Strongholds by Vanessa Davis Griggs

Author:Vanessa Davis Griggs [Griggs, Vanessa Davis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2008-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

—Acts 13:39

Edwin slowly opened the front door. He walked quietly into the house as though he were a burglar. Tonight he had to be extra careful not to awaken Desiree. It was bad enough he hadn’t given her the money from his paycheck. It was bad enough he had caused all those checks to bounce. Now it was almost two o’clock in the morning, and he didn’t need her mad about that as well. If there is a God in heaven, he thought to himself, Desiree will have gone to sleep around eleven and she’ll already be in never-never-land.

He took off his shoes, then tiptoed into the bedroom. It was dark, but he knew the layout of the room so well from all the times he’d sneaked in late like this, so he didn’t make any unnecessary noises. He didn’t even want to chance waking her by going into the bathroom to brush his teeth. So he peeled off his clothes and slid between the sheets ever so slowly.

Done! He let out a long, quiet sigh and closed his eyes.

The light on Desiree’s nightstand suddenly came on. She was sitting up in the bed now.

Edwin could tell she was staring at him, so he tried to pretend he was already asleep.

“No need for you to try to act like you’re asleep,” Desiree said. “I know you just crawled your sorry self in the bed.”

“What?” Edwin said. “I’m trying to sleep here.” He turned his back to her.

“Edwin, stop playing. I wasn’t asleep when you came in. I heard you open the front door downstairs. I knew when you tiptoed your cigarette-laden self in here. So sit up. We have things we’re going to get straight right now. This morning.”

Edwin sat up and peeked around at the clock perched on Desiree’s nightstand. “It’s after two in the morning, Desiree,” he said as though he didn’t know it. “Whatever you want to discuss or fuss about can surely wait until we wake up. I’m tired, and I’d like to get some shut-eye.”

“Oh, you’re going to get some shut-eye all right. First off: where’s your money from your Thursday paycheck, Edwin?”

“You know what?” He sat up straighter and looked boldly at her. “You have some real issues. All you think about is money. In case you’ve forgotten, I worked for that check. It belongs to me. And I can very well do with it as I please. Normally I bring almost all of it home to you. But there’s nothing written in stone that says I have to do that. And I’m about tired of you taking me for granted. Do you know how many women wish they had a man like me? Maybe I’ll just keep my entire paycheck this time so you can learn to start appreciating me better.”

“Where’s the money, Edwin?”

“We can talk about this in the morning when we wake up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.