Blazing Forward

Chapter 4

 As soon as I got inside and set the alarm, I walked to the bathroom to fix my face, put some flats on, and went down to the gallery. I left my phone upstairs. Anna and I were in the office for about two hours when my husband called her. She told him that I had stopped by but I left and didn't tell her where I was going.

"You want to talk about you finding his ex at your house?" she asked after hanging up.

"Not really, I um, I'm gonna go upstairs."

"He sounds rough, Ari."

"I feel rough." I replied, leaving the office.

Back upstairs I took my shoes off, grabbed a pint of pineapple coconut ice cream, put on Love & Hip Hop, and ignored the constant ringing of my cell phone that was sitting next to me. When it stopped I checked my notifications; 105 missed calls, 68 text messages, and 22 voicemails, all from my husband. All ignored.

"Thank you iPhones for the ability to delete voicemails without listening to them. Mark as read and clear notifications for the rest. Bean, it's just gonna be me and you for a few days but we'll be fine. For the moment I'm gonna distract myself with the ongoing love drama between Amina, Peter, and Tara. This is exactly what I need." I said as tears started to fall. "I'll be just fine and when I'm not mad anymore we'll talk. Maybe."

LE'S POV

"This is bad." I muttered after the 15th call went to voicemail.

"Lina, Jojo, go inside. We'll be there in a minute." my brother told the girls.

"Daddy, what's wrong with Aria? Why isn't she answering?" Jojo asked.

"It's nothing sweetie, go inside." I replied.

We watched them go inside and I'm thinking about how to explain this to my six-year-old. I could feel my brother's glare on us, he doesn't really like Galina, he never has. He loves my wife though, and this looks really bad.

"I should leave." G said.

"You really should." Matthew said.

"Matt . . ."

"Calm down, uso." I told him.

"Calm down? What the hell is she even doing here? Both of you half-naked and she spent the night! Where the hell was your wife? You know who that is right, the woman you just let drive off, while your half-naked ex stands here like she belongs here? I don't know what the hell is going on here but take a good look at the picture in front of you. This house is yours and your wife's, but where is she uso? The woman who should be here just took off after you made a fool of her and the woman who made a fool out of you, is the one standing by your side. Can you see what's wrong?" he demanded.

"That's my daughter, I have every right to be here" Galina argued.

"Now you want to be a mom? What a coincidence, now that Ari is about to start her third trimester you wanna come back and be a mom. Joe, man, open your eyes." he insisted and it made me remember something about our argument yesterday.

"She called me Joseph." I muttered.

"What?" G and Matt asked.

"Yesterday when I was being an asshat she called me Joe and Joseph."

"I don't understand, that's your name." G said.

"No, his name is Leati. Ari never calls him Joe, it's always Le or Leati." Matt argued.

"Uso, drop it, Galina is still Jojo's mom. I need to talk to my wife." I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face and dialing her number again.