Incest/Taboo The Bitch and a Half

"Huh?"

"El," feeling her cheeks heat at the nickname he allowed her to call him, "don't take this the wrong way, but I'm tired of seeing that anger in your eyes. Is holding on to it really worth it? All it's going to do is poison your heart and turn you into a man I know you aren't, and I think if you came with me, you might find forgiveness within you so you can put her so far behind you she never enters it again," Janice said subtly implying what she hoped he picked up on.

"I don't know, Janice; would your God allow me to go through this..." He knew he had upset her when the scowl he had seen appeared when he brought up whichever date he had mostly over the weekend.

"El, God wouldn't do this to you; our choices do; he gave us free will. If I had to equate what you're going through, it would be like Jezebel and King Ahab. And she met a nasty end prophesied by the prophet Elijah," Janice said, watching the amusement dancing in Elijah's eyes. Her fists clinched when his desk phone interrupted their conversation, yet she let it slide when she knew it had to be one of his bosses, given how only they would call him directly. "I'll be outside; I'd really like to finish this conversation," she whispered as she closed his office door.

"Hello, Elijah Wilkins speaking," he greeted once he answered the phone. His back straightened when he heard the voice of his boss on the line. "I'll be right up, ma'am," Elijah said, quickly getting to his feet. "Hold my calls until I get back," he ordered as he stood by Janice's desk and straightened out his suit jacket.

"What's going on?" Janice whispered low while making sure no one was eavesdropping on them.

"No idea, Ms. Rademaker didn't tell me," Elijah said, making sure his tie was straight as he looked at his reflection in the glass of his office window. "Hopefully, I'll be back in a few moments."

Janice watched him walk off towards the elevators. She sent a silent prayer to God, hoping it wasn't to complain to him about their relationship. If it came down to it, between her job or being with Elijah, she'd always choose Elijah. She just didn't want him to be in trouble just because he enjoyed being around her.

Elijah stepped onto the eighth floor as its doors closed slowly behind him, taking a quick look around and then heading off to her office. He had no idea why he was being called up to her office; as far as he knew, his department was ahead of their yearly projections. So he knew it couldn't be anything related to his department, so it had to be personal. If that was the case, could he really pull away from Janice so she could keep her job? Could he stand the distance he would have to set so no one thought there was anything untoward that could get the company into financial trouble. As his dress shoes were muffled by the carpet, he admitted to himself that if that were to happen, it would hurt not being able to see or talk to her. His mind was in turmoil as he told his boss' assistant that he was expected, thanking the woman as she told him he could go on in.

"Hello, Mr. Wilkins," Ms. Rademaker said as she got up from behind her desk to greet her subordinate and offered him a seat. "First, let me ask, since you've been here for six months now, how are you fitting in?"

"Quite well, ma'am," Elijah stated truthfully.

"Good, I'm glad, I've only got good remarks from your department. Now, to the reason I called you up here." Elijah stared confusingly at the plane ticket the woman laid in front of him. "The annual retreat is in two months; this year, the company is sending us executives to The Chedi Andermatt in Switzerland that should give you enough time to get your passport or update it if you already have one. You may bring one guest; their ticket is in there as well as compliments from HQ. If you don't want to go, just let us know a month before so we can send the ticket back."

"Where?" Elijah asked, very lost. This was not what he thought their meeting would be about.

"Oh, you'll love it; they had it there a few years back," she uttered with a friendly smile.

"And how long will this be for?"

"They normally last a week and a half, but we tend to allot a day or two for travel to and from. It won't count against your vacation time, and you'll be paid for it. Just think of it as a way to relax in luxury for all the hard work you've done since coming here."

Elijah was still in a slight shock as he walked back towards the elevator after his boss saw him out of her office. He had all but forgotten about the trip when his old boss had told him about it when he was first offered the job. As he looked down at the tickets, he wondered who he was going to ask. He knew his Uncle would like to go with him. Although that would mean his Uncle would want to bring his wife, his Aunt, that wasn't a pleasant prospect. Not that he didn't love him, which he did, he just wasn't a fan of her given how she had given Stella his new number, which he asked them not to. Since then, their relationship has become rather cold. He was still in deep thought as he approached his office. As his eyes lifted off the floor, he had to do a double take when the lamp light haloed Janice's blonde hair as she worked on something at her desk.

