Married To My Ex's Father

GLENDA'S POV

I approached my room with trepidation, fearing what sight awaited me on the other side of the door. The image already forming in my mind was gut-wrenching. I hoped it wasn't what I was thinking but I'd be foolish to believe otherwise.

"You like it, yeah? You like how I hit it right? Damn, you feel so mighty good. The best I've had in days!" I heard the male voice, a voice I recognized all too well. It was Brian, my boyfriend.

The Brian I had left everything for. The same Brian I had abandoned my family for. The Brian I worked my ass off while he did nothing but lived off the paltry sum I earned at the cafe.

I peeled the door open as quietly as I had come in. At any time, I could recognize the naked male figure who had his back to me with slender white legs wrapped around his waist.

My mouth was left agape, my hands began trembling, and my eyes blurred with tears at the sight before me. I couldn't watch it anymore.

"Brian?" I whispered as I trembled back into the living room. I could barely hear myself speak and I didn't think he heard me either, but he did.

He rushed into the living room, tugging at his boxers as he tried to put them on.

"Glenda, it's not what you think." He tried to explain.

I raised my tear-brimmed eyes to him. My lips quivered with sobs.

"She's just a friend. She doesn't mean anything to me." He said lamely.

I felt rage instantly consume me. Did he think I was a fool? Did he think he was talking to a child? Did I look that stupid to him?

"How about I go say hello to your friend," I said, getting up to head for the room.

The lady emerges from the room before I can rise from the sofa. She had a shawl wrapped around her head to hide her face. The sight of her jabbed at my soul. I wanted to claw at her and rip her to pieces for her shameless act.

As I charged towards her, I felt a restraint around my waist and a force pull me back and toss me roughly back against the sofa.

"Leave, I'll call you," Brian said to her over his shoulder, his eyes intent on me, daring me to do what I had in mind.

"You'll call her? Who is she to you Brian, that you protect her?" I asked as shock consumed me. Filled with rage, I raised my hand to hit him but he caught my hand mid-air and flung it away from him.

He was no longer calm nor did he try to explain himself any further. His eyes stared at me resentfully as he crossed his arm over his chest, clenching and unclenching his jaw like he was trying to control his anger.

He was angry? Was he supposed to be the angry one? I just caught him cheating! Yet he was giving me berating looks for reacting. I couldn't believe he was mad. He was in the wrong yet he was mad at me.

I suddenly felt weak, my shoulder slumped and I began to shake with sobs. I slapped at his chest in a bid to vent.

"How could you? How could you Brian?" I sobbed bitterly as my hands made repeated contact with his chest and arms across his chest.

"Oh come off it! Stop this nonsense!" He bellowed at me and violently pushed me away from him, knocking me to the ground.

From my ground position, I looked up at him in shock. Tears blurred my vision, my heart shrunk with deep pain. This was all nonsense to him? My lips trembled with sobs as I tried to speak.

"Nonsense? This is nonsense to you Brian? I left my family for you. I gave you my all! I dedicated the past year of my life to you. I ..."

"Glenda, I didn't ask you to give me your life or whatever you said." He rudely interrupted me.

I was pained and my pain stirred nothing in him. It made me wonder if this was the man I fell in love with. Has he always been this cold and heartless?

My eyes began to blur again. "But you never refused my nonsense, instead you took it all, and you enjoyed every moment of my foregoing. I worked my ass off for you, and gave you every penny I earned, you never said it was nonsense then, did you?" I asked him as new tears rolled down my face.

He chuckled. "We both enjoyed every moment of it or didn't you?"

His words left me speechless. I opened my mouth to speak but words failed me.

"And don't you even begin to brag about the peanuts you earned? We were barely getting by. I was sick of the miserable dinner you brought home every day from that stupid cafe." He said ungratefully, his voice laced with irritation.

I couldn't believe love blinded me so much that I never saw Brian for who he was. A monster!

"Listen, we both enjoyed it while it lasted, but it's gotten boring. I've been bored for a while now and I think it's good you found out about this, it makes it easier for us. I think we should move on, you know, go our separate ways. Let's break up." He said so casually and indifferently like it was an everyday conversation.

I felt like I died all over again. I had just caught him cheating and instead of apologizing to me, he was breaking up with me. I shut my eyes tightly. Maybe this was all a dream.

Disappointment stood, cheering at me when I opened my eyes. I wasn't dreaming. It was all real. Brian was doing this to me.

"You should leave." He added with disdain in his voice.

I shook my head at his lack of remorse or pity. I didn't even want his pity. I became angry at how foolish I was to believe that he loved me.

"You'll pay for this Brian," I said with a shaky voice, trying to sound confident.

"Oh please get going already!" He shot at me with irritation.

I was broken. Brian had broken me. With a broken heart, a despairing spirit, and trepidation, I boarded a bus heading back home.

