Page 42 of The Chosen Two

“Ummm, maybe because that’s not real life? It’s a club, it’s a vacation, or it’s twenty-somethings who don’t have four children and the multitude of responsibilities that come with them.” I’m met with an eye roll as his only response. I try to broach the other subject at hand. I quietly ask, “Where did you go the other night, when I didn’t want to have sex?”

He’s staring off, far away, and a wicked smile comes to his face. He’s remembering something I don’t think I want to know. My heart is pounding a warning, like it did when I thought about the candles last night.

He widens his grin. “I just…I needed to get out. To feel sexy tosomeone.”

I can only imagine my face. For a split second, he sneers like I’m an insignificant nuisance. “Oh stop, I didn’t hire a prostitute or pick up a girl at a bar or anything. I just went to a strip club.” Then he shrugs, smiles to himself, and adds as an afterthought, “And got a private lap dance.”

“You…what?” My eyes fill with tears.

A private lap dance… I’m twelve again. Listening to my father describe the stripper’s body and wanting to disappear. I retreated to my room and gave myself physical pain to distract me from the emotional…

Now this man, my husband, who refused to have a belly dancer at his bachelor’s party, went to a strip club and got a private lap dance because I denied him sex one time? We’ve had many conversations about how we both feel about strip clubs. I run to the bathroom and throw up. I’m still hunched over the toilet when I hear him chuckling to himself in the doorway.

“You know what the funniest part is? I was sure you were losing interest in me. I felt so sorry for myself. But after last night… Well, I guess that worry was unfounded.”

I push up from the floor and wash my hands and face, my gut twisting the entire time. While I brush my teeth, he takes one step inside the bathroom so I can see his reflection.

He still wears that grin. “I mean, at least I got an idea of what I’d like to see you in when I went, right? It didn’t look exactly like that on Chardonnay, but I still loved it on you.”

I put down my toothbrush, wipe my face, and turn to him. In three strides, I’m standing in front of him. I smile sweetly right before my first two knuckles connect with his jaw, a perfect hook punch. I think George would be proud. I didn’t even wind up before I let loose, so Jake had no idea what was coming.

“What the fuck, you bitch!” He lunges toward me but I duck under his arm and out the bathroom door. He doesn’t follow me but stands in the doorway and glowers while rubbing his jaw.

“Okay, we both need to chill out.” George said karate was for defense only; I can’t look at my hands without shaking. “I’m going to go get the kids. You do whatever you need to do to calm the fuck down. That is, whatever you need to do that doesn’t involve having another woman rub herself all over you, please and thank you.”

I pull on leggings and a sweater and storm out of the room and down the stairs where I yank my purse off the hook. I slam the door behind me, leaving all my thoughts about my marriage and our future trapped within that house.

Once I’m locked in my car, I text Eliza, telling her I’ll be there soon but not immediately. Then I just start driving. I’m stopped at a red light after driving for about ten minutes when I hear the hissing, the whispering. By the time I cross the intersection, the voices are so loud that I can barely focus on the road. I pull over next to a park.

As I sit in my car and take slow, deep breaths I notice a patch of shadow playing in the grass. A few weeks ago, I would have described the dance as pretty. On a normal day, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But my days aren’t normal anymore, and now I wonder why the patch of shadow is moving in the grass at all. The shadow is too dark and defined to be from a cloud passing the sun. Its movement is nonsensical, and that low whispering is much louder here.

I hope the shadow doesn’t disperse when I approach, but since that hasn’t happened yet with all the weird things I’ve encountered, I’m confident it won’t. I get out of my car and move toward the shadow but not directly as I try to act like I’m just coming to the park. The whispers are more defined, and I think if I concentrate, I can maybe make them out. I don’t chance getting any closer, so I sit on the nearest bench, close my eyes, and tilt my face to the blue sky, basking in the warmth of the sun like any regular person enjoying the weather.

I listen with my newly improved hearing as hard as I can, and the whispers separate into different pitches and tones, so I have no idea how many of whatever I’m listening to there are.

“They are conferencing now, speaking to the human about how Lu needs to behave to fix this.”

“This is all very unusual.”

“Well, there has never been a husband of a guardian before. Or children.”

Woah there! This is about my family. I want to scream and launch into action but I know I need to hear what they say. I pinch my leg with my nails through my leggings to keep myself grounded and focused.

“The ladies believed in him. They believed he must have a special power, too.”

“Or how would he have pleased such a woman as she.”

“Or even won her.”

“But now they are doubting the plan.”

“Erato and Cleo believe she needs to take him again. So far, it hasn’t been enough. But they still believe it can work.”

Take… Jake…Again? My mind is racing a million miles a minute and I tighten my fingernails in the soft flesh of my thigh. I have to keep myself at least looking calm. I need to hear everything I can. I need to hear where they are taking my husband.

“Mel disagrees.”

“Mel never agrees.”

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