"Oh my god! He's staring at me! Calm down, calm down, pretend you don't notice," Janice muttered to herself as she kept her attention on the paperwork before her. "Oh, hey, I didn't think you would be back so soon," she said, acting as if she had just noticed him. "How did it go?"

"Good, I think," Elijah stated, berating himself for staring at Janice like he was thirteen again.

"So what was it about?" Janice asked innocently. She did hope that what she had just saw was going to lead to something more between the two of them.

"How about we go into my office."

"Okay," Janice said, keeping her worry from her voice. "El, you're starting to worry me," she uttered softly.

"Sorry, it's nothing bad, I assure you," Elijah said over the sound of his closing office door.

"So then that meeting wasn't about us?" Janice asked, worried that she would have to leave work and miss all the time she would have gotten with him.

"No, which I thought would be, too," Elijah admitted.

"So...?" Her eyes followed Elijah's hand as he laid something down in front of her. Her eyes went wide when she saw it was a plane ticket. "El? What's going on?"

"The executive retreat is in two months, it's in Switzerland, and they told me I could bring a guest with me. Since I don't really have that close of a relationship with that many people here except for you. If you want to go, you'll need a pass..."

"I know, I do have one," Janice said, cutting Elijah off. "Got it, so when Tony would go on jobs that were in Canada I would visit him since he left his truck behind when he did. So you want me to go with you?"

"Yeah, but if you're not comfortable with it, then I'll just tell them I'm not interested in going," Elijah said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hmm..." Janice hummed as she opened up the leaflet that held her plane ticket and saw it was first class both ways. "Do you want to go?"

"Can't say, but I'm assuming I should go since I'm the new guy, and most likely, they'll have something there for what I don't know. Just a feeling I have," Elijah said offhandedly.

"Then I'm going with, but I thought you'd be taking one of those women you've been dating," Janice said, trying to keep her annoyance from her voice.

"Nah, they were nice but not worth taking them across the world for, and honestly, we didn't really click," Elijah said, knowing his attempts to move on with his life hadn't gone the way he thought they would have.

"Then I'll make sure to put in my vacation days," Janice said, dancing in her mind at what he had just said. She was going to use the trip to show him what she felt for him. She couldn't wait! She knew she was going to have to update her wardrobe for it and her lingerie she didn't want to wear anything she had worn for Tony. No. It wouldn't do. If they were going to start their relationship there, then what she wore couldn't have ties to other people. She wanted a clean slate for the two of them; she did hope when they did get together, all that anger she still saw would finally fade away because she wasn't going to be like his soon to be ex-wife. Call her obsessed if you want, yet she had been keeping track of the days until his wife would be able to file for divorce. When that happened, she was determined to make Elijah hers and only hers.

Two months later...

It had been a very busy eight months since Kevin had announced his bid for President. Stella's work had been in overdrive ever since, fielding questions from reporters, setting up interviews with the morning news shows, and making sure Kevin shined like the beacon that he was in a stormy night. As she sat in their morning meeting planning how they were going to counter the GOP's lies that were hitting the airwaves. She knew they were false, given a simple google search would tell anyone that. For a few weeks, they were riding high after the Iowa Caucus, where Kevin dominated the field. Afterwards most of the Democrats that were running had dropped out and backed Kevin except for one woman who was plowing forward, and it appeared the woman was gaining strength.

She could see the woman was going to be a problem for them, given her rapid rise. Kevin had even offered her the spot as his running mate, yet the look on the woman's face at the generosity Kevin was showing was not something she was expecting to see. They all knew the woman couldn't beat Kevin. They just didn't know why the woman simply couldn't or wouldn't jump on board. As she listened to Kevin's campaign manager detailing what they were planning for the second debate in South Carolina, her phone vibrated on the table before her.

