His Third Wife

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

A tear fell. Kerry made sure it was wiped away so quickly maybe even God hadn’t noticed.

“It’s not that,” she said so faintly. “It’s not what you’re thinking. That I’m jeal—”

“No, I get it,” Jamison said. “It’s not about you wanting me or anything. I know you don’t want me.” He looked into her eyes. “Right?”

She didn’t respond.

“It’s about what I’d feel if my first wife got married. Had a baby. I’d be feeling like you were once mine,” Jamison said.

They looked at each other and Jamison added, “And that would hurt me. So, I’m sorry.”

Kerry wiped away a few more tears and then perked up to restore her composure.

“Well, okay,” she said, reaching for her door handle in a quick decision that the conversation was over. “And can you bring him home from camp? I have some things to do at the center tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Jamison answered.

“Cool.” She paused. “And, hey, I was also wondering what you were going to do about Ras.”

“Do?”

“You’re going to help him, right?”

“I don’t know,” Jamison said. “It’s not looking too good for him.”

“Exactly, and that’s why he needs you. You have power. You have friends.”

“Kerry, it’s not that simple, and you know it. You know it better than anyone else.”

“You got into politics because you wanted to make a change for people. A real change. Ras wants to do the same thing. And I know you both are capable of that. That’s why people love you. That’s why people voted for you.”

“I know, but that’s not what’ll keep me in office.”

“You can’t serve two masters, Jamison. I know those guys like Emmit. I grew up around them. They’re businessmen. Not community men. Don’t get confused. What they give, they give because of what they can get from it. And when there’s nothing to get, they’ll crush you,” Kerry said soberly. Her family had a long history of doing big business in Atlanta. Her granduncle helped start Atlanta Life, an African-American-owned insurance company that had dominated for decades and still remained the nation’s most wealthy black-owned insurance company. Jamison had used her family’s connections to get his lawn care business going. He’d done the work that made the money, but she’d done the networking that made the work. And in that network, loyalty was everything, but you had to know where the loyalty was.

“Nobody’s trying to crush me,” Jamison said.

“Not yet.”

On his way back home, as Jamison rode with the top down and the radio off so he could think about what Kerry had said about Ras, he received a call from someone who’s name on the caller ID on the dashboard in his car made him smile. It was Damien, Marcy’s husband and his favorite fraternity brother from college. Like their wives, the men’s differences in upbringing meant they were unlikely friends but their bond through the fraternity was so tight the two had been through enough together to really consider each other brothers. It was Damien who’d helped Jamison through his divorce from Kerry, his affair with Coreen and now it was Damien who came to lend honest words about the situation he saw unfolding online with Val. It had been his idea that Jamison take Val out of the house and try to actually sit and have a conversation with her that went beyond angry words and accusations. When he’d met up with Jamison for a drink after the pictures of Val from the hospital hit the local news stations, he had explained to his brother that he had to set his feelings aside and do what was right to keep some peace until his child was born.

“You must need some money,” Jamison charged, answering the phone.

“I sure do. Like a million dollars,” Damien joked. “I swear Marcy spends it like she’s earning it.”

“Oh, Doctor Damien, don’t go getting cheap on the wife, as much as she puts up with. She deserves those red bottom shoes.”

Damien laughed and added, “Yeah, I hope Payless comes out with some red bottoms, because this clinic money isn’t Mayor Taylor money.”

“Oh don’t go wishing that on me,” Jamison said. “I just left the one who took everything I owned. Has about 80 percent as we speak.”

“You speak to her about Val?”

“Sure did.”

“Good. What about Coreen? Did you tell her about Coreen?”