Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux by Latrivia Nelson (the beach read txt) 📗

you’re a great politician. But you don’t know shit about being a real man.” Refusing to get too emotional, Emerald left Grey standing in the hallway alone and took the stairs up to his room. He needed the time to think through this and to get rid of his growing frustration.

Closing the door to his room, Emerald groaned as he heard Trina on the phone screaming into the receiver. He was too late. Trina apparently threw everything on the bed and got straight on the phone with her sister-in-law, who was now on the other end of the receiver crying in disbelief and preparing to end Grey’s existence, as he knew it.

“Here is Emerald now, girl,” Trina said handing Emerald the phone. She looked at him wide-eyed wondering what had happened downstairs.

“Hello,” he said giving Trina one of his looks. He wasn’t ready to talk to his sister just yet.

“Emerald, what did he say to you?” Wiping her eyes, she picked up the glass she had broken when she first heard the news.

“Some bullshit.” Silence. “Ivy, he believes that your relationship with Nicola justifies what he’s doing.”

“What?” Ivy was appalled. “What would ever give him the….” Her sobs chocked her. “…the idea that I would defend him acting a damned fool.” She wiped the tears from her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Ivy. But you don’t’ have to go through this. End it now.” He sat on the bed. “You would do find by yourself."

“I will be fine by myself.”

So, she wouldn’t stand by him on a first offense. Oddly enough, the thought comforted him. She still had a backbone.

“Ivy, I’m telling you that this guy is no good for you. I never wanted to say it before…I guess, because I wanted you to see it for your self. This guy has something up his sleeve.”

“I’m starting to see it, Emerald. I am.” Tears ran down Ivy’s cheek. She tried hard to control the pain in her stomach. “I’ve got to go okay.”

“Just call me later. Call me if you need to talk.”

“Are you kidding? It’s your freaking honeymoon. Just have fun with Trina and try to forget that this ever happened.”

“No. I won’t. And you shouldn’t forget either. This guy is bad news.”

“I’ve gotta go.”

“Okay.” Emerald’s heat sank. “I love you, Ivy.”

“I love you, too,” Ivy said hanging up the phone.

Erupting after she put the phone down, Ivy screamed and snatched the cord out of the wall. “Bastard!” she screamed as she pictured Grey and the Asian woman Trina had described. How could she be so stupid?

Knowing that Grey would act fast, Ivy ran to her car with her purse in one hand and an extra pair of keys in the other. She took a quick look in her rearview mirror and belted out of the parking lot at top speed blasting her revenge music and contemplating her next move. In only a few minutes, she was on the expressway headed for his house with nothing in mind but to call off the wedding. What was normally a thirty-minute drive was a short seven minute drive, and unprepared, she found herself at his doorstep. Good. She had beaten him home. Bad. She didn’t know what she was doing to do next.

Unlocking the door, Ivy looked around curiously at the all too familiar surroundings of Grey’s home and began to feel anger building up inside of her like a volcano preparing to erupt. Suddenly, the room began to close in or her and small sweat beads appeared on her forehead. A refreshing gust of air blew from the central air unit, cooling her body and calming her nerves, and she was finally able to see what she thought was the bigger picture.

Grey was with another woman when he was supposed to be at work. He had looked her in her face and lied to her with a smile so big, bright and innocent one would have easily mistaken it with one of an angel. Her body temperature began to rise again. As usual, if that type of behavior were something new, she would have been able to detect something different…something wrong. But he acted as if it was just another regular day. That had to mean that this wasn’t the first time and possibly that Asian woman he was caught with wasn’t the first one. With her hands clasped and her body doubled over on the couch, she tried to think. Then it hit her. Possibly if he had done something wrong, there would be signs of it in his condo, if not concrete proof. So, she had to do something that she had never done. Snoop. Getting up and kneeling over his couch, she pulled his pillows out and threw them on the floor. She would start in his living room and search every room in the house until she found answer.

Ivy searched and searched. Hours later, she sat on Grey’s bed over stacks of clothes and paper empty-handed and tired with sweat running down her forehead and an empty stomach growling to be fed. Guilt visited her in the darkness of the room and slowly self-pity overtook her. With not a light on to shine on her face, she cried softly, confused and embarrassed. In all her searching, the only thing that she was able to find was that he had kept even the smallest things that she had given him down through the years like the red rose she gave to him seven years ago for Valentine’s Day, the get well soon card she gave him when he had his tonsils taken out over five years ago and pictures of her being crowned as Ms. Bryton-Ritz.

Hearing his front door close, she stood up and wiped her face. The last thing that she wanted to do was give him the perception that she was unable to hold her own ground. Hearing her moving around in his bedroom, Grey walked up the stairs slowly. Quietly. He was sure that Trina or Emerald