feeling well….” she
explained.

“Damn it, Neela, I’m not going to buy that excuse again this
time. Every time we have an event to attend, you’re always ‘not feeling well.’
I’m sorry, but this is one time I really don’t care if you are sick. You are
going to do this and it’s not up for discussion.” his voice erupted across the
room. Recognizing his anger for what it was Neela stepped back a little.

For a fraction of a moment, he thought she was going to
continue to argue but she answered in a defeated voice, “Fine Caleb, I’ll host
your dinner,”

Caleb was the one to break the deadly silence which engulfed
the room, by walking away.

He stood in the bathroom staring at his reflection in the
mirror for a long time. Was his mother right? Had he made a mistake in marrying
Neela? He loved her to death, but maybe love wasn’t enough. What if she
couldn’t adapt to his way of life?  Maybe he would have been better off
marrying someone like Lori.

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. God, Caleb
what are you thinking? You love your wife. She just needs some time. You can’t
give up on her. Go out there, talk to her, and find out why she is acting this
way.

He went back out to do just that, but she wasn’t there. Her
pillow was gone from the bed. She had gone to sleep in the spare room.

He barely saw her over the next week. She was still asleep
when he left for work and she would be in bed by the time he got in at nights. Sleeping
in separate rooms didn’t make things any easier. One thing he was sure of now,
was that she needed time and he would give it to her.

After the Salvaro deal he would take some time off and spend
it with her. Their marriage was no different from any other marriage They had
problems that needed to be worked out and Caleb had every intentions of saving
his marriage.

The night of the dinner with Mr. Salvaro found Caleb nervous,
which was a first for him. Mr. and Mrs. Salvaro arrived promptly at eight p.m.

The dinner was proceeding well, except for the fact that
Neela kept excusing herself. She would disappear for minutes at a time and then
return looking flushed.

“Are you okay, my dear?” Mrs. Salvaro asked, a look of
concern etched on her aged face.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just a little tired,” she offered but Caleb could
see she was trying very hard to appear normal.

They were nearing the end of the dinner when Caleb noticed
that Neela looked extremely pale. He wanted to ask her if she was okay but Mr.
Salvaro was speaking to him.

“Well, Caleb, I like your proposition and I don’t see any
reason why Salvaro International and Wilder Inc. cannot do business together.”

“I assure you, Mr. Salvaro, you won’t regret this decision.”

Both men were on their feet, hands clasped over the table
when Caleb heard Neela groan. He looked down from his standing position to see
her cover her mouth with her hand. She stood suddenly and Caleb watched in
total horror as she emptied the entire contents of her stomach on Mrs. Salvaro.

The blood drained from her face and she looked as if she was
going to faint. She grabbed a napkin and started dabbing at the mess she had
just made.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” She was on her knees before Mrs.
Salvaro wiping vigorously at the elderly lady’s skirt.

Mr. Salvaro was at his wife’s side trying to calm her.

“Marybele honey, are you alright?”

Caleb just stood there in shock looking at the scene playing
out in front of him. This could not be happening. Neela did not just throw up
on his client’s wife.

“Leave it, child.” Mrs. Salvaro spoke to her in a low voice.
Neela hands stilled and she looked up at the old lady. She then burst into
tears and ran out of the room.

Caleb’s brain started to function again.

“Mrs. Salvaro, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.
Please…”

Mr. Salvaro cut him off, the elderly man’s voice stern. “Go
handle your issues. We will see ourselves out. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
His words were final. Caleb looked on in silence as the biggest deal of his
life walked out his front door.

He swiped his hand across the table, scattering dishes
across the floor. This was all Neela’s fault and there was going to be hell to
pay.

He took the stairs two at a time bringing him closer to the
object of his anger. He crashed through the bedroom door and she bolted upright
from the bed.

She was crying but that didn’t matter. He was livid.

“Caleb, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I…” she
pleaded.

“What did you do? What did you do? God, Neela you just blew
a multi-million dollar deal. How could you embarrass me like that?” He paced
the length of the room. He wouldn’t go near her, fearful of doing something he
would regret.

“I’m sorry...”

“Is that all you can say? You’re sorry. Damn you, Neela.
Damn you! I’ve tried to be understanding of your whining and childish behavior
for the last four months but this is it. You’ve gone too far this time.” He
stopped in the middle of his pacing to look at her. “Maybe my mother was right.
Maybe I should have never married you. You don’t fit in.” His voice laced with
bitterness, his eyes speared her.

“Caleb, you don’t mean that.” She clutched at her heart,
sounding hurt but he was beyond reasoning.

“What we had back in Trinidad, maybe it was meant to end
there.”

Neela flinched as if he had physically struck her and for a
brief moment he felt regret.

Something flashed in her eyes and her expression changed
from hurt to anger.

“Well, maybe you should have married Lori. I’m quite sure
your family would have loved that.” she flung at him.

