Tears Fall at Night - smashwords Read Online Free PDF Page B

for a living and deal with the rat race, she had been able to stay home with her children and concentrate on keeping her home happy. But now that she was unemployable in this new economy, it hurt like a son of gun to realize that she’d actually gotten the short and frayed end of that stick.

     
    4
    “He did what?” Dontae exploded. “How come no one called to tell me any of this? Why am I just now finding out that my father has been sleeping with your best friend for a year?”
    “You think I knew any of this was going on?” Joy got defensive.
    “Well, she is your best friend. And you did let her live with you.”
    “She was a roommate. And we are no longer best anything. The woman used me the whole time and threw her relationship with Daddy in my face.” Joy plopped down on the sofa and began crying.
    Dontae went to his sister, put his arm on her shoulder and said, “I didn’t mean that. I know it’s not your fault.”
    “I just can’t believe any of this is happening. Daddy and Mommy always seemed so happy. They went to church together for goodness’ sake.” Joy was simply outdone over the things that had transpired over the last few days. Her father’s betrayal had shaken her core beliefs and she was now having second, third, fourth and fifth thoughts about her upcoming wedding. On paper Troy was a good man…a good catch. But would that paper be tarnished twenty years from now?
    “We’ve got to do something. We can’t just sit here and let Daddy get away with this. I’ve never seen Mama cry like that.”
    “I know Dontae, but what can we do?”
    “Let’s go talk to Daddy,” Dontae suggested.
    Joy folded her arms around her chest. “I don’t have anything to say to that man.”
    “Well I’ve got a lot I want to say, so if you’re not going, I’ll just drive myself.” Dontae grabbed the keys to the three year old Mustang his father bought him on his sixteenth birthday and headed out the door.
    Joy went into the kitchen, spread some vegetable cream cheese on a wheat bagel, poured orange juice into a glass and grabbed a banana. She then took the light breakfast to her mother’s room. As she placed the plate on the night stand, she told her mother, “I’m leaving for class, but I need to make sure that you’re going to be all right.”
    Carmella struggled to lift her head from her pillow and then flopped back down. “I’m just tired, Joy.”
    “I know you’re tired, Mother. And I understand. But I don’t want you getting sick over this.”
    “Let me lay here for a little while longer and then I promise I’ll get up and eat something.” Carmella closed her eyes and appeared to shrink back into her bed.
    Joy couldn’t bear to see her mother like that. And knowing that her father caused the pain was crushing. She didn’t want to see him, which was a problem, because she worked for her father. Three days a week after school, Joy made her way to Judge Nelson Marshall’s office to clerk for him. Her father wanted her to see what working lawyers did all day as they came in and out of the courthouse. Joy was in her last year of law school, with only two more classes to go before graduation. But at that point, she was so confused that she didn’t know what to do.
    She had picked her major because her father had been an excellent lawyer and was now an incredible judge. But the fact that he turned out to be such a lousy husband outweighed it all. So, even though she went to class like a good little law student, she absorbed absolutely nothing of what had been taught that day. Instead of going to work, she went back to the apartment that she had all to herself and typed up a resignation letter for her father, the judge.
    She then walked around the elegant, two bedroom apartment that had been her home for the last two years and simply waved goodbye to the rooms. She had enough sense to realize that every action deserved a reaction. She was going to quit her job, so her father wasn’t going