Richard Stephenson - Collapse

When he got to his home early the next morning he discovered his wife asleep in their bed. He walked into the kids’ room and woke up his sweet little princess. She rubbed her eyes, looked at her father and beamed with pure joy. He kissed her face repeatedly, which made her giggle. He knew that his son