Chapter 8
Raymond sat on the hospital bed, pale and quiet, listening to every word I said.
His mind went back to years ago when he saw his mother cheating. That
moment hit him hard.
He asked his mother in disbelief, “Why did you do that? Isn’t Dad good enough for you?”
His father was a teacher. He wasn’t exciting or romantic, but steady and responsible.
His mother just looked back at him coldly and said, “What do you know? Your father is too boring. Life needs excitement. I can’t live like that forever.”
She eventually got caught cheating. His father lost it and tried to beat the adulterer. Her family wouldn’t take her back, so she ran off with the
adulterer.
But then, she died in a car crash.
When I found Raymond at the car crash scene, he just sat there, staring at the wreckage in tears.
He asked me, “Whitney, am I ever going to be okay again?”
I held him close and whispered, “You’ve got me. I’m not going anywhere.”
Later on, he told me, “Whitney, I’ll never cheat on you. Cheating won’t. just happen once. I won’t let you become that unlucky woman.”
I believed him.
For a long time, life was tough. But he was driven. He thought that was how we’d live for the rest of our lives. Then Minnie came into the picture.
She was energetic, refreshing, and full of spark. She was also completely different from me in bed.
Things between us in bed were always kind of boring. But Minnie wild and passionate. She got what he was into.
was
He felt like his life was stuck on repeat until she showed up and brought some excitement. It was like he finally understood what his mother always said.
Life couldn’t be too boring. Life must have some fire in it. So, he longed for something exciting.
He was hooked on Minnie’s body and on how she made him feel.
Lucian told him, “Ray, let Whitney go. She’s been through enough.”
When Lucian first caught Raymond cheating, he socked him right in the face. “Don’t you feel bad for Whitney?!”
Later, he said, “Keep this quiet. Don’t let her find out. You’ll regret it if she leaves.”
Raymond thought he wouldn’t be afraid. He figured he’d be fine.
After he divorced me, Minnie offered to help him bounce back. He was desperate to prove to me that he could be better off without me.
So, he threw himself into parties and drinking. But I wasn’t around anymore to help him drink.
He was allergic to alcohol. Minnie noticed the rash on his face but only
gave him a cold reminder. “Mr. Watson is still waiting for your toast. Ray, can you drink or not?”
That was when he thought of me. Back when we just started working, someone tried to toast with him. I jumped in and took his glass. “Ray is allergic to alcohol. Just give him tea instead. I’ve got the wine.”
I chugged three glasses, got applause from everyone, and landed us the deal. Now, he was passed out in a hospital bed, and Minnie couldn’t wait to grab his stuff and disappear.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he regretted it.
“I screwed everything up.”
After he recognized his feelings, he still didn’t want to move on.
“She won’t leave me,” he insisted. “We’ve been together for ten years. She’s just mad right now. She won’t walk away.”
Lucian gave me a heads–up that Raymond was going to come looking for
- me.
But I’d already seen him.
