Revengeful Deceptions (32 page)

“So maybe I should leave then
Dominique, maybe I should go, you said you don’t want to feel anything so am I to
assume that you mean me too? You don’t want to feel your own husband? Dominique
I have sat here for over six weeks and watched our relationship slowly
deteriorate and you have done nothing to help yourself.

You've alienated your friends, your
family and me Dominique, you shut yourself up in this goddamn room every single
day. Did it ever occur to you that I am hurting too? You weren’t the only one
to lose the baby and we need to be able to talk about that.

Dominique baby, shutting out the
world and those around you isn’t going to make things better. You think by
taking those pills you can make yourself disappear?  I'm not going to let
that happen, you’re my wife and I won’t let you shut me out anymore, do you
hear me?

Now we can get through this baby
but you’ve got to talk to me, tell me what you’re feeling and if you won’t talk
to me then we'll go to counseling. Please don’t do this to yourself, don’t do
this to us, I’m begging you Dominique please!”

Dominique stared at her husband as
if she barely recognized him.

“Adam, you do what you need to do
to get through this and I’ll do the same.”

Was all she said to him before
turning her back to him and closing her
eyes.
Adam was
losing his patience.

“Dominique get out of the goddamn
bed and talk to me!”

No words or movement came from
Dominique as she lay in the bed pretending to sleep. The two pills she had
taken earlier had not worn off yet and she was thankful for that.
Let him
rant and rave
she told herself.
He isn’t the one who has lost everything.

“You want to be like that
Dominique?” Adam shouted as he yanked the covers off the bed causing a haggard
Dominique to face him.

  
“Adam, your acting like a child, leave me alone, I don’t want to be
bothered with you or your non sense. Get out Adam, get out and leave me alone!”
She shouted, annoyed at her husband for breaking into her silent reverie.

Adam was not expecting her calm
reaction; he had hoped that she would get up and fight with him, argue with
him, show him that she still loved him and cared about him.

  
But instead she simply snatched the comforter off the floor and returned
to the bed.

“Fine. I’ll leave you alone
Dominique but remember, when you try to throw this in my face that I left you
and I have no doubt that you will, just remember, you’re the one who told me to
leave you alone.”

   Dominique rolled
over to face him as he sat on the edge of the bed. “You know
Adam,
in the nine years that I was married to Stephen he never spoke to me the way
you just did.”

“Well than I guess he's a better
man than me Dominique, so maybe you should stop comparing me to him then.”

  
“Oh believe me Adam, the more I see how you really are, the more I know
that there is absolutely no comparison. I really don’t care what you do, you
can leave or you can stay but to be honest right now I’d rather you
leave,
being with you brings me nothing but heartache and
loss Adam.

   
Ever since I met you nothing but bad things have happened, nothing has
gone the way I planned and I blame myself, I blame myself for everything now
please GET OUT!”

Adam moved so swiftly and got so
close to her, that for a moment, it frightened her. She had never seen him act
this way. Grabbing her tight by the arm he gritted his teeth as he spoke.

 
“Dominique, I’m going to tell you this one
time and one time only, stop comparing me to a dead man, do you hear me? I am
sick and tired of having to live up to what Stephen would have done or what
Stephen would have said or that he was the perfect husband Dominique do you
hear me?

 
 
I'm sick and tired of it. It's
been almost three years and like it or not, he's not coming back. So it looks
like you’re stuck with me.” When he released his grip on her, his glare was so
intense that Dominique took a second look at him. 

Adam could see the fear in her
eyes; it was a look that he hoped he would never have to see in her, especially
one that he himself had brought on. He sat stunned at himself for a moment
before slowly getting up from the bed. He had never spoken to Dominique like that
before but when he saw the cold and icy glare coming from his wife, it scared
him. She looked as if she were gone and there was someone else in her place,
someone with no heart at all.

