His First Lady (32 page)

Daniela shook her head and covered her ears. “I don’t want to hear you!” Daniela shouted.

Candy reached out and pulled Daniela’s arms down from her ears. “They’ll speculate that Rob or Will must have been sleeping with her or she had something on us.” Candy then pointed outside. “That little ho will destroy our lives. You’ve got to think Daniela. She’s not worth that.”

“She’s lying outside on cold concrete!” Daniela screamed at Candy with her face turning red. “She’s a human being and you’re a born again Christian!” Daniela pointed toward the door as tears ran down her face. “What are you doing?”

“I know, I know,” Candy said in a low contrite whisper as if attempting to appease Daniela. “I’m not asking you to help me with anything. I’m just asking you to go home and not say anything until I can think this over. I’ll call the police and tell them what happened,” Candy said lowering her voice almost begging. “Please.”

“No,” Daniela said angrily. “I don’t know what you did with my cellphone but I need it right now. They’ll track everything back to you.”

Candy stood tall and stared Daniela in the face. “I destroyed your cellphone. I had to.”

Daniela stomped her foot and swore. “What?”

“Rob must have been sleeping with her. Why else would she hurt that woman like that?” Candy asked serenely.

Daniela winced. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s what they’ll say Daniela,” Candy said. “They’ll speculate all sorts of things that aren’t true.”

“I won’t be a part of this.” Daniela began walking the floor trying to sort it all out in her head.

Candy walked toward her and looked her in the eyes. “You already are.”

Daniela couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Daniela felt like she was in a nightmare and she was the only one that realized that there was a dead woman outside.

“Candy she’s dead,” Daniela said.

Candy nodded. “We can pretend that this never happened like it did. It was an accident. Save your ministry and your family.”

Daniela covered her face. She was mad at herself that she was even listening to Candy or even considering what Candy was saying. “I can’t.”

“Daniela,” Candy said, “have I ever lied to you? Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me in all the years that we’ve been friends?”

Daniela stared at the door not wanting to look Candy in the face.

“Dani, I’ll call the police. I promise but Will has to be told first. He has a TV show, a radio broadcast and everybody knows him. He’s not even in town and if the cops show up to our home, it’ll be all over the news and it’ll destroy him.”

“She needs an ambulance!” Daniela snapped back angrily.

“It’s too late for that,” Candy said.

Daniela turned from her unable to even look her in the eye.

“Dani, I promise that I’ll call the police tonight. I won’t mention you because I know you have a responsibility and you had nothing to do with this. It was just an accident,” Candy begged.

“Call them now, then.”

“I need to talk to Will first,” Candy said nervously sitting on the sofa. “I’m a nervous wreck; I’m in no condition to be questioned right now. Will is going to be devastated. This is our home and I don’t want him to be out of town and stunned by finding out about this tragedy from the news. Just give me some time to contact him,” Candy pleaded.

Daniela looked down at her. She couldn’t believe that she was even considering Candy’s plea but she knew that Rob and his ministry didn’t deserve this although she had done nothing wrong….yet. Maybe Candy was right, people would speculate before she would even have a chance to explain. “What are we doing?”

“You are doing nothing wrong,” Candy said sincerely, “once I talk to Will and he calls our attorney, I’ll call the police; I promise you Dani.”

Daniela placed her hands on her head and motioned to walk back outside. “I’ve got to check on her. We can’t leave her outside.”

Candy nodded in relief. “Yeah, check on her.” Candy headed toward the stairs in her laundry room leading from her home to the garage entrance. “Let’s move her inside the garage so she won’t be out there.”

Daniela stopped. “This is so wrong!”

Candy walked back up the three steps and stood in Daniela’s face. “You’ll mess around and this girl will have taken everything from you because you don’t want to be wrong. Well, she didn’t want to be right.”

Daniela stared at Candy’s piercing gaze. “It’s not right!”

Candy became angry. “Girl, get it together. Think about what you will lose!”

Daniela felt like she was sinking in a dark pit, confused and dazed. “You have to promise me that you’ll call the police. I don’t care what the consequences are; we need to do the right thing.”

