PROLOGUE
The drive home was long, tiring and uncomfortable. But it was all going to be worth it when
he got home to his beautiful blonde wife and his ten year old princess. He was supposed to be
on a flight to England now. He had been planning this trip all year and his little princess had
been praying against it all year. He just couldn’t believe her prayer had come to pass. Now
he’d had to miss it due to the snow storm. Little children’s prayers were truly answered on
time.
Paris, ten in June was the light in his life apart from his God. She had been fast asleep when
he’d left for the airport about an hour before. She had told him over dinner that she didn’t
want him to leave her all alone in the house with her mother. Paris and her mother kept
disagreeing on every note. They just never agreed. Well, he was the head of the family and
was always there to separate the two of them when their misunderstandings came up. He had
been praying that his family would have the love he grew up in. it was difficult for him to
continuously have his daughter argue and debase her mother.
He dropped his things in the foyer and went silently up stairs. He didn’t want to wake his
princesses. At the door he waited, envisioning his beautiful Vanessa fast asleep on their
feather soft bed. Vanessa had had Paris at eighteen; he was just twenty eight then. Her
clerical parents ensured that their daughter had a nice wedding though his mother ensured a
D.N.A. test was done when Paris was born. For some reason unknown to him, his mother just
did not trust the woman he had decided to get married to. Well it could be because she was
already pregnant when they got married, or the fact that she never got along with his mother,
who had her replica in their daughter. For that fact alone, his mother never came to visit. She
didn’t like his wife one bit and she didn’t hide the fact that she didn’t, even at the wedding,
which had made him most angry considering he was her only child.
He opened the door to their bedroom hoping to see her fast asleep in their bed. An empty bed
and the sound of the shower greeted him. Maybe she was hot. He thought and was about to
join her there when his wife came out of the en suite gloriously naked in another man’s arms.
Arnold was dumb for a few seconds, then he said ‘Honey, I’m home!’ just like he had said
for the past eleven years of their marriage, when he saw that they didn’t notice his presence.
They were both shocked to see him most especially Vanessa who covered her nakedness with
her robe while Blondie took refuge in his coat which he’d taken off just hours before.
‘Who are you?’ Blondie asked tying the sash of the robe.
‘The owner of this house, the robe you have on and the husband of the lady you happened to
be sharing the shower with.’ Arnold answered not moving from his position on the threshold
of the bed room he’d shared with her for almost eleven years.
‘You’re married?’ Blondie asked in shock, turning to look at the woman he’d been dating for
the past six months.
‘Yes. She is.’ Arnold answered for her. ‘In the next room is our ten year old fast asleep.’
‘Sorry man –’he said picking up his clothes and getting into them.
‘I am Arnold.’
‘I am sorry Arnold. I had no idea Veronica –’
‘Vanessa. She’s Vanessa.’
‘Did you ever tell me the truth about anything?’ he asked feeling even more stupid. He turned
to Arnold who seemed quite calm, ‘I am truly sorry. I thought the kid was her sister.’ with
that he left, feeling not only embarrassed but very ashamed as well.
Once Arnold was sure Blondie was out of ear shot, he was about to speak when Vanessa
spoke ‘you said you’d be gone a month.’
‘I wasn’t gone for an hour –’
‘You’ve been gone for more than an hour Arnold .You’d been gone for three hours, twenty
minutes.’
‘Does it change the fact that I caught you cheating?’
‘We were just sharing the shower.’
One thing he didn’t regret was his daughter sleeping in the opposite room. Anger from being
the fool poured all over him. ‘How long Van? How long have you been bringing men into my
house, into my bed?’ She sat on her end of their bed not smiling. It was like she’d detached
herself completely from the room. ‘Answer me!’
‘Would it matter? Besides, it’s all, your fault, and that business of yours. And travel. It’s all
you think about. And of course, that thing, over there, which stuck me to you. You never pay
attention to me. Never! All you do is come home, and give me the tiniest fragments of
yourself. I want more than that.’ She said her voice in a gradual crescendo to a shrill.
‘You buy whatever it is you want. You’re living large, shopping for things you don’t even
need. Where did I go wrong? I give you my self every –’he said his voice rising also.
‘Daddy! I’m scared.’
The anger in him seemed to drain off. He knelt in front of his princess and assured her
nothing was wrong. At least for now nothing was wrong. He would find a way to be more
committed to his family, a way to be a better husband. But he needed time to think, time to
look through himself and talk to his God, a time to think upon where his life was headed.
‘But I heard shouting daddy?’
‘I am sorry for that honey, why don’t you get a few things and we’d go over to grannies as
you suggested.’
‘Okay daddy.’ She said rushing off to her room.
Once she was out of ear shot, he said to Vanessa who was now filing her nails, ‘I’ll be back
for my things later.’
‘When?’ She asked, not bothering to look up.
‘Whenever, I damned please.’
