A Family Affair Ch. 08

The house was dark except for a small light in the living room. Kent was sitting at the kitchen table holding the towel he wrapped around his arm. It would need stitches he knew that but couldn't will him self to walk out to his truck. At any moment he expected to hear sirens pulling into the long driveway.

It had been three hours since Cathryn fled the house away from him clutching the bloody knife. Since they hadn't shown up yet Kent only assumed that she hadn't called them. Hadn't told them that he had used his hands on her. He had broken a promise there. He swore to her he would never do that.

She had broken her promise too. She took a vow that she would be faithful. But she hadn't been. All this time, all these months, she had been with Sam. Images of Sam and Cathryn rolling in the queen size bed upstairs haunted his mind. The two people he loved and trusted the most as betrayed him in his own house.

The sound of rubber over gravel cut through the silence to Kent's ears. There weren't any sirens or the flash of blue lights so it couldn't be the police to finally come for him. So it could be only one other person at this time of night. By now Sam would know everything that happened in the house earlier that night. Kent stayed at the table waiting for Sam to find him.

Rock shot out from under the tires of the truck as Sam slammed on the brakes. The temper that has been building since he saw Cathryn was simmering right below the surface of his skin. Feeding on the rage he cut through the garage and saw that Kent's truck was there so the son of a bitch had to be somewhere.

"Kent!" The door vibrated off the wall when Sam shoved it open.

Before moving down the hall he flipped the light on so Kent wouldn't be able to catch him by surprise. Drying blood pooled outside the kitchen doorway on the beige tiles. The trail seemed to lead into the kitchen.

Sam called out again and moved cautiously towards the kitchen. He stepped over the puddle and into the kitchen where Kent sat at the table.

"Hello Sam. I figured you would be around eventually." Kent's voice was flat almost dead. "Come to defend Cathryn I take it."

"You went to far Kent. No matter what she did, she didn't deserve that. If you wanted to thump on somebody it should have been me." Sam still stood back towards the doorway. From his vantage point he couldn't see Kent's other hand. The man own several guns and there were plenty of knives to be found in that very room.

"Yeah, I should have knocked the hell out of you. I just might yet."

With his left hand Sam reached out and turned on the kitchen light. From his line of view Kent appeared to be unarmed. "Earlier tonight I would have let you but not anymore."

"Big talk for such a small man." Kent sneered at him. "It takes a big man to diddle with his cousin's wife, a cousin who's always been good to you. Besides I just don't think you're big enough to stop me if I wanted to beat the shit out of you."

Sam sneered right back at Kent. His eyes were lowed in a deadly glare. "Oh and you are such a big man yourself. It takes one hell of a man to hit a woman. Weren't you the one that taught me it was wrong to hit a woman? That the fact Dad used to hit Mom was dead wrong. And that if you ever saw him do it you would show him a thing or to."

Kent glared at his cousin. He didn't need to take this shit from the man he thought of as a little brother. Hitting Cathryn was wrong, he knew that. It plagued his conscience. Instead of confronting that feeling he turned on Sam. "Yeah well I think I taught you something about fucking another man's wife."

"Yeah well it didn't happen that way. I love her. This isn't just sex or a slap at you. You had nothing to do with it. We didn't want to hurt you."

"Well you did." Kent rose from the table and lunged towards Sam.

Kent might have had over a hundred pounds on him, but Sam was quicker. A sharp crack echoed though the house when he side-stepped Kent's charge and Kent rapped his head against the counter. Before Kent could get up Sam moved in with quick and accurate fists.

Shielding himself with his good arm Kent fought to regain his feet. But Sam was raining blows over his face and arm to fast from him to think. A hard shove sent Sam flying across the kitchen. Both men stood at the same time and prepared to face off again.

"I trusted you. You sat there for months listening to me talk about my marriage problems. You sat on that hay wagon days ago and said you were sure Cathryn wasn't cheating." Kent's fist managed to connect in Sam's stomach.

Sam let out a whoosh of air but kept moving. If the bigger man got him down who knows when he would have gotten up. "I didn't want it to happen that way. Hell I've been in love with her since before you ever got married. She loves me too."

Sam circled and landed a right jab on Kent's already injured mouth. "So what went though you mind when you decided to beat her?" Other punch broke Kent's already bruised nose with a sickening crack. "I know you chased her, tackled her to the floor. She fought to get away." A hard left had Kent spitting out move of his broken teeth. "If you managed to catch her, what were you going to do? Kill her?"