Candy nodded. “I promise.”

Daniela followed Candy downstairs and out to the garage. Candy used the remote and let the garage door up. As they slowly approached Ariel’s body that was lying outside on the concrete, Daniela began to panic.
What was she doing?
Tears ran down her face again seeing Ariel’s lifeless body. She bent down and felt again for a pulse knowing fully well that there wouldn’t be one. She dropped her head on Ariel’s chest. She looked over at Candy who seemed unaffected by it holding up a white sheet.

“We need to cover her up,” Candy said covering Ariel with a white sheet. “Thank God that I don’t have any neighbors close to me.”

Daniela sat back. “I don’t feel right about this,” Daniela said. “It’s not right.”

Candy looked at her. “I promise you that I will do the right thing. Just help me get her into the garage.”

Daniela didn’t respond as Candy grabbed one hand and she grabbed the other and they pulled Ariel into the garage.

After placing Ariel flat on the floor with a sheet covering her, Candy pressed the button to close the garage. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Call Will, then call the police. I can’t believe I’m leaving her here without calling for help. I have a duty to help her and I’m not.”

“What else can you do? She’s gone Dani.”

Daniela stood glaring at Candy wondering what had she done. Saying nothing, she walked out of the garage side door and out to the driveway, picked up the contents of her purse from the ground, and got in her van. With tears running down her face, she knew she was making a decision that would cost her, her entire life: marriage, ministry, family, and career. She was scared.
Oh God, she was so scared
. Daniela started her minivan, pulled off and didn’t look back.

No amount of self-talk or praying could change how Daniela felt. Sitting in the driveway in her van; she couldn’t even remember how she had driven home. There must have been at least five traffic lights from the interstate to home that she couldn’t even recall. She was a First lady, mother, and a medical professional and in a span of a few hours, she had managed to destroy it all.

Getting out of her minivan with legs feeling like spaghetti, she walked slowly to her front door in danger of collapsing from the sheer fear that she felt. Trickles of sweat dripped from her head to her brow. She wiped her forehead with the back of one hand while the other shook uncontrollably as she put the key into the keyhole.

Images of Ariel’s body lying on the ground in front of her flashed in her mind.
Why hadn’t she fought harder? Why did she care so little when she knew that she cared so much?
She slowly turned the knob and opened the front door, temporarily relieved when she didn’t see Rob in the foyer waiting for her. Taking small slight steps, she hung the keys carefully on the hook near the front door where they were expected to be and made her way toward the kitchen.

At any point on the way home, she could have stopped by the police station or pulled over at a gas station or payphone but didn’t. The night’s occurrences were a nightmare and she should have reported it or at least called Rob but she was too afraid of what he’d think, even more so now that she had fled the scene of a crime. She almost wished that she had of crashed her van into a tree and been put out of her misery but she couldn’t do that to her children.

She thought of what she’d tell Rob, it’d be hard to tell him because what she did not only affected her but him also. And she couldn’t put off telling him since he was going to know what happened once the police arrived on their doorstep. There was no way around it; he had to know.

The house was quiet. She tiptoed through the hall toward the kitchen where the laundry room was. Whatever she did, she couldn’t wake up Rob or the kids. There was blood on her jacket and specks of it on her flats. In the melee, she hadn’t thought about it. But everything had happened so quickly and she wasn’t prepared for any of it.
Dear God help her
.

The kitchen light was on but it was always on at night. Seeing no sign of Rob and knowing that the kids were definitely asleep, she exhaled. She hated Rob’s difficulties; he was asinine in the worse way sometimes, she thought. He wouldn’t argue with her; he’d just treat her like a child and drag the situation out until she agreed with him that she had destroyed all of their lives, something she already knew.

“Hey,” Rob said as she walked into the kitchen.

His voice startled her; she jumped then placed her hand on her chest. “You scared me.”

“You knew I was home, right?” he asked sarcastically. He stood up and walked over to the dishwasher and opened it placing a bowl inside.

