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

“You know, before all of you came in to see me this morning, I lay here thinking for almost two hours. I thought about ourmarriage, how rocky it’s always been, and how staying together just isn’t the right thing for us anymore. It’s not good foranyone involved except maybe Matthew, but there are times when I don’t think it’s all that good for him either. Not when wedo so much arguing or end up not speaking to each other for days at a time.”

“But we just got beyond all that, Curtis. Things have been great for us this last week, and we’ve really been happy with eachother. We’ve been happy as a family.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Until you slept with two men behind my back.”

“Yes, and I was very wrong for that. But Curtis, you have to take at least some blame for that whole Tom thing.”

“Why?”

“He left me a voice message, saying the reason he blackmailed me and tried to hurt Matthew was because you had an affair withhis wife. And that his son caught the two of you together.”

“Yeah, but that was at least twelve years ago and way before you and I were even married. What I did to Tom and his son wasthe worst. I admit that. But your decision to party all night and then go to some motel with a complete stranger was all onyou. You did that because you wanted to. And you slept with that other guy for the very same reason.”

Charlotte wasn’t sure what she should say at this point and could tell she was in a lose-lose situation.

“So, anyway, this is the deal,” he continued. “Matthew has a little over a year left in high school, so for his sake, youand I are going to stay married until then and we’re going to get along with each other. But after that, once Matt leavesfor Harvard, I’m filing for a divorce. And you’re moving out.”

“Curtis, you don’t mean that. Matt will never be okay with us breaking up, even once he leaves for college. It’ll kill him.And what about Curtina? Who’s going to be a mother to her?”

“Matt will be fine,” he said, coughing and grabbing his chest. “And what do you mean, what about Curtina? You’ve never caredanything about her, anyway.”

“That was before I knew how wrong I was. I do care about her. I care about her more than you realize.”

“Yeah, right.”

“You said yourself that I was now putting forth a lot of effort toward her. You even thanked me for it, Curtis.”

“But none of that matters now. What matters is that you don’t have a faithful bone in your body, and I’m never going to beenough for you. You’ve always wanted something more, and I can’t deal with that any longer.”

“But what about—”

“But what about nothing,” he said. “Because I know what you’re going to say. That I slept with Tabitha. Yeah, I did, but onlyafter you slept with Aaron. So interestingly enough, this whole string of infidelity originated with you.”

“So that’s it for us? Our marriage is over?”

“Yes. Oh, and one more thing. Don’t even think about withdrawing any large sums of money or closing any of our joint bankaccounts. If you do, I’ll use those photos in far more ways than Tom ever could. I’ll do what I have to to protect my childrenand their futures.”

Now Charlotte knew why he’d wanted to speak with Alicia so privately. She wasn’t stupid. He was setting things up so thatif something happened to him, his oldest daughter would be in control of everything. He was making sure Charlotte would onlyhave access to what he wanted her to have access to and not a dime more. Her marriage really was finished. And she had noone to blame but herself.

Epilogue

Four Months Later

Charlotte lay in one of the hammocks, not far from the huge wraparound deck, and looked down at Curtina—who was napping peacefullywith her body relaxed cozily inside Charlotte’s arm and her little head lying on her chest. It was a gorgeous day in June,and as of late, being with Curtina was where Charlotte now found her greatest joy. Actually, Curtina was her only real comfortin life because while four full months had passed since Curtis’s accident and they’d recently moved into the new church, hestill hadn’t changed his mind about divorcing her. He wasn’t mean or angry, and he even included her on all the family outingshe planned, but he treated her more like a sister than a wife. He’d said he was through, and he’d meant it, and Charlottestill hadn’t been able to accept that. Which was the reason she sometimes went to him, asking what she could do to make himlove her again. What she could do to guarantee that they did stay together forever, the way they’d promised. But he’d toldher there wasn’t anything she or anyone else could do to change his feelings about this. He’d insisted that too much betrayalhad taken place, too much harm had been done on both their parts, and that he simply didn’t trust her.

Charlotte had often wondered if maybe things might have turned out differently had she not slipped and told Curtis about Michael.Maybe if Curtis had never learned that there had been two affairs, he might have been a little more tolerant. Maybe if therehad only been one man in the picture—specifically Tom, whom she cared nothing about—Curtis would have been more apt to forgiveher. She had completely jumped the gun and told him about an affair he likely wouldn’t have discovered. The reason: when Michaelhad contacted her not more than a month ago, he had admitted the truth—that he’d lied about Sybil knowing about them and thatthe only reason he’d told her this was so she would do exactly what she’d done. Tell Curtis herself. He’d been hoping shewould disclose everything, so that he could be with her. He’d wanted her to leave Curtis and marry him instead.

Charlotte had been outraged and ultimately devas­tated by the time she’d