"No! You son of a bitch. I just wanted to talk to her, she kept trying to leave." Kent dove again for Sam hoping to catch him around his middle and bring him to the floor.

Sam slid out of the way again and watched as Kent went head first into the breakfast bar in the middle of the kitchen. "Of course she was trying to leave. She was leaving you."

Lying of the floor Kent just stared at the ceiling. "I just lost it when she said you all had been having an affair in this house, in my bed."

"That's no excuse." Sam dropped his fist and stared down at his beaten cousin. "Go on, go to the emergency room, and get your arm stitched up. Just give her the divorce. I know she'll want the house. I hope you can be reasonable about it. After that just stay away from her."

"I'll give her the divorce, after tonight she won't come back to me no matter what I do."

"No she won't. She wouldn't anyway. We're going to get married as soon as the divorce it final."

"Why my wife? Couldn't you have found somebody else?"

Not wanting to turn his back on Kent, Sam eased down in a chair and stared at him a moment. "I looked for somebody else. I was in love with her. It was always her for me. It just reinforced it after we made love."

"What made you sleep with her? Did she seduce you or you her?" Kent wasn't sure he wanted the answer but the question was already out.

"Neither. It just sort of happened one day when I was leaving from having lunch. We didn't think about it being wrong until long after. By then it didn't really matter. I told her I loved her that day. And she said it right back. No hesitations."

"Then why not just tell me right away, why make me go through all that months of agony." The floor was cool and was feeling extreme good against his skin.

"I don't know. We weren't ready, I wasn't ready. She was months ago. I wanted to wait. I've been saving for a down payment on your half of this house."

"My house. It's really her house isn't it?" Defeat was clear in Kent's voice. "It wasn't ever really mine."

Sam focused on Kent's arm and saw a fresh flow of blood. "You're bleeding again."

Kent looked down at his arm. The dish towel wasn't on the wound anymore to stop the blood which was flowing down his wrist. "I need to go to the hospital. Will you take me?"

"No, I can't, you'll have to drive yourself." Sam stood up and walked over to where Kent was sprawled on the floor. The toe of his boot came to rest on top of Kent crotch. Baring down ever so slightly Sam leaned over and looked Kent in the eye. "I mean it when I tell you to stay away from Cathryn. I'm not having you hurt her again."

Kent watched Sam turn and walk away. Life was crumbling around him and he didn't have any glue to put it back together. Slowly he pulled himself upright and used the counter to brace himself. He could call his parents or his sister to take him to the hospital but they would ask questions. Questions he wasn't prepared to answer.

Humiliation settled over Kent's head and he embraced it as he walked to the garage. It was a safer emotion, one that wouldn't cause him to hurt people. It took a few tries before he crawled in to his Dodge but he managed. With his head against the steering wheel he imaged the look of people's faces when they found out. Many would be shocked he anticipated, but one person would relish this juicy tidbit.

Maybelle Brown would eat this up with a whole place setting, forget the spoon. Within minutes the story would be spread over the county and in the neighboring counties. It would probably make it over the Ohio River to the next state. The woman's phone had an extensive reach.

He had to drive slowly to get to the hospital. Bracken County didn't have one of its own so he was forced to either drive to Northern Kentucky or the next county over, Mason County. He chose Meadowview in Maysville because he really wasn't sure he could make it that far.

*****

Maybelle was still awake at one-thirty in the morning. Which was very unusual for her. Normal bed time was at the most ten o'clock and only if there was something exciting going on. But at fifteen minutes until ten something exciting happened at the neighbors'.

The little silver car rocketed out of the driveway flinging gravel and headed towards Brooksville. A solitary light had been on for approximately forty-five minutes before that and remained to be the only light on. She knew that Kent was home. She saw him pull in at nine.

Even though it would mean going to bed late Maybelle decided it would be in her best interest to stay up and watch out for the neighbors. It was a long, boring almost four hours stake out but if finally paid off when she saw Sam's truck speed up the lane similar to the way Cathryn's car had sped out.

He stayed there almost an hour before he left and Kent left shortly after Sam did. It was a rough night. Not daring to leave her perch for a moment in case she was to miss something, Maybelle was starving. Because she never left she also knew that Cathryn had yet to come home.

Perhaps she left him. Maybelle ached to pick up the phone and tell someone. Everyone was asleep, not everyone would appreciate being woke up for juicy information. It was a shame.