****
Leroy paced the marble terrazzo floor with the phone tucked to his ear, pleading with Abraham. He paid no mind that he was still in yesterday's boxers, feeling the cool air from the vents whipped against his legs. All he wanted was to have one word with his wife.
“Yes, I understand, Abraham. Please, put her on the phone.”
“Sir, give her some time. She’s not in any shape to be reasonable.”
“I’m her husband for heaven’s sake! Please tell her that it is urgent that I speak to her.”
Abraham’s burden for the Paxton couple was evident in his voice. “Let me see what I can do.”
As Leroy waited to hear that familiar voice on the other side of the line, he suddenly felt his body trembling. He couldn't determine if it was because of nervousness or the temperature spreading in the hall. He walked swiftly toward the elaborate staircase and then began his ascent, thinking about that warm sweat suit resting in his drawer. He could hear Michelle in the background, arguing with Abraham, and for a moment, he thought Abraham had lost the battle until he heard her unsettling voice barking into the receiver.
“What do you want?”
“Baby…” Leroy wasn't prepared to handle the asperity coming from the woman who had had a gentle disposition during all their years of being together. The idea of pouring his heart out to her suddenly didn't seem so appealing. “A chance to talk,” he said, carefully. “That's all I want.”
She snickered. “Why do men have to wait until they are caught before they realize the bloody mess they've made? Now, you expect me to come at your beck and call? I don't think so, Leroy.”
“I will tell you everything,” he told her, leaning against their custom-made railings. He had a clear shot of both their sons’ bedroom doors, which looked remarkably clean despite their sweaty bodies bucking up against them every day. “Just come home, Michelle.”
“So, you are admitting to the affair?”
“Please, let's not do this over the phone.”
“Why is it so hard for you to just say it? Just come out and say it!”
“It's not that easy…”
“Leroy, don't waste my time, 'cause you've already wasted five years of it playing your silly little games…”
Leroy lowered his chin to his chest, listening to his wife pound the nails of regret into his heart. He couldn't understand how one sin, which happened so long ago, could produce such devastating effects. It would have been better if he'd just died that night. Maybe he would have saved his family from a life of reproach and despair, because they would have buried his secrets in the grave along with him.
“OMG! You have to be Sean and Eric's father!”
Leroy jerked his head up, searching for the unfamiliar voice. His eyes froze on a lanky, auburn beauty who was posing on the threshold of Eric’s bedroom door. She seemed to have appeared from nowhere, and the only thing Leroy thought at that moment was that the devil had come to finish him off. As his attention zeroed in on the sight in front of him, Michelle’s voice briefly faded in the background.
“I can see where they got their genes from,” she cooed, as she played with a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. She didn't have on a piece of clothing except for one of Eric's dress shirts. She looked Leroy up and down as if he were choice meat. “Nice legs, by the way. They didn't tell me you kept yourself in such good shape…”
“Leroy! Who’s that with you?” Michelle screamed.
Leroy recovered just enough to tune back into Michelle, who was yelling into the phone, “Is she another one of your church flings? My God, how many of them have you been seeing behind my back?”
Leroy almost lost it when the girl began to run her fingers suggestively along her neck, “I don't know what is going on, Michelle. Our son, apparently, invited a woman to his room…”
“Don't you dare stoop that low and put this on our son! You expect me to believe you after all the lies you've told me?”
“I'm telling you the truth, woman! I don't know what's going on?”
“Put Sean on the phone!”
Leroy held the phone away from him, turning to the girl for help, which would have been out-of-place if they’d met under different circumstances. “Where are my sons?” he asked her.
“I came here to see Eric. I don't know where Sean disappeared to. Eric said he's coming right back. I thought you were him when I heard your voice.”
Leroy couldn't believe the audacity of this young female, parading around his house as if she were a part of the family. But standing there in just his boxers, staring at her scantily clad body, which was obviously designed to pull his mind into debauchery, was doing some serious damage to his willpower. One thing he'd learned about temptation was to respect its power to entice. He wasn't about to reason with it and he wasn't about to give it space in his heart.
“You can't stay here,” he told her with a tone of finality. “Get your belongings and leave.”
“But Eric told me to–”
“I said to leave! Get out! I will deal with my son.”
When Leroy placed the receiver to his ear again, Michelle had already disconnected from the line.
Chapter Thirty