“Hey Beautiful, I’m almost done here. I should be home in a few hours,” Jermaine said. His tone was as cool as a cucumber. Had he looked up, he would’ve seen his wife and other sister-in-law watching him kiss their sister as he spoke on the phone.

CHAPTER 3

As Eden watched him, she couldn’t speak. Too many thoughts raced through her head. Is she who he’s with every Thursday? How long has this been going on?

Jermaine noticed the silence and with obvious concern asked, “Babe is everything ok?”

The tone in which he spoke made another surge of sickness race up Eden’s throat. It truly sounded like he cared about her wellbeing. That thought was funny. Eden swallowed the sickness and tried to bring some normalcy to her voice.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just wanted to see how the meeting was going. Eve and I are on the way to Ribeye’s. I wanted to know if you wanted me to pick something up for you,” She lied. She shocked herself by the calm way that she spoke.

“Everything is good. You don’t have to get me anything. My secretary got my specialty order, so I don’t need anything,” Jermaine lied unaware that he had been caught.

Eden shook her head. She smirked as she watched him hold the phone to his ear while he walked out of the restaurant hand in hand with her sister. He was so caught up in his lie that he didn’t even notice that she was parked directly beside him. Nor did he realize the large dent in his driver’s side door.

“Well babe, I don’t want to intrude. Try to make the best of your night and I’ll see you when you get home. Bye.”

“Bye?!” Jermaine repeated. The simple word with lack of emotion stunned him.

They never ended a call or conversation without expressing their sentiments. They both knew it.

“What happened to I love you?” Jermaine asked as if he was offended.

Eden ended the call and scoffed. She wasn’t surprised to see The Husband flashing on the screen. Unlike the times in the past, seeing his moniker filled her with hate.

“He has a lot of fucking nerves?” Eve said as she tapped the red button on Eden’s phone.

“What could I have done to make my husband fuck my sister? Most men have affairs with random women. A bitch from Facebook, a gas station, shit a coworker. What did I do for him to have an affair with my sister?” Eden asked as she slapped at the tears that rolled down her face.

The last thing she wanted to do was cry over someone that could betray her like this. The rage outweighed the pain. She couldn’t stop the tears even if she wanted to.