Read Online An Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight - Free Book Online

everything that she’d known to do. She was a good wife, they had a lovely home, she took care of herself physically, and she was a good cook. She made love to him whenever he wanted, even if her desire was consumed in the drudgery of a day at work. She’d prayed, fasted, and waited for things to turn themselves around since Danielle’s death, but they hadn’t. And on top of it, he had the nerve to be messing around on her.
    Rage filled her belly. She hadn’t been this angry since she was a teenager. Not since she had come to a complete understanding of the fact that her father had left not only her mother, but her.
    Benjamin Harris had come into her bedroom a couple of days before he left to talk to her. Angelina’s six-year-old mind was expecting a bedtime story. The one her father always made up about the African princess who saved the slaves. But the look on his face quickly told her that her father wasn’t spinning a tale that night. She hadn’t understood much, didn’t recall the minute details of it all, but she did remember her mother whispering to her father, “You have to tell her tonight,” which meant the decision was not a sudden one.
    Her birthday was two weeks away, and she wanted a party at the Dynamo Play Room. Were they going to tell her she couldn’t have it there? That’s what she’d thought the “tell her” was. Never in her worst nightmare could she have imagined her father would say, “Angel, I’m going to California for a little while.”
    Angelina hadn’t known what California was or even where it was. Her best friend, Zaria, had teased her and filled her sleep with nightmares of earthquakes swallowing her dad like a giant alligator. New Jersey didn’t have earthquakes, and it was then that she understood California was far away and not a good place to be.
    â€œI can’t find a job, Angel baby.” Pain etched her father’s face. Angelina knew that if he was sad, she should be sad, so she tried to convince him to change his mind.
    â€œBut Mommy has a job.”
    â€œMom needs help paying the bills and buying food and clothes.”
    â€œDaddy, my birthday party can be in the yard.” She wrapped her arms around her father’s neck. “I won’t cost any money. I won’t be a bill.”
    Her father removed her arms and laid her down on the mattress. “Angel, this is about more than a birthday party. I need you to be a big girl. There are some things you’re too young to understand.”
    There were some things a child shouldn’t have to understand. Angelina shook her head. She tried to shake the memory, but she couldn’t. She remembered his eyes. They were the color of caramel and not as bright that night as they had been before. But they held sincerity and remorse over his leaving. Those eyes had haunted her for years. Those eyes that had lied to her and told her to “trust me, believe in me, I love you, Angel.” The eyes of the first man who’d broken her heart. Eyes the color of Greg’s.
    Angelina dragged herself off the bed and went into the bathroom, opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. She cut the shirt to shreds, taking care to leave the lipstick stained collar untouched. Then she exited the bathroom and laid the shirt on his side of the bed. Greg had some explaining to do, and the explaining was going to begin tonight.
    The telephone rang. “If that’s him with some excuse for being even later ...” She hissed as she made her way to her side of the bed. The caller ID let her know immediately that it wasn’t him. It was, however, the last person on the earth she wanted to talk to right now. Her mother. Angelina dropped her head back and picked up the phone. “Hi, Mom.” She tried her best to keep the tension she felt from filling her tone.
    â€œHey, baby.” Her mother sounded almost cheerful, which was a