Pastor Needs a Boo (46 page)

It was six a.m. and his wife had not come home. Tatiana left the church right after the winners were announced. Todd wasn't even sure who Tatiana left with. Xavier had come back to get Camille. So, who gave his wife a ride to wherever she was now? And if that were not bad enough, Tatiana had the gall to call him and lie about needing to be at a long and special meeting for the sake of their church.

Todd didn't appreciate that mess. Tatiana didn't even like going to that church, or any church for that matter. The garage door went up, and Tatiana pulled her Cadillac right beside Todd's brand-new silver Acura RL. She checked her makeup in the mirror and let the garage door down.

The door leading into the house was open, and Todd was standing there, pissed. Tatiana had not expected him to be here. She'd checked his hospital schedule before they even left the house and thought he would be at work when she came home.

“I thought you had to be at work early, Baby,” Tatiana said in the sweetest voice she could muster up at this time in the morning. She was exhausted from all of that scheming and plotting, and then polishing off the evening with Luther Howard, who had only recently added her to his booty call list. Xavier had pissed Luther off enough to make him want to dole out some payback by sleeping with his other woman.

“Nope. I have the morning off,” he told her.

“I see,” Tatiana said. She was relieved when Todd moved out of the doorway so she could enter without having to brush up against him.

“Where in the hell have you been, Tatiana?”

“I told you, I was working on something for the church. So what is your problem?”

“You, Tatiana,” he answered. “You are my problem.”

Tatiana walked into their state-of-the-art kitchen and got a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. She opened it and began to sip on the cold water. It was clear Todd was not going to let her get off without a confrontation. But she was awfully tired and needed to go to bed and get some rest. She said, “I'm tired, Todd. I spent the evening with important people doing important things. They are working on making things better for preachers like Reverend Franklin, who is running for bishop. And if it were not for Denzelle, Xavier would win hands down. But Denzelle is all in the way, and we were strategizing about how to get him out of the race. So, now I need to go to sleep.”

Todd was staring at Tatiana like this was the first time he'd ever laid eyes on her. He had always convinced himself the reason no one liked her was because they were jealous of Tatiana. At least, that is what she always said when he questioned her about not being able to get along with other people.

But standing here listening to Tatiana lie in his face about where she was, who she was with, and what she'd been doing was too much.

Todd walked out of the kitchen, leaving Tatiana standing in the middle of the floor clueless and nervous. He'd never acted like this with her. He came back with a thick folder in his hand and threw it on the floor at her feet. Papers were everywhere.

“Strategize on this, ho,” he said and walked off. He decided to go in to work after all. Todd knew that if he stayed in the house with Tatiana he would slice her up with one of his scalpels.

Tatiana bent down to examine the pictures and papers that were now strewn across the kitchen floor. They were all about her and Xavier. She gasped when she saw pictures of the two of them in bed at the Umstead Hotel in Cary.

“What? You really didn't think I would sit back and let you do all of that with Xavier and not have proof. I knew you'd lie,” Todd said.

“But, Baby…,” Tatiana began.

She made Todd think of the song “Contagious,” by R. Kelly, Ron Isley, and Chante Mooré.

“Tatiana, I have kept a portfolio on you since the day we got married. Did you honestly believe I wouldn't have some kind of protection, seeing that I'm with you because you two-timed Denzelle?”

“But what about forgiveness, Todd?” Tatiana whined. “We've been married too long to let something like this get in the way of our love.”

“You mean, get in the way of you and my money,” he told her in a hard and bitter voice.

“But forgiveness, Todd. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Oh, I forgive you. I just don't want you anymore,” he answered, in a voice that was so calm and quiet, it frightened Tatiana.

“See,” Todd went on, “this isn't your first affair in this marriage. It's only the first time you fell for the guy. I'm tired, and I'm done. Get your mess and leave.”

Tatiana was stunned. Of all of the things she would have expected to hear from Todd, this wasn't it. All of these years of thinking she was so cool and so slick and so good and undercover, and Todd knew about her lovers and affairs anyway.