Stella arched an eyebrow when a text message from one of her friends asked if she knew where her husband was. As far as she knew, Elijah was somewhere, where she didn't know, nor could she get anyone to tell her. Even Elijah's Aunt wouldn't help, or couldn't in this case since it seemed she wasn't supposed to give her Elijah's new number, and there seemed to have been a falling out between the two. She knew Elijah's Uncle wasn't very happy with her, not that she cared what he thought about her. Still, she would have thought they would at least tell her how to get in contact with him to discuss their inevitable split.

"No, why?" Stella quickly texted back.

"I do!" Stella pressed her lips together at the laughing emoji that her friend sent.

"If you're going to tell me you're fucking him, I don't want to know."

"What? No. I haven't rode that cock of his since he left. No, I mean, I know where he is right this second."

"Okay, why are you telling me this? Elijah and I are separated."

"Because I think Elijah got the better deal in the end." Again, her friend's laughing emoji annoyed her as she waited for the picture she had sent to be loaded onto her phone. "I wonder if you weren't such a slut you would be in Switzerland right now," her friend taunted as Stella stared rightly stunned as she gazed at a photo of Elijah with his arm around the waist of someone too young for him in her opinion.

"Where did you get this?"

"Off Facebook, someone tagged his name, and it showed up on my feed. I didn't know he had gotten promoted. I wonder if you would be with him now if he never found out about you. Oh well, I wonder if he needs a fuckbuddy?"

"What's he doing in Switzerland?" Stella muttered to herself as she zoomed in on her husband. Her grip tightened on her phone when she saw how the woman in the photo was looking up at him as Elijah was looking off elsewhere and smiling. She had forgotten how he looked like when he smiled since all she'd seen was his anger for the past five years. She was about to ask herself why he hadn't told her the news, shaking her head, thinking better of it given their final parting words. "Don't think you're going to fly over to Switzerland for a booty call, Jenn."

"No, but when he comes back, that's another matter altogether."

"If you think you're upsetting me with any of this, you aren't. Elijah doesn't want me in his life, and I don't have time for him anyway. Seems he's already moved on, so why are you bothering me with this?"

"No reason just to inform you, your soon-to-be ex-husband has traded up!" Stella had no idea why they were still friends, given how Jenn made no bones about fucking her husband. She ignored her friend's text as she backed out of it and opened the one that was tied to Elijah's new number.

"She's a little young for you, don't you think Elijah?" Her phone instantly vibrated in her hand as she saw a call coming in. Excusing herself, she gently closed the conference room door behind her and answered. "Elijah?"

"Hell no, bitch! I've told you to leave my man alone! He doesn't want to have a damn thing to do with you anymore. Why is that so hard for you to understand." Stella felt her ire rose as she heard that same woman berating her over the line. "Who he is dating is no longer a concern of yours. You'd rather bend over and whore yourself out to a serial cheater than remain loyal to a good man, but now he's mine, and I'm not letting go like you did. So save us the trouble and fuck off and die!" With that, her call was rudely ended, and a picture was sent to her phone. Her nostrils flared when it showed a hand grasping a cock with it poised to enter the woman on the other line. She did have a tear fall down her cheek; it still hurt to know Elijah hated her that much, even after eight months of being separated.

"Umm... Janice... can you like let go now?" Elijah asked; his eyes just couldn't look away at the beauty that was straddling his lap.

"Why?" The question took him aback and he couldn't rightly answer her question. His toes curled as she softly gave his cock a stroke. At first, this was only meant to irk Stella, given how she wouldn't take no contact to heart. With the picture Janice had sent to her, it was his hope that it would finally show her she wasn't wanted. "Why should I stop? Are you telling me you don't want this?" Janice asked, a coy smirk rose on her lips as he watched how he pressed his head into the pillow as she ran the head of his cock through her throbbing labia. She wanted this as much as she knew Elijah did. Especially after the three days they had been in Andermatt, Switzerland. The first night, Elijah took her out to a very fancy restaurant, the next was a hot night on the town where she finally got him out on the dancefloor as Lady Antebellum's 'Need you now' began to play. While she was sure, most of the men there thought she was dancing for them.

