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Eve jumped at the sound of her sister’s primal war cry. They had been joking and laughing roughly twenty minutes ago, now Eden was wailing like a banshee. Confused was an understatement as to how she now felt.

“What the hell? What’s going on?”

Eden continued to sob. She wanted to speak, but she was filled with so many emotions that tears were all she had to offer.

“Edy-”

“I’m fine Eve. I just…it’s just a lot going on in my head and I’m just trying to make sense of it all. Believe it or not, these are tears of joy,” Eden admitted.

Somehow, she felt that telling her sister the truth would make her appear like a bad wife. She felt horrible for wanting to prioritize her career over motherhood.

“Tears of joy has you crying those ugly ass tears. What is going on Edy?” Eve asked. She wasn’t buying the tears of joy speech.

“I’m serious. Everything is all good, ”

Eve looked skeptical but she wasn’t going to pry. Eden would share what was on her mind when she was ready.

“Come get in the passenger seat. Emotional driving is a recipe for disaster. I’ll drive but you’re still paying,” Eve joked, she knew it would make her sister laugh.

Eden did as she expected. Laughter instantly replaced her tears.

“You’re so crazy with your cheap ass,” Eden laughed while wiping the wetness from her face.

“You were just all smiles twenty minutes ago. Now you’re crying. But I’m crazy. Yeah right,”

“These are tears of joy,” Eden lied. “Jermaine wants me to throw away my birth control. I want that too, at least I thought I wanted that. I’m unsure of what I want. Will I have to give up my job? I would die if I had to leave such a prestigious bank just to be a mom,” Eden cried.

She knew her words sounded selfish, but Rashid Zayed International Banque was not a bank that a person could simply apply to. The company didn’t even post open positions. It was invitation only. When a position needed to be filled, the bank’s internal recruiters would reach out to potential applicants by viewing their employment qualifications via their LinkedIn. Giving up employment with such a prestigious bank seemed like a death sentence.

“Eden,”

“I love what I do. I love having to take a flight to meet some of my clients. I don’t want to change my life or lifestyle. I know that sounds selfish but-”

“But nothing. You are not mommy. The days of being a stay-at-home mom are over. I’m a flight attendant with two kids. My life hasn’t changed. You’re terrified about being a parent and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a new experience and it’s ok if you’re scared.

Between me, Mommy, and my kids, your baby will be well taken care of when you have to work. Calm down everything will be ok,”

Eden wanted to cry all over again. She knew that she would’ve been able to trust Eve with her feelings without judgement. The fact that she doubted their bond made her feel horrible.

“You’re right. I just, I’m just-”

More tears erupted.

“Girl, why are you crying now? You know what, we might need to skip Ribeye’s and go to Walgreen’s to get you a pregnancy test. This new emotional you has me thinking that you’re already knocked up,” Eve said as she patted Eden’s flat stomach.

Eden shook her head. She knew she wasn’t pregnant. She had just thrown her pack of pills away.

“You always know how to make me feel better. I love your-”

Eden’s sentence stopped and her eyes squinted as she tried to process what her eyes were seeing.

“I love your big head too,” Eve said sweetly, but Eden ignored the sentiments. She was too focused on what was in front of her. It wasn’t every day that a Bentley was parked in front of a family friendly steakhouse.

“That’s Jermaine’s car. Why would Jermaine be parked at Longhorns?” Eden asked herself unaware that she had asked the question aloud.

Eve looked to the left at the Franchise steakhouse, saw the black Flying Spur, but thought nothing of it.

“He’s probably having a meeting. You said he has meetings every Thursday,” Eve shrugged.

Eden tuned Eve completely out. The only thing she could focus on were the drums now pounding in her head .

“Turn in,” Eden said dryly.

“Why?” Eve asked while scrunching her face.

“Turn into Longhorn’s right fucking now,” Eden said slowly, making sure to annunciate the syllables of each word.

The hair on the back of Eve’s neck stood on end. She had never seen her sister like this. The joy that always brightened her face had been replaced with something dark and malevolent.

“Eden I’m sure there’s a reasonably good explanation for why he’s there. You know he’s not on a date, because his bougee ass doesn’t eat meat. I’m sure it’s only a dinner meeting with colleagues,” Eve added.

Eden looked at Eve as if she had lost her mind.

“Do I look stupid to you? I may be a good woman, but I ain’t never been a dumb bitch. If this was a dinner meeting with colleagues or clients, the parking lot would be filled with luxury cars, not Honda’s, Ford’s and Hyundai’s. It seems like you have a problem with turning into the restaurant. You must know something that I don’t know,” Eden said through clinched teeth .

Eve gasped. Never in their entire life had Eden accused her of something so disrespectful. It was now her turn to cry.

