Chapter 7 Hell's Angel

"Hi Eve!" A sultry female voice greeted her enthusiastically from the door of her hospital room.

Evelyn smiled back wary of her visitor. The woman dressed in a burgundy-black suit was strikingly beautiful. Her hair was plaited into tiny braids that fell below her shoulders in a salon-style curl that screamed wealth.

Her perfectly manicured nails were long but tastefully painted in a deep red that complemented the suit she wore. The black dots of the nail art on her long fingers matched her suit too.

Eve wondered if this visit hadn't been planned to create an effect. As her eyes met the other woman's she raised an eyebrow in question.

Deliberately putting on a face that hid the tumult of questions that the presence of the other woman raised, Eve waited.

The other woman walked closer to Eve's hospital bed and sat herself in the armchair that Troy had sat in the night before as he watched her fall into a drug-induced sleep.

Eve suspected that this visit would result in a kick to her mental solar plexus. Sitting back against her pillows she waited.

Closing her eyes in a silent prayer she heard a stocking-clad leg rub against another, and a stiletto tip meet the ceramic floor tiles. Eve opened her eyes as she steeled herself for the impending blow.

She slowed her breathing to long steady breaths and waited. There was no way she was going to begin this conversation. She would let the other woman speak first.

As she suspected, a predatory smile came onto her visitor's face. Eve watched in silent horror as the woman pulled out a picture of a young boy whose features strongly resembled Troy's.

"You remember my son, Trent, don't you Eve?" A bitter edge entered the woman's voice as she held out the photograph for Eve to see.

Without waiting for Eve's response, the woman continued. "I never did tell you how Trent was conceived..." a faraway look entered the woman's face before her face turned into a sneer.

"We were too busy celebrating your engagement to Troy, weren't we?"

Putting the photograph back into her burgundy leather handbag the woman focused her gaze on Eve and smiled. Eve felt sick, she knew what the woman was going to say but she couldn't bring herself to protest.

"I hear you were recently in Kariba with Troy. He finds the place romantic, doesn't he?" Dark brown eyes trained on Eve watching, waiting for a reaction.

Eve decided to play dumb and frown in confusion.

Her visitor chuckled dryly, "Perhaps not so romantic with his wife. Do you remember just before your engagement Troy went on a trip to Kariba with friends? Of course, you do, you were upset that he didn't confirm with you that he was going and gave him hell for it for weeks.

"Anyway, I was there for that trip. I suppose Troy got nostalgic and because you weren't there, he sought solace in my arms."

Eve heard the nails tap against each other dryly and rhythmically. She broke her gaze from the other woman to glance at the nails that seemed poised to strike at any moment.

"You know as well as I do that Troy is particularly talented in the bedroom. Woman-to-woman, few lovers can do what he can do, we both know that," an almost tender smile played on the woman's lips.

Swallowing the bile that had risen in her throat, Eve shuddered at the pleasure her visitor was obviously taking in reminiscing of past trysts with Troy.

"It was particularly special for me because that was when Trent was conceived. Of course, by the time I found out, you two were already engaged. Troy was upset but being a man of honour there was little he could do but marry you. After all, it's not like I have gone far in the past 5 years anyway."

A malicious glint entered the dark brown eyes as she took in Eve's expression as the next words left her lips, "You know, he had decided that the first one of us to get pregnant he would ask to marry. When neither of us got pregnant he chose you and unfortunately for Trent and me, he'd already made your engagement public by the time I'd told him I was pregnant."

Eve opened her mouth to speak.

"Don't deny it, Eve, I know that he told you he was trying to get you pregnant. We both know how that story ended. Only your part is coming to an end. It's been 5 years and you still haven't gotten pregnant.

"Not that Troy 'really' tries considering he's usually out with clients or me. Not to mention too tired by the time he gets home. You've become skilled at hiding most of your emotions but ndinokuziva (I know you).

"Urikurwadziwa (You're in pain (as a result of what I said)) and when you give Troy hell about this little chat, I'll know exactly what you said."

The woman stood up sending a waft of expensive perfume in Eve's direction. She leaned forward and whispered into Eve's ear. "I know your secret too. Ezvinezvi, handis' kuwudza munhu (Right now I'm not going to tell a soul) but just imagine the shock of your family and his when they find out kuti (that) you lied pamberi pavo (before them) and God."

The desire to yank the face that leaned into her ear away by pulling on the freshly braided hair was too strong to resist. Instead, Eve held onto her bed and closed her eyes.

"I think it's time you left," Tears rested on her eyelashes unshed, and her visitor smiled as she took the tears in.

"Shamwari (my friend), in as much as I have nothing to lose by telling you lies, the truth is far more exciting to tell here. Sara bho-o (Stay well (slang))."

As the sound of stiletto tips against ceramic tiles echoed into silence down the hall Eve watched the door hoping the sound didn't get louder as her composure began to fracture. Taking a deep breath and looking at her surrounding she felt the panic that had risen in her chest begin to subside. The fear that had constricted her throat left as its aching also began to lessen.

Bringing the whole room into focus as her mind ran over the new news, she began to see the truths and half-truths as they truly were.

Half-truths are always dangerous, the way they echo one's worst fears while leaving enough gaps in the truth for the active imagination to brew up conclusions. Often said conclusions in the heat of the moment seem to lend themselves conveniently to the confusion and desire to have a complete story that an incomplete tale creates...

Taking an even deeper breath, Eve focussed her eyes on the wall across from her bed and really looked at it. She noted the chips in the paint, the cracks in the right-hand corner, the almost invisible fingerprints that mimicked Jeffrey's movements days before.

Jeffrey had played against the wall. She also saw the shadows that fell across the wall in a mockingly playful way. Eve's lips turned up at both ends when she noted the irony between her thoughts and the wall's shadows. Laughing, she considered her options.