Read The Devil's Closet for Free Online

though a part of me was equally in love with him, I chose to stay with Eric and my children. It was difficult when Michael left and I truly never thought I would see him again. But there wasn’t a day I didn’t think about him, even if only for a few seconds. When it was happening, Eric knew everything and handled it quite well. He even teamed up with Michael and the others to save me from my captors. But to tell Eric that Michael was coming and would again be very involved in my life was just asking too much of him. And me. Coop was very well aware of the situation.
    “CeeCee? Did you hear what I said?”
    “I heard you,” I answered quietly, closing my eyes and sucking in as much air as I could. It felt like I had quit breathing for five minutes.
    “I can’t believe this. What am I going to tell Eric?”
    “Tell him the truth.”
    “Oh, okay, and he’ll have divorce papers filed by tomorrow morning,” I quipped, amusing no one.
    “What are your other options? After everything you guys went through last year, I genuinely think Eric will handle it just fine. He knows you love him , not Michael. Frankly, I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit, unless you’re really worried about your own feelings when you see Michael.” He looked at me accusingly. And the nerve he had found hurt. Badly.
    “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s been a year, and I’ve been long over that,” I said half-truthfully.
    “Listen. Like I said, Eric will be fine with it. Just tell him the blunt truth.”
    I prayed Coop was right. I was terrified to go home and talk about Michael, but I had to. Eric and I always had a solid marriage, except for our shaky period last year, and we never kept secrets from each other. Not to mention, it would only be a matter of time before Eric saw Michael in the department. The icing on this entire fouled-up cake was that Coop was right. I was worried about my emotional reaction to Michael. Right this minute I felt I would be okay, but I wasn’t so confident at the thought of standing face-to-face with him.
    Not being able to get my active mind off the Michael situation, I called it a day and went home. Eric’s shift didn’t end until ten o’clock at night, a time when I was usually in bed since my day started early. His parents kept the girls while he was on the afternoon shift until I got home. When he returned to his normal shift on midnights, we’d go back to our regular routine of me standing at the door waiting to leave when he got home at six in the morning. Sometimes it’s hard to have a marriage where you only see your spouse for less than an hour a week. You have to really put forth an effort—no doubt about it. Eric and I seem to have pulled it off. Or had we? My worry about Michael began to put some very serious doubts back in my mind.
    After I put the girls to bed, I grabbed a glass of wine and sat in my living room. The wine didn’t help. I was too nervous.
    Hearing the garage door open an hour later, I jumped up and went into the kitchen just as Eric was walking through the door.
    “Hey, baby.” I walked over to kiss him on the cheek. “Bad night? You look tired.”
    “We were busy, and I am tired. Would you mind grabbing me a beer? I’ll be down in a minute.”
    While Eric was upstairs getting undressed, I went into the living room and began chain-smoking. I usually don’t smoke in the house. Eric hates it, but tonight was an exception. When he eventually came downstairs, I handed him his beer and, as expected, he sat next to me on the couch complaining about the smoke. The small talk continued while I figured out if there was a painless way to drop the bomb. As a counterpoint, I made sure to bring up Jordan first.
    “I met your cub today. Certainly not what I expected.” I was smiling as I said it so he wouldn’t go on the defensive immediately.
    “I wondered when you would bring that up. So that’s why you’re so edgy and smoking in the house.” He grinned and