A BITCH IN MY HOME

HELEN

I laid on my side and waited anxiously for my phone to beep with a new message.

It all felt like a girl falling in love all again with her first love, and I knew I was falling too fast and was going to get injured somehow.

Love never came so easily to anyone, but as long as it kept me this excited and took my mind off everything that was plaguing my mind then I was okay with it.

Ding!

‘You look like a Greek goddess, but trust me when I say we Italians are known to treat our women better. Haven’t made up your mind about what I asked you?’

Not the message I was expecting, but it still relieved me to get on from him so soon.

It usually took longer than just a few minutes to even view my messages talk more of replying to them, and in his defense, he was always busy.

Well, I get that Italian billionaire, just spare me a couple of your free time, would you?

‘Thanks, for the compliment, but definitely not what I was expecting to hear now’

I hit send, and the bubbles were already up, signaling that he was already typing.

Damn, he must be on a break or something.

‘You can’t blame a man who is witnessing the beauty of Marilyn Monroe for the first time, but I don’t mind waiting until you are ready’

I couldn’t hold back the chuckle that escaped me as I read the text.

Marilyn Monroe?  Now that is doing too much.

That was the same way I had smiled and been so in love with Tyson’s messages the first night he gathered the courage to send me a message after we had spoken endlessly in the school cafeteria.

But as I laid in bed smiling over another man’s messages, I didn’t even know where my husband was, and couldn’t even promise that he was being good.

Even the very thought of what he might be up to at that moment, pierced my heart as it had been doing since the first night I found out he had been cheating on me, five years ago.

I never thought I would ever talk to any other man but him, or consider running off to go meet a man I only just met online a couple of months ago.

Ding!

‘Are you still there?’

Well I guess there is a first time for everything. I thought to myself as I stared at the message on my phone and wondered if I was even doing the right thing.

I had a husband and two kids, it was definitely not okay to be secretly playing all these games with another man. It still felt so alien to me and wrong.

I could only imagine how Tyler found it so normal to go in and out of different women and still return home and pretend like everything was normal.

‘Yes I am, just trying t make sure I am not dreaming, and that I have really found my prince charming, and maybe I can make up my mind about accepting your offer’

A loud bang from downstairs caught my attention immediately I hit send, and I tossed my phone on the bed and hurried downstairs.

Jamie and Emma were sleeping in their room, and there was no way they would have woken up and even gone downstairs on their own.

It was either Tyler had returned, or there was a break in, and as I hurried down the flights of stairs, I wasn’t sure which option I wanted it to be - they were both very bad options.

I wanted to be excited like every other wife, to see her husband again, but I could not forget the pain that came with seeing him again, and what it meant to the kids and I.

‘Oh, thank God you are home, I was really hoping to see you honey’ I heard him say as I walked into the living room.

It was only then I knew what my best option would have been - a break in.

He smelled so much of weed and alcohol, and I prayed silently that the kids would not come wake up until he was sober, or out again as usual.

‘Where have you been Tyler, you can’t just keep doing this’

‘Come on now, that’s no way to welcome your husband, is that?’

‘I would welcome you in a better way if only I know where exactly you are coming back from after all these days, looking like this’ I sized him up and the mere act seemed to annoy him, but he remained calm for reasons I didn’t know at that point until he had successfully accomplished what he wanted to do.

How did I ever get myself into all these mess?

‘You should watch your tongue now woman, watch it’ he repeated and staggered to a nearby sofa and slumped into it.

Annoyance wedged up in my chest, but none of what he said or did to me ever made me hate him. None of it ever made me wish him death or even suffering that will make him realize what he was really missing out on.

A family that loved him so much and just wanted him to be there for them.

His attitude only made me hate my parents more for what they did to me and wish I didn’t have to go through it myself.

I turned back to return upstairs and make sure the kids were still sleeping, but his sloppy voice caught my attention again.

‘Won’t I at least get something to eat in my own house?’

‘Tyler, dinner would not be ready until the next three hours at least, I just finished the laundry and I need to -’

‘I need food Helen, and not endless complaints about what you and have not been up to, go get me something to eat bitch’

There it is, the side of him that I wasn’t ready to see just yet.

I sighed heavily and debated between going to check up on my kids again and heading straight for the mall just down the street to get groceries.

But Tyler was already in the red zone, and I knew better than to push it.

I went into the kitchen instead and got a bag and then took my car keys from the table in the living room and headed out.

I worried about everything as I drove out from the parking space. I worried about my life and the path it was heading to with all the mistakes I was already making.

I had lost enough for a man who I wasn’t sure loved me anymore - my friend, my sanity, and even every other good man that had dared come my way. And it seemed like I would even loose more if I didn’t make up my mind sooner or later.

I was still holding on to that thought when I looked into the rear view mirror and noticed a car pulling up into the packing space I had only just vacated.

Who the hell is that?

I slowed down and waited for whoever was in the car to step out.

I didn’t wait for much longer before a lady who looked like a stripper came down the car and headed towards the house.

What the hell? Was it what I was really thinking?

This motherfucker had the guts to send me out so he could invite another shawty into the house? He couldn't even wait until I was at least five minutes away?

I reversed the car immediately and sped back home.

He could disrespect me as much as he wanted, but he dared not bring his infidelity back home.

Rage and anger that I had been burying underneathe my patient smiles all resurfaced and blinded my eyes.

One person was definitely going to die, and it was definitely not going to be me.