Devil Mail (22 page)

“Where did you go? I called your
cellphone and you didn’t answer.”

“Really? I
didn’t hear it ring. We just went for a walk. Sorry to worry you.”

“I called Angie
and she said she had checked on you and you guys were fine, so I stopped worrying, but I would have liked to have been able to speak to Trey. Anyway, I’m on my way to pick him up.”

Kieran wondered if that was all Angela had told Ju
lia. Would she hide Trey’s near accident from her sister to protect him? To his mind, that would be a real test of her love.

When Angela arrived home, dinner was cooked and waiting for her. She loved and was beginning to become accustomed to the cosseted life
, but pondered whether or not his financial reserves were deep enough to sustain it. “Did you call anyone about your business plan today?” she asked, savoring the taste of the tender rib eye steak and creamy mashed potatoes.

“I couldn’t talk business with Trey around. No one would take me seriously.”

“Oh, of course. Maybe you can get somewhere with it tomorrow.”

Julia called to ask Angela if she was intending to go to aerobics class
that evening, as her attendance had been sporadic since Kieran’s arrival on the scene. “Not tonight, Jules, I’m really tired.”

“Angie, I really need to see you. We ha
ve to talk.” The unusual seriousness with which Julia spoke was enough to grab Angela’s full attention, and at Julia’s request, she agreed to meet her at the gym.

The sisters sat in Angela’s car outside the gym, Angela eager to know what was tro
ubling her sister. Julia divulged her concerns about Kieran’s honesty, motives and character. “Why the sudden turnaround?” Angela asked, “You were defending him up to the hilt not so long ago.” Julia recounted the events of the day, about being unable to contact him and his story being that they were out walking. However, Trey said he didn’t go anywhere.

“Okay, so there’s some misunderstanding,” Angela rationalized.

“And he asked me not to tell you this, but he called me one day and asked me to lend him money.”

“And did you?”

“Yes, I lent him a hundred dollars. He said it was just until he got paid from a job he was doing.”

“Okaay, so you’ve bo
th been keeping secrets from me,” Angela sighed. “Why is that an issue now? And how would he have gotten your number unless you gave it to him?”

“
He got it when you used my phone to call him that day your car was impounded. That’s not all,” Julia murmured slowly, with downcast eyes. A screaming match then ensued between the sisters when Julia informed Angela that Kieran had made inappropriate advances towards her when she went to pick up Trey earlier in the day.

“I don’t believe you!
” Angela breathed in anger.

“Why would I make up something like that?”

“You can’t bear the fact that a guy showed up at church and came after me instead of you!”

“He tried t
o kiss and touch me, Angie!” Julia shouted.

“And what did you do to
discourage him? Nothing I bet! I’ve seen the way you look at him!” Angela spat back.

“Maybe you should’
ve been checking how he was looking at me!”

Anger erupted within Angela, and the inexorable tirade that followed gushed forth like waters breaching a dam.
“Yes, because you’re so irresistible! Right? It took forever before he even kissed me, but he tries to kiss you just like that? Oh, please! You just have to have it all, don’t you? You’ve always had the best of everything and now you feel entitled. Well, for once I have something that you want, but can’t have. Deal with it!”

In utter shock, Julia glared at her sister, tears flooding her eyes. Angela didn’t care. The sight of the tears brought some satisfaction, but did nothing to alleviate Angela’s pain.

“I’m just telling you for your own good, before you get in too deep. He’s slippery, Angie!”

“You’re telling me because
you’re a spiteful wretch! You’re not satisfied with messing up your own life, you have to try to mess up mine as well. You make me sick!”

Julia saw red and every attempt at reasonably convincing her sister that she was
only looking out for her, vanished. “I can get my own man; I don’t need to steal yours! And at least I know I made a mistake when I got married and I won’t keep making the same mistake over and over again. But look at you, so insecure, you don’t even know who you are - bouncing from one man to the next, looking for someone to complete you, and dumping them when you find out they don’t fit into your little mold of perfection. I bet you’ve never stopped to consider that
you
might be the jacked up problem. You’re pathetic!”