“Dominique I’m leaving,” he said,
grabbing an overnight bag and throwing his clothes and toothbrush inside of it.
“But this isn’t over; I’m not giving up on us, I’m not. I'll check on you in
the morning,” he mumbled as he walked out the door.

“Don't bother,” she whispered and
crawled back into the bed.

    Muriel and
Adam sat in the kitchen of the penthouse sipping brandy. “It's those goddamn
pills!” Muriel fumed while Adam told her about the argument that he and
Dominique had.

“It wasn’t really an argument
mom,
you need to have willing participants in order to have
an argument. No, this was more like me asking her to talk to me and she telling
me to hit the road and she said it with such clarity that it makes me wonder if
it was the pills or if it was how she really felt.”

  
“Adam honey, that woman loves you with all of her heart, but she's just
been through a traumatic experience. You have to realize son that she's been
through what most people go a lifetime without having to deal with. She's lost
her husband and two of her children Adam and she simply can't recover from this
on her own.  You’re going to have to get her some help and the sooner you
do it the better.”

  
“I will
mom,
I just want to give her a couple
days to herself. I want her to know that I can give her the space that she
needs. I'll give her some time and if nothing changes, I’ll bring her to a
doctor.”

“That's fine son you do that, but
if it's all the same with you, Molly and I are going to make it a point to
check on her every day. Just to make sure she's alright.”

“That's a good idea mom, I'm sure
she'd rather see you than me right now anyway.”

     While
Adam gave his wife space, someone else was trying to move in closer to him. His
ex-girlfriend Renee had been calling him at the office for quite some time now
and leaving several messages for him. None of which he returned. Although Adam
had no idea of why she was calling, he did admit to himself that he liked the
attention that she was giving him.

  
He would rather the attention be given to him by his wife, but she still
wasn’t returning his calls and when he went to check on her she was either in
bed or on the sofa, it was like she was letting life pass her by completely. So
even if it was attention from his ex, it was attention none the less.

     Adam
remembered seeing Renee several months ago when he was at a lunch meeting with
a client at Mistral's.

“Adam, Adam Caruso is that you?”
Adam turned to see the very attractive brunette headed their way.

“Adam? Oh my god it is you,” she
said while giving him a kiss on the cheek. My god how have you been? I was just
thinking about you the other day.”

“Hello Renee, how are you? Adam
turned back towards his client and politely excused himself as he spoke to
Renee.

  
“I'm with a client Renee, is there something I can do for you?” He said
coldly. Renee ignored his question; as usual she made it all about herself.

Adam sighed.

“No hug and kiss hello Adam? What
is it; don’t tell me you've lost your magic touch now.”
  
Adam stood frozen, he had no desire to hug
let alone touch his ex-girlfriend, the very woman who cared nothing about him
except for his money.

  
“Well if you won’t hug me, I guess I’ll have to hug you.”

Renee put her arms around him and
pulled him into her embrace.

“Stop it Renee, I'm involved with
someone now,” he said as he pulled away from her.

“Yes Adam, I heard something about
you having a girlfriend, but I didn't want to believe it.

  
And here I was thinking that you'd be pining over me forever.” When Adam
made no attempt at a response, she continued. “Well you take care of yourself Adam
and if you need anything, anything at all you know how to get in touch with
me,” she said as she gave him another kiss on the cheek. This time she lingered
and let her cheek brush against his before walking off.

Running
into Renee seems like a life time ago
, he told himself. 
If I told Dominique about my running into
Renee all those months ago, she could probably care less,
he sighed.

As the days passed, Dominique was
slowly driving Adam away.

She knew she had hurt him by
telling him that Stephen was a better man than he, but she just didn’t care.

  
I should have stuck to my original plan,
she told herself.
I should have kept my heart and hormones out of it and
gotten my revenge on them all. Now Brandon is walking around free as a bird and
Adam doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Maybe it’s not too late for me
to take care of Brandon myself.
For the first time in weeks, Dominique
began to feel a glimmer of hope, she had somewhat given up her pursuit of
Brandon because she was pregnant.
Brandon took care of that so there is no
need for me to forgive and forget
. She thought to herself as she sat up in
bed and began to think. “Maybe I can get my revenge after all,” she whispered
and got out of bed.

