Devil Mail (24 page)

“I beg to differ.
” Angela was adamant. “What Julia said and did to you was inexcusable, so she can sulk and pout as much as she likes. I don’t care if she never speaks to me again.”

“But f
amilies aren’t supposed to be like that, Babe.”

“I know, but I didn’t cause this, she did. And things are okay with my mom.”

“Well, I can’t force you to do what you don’t want to do, but at least you know how I feel about it.”

“How are you able to forgive what she did to you so easily?”

“It’s my
duty
as a Christian to forgive; just like I expect to be forgiven when I mess up. I don’t have a right to hold onto offense. That’s just pride in its ugliest form.”

Angela had never heard the topic of forgiveness broken down like that before. It was something Kieran purposefully left her to quietly ponder for the
rest of the ride home.

        CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A
ngela worked hard to establish contacts for Kieran, chasing every lead that might have resulted in some assistance in getting his computer repair business going. She helped him with his car payments when he came up short, saw to it that he repaid outstanding debts as soon as he got paid from his computer repair jobs and he ate at her apartment most of the time to reduce his grocery bill. She was determined to spearhead his success.

H
er proposal over dinner one evening was that they ask for Gordon’s assistance in renting a small store front and putting together a viable marketing strategy. If he was prepared to help Kieran with the legal requirements and put him in touch with his personal accountant, that would be a bonus. The proposal was met with an unequivocal, “No”.

“I know how you feel about Vanessa, but I think I can talk to her. And I think if Gordon sees how serious
you are about this, he’ll want to help you,” Angela reasoned.

“No way, I am not asking t
hem for help,” was Kieran’s obstinate reply.

Exasperated, Angela’s words came out louder than intended, “Prid
e isn’t a luxury you can afford right now Kieran!”

“And you should know because you decide what I can and can’t afford.
I don’t even have control over my own life anymore. It’s stifling!”

“I’m stifling you?” Angela asked, wide-eyed in disbelief
.

“Well, it’s one rule for you and one for everyone else. You’re too proud to speak to your sister, but I shouldn’t be too proud to ask my brother for thousands of dollars! That doesn’t sound hypocritical to you?”
He rose from the table and left the apartment in a huff.

Angela was completely taken aback that her devotion and support was construed as being something restrictive. She didn’t know of any other way to help him or to be the ‘good thing’ that she believed
he and every other Christian man sought. Sasha’s words came back to haunt her. Had she really been trying to turn him into a puppy dog? Was she standing in the way of him functioning in the capacity of a real man? The idea was ludicrous! He was spinning round and round in circles before she got ahold of him and brought some order to his life. He was right about one thing though – she was being hypocritical. She didn’t value his direction on how to handle her family, so she needed to pull back and allow him to deal with his family as he thought fit.

His apology was not slow in coming.
She found it on the doorstep as she was setting off for work the next morning. Another card. She didn’t stop to open it, but slipped it into her purse to read later. She read it as she sipped her latte during the court recess. Beneath the “I’m sorry!” message at the top, was a picture of an innocent-looking snowy white puppy with a rose in its mouth.   Angela almost laughed aloud at the irony. The handwritten message on the inside read:

“I’m asking for your forgiveness again

Forgiveness for a time when

I said something that was untrue

I’m not stifled…I need you
.

Sorry!

Your puppy dog - Kier”

The gesture was sweet, but superfluous. She wasn’t angry with him for saying how he felt at the time, although she was initially hurt by it. She was mindful of Julia’s censure, and sought to disprove the allegation that she arbitrarily dumped men for being imperfect. She would prove that there was much more depth to her character than that. She was also reminded of the words Kieran had spoken so beautifully on her balcony that day – their relationship had to go through some complexities before blooming.

During her lunch break, Angela made a quick trip to the food court at the nearby mall to get the C
hick-fil-A chicken nuggets that she had been craving all morning. As she stuffed three of the twelve count nuggets into her mouth at once, she heard a vaguely familiar voice behind her. “Angela?” She spun around to see Vanessa standing there with quite a collection of shopping bags.

“Vanessa, h
i,” she mumbled, “I’m sorry, you must think I’m such a pig.”

“Not at all, I’m partia
l to Chick-fil-A nuggets myself,” she confessed, looking at the box in Angela’s grasp.

“I’m just on my lunch break…” Angela began, but
her statement was supervened by Vanessa’s gasp.

“What a beautiful ring! I had one just like that. Gordon bought it for me on our fifth wedding anniversary
. Sapphire’s the traditional gift for the forty-fifth anniversary, but he said he couldn’t have me wait another forty years for something so beautiful. Would you believe I lost it? Mine was exactly like that! A pear-shaped sapphire set in diamonds. I can’t even bring myself to tell Gordon that I don’t know where it is.”

“
Oh, that’s terrible. Kieran gave this to me,” she said fondly, stroking it with her thumb.

“Really? I wouldn’t have thought he’d have the wherewithal to afford something like that.”

Angela remained polite in the face of offense. Thinking up an insult is a world apart from actually speaking it. “It was his mother’s.”

“Really? And she gave it to
him
?” Angela didn’t like the implications Vanessa’s words carried with them. How else would he get it - steal it? Or was she implying that Gordon should have been the one to get it since he was the older son? Either way, she was out of line. Perhaps there was substance in Kieran’s reservations about her after all. And to think she was pushing him to ask her for help!

“I have to get back to work. Hope you find your ring!” Angela stated to
politely excuse herself.

“I believe I have,” Vanessa muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“I believe I will,” she smiled.

Nothing else occupied Angela’s mind for the rest of the day. She could hardly wait to tell Kieran what
had happened, half expecting him to become agitated, if not infuriated by Vanessa’s impertinence. “I can’t swear, but I’m almost positive that she said she believed she
had
found her ring, but when I asked her again, she said that she believed she would find it. What do you make of that?”

