Good God! I was busted again. “W-what?” was the only word I could get out.

“I saw you with that Betty Jean woman and those kids in that restaurant. And Yvonne and Milton told me how you’ve been robbing my family blind for years to support them.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. This had to be the other “humdinger of a thing” Milton tried to tell me before I hammered him. After all the money I’d gave them blackmailing motherfuckers, they’d still tattled on me. With demons like them on the loose, it was no wonder the world was in such a uproar. “Joyce, I can explain,” I wheezed, spitting up blood. “Aaarrggh . . . please . . . please help me.”

“You can lie your black ass there and explain all you want. And it wouldn’t make any difference to me. I know all I need to know.”

“I . . . I . . . declare, I’ll make it up to you. Don’t end our marriage.”

“Me end our marriage?” She threw her head back and let out a sharp laugh. “Devil, you ended it. I’m just sorry it took so long for me to find out what a low-down funky black dog you really are. I loved you with all my heart and treated you like a king. But I wasn’t woman enough for you, huh?”

“Don’t put all the blame on me.” My voice had dropped to a whisper that seemed to be crawling up from the bottom of my throat. “You knew how bad I wanted children and you couldn’t make that happen.”

“You didn’t give me time before you started up with that woman. You got with her within weeks after we got married. And at the time I was pregnant!”

“Joyce, call for help,” I begged. “You can kick my ass later. Let’s work things out. I don’t want to lose you.”

She blew out a loud breath and went to the telephone on the stand by the couch and picked it up. Before she dialed, she started talking some more. “Lose me? Pffft. I’m not the only thing you’ll be losing. You’ll never work at my family’s store again. You and that woman will have to scrape by the best way you can until somebody else hires your deceitful black ass.” She paused and glared at me. “I’m going to find myself a man who deserves me.”

I was so woozy, I didn’t know what I was saying next until I’d said it. “I doubt that. If you do, he’ll be some random slow-wit geezer. And that’s if you lucky. A beast like you will never latch on to another man like me, unless you buy him like you bought me.”