Love, Honor, and Betray by Roby, Lawson (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

More minutes passed, and while Matthew was trying his best to be strong, Charlotte could see tears building in his eyes. Aliciamust have noticed, too, because she finally stood up and said, “Come on, Matt. Let’s go take a walk.”

Anise walked over to him. “Here, I’ll take Curtina.”

Matthew willingly passed his baby sister to his second cousin, but when he got up, his phone vibrated, and he pulled it outof his jacket. Charlotte watched him and wondered why he looked as if he’d just seen a ghost—or something worse. Then, shesaw Alicia bugging her eyes, and then looking at her. Now, Matthew gawked at Charlotte, too. That is, until Alicia quicklysaid, “Matt, let’s go,” and they left the area.

Charlotte sat there in misery, trying to figure out why Tom had sent those horrid photos to a child.

Chapter 45

It was shortly after midnight. Matthew was slumped down in a chair next to Alicia and Phillip, Aunt Emma had taken Curtinaback to her house, and Anise and Janine were sitting near Charlotte. Over the last couple of hours, Charlotte’s parents, ElderJamison, Elder Dixon, Lana, and each of the associate ministers from the church had arrived, and now they were all waitingfor another update. They’d even prayed a couple of times as a group and tried laughing and talking about some of Curtis’sfunnier moments, but there was still this utter gloom hanging in the forefront. Then, to make matters worse, Matthew had stoppedspeaking to Charlotte again and refused to even look at her.

Charlotte looked inside her purse when she heard her phone vibrating, but when she pulled it out and saw a Chicago area codeshe didn’t recognize, she feared answering it. So far, Tom had always blocked his number whenever calling her, but now thathe’d sent photos to both Curtis and Matthew, she worried that maybe he didn’t feel the need to do that anymore. So, she letthe call go to voice mail as she glanced around the room at other families who were either waiting to hear about sick lovedones or waiting to see a doctor themselves. She sat, trying not to think about Tom and how cruel it was for him to send thosephotos to Matthew and wondered why he would do such a thing. She tried pushing all of this out of her mind, but she stillfelt this great need to listen to the message she had a feeling Tom had left for her.

“I’m going to the restroom,” she said to no one in particular, and walked down the hallway. When she strolled inside and wentinto a stall, she closed the door and accessed her message system.

“So, I guess you’re still not taking my calls,” he said. “Doesn’t matter, though, because Reverend Black and I are finallyeven. You slept with me, and he slept with my wife—yeah, maybe it was a long time ago, but he still slept with her and he had no business doing that. Then, the worst part of all was when my sonwalked in on his mother and the good reverend. So that’s why I wanted so badly for your son to walk in on you and me. Butsince he really didn’t get a chance to see as much as my son had to, I figured I’d send him a little photo as a keepsake.At least I didn’t send him all five of them, though, so I hope you appreciate that. Actually, I debated sending that phototo your son at all, and that’s why I didn’t send it until a couple of hours ago. But I finally decided that it had to be done.Anyway, I just wanted to let you know you won’t be hearing from me again, and that I hope you have a very nice life. Ciao.”

Charlotte pressed Delete and dropped her phone back into her purse. What are the chances that any woman would go out to a club for the first time in years and then sleep with a stranger who wanted revenge on her husband? Easily one in a million.

She pondered that whole scenario but decided she just couldn’t focus on that now and exited the bathroom. As soon as she did,though, Matthew confronted her.

“Mom, I’ve been thinking about something,” he said coldly. “And I want you to tell me the truth. Did that man send Dad thesame photo he just sent me?”

Charlotte stood with a blank stare on her face.

“He did, didn’t he?” he said. “And that’s why Dad was so upset when he left home. That’s why he drove out into the streetwithout looking.”

Charlotte’s heart raced furiously. All this time when Matthew had insisted he was seventeen and no longer a baby, it wasn’tuntil now that she really believed him—now because he’d figured out this whole mystery she’d been trying to keep a secret.

“Wow, Mom,” he continued. “And to think when I told you Mr. Rush had been arrested, one of the first things you said was,‘Not everyone can be trusted. Not even people you should be able to trust no matter what.’”

Charlotte’s heart beat even faster. When she didn’t say anything, however, Matthew slowly shook his head in a bewildered fashionand backed away from her.

“Matt,” she said, calling out to him, but he turned and left.

Charlotte wanted so desperately to break down, but she pulled herself together as best she could and went back to the waitingarea. Just as she sat down, though, the doctors came out and this time spoke to them right where they were. Charlotte didn’tknow if this was because things were looking up or they were so bad, they didn’t have time to take them to a closed-door room.

“So far, so good,” Dr. Rumeister said, sounding happy and relieved. “I did go ahead and insert a tube into the side of hischest to let out some of the air surrounding his lung, but his blood pressure is finally back up, his heart rate is a lotcloser to normal, and