“As long as you believe I got the ring from my mom, that’s all that matters to me.”

“But she could make trouble for you if she starts making allegations to Gordon about you.”

“Nah, I’m not worried about that.”

“When exactly did your dad give it to your mom?”

“Here, ask her yourself.” He plucked his cellphone from his pocket and began to punch in numbers.

“Don’
t be silly. I’ve never spoken to your mom before; I can’t just start asking her about the ring.”

“
Well, you obviously have questions about it, so she’s the best person to ask.” He was clearly agitated.

“I believe you, Kier. Don’t rea
d anything into the question.” But the atmosphere remained troubled even after the conversation had died down. 

When the telephone rang
a couple of times Angela started towards it, but the sound of Aiden’s voice on the answer machine stopped her in her tracks.

Kieran became irritable.
“What is it with this dude? Is he ever gonna give up? And why hasn’t he been arrested yet? Why haven’t you told him to stop calling?”

“I haven’t spoken to him. You’re the one who told me not to call him, remember?”

“Well, I’ll speak to him then.” He took a few short steps towards the telephone.

“No, Kieran, don’t do that.
” Angela held him back by his arm.

“Why not? You like him calling you? Is that it?”

“No, it’s just something
I
have to do, not you.”

“Okay, then let’s go; no time like the present,” he goaded, snatching the receiver off the hook before Aiden could finish his message. He handed
the receiver to Angela who, overcome with anxiety, gripped it firmly as she stammered to get a ‘hello’ out.

“Hello?” Aiden became aware that someone had picked up the telephone. “Hello?”

In the absence of a single identifiable word, Kieran took the telephone from her. “Hey, this is Kieran, Angela’s fiancé. She wants you to stop calling her. She’s moved on, you should too!”

“F
iancé, eh? Well, I need to hear that from her.” Aiden was not to be deterred by the news of a mere engagement.

Kieran hand
ed the telephone back to Angela. “He wants to hear it from you.”

“Aiden,” she said hesitantly, “We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

“You’ll answer my call tomorrow?”

“Promise.”

“Are you really engaged?”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Okay. I love you, Angela.”

She hung up
anticipating an onslaught from Kieran, so she strategically submitted a preemptive strike. “Why did you tell him we’re engaged?”

The onslaught
never came and neither did an answer to her question. Kieran remained remarkably calm. “Why didn’t you tell him, Babe? Don’t want to cut off ties with him, do you? You keeping him in the background in case we don’t work out?”

“Oh, Kieran, it’s nothing like that. It’s just that you
put me on the spot and I hadn’t prepared anything to say to him.”

“He just wanted to hear you tell him to stop calling. You couldn’t do that? You couldn’t put him in his place like I put Sasha in her place in front of you?”

“I could, but there’s more to it than that.”

“Evidently.”

“Oh Kier…..” She stroked his arm since she had nothing else to say. The manner in which he was able to keep his composure was unsettling; an outburst would have been easier to handle, because now, she didn’t know what, if anything, was brewing beneath that cool exterior.

The next day,
Friday, Kieran called her at work to find out if she had spoken to Aiden yet. She informed him that she had not, and didn’t plan to while she was supposed to be concentrating on the depositions at hand. He advised her that he had something of a serious nature to talk to her about when she got home. She was left wishing that she hadn’t answered her cellphone as she now would spend the rest of her working hours meditating on the matter with frenzied imaginings. Was he going to break up with her for not cutting ties with Aiden last night? Was he going to propose to her and give her that ring he had talked about in the past? Angela gasped as she thought about the sapphire ring…was he going to admit to her that the ring that her finger vaunted was one he had really stolen from Vanessa? Or was he about to drop some other almighty bombshell on her, like another secret that he hadn’t confessed?

She called Judith on the way home from work. She was still at work. “Hey, Angie, I can’t stay long, I’ve been run off my feet with clients today, but we’ll talk later. Listen, with Julia’s birthday coming up next month, I was wondering how long this standoff between the two of you was going to last.”

“As long as she wants it to. I’m not budging this time, Jude. She was out of order.”

“So you’re still allowing Bozo to come between you. That’s a shame.”

“Don’t call him that. I know you don’t like him, but you could at least be respectful. He’s never said a disrespectful word about you.”

“He’d better not.”

Angela sighed, “He’s got something important to talk to me about tonight
. Suppose he proposes – then you’ll
have
to get used to the idea of us being together.”

“No, no, no. If he proposes, that’s your answer!
No. Angie, you’ve known the guy for less than a year. Don’t rush into anything with him, please.”

“
I’ll talk to you later.” Angela hung up knowing that she had piqued Judith’s curiosity to a level that was almost parallel to her own. It was a satisfying feeling.

When she arrived home,
Kieran was waiting for her in his SUV. He carried two grocery bags into her apartment and explained that he had come prepared to cook a meal of pork chops with apple sauce, wild rice pilaf and asparagus. It sounded quite delectable, but anxiety had robbed Angela of her appetite. She sat relaxing on the sofa, keenly awaiting the commencement of the serious talk, but Kieran was in no hurry. “How was your day?” he called from the kitchen.

“It was okay, nothing newsworthy. How about you?”

“Interesting. I showed up to a job in Apopka, busted my chops to get there at the agreed time, only to find no one was at home.”

“
Argh! How inconsiderate. They should’ve at least called to cancel.”

“I know, like gas is cheap. Anyway, I’m standing outside the house, calling them on my cellphone, knocking on the door, when a neighbor comes out to tell me that no one’s home. She saw them leave about an hour earlier.”