“And you’re jealous!
By the way, the door’s in the same place as when you came in - use it!” Angela shrieked. Julia did not need telling twice. The entire car shook with forceful vibrations as Julia violently slammed the car door behind her.

Angela tried to
mentally sort through and manage all that Julia had dumped on her, hoping that it wasn’t true or that she was mistaken, or that this was a nightmare that someone would graciously awaken her from at any minute. Needless to say, aerobics class was no longer a viable option for either of the sisters that evening. The depressive spirit that engulfed Angela was swift and callous, reducing her to a paralyzed heap; the only manifested movement being the tears that flowed from her heavy eyelids. In fact, Angela was still sitting in her car staring into thin air long after Julia’s tires had screeched out of the parking lot. Angela contemplated rallying as much energy as she could to start the car, drive away from her life in Orlando, and never look back; but such energy eluded her.

Night fell and brought with it a cold snap that chilled Angela to the bone.
Yet she sat there in the parking lot considering her life. Was it a twist of fate that positioned her as a wedding guest at a table with Meredith who happened to mention Boaz and Ruth? Was it serendipity that a self-described Boaz should have subscribed to the same dating website as she did? Was it sheer happenstance that he would find her attractive and pursue her offline, or was providence and destiny at work? She didn’t know.

She loathed her sister for spewi
ng out something that not one fiber in her being could deny – she didn’t know who she was. She didn’t have a vision of her destiny. She didn’t know how to distinguish between providence and that which was sent to destroy her. The daggers that Julia gave voice to and unleashed earlier in the evening were probably echoes of what they had all been saying about her behind her back, while residing beneath a veil of friendship and love. It was good that she was alone now, that she had seen them for who they really were. She’d make her own way, without their advice or input.

Her cellphone rang. She let it ring a couple more times before answering.

“Hey, Babe, where are you? How was aerobics?” Kieran inquired.

“Tell me it isn’t true,
” she demanded flatly.

“What?”

“Don’t play with me, Kieran. I want you to tell me the truth!”

“I don’t know what you
’re talking about, Babe,” he claimed, innocence exuding from his lips.

“Is what Julia said true? Did you
come onto her?”

“What? No!
She came onto me!”

“Then why would she turn it around?”

“Listen, Babe, we can’t have this conversation over the phone, where are you?”

“I’m still at the gym, in the parking lot, but I just want to be alone right now.”

“But you’re upset, and I need to set things straight. I’m on my way.”

Only a series of
illegal speeds on the highway and through residential areas could have yielded such a quick arrival on Kieran’s part.  Angela unlocked the door when he knocked on the window, stirring her from the trance that had her staring straight ahead. He pulled her out of the car trembling and whimpering, her face streaked with the dried trails of the many tears she had shed. “She said you tried to kiss her and touch her. I don’t know what to believe anymore; I just wanna run away!”

“I’m here for you, Babe.” H
e held her firmly in his arms and allowed her to soak his shirt with her tears.  When she had composed herself sufficiently to hear his version of events, they sat in the warmth of his SUV and he explained how, when she came to pick up Trey, Julia had disclosed her desire to repay him for generously giving up his time.  He told her that he wasn’t looking to be reimbursed and she stated that she didn’t want to be indebted to him. With that, she approached him, tiptoed, placed her hand around his neck, yanked him towards her and tried to kiss him. He pulled away and asked her what she was doing, telling her that he would never do anything to hurt her sister. Her response was, “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” He told her that he wasn’t interested, but she began to unbutton her shirt while asking what it would take to stir up a little interest. He said there was nothing she could do, because he was only interested in Angela. She narrowed her eyes and asked what he thought would happen if she told Angela that he came onto her. He told her to go do her worst, because he wasn’t intimidated by her threats.

“So I guess she did her worst when she
made up the story and told you,” he sighed.

Ang
ela listened to the detailed ‘I said, she said’ summary and was still bewildered. “So why didn’t you tell me when I got home?”