Nevertheless, she held her hair up as she swayed her hips with her back to him, peering over her left shoulder where she knew their table was. She finally showed the emotions she had kept hidden from him in her eyes. There was no mistaking the longing, the need in them when she felt his hands on her hips. Only then did she turn to face him. With her floodgates open, there was no stopping what was going to happen. She didn't care if their bosses were there that night. She would give it all up if she could be with him. To her, Elijah was all that really mattered to her as she reached up, rose on the tips of her toes, and proceeded to plant a very steam-filled kiss on his lips.

"No, I'm not, but what about..." Elijah wasn't expecting Janice to thrust her face into his as she hovered over him.

"Elijah shut up and fuck me," Janice said before her tongue slipped inside his mouth. Her breath came out in heaves as her hips instinctively moved on their own, feeling the heat coming off his cock as she rubbed her pussy along its length. Gooseflesh danced down her spine as she felt his hands moving down her back before they took hold of her ass. Normally, she really liked foreplay, yet at that moment, she only wanted one thing and one thing alone. To feel Elijah deep within her hot mound. A sexy little smile formed on her lips as she reached back, her nails dancing up his shaft, feeling it striking the palm of her hand as it flexed for her before she took hold of it and lined it with her entrance. A gasp, then a moan escaped her lips as she inched down on his cock.

Her muscles trembled as she felt every inch of him. She knew her tightness was going to make him erupt within minutes, given that it had been eight months since she'd had sex with anyone. The only one she's ever had sex with was Tony. She wasn't looking to have a line of men standing behind her to show how many men she slept with. She didn't care if it was one or ten. That didn't matter to her, what did was that Elijah would know wholeheartedly she was his and only his. She had no need to seek out men, not when she had the one she had pined over from a distance. "Oh God, yes, yes, right there, El, fuck me, fuck me. Oh God!" Janice howled out in bliss as he took command of her hips and pumped his point towards the center of her garden.

Her breath puffed out, her juices ran down her ass crack, and her nails strained the threads of the sheet she was clutching as Elijah knelt between her legs. She did hope he liked how her body looked; she knew she didn't have the huge breasts some of the women he had dated had. Yet they were very perky and very much in need of feeling his lips on them. When he reached up and pinched her right nipple, it sent her into a bucking frenzy. Her legs quickly wrapped around his waist, pulling him down to the hilt of his cock as she ground her pussy as she rode out her fantastic orgasm. Her chest heaved; her violet eyes peered up at him in a fiery need as Elijah just watched her thrashing about in her orgasmic bliss.

"What ya waiting for, Elijah, stir up my pussy some more, I know you aren't finished yet. Not when I can feel that hard cock of yours just twitching inside my hot little kitty," Janice said in the best seductive voice she could muster at the time. A smile formed on her lips as Elijah helped her up. This was not a position she'd ever tried, yet she rode him on while he still knelt on the bed. She nearly lost her mind as his cock touched all the right places. A whimper escaped her lips; she didn't think she could love the feel of his hands on her body more than she did at that moment.

"Janice, I'm going..." Elijah grunted since, for the past thirty minutes, he'd been doing everything he could to delay his climax.

"Do it, baby, cum in my pussy," Janice huffed and puffed as her thighs were straining to keep up the pace she had been sustaining. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as her cream surged down her canal, as his spunk shot out of the tip of his cock, flooding her womb. The two of them lay on his bed exhausted, both covered in sweat as they stared up at the ceiling of Elijah's hotel room.

"So where does this leave us?" Elijah asked, panting for breath.

"El, you and I both know there is something between us. Your cock wouldn't get hard whenever I speak if there wasn't," Janice said with a knowing smirk as she lay on her right side, staring lovingly at him, feeling his cum leaking out of her. "I've seen the way you look at me; I'm sure you've seen the way I look at you. I have sat there every day for the past eight months listening to whichever woman you were interested in talk about your date or such, and I hate it!"

"Oh?"

"Mmmhmm, I know this will put us in a pickle. I know you're a good man, and I knew you didn't act on what you were feeling for me because I'm your assistant," Janice said, scooting closer to him. The moment she felt his arm wrapped around her only made her press herself into him, rubbing her naked thigh along his own as her left hand rested on his chest. "And you didn't want me to lose my job just because you're attracted to me. I don't care about any of that; I'll give up my job if I have to. All I want is to be with you and be yours and only yours."

