Bittersweet Revenge

Chapter Eight

"They," Max reads without hesitation as his eyes stay trained onto the notecard.

"Good!" I place the word down and pass it over to Drew. She knits her brows together firmly as she writes down the word on her piece of paper.

"From."

"Very good Max," I praise my son and pass the word along to Drew for her to copy.

"Many."

"You're doing so well honey," I compliment.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Henry?"

"Where's mom tonight? How come she's not home yet?" Henry questions as he sits down at the kitchen table with us.

"She said she was meeting aunt Ruby for some bowling tournament or something," I wave off the question because once my wife said bowling I stopped listening.

"Hmm," Max hums suspiciously. My eyes shift toward his and notice he's staring at something behind me.

"What?" I ask as I peek over my shoulder, not really understanding the inquisition. All three of my children are exchanging knowing looks while I sit here like a jackass in the dark. "What?" I question again with a little more force hoping someone will open their mouth.

"Mommy never goes bowling without her ball daddy gave her," Drew explains taking me by surprise.

"Your daddy?" I snap back as I narrow my eyes at my children. For some reason my heart takes off racing and I can't understand why.

"Yes, the man who helped you and mom...so you could have us," Henry explains gently which helps ease my troublesome mind.

"You know him?"

"Y-yes," Henry answers with a little tremble in his voice. "We haven't seen him in a long time."

"I see," I mutter. I must speak to Emma about this. We must have been friends with this man if he gave my wife a bowling ball. "Wait, are you telling me that your mom isn't bowling then?" All three sets of eyes shift nervously around the table, silently trying to figure out their next move together. I hate when they work together, they're an unstoppable alliance.

"I don't think so mom," Max finally says slowly shaking his head. There's an unsettling sensation forming in the pit of my stomach from the thought of Emma lying to me.

I stand abruptly from the table and rush to the counter where my phone is. I scroll through my very short contact list and select Emma. I wait and wait until I hear her voicemail. I decide to call Ruby next and again I'm greeted with another voicemail. I need to know where my wife is, she swore she wasn't cheating on me. If she wasn't cheating then why would she need to lie to me? My hands begin to shake as I call her again. I need to find her.

I need someone to watch my children so I can find my no good two timing wife! The only other person in my contact list is Leroy, my ex. If we are still friends with him and Emma put his number in my phone then I must be able to trust him.

"Hello," the older man grumbles into the phone.

"Leroy? It's Roni, I have sort of an emergency. Would you be able to come over and watch the children for an hour?"

"Sure," he mumbles from the other end and hangs up without another word. Now that I think about it, he's kind of rude. Do I find rude people attractive?

The moment Leroy stepped into our home, I was rushing out the door. Emma still had her work truck so I jumped inside our tiny yellow bug and took off toward the town.