Battle-Hardened, War Weary Ch. 07

Tin, his grandfather stuck his head out of the driver's side door. "I know that this is the first time that you guys have been separated, in a long time. But, you don't have anything to worry about. Now, all you have to do is get some sleep, Danny, all right?"

Daniel nodded his head. "All right, grandpa."

"Get some rest, Danny!" his grandmother suggested from the inside of the SUV.

"I will, grandma!"

The vehicle's engine started up. Daniel felt his skin vibrate. He was starting to feel anxious.

Daniel watched his grandfather's 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee drive away and down the long asphalt road. He stared at the automobile as it became smaller and smaller as it drove away. His anxiety increased as he watched the car drive away. He knew that he was experiencing the case of the jitters that all newly-minted parents deal with, when they are separated from their children for the first time. But with his anxiety problems, he felt like he was dying. He placed his left hand against his right pectoral, right above the location of the ache. There was an ache in that area where there was a combination of pressure and burning. The burning sensation was also in the center of his stomach.

'He will be all right,' his brain kept reminding his body.

Daniel wanted to stand in that same spot until his family returned. But he knew that if he did do such a thing, then he needed to be committed to a mental institution. Instead of holding a vigil in front of his grandparents' house, he decided to follow his grandfather's advice. He turned towards the farmhouse and gone into the house. He entered the house and locked up the entrances before he headed to his bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, he took note of the slight mess that he created during his attempt at packing Sean's diaper bag. To keep his mind occupied, he cleaned up the mess and organized the clutter. Once he completed his task, he decided to take the long-awaited and highly-desired slumber that he needed.

The father decided to take his tired ass to bed and take a nap. He stripped out of his clothes and remained in his boxers. He turned the soft, cotton blanket and plaid-printed bed sheet down. He climbed into the bed and covered himself with the bed linen. As soon as the back of his head touched his pillow, Daniel was submerged in the threshold that was in between the conscious and the subconscious. It was also in this area of the slumber process where the mind likes to re-play memories as if it was a featured film in a movie theater.

**********

Daniel glared at his philandering wife for a few seconds longer before he spoke again. "Explain yourself," he grunted while placing the daily planner on his left knee.

Mary Anne sat up in her bed while she stared warily at her husband. She clutched the blanket to her chest as if it was a shield.

"I... You forgave... I... We... The baby... He's yours," stammered Mary Anne as she stared at him.

Daniel eyed his wife while she stuttered in her speech. His right hand clutched the chair's hand rail and clenched tightly. He was sure that his face was passive and he wanted his wife to believe that he was passive. Truthfully, he was enraged. He wanted to destroy every piece of furniture that was inside of this room. He wanted Mary Anne to feel just as much pain and humiliation that he felt.

"... You forgave me!" Mary Anne sobbed.

'I DID NOT!' the beast inside of him screamed. 'SHE IS A LYING BITCH!'

Daniel slowly closed his eyes and grimaced. The ache in his chest was persistent and the pain was intense. He groaned while his right fingers clutched the chair.

"You're implying that I knew about Sean's father already?" he asked with the sense of disbelief evident in his voice's tone. He found Mary Anne's statement to be absurd.

"I prayed to our Jesus Christ and I asked Him to help you to forgive me—

"In order for this forgiveness thing to work, you should've confessed to me that you had cheated on me a long time ago instead of... WAITING UNTIL THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH AND HAVING ME FIND OUT ON MY OWN THAT HE WASN'T MY SON, MARY ANNE!" Daniel didn't have any intention of losing his composure. But, the beast that was his anger kept rattling against its cage, begging for freedom, whenever he had to listen to Mary Anne speak.

He watched Mary Anne flinch and then yelp in fright at the first syllable of his raised voice. She continued to hold her blanket up to her chest as she sat in her bed. Once he finished his statement, he sat back in his seat. Daniel continued to stare at his wife. He surveyed her face to gage her reaction to his words. Right now, she was crying and she occasionally whimpered. Her sapphire eyes were squinting and glassy from the unshed tears that were waiting for their turn to seep down to her cheeks. Her brow line was wrinkled. Her pale cheeks were blushing with a pink undertone. Her pink, plump bottom lip was trembling as she wept.