“I don't have anywhere to go, Todd.”

“Go over to Xavier's house. Oh, you can't go there, because it's not even Xavier's house. It's Camille's house.”

He pulled out his wallet, peeled off a handful of hundred-dollar bills, and threw them at Tatiana's feet.

“This should pay for a couple of days at the hotel off of Holloway Street in Durham. You know, the one that looks like it's closed but everybody is always staying there. It's trashy, just like you.”

“I can't stay there.”

Todd shrugged and said, “Then your friend, Yolanda. Oh, I forgot, Yolanda isn't speaking to you because she found out you were sleeping with her man.”

Todd started laughing.

“So, I guess you'll have to stay at that hotel then.”

Tears started streaming down Tatiana's cheeks. She never thought her gravy train called Dr. Todd Townsend would ever come to an end. She never believed Todd would find out about her affairs. Tatiana didn't even believe he'd ever get mad enough to put her out, even if he did find out about the affairs. And she certainly never believed he would not want her in his life.

Tatiana had believed she could treat this man any kind of way and he'd take it until she got tired of doing it. In fact, Tatiana had never really wanted a divorce from Todd. She wanted him dead. But she didn't want to go through a divorce. She had learned that divorces were troublesome and way too messy.

“Please, Todd,” Tatiana pleaded. She was not going to accept this from him. As far as Tatiana was concerned, she'd done Todd a favor by agreeing to marry him.

“Get out,” he said.

“I have nowhere to go.”

“Yes, you do,” He said.

“Where?”

“To hell. Tatiana, you can go straight to hell.”

Tatiana made a move toward him. She was now crying so hard she could hardly breathe.

“You have the rest of this day to get your clothes and personal belongings out of my house. After that, you stuff goes in the trash.”

“What will I get in the divorce?” Tatiana asked.

“Whatever the hell I got in this farce of a marriage,” Todd answered.

Tatiana was having a hard time digesting this. If she left Todd now, all she'd have was a life insurance policy.

She dried her tears and patted her face dry. All Tatiana could think about was how much money she'd have to work with at the end of the divorce. It was zilch. The only way she could get her hands on some real money was through the life insurance policy Todd had taken out on himself to make sure she'd always be okay.

Her cell buzzed.

“Your new man is calling,” Todd said calmly. He couldn't believe how at peace he was feeling. All of these years of dreading going through a nasty divorce with Tatiana, and now that his fear was a reality, all he felt peace.

Tatiana acted like she didn't hear her husband and tried to ignore the phone buzzing. Finally, it stopped. Then it started up all over again. Tatiana reached into her jacket pocket and pulled it out. She could not believe Todd had called that one so well. It was Luther Howard.

“Hello,” Tatiana said.

“Why did you leave and not tell me good-bye?” Luther admonished.

“You were sleeping so peacefully, I hated to wake you.”

Todd shook his head. He couldn't believe this mess. Tatiana didn't have any respect for anything.

“I need you to go to the address I'm about to text you and get that stuff I had made up for you. And don't let anybody know where you're going, Tatiana. You think you can pull this off for me without a hitch?”

“Yes,” Tatiana said carefully. “But…”

“But what?” Luther demanded.

“Todd knows everything about us.”

Luther was quiet, and then he laughed into the phone. He said, “He thinks I'm Xavier.

“No.”

“He knows this is me?” Luther asked with some concern.

“No.”

“Then what?”

Tatiana was not going to answer that question with Todd staring down in her mouth so intently he could probably see her lungs. She just kept being quiet.

“He thinks I'm a new man but not me.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Keep it that way. So, is he mad? Hurt? Begging? What?”

“He is putting me out and is planning on divorcing me. I have to get out ASAP.”

“I see,” was all Luther said. He had to think about this for a second. He said, “Your divorce settlement. What will you have to work with?”

“Nothing”

“No-what?” Luther demanded

“No-Nothing,” Tatiana said through a new set of tears.

“Absolutely nothing?”

