Chapter 12: Chapter 11

“Yeah well,” Elena smiled, she then pushed some cookies that she had bought and placed on a tray in the woman’s face.

“I thought that I could come say hi. I baked cookies if you would like to try some. You seemed to be the only one home at this time of day.” Elena smiled.

The woman smiled back at Elena, both feeling awkward.

Elena was freaking out in her mind, to be so up close and personal with Malik’s mistress or was she the mistress.

“Might as well,” the woman said, stepping aside for Elena to enter.

“Wow, you have such a lovely home.” Elena said, she then cleared her throat because she didn’t know where the southern accent came from.

“Thank you my husband and I bought it like two years ago,” the woman informed, she was beaming when she said that.

Elena nodded, and handed the tray to the woman, that was obviously older than her.

She squinted her eyes, trying to assess how old the woman was.

“Oh, I didn’t catch your name.” Elena said, her eyes were all over the place.

The woman came back with the cookies on a plate and two glasses of milk, “oh sorry, it’s Leona Swan.”

The two women stood there for a while, “would you like to sit?” Leona asked, gesturing to the sofa.

“So, I heard that you are a single mother of two,” Leona tried to strike up a conversation.

Elena looked at Leona then said. “Oh yeah, my husband passed some time ago.”

Elena felt choked up, and to know that Malik wasn’t really dead made it worse.

Honestly she didn’t know if she was brave or stupid to be in his house, talking to his wife, but she was his wife too.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I would do if Joshua should ever die, we have been married for nine years and to lose him would be like losing my world.” Leona said, she had a distant look.

And Elena gave her the best fake smile she could muster up.

Elena almost spit her milk out, “wow that’s long, you must really love your husband.”

Leona laughed. “We were college sweet hearts actually, and then one day he proposed; saying that he don’t want to live without me. It was the sweetest thing, we went to a basketball game and when I looked at the screen it said, ‘LEONA MARRY ME’. In big bold letters.”

Leona was gushing over her husband saying how he was the perfect husband, and how good he was to her and their kids.

Elena just sat there listening, she wondered if she had any idea that sitting across from her was her husband’s other wife, but what really baffled her was how long they were married.

‘Well, this was what you came here for,’ Elena thought.

She had to bite her tongue against telling Leona everything.

“That’s really nice, my husband Malik. We have been married for four years. We met at a bar; he had his eyes on me the entire night until he finally walked over. Even though he was older, I fell in love with his charm and humor.”

The two women talked for what felt like hours, and Elena had learnt a lot. Like how Joshua was always away on business trips. But he would shower her and the kids with gifts when he ever got back.

Turned out, Leona stayed home just like Belinda, she used to work at Georgia state university but after having a few problems that she didn’t disclose with Elena, she quit her teaching job and was now home with her kids.

Elena was left to wonder if Malik or whatever he went by, had any other wives or children out there.

She also learnt that the man they both were married to was in California for a year on business, and that would explain the ‘accident’ he was in and stayed home with Elena for a year.

Elena wasn’t really listening to Leona now; she was too busy wondering what Malik’s motive was for doing this. She thought he was never secretive with her but that just goes to show how much you really know a person.

Elena felt tears at the back of her eyes but held them in, she didn’t want to break down in front of a complete stranger.

Leona sighed. “Between us two, sometimes I feel as if my husband is cheating on me. ‘’

‘’Why would you say that?’’ Elena leaned her head to the side.

‘’Last year, he was gone for four months to Japan. When he came back home, he had a bunch of love bites on his neck. I asked about them and he said that they were from the bugs in Japan.’’

Leona bit into a cookie like she was wishing that it was her husband.

Elena did remember that time she gave Malik a lot of love bites, and he complained about it, saying that his boss wouldn’t be happy about them.

Elena nodded to herself.

Elena wanted so badly to tell Leona the truth, she just wanted to hold her hand like she was a small child and tell her everything.

‘’I might just be over reacting,’’ Leona said.

‘’I used to have the same feeling about my husband, and I think that’s the reason why he died. He lied about where he was going and was missing for a while, then… they found his dead body.’’

Leona reached out and touched Elena’s knee.

‘’I’m sorry about that.’’

Elena took a deep breath, ready to tell Leona the real reason she was there.

‘’Hmm…’’

Elena leaned in closer to Leona, she opened her mouth and was ready to speak.

The moment she tried to, the front door opened, and the unmistakable voice of Mailk called out for his wife.

Elena went still, starting to panic. She looked around the room for an escape but found none. She thought about hiding under the table but that would only make her suspicious and seemed crazy.

“In the seating room.” Leona called, she beamed at Elena as she did.

“Oh, this is such a wonderful day, you are going to meet my husband.” Leona was gleeful, but on Elena’s side, her heart was hammering in her chest.

Elena held her breath when Malik walked in, she tried to turn away, but it was like seeing a ghost.

He paused at the entrance, staring at Elena.

“You are home early,” Leona said, then followed her husband’s eyes to Elena.

“Oh, this is Donna, she just moved here. Her husband died some time ago and she wanted a new start.’’

‘’Is that so?’’ Malik asked.

‘’Yes,’’ Leona nodded. ’’It’s so sad I feel like crying, she even adopted two kids to fill the empty void.” Leona rested a comforting hand on Elena’s knee.

Malik smiled at Elena, and she smiled back at him.

‘’You look familiar,’’ he boldly said.

‘’I was a news reporter for a while, but after my husband died it took a toll on me and I quit my job,’’ Elena explained.

Malik said nothing, as he leaned on the door jamb just staring at Elena.

“Oh, before I forget, let me go get that card for you with the babysitter’s number. You will just love Anna.” Leona skipped off to the adjoining room.

Malik looked to where Leona just went then looked back at Elena.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Elena raised a brow at him. “Excuse me?” She pretended to not know what he was talking about.

Malik face twisted to anger. “You know damn well what I am talking about.”

In that moment she realized that he wasn’t the man she got married to.

‘’What? Can’t I have a double life too?’’ Elena said in a mocking tone, hoping to push him to the edge so Leona could find out the truth about who the man she got married to really was.