Thea

When Thea noticed Jamal was still in the house when she woke up in the morning, she felt good. What needed to be said was better delivered in the house, the office was going to put too much strain on her already strained mind.

She made herself tea and joined her husband in the terrace. He was reading a business magazine and was frowning over its content. He smiled briefly when he noticed her then he stood to help her with the seat.

"Thea, I'm sorry for yesterday, but it's not going to happen again. I already told them not to call while I'm away and your dad seems to agree too."

"We need to talk," she said instead of accepting the apology. Jamal put down the magazine and she continued. "I'm leaving you."

She watched him closely and he didn't seem surprised. "I'm glad you're not surprised. This is probably what you've wanted but I was gullible for not picking up on it earlier. We are not a family, never been one and will never be one. You did everything in your power to make sure it never happened and I'm setting you free while moving on with my life."

He looked distressed. "Thea, I'm sorry."

"You should be. You wasted some of the good years of my life because I was trying to love you. I was ready to do everything to get your attention and I can admit I've done some extreme shit... embarrassing even, none of this caught your attention of course. I don't really want to dwell on the psychological effect this marriage has had on me."

"I've done some fucked up shit and even I know this is the worse one yet. You deserved better than me, Thea and I didn't know how to tell you without hurting your feelings."

His generic excuses annoyed her. "Jamal, I'm a big girl that has been rejected more times than I can count. I would have handled you showing disinterest with couth, you didn't have to enable me by acting like you wanted me too."

"Your dad told me how you couldn't stop talking about me and I asked you out to make him happy."

"My dad told you? I thought the date happened because you liked me too."

"Not really. You were practically a child."

Now he was insulting her intelligence. "I wasn't."

"To me you were. I've never had a romantic relationship, it's not something I do nor ever want. My childhood was extremely damaging to my mental health and I swore off relationships a long time ago."

He felt so adamant about not getting committed yet he'd proposed. "How did we get this far then?"

"Honestly, it spiraled out of control. One day we were on our first date trying to please your dad and before I knew it, I was proposing. I only wanted to make him happy and he was every time I took you out."

"I didn't know he was interfering."

"Subtly at first. I really didn't notice how much he was planting things in my head until we were married and I couldn't stand to make love to you on our first night."

Thea was floored and she remained silent. She had put things together a while ago and figured nothing happened on their wedding night.

"I spoke with some friends and they said you'd cheat if things got out of control, and I wanted you too."

"This is insane." What she really wanted to say was that he was insane.

"I wanted you to be happy irrespective of what was going on between us."

"You could have simply told me and let me go. Being together for this long was unnecessary and you left me in the dark feeling like a failure."

"I wasn't sure your dad would be happy with a divorce."

"Excuse me? You cared about my dad's opinion so much that you couldn't man up and be a fucking man."

"I'm sorry, Thea."

"Sorry doesn't even begin to cover it. I respected you too much Jamal, I can't believe both of you would do this to me."

"I'm sure your dad never saw it being this bad. He advices me all the time and he even gave me this leave despite my protest."

She was stunned. "What the fuck? I thought you took some days off because you wanted to make things right."

"That too."

"Jamal?"

"Your said you weren't happy with me and he told me to make things right with you."

"Why didn't you say he was meddling this much?"

"He simply wanted the best for us."

"This isn't the best. I deserved better than this sham of a marriage and so did you."

Jamal nodded. "How do you plan on telling him we're separating."

"I'm simply not going to tell and you mustn't either."

"Whatever makes you happy, Thea. I need to make things right with you."

"It's too late, Jamal. I'm leaving town today."

"You don't have to make hasty decisions. We'll get a divorce as soon as we can."

"I know that. I'm leaving with someone I recently started seeing." She toyed with the handle of her cup and looked at Jamal.

"I'm happy for you. Does your dad know about this development?"

"He knows I was sleeping with Hank, not that I'm leaving town with him."

"Come again...did you just say Hank?"

Did she? Thea sipped her cold tea.

"You're not leaving town with Hank. Have you fucking lost it? Do you know who he even is?"

The nerve of him to question her choices. "I know he wouldn't put me through half the shit you did. He's a driver but a better person than most people I know." He could take her last sentence however he wanted to. She was done holding her tongue.

"Hank is my stepbrother, did he tell you that?"

"Jamal, please."

"Judging by your reaction, he didn't. Do you know how he even got this job? He appeared from nowhere and threatened me into giving him a position in the firm. He has nothing but brawn and he's as violent as they come."

Thea knew she couldn't be hearing right. If they were somehow related Hank would have said something. They were so different and she wasn't going to believe they were related.

"His mother nearly killed my dad, she was a junkie and she turned him into doing drugs too. It was when she left him in the dead of the night, he went to rehab and Hank...Thea you don't know what he has done."

Thea looked at him in disgust. Jamal had hurt her and the only way he thought to make himself less guilty was by telling lies about Hank. He was such a terrible person and she couldn't wait to leave his presence.

"I can't believe you would do this to him. He covered up for you when you didn't have the balls to take care of your wife, he deserves better."

"I paid him handsomely for everything he did, make no mistake about that, Thea. Every date he covered for me was done after I transferred money into his account, and I could get you receipts if that's what you want."

Jamal looked dead serious and he was starting to get through to her. "You were trying to pimp me out to him?"

"I told him to drive you. I wasn't paying him to warm your bed, he did that on his own. Thea, you could have chosen someone different, why Hank?"

She sniffed. "He was there for me."

"Because I payed him to be."

She felt sick. Hank had taken advantage of her and she wanted to crawl into a cave to die. All the attention he gave her was paid for. She'd only been business to him.

"You can't leave town with him, there's no telling what he has planned for you."

Thea understood. "I'm leaving you, don't look for me until you have the divorce papers."

"Thea..." Jamal called as she walked away. Even his plea was more like a formality.

She grabbed her purse and drove out of the house. She needed to process all Jamal had said.