“Maybe I should have. At least she knows what is expected in
a wife.” He stepped forward, unable to curb his need to hurt her, verbally
lashing out in anger. That shut her up.

She stared at him for a long while, her body shaking with
anger or was it hurt? It was difficult to tell because her face had become an
unreadable mask.

Struggling to bring his seething anger under control, he
said in a steely tone, “I’m going out, don’t wait up for me,” Not waiting for a
reply he left the same way he came.

 Caleb abused the door with his balled fist. It wasn’t long
before she answered.

“Caleb, what are you doing here?” Lori was surprised at his
unexpected visit. After all it was almost midnight.

He walked past her into the apartment.

“Caleb, are you alright?” She queried in a worried tone. It
felt good to have someone to talk to. Someone who could actually understand his
side of the issues he faced with his wife.

“No, Lori, Neela and I just had a huge fight. I said some
things I shouldn’t have. I just needed to talk to someone.” He didn’t know why
he showed up at Lori’s door but now that he was here he had the oddest feeling
he was making a mistake.

“It’s okay Caleb, why don’t you have a seat? Let me get you
something to drink,” she offered.

She shoved a glass of vodka in his hand and he downed it in
one swing wincing as it sliced his throat. She refilled his glass, coming to
sit next to him on the couch.

“What happened, Caleb? Why are you so upset?” she asked.
This was one of the things he loved about Lori. It was almost midnight but she
didn’t hesitate in taking him and listening to his problems.

 The vodka had started to sink in, loosening his tongue
allowing him to tell her everything.

“Oh God Caleb, she didn’t. What was her excuse?” Lori was
hanging on to his every word.

“She didn’t have any. She just kept saying she was sorry. If
I didn’t know better I would think she did it on purpose.” Why did he feel as
if he was trying to convince himself of that?

“How are you so sure she didn’t?” Lori implied. Caleb didn’t
answer. Could it be possible? Had Neela done it as a way at getting back at him
for forcing her to host this dinner? No, Neela would not do that.

“Why don’t you lean back Caleb?” Lori suggested as she rose
from her sitting position. From behind him, Caleb felt her hand on his shoulder
as she slowly began to rub his protesting muscles.

“Relax Caleb, you’re so tense.”

Resting his head back, he welcomed the gentle massage,
allowing it to sink in. Slowly he felt the tension of the evening drain away.

Lori’s hand slid down his chest and she continued to massage
gently. Slowly he felt himself slipping into a vortex of sleep. He woke to the
feel of soft lips against his chest and it felt good.

Neela hadn’t allowed him close to her in two weeks so it
didn’t take very long with the alcohol in his system for him to be fully
aroused. Lori looked up from where she was kneeling between his legs and her
eyes were clouded with heat.

Screw it! Neela didn’t give a damn about him so why the hell
should he refuse what Lori was offering?

Leaning forward he took her lips in his and gave himself up to
the desire which was burning inside him.

****

The sound of a phone ringing had Caleb scrambling out of a
fitful sleep. He reached out to where the noise was coming from and silenced
the offending sound. He turned to the sound of soft breathing and froze when he
saw the sleeping woman next to him. Lori.

Caleb shot up to a sitting position to take in his
surroundings. He was in Lori’s bedroom, in her bed. Jerking the coverlet
forward, he peeped under it and groaned. He was naked and from the bare skin of
Lori’s shoulder peeping out from under the crumpled sheet, he was quite sure
she was naked too.

‘Oh God, please don’t tell me that I had sex with Lori.’ But
he knew the answer to that. What had he done? He looked at the time on his
watch. He had a meeting with Mr. Salvaro in two hours.

Carefully climbing out of the bed, he scrambled around the
room for his scattered clothes. Dressing quickly, he took one quick look at
Lori before he left. He would talk to her later.

****

Caleb sat at his desk, his face buried in his hands. What
had he done? He knew he and Neela had problems but he was sure they could work
them out. He didn’t mean any of the things he had said the previous night. Anger
had driven him to be intentionally mean and now he had totally screwed up. If
Neela found out about what happened with him and Lori, she would leave. His
heart almost stopped at that thought. The idea of living without Neela was
almost unbearable.

The previous night he had been so angry at Neela he didn’t
think twice about sleeping with Lori. His mind reeled back to that night’s
events causing his head to hurt. He couldn’t face Neela this morning; instead
he drove straight to the office showering and changing there.

He looked up when a brisk knock sounded on his office door.

“Come in!” he answered. He needed to get this meeting with
Mr. Salvaro over and go home to his wife. This account didn’t matter to him
anymore. All that mattered was Neela.

Caleb stood to greet Mr. Salvaro as he entered the room.

“Good morning, Caleb. No, please don’t get up.” He waved
Caleb’s hand away.

Taking a seat opposite Caleb, he looked him straight in the
face.

“How is your wife?” Caleb was thrown. He didn’t expect Mr.
Salvaro to ask about Neela.

