Evangeline Arnold's world was turned upside down the day that the father of her child, Javonte Wells was sentenced to 4 years in the slammers due to a gun charge that resulted in death. Now all that she has is his voice over the phone which was rare...
It wasn't easy at all opening myself up to love again. But the thing about that is it usually shows up unexpected or at least for me it did.
His name was Hugh Spencer I met him while grocery shopping along with my daughter. In one of the most unromantic settings. We both ended up reaching for the last bowl of fruits in Aisle 7 and the rest was history.
Evelyn helped style me for each date Hugh took me on, mom gave tips on what to say and even offered to babysit Kaley most nights.
Having to share me with someone new was like discovering Boogyman underneath the bed. It was never something I planned on doing, ever.
But there I was.
Sitting across the man of my dreams.
Hugh took me places I didn't know existed outside of where I grew up. Places I'd only see in magazines or books. I got to leave the country for the first time and do all the things Javonte never would since it wasn't cool to him.
We got engaged.
Hugh got down on one knee and pulled a jewelry box from his pants pocket "Evangeline Arnold, you would make me the luckiest man on earth right now, will you marry me?"
"Yes!" I leaped into his arms without a second thought. We had been knowing each other for a year. The next we were married. And then I got the biggest surprise on Christmas Eve: I was pregnant.
A healthy baby boy by the name of Cayvon was born 9 months later.
I went back to school when he turned 1 and got a degree with the support of my husband and kids.
Life was looking up for me then one day out of the blue I got the news that Javonte's sentence had been stretched due to him critically injuring an inmate.
I thought about our baby girl and how she was growing so fast. She went from asking for my help with tying her shoelaces to asking for my opinion on makeup and boys.
"I'm not a baby anymore." Kaley would remind me often.
She had no relationship with her paternal side of the family. They were all either in jail, dead, or on their way there. One of these days I promised myself I'd take her to see him or at least give her the letters I had been holding onto which Hugh disagreed with.
He raised Kaley as if she was his own and thought her biological father would be a bad influence on her. She never really asked questions about her father. But I knew she might've wondered like I did some nights what life was like for him on the inside now.
Many years had gone by since I confronted him about cheating. And he might've been innocent in the crime that got him locked in the first place but he'd always be guilty of breaking my heart.
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A/N: 3 chapters were updated today neither of which have been proofread so you've been warned beforehand.