"All very true. You know the only reason I went out with them was because they weren't you," Elijah admitted, his eyes flickered over to her as Janice rose on her right arm to peer down at him.

"Really?"

"Mmmhmm, really," Elijah nodded. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to kiss you, touch you, hold you, and everything in-between."

"Well... I'm here now. What are you waiting for?" Janice asked with a taunting grin. She couldn't help herself as she moaned into his mouth as she felt the truth of his words in that one kiss. "Oh shit, fuck me!" she howled in surprise when Elijah slipped two fingers into her soiled pussy, falling onto her back when his thumb rubbed her swollen clit as he got her ready for round two.

Two weeks later...

Saw Elijah sitting back at his desk feeling very refreshed as the end of the workday neared. No longer was he pulling twelve to fourteen hours shifts. No, once the day was done, he would head out, keeping everyone in the department that he and Janice weren't dating, so they left at different times. Only to find her in his condo waiting on him to come home before she greeted him with a loving kiss and a quick blowjob. He didn't just let her do all the work he did reciprocate with lifting her up onto his kitchen counter, slipped off her panties, and tasted that hot little thing of hers. He knew she was very grateful. Her nearly making him deaf a few times told him that much.

Since Janice had declared her feelings for him, he hadn't really thought about his ex or Kevy. Nonetheless, when he saw how much of a lead he had over his opponent, he knew he had to get involved. He didn't care who ran the country. He thought both parties were just pieces of shit, speaking out one side of their mouths and saying another thing out the other side. However, he was not about to allow Ol' Kevy boy to hold that over him. So he spent a few moments on his computer looking up how to contact the woman who was running against him.

Elijah reached down and pulled open the second drawer where the burner phone he had bought was stored. He wasn't about to let anyone trace the number back to him. Even if Stella accused him of ruining her little fuck toy, there was no way she could prove it, or so he hoped it would work out that way. As he looked through the blinds of his office and saw Janice's chair empty a wave of sadness washed over him when he couldn't see her smile to help him through this. His finger moved over the digital keypad as he input the woman's number into it.

"Yes, hello? This is the office of Kay Marshel; how may I direct your call?"

"Yes, I need to speak with Mrs. Marshel; if she asks who it is, tell her I have her way of winning the DNC ticket."

"Sure... listen, pal, I don't know who you are..."

"I have verifiable proof that doesn't paint her opponent in a very good light. Does she want it or not? I'm sure her Republican opponents would like to have what I got on the man."

"Very well, hold, please." His fingernail tapped on his desk as he listened to the can elevator music they were playing over the line. Then he heard what he took as the man was switching him over to her line.

"Hello, I'm Kay Marshel; my secretary told me you have something you want me to see. May I know who's calling?"

"Call me Mr. X, I have to protect myself, you understand."

"Okay, Mr. X, why do you think you have something that would interest me?"

"How bad do you want to win?"

"Over that womanizing ass?! A lot, why?"

"Then I think you and I should meet, just so you know I'm not lying, I'll give you the case number, and you can look it up yourself since everything is public knowledge; however, Kevy went to great lengths that his past wouldn't resurface," Elijah said, giving her one of the case numbers he had found.

"One moment while I look this up, and if what you say is true, I agree, we do need to meet..." He heard her typing away; he didn't need to look her up; her background in law had been plastered on the airwaves since she announced. So he knew she wouldn't have a problem finding it. It only took a minute or two before he heard her gasp.

"Is this true?!" Elijah grinned madly, knowing he had her hooked.

"Every word. I have more, a lot more, enough to ensure he will never hold public office again if not a very long prison sentence."

"How fast can you get down to Mississippi?"

"Couple hours, why?"

"I'll be in Tupelo, Mississippi tomorrow; if you call this number again tomorrow, I'll have my staff pick out a very secluded spot where we can talk without anyone overhearing."

"Alright, I'll call this number at ten o'clock tomorrow. If you don't answer, I'll seek other means of getting this information released to the public."

"Don't worry, Mr. X, I will be there. What you have isn't something I'm willing to pass up."