“Nothing,” she repeated, hardly able to believe it herself.

“How did you come up with nothing, Tatiana? I always thought you were smarter than that.”

“I signed the papers because I wanted to hurry up and marry Todd and I thought…”

“… you thought he would change them once you were married and he started to believe he couldn't live without you.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a life insurance policy on the man?”

“Yes.”

“For how much?”

“Eight million.”

“All yours?”

“Yes.”

“I see,” Luther said in a very quiet and deadly voice. “You need to handle your business, and you better be at that meeting.”

Tatiana stared at her phone. She couldn't believe that Luther would be so cold after last night. Right now, she felt like a trashbin. Luther Howard had just discarded her like she was a piece of cold, stale, and day-old pizza.

She looked up from the phone, expecting to see Todd staring or, more like, sneering at her. Todd wasn't even in the room. Tatiana didn't even know that he'd left. She heard the toilet flush, and seconds later Todd came back looking pale.

Listening to his wife talking to her new man in his own house had made Todd sick to his stomach. In fact, Todd's stomach was so torn up, he had barely been able to get off the toilet to come back in this room to get upset all over again when he looked at Tatiana holding the phone in her hand. She was staring at it like she wanted the man to call her back.

Todd felt like the bottom of his stomach was about to fall out again. He was sweating and having some trouble breathing. Todd was upset over Tatiana, but he didn't think his wife's craziness was the sole cause for how he was feeling.

The last time Todd was with Shanna Webster she had talked him into taking some more of that WP21 Todd bought from the so-called herbalist brother who sold “natural” aphrodisiacs out of his home in Bahama, North Carolina. He didn't know why he listened to Shanna and that herbalist brother about this stuff. Todd should have known better when an underweight brother named Zachary Walsh met him at the door of his house speaking with a fake part-African, part-Caribbean accent saying.

“Doktor Townsend, I am Ochi, the African name for laughter.”

Todd didn't know what to say to Ochi the laughter man, especially since Ochi frowned and looked real mean and hateful the entire time Todd was at his house. It didn't help that Ochi's front yard was just as unappealing as he was, with the dirt that couldn't grow grass and a batch of wild-acting chickens running around in it. Ochi's chickens were so mean and crazy-acting that they chased Todd when he got out of the car. Todd had run up on Ochi's porch and banged on the door. It had taken everything Todd had in him, not to wimp out and holler, “HELP!”

Those crazy chickens should have been Todd Townsend's clue to move on. But no—he had to prove himself to Shanna, and to Ochi, who kept asking if Todd was man enough to handle his products. So Todd took all of that WP21, even though he had been having some heart health issues for a while. Anyone who knew anything about this drug knew it was bad for the heart. Now Todd was mad, upset, feeling crappier and crappier by the minute, and scared he was experiencing some bad side effects from the WP21.

“Todd, will you forgive me and reconsider your decision?” Tatiana asked him.

Todd ignored his wife, closed his eyes, and prayed, “Lord, forgive me for all of my sins.”

He didn't know what made him pray that but he couldn't help it. Right now, Todd Townsend knew he needed something bigger than himself. Todd thought about how tired he was of the daily grind and feeling like a failure in spite of all that others kept telling him he had accomplished. He thought about his wife, who he now knew had never loved him. He thought about how he wished he had listened to somebody with some sense, and left this evil woman alone.

Todd Townsend thought about the heavy ache in his chest, the nausea, the pain in his arm and shoulders, the urge to run off to the bathroom again, the need to sit down, and the inability to stop himself from collapsing on the floor. He had dallied with the very dangerous WP21, worked himself down to the bone, and now he was in the middle of a full-blown heart attack. This was absolutely unbelievable.

How in the world could one of the most renowned trauma surgeons in the country collapse with a deadly heart attack? Todd knew this was a deadly attack because he'd lectured on how to treat patients coming into emergency rooms with this kind of massive cardiac arrest. Something in Todd urged him to stick his hand down into his pocket where his cell was.