Daniela didn’t answer, watching him place the bowl in the dishwasher. Not only had he been up waiting but he had eaten which was unusual because Rob never ate after 7.

“Where’ve you been?” Rob asked flatly closing the dishwasher and leaning on the sink with his arms crossed; no smile, no emotion. She had underestimated him; he went straight to the point. She looked at him. She had wanted to tell him badly but now she was backing out.

“I was hanging with the ladies for our First ladies’ night out, just dinner and talking.”

“It’s 2 o’clock in the morning. I called your cellphone. Why didn’t you answer it?”

Daniela’s heart pounded; she never responded well under pressure especially knowing that he knew that she always answered her cellphone when she was away from home.

“I didn’t hear it,” she snapped back.

Rob crossed his arms and nodded. “And you didn’t think to call home?”

“You’re trying to make me feel guilty for taking some me time. I’m always taking care of you and the kids. I go out once and I come home to this?” she asked folding her arms over her body.

“You’re trying to be the one angry in this?” Rob asked remaining calm. But Daniela knew him to be that type of man; wanting to be certain to think things through first to be certain that he should have been justifiably angry. “Why are you being defensive?”

“Why are you treating me like a child?”

“Back up.” Rob held his hands up. “You are arriving at our home at 2 o’clock in the morning. You should expect questions right?”

“I expect questions not insinuations.”

Rob grimaced. “Am I insinuating…anything?”

Daniela groaned. “I’m tired Rob.” Daniela dropped her head. “I just want to go to bed.”

Rob looked at her in disbelief. “Your eyes are red. Are you drunk?”

Daniela rolled her eyes then laughed. “No Robert, First ladies don’t get drunk because we’re too perfect to drink!”

Rob’s affect changed as he seemed to grow angrier by the second. “You sure are talking like a drunk and running the streets like you’re either single or want to be single! You’re a First lady. Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s always about you, Robert!” Daniela responded walking past him toward the laundry room. She wasn’t drunk; she never drank but truth be told, she wished she was either drunk or dreaming. “Are you worried that a member of your precious church might have seen me?”

“What?” Rob winced. “That’s enough. I’m going to bed.”

She and Rob didn’t argue often. They didn’t like taking disagreements that far. But tonight was different; she knew it would be. Because of everything dark that happened tonight it was inevitable that there would be no peace. She had now not only cowered out of calling the police but from telling him the truth. Any minute, the police would be pulling up to her home and arresting her.

As she thought about it, she began hyperventilating. She couldn’t do this.
How could she have done something so heinous? God might never forgive her for this? Why should he?
She hurried into the laundry room wanting to look back to see if Rob was following her but resisted. In all of the hoopla, she hoped that Rob didn’t see the stained jacket. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Rob’s footsteps stomping up the staircase.

She hurriedly removed all of her clothes except for her bra and panties and started the washing machine. Her hands shook as she sprayed stain remover on the stained spots on her clothes. Although she was washing them, she would never wear them again. Her heart pounded as she poured more detergent in the wash and on the stains, much more than was required.

She walked up the stairs hoping not to wake the kids. She peeked in at the kids who were sound asleep. She had to kiss them; she wouldn’t miss out on that opportunity ever. She tucked the covers tighter around them and leaned in kissing each one of them on their fluffy brown and warm cheeks.

She had left the girls playing a game of scrabble with Rob, and RJ was playing with his ball. They knew mommy was going to dinner with friends. RJ was distracted when she kissed him goodbye. Being away from them was always harder on her especially when she missed bedtime. Predictably, every night they raced to their beds in competition with each other. Then she or Rob would read a book with them, say prayers with them then turn off the lights before they began the usual bit of giggling and chatter that they always did with each other.

She stood at their door watching them. Dani, 8; Danika, 7 and 2 year old RJ, Robert Jr. whose room was adjacent to the girls separated by a sliding door for privacy but convenient enough against monsters that threatened his peaceful nights every so often. She and Rob always worked hard to protect their peace and security as much as was humanly possible. So, why had she made such a poor choice which jeopardized that?