Chapter 10

As soon as Ethan walked into his apartment, he shook his head, trying to focus on other things but he couldn't help himself from thinking about the new neighbor. She was beautiful —not too beautiful. Not the kind of beauty that will turn heads the first time they meet her but the kind that will become apparent the more you see her. Her face was an oval shape, her eyes were big and doe-like. She looked too innocent. She was not tall and not short, he knew she was a definitely a 5"7. He could not tell if her wavy brown hair was natural or if they were from the hairdresser. Her deposition was in sync with her appearance, she looked young, innocent and mysterious, but as she came out of her apartment in night in those shorts, he couldn't get himself to stop staring at her. So that she'd not think of him as a pervert, he used his peripherals to stare. He imagined that her skin was soft because they looked really soft but if he had learnt anything about women like this, they were always a package of trouble and he was better off staying several feet away from her.

The thought of her messy hair when she opened the door aroused something in him. He imagined racking his hands through her hair—if she'd allow him. If anything, he knew that women from the African-American descent—although she looked more dark latin than mixed black—would never let a caucasian man touch their hair. He could not tell which race she was from, her wider hips, skin tone, face and body fat proportions made her look more Latin than black. In fact, he only guessed she was black because of her hair—which could be a her preferred hair choice.

Why did she look at me like that though? Does she know me? Or does she know Max? She looked at me like she saw someone she knew, I have never seen that face, so it must be Max. Ugh! I wonder what he is up to now, I haven't seen him in a very long time, he doesn't even come over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I guess he still cannot stand me. He thought.

Thoughts of his only son hating him made him sad so he walked to his bar and took a bottle of scotch. He walked to his cabinet and took a glass for the drink and set everything on his counter. He opened a drawer, took out a Cuban cigar and grabbed everything to his special chair by the living room window. He grabbed the light remote control and changed the lighting in the room to a dimmer kind and then he lit his cigar, poured himself the scotch and took the first drink.

It has been a while since he drank scotch, things had been good around here. His job had been okay, he is an architect. He designed most of the buildings in this city, he currently had a project he just started. His work life was going very well, it was everything he wanted, he was living his dream. He was an 8-figure architect but he preferred to live in this building that buy himself a house where he knew he'd live alone since he didn't have any other kids. He loved kids so much but he couldn't adopt any. The state would not let him adopt any child as an unmarried make in his late forties. Still did not make him stop donating to orphanages. He was always filled with joy whenever he was around kids because he had not been able to father any after the terminal sickness his wife had, that eventually led to her death, years ago.

Marianne, Ethan's wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after they had lost four pregnancies and wanted to go for a checkup to find out what was going on. Ethan remembered how scared she had been when the doctor told her it had gotten past the point where they could just take out just the affected area. Her fallopian tubes were at high risk and within a week, she was told that the cancer cells had spread and affected her entire fallopian tube. She was asked to come in for surgery first before other routines could be performed, it had been the toughest time for Ethan, but her health had brought them closer to each other, because Marianne had been having a secret affair before they decided to work on their relationship. Max had seen all of these and was upset by his father for sticking out with the same woman who had hurt them over and over. Max did not want his father to suffer, he suffered emotionally and mentally when Marianne cheated on him, he suffered mentally when she'd try to downplay his emotions and go as far as manipulating him. But what Max did not understand was that, Ethan was a man who respect the sanctimony of marriage. He was in it till death do them part. Forgiving Marianne was hard and easy because he loved her with every part of himself. He looked beyond what she did because he loved her for who she was before the cheating.

He never remarried after Marianne. He was scared. He dated two women but when they realized that his heart still belonged to his dead wife, they left him.

He took a long drag at his cigar and slowly blew the puff in the air.

"Marianne, how are you doing today? Is God still taking care of you as you said he would before you left?" He murmured and took a sip of the content in his glass.

...

"No, I can't, I wanted her to come to me with that kind of stuff. But I understand why she thought she shouldn't bother me with it, she thinks that I'm old and will not understand most of the things she knows. She does not feel the need to tell me these things but she has a diary. I have been tempted several times to peek into it, but I'm scared that she will find out and it will ruin our relationship..."

