“Erica,” she conceded. “Does she think her boy’s going to come here and live like a king? You should’ve told her how cheap you are before you fucked her.”
Loathing darkened Liam’s coffee brown eyes. “You’re a foul mouthed bitch,” he sneered.
“That’s not all I am,” she threw back, unfazed by the insult. “As for my mouth, you seem quite fond of it and all the things it continues to do for you. Does she know all that, Liam? Or does she not care as long as she gets to unload one of her brats.”
Liam looked sick. “This is killing her, Thea, but she’d do anything to keep Vic safe.”
“Vic,” Athena rolled her eyes while murmuring the child’s name. “Safe?” she inquired next, folding her arms over her full bosom. “Safe from what?” she insisted.
“Her husband. He’s back.” Liam turned away from Athena after making the admission. The blow Erica had dealt him earlier that night, still cut deep. They’d met at Claymore’s office. She’d finally called after weeks of avoiding his attempts to arrange a visit to see their son.
Paul Lewis had returned just after the new year and reclaimed his position as head of the family he had more or less abandoned. Every man in his wife’s family had stepped in to serve as a father figure to his children during his voluntary absence. Paul however, refused to even consider raising another man’s child.
“Liam?” Athena was demanding a full answer.
Liam refused to meet his wife’s eyes, “Her husband is back and he doesn’t want the boy there.”
Aside from the electrical hum of the space heater between the kitchen and dining room, the area was quiet. Quiet, until Athena began to laugh. The sound resonated with a cold glee and silenced soon and sharply.
“Tell me, husband,” she raised her chin with smug defiance, “why would I bring trash into my own house that a nigger won’t even tolerate in his?”
~~~
“Lee me ‘lone, Hump...” a groggy Aaron Tesano murmured when his brother nudged him awake. It was still in the small morning hours, still dark in the walk-up they shared with their parents and younger siblings.
“I heard her, Ari. Let’s go and see.”
“She never yells...” Aaron, still groggy, grumbled.
His little brother was right, Humphrey Tesano acknowledged even as frown lines bumped the black tendrils of hair that tumbled onto his broad forehead. Their mother was a lady as she often reminded them. According to Athena Tesano a lady never yells.
Humphrey knew what he heard however. His mother yelling had pulled him from sleep.
“Close your eyes, Ari,” Humphrey moved to the double bed he and his brother shared. He tucked in the homemade quilts around the little boy who had showed no signs of rising from the covers.
“Go back to sleep,” Humphrey whispered.
“Mmm hmm...” Aaron nuzzled his head, matted with dark curls, deeper into his pillow.
“I won’t have it, Liam!”
There it was again. The phrase clearly negated Athena’s claim that a lady never yelled. Humphrey blinked, causing the hair just grazing his eyes to do battle with his long lashes when he blinked. He cast a quick look at his sleeping brother and spared no additional time before making a hasty exit from the small room.
“The decision’s been made, Thea!”
Humphrey was halfway down the narrow dark corridor when his father’s voice rang out. The man’s bellow far outweighed his wife’s angry higher pitched tone.
“Then why did you bother to tell me, Liam?”
Humphrey made his way to the end of the hallway dotted with framed pictures of family and Christ. His toes felt chilled where they peeked out from the overlong cuffs of his blue and white striped pajamas.
Standing at the mouth of the hall, Humphrey realized why his parents’ voices came through so clearly. They were in the dim, no-frills kitchen which sat right off the hall from his and Aaron’s room. He wouldn’t have to strain to listen in on their conversation.
Liam’s and Athena’s voices came through so clearly in fact, that Humphrey could tell his mother had been crying. Her voice wavered and shuddered as though she had been sobbing quite heavily.
“I’m telling you so you can start getting the house in order,” Liam said on his way to the icebox in the corner. There, he pulled a block of aged sharp cheese from one of the shelves inside.
“In order?!” Athena sounded incredulous and watched her husband through voluminous eyes darkened by anger. “Have you forgotten that I am getting things in order? We are expecting a baby, remember?”
Liam cut a chunk from the cheese he’d selected. “I don’t have the time to go back and forth on this with you, Thea.”
“Apologies husband, are you exhausted?” Athena’s lovely olive-toned features were tight, belying the sudden sugary tone of her voice. “I suppose I’d tire too if I were just getting in at two-thirty in the morning from a night of fucking.”
The knife hit the wooden counter space with a dull clatter. Liam straightened. “Mind yourself, woman.”
“Mind myself?” Absently, she wiped her hands on the white apron at her waist. “Is that how you speak to your whores, Li? Do you tell those black bitches you run around with to mind themselves, Li?”
“Athena-”
“Obviously not if one of ‘em’s bold enough to expect your wife to care for her bastard!”
“He’s mine too, Thea.”
“And how do you propose we make room to care for this one when we already have four and another on the way? Thank God Humphrey’s smart-thirteen and big enough to work. Between time at the factory and being with his friends he won’t have to be here to take in this-this scandal! How do you plan on feeding this new addition? At my breast? Or is your whore coming here to let him suckle at her tit?!”
“I’ve had enough of this, Athena!”
“Oh Liam, my love...so have I, so have I-” Her words clipped a bit when she noticed Humphrey in the doorway. “This makes...how many now?” She almost hissed the unfounded accusation. “I’m beginning to lose track of all your Negress sluts!”