"Good to hear, until then," Elijah said, hanging up his phone. As he was stepping out of the elevator and into the lobby of their building, his primary cell phone rang. When he pulled it out of his inner suit jacket and saw it was Janice's number, a smile formed on his lips. He knew she had already taken off to her parents' place, given that's where she spent most of her weekends catching up with her family and going to the church she grew up in on Sundays, and she would always be back before three on Sunday. "Hey," he answered sweetly.

"Hey, baby." He had no idea why her voice affected him so, yet ever since he first heard her normal voice, he just couldn't help his manhood hardening at the sound of it. "I hope you're not going to miss me too much this weekend."

"That's going to happen after all the sexing you've given me the past two weeks," Elijah teased as he walked out the front door.

"Mmm... you made my thighs clench."

"Oh? If you come back, I'll make something else clench," Elijah flirted.

"That's... so tempting, I have to keep my eye on you."

"Promises, promises."

"You wouldn't mind if I stayed the night Sunday? I'm already missing you, and I'm not even an hour down the road yet."

"Awe, I miss you too. But I'm sure you don't want to be here tomorrow."

"Why?" Elijah heard the worry in her voice.

"Driving down to Tupelo."

"Why?" Janice asked again.

"Putting an end to my past, as you've reminded me a few times, I can't begin to move forward if I'm living in the past. So I thought I should finally close out that chapter of my life."

"I see, well, good, I'm glad you are. That woman hasn't been on your mind, has she?!"

"What?! God no, I haven't thought about her in three weeks or so," Elijah answered, knowing that would put a huge smile on her face.

"As it should be." Elijah didn't reprimand her for her pridefulness he heard in that statement. "When are you going down?"

"Well, it's a two-hour drive so early in the morning; rather get it out of the way," Elijah said, dumping the packets he had put together of the copies of the files he had into the mailbox to be shipped off to news networks around the nation. It was his backup plan if the woman didn't use what he was going to give her to destroy the bastard. "So, hopefully, I'll be done by eleven, why?"

"Well, if you're going down to Tupelo, you could swing by Oxford and come keep me company," Janice offered, hoping Elijah would take the bait. "It's only an hour from Tupelo."

"You think I'm going to say no?"

"Goodie! Okay, these idiots are getting annoying; let me go so I don't run into one of these idiots. Text me when you get home."

"Sure, talk to you in a few."

"Love you." Those two words stopped him cold. Before he could respond, the line disconnected. He didn't think they had been dating that long for her to say those words; then again, he didn't know how long she'd been feeling that emotion for the months prior to their coupling.

Janice was freaking out the rest of the drive to her parents' place in Oxford. She couldn't believe she had said that to him. She knew it was way too early for that, yet it just slipped out of her mouth. Not that she didn't feel that for him, yet she didn't know what or how Elijah was going to take it. When she pulled into her parent's driveway, she then proceeded to beat her head on her steering wheel, praying to God that she hadn't ruined their relationship.

She knew she needed to get out, given the look her father and mother were giving her, as she just sat there berating herself for what she had done. She just couldn't stop it, not that she wanted to in the first place. Ever since they got together, she just knew they were meant to be. She couldn't put her finger on it, yet something inside of her told her it was so. Her heart did a little flip in her chest as she saw his text telling her he had gotten home safely. Yet he didn't bring up her slip. That she was grateful for. Still, she knew when he showed up tomorrow, they were going to talk about it.

"What's got you so down, honey?" her father asked as he and his wife noted their daughter's somber face.

"I think I said something I shouldn't, at least not this early," Janice said, hugging her mother and father.

"Jance why don't you go do something manly while me and our daughter have a nice talk," her mother said, wrapping her arm around her daughter as she moved Janice towards the front door.

"Right-o, think I'll head over to Greg's for a bit; that should give the two of you plenty of time to talk," Jance spoke, kissing his wife and kissing his daughter's temple before he bounded down the steps.

"Now, tell me what's the matter," her mother said, pushing her lightly into the kitchen chair. The same chair Janice would always use when she was a little girl. "Oh?! You didn't?!" her mother gasped when Janice told her of what she had said. "Oh, honey, it's not the end of the world," she spoke in a loving tone as she rubbed her daughter's back as she hung her head in shame. "Want to know something?"