“Edy, are you serious? You know I-”

“This is what I know. My husband said he’d be at the office late. But with my own 20/20 vision I can see that that’s clearly a lie. I don’t see any other luxury cars in this cheap ass parking lot to suggest that any of Le Bleu’s stakeholders or shareholders are here.

We practically lived off Longhorn’s and Apple Bee’s when we were in college, so even if he doesn’t eat meat, Longhorn’s sells some good ass soup and salad. Now I’m going to ask you again, do you know something I don’t know? Because you’re doing a whole lot of stalling when all you need to do is park the car,” Eden stated.

A chill ran down Eve’s spine. She had been alive long enough to know that all people possessed a level of darkness, however she had never encountered this version of her sister. Eve knew better than to argue. Instead of saying a word, she pulled the big body car into the parking lot.

Eden was out of the car before Eve put the car in park. She opened her car door with so much force that it dented Jermaine’s driver’s door.

“Edy!” Eve shouted in disbelief .

The dark force that seemed to be driving her sister couldn’t hear anything. Eve noticed, she had to literally grab Eden’s shoulder to halt her steps.

“Eden wait. Look, for your peace of mind let’s just go in here and see what’s going on. When you see that it’s nothing, I want the 24-karat gold dessert after you buy my steak,”

The joke was lost on Eden, and Eve knew it. Eden was too filled with anger to process anything other than what was already on her mind. Instead of responding, she opened the door to the family friendly restaurant.

Neither of them had been inside the restaurant since their college days. But they maneuvered through the maze of hungry patrons with ease.

“If he’s in here he’ll be in the-”

Eve gasped and her heart stopped when she saw Jermaine behind the closed glass dining room doors. Disbelief made her stumble backwards. This wasn’t even her marriage and her heart was breaking.

Hearing Eve’s audible sound of disbelief made Eden turn to see what had startled her sister. The sight in front of her nearly made her collapse. Tears flooded her eyes as she watched Jermaine eating a steak, off the fork of the beautiful woman that sat beside him .

“En…Envy?”

The image seemed so foreign to Eden that she had a hard time making sense of it. She was convinced that she had lost her mind. For years, Jermaine had her making vegetarian meals because he said he couldn’t stomach the scent or taste of meat.

Seeing her husband, eating steak-medium at that, while kissing her younger sister felt like a bad dream. Her heart cracked at the realization that Jermaine had played her. She was so hurt that she couldn’t even hear the sounds of the restaurant around her. The sounds of forks scraping plates, babies crying, and friendly banter had all disappeared. The only thing she heard was the knife piercing her heart.

The dial in Eden’s brain began to shift from good to bad. Her hands trembled as she fought to regain the control she was losing.

“Oh, hell no,” Eve said as she watched her brother-in-law and whore of a little sister damn near maul each other in a public setting. The comfortability that she was witnessing let her know that this was not their first time together.

From the time they were kids Envy had been a thorn in everyone’s side. But this time she had gone too far. Eve pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and prepared to run into the dining room, but she stopped when she felt Eden’s hand around her wrist.

“Let’s go Eve,” Eden said as she stared at the man she vowed to love for the rest of her life betraying her in the worst way. There was no coming back from this.

“Let’s go? What do you mean? You were ready to run in here and catch him. We see him being foul and you want to leave. Nah, we need to go in there in show out,” Eve said angrily.

“Nah, I’ll handle this,” Eden said calmly as she grabbed the keys from her sister’s hand.

For the second time in mere minutes, a chill ran down Eve’s spine. This side of Eden was completely unlike her. This calm was too calm to be normal. Eve followed her sister to the car unsure of what would happen next.

“Eden, I’m so sorry. I know men can do some scandalous shit, but I never thought Jermaine would ever stoop this low,” Eve said as she grabbed her sister’s hand. She was so upset that her intense hunger had disappeared.

The pain inside of Eden’s chest and the hollowness in her stomach made it impossible for her to respond. She had been nothing short of a perfect wife. Knowing that her husband could look her in the face every night and lie after spending the night or nights with her very own sister unleashed a level of devastation that she didn’t know how to cope with.

Her thoughts would not stop. He said that he planned to do things to her after he got home. So was he planning to make love to her after fucking her sister. The thought made hot vomit spew from her mouth.

“Oh my God!” Eve screamed as she watched her sister bend at the waist and give up everything she had eaten.

“Edy, let’s just go to my house.”

Eden shook her head no. Instead, she wiped her mouth and reached for her phone, dialing her husband’s number. As she listened to the ringing, she couldn’t wait to hear what lie he’d come up with.

“Hey Beautiful, I’m almost done here. I should be home in a few hours,” Jermaine said. His tone was as cool as a cucumber. Had he looked up, he would’ve seen his wife and other sister-in-law watching him kiss their sister as he spoke on the phone.