Family Affair Read Online Free PDF

after eight-thirty,” he said, looking at his watch.
    She leaned over and looked behind him, so he assumed she was verifying the time on the microwave. “Can’t believe you let me sleep in. That was nice of you.” She went over to the coffeemaker to pour her a cup.
    He closed his briefcase and then grabbed his coffee to leave. “I wanted to give you a little break.”
    “Can you give me something else?”
    He stopped. “What, Victoria? What would you like for me to give you?”
    “The truth!” she shouted.
    Maxwell looked at the desperation and worry in his wife’s face. “All you need to know is that I did what you wanted me to do, and now I’m doing what I want to do.”
    Her brows rose into high arches and her mouth dropped open. “What, Maxwell? That makes no sense. Explain to me exactly what you mean?”
    He put his briefcase and coffee on the island and took a deep breath. “You knew day one that I didn’t want to go through with this, but I let you talk me into this sham of a marriage. I told you, Victoria, that I didn’t love you the way you loved me. But I let you convince me that all I had was cold feet and that I’d learn to love you. Yes, I take full responsibility for not calling off the wedding back then, when I knew I was being forced into something I didn’t truly want to do. That was mistake number two for me. Asking you to marry me after your father gave me an ultimatum to both keep my position and make his daughter an honest woman or to move on without you and my position was mistake number one.
    “We said we’d wait a couple years before we had children, and then what, two months later you were pregnant with Emma. And not even a year later, after you knew how upset I was about you purposely getting pregnant with Emma, boom, you were pregnant with M.J. Now, Victoria, don’t get me wrong, I love my children, but I can’t pretend that we have this perfect marriage anymore. You can either give me a divorce or you can stop asking me questions every time I come home late.”
    Her eyes welled and her lip quivered. “So that’s it. I’m supposed to let you cheat on me without dispute. I’m supposed to allow you to keep some whore on the side and smile and not ask questions,” she cried.
    “Either that or you and I can go to the lawyers and end this now. I’m here because you want to uphold the perfect marriage image. So, either you let the world in on the truth about us or back off!” he barked and grabbed his briefcase and headed for the door.
     
     
    ~
     
    Victoria saw that he’d left his coffee. She grabbed it and ran out behind him.
    She snatched the door open and was about to yell out profanities and give him his coffee, but her neighbor, Jim, was approaching her drive to converse with Maxwell.
    “I’m sorry, dear, you forgot your coffee.” She smiled and handed it to him.
    “Oh, thanks, babe. You know how I need my morning fix,” Maxwell returned.
    “Good morning, Jim. How is Edna?” she asked.
    “She is doing much better now. Hopefully she’ll be cancer-free after the treatments are complete.”
    “Well, we hope so. To lose a spouse would be devastating.” Victoria smiled and looked at Maxwell.
    “It most certainly would be,” Max agreed, smiling back at her. She knew he didn’t want to exchange fake pleasantries, but he went along with it.
    “Yes, it would be,” Jim said. “And I can’t imagine the rest of my life without her. You know we’ve been married now thirty-two years.”
    Still looking at Maxwell, Victoria replied. “Oh my, thirty-two years is a long time to be married to someone. I hope Max and I get there.”
    Max interrupted her long-term marriage dreams. “You know what, Jim, it was nice seeing you, but I have to run. I have a meeting and I can’t be late.”
    “Oh, of course, of course,” Jim said.
    “So what time shall I expect you this evening,” Victoria asked purposely in front of Jim, hoping he’d say by dinner.
    Maxwell smirked.