Fateful Encounters

Chapter 10

Michael quietly entered the Neverland main house and realized with great relief that Debbie was nowhere to be seen- or at least she had not been hiding behind the door, torturing him with questions.  Maybe she was not such a bad wife after all, he mused to himself.  Lisa would have bombarded him with curses and flying objects had he come home at almost 4 am without her knowing his whereabouts.  Actually, with Lisa, he would not have snuck back into the house physically exhausted and close to dehydration after a night of crazy sex with someone else. 

He made it to his bedroom suite and jotted down some notes for the arrangements he had in mind for his date with Lisa.  This was after to be a public date- according to his promise.  Since he did not like surprises, he wanted to have every detail planned out.  He was not entirely sure why he made this commitment; maybe it was her vulnerable and almost scared expression when she realized he was actually leaving her bed tonight.  Michael frowned.  He knew he could not afford to once again lower his guard around her, not matter how much he loved her.  At one point, he had trusted her with everything he had, had believed her promises, had taken her at face value.  He could still recall feeling stunned and horrified after learning she had taken birth control pills during their marriage to avoid having his baby.

Their argument after he confronted her was emotionally destructive.  He hated confrontation under the best of circumstances, and that fight stood out in his memory as probably the low point of their marriage.  Lisa had tried to justify her betrayal by telling him she wanted his baby, just not right away.  She had used Riley and Ben as excuses, which made zero sense to him since he would have thought she would have wanted to give them a little brother or sister. Plus, almost two years after they had started making love was hardly “right away.”

Michael shook his head, pushing the unsettling memories back to the dark recesses of his mind. He rose from his desk, heading upstairs to his bed, his body feeling exhausted and sated.  He had to smile, remembering Lisa’s comments about Debbie probably being in his bed, getting off.  He peeked around the corner just to make sure her suspicions were unfounded. His bed was empty. YES!

“Michael- was that you?”

Dammit!  Talk about jinxing it! She must have waited for him after all, ready to pounce. He rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed, burying his head in his hands. If he was really quiet, maybe she would just leave the room and leave him alone.

“Michael, I heard you coming home. Can I come in?”

Do I have a choice?

“Debbie, I am really tired.  Is there anything you need? Is the baby ok?”

“We are fine; I just thought you wanted to know that your son was not.”

Michael jumped up, immediately forgetting his fatigue and raced down the stairs.

“What do you mean? Where is he? Have you called a doctor?”  He had reached her and was about to push past her, heading to Prince’s bedroom.