“She’s fine. Look, I’m really sorry about last night. I
don’t know…”

“It’s okay, my boy. My Marybele was the same way when she
was expecting; couldn’t keep a thing down,” the silver-haired man said as he
offered a sympathetic smile. What was he talking about? Expecting? Who was
expecting what?

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.” Caleb said
confused. The elderly man broke into a healthy fit of laughter.

“You young people, you don’t even see what’s right in front
of you. Has your wife been moody lately? No? Tired, always in the bathroom?” he
stated more than asked.

The expression on Caleb’s face answered yes to all of his
questions.

“That, Hijo, is because you are going to be a papa. Your
wife is pregnant,” he announced.

Caleb was stumped.

Could it be?  Was Neela really pregnant? How could he have not
seen that? A bout of nausea rose in his throat. She had been complaining for
weeks of not feeling well. He just assumed she was using that as an excuse to
get out of attending the many functions they hosted. She wasn’t acting, she was
really sick. Caleb groaned inwardly at the revelation.

He must have drifted away because Mr. Salvaro tapped the
desk in front of him.

“Now let’s get these papers signed, so you can go home to
your esposa. From the look on your face, I am guessing you did not know.”

He shook his head. He had really messed up. He had to find a
way to fix this.

****

Signing the papers and finalizing the contract took almost
four hours. By the time they were finished it was after lunch, but he didn’t
care about food. He wanted to go home to his wife.

Sitting in the garage in his parked car, Caleb tried to
clear his thoughts. His heart raced at the thought of being a father. Neela
deserved so much more than what he had given her these past few months. Instead
of being the husband she needed he had become the dictator, demanding that she
fit into his world. He had forgotten that his reason for falling in love with
her was because she was nothing like the people from his world. There was a lot
to be made up for but he would do it. He would love his wife for who she was
and not what everyone wanted her to be. She was Neela Wilder, an exotic beauty
from a little unknown island in the Caribbean. She was his wife and he would
fight to keep it that way.

Images of him and Lori flashed across his mind threatening
to spoil his good news and he fought to block them out. Neela must never know
about him and Lori.

Grabbing the bouquet of flowers and the gift bag on the
passenger seat, he stepped out of his car and headed inside. When he entered
the front door of the condo, a feeling of emptiness enveloped him. There was no
sound of Calypso music floating through the air, no aroma of Caribbean flavored
food. Maybe she was resting.

“Neela…?”

No answer. He went through to the kitchen, it too was empty.

“Sweetheart…?”

Still no answer.

After surveying the entire first floor, he headed upstairs.

“Neela…?” He opened the bedroom door. Where was she?

He got his answer when he saw the photos scattered across
the bed. Tossing the contents of his hands at the foot of the bed, he gathered
up the photos. Something dropped from between the papers with a loud clink.
Neela’s wedding ring.

Picking up the ring, he sunk to the bed and leafed through
the pictures causing a wave of dizziness to claim him.

“God, no,” a hoarse whisper escaped from his throat. These
were pictures of him and Lori from last night. How had she gotten these?

Panic gripped him and he shot up from the bed. Yanking open
the closet door he fought his way through the clothes, looking for her
suitcases. They weren’t there.

Despair filled him when he realized what happened. She was
gone. Neela had left.

‘Okay Caleb, don’t panic, you can still fix this. Think
Caleb, think! There is only one place she would go - back to Trinidad.’ He
would catch the earliest flight out. When he reached for his phone in his coat
pocket it rang. Without looking at the display, he jammed it to his ear, daring
to hope.

“Neela…?”

It was as if the devil himself had planned his day. It
wasn’t Neela on the other end. It was his sister, Daphne. George Wilder was in
the hospital. His father had a massive heart attack.

The next six months were spent at his parents’ side. Helen
Wilder had withered into a fragile looking woman who desperately needed the
support of her children. Their father’s heart attack had been too much to
handle.

Stuart, once again stepped in to fill Caleb’s shoe at Wilder
Inc. and Caleb spent his time with his parent’s.

 He dreaded going to the condo. Neela had only been there a
total of four months but her scent lingered everywhere. The few times he did
go, he would lie on their bed and allow himself to think about her, about the
baby she may be carrying and his heart ached. How could he have been so stupid?
He had failed her from day one. Four short, stinking month was all it took for
him to break his vows. She must hate him so much.

Not a day went by that he didn’t think about his wife. He
missed her so bad that sometimes he felt as if he couldn’t breathe. Memories of
their short time together would emerge at the worst time, burying him in long
periods of depression. Blake tried finding her but his search turned up
nothing. She had not gone back to Trinidad.

Caleb searched for her in Florida but Kaylee no longer lived
there and she left no forwarding address. It was as if she had disappeared off
the face of the earth.

At the end of the six months Caleb had to resign himself to
the fact that his wife did not want to be found. He had lost her and now he
would never know if he was going to be a father.

****