GLENDA'S POV

"And the prodigal daughter returns!" My aunt Helena chimed but not with excitement as she opened the doors for me.

"Let me guess, he dumped you!" She added with a triumphant smile as she noticed the lines of dried tears on my face.

"Hello Aunt." I greeted in a small voice, my head kept low in shame. I thought I had escaped this life. It turns out I had only taken a short break from it.

"Hello to you!" She shot back, not sounding welcoming.

She shifted to the side to give me passage. Her nose wrinkled in disgust like I was a piece of trash.

I didn't blame her. I did feel like a piece of trash, worthless and stupid. Very stupid. I let Brian deceive me. His betrayal had stripped me of any ounce of dignity I had left.

I struggled alone with my suitcase into the house and Aunt Helena just stood by watching me. It has always been like this. I have always been alone, taking care of myself alone.

"Where's my father?" I inquired of her. Desperately avoiding her eyes. I was feeling bad enough. I didn't want to be consumed by the hate her eyes held towards me.

"In his study." She answered as she shut the door and walked away taking quick steps. She didn't want to be near me.

I left my suitcase in a corner by the door and took unsteady steps towards the study. Borrowing Aunt Helena's words, the prodigal daughter had returned. I was the prodigal daughter but would I be accepted back?

I tried to gauge how my father would react. Would he kick me out of the house for running away before? For a fact, I knew he wouldn't be elated to see me and if he decided to kick me out of the house, then I would end up floating in the River of Black Hills, dead. Because I had nowhere else to go.

As I neared the large study doors, they swung open before me. I came face to face with my father and another man.

Fear instantly clothed me as I stared at the menacing face of my father. His lips pulled back in a snarl. I wasn't welcomed here. I didn't need to be told to sense it.

"How dare you return here? You good for nothing, ungrateful child!" Dad roared at me almost immediately.

"She's got guts I tell you." Aunt Helena chipped in, infuriating Dad even more. I hadn't noticed when she reached there. She was eager to see the reception waiting for me.

"How dare you?" He repeated, his voice a tornado of anger, hate, disappointment, and disdain.

I cowered at his thunderous voice. I stood statue-like, unable to respond or even beg. My mind began chiding me for returning home. I could have just gone ahead and jumped off the bridge and embraced death.

Death wouldn't stare at me with such hatred in my father's eyes. Death wouldn't judge me. Death would have welcomed me with open arms. I felt so pained I wanted to rip out my heart.

"I do not want to see you! I do not want to have anything to do with you! You disgust me! You ceased to be a child of mine a long time ago. Leave here! Now!"

Dad's words were like arrows shot at me, piercing and wounding they were. The pain was deep and searing. My tears fell involuntarily as I no longer had control over them.

Dad made his move toward me to drag me out of his house when his guest who had been quiet the whole time stopped him.

"Wait, Fredrick." The man spoke with an authoritative calm.

Dad spun to his guest, surprised at his interference. He stared at him in anticipation.

"Maurice?" Dad called out to him, a subtle surprise in his voice.

"Wait. Let's talk." The man whose name I had just learned was Maurice spoke to Dad.

Dad freed me from his painful hold around my arm and then disappeared into the study with Maurice.

I wondered what they were discussing. I would be eternally grateful to Maurice if he was trying to stop Dad from kicking me out. Then it struck me that the name Maurice was utterly familiar.

Where had I heard of it before? I wondered.

"You're good for nothing you know? Shameless! The nerve you had to return here after all you did, only emphasizes how despicably shameless you are." Aunt Helena's voice cut through my train of thoughts.

I turned to her with my tear-stained face, my eyes silently pleaded with her to spare me. I might have been communicating with a heartless soul because she didn't relent.

"All you had to do was get married. Marry and help your father who had been there for you all your life after the death of your miserable mother! But what did you do? Run off with that useless boy." She kept spitting coal at me with her words. She intended to burn me.

I was already burnt enough. I needed no more. There's only so much a person can take.

It pained me all the more she spoke about my mother like that. Mom was the only one who loved me and I was helpless as she tainted Mother's memory with insulting words.

"There's no room for you here." Aunt Helena told me. Stating she supported my father's decision to kick me out of the house.

I didn't need more telling, I've seen enough to know. Still reeling from the hurt of betrayal and abandonment, Dad and Maurice emerged again from the study.

Dad's eyes remained on me, staring me down.

"I've found a better use for you. Thankfully, Maurice is still willing to accept you. You should be grateful." My dad told me.

Willing to accept me? I wondered what dad was talking about and then it struck me where I had heard the name from before.

Maurice was the man I had escaped a year ago. He was the same man that made me run away with Brian. He was the man I was supposed to marry.

But what was Dad talking about? Why was he willing to accept me? Why would Dad make such a statement? I had barely finished forming all the questions in my head when Dad answered wearing a sickening smile.

"You'll marry Maurice tomorrow."

