Chapter Seven

The garage door closed behind them and Greg turned off the engine and told Rose to head in while he and Marianne took a minute to talk,

“Hey sweetie go in and watch some TV, Mummy and I will only be a minute okay?”,

He maneuvered his way to the back while still in his seat, helped her out of her seat belt and opened the door for her and she quickly ran to the entrance through the garage into the house and disappeared.

Greg got comfortable and turned to Marianne,

“I really did not find any cake, they must have-“,

“you think I’m worried about that?”, Marianne cut him off with a question.

“What was in that milkshake Greg?”, she went straight to the point.

“What are you trying to say Marianne, I put nothing in it. How could you think of me like that?”, he answered so offended by her accusation then turned to the wind shield and placed his hands on the wheel to lay his head on them.

Unmoved, Marianne’s feelings started changing by the minute. First she was scared when it all happened, then sad and desperate when she woke up in the hospital, angry when she discovered it was food poisoning and now total disgust looking at him trying to deny everything in her face when some years ago it was easy for him make the decision of aborting their second child against her own will.

Marianne had to play smart in a situation like that, she decided it was time he realised what happens when you mistreat a woman for years when all she had been was nothing but literally a wife to him.

Her mother use to tell her when she was just a girl,

“Sometimes when you act like a wife to certain men they see no point in marrying you”.

Marianne admitted she had gotten herself into a complicated relationship because of her kind and loving heart, but it did not mean she could not get herself out of it. She had made the decision to take up Lucy’s offer and leave once and for all, how many more abortions would she have to go through for him to realise it wasn’t right?

“I need to do this strategically and without him knowing or he’ll stop me”, she thought to herself.

“Well I’ll try to believe you Greg, but you can’t blame me for thinking it was you when you had a sudden change of heart when you didn’t want this baby in the first place. You yelled at me”, she tried to convince him that she were willing to talk and brush off the matter.

“I know but I’m a changed man now honey, I realised how much of a pain I’ve been and how much you’ve tolerated that for years. So I felt you needed to be rewarded by letting you have what you wanted”, he said.

“Did he just say rewarded?”, Marianne asked herself in shock and amazement.

She had to brush off any pathetic replies in order for her plans to work out and for a peace of mind at least that night.

“Okay, let’s just forget about this and go inside, I’m really tired and hungry”, she insisted and started getting out of her seat.

Greg pulled her back and kissed her passionately thinking everything was fine, Marianne had to return his kiss if she needed him to believe she was being fooled.

“Of course, anything for you my love”, he came of the car and walked over to the other side to help her out and carried her things for her then locked the car and they entered the house.

Rose was sitting comfortably on the sofa watching TV while stuffing her face with the cake Lucy gave her, she saw her mum and dad walk in and smiled at them then turned her attention back to her show.

Marianne went straight to the kitchen table, placed her bags on it and quickly grabbed the poisoned food to dispose of it immediately with tears in her eyes.

She still couldn’t believe that she lost another baby, her heart felt so heavy for a second she held her tummy and found support on the kitchen table as she slowly sat down.

Greg was just doing the usual when he got home, shoes off, coat off and asker for food. So Marianne got up again to start warming up the food he left behind, apparently he had time to put the food in the fridge before rushing her to the clinic.

“Let me know when it’s ready, I’ll be in the bedroom freshening up”, not considerate about her state he left the room and got into the shower.

Marianne finally finished with Greg’s food and placed everything on the table for him to find once he was done in the bedroom, she also warmed up hers because it had gone a bit cold and gave Rose a portion she had manage as well. She sat down and tried to enjoy her first meal of the day even though she had no appetite.

Greg still didn’t leave the room as she was about to finish, so she went to find out if he was done and remembered she was suppose to call him but,

“a hungry stomach searches for food”, so she didn’t bother.

She was about to knock but heard him approach the door and headed back quickly into the kitchen and sat back on her chair.

“I said you should call”, he told her.

“I forgot”, she said unapologetic.

He sat down and started to serve himself while she was finishing up and asked if Rose had a proper meal, “Has she eaten?”

“Yes, and I’m done with mine so I’m just going to freshen up and start preparing to retire to bed”,

Marianne said as she got up to place the disposable pack in the trash and headed to the living room to collect Rose for her evening bath.

“So early, don’t you want to watch a movie or something?”, he asked.

“No, I’m super tired and I’ll probably just sleep through it all”, with that said she and Rose both left the room.

Greg took out the card he had been given at the clinic by the curvy nurse and checked what her name was, he was too distracted by her luscious curves to even introduce himself properly.

“Stephanie Johns”, he read quietly so as not to get Marianne’s attention and wondered if he should make the call or not, the temptation was too strong to resist.

He reached for his pocket and took out his cell phone and begun to dial, but just as he was about to hit dial Marianne ran into the kitchen to collect her handbag.

Greg, shocked as he was, dropped his phone and crushed the card which contained the number and quickly made a fist to hide it. Marianne also shocked by the act, gasped, turned to look at what just happened and saw his phone split open on the kitchen floor and looked at him. The room was left in total silence.