Not So Easily Broken Read online

  He told her that when he got back to the office he realized that he made a serious error in judgement and that it had only happened that one time. He explained that he was on a high because he had just signed a huge contract with the same Belgrade Hotel Chain to be the official event coordinator on the island. It was a big deal for him because of the financial difficulties the company was experiencing at the time. He continued to explain that Lela had come with him to organize the documentation and they had lunch together in the restaurant afterwards. But he swore that nothing else happened.

  Courtney could not believe first of all that Ramon never told her such a big deal was in the works, and that there were such major financial difficulties that he was struggling through alone. It really hurt that he did not tell her anything and that his first instinct was to share the moment of triumph with his secretary Lela. At a time when he shut her out completely, he opened up to someone else and his secretary for that matter. As she thought more about it, she may have never known any of it if her friend had not informed her. Men could be so blind sometimes!

  She remembered shouting at him and telling him how ridiculous he was and how blind he was because he never noticed for months how Lela would bring little treats to the office under the guise of serving everyone else but she made sure she gave him his special plate personally adding little extras like chocolates to his. Or even how her skirt splits were always a little too high in the back and her insistence on bending over her desk whenever he was passing. Or, how she never had anything respectful to say to her as his wife when she came to his office. When Courtney brought it up he had the audacity to defend Lela saying that she was blowing things out of proportion and that Lela was just being nice to him. He even said that she could learn a thing or two from Lela in that regard!

  Arrrgh! After that statement she could have strangled him on the spot. That began the two months of her marriage that she wanted so desperately to forget. Ramon started to work even later so that he could avoid running in to her at home and she would call him and leave messages at his office that were not always so refined. On one occasion, Lela answered the phone and in a curt and cold tone let her know that Mr. Belham was unavailable. Courtney recalled with anger how she asked her if she knew who she was. Lela replied yes and hung up. Courtney was ready for a divorce!

  When Ramon finally came home that night looking spent and dishevelled she was waiting for him in the living room and the fight they had was to say the least epic. It resulted in Ramon moving out that very night and staying in a hotel on the South Coast for three weeks. Courtney felt as though she was going to go out of her mind and she stopped eating and cancelled her photo shoots at work. The pain she felt was unbearable and she was unable to focus on anything, and cried all the time. She could not believe that her Ramon would cheat on her and lie to her about it even when she demanded that he told her the truth. Every time she asked if he and Lela were sleeping together, he denied it and had the nerve to try to turn it all around on her as if the whole situation was actually her fault. She could not believe that she married a man just like her father, a liar and a cheat. But to her surprise, despite it all she missed him like crazy and it did not help that every night that he spent away, he called for a minute just to make sure she got home safely. Her heart felt as though it had gone up in flames and she just wanted to stay indoors and hide away from the world.

  If it had not been for her friendship with Constance Parker she did not know who or what she would have become. At first she would not take any of her calls at the house but the day she heard that firm knock at the door and Constance’s voice calling out to her, she ran and opened it, revealing a tear-stained, unwashed wreck. Constance took her and made sure she took care of herself, and ate something healthy before calming her down and talking to her. Through Constance’s sage advice she realized that she never gave Ramon the benefit of the doubt and never tried to have a rational conversation with him. She just flew at him all barrels blazing and was ready for a fight. After all, what he did is what she grew up seeing her father do to her own mother as a young teenager. The day her mother left Derrien Island to live overseas in England was two weeks to the day after they all walked in and found her father entertaining another woman in the living room of their home. It broke her mother’s heart and the fighting led to her father moving out and asking for a divorce and her mother going away and leaving the children with her mother Eunice. She heard rumours that her father had married the other lady and she never heard from him again. He never made the effort to contact her or her sisters and eventually she heard that he emigrated to the United States. Her mother would periodically send money for her and her sisters while she was away and the occasional birthday card but nothing that indicated she wanted to reconnect on a deeper level with her daughters. Courtney’s views on family had been irrevocably shattered in that very moment and she vowed never to marry and never to fall in love. Resisting her attraction to Ramon had been hard and she held on as long as she could to her vow. Eventually he wore her down with his promises of love and a future and she actually began to believe that maybe she could have found some happiness with Ramon. Although he stole her heart, she was determined even after the wedding that she would not lose her mind and fall into the trap that destroyed her mother. She was still determined that she would never fully trust a man and finally Ramon had proven her right.

  Courtney still standing in the midst of her studio finally sank to her knees and wept as the realization that she could be on the brink of losing it all again. Just hours earlier her knees were weak because of the loving gaze of her husband but now she was weak with the fear of his betrayal. Courtney did not know what to believe anymore. She did not know how long she was in that curled position on the floor because time seemed to stand still as emotions she thought she had buried and released came flooding back at their full intensity.

  She did not hear the chimes over the door as Constance came in with her granddaughters. Nor did she hear the hurried exchange as Constance asked the baby sitter to take the girls back home immediately. But she did feel a pair of warm arms encircle her shoulders and smelled the perfume of her good friend. Courtney did not know that such a gnawing fear and emptiness could so quickly replace the feelings of bliss and happiness she felt only two hours earlier. It was like falling from the atmosphere of heaven into the fiery abyss of hell with nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.