Brandon was sick and tired of lying
low, although he knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to go about his old
ways, he still felt as if he was being taken out of the loop. His old man had
given him a solid alibi the night of the fire, and even though the police had
backed off, DiNunzio told his son that he was forbidden to do anything that
would to draw attention to him. “I don’t care how long it takes, but you let
this whole thing die down Brandon. That means, no deliveries, no shake downs,
no partying nothing Brandon, and I mean nothing. Do you understand that?” His
father asked sternly.

“Yeah, yeah I got it,” Brandon
nodded and when his father was out of earshot mumbled, “Stupid old man, you got
another thing coming if you think you can tell me what to do.”

Dominique had decided not to tell
anyone about her plan, she had hardly known what she was going to do anyway and
she knew that if she even so much as hinted to Adam that she was planning
something, he'd worry and put a stop to it.

   
Or maybe he wouldn’t. Things hadn’t been going so well between the two
of them, Adam had all but moved back in at his parents place and his once daily
visits had turned into weekly ones and when he did show up very few words were
exchanged between them. Dominique wasn’t sure what she could do to fix it.

“I'll tell you what you’re going to
do,” Muriel said to her during a phone conversation, “You’re going to go on a
weekend girls retreat with me and Molly, that’s what you’re going to do.”

“That sounds nice Muriel but I’m
not sure I’m up for that alright, not right now anyway. But thanks for asking.”

“Oh Dominique I wasn’t asking, I’m
telling. The reservations have already been made, you’re going and that’s all
there is to it. They'll be workshops, massage therapy; it’s the ultimate spa
getaway so pack your bags because we leave Friday morning.”

“Muriel, its Wednesday, you’re not
leaving me with much time to get ready,” Dominique grinned, maybe a spa weekend
was just what she needed to get out of the permanent funk she seemed to be in. She
lost the baby and Dominique knew that if she sat any longer and wallowed in it,
she would end up driving herself crazy. 

She even stopped taking the pills
the doctor had prescribed her.  Maybe after this trip she could come back
ready to talk to Adam, ready to let him make love to her, she had been feeling
so ugly and undesirable since she lost the baby. Dominique didn’t share that
with anyone, not even her best friend Pam, she didn’t want anyone judging her
or telling her lies in order to make her feel better.

“I hope they have a gym there.” She
told Muriel as she reached for her overnight bag.

Muriel told Adam that she and Molly
were taking Dominique on a weekend trip with them.
“What are you going to do to occupy yourself while we're gone honey?” Muriel
asked.

“I'm sure I’ll find something to do
mom, don’t worry about me.”

Adam had been contemplating taking
Renee up on her offer of dinner,
it's just dinner,
and he told himself,
nothing
more, and nothing less.
Dominique won’t be around and so far she's
refused all of my invitations to take her out. Besides, I need to get out for a
while;
Adam tried to reason with himself.
It's just dinner,
he told
himself again as he pulled out his cell and began to text Renee.

Chapter Thirty One

“I really needed this you guys,
thanks so much for inviting me,” Dominique said, as they settled into their
luxury suite.

“You’re welcome Dominique now let’s
see what kind of luxuries this spa provides,” said Muriel as the three headed
towards the lounge. “This weekend is all about us girls, no talk of husbands,
boyfriends, fiancés, significant others nothing. We are here to concentrate on
ourselves ladies agreed?" Muriel asked, eyeing her two friends.

“Agreed,” Dominique and Molly
chimed in.

It was all set; Adam had made plans
to meet Renee for dinner. He told himself that he would keep things short and
sweet. They would simply enjoy a good meal and call it a night. He even went so
far as to make the reservation for Sunday instead of Saturday.