Scorned

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter 17

The sound of tape being ripped and boxes being moved around filled the house that Giselle would soon be moving out of. Beyoncé, Giselle, Tanya, and Regina were all sitting in the living room packing up everything that belonged to Giselle. Because she was partial owner of the house and lived here for a while, it was a lot of stuff. It had been a month since the whole ordeal happened, and Beyoncé was simply happy that she was finally doing this. Any step to get Ryan away from her sister was a step that she wanted to take.

"I feel like we've been doing this for ever," Giselle said before taping up another box of books. Books had been essential for her job. She would often do imperative research before even doing a segment.

Beyoncé chuckled as she grabbed the pillows from the couch. It was the one petty thing that Giselle had wanted. Ryan had purchased the couch when they first bought the house, but it was Giselle that changed out the pillows every season. "We've only been here two hours. You need a moving crew."

"I'm on a budget," Giselle replied. Beyoncé knew that it was the current truth for Giselle. She was downgrading from a married woman with two incomes to a single mother with only one income. For the first time in her life, Giselle would have to pay all of her bills, and she was finding out how Beyoncé lived a bit.

Regina chuckled. "It's fine, girl. It actually gives me an excuse to not be in the gym."

"Girl, you?" Tanya agreed. She and Beyoncé had been talking about hitting up the gym several times in the last weeks, but Beyoncé always cancelled or told her that she would go in the middle of the night. Real exercising had been a coping thing for her to take her mind off so much.

"You still haven't told me how this came about with you moving out your own house. Like, isn't he supposed to be the one packing his things?" Beyoncé questioned.

Giselle released a deep breath as she continued packing. "Well," she started, "a week after the hotel situation, we finally talked. The more he talked about his absence, the more I knew that I couldn't deal with it. I couldn't deal with inviting another child that wasn't mine in my household. The constant reminder of what he'd done just didn't sit well with me. So, I told him that I wanted a divorce, and for some reason he agreed with me."

Beyoncé smirked to herself a bit at Ryan agreeing. "Okay, but how does he get the house?"

Giselle shrugged. "He gave me the house first, but I told him that I couldn't afford the house alone, and that I would simply move out. I found a place that was just as good and I'm content with that. It wasn't even just the money. It's the memories. There are good memories in this house, and then there's the bad memories. I just want to start fresh."

"Damn," Tanya commented. She shook her head. "How do you feel now though?"

Giselle sat back and looked at the girls. "If I could rid myself of everything that reminded me of Ryan, I would. But, I have a child with him, so I have to deal with that. I never told anyone, but I got an abortion."

Beyoncé's eyes widened. "What!" Regina and Tanya shared the same shocked expressions and Giselle only laughed.

"I was pregnant, and that could probably explain why what he was doing bothered me so much. My emotions were ridiculous, but the moment my doctor told me, I scheduled an abortion."

Regina scrunched her face up instinctively. She'd still been having fertility issues with her husband, and it always hurt her to hear about women so freely speak of their abortions. She had to learn that no one would pacify their experiences because of hers.

"Thank God," Beyoncé spoke with no remorse. She didn't mean for it to slip out, but she wasn't taking it back. She didn't think she could handle another equation to the situation. With her hiding the fact that Ryan had impregnated the twins, Beyoncé didn't know what would happen if Giselle were to have another baby by him. Their children were already technically related in more ways than one.