Strangely, the question of whether or not Little Sean will cry in the same manner entered his mind. A mental image of the infant flashed in his head afterwards. It was from the moment when Dr. Peterson was held up Sean in the air, after he was born. Daniel felt the merciful side of him was about to make an appearance. He brushed the emotion of pity away.

'He's not your son, damn it, forget about him.'

Daniel let out a huff of air from his lungs before he spoke. "When you found out that you were pregnant, you should've told me right then. But, what did you do instead, Mary Anne? You convinced me to marry you at some cheap, Vegas wedding chapel just so we could fuck and you could pass this baby off as mine..."

Daniel saw his wife flinch in disgust at the usage of profanity.

"...because we all know that there was no way that you were going to have sex with me without us being married. After all, you have to keep on pretending to be the good, church-going girl."

"I'm sorry, Danny!" she sobbed. Mary Anne began to cry heavily. Her shoulders sagged and her small body trembled.

He listened to his wife cry for a moment before he had spoken again. "Who is the guy? Do I know him? Does he attend our church?" asked Daniel.

"You..." Mary Anne stared down at her blanket-covered legs. He saw that she didn't want to discuss this topic with him.

'Well fuck that shit, she is going to talk about this whether she wants to or not,' his conscience told him.

"...might know him, Danny," she reported to him in a soft tone of voice.

'I might know him, is he a teammate of mine? Does he work for the organization? Who is he?'

For Daniel, the notion that there was a strong possibility that Mary Anne has had sex with a teammate of his or an employee of the organization bothered him. He knew that incidents such as this one can cause major problems for the Emperors' organization. A sensation of burning ached in the center of his chest and in his gut. The strong abdominal muscles clenched tight in order to brace with the pain. He grunted from the pain. His right hand clutched onto his chiseled, hard abdomen.

"What's his name?" grunted Daniel as he massaged his stomach's muscles.

Mary Anne stopped crying. She now stared at him. He gazed into her eyes. He knew that she was apprehensive about telling him, which made his anxiety worse.

"What's his name, Mary Anne?"

She sighed. "His name is Milo Winters and he—

"UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

Her statement was cut off by the sound of Daniel groaning loudly.

'Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...' he silently cursed while shock and disgust coursed through him.

Daniel knew Milo Winters. Milo wasn't a Missouri Emperor teammate. He didn't work for the organization, but he knew a lot of the employees for the company. He had spoken with the man several times, over the years. Based off of Daniel's opinion of the man, Milo was a nice guy. Besides being a 'nice guy', Milo Winters was also the grandson of Peter Olive, one of the owners' of the Missouri Emperors.

Daniel covered his forehead and his eyes with a massive hand while his eyes were downcast. He was quiet for a moment. He was now worried about his career. He believed that his wife's mistakes has fucked with his career. He knew that he had to figure out a way to handle the repercussions of this mess. He knew that it was impossible to sweep this shit under the rug because he knew that this baby was a bi-racial child, ever since Milo Winters was African-American. He knew that he was going to have to get his agent and his publicist involved in this matter.

"When did this happen?" he inquired, with his hand still covering a portion of his face. He knew that he was going to hear some unbearable things, but he felt that he needed to know.

He heard Mary Anne groan and then make a loud swallow. "You were away at training camp. I was here in Saint Louis. I was alone here and I didn't have any friends or family here to spend that time with me. Milo and I kept in contact with each other. We first met in 1996 at the Olive Christmas party. He was there, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Daniel grunted.

"He was very nice to me while we were there. We talked about our faith and we talked about other things. We have so much in common. We remained in contact for the past five years. Whenever he is in town, we would have dinner together..."

Daniel removed his hand from off of his face. He glared at his wife.

"... Eventually, we had become friends. He was very kind to me..." He noticed the fresh tears that dripped down her cheeks. He felt the sadness shoot off of her small body as she sat in her bed. He knew that she wasn't just sad about her act of infidelity. "... He was kind to me. I was lonely. He actually would make the trip out to Saint Louis from California just to see me. I appreciated the effort..."

'She was in love with him,' he silently concluded.

"... I was lonely and you weren't there. You weren't there for me, even when you were in the home. You were so..." Mary Anne sniffled. "You acted different. You behaved differently than how you were, when we were still in college. Back then, you were loving and affectionate towards me. It was as if something happened to you between our senior year and last year that made you changed. Then, I realized what it was..."

Hearing the last statement from Mary Anne made Daniel's stomach muscles clenched while a chill clung to his skin.