  “Sssshh, it’s ok, I’m here”, whispered Constance as she held a sobbing Courtney in her arms. “Tell me, what happened, why are you crying like this?” she queried.

  Courtney had no words to offer so she simply handed her faithful friend the envelope and pointed to the photos that were scattered across the floor. Constance took it from her hands and put on the gold-rimmed reading glasses that always hung from the chain around her neck. She sat on the ground beside Courtney and was suddenly glad that she wore a pair of loose fitting slacks that day. Although she was a woman in her late fifties, she kept up a regular exercise regime that kept her body limber and flexible. As she took her first glance at one of the photos she saw a beautiful woman in red encircled in Ramon’s arms on the dance floor in a restaurant. For some reason, the restaurant looked vaguely familiar to her but she just could not place it. Constance picked up another photograph and yet another before finally reading the text message transcript with horror.

  Surely this was not the Ramon Belham who for weeks was secretly planning to remarry his beautiful bride Courtney on the night of their 7 anniversary? He had planned a secret ceremony out on the Port Elizabeth marina to end with a sunset catamaran cruise for two. He knew how much Courtney loved being close to the sea, so his choice of location was obvious. He had asked her to help him by escorting Courtney to the marina at 6:00 that evening. He even had said that he would call Courtney at 5:30 to say that he would be home a bit late, so his plan to include Constance could work. This could not be the Ramon who had specially ordered in over two hundred and fif
ty red roses to decorate the penthouse suite at the new five-star Derrien Island Hilton where he and his “new” bride would spend a week of renewed marital bliss. It just could not be! Who was this woman in the red dress?

  “Courtney we need to think rationally about this, I am having quite a lot of difficulty believing that Ramon would do this to you again.”

  “That is what I am telling myself Constance. There must be some explanation for all of this, or I am the biggest fool on Derrien.” sniffed Courtney.

  Chapter 4

  Marsha “Alicia” Davis sat in Ramon’s office seething with fury at being hung up on by Ramon’s wife. Ever since she started working for Ramon as his secretary a year ago, she fell in love with him, totally head over heels till she thought she would just lose her composure every time she saw him. It was not that he was just drop dead gorgeous on the outside but she saw how he treated his wife with respect and how he ran his company with integrity and creativity and realized that he was the man of her dreams. He was a man who exuded strength but still you could see that he was capable of the deepest love. He was the man she had been dreaming of since her teenage years and here he was ‘trapped in marriage’ to someone else. Well trapped might be a strong word to use but she was just tired of being alone and only being looked upon by men who had no money, no class and nothing to offer her. Marsha knew that if she did not make her move today, by tonight based on the magnitude her boss’s plans for his wife she would lose her opportunity forever. She grudgingly acknowledged that Ramon loved his wife more than anything, but she wanted him to love her. It was a little irrational she knew but she could not see another way for her to continue living. Ramon had to know how she felt about him and today she was determined that he would see her as more than just his secretary.

  For three months she worked tirelessly to set a plan in place to win his heart. On her first attempt she had planned to follow him to Barbados for the dinner to celebrate the election of the new Prime Minister. There she would have found a way to slip into his hotel room and while he slept she would have pretended to be his wife in the hope that he would make love to her on reflex. However, the day before the trip she had come down with a terrible flu and ended up spending two days at home burning up with fever and retching in the bathroom. So much for a romantic trip! Her second attempt led her to hire a private investigator to follow Courtney to see if he could dig up any dirt on her. After two weeks she gave up what turned out to be a pretty expensive yet worthless venture. The woman was practically a saint and the thought that Courtney Belham lived her life above reproach stung Marsha to her core, further deepening her resentment towards her. After two prior failed attempts to capture Ramon’s attention, she had heard rumours that he had fired his last secretary Lela for her inappropriate behaviour on the job and toward him. In fact, she was told that he went through four male secretaries after that before he hired her. One of the staff members laughed and said it did not matter that she was female because she could pose any real threat to his marriage. That statement truly offended her but she never let it show. Marsha ‘Alicia’ Davis was five foot six inches tall with short natural hair cut in an afro and was about twenty pounds overweight which gave her a curvy pear-shaped appearance. Not that she minded, because she personally thought it added the extra appeal to her lower body that she lacked on top. She might not be described as a classic beauty with her dark skin, thick full lips and short nose and narrow eyes but she knew she had the intelligence and the tenacity to win the heart of Ramon Belham.

