Risking It All (30 page)

He’d made
smart
move
. It was as though he knew, without a doubt, that s
he’d be back
for more
.

Julissa waited and waited and waited on the couch that night for Michael to get home. His dinner, still in the microwave, was cold six hours ago. At midnight, he had still not come home yet. And Julissa waited, watching episode after episode of comedy television shows, wringing her hands over and over again. Rehearsing over and over again in her head how she would tell Michael that she was leaving him. Golf clothes that he had worn from this morning were balled up in the hamper and his golf bag was in the garage indicating that he had arrived home early that afternoon before Julissa had gotten there.

Julissa even called his cell phone three times, once at nine, ten, and then again at eleven. He sent all three calls to voicemail. The last time she called him, his phone was turned completely off. The other times Michael had come home in the early hours of the morning, he had been out drinking or playing cards with his buddies. Julissa waited and waited until she fell asleep on the couch.

At nine the next
morning, she got up and Michael’s car wasn’t in the garage and he was
nowhere
to be found. She began to worry. What if he was in trouble? What if he was hurt somewhere? Maybe he spent the night over at his friend’s house and got up and went to work from there.

After
jumping in the shower and
brushi
ng her teeth
, she dialed Michael’s work number. It rang four times and went to his voicemail. From the pre-recorded greeting announcing that it was Friday, instead
of Monday, she knew that he hadn’
t gone to the offic
e this morning.

Something was wrong.

She made a call
into her office to Martha.

“Good morning. This is Martha.”

“Hi, Martha. This is Julissa. Listen, I got up feeling a little cranky this morning. I’m in no mood to work. I think I’m gonna take a sick day.”

“Oh. I hope you feel b
etter. Is there
anything you want me to
do that needs to get done today?”

“Nothing urgent. I’ll have both my office lines forwarded to my personal phone if someone needs to reach me urgently.”

“Okay. Take care.”

When she hung up with Martha, Julissa paced the foyer trying to figure out what she should do. She had no idea where Michael was, so she didn’t know where to begin if she wanted to go out looking for him. Michael had never done this. He had stayed out late many times before, but at least he always came home afterward. She calmed herself down and dialed Christina’s number.

“Hi, Julissa.”

“Christina, Michael didn’t come home last night.” Julissa thought she was calm, but her voice was panicked.

“Oh.” Christina was silent for a long time, and then she said, “Try calling his cell phone.”

“I did! I called him several times last night and he didn’t pick up. I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning. He came home yesterday afternoon and left and I haven’t heard from him.”

“Okay. Calm down. Did you two talk about anything yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t see him yesterday. I mean, I saw him, but it was that morning, and he just said he was going to play golf and would be back that afternoon.”

“Try the phone at his office.”

“I did!” Julissa was getting impatient. “Christina, you try calling him. If he’s angry at me, there is a chance he’s not answering my calls to get back at me. Can you please just call him?”

“Well, did you give him reason to be angry?” Christina asked.

“No! Call him right now. I need to know.”

“Okay. Hang up and I’ll call you right back.”

Julissa hung up the phone and sat on the couch, waiting for Christina to call her back taping her feet. When the phone rang, she answered before the second ring.

“Did he pick up?”

“No,” Christina said, slowly, “It rang and went to his voicemail.”

“Oh, no…where could he be?” Julissa dropped her hand in her head.

“Julissa, just calm down, okay? I’m sure that he spent the night at a friend’s house or something. Maybe he went out for drinks and couldn’t drive himself home.”

“I hope so.”

“I’m at work, right now, Julissa. Wait another hour and see if he shows or calls, and then call me back. Okay?”

“Okay,” Julissa nodded.

Not wanting to wait another minute, she dialed the main line to Michael’s company.

“It’s a great morning here at Stonemead Finance and Investments. How may I direct your call?”

“Who am I speaking with?”

“My name is Patricia. How may help you?”

“Patricia, I’m trying to reach Michael Gerard.
It’s his fiancé.
Is he in the office by any chance?”

“No, ma’am. Michael is working out of the office with a client.
He’s asked that all calls be routed directly to voicemail.
May I take a message
and give it
to him when he gets back this afternoon
?”

Realizing that Michael was aware, alive, and avoiding her on purpose, Julissa’s mouth fell open.

“Ma’am? Hello?”

Julissa hung up her cell phone. How dare he have her worry about his whereabouts and safety? He was perfectly fine and he was purposely avoiding her phone calls. Furious, she stormed upstairs, grabbed a duffel bag, and began folding her clothes into it. She’ll show him. Her
e she was trying to give him a proper breakup
and he was out all night doing God only knows what, and he was avoiding her phone calls for Christ’s sake. I wonder how he would like it if she just packed up her shit, lef
t, and never looked back.

“Where are you going?”

Michael’s voice startled her so much that she could have jumped six feet into the air.

“
Nowhere
. Wh-Wh-Where have you been?” Julissa was breathless.

Michael’s eyes wandered to her and the duffle bag on the bed, half-filled with clothes. “The question was…where…are…you…going?
”
he asked again, placing
emphasis on each word like she was a child, hard of hearing. He placed a briefcase on the coffee table in front of the fireplace.

“
I was angry that you were purposely avoiding my calls.” And what else, Julissa? Tell him.

“That still doesn’t answer the question. I said, where?”

“Christina’s. Somewhere away from you,” Julissa blurted.

“Christina’s?” He took another look at her and then walked slowly into the master bathroom.

