Chapter 5 CHARLOTTE

He had been causing a gridlock every week for three months! It couldn't be just an act. Panicking, she continued to follow him keeping a respectable distance from him. He drove around aimlessly for about two hours before stopping on a deserted road. Charlotte watched from afar as he put the brake lights on. Another thirty minutes passed before two men came along. They walked cautiously towards where he parked looking around at intervals. They got to the car and Charlotte gasped as they brought out a gun and pointed at him.

He didn't move from his position in the driver's sit and they went ahead to frisk him, collecting his phone and some money. She watched as they ran away into the darkness but he still wasn't moving. Another 10 minutes passed. A man walked past the car but stopped noticing someone seated at the driver's wheel. She could hear the man question him.

"Hello. Are you okay?"

No answer.

"What's your name? What are you doing parked here all by yourself?"

He opened the door and Charlotte feared that he would discipline the old man but he didn't even move. He just came out and stared at the man.

"53, Herrington Street, Reeves family mansion", he said. The old man backed away slowly and ran off but he stood there. The rain started falling almost immediately and Charlotte decided that she couldn't leave him there all by himself. All the things he did, he had not been himself. He was under the influence of something. She abandoned her Mercedes on the road and walked up to him.

"Jon?"

"53, Herrington Street, Reeves family mansion", he said.

"Enter the car", she said. He walked around, opened the passenger door and sat down. She entered the driver's seat and drove back home. They got to the mansion around some minutes past 9 and she assisted him to sit down once they had entered. He wasn't still talking.

"Jon?", she said.

He stood up immediately and cleaned his face with his palm like someone coming out of a trance.

"Where am I?", he asked. "Charlotte?..."

She grabbed him and hugged him, tears flowing from her eyes. He held her tightly and that night, they slept happily together like any normal couple. The next morning, she woke up early and went to see the local priest. After some prayers, he told her not to worry herself anymore that it was all over. True to his word, nothing of such happened for the next seven years. Then one day, the unexpected happened. A client in the Maldives had cancelled a meeting with her at the last minute and she had returned home from the airport annoyed. It was almost midnight when she got home and she was surprised to see that the light in her room was still on. She searched for her keys in her bag and opened the door. She heard a scuffle from upstairs and she frowned. Marty was awake past bedtime again. She went upstairs to his room and on entry, found him fast asleep. She put off his room light and went straight to her room. The light in her room was still on so she decided to change into her nightwear first before putting it off.

She opened her wardrobe and groped absent mindedly for her nightwear. And just then her hand touched a face. Someone's face. She screamed and moved back and a blonde lady jumped out of her wardrobe and ran out of her room half naked. She turned to face Jon whose eyes were shut tightly like someone in a nightmare. He must have been willing the ground to swallow him at that moment because he didn't say a word or even dare open his eyes. She had caught him redhanded. That was it for Charlotte. She slept in her son's room that night and as early as 6am the next morning, she was already on the way to meet her lawyer. She was going to have a divorce.

The process didn't take more than a week. Jon agreed and signed all the papers without coercion. He had met her privately and begged for her forgiveness but she wasn't hearing any of it. She had gone through a lot with him already and that was the last straw. The divorce was concluded in no time and Jon kissed his son goodbye, promising to come visiting from France every year. Marty had insisted a final goodbye at the airport so Charlotte had to drive him there. She had stayed in the car, her eyes teary as she watched father and son hold each other in a tight embrace. Then he left. Back to France and away from her life forever. It had happened just a week ago and Charlotte was still nursing her wounds. Hearing Sheila talk about it so casually added salt to her injury. Jon was probably with some other chick at the moment.

"Hey", Sheila snapped her fingers breaking her chain of thoughts. "What are you thinking about now?"

"Jon", she replied. "It happened too soon...everything."

"Forget about Jon", Sheila said waving her hands dismissively. Have you heard about the red match?"

Charlotte stared hard at her friend. "Remember you talked me into going out with him. And what's the red match? Some hot guy?"

Sheila thought about it for a while."Not exactly. A place where you can find some hot guys."

"Oh wow. More Jon's"

"You're only succeeding in making life harder for yourself", Sheila laughed. "Its a dating site. It doesn't hurt to try."

Charlotte poured some syrup on the pancake before her and gobbled it down without a word. There was no way she was going to get herself on a dating site, texting jobless eighteen year old guys. Nothing serious could ever come out of a dating site and she needed something serious. She needed her son to grow up with a father that loved the both of them. That was what she was looking for, not the deceptful promises of young hot blooded teens looking for a few hundred bucks.

"Aren't you going to say anything?", Sheila asked.

"Well, I'm not interested in a dating site, Shei. I need something serious. Commitment."

"Commitment?", Sheila laughed standing up. "I have a meeting to attend by 2. I'll be on my way now." Charlotte knew that there was no meeting. It was her way of saying "I'm disgusted by your old fashioned idea of love so I'm leaving your house now."

"Alright", Charlotte replied.

She escorted her outside the house and watched as she entered the Mustang.

"Take care of yourself girl", she said and zoomed off.

"Sure thing", Charlotte said to the winds and walked back to her house.