The Turns Life Takes, Chapter 16 - Eve/Julian
by yhh
For the past few weeks, the women in Kay Bennett's house walked through
life. They went to work, school, cleaned up, played with Endora and Maria,
ate, but it was like no one was home. Everyone was reeling from the conversation
between Eve and Julian.
Enough was enough, Eve Johnson declared. She had been walking around this
house and her life not really seeing, hearing, or processing anything. She
was doing herself, her daughters, Kay, Maria, and her patients all a disservice.
She couldn't- -she refused to live like this any longer. She wouldn't wait
in fear of Julian coming back to take her Angelpie away. She had never been
the kind to allow things to happen to her, she was always proactive. And it
was past time she started acting like it. She knew where she had to begin.
Grabbing her purse, Eve walked out of her office on a mission.
Pacing the floor in front of his wife, TC clenched and unclenched his fists.
"Let me get this straight, our whole lives was a lie- -"
"No, TC. The stories I told you about my past where true until I was a teenager.
I had two loving parents and the most ideal life, but then they died and I
was sent to live with my aunt and it was downhill from there for a while.
But every emotion, every feeling, I felt with you, for you, were real, were
true."
"You wouldn't know the truth, if it came and bit you on the butt. You preached
honesty to our daughters, yet nothing but lies flowed from yours. Whitney
and Simone couldn't even be in the choir at school or at church, yet you whored
yourself every night for drugs and alcohol. The great Eve Johnson is a hypocrite."
She expected and deserved his anger, but if he was this angry just hearing
about her past behaviors how was he going to feel when she told him whom she
had been involved with. "I didn't sing for drugs."
"Oh, you had a sugar daddy. Thank goodness for a second there I thought
you were a whore, but it's good to know you only whored yourself out to one
man," he replied, the sarcasm dripping from his tongue.
She fought back the tears. She wouldn't cry. She deserved this. She couldn't
imagine how she would feel, if TC had kept secrets of this magnitudes from
her.
"Who was he?"
It was on the tip of her tongue to say who cares, but she couldn't do that.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Taking a deep breath, she looked her husband
in his eyes. "Julian Crane." She literally saw his soul shattered upon hearing
the name that floated off her tongue.
"Julian Crane? You didn't know him. You met him when you moved here and
worked for him at the hospital."
She shook her head. "I met him at the Blue Note in Boston. He loves jazz
music. He was a regular customer. He took an interest in me. And- -"
He had heard enough. He had no idea who the woman was that was sitting in
front of him; but he knew she was trash and a tramp and he didn't want her
contaminating his home, his children, or himself any longer. Running over
to Eve, he grabbed her shirt, dragged her off the sofa, and threw her out
of his home. "Don't come back you filthy Crane whore. You two deserve each
other the whore and the whoremonger. No wonder you loved working late at the
hospital, so you two could have trysts."
On the doorsteps of her home, Eve stood up and shook her head. "We never
did anything. I have always been faithful- -"
TC laughed hysterically. "How could you have possibly been faithful when
you haven't been truthful since the day I first met you?"
The looks of disgust, hate, hurt, and anger TC were shooting her made her
cringe inwardly. She had done this to him. She had caused him this pain and
suffering.
As TC stared at the stranger on his property, the bile rose within him.
He bent over and threw up all over his front porch with some hitting Eve's
shoes and leg. Standing up, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, stood back
and slammed the door. Wanting no piece of evidence of his life with Eve Johnson
around, TC headed for the stairs.
Eve stood there in disbelief. Her husband was so repulsed by her, he threw
up on her. She couldn't believe it. She couldn’t move. She was stuck. Her
life was in shambles. What was she going to do? She could already feel herself
starting to break under the guilt, the lies, she couldn't- -
"You don't exist to me anymore," TC yelled, prompting Eve out of her inertia.
She ran to the front yard in time to see, her belongings being thrown on
the lawn. "TC, please don't do this. Let's talk."
"I don't talk to lying whores or is that a redundant phrase," he shouted
back as he continued to toss clothes, jewelry, pictures, anything he could
put his hands on.
"TC," she cried. "I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I was scared."
"Have you slept with anyone else besides Julian while we were married? Any
of our neighbors?" TC stuck his head out of the window and asked, "Whose slept
with my can't be soon enough ex-wife?"
Eve turned bright red. Dinner time was approaching and families were returning
home from work, practices, and school in time to see her precious items thrown
out of her home, while her husband screamed profanities at her. Ignoring the
embarrassed and sympathetic looks, she urged her neighbors inside. "He's a
little angry with me." And sadly enough, her simple statement drew more sympathetic
and understanding nods. TC's temper was well known in the neighborhood.
Grabbing a family picture, TC paused for a moment as a realization dawned
upon him. If Eve was sleeping with Julian from the day she moved to town,
how could he be sure Whitney or Simone were really his? And did tramps sleep
with just one man or whomever was available? Just when he thought he couldn't
feel any worse, hurt anymore, he reached an all time low. His babies might
not be his. The girls he watched grow within that woman's belly, go from helpless
infants to independent toddlers to grade schoolers to teenagers, might not
be his children. He raised someone else's daughters. Hurling the framed picture
as fast and with as much force as he could muster, TC ranted at Eve. "I want
a DNA test. I want proof you and your multiple lovers haven't been laughing
at me while I raised their daughters."
"Daddy!" Simone called out, jumping out of Kay's car upon seeing the clothes
flying out of her house.
Parking the car in the middle of the street, Kay, Whitney, and Jessica followed
Simone and surrounded a crying Eve in the sea of clothes and belongings that
encircled her.
"Mom, what's going on?" Whitney asked.
"Daddy," Simone tried again.
Hearing his daughter's voice caused TC to pause, the pain he felt was indescribable.
He ached, physically ached to go to her, but he couldn't. He couldn’t because
maybe it wasn't his place to go to her, to comfort her, to love her, to offer
her advice, maybe that was another man's. He picked up the last of Eve's belongings
in their former bedroom and he flung them out the window. "I want those tests
Eve, ASAP, until then we have nothing to say to each other unless it's through
our lawyers. I can't believe I ever allowed myself to fall for a lying tramp,"
he finished, ignoring his daughters and nieces and slamming the window shut.
"Aunt Eve, why is Uncle TC so mad?" Jessica asked.
"Mom?" Simone cried.
Eve remained silent. The tears which flowed down her face were her only
sign of emotion and understanding of what was going on.
"What was Daddy talking about? What tests?" Whitney questioned.
Kay shook her head. Who knew her uncle could be such a grade A jerk? That
he could disrespect the woman he supposedly love, like he had. Bending down,
she began picking up whatever her hands reached.
Seeing the lack of response from their mom, Whitney and Simone, bewildered,
followed Kay's lead.
"I'll take her ho- -I'll take her to your house, Kay," Jessica stated, wrapping
her arms around her pliant aunt and walking her slowly down the street.
"Maybe Daddy will talk to me now," Whitney declared and headed for the front
door.
With Simone making the first deposit of clothes in the car, Kay whipped
out her cell phone and dialed a never used before number.
"Kathleen, what's wrong?" Julian said urgently after the first ring.
"It's bad. She told him."
He didn't know when or how the young woman discovered his feelings for Eve,
but at this moment he didn't care. "Are the children with your mother?"
"No, they're with Pilar."
"Make sure they stay there and get Whitney and Simone out of the house in
10 minutes," he said, hanging up the phone.
How was she supposed to get Simone, Whitney, and Jessica away from Auntie
Evie in this state?