The kids and I went in and sat down on his sofa to wait. About thirty minutes later, the door knob turned and Montie entered the room. He strode in with his eyes trained on his computer. Our children sprang alive from his leather sofa.
“Surprise. Surprise daddy, surprise!” Junior ran over to Montie, holding his trophy out ahead of him. Lynetta had been thoughtful enough to pack it in his bag when she found out we were coming to Atlanta. “Look daddy, look what I won.”
“I see it son, and I’m so proud of you.”
“Daddy, daddy, but my team won the all-state trophy and we all got one to take home.” Junior had talked to his father on the phone, but he still talked to his father like he was breaking the news about his win.
“I know you won, Son. And, your mother sent me the awesome video of you scoring the game point. It was remarkable,” Montie said, peering at me with mixed emotions that I understood so well. It was amazing that we weren’t married, but still spoke without speaking. I understood the hurt and pride flowing through him at once. “Give me a pound,” Montie touched knuckles with Junior.
Junior jumped into Montie’s arms and hugged him tight. Euphoria filled every corner of my body as I watched them interact.
That is why I fell in love with Montie in the first place. He is so compassionate.
“I’m so, so proud of you, son. I’m glad that you won, but very sorry I couldn’t be there. I’ll be there next time and that’s a promise.” Montie shot me a look that said, ‘because your mother is going to make sure that I’m there,’ and I silently concurred.
“It’s okay, dad.” Junior hugged his father again, and my heart swelled with as much love as I thought it could take. Watching my children interact with their father, after such a long hiatus, had tears leaking my eyes and down my cheek. Montie bestowed a fatherly love on our two babies that could be unmatched by any man other than their biological father.
“Thanks for coming,” he mouthed to me.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, when it should have been me thanking him for allowing the rift that he suffered from us moving to Miami.
“Had I known you guys were coming, I would have planned for a breakfast date,” Montie said, breaking into my thoughts. “I need to check my calendar right quick and make sure I’m free,” he said and began smooching Montana’s cheek and telling her how much he missed her.
“Montie, that won’t be necessary. I planned everything with Shalanda like you told me to do when we talked. We’re your first meeting for today and she gave us a two-hour slot, so we can still go for breakfast,” I said.
“Oh, so I see now that Shalanda is just as sneaky as you are,” Montie said, grinning. He sat down on his sofa with his children for a while before we headed out to IHOP for a late breakfast.
Over breakfast, Montie didn’t mention any of his frustrations, the driving distance between us, or how Jacob and I were raising our children. That gave me comfort enough to let my guard down with him. It felt like I had my old friend back before we got married. I relaxed and just enjoyed spending time with him and our children, because the children were what it was all about.
However, once we arrived back to his office, security detail and Lynetta in tow (waiting in the car), he slammed me.
“It would’ve been nice if you guys stayed in Atlanta, Destiny.”
“Yeah, that would have been nice. If we would have stayed here, you would be in our children’s lives more, and I wouldn’t be in the same city as his ex.” I looked away from him and sighed.
“Justine is like this ever-present figure that I can’t get rid of,” I continued. “She comes up in discussion when his mother is around. Jacob makes it clear that he doesn’t want her around us, but his mother has an attachm
ent to her and it’s excruciating for me to be around her. I’m getting to the point where I just want to move back to Atlanta, Montie.”
Montie had a gleam of hope in his eyes.
I smiled and continued, “I’m tired of the entire charade of looking over my shoulder for the woman that has an invite to my in-law’s home. I told Jacob that I’m uncomfortable. He’s been more subdued about her, like there is something more to them than before. He told me you ended up going out with her. How did that happen?”
I spouted off more information than I planned too. The mind is a mysterious organ because I had no intention of bringing my personal life up to Montie, much less tout on and on about how I feel like there’s something going on with her and Jacob, but there I was divulging too much and asking too much of Montie…again.
“Oh, Jacob told you that?” he asked, and sucked in a deep breath of air as he stared straight through me as if he had seen a ghost standing behind me.
“Yeah, Jacob said you and Justine hooked up when you were in Miami. Is she the reason you didn’t come to the wedding?” I asked.
The furrowing lines on his forehead forewarned me that Montie was about to go completely T-Rex in here, but I didn’t cross any lines with him. He was the one that slept with the very woman who attacked me. All I did was ask him about it, so why did he look like he was about to rip paint off the walls?
“No, I just didn’t want to be at your wedding, Destiny,” he said with a look in his eyes that told me the reason he didn’t want to be there was because he was still in love with me at the time. “But, did Jacob also tell you that he slept with Justine in your new house?” he added through tightened lips. “Damn,” weakly dripped from the depths of his throat and he stared at me in horror.
I leapt from the sofa. He extended his arm for me and I jerked out of his reach. A deafening pain shot through my stomach causing me to double over. Tears sprang from my eyes like a waterfall. All that could escape my lips from that point on was, “I knew it…I knew it…I knew…it.” Any other thoughts were frozen with the news that my loving, caring, devoted husband was an all-out fraud.
Montana ran to my side.
I picked up my daughter and stormed toward the door.