"... Last December, when you came home from a road trip, you had forgotten to go through your dirty clothes before you dumped them on the floor in the laundry room..."

Daniel thought back to that particular day. He remembered the day that his wife was speaking about. He tried to remember if he left anything in his suitcase that he would considered to be 'incriminating evidence'.

"... I found a pair of..." Mary Anne's face drained of color while her features grimaced from the disgust she felt. "...used, women's underwear in the pile. They were a pair of garters..."

'FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK...' his brain continued to scream.

"...and they were soiled with..." Mary Anne proceeded to frantically rub her hands together as if she was trying to rid her hands from the filth that she felt. "...your..." She shook her hands in the air. "...essence on them."

'Shit,' his mind groaned in embarrassment.

There was silence between them. The event lasted for a few seconds.

"All right," Daniel murmured as he gently nodded his head. "I did cheat on you," he confessed while glaring at her. "But, it didn't give you the right to lie to me about Sean and claim—

"You hurt me, Danny!" Mary Anne stated while interrupting him. Her voice was now steady and held a sense of contempt. "You hurt me with your drinking, with your acts of neglect..."

Daniel noticed that the fiery sand sassy side that Mary Anne had inside of her had come to the surface. Her tears stopped. The volume in her voice had increased. Her anger grew and blew off of her.

"...from your gallivanting with your whore," she screamed at him.

Mary Anne unknowingly called Kali a whore and it caused Daniel to glare at his wife with an unabashed hatred.

She didn't acknowledge his reaction. "You hurt me and you left me alone! Milo..." She nodded her head for a few times. "...he was there for me. He was there for me, when I was alone—

"Save your excuses, Mary Anne," her husband said to him. Daniel sat up in his chair. He wanted to leave the birthing suite. He had heard enough from her.

"Don't you want to know why?" she asked.

"No," was his curt and short response.

Daniel rose from the chair. He grabbed his coat off of the back of the chair.

"Wait a minute, do you want to talk?" Her voice sounded frantic, surprised and confused.

"No."

He slipped his thick, wool pea coat on his big frame.

"I want to make our marriage work," she told him.

"And I don't," he stated so nonchalantly while he buttoned up his coat. He didn't bother to stare at her as he spoke. "When you leave the hospital, you can live in the house. I won't be there. The lease is up at the end of this year. You—

"Where are you going?" she asked him sounding frantic.

"Somewhere else," was his reply. "My lawyer will contact you in a few days—

"Lawyer, what? Danny, what's going on?"

Daniel glared at his wife. "I am getting a divorce," he explained.

Daniel groaned in irritation; when he realized that he was awoken from his sleep. The blaring sounds of his cell phone ringing was the reason why he had woken up. His hand sought after the appliance that lied on the bed, next to him.

"Hello," he grunted into the talk piece.

"Danny..."

His brown eyes opened with quickness. His level of concern rose. He sat up in his bed. Daniel recognized the voice. It was his Uncle Jack's voice. But Jack sounded as if he was on the verge of crying.

'Something is wrong...' he thought. There were names of various people that he knew ran through his mind. 'What's wrong?'

"Uncle Jack, what's wrong?" he said into the phone, with his voice displaying urgency.

There was silence and then there was the sound of crying. Jack was the strongest man that he knew, so to hear Jack crying was frightful.

"Jack, tell me, what is wrong?"

There were more sounds of sobbing coming from Jack Logan. With each passing second, Daniel thought of the different people that he loved that could've been harmed. In his mind's eye, the images of his parents, his siblings, some of his extended family members and even Mary Anne flashed through.

"Kali..." he heard his uncle speak into his phone. There were more sobbing as well as incoherent words.

The mentioning of Kali caused his body to tremble as fear ran through his body. He started to breathe heavily while his lungs seem to have developed inability to function properly. He licked at his bottom lip, a tic that conveys his nervousness.

"Uncle Jack, I need for you to calm down and breathe," he instructed to the older man. There were a few loud gasps from Jack. "There you go," he said in a soothing voice, even though he was on the verge of losing it. He listened to his uncle release a series of breaths.

"It's Kali," was the first words that Jack has spoken that were coherent. His voice still trembled, but he was calmer.

With his heart pounding and the contents in his stomach rumbling, he asked his uncle, "What's wrong with Kali?"