"Sure," Janice answered weakly.

"I felt the same about your dad when I first saw him all those many, many years ago."

"Really?!" Janice muttered in shock.

"Mmmhmm, the first time I saw him wearing his letterman jacket, God, I thought he was so hot! Then, when he walked up to me, me, of all people, when I knew he could have any girl in school and asked me to the movies I was head over heels. Of course, I didn't tell your father that, nor did I show it, yet here," patting her heart, "I knew. Don't ask me how I knew, but I knew your father was the man I was going to marry. I'm not saying we were all joys and rainbows because I know you and Stacy have heard our many arguments before. Yet we stuck to one another and that love I felt on that first day has only grown throughout our years together. And there isn't a day I don't thank God for bringing Jance into my life. I know if I didn't have him, I wouldn't have you or your sister, and I would be living a life that would be so hollow. So you said it before you, or he was ready; if Elijah is the man you think he is, then you know this won't be the end of you two. If it is, then he isn't the man I thought he was when your father and I first met him."

"But..."

"No buts, baby, don't think with your head in the matters of the heart; that will always lead you astray. Here," patting her heart again, "you already know the truth just as I knew the truth about your father," she said, seeing the rouge of her cheeks deepening and Janice's smile returning as she took a few moments to go over what she had just said.

"Thanks, Mom; I just hope he doesn't think I'm crazy," Janice said; while some of the weight was gone from her heart, the fear her love was unrequited still nagged at her.

"Honey, if he has any feelings for you, I'm sure he doesn't. So I take it, it's serious between the two of you?"

"I know I'm crazy about him; when we're apart, there seems to be a hole in my heart. When I'm with him, I just feel so safe in his arms," Janice said in a far-off dreamy look in her eyes.

"And you didn't feel this when you were with Tony?"

"Not to the extent of what I feel when I'm with Elijah," Janice said, looking down at the table, a little embarrassed by the smile her mother was shooting her.

"Then that means only one thing, sis," Stacy said, entering her parents' home without bothering to knock. "That you better bring that man around a lot more because you need to see if he can handle our family," she joked, dodging the pot holder that her mother threw at her.

"So... you told me he was estranged from his wife. Why isn't he divorced yet?"

"I... can't say," Janice fell silent, not knowing if Elijah wanted his dirty laundry out in the open like that.

"Well, I want to know," Stacy said, walking up to her side and quickly taking her sister's phone off the table. "Really?! You call him Bo?" she teased her little sister, stepping out of her sister's range, yet not her mother's, who slapped her thigh in Janice's place.

"Don't tease your sister," their mother chided.

"What I'm just curious is all. I call Rick that, too. Think we got it from Mom," Stacy said, grinning at her sister as their mother rolled her eyes at the display. However, her sister had a frightened look on her face as she dialed Elijah's number and put it on speaker.

"Hey, Janice!" Stacy watched how the light in her sister's eyes grew as did her smile at the sound of Elijah's voice.

"Hey, Bo," Stacy uttered, biting her lip at how Janice looked at her when she uttered Janice's pet name for him.

"Who's this?"

"It's Stacy, Janice is here with me, and our mother. We've been talking about you, and we've come to a part where Janice doesn't want to talk about it. So we thought we should get it straight from the source," she explained why she was calling him on her sister's phone.

"Okay? What about?"

"Why you're not divorced yet? You did say you didn't have a wife any longer when we had lunch eight months ago. So which is it? Are you still married or not?"

"The State still thinks we're married that's true, but we haven't been husband and wife in a long time."

"So why are you leading my sister on if you're still attached to your wife..."

"I am not attached to her!"

"If you're still married legally, then yeah, you are," Stacy retorted. His anger shocked her a little bit. "Don't you think that's leading my sister on when you're estranged from your wife?"

"In four months, she'll be able to divorce me." Stacy and her mother shared a look between the two of them as they noted how upset Janice was getting as she questioned Elijah.

"Okay, but why? If you're interested in my sister, shouldn't you want to get it over with without committing adultery with Janice?"

