Lies and Alibis by Tiffany L. Warren Page A

called me her little flower since I was a baby.  Sometimes she calls me her little dark flower.  That’s a whole other story.
    “ Do you have anyone on staff to get our bags from the rental car?” Mama asks.  “We’ve got quite a few.”
    I shake my head.  “I gave everyone a few days off.  I needed some quiet.”
    “ Well who’s been taking care of you?” Grandma Baker asks.  “Is Rod back home yet?”
    I sigh again.  So, either Camille or Sydney has let them know that Rod isn’t here.  I didn’t want to tell them about the impending divorce.  Not yet.
    “Sydney has been staying with me when she’s not working.”
    “ Well, that’s something,” Mama says. 
    Both my grandmothers head toward the kitchen.  I’m afraid about what will happen in there.  They’re both excellent cooks, but there will be war.  I’ll put my money on Grandma Baker. 
    “ I thought I taught you better,” Mama says when the grandmothers are gone.
    I roll my eyes as I walk toward the downstairs master suite.  “What do you mean?”
    “ You let a classless trollop steal your husband.  Didn’t I teach you how to take care of home?”
    I refuse to argue with my mother about what I did or didn’t do for Rod.  I know I took care of him. 
    “ Mama, I’m tired.  I’m pregnant, remember?”
    “ Well at least you did that!  Lord knows if I hadn’t had you girls, your daddy would’ve let me be homeless and in the streets.  Go ahead and lie down.  This baby needs to come out healthy and whole, honey.”
    I hold my stomach as I walk slowly to mine and Rod’s bedroom.  The pain that I feel there isn’t because of the baby or the fertility medicine.  It’s from the realization that I’ve failed.  I’ve become exactly what I never wanted to be.  A carbon copy of my mama.
     

 
     
    ~21~
     
    Camille
    I’m at the dinner table with Bryan, and we are eating in silence.  After his last explosion where he threw the plate and had his temper tantrum, we’ve barely exchanged ten words.  He has absolutely not received his husbandly due, and I have no intentions on making that happen. 
    “ How’s Dionne,” he grunts. 
    “ Better.  Mama and the grandmothers are there.”
    Bryan nods and shoves a few forkfuls of food into his mouth.  I guess that was the entire conversation, then. 
    I let out a sigh as I chew my turkey loaf with little enthusiasm.  Maybe that’s because I’d rather be eating a steak, but after all my investments, turkey loaf is all we can afford.
    Unfortunately, the other two houses that I purchased are in the same amount of disrepair as the first, but Lenora assured me that my troubles would all be over in a few weeks.  I just have to endure the night time, because joy cometh in the morning for sure.
    “ What did you do with all of the money?” Bryan asks.  “I’ve been meaning to question you about this, but I think I’m afraid of hearing the answer.”
    “ How do you know I didn’t give it to the church anonymously?”
    Bryan responds with an evil cackle.  “Because you are too stingy to do that.  You showed your behind when I even suggested it.”
    “ I paid the bills.”
    “ There weren’t twenty five thousand dollars worth of bills, Camille.  You still have some of the money.”
    Actually, I have about twenty thousand left, and there is no way he’s getting his hands on it.  I used the fifteen thousand I won in New Orleans for the down payments on my houses, and I took five thousand from the twenty five to get all of our utilities and credit card bills current.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest, but since it’s my money, it’s going to be what I want.
    Our meal is interrupted by the doorbell.  Bryan looks across the table at me.
    “ Are you going to get that?” he asks.
    “ What kind of man sends his wife to the door at night?  It could be a killer or something.”
    Bryan slams his fork down on the table and rises.  He stomps over to