“I didn’t want to hurt you. Suppose I told you and then come to find out that she was only bluffing? You would have been hurt for nothing.”

“That’s something I would want to know. She said you borrowed money from her - a hundred dollars.”

“That’s true. I came up a little short and I really want
ed to get you that bracelet, so I borrowed the money from her to get it.”

“You don’t need to borrow money to buy me t
hings, Kier. I know you love me; you don’t need to go to those lengths to show me your love. If you can’t afford it, I can do without it.”

“You’re the sweetest person I’ve ever met, d’you kn
ow that?” He stroked her cheek lovingly.

“You didn’t borrow money to buy me any of the other gifts did you?”

“No, just that one.”

“No more gifts until you get your business up and running and you’re rolling in money. Deal?”

“Deal.” Kieran escorted her home and walked her to her door where he kissed her goodnight.

She couldn’t remember a day filled with such turmoil. It had been many years since she and her sister
had fought like cat and dog, but never had the effect been so piercing. She now felt isolated from her mother and sister, the two most important people in her life. At the very least, she had Kieran standing by her side. The timing of his appearance she chalked up to providence.

             
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A
s time passed, Kieran spent less and less time at his one bedroom apartment, and an increasing amount of time at Angela’s apartment, spending the night on her sofa whenever he was too exhausted to drive home late at night. There were many nights when he would have jumped at the chance to curl up with Angela in her bed, but they both stood strong in their beliefs that placing themselves in tempting situations was playing with fire, which, more often than not, resulted in severe burns and permanent scarring.

He continued to make house calls to carry out computer repairs, but his business was no further forward, despite Angela’s constant
, “Get proactive!” promptings.

Judith made attempts to keep in contact with Angela and occasionally, she would pop over to visit. Sometimes Angela would return her calls, and sometimes she wouldn’t. Sometimes she would answer the door, and sometimes, particularly i
f Kieran was with her, she wouldn’t. The complexion of their relationship had been altered, colored by Angela’s notion that Judith was among those who had been badmouthing her with Julia, behind her back.

Angela had passed on to Mrs. Craddock an envelope containing one hundred dollars to repay the debt Kieran owed to Julia and to lay that matter to rest.
Although Mrs. Craddock called periodically, Angela declined her invitations to Sunday dinner, citing Kieran’s unwelcomed presence there as an excuse. In fact, she dreaded her mother extending an invitation to Kieran to join them, as that would make for a particularly awkward assembly around the dinner table with Julia, whom she hadn’t spoken to in weeks, since their altercation. Julia, who excelled in obduracy, would leave Angela in the doghouse until a heartfelt apology was forthcoming. Angela, who was susceptible to caving in for a peaceful life, dug her heels in this time, vowing not to allow Julia to triumph in a situation where she was the instigator of the untidy matter that had caused a rift in the formerly close-knit family.

The void created by the rift in her own family was a driving force behind Angela’s persistent pleas for Kieran to introduce her to his family. She was excited about the Saturday evening when she would finally meet his brother, Gordon, whose house presented as a rather luxurious spread in a guarded, gated community couched nicely in the Isleworth area of Florida. Angela tried to disguise the ‘Angela in Wonderland’ persona that she had taken on since entering the gates of the community, but it was a difficult feat, given the overwhelming extravagance that bombarded her vision. As they pulled up between the water fountain on the circular driveway and the open three car garage that bragged a shiny black Jaguar alongside a Mercedes SUV, Kieran placed his index finger beneath Angela’s chin, raised it up, and pushed her mouth shut. “Close your mouth, Babe. This isn’t anything you won’t have in time.” Angela surmised that familiarity had bred the blasé attitude he portrayed.

“Well, you come here often, this is the first time I’m seeing this. I have a right to be amazed.” Kieran didn’t answer, and didn’t speak again until they were inside the house. Angela thought she detected a shift in his mood
ever since they pulled up on the property, but could not accurately pinpoint the cause. Kieran wasn’t rude, or irritable, he just seemed distant and a little tense. “You okay, Kier?” she whispered as Vanessa showed them to the living room.