Julissa zipped up the duffel bag and sat on the bed, waiting for Michael to emerge again. Suddenly, everything that she had rehearsed last night was now only a distant memory. What was she supposed to be telling him?

Michael came out of the bathroom, with his shirt and tie in his hands. He draped them across the lounge chair. “Do they sell bagels at 1204 Cheshire Bridge Way?”

“What?” What the heck was he talking about? She tried to rack her brain, but nothing came up.

Michael removed his watch and placed it on the end table and then he removed his belt and draped it over his shirt and tie. He did this slowly as if over thinking his actions and his words before they came.

“The bagels, Julissa. Did you forget to pick up the bagels on Saturday?”

“Oh! Yes, I did. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Michael stepped forward and reached out. Instincts told Julis
sa to flinch and move back. But
instead of the slap that she expected, he lifted her chin gently and moved her head fro
m side to side,
inspecting her neck. “You went out again on Sunday, didn’t you? Couldn’t you have picked them up, then?”

Julissa put her hands up to her neck and lowered her fa
ce. “I’ve had a lot to do
and I’ve been kind of forgetful lately.”

“Right. You’ve been a very busy woman, Julissa.
Coming and going as you please. Forgetting everything. A
cting strangely.”

“Michael, that’s what I need to talk to you about.” You can do it, Julissa. Just say it and you’re free to go.

“Go ahead.” M
ichael crossed his arms over his chest
.

“I…you know…” Julissa fumbled with the engagement ring on her finger. “Things haven’t been the same with us for the past year or so. It’s like we’re growing apart.”

“Does it have something to do with 1204 Cheshire Bridge Way?” There he goes again. What the heck was he talking about? And then Julissa got stiff and froze. Now, it was so clear to her, like a picture. She had closed on a home this past week, 1204 Cheshire Bridge Way. She remembered signing the paperwork and seeing the address on contract several times. Quinton’s address. The address to his new home.

“Yes,” Michael hissed, watchi
ng her intently
. “Maybe us growing apart has something to do with you and the so called real estate you help
ed
him purchase.”

“Michael…
”

“Maybe it was something to do with the fact that you have been letting him fuck your brai
ns out!”

The slap that
follo
wed was unexpected. She
fell back on the bed on top of her duffel bag.

“No!” She held her face in her hands, shocked at the pain.

“No?” Michael grabbed her by the straps to her dress and they ripped in two.
He reached out again and gripped
her by the
throat
, pulling her closer to his face. “Do you think that I am stupid? Do you take me for a motherfuckin’ fool?” The veins in his neck and forehead were bulging and she swore that she could see the blood rushing through them.

“You’re hurting me,” she cried. His fingers were digging into her neck.

“Hurting you?” He laughed. “Julissa, I feel like putting more
than those hickies on your neck right now.
”

“I was going to tell you!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” He pushed her back down on the bed, and paced ba
ck and forth in front of it
.

Julissa looked at the door.
Contemplating
whether she should try to make a run for it. “I was going to tell you last night. But, you didn’t come home.”

“Shut up!” He glared at her again. “How many times did you fuck him?”

Julissa looked at him and didn’t say a word.

“Oh,” Michael chuckled despite the angry expression on his face. “I already know the answer. Too many times, huh? You lost count on two hands? Is that it? You fucking whore!”

“Please, I’m sorry. I wanted to come to you, but I was scared. I knew you would act like this.”

“Was I not good enough for you, Julissa? You had to go out looking for sex like a bitch in heat!” Michael opened his briefcase. “And of all people…the Quinton Brennan. Richard’s cousin? Do you know that he questioned the way I do things at my company during a meeting in front of my
boss? The nerve of him? H
e tried
to fuck with my job and
he’s
fuck
ing
my fiancé.”

“Michael, I’m not leaving you because of Quinton. We w
ere through before I met him
. I don’t see a future with you anymore. You’re too…you’re
just too…violent, disrespectful. Things have changed about you.
” Julissa stood up and threw
the bag over her shoulder
.

“I can’t believe that I trusted you. Never in a million years would I think that you would stoop so low. Had she not said anything, I would have continued to be a fool in my own goddamn house, calling a whore like yourself my fiancé.”

“What do you mean she? Who said something?”

Michael smiled. “Christina came to me, Julissa. She said that I should really pay more attention to you or you would leave me. It took a lot to get the information I needed from her, but she broke down and told me everything she knew.”

Julissa gasped. She felt betrayed. How could Christina have done this to her? Christina had known what she had done all along. She had known the moment that Julissa called her this morning concerned about the whereabouts of Michael.
That trifling heffa had said nothing.

“I still didn’t believe her. I needed some solid evidence for myself. And evidence I got. Lots of it.” Michael reached in his briefcase and pulled out a folder. With a sinister smile, he tossed it on the bed next to her.

Julissa was afraid to look at him. She slid the duffle bag on the floor, bent
down, and picked up the folder, fingers twitching.

Michael watched her closely as she opened the folder. There were pictures. Large size. Almost 8 ½ by 11 in size. The first picture was of her Lexus pulling into Quinton’s metal gates. It was apparent that she was the person in the Lexus since no one else had the keys to her car. It was labeled as last Friday around noon. The next picture was of Quinton standing next to her car holding the car door for her. Her hands began shaking as the evidence against her was solid. More pictures of her walking into Quinton’s home. Pictures of Quinton and Ed taking boxes into Quinton’s house. Even pictures of Quinton by himself outside on a ladder, apparently doing s
omething with his gutters. Then
there was a picture of her and Quinton kissing outside on his driveway with Ed’s retreating back heading into the house.