"Because I don't want that cheating cu... sorry, I just rather not let her get her hands on a cent of my money."

"See, now that brings up tons of other questions!" Stacy exclaimed, throwing up her free arm into the air. "Shouldn't you want to provide for the woman that gave you how many years, and for the kids, she might have with you..."

"I have no kids, and she wasn't much of a wife to me, so why should I give her a cent when she's been banging the same guy for twelve years of our marriage?"

"Wait... wait, do what?" Stacy stammered.

"El, I'm sorry, I had no part in this, Stacy stole my phone from me," Janice said, speaking loudly enough for Elijah to hear her.

"Kind of figured that Jan and I've been expecting these kinds of questions from your family, just not this early."

"So, can you elaborate on what you meant by that?"

"Who's speaking?" Elijah asked when another woman spoke.

"This is Desirae, Janice's mother, I too would like to know why you simply haven't divorced your wife yet."

"Oh, hello, Desirae, simple, for the first seven years of our marriage, I thought we had a loving marriage, only to find out the daughters that I had raised for seven years weren't mine. They were fathered by the man that's currently running for President."

"Do you have proof of this? Are you just misdirecting your anger at the wrong party?"

"Of course, I have proof! Do you think I wouldn't? Do you think I would leave my own children behind? But I don't have to prove anything to either one of you, sorry Janice, but what has happened in my past isn't meant to be shared with people I barely know."

"Then why not divorce her?" Stacy asked once again, hearing him sighing over the line.

"We're talking in circles. I haven't filed because then she would find out where I live now and do whatever to get back at me for leaving her."

"But you need to get divorced so you can properly date my sister!"

"Why? All that is just an official ending to a marriage that shouldn't have happened. We were separated when Janice and I struck up our relationship. So legally, I am a free man, as the saying goes."

"I don't like it," Stacy said, stating her opinion.

"And? This isn't about you; it's about me and Janice and how we feel about each other, not what her sister or her mother thinks about my situation. Which will find a conclusion one way or another."

"El, I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, Janice; they're just looking out for you. I'll call you later." With that, he hung up the phone.

"Well, he certainly doesn't like..."

"Stacy, just shut up!" Janice snapped, taking her mother and her sister by surprise. "What did you think was going to happen? That he was just going to be happy about talking about his soon-to-be ex? That he would just open up to you when you don't even know the first thing about him?!"

"Awe, my sister's in love!" Stacy teased, getting a groan out of her little sister before Janice stormed off to her old bedroom.

It was nine-fifty in the morning as he sat in the park that Mrs. Marshel had requested. He looked around without appearing to do so, waiting for her to arrive. As he waited he began to get the feeling he was being set up and everything he had on him would never see the light of day. However, his fears were unfounded as a woman wearing a scarf and large sunglasses in a tan trench coat approached the picnic table he was sitting at. He found the display a little outdated. It felt to him he was meeting some spy out in the middle of nowhere.

"I take it you're Mr. X," Kay asked as she stood a few feet away from the table. With her hands in her pocket and in her right hand, she silently clicked on the voice recorder she had brought along. She was under the impression that Kevin had sent this man to set her up by dropping a juicy appetizer into her lap while the rest would just be garbage to make her look bad.

"I am, and you must be Mrs. Marshel," Elijah spoke as he got to his feet, holding out his hand to her in greeting.

"I am," shaking his hand and lowering herself onto the bench seat across from him, "so you said you had more evidence against Kevin?"

"I do," Elijah said, taking out a very thick manila envelope from his coat and placing it in front of her. He could see how her eyes glanced at it and then at him from behind her tinted shades. Once he gestured for her to take a peek, Kay didn't hesitate to dig through it all. Elijah watched as the woman's jaw dropped in awe and then in disgust as she flipped through what he had garnered throughout the five years.

"And this can all be verified, correct?"

"Of course, you think I'd just whip up something? Hell no, I've been planning to take him down for years, and I knew nothing made-up was going to do that. It had to be hard proof of his criminality; otherwise, he would be walking free," Elijah said calmly. "Yet I'm a nobody; who would believe me? You, on the other hand, have the nation watching you. You have credibility. They would take what you say far more seriously than if it came from me."​