Deceived

Chapter Five

Chapter 5: Where do we go from here?

Time: Summer-Fall 2008

No copyright infringement intended.

Barbra Jean and Alex were talking in the privacy of their bedroom. "You were worried that when the kids found out that you weren't their father that they wouldn't love you anymore, but they do," she reminded him tenderly.

"What about you? How do you really feel? That's okay. I know the answer," he responded.

"I have the right to give you an answer to that myself. Don't put words in my mouth."

He reached out to lightly caress her cheek. "What difference does it make? You love Brock, right? I'm not him. I'm just the guy who stepped into his shoes for awhile. I've sold my soul to protect this family, not like it's gonna matter much now. I've lost everything, haven't I?"

"Don't say that."

"I have. Everything I have is his, including you, the woman I love. I know what you said before in front of everybody, but I don't wanna drag this out. If you're gonna leave, I'd prefer if you just went. I mean it. You don't have to ... I think that it would be worse if you gave me a lot of apologies or explanations."

"You're not the only one who made a vow. I vowed to love you forever."

"When you thought that I was Brock. Now you know the truth- all those years, everything I said and did was a scam. Wasn't it? You're free to go. You're off the hook."

Barbra Jean scoffed. "Is that what you think I want?"

"I know you. I know how you think. There's nothing you hate more than being lied to. That kinda ruins the whole death do us part thing, doesn't it?"

Barbra Jean had tears in her eyes. "Do you even wanna hear what I have to say or are you just gonna stand there and keep putting words in my mouth?"

"Oh, I get it. Sure, you want closure. That's fine." His tone changed. "Go ahead. I don't care. Let's hear it about all my sins, all my crimes. Lay it out for me, Barbra Jean. How could a woman like you love a scam like me?" he yelled.

Barbra Jean's tears were falling down her face now. "If you think when I look back at these last seven years that all I see is a sham. You don't know me very well." She couldn't hold back her anger anymore. She picked up a picture frame and threw it across the room. Alex winced. He didn't expect this from her. Her sadness had given way to anger like he'd never seen before. "After our latest separation, our marriage is supposed to be stronger than ever. You got your vasectomy reversed. We're supposed to have another child together. After all that stuff happened, do you not love me?"

"Of course, I love you. How can you ever ask me that question?"

"I was offered a job in Little Rock. I could've taken Henry and left. You would've been off the hook. You wouldn't have been obligated to stay married to me anymore, but you didn't. I pushed you away. You didn't just cut and run when I expected you to. You fought for us. You came after me. You gave me that beautiful speech. You were willing to leave Reba and the kids here unprotected, right? You said that you'd move to Little Rock with me. Was any of that real? I think so. That is as real as it gets in a marriage, our marriage. We are not a sham!"

"But the man you married was not the man that you thought that he was." Alex commented.

"No, you're not the man that I thought that you were. I didn't marry you for your money. You are not the man who used me and threw me away to go back to his wife like I didn't even matter. There are a lot of things that you are not. You're not the man who promised me that I was the only one for him and then deserted me to go to Hawaii to conceive a child with another woman. You are not that man because that man promised me that he would never hurt me, and then hurt me over and over again because I let him. It's true. We don't share a lot of the good things that we thought that we shared from those days. We also didn't share a lot of the bad things from those days either."