“Yeah, great,” he responded without noticing that his voice revealed his pre-occupation with something.

If first impressions were really anything to go by, Gordon and Vanessa was a lovely couple. They were hospitable and generous in their compliments towards Angela and towards Kieran for having hooked her. Vanessa came across as a fairly down-to-earth person who hadn’t allowed her lot in life to go to her head; the type of person that Angela would enjoy lunch with.  Gordon was chattier and more personable than Angela had envisaged. He wasn’t as physically attractive as Kieran, but he oozed a quiet self-confidence that did not invade the realm of arrogance; a quality which, coupled with his quick-wittedness, Angela found attractive. She did not, however, care for their daughter, Sabrina. From the outset, she made no attempt to cloak the various shades of brat that she carried around in her petite, seven-year-old body, and the manner in which she spoke to her parents barely stopped short of insolence. After securing one word answers to open ended questions, Angela gave up trying to engage her in conversation, justified by the fact that her Uncle Kieran didn’t bother with her either.

             
Just before dinner was served, Gordon beckoned Kieran into his office at the front of the house and closed the door behind him. With Vanessa adding some finishing touches in the kitchen, and Sabrina off somewhere doing her own thing, Angela was left to mosey around the house, the likes of which she had never had the freedom to explore before. She studied family pictures on the walls, the majority of which were of Sabrina acting like the princess that she wasn’t. Even though a photograph captures one moment in time, pictures of Gordon and Vanessa depicted a loving relationship; their eyes seeming to sparkle in every instance that they were snapped gazing at each other. As she took in the minute details of the illustrated scenery in Monet’s Garden at Sainte-Adresse that hung beneath a brass wall sconce in the foyer, just outside Gordon’s office, she heard Gordon’s strained voice: “It’s causing tension between Vanessa and me, Kieran. I can’t do it anymore. You’re going to have to stand on your own two feet, or give it up.”

             
“Why does
she
get to dictate how it should go? It’s got nothing to do with her!”

             
“She’s my wife, we don’t keep secrets from each other, and I’m not going to go behind her back and continue doing this, I’m sorry.” As the volume of Gordon’s voice told of his approach towards the door, Angela tiptoed away, more than a little curious about what that conversation was about. Whatever it was, Angela suspected that it was the cause of Kieran being so withdrawn at the dinner table.

“I should have told you to bring your bikini
; then you could have joined us in the pool,” Vanessa said, lowering her picture-perfect, supermodel body slowly into the cool water after dinner.

“Maybe next time,” Angela lied, in the full knowledge that she would not be putting her physical imperfections on display next to Vanessa’s intimidating physique. Kieran sat
with Gordon at the oversized, cast aluminum patio table six feet away from her, his head lowered, positioned to read the Forbes magazine in his hand, but Angela could see that his eyes roamed above the page. He had watched Vanessa climb down into the pool, and followed her as she splashed and romped with Sabrina. She abhorred the fact that Kieran eyeing his sister-in-law in the pool immediately plunged her into the depths of insecurity. Wouldn’t any man look at her? She was beautiful – inside and out. Nonetheless, her comfort level was not restored until Kieran retreated into the house to use the bathroom. When he hadn’t returned after several minutes she went inside to find him. He was coming from the direction of the bathroom as she entered the family room.

“Want to watch TV?” H
e grabbed the remote and made himself at home on the circular sectional covered in luxuriously soft creamy leather.  Angela joined him, mystified at how they managed to keep it so immaculately clean.

“This place is amazing, Kier. I couldn’t imagine living in a house like this.”

“Mmm,” was the only thing she got out of him. She knew something was wrong, but the present was not the time to discuss it.

As soon as they commenced their journey home, Angela turned to Kieran. “Okay, start talkin
g buddy! Something’s wrong. Ever since we pulled up to the house your demeanor changed. What’s going on?”

“Nothi
ng for you to worry about, Babe.” He tried to fob her off, but she wasn’t accepting that as an answer.