GLENDA'S POV

Maybe I'm cursed or destined to experience mishaps in this life. It's been barely forty-eight hours since I caught my boyfriend cheating and now I am getting married to a man twenty-six years older than me.

Sent off like an animal for the attornment of the sins of my family. Could I even say I have a family? Family don't treat each other the way mine was treating me.

What did I ever do to deserve this treatment? I guess my crime was in being born. Curse the day of my birth!

"Sign here." The registrar's voice startled me out of my reverie. I took the pen from him, wielding it with an unsteady hold.

My eyes blurred as I signed off my freedom. A tear trickled down my face.

"Keep it together Glenda! You're not the only one here." Dad whispered in anger.

I wasn't even allowed to feel pain. I didn't have the liberty to express my hurt. I was no human before them. I was nothing but a worthless tool, picked up at will.

My life was a rollercoaster, taking turns at will. I had no control over the turns. And I couldn't just stop everything.

Another big turn and I found myself in Maurice's mansion.

"Welcome sir." A lady dressed in the familiar outfit of a maid greeted us as we entered.

"Nora." Maurice acknowledged.

"Nora, this is Glenda, my wife."

Wife, it sounded so strange hearing the title. I was his wife and it was a nightmare I could never wake up from.

"You'll see to it that she's well taken care of."

"I'll prepare your room, sir," Nora said and made to leave but Maurice stopped her.

"No, we won't be sharing a room. Prepare the room next to mine for her." He ordered.

I was a little relieved he was considerate enough to let me have my room. He may not be so much of a monster after all. No! He was! Why would he marry a girl against her will?

"Go with her. Change and be down for dinner." He said to me with the same tone he used with Nora.

He moved to the mini bar by the corner and poured himself a drink. I stood watching him.

He turned around to see me still standing there. His brow went up in question.

"Why did you marry me?" I gathered the courage to ask. It didn't make sense to me.

Dad had already convinced him to make another deal that didn't involve getting married to me. I couldn't understand why when he saw me, he immediately reverted to the first plan.

He walked past me and took a seat, relaxing comfortably on the plush sofa. I still stood, waiting for an answer. My courage was becoming meager.

"I don't owe you an explanation. Don't question me." He said, taking a sip from his glass.

I dared remain before him and when he saw me not flinching to his orders, his countenance changed.

With his authoritative calm he ordered. "Go change and come down for dinner. Don't make me repeat myself."

Of what use could I be to him when everyone I loved rejected me? He didn't even know me before now, nor did I.

"It would have been better if you had let my dad just kick me out instead of bringing me here to order me around like I was your maid."

"I could still kick you out of here if you're so bent on sleeping in the streets."

"You should be grateful I saved you." He took a sip from his drink.

"I should be grateful for being forced to do something I never wanted to do. You are no different from my father!"

I figured it was a bad idea after the words left my mouth because he became livid.

"Do as you're told! Unless you want me to treat you exactly as your father does or maybe worse."

His face had a menacing growl. His eyes had turned dark with anger.

I immediately scurried out of there. I had had enough physical assault for a lifetime. I didn't want more. I went upstairs as instructed.

Thankfully, Nora was waiting for me at the landing. She took me to the room prepared for me.

Half an hour later, I was seated for dinner beside Maurice and an elderly woman Maurice referred to as Nana.

"Who is she?" Nana asked Maurice, motioning her head towards me.

"My wife, Nana. I got married." Maurice answered as he forked a piece of his meal into his mouth.

"How are you dear?" Nana asked me, her tone was sweet and motherly.

Shyly I respond. "I'm fine ma'am,"

"Call me Nana. That's what everyone calls me." She told me with a smile.

Maurice maintained his all too calm demeanor, ignoring our little chatter at the table.

I, on the other hand, was too exhausted to eat. The past few days had taken a toll on me. I had no appetite for food. I tossed my food around my plate thinking no one would pay attention to me.

"Do you want something else to eat dear?" Nana asked, seeing that I wasn't eating anything. She was concerned. She was showing me kindness. Something that I had not known in a while. I was touched by her thoughtfulness.

"Maybe she's not hungry."

Maurice's words dampened the little glimmer of cheer that stirred within me. He sounded so cold and indifferent. Maybe he didn't care if I starved to death.

"Don't be like that Maurice." Nana cautioned. "She is your wife."

It was lovely to think Nana considered me Maurice's wife and deserving of the treatment that is associated with the title. But in truth, Maurice didn't consider me his wife.

I was so sure I was only a pawn in his game. A game I had yet to figure out.

And just when I was beginning to think my problems were weaning and I may survive, life shot me with another surprise.

"Hello, father." The voice that sent my world crashing down greeted as he joined us at the table.

I snapped my head up to see Brian, my cheating ex-boyfriend.

My heart pounded against my chest. Bile rose to my throat. I suddenly felt sick!

Father? Maurice is Brian's father?