The Returned

She spread her legs wider, accepting more of me and I fell all the way in love with her again when she wrapped her arms around me and held on tight. Our lips were fused together as our bodies danced to a song as old as time.

I had her on the floor twice and then again in the shower before I was satisfied. Now we were sitting down to dinner, a dinner we’d made together in relative silence.

“I don’t want her in this house again.”

“Got it!” I guess she wasn’t entirely over it. Not that I expected her to be. “This was my fault, I should’ve told you the truth in the beginning, but it just never seemed like the right time.”

“Tell me now, all of it!” I rolled my eyes over her head as she looked down at her plate pretending an interest in her food that we both knew wasn’t real.

“Okay. For the first year after you left, I went into a deep dark hole. Nothing and no one could bring me out. I couldn’t sleep, eat, or do any of the things I used to.”

She played with her food but still didn’t look up at me. “Mom was afraid that she’d lose me I guess. And the only way she could think to bring me back from the dark was to use Mindy to do it.”

“Mindy had been coming around since a little after you disappeared. She was one of the only people along with my family who were always there trying to keep me sane.”

I think she mumbled the words ‘I bet’ under her breath but I chose to ignore it. We both have a jealous streak a mile wide so there’s no surprise there. I just don’t want there to be any enmity between her and Mindy, who’s done nothing wrong.

“I know you’re mad right now, but in all honesty, she’s not to blame for any of this.”

“I wish you would stop defending her. You did it earlier today and you’re doing it again. In case you’ve forgotten, while she was trying to talk you into marrying her scraggy ass, I was being held against my will and having my children stolen…”

“She’s not to blame…” She threw her fork at me and jumped up from the table.

“Fine, why don’t you go fuck her then since she’s such a fucking saint? Asshole, you make me sick.”

“Come back here.” She threw me the finger over her shoulder as she ran towards the stairs and headed up. “My dick is too raw for this shit.”

“Zandi, get your ass back here.” I took the stairs two at a time and made my way down the hallway to the master bedroom, doing my best to hold onto my temper.

Am I wrong? Am I being unreasonable by trying to smooth things over? I can’t in good conscience treat Mindy like the enemy. Not after what I’d done to her. But how can I get my hardheaded ass wife to see reason?

“Open the damn door.” Something smashed into the wood from the other side followed by mumbled curses. I put my shoulder to the door and broke the shit down.

I caught her ass halfway to the bathroom. No doubt she planned to lock herself in there too. “Oh no you don’t. Listen to me.” She struggled to get away but I wasn’t dumb enough to let her go.

“I’m not trying to defend her.” I said the words into her hair since I had to hold her as close as a second skin to keep her little ass from escaping my hold. “I’m just trying to be fair.”

“I don’t want to hear it, don’t even say that bitch’s name again.”

“Why do you hate her so much? You didn’t always…” The look she gave me could’ve singed the skin off my chest.

“How stupid can you be? What woman you know likes the chick that’s sniffing around her husband? You think I didn’t know that she was the one your mother wanted you to marry?”

“You knew about that?” What the fuck? I never told her about that shit.

“Do you really think this is the first time she ‘let me’ overhear some shit?”

“What do you mean?” This look said she thought I was dumb as a stump.

“Do you really think she didn’t know I was there on the stairs? Why do you think she put on that little show earlier?”

I tried to find the truth in her words but they made no sense. Why would the woman who had been there for me through my darkest hours do such a thing as she was suggesting?

“You can think whatever you want, but what I want to know is, how the hell did she know I was here? Did your mother tell her?” I didn’t like the way she said ‘mother’.