“I’m not worried, but I want to know. Are you in some sort of trouble?”

“No! Everything’s fine.”

“I know that it’s not, and it hurts that I’ve trusted you with my heart and everything in my life, but you don’t seem to trust me.”

“I trust you, Babe.” He placed a hand on her knee. “Listen, my brother helped me get this truck and I make the payments. I missed a couple of payments and he helped me out, that’s all.”

“So your
Escalade’s in his name?”

“It’s in both our names. Listen, the account is all up-to-date, there’s no problem.”

“Is that what he wanted to talk to you about in his office?”

“Yeah, see, nothing to worry about.”

Angela had a niggling feeling that there was more to the story than Kieran was letting on, but forcing the issue would probably only discourage him from sharing with her in future. He had, though, clearly exposed the fact that he was experiencing financial difficulty, but times obviously were not hard enough to kick him into action with regard to his business plan.  

Further along the road, Angela, still in awe of the sights she just beheld asked, “How does Vanessa manage to keep that mansion of a house so immaculate?”

“She doesn’t work,
she drives around in that Mercedes all day and has a housekeeper come in to do all the housework for her, lazy b...” Angela hadn’t heard him speak with such resentment before, but she was more shocked at what she thought he was about to say.

“What were you going to call her?”

“Nothing. I shouldn’t say anything.”

“I heard the beginning of a word, Kieran.”

“Beggar, I was going to call her a lazy beggar, but whether or not she really loves my brother or if she’s just after his money, is their business. I love him, but I have to stay out of it.”

Ah
a! That was it! Angela settled back into her seat. That’s why he was distant, withdrawn – he despised his sister-in-law! Although not something she would freely admit, she was quietly relieved that the misinterpreted look of lust, which brought on her insecurities, was actually a look of loathing as he watched Vanessa in the pool.

Kieran
walked her to her door as he did customarily, and kissed her goodnight. Pressed up against her, he was demonstrably aroused, but he turned down her invitation to stay for a little while. “I should leave before we get ourselves into an ungodly situation that we’ll regret later. I’ll pick you up for church in the morning.” It was that type of self-control that attracted Angela and colored her vision of him as the godly man that she wanted to be with. It was that type of self-control that convinced her that he couldn’t have behaved licentiously towards her sister.

They rode to church together on Sunday morning as arranged. Angela walked across the church to greet her mother before the service began,
and despite Mrs. Craddock pointing out Julia in one of the middle pews, she strolled right past her without a word, as she returned to her seat beside Kieran. Julia’s head did not budge in Angela’s direction as she came or went. Mrs. Craddock shook her head at the obstinacy of her daughters and glared at the back of the head of the man whom she held responsible for tearing her family apart.

The sisters avoided each other after the service, Angela moving quickly to sit in Kie
ran’s Escalade to wait for him while he did his ‘grin and greet’ thing that the old ladies seemed to live for. He finally got to the SUV and was just pulling out when Sasha waved him down. He sighed.

She squeaked,
“Shouldn’t
I
be sitting up front since I’m helping you pay for it?”

“I’ll get you your money this week, Sasha,” Kieran replied quietly, peeping out of the corner of his eye to see if Angela was listening. Of course she was!

“There’s no rush, but I’m expecting a ride soon.” She didn’t even look at Angela.

“What in the world is she talking about, Kieran?”
Angela asked as soon as he rolled up the window.

“I borrowed a few dollars from her a while ago; I now see that was a mistake.”

“She’s making your car payments for you, isn’t she?” Angela made no attempt to contain her anger.

“No, I just told her the money was for the car, but it was for something else.”

“What?”

“Those pretty little earrings you’re wearing,” he grinned
, looking like the cat that got the cream. “Isn’t it funny that she’s chasing me, but paying for my girlfriend’s jewelry and she doesn’t even know it?”

“
Hilarious!” Angela blared, ripping the earrings out of her ears and violently discarding them. One earring struck the window and the other the side of his face. It mattered not that the SUV was still moving slowly as he was backing out of the parking space; she opened the door and leapt out.