Beverly looked at Mrs Potts and all she could see was a loving grandmother who respected and adored her granddaughter. The relationship she shared with her own grandmother was not even close to this. They barely spoke. Her grandmother was just like her mother, they were conservatives and they believed that their way was the only way. She was raised in a very strict family, they never let her go over to her friends houses and if any of her friends came over, her mum would interrogate the person to the point that all her friends never wanted to come over. Only Payton was different. Payton knew the cheat code to her parents, she answered according to what she knew they wanted to hear. She portrayed the image of a good kid. Of course, her parents loved Payton, they saw her as a perfect friend for their daughter. Only, she was not. Every party that Beverly ever snuck to, Payton was the mastermind behind it. She had gained the trust of Beverly's parents that she didn't say or do much, they immediately believed her. She was always invited to everything the Charles family did.

When Beverly had her first boyfriend, Payton figured out a way for Beverly to always sneak out of the house to meet him, the relationship was short-lived because he wanted to go to "Third-base" with her and she was not ready, so that heartbreak, she had to experience it alone. She knew she couldn't tell her siblings or she'd stand the risk of being exposed to her parents, her siblings were wrapped and dipped in the conservative ways too. She was depressed but had to experience and come out of it all my herself, Payton did not understand why she was so attached to the boy. To Payton, boys were disposable, if the one you're with starts acting wrong, you move on to the next person,but Beverly was not that kind of person. She could just move on to the next person. She didn't have enough options to begin with, she was very insecure about her looks. Whenever she looked into the mirror, she saw a "fat" girl because the girls that went to her high school—basically the girls every guy wanted—were skinny girls. There was a phase in her life when she'd starve herself because she felt that nobody looked at her because of her weight. Puberty made her fat transfer to her butt and hips, she was what the current generation would call "Slim-thick" but in her community, that was fat. Her grandmother commented on how she had good child-birthing hips. They kept telling her that they could not wait for her to get married to a nice guy from church and start having kids.

It was hard to convince them that she wanted to go to college after highschool, they fought hard on that subject. She remembered her grandmother specifically saying, "College? isn't that where kids go and start doing all sorts of sexual things to each other? Why would we let you go there?"

It took Payton a month to convince them that they should let her go to college. Payton had thought that they'd go to the same college, but after her family agreed to let her go, Payton disclosed that the college that she got accepted into was states away from the one she got. Of course, Payton didn't tell her parents but her family found out during her own sophomore year from Payton's parents, that Payton was a sophomore in another College in another state. They nearly pulled her out of college but that was when she rebelled against them. She was dating her ex-boyfriend at the time, and he offered to pay for her basic needs so she never came back home.

Her parents and grandparents came to her school to tell the Dean that they wanted to pull her out of the school because she was a "corrupt and lying fornicator", they revealed that they had seen her diary and all the disgusting things she did to boys and allowed boys to do to her, they said they knew she was doing worse things with boys. It was an awkward conversation but the Dean let them know that it was not enough grounds to deny her of her right to education.

The Dean had called her in and as she looked at the people that were supposed to be her family, they looked at her with disgust. It was there that her parents told her to choose between remaining in college, abandoned and disowned by them, and coming back home to marry the "nice gentleman from the church" that they kept for her. As she walked away from them that day, hand-in-hand with her ex-boyfriend, tears filled in her eyes, she knew that they never loved her.

The only person that knew these dark past she hid from the world was her ex-boyfriend and Payton. That's why it was easy for him to seclude her and manipulate her as he liked, he knew she had nobody else to go to, and he reminded her of that every day.

"You're right, it will ruin your relationship with her. It's wiser to let her come to you herself"

"Yeah, sadly she hasn't yet. But, I will not give up hope because I know she will...soon"

The rest of her conversation with Mrs Potts felt therapeutic and she was glad that she opened the door for her this afternoon, she didn't think they'd be talking like this if she hadn't.

When they were both tired, Mrs Potts said her goodbyes and told her to enjoy the rest of her night. As soon as Mrs Potts left, she went to check her phone, she saw that Payton had texted her again, so they talked about the conversation that she had just had with Mrs Potts. Payton was glad she was settling down well.