A Wife for Stephen by Valcine Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

places them. Hearing
her arrival, Thomas rises from his padded doggy bed and
makes his way across the taupe colored carpet to greet her.
Celeste keeps a very tidy and uncluttered home. The
taupe wall color is a mirror image of the wall-to-wall plush
carpeting. The gold colored frame of the wall mirror that
hangs
above
the
large
couch
in colors
of rich green,
burgundy, and earth tones, is an eye catcher that draws one
to the gold toned angels that adorn the wall to either side
of the wall mirror.
Throughout Celeste’s
entertaining
rooms,
there
are
many gold tone decorations from the candle holders which
set atop her dining room table which flanks her living
room,
to
the
streaks
of
gold which
run
through
the
mirrored wall of her dining room. The wall mirror is clearly
of early seventies, but Celeste had not the heart to change
it, so instead, made it the theme of the rooms.
Kneeling down she sticks her face close to his and
allows him to lick her hello. After greeting her, Thomas
turns on his back. With lying on the floor, he offers Celeste
a furry belly to rub.
Faithfulness , Celeste thinks to herself. This is what she
wants most in the man she marries. Celeste never wants to
go through what her mother went through when Claudine
discovered that
her husband of 15 years had not only
cheated on her with another woman but had fathered a
child as a result of the affair.
The taste of bitterness that permeates Celeste’s mouth is
indigestible. Shaking her head, she pushes those thoughts
away. Many times she has had to do the same thing. When,
she wonders, will these awful feelings stop haunting her?
When will she get over the hurt and sting of betrayal to get
on with her own life?
Maybe I’ll talk with the Pastor about it after church on
Sunday, Celeste thinks. This being the wee hours of Friday
morning, she will only have two days to wait.
“I guess I can wait two days, considering I have been
dealing with it for thirteen years now. At twenty-five,
Celeste has already had more than her fair share of hurt and
disappointment in life. While going down the hallway with
Thomas close on her heels, she recalls her reasons for being
so cynical at such a young age. Her father’s adultery, which
led to the demise of the family life she had once known, is
first on the list.
To make matters even worse, the child that her father
had made out of wedlock is just three years younger than
herself. Celeste’s father had kept his indiscretion well
hidden for about 10 years before her mother happened to
stumble
across
some
medical
bills
while
gathering
information
for
the
filing of
that
year’s
taxes,
which
Claudine questioned William about.
At first, dad had tried to lie. But seeing that her mother
was being persistent, he confessed to having a seven-yearold daughter by another woman. The medical bills had been
from a time when his other daughter had split her scalp
open while playing on a playground somewhere.
Devastated by her father’s transgressions, Claudine had
immediately packed what she could in Celeste’s and her
suitcases and left with a thirteen-year-old Celeste in tow.
William had maintained that nothing was going on between
himself and the other woman, and that he sought only to do
right by his child in the way of financial support. But it was
too
late.
The
damage,
having already been
done,
his
request to reconcile the torn shreds of his family had fallen
on Claudine’s deaf ears.
After the demise of her family, Celeste just fumbled
awkwardly through life. The only solace she had found
came through books. She engulfed herself in the written
word, seeking to learn all she could in middle school then
high school.
It was in her senior year that she had discovered she had
a talent and a flair for advertising. Celeste would joke
around with her only friend she had let get close to her,
Jenny, while dissecting television commercials when they
came on.
Celeste would comment on which she thought were
good and what made them good. The