  He was not a shallow man by any means, but to her chagrin he never once responded to any of her subtle advances. He never gave her one compliment on her appearance, never even lingered looking at her as she left his office adding an extra swing to her ample hips, never gave her one inclination that he knew she was a woman. She knew this because she often checked his expression in the mirrored glass on the wall of his office as she walked away from him. It was as though she was invisible to him. He was her boss and she was just his plain Jane secretary. She even tried to wear different scents to work and even had a spell caster work on something for her but it never worked. It turned out that Ramon Belham was a Christian man who had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour about two years ago so casting spells were not just a waste of time but potentially dangerous for her. But she was determined not to give up. She made sure she only made the best of impressions and even pretended to be helpful and supportive as the office worked together to plan the details of his wedding anniversary. With every fake smile she had to give as she heard Courtney’s name and saw how Ramon’s features softened as he thought of her, she grew to hate her more and more. Instead, she began fantasizing about being the one he would marry and set his affections on and being the one he would take to the hotel. The more she fantasized about it, the more real it became until finally she believed that she could make it happen. She knew that she would have to find a way to discredit Ramon in Courtney’s eyes to break the trust that existed between them. To her immense glee she knew she could not find a better plan than in re-creating the scenario that almost caused their divorce two years ago.

  Smiling to herself, she laughed at how much office gossip one could glean by just supplying cake and coffee to the ladies in the creative art department. They told her everything that she needed to know about Courtney and Ramon Belham’s marital difficulties and she did not even need to prod. Yes, when their anniversary plans fell apart she planned to be there to comfort Ramon and pick up all of the pieces.

  Looking at her watch she realized that by now Courtney should have received the doctored pictures of Ramon and the mysterious woman in red. She laughed to herself as she imagined the pain Courtney must be experiencing right this moment. She truly hated Courtney, oh how she hated her wonderful personality. This was the entirety of the problem. She was a trophy wife, a woman any man would want to have on his arm, with her soft honeyed beauty and gentle manner. She could not find a way to truly discredit her. It was Courtney who had pushed her to these lengths to make Ramon look like a liar and a cheat. The thought of that caused Marsha to feel a slight twinge of guilt but she immediately decided that it was all a means to an end. Her preferred end! Ramon was no liar and definitely not a cheat. She had witnessed his fairness in his business dealings far too many times to ever think that. But in times of desperation, and with no time left, Marsha was willing to do even the unthinkable to have him.

  At that moment, thought Marsha, Ramon should have already arrived at the hotel to make sure that the final details for his second honeymoon were in place. He was the kind of man who wanted to see to those details personally. He wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for Courtney that night. Ramon Belham was the perfect man for her and she was determined to have him and be the one sharing his hotel room that weekend.

  Sensing the urgency of ensuring that her plans were set in motion, she began dialling the number of the man she paid to deliver the envelope to Courtney on her cell phone. As she did, she got up from Ramon’s office chair and returned to her desk. She enjoyed the cool smooth feel of the leather and the lingering scent of Ramon in the room and she often found an excuse to leave work late so she could spend some time sitting in his chair, fantasizing about him. Besides she wanted to call Courtney from his chair because it made her feel triumphant, and even a little turned on by the fact that her plans were almost about to succeed.

  “Rob here,” said the sandy haired man into his phone.

  “Hey Rob, it is me Marsha. Did you deliver the package to Courtney?”

  “Yes. I did” he responded curtly.

  “How did she look, what did she do?” questioned Marsha filled with an insane desire to hear of Courtney’s pain.

  “Listen, I did not stick around to see anything, I just hurried to get back to the taxi and to head back to the hotel. Do you have my money ready?”

  “Yes. Rob you know I wouldn’t leave you unpaid,” laughed Marsha.

  The sound of
Marsha’s laughter left Rob a little cold when he considered just how malevolent her plans really were. He shuddered instinctively and felt a flash of heat followed by a sensation of eerie coldness creep into his body right along his spine.

  “Ok two more questions, did you see Ramon at the Hilton?”

  “Yes, just as planned I told him that the room would be 307 instead of 310. Thankfully he seemed distracted and did not really question me about the change.”

  “Ok good, and are you sure that you did not see him come back out?”

  “No. He has not come back out and it has been over thirty minutes since he went upstairs,” Rob replied.

  “Listen Marsha, I have a bad feeling about all of this, I hope that you have my money ready. I want to leave this hotel as soon as my shift ends in twenty minutes.”

  Marsha reassured Rob and thanked him for his help, promising to transfer the money to his account within the hour. Rob hung up the phone and suddenly felt dirty and ashamed. He was shocked to see just how beautiful Courtney Belham was when she took the envelope from him earlier that afternoon. Ramon was a lucky man to have her. That poor woman had no idea what she would be in for when she opened the envelope. From what he could see during their brief encounter, she radiated a sense of class and beauty that Marsha could not even hope to hold a candle to even in a brightly lit room. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible before she realized that he was not who he said he was. He had practically run down the street when she closed the door and jumped into the taxi which he had paid to wait for him in the side street. He was not yet finished with the deception crafted by Marsha. He had to be back at the front desk of the Derrien Hotel where he worked before Ramon Belham arrived so he could give him the room details. The more he thought about it on the way back to the hotel the more he realized that this was not the way to earn honest money and swore to himself that he had to change the way he was living his life. All the lies and the stealing were just not worth it if he got caught. This was not the way he wanted to live and he would make sure no one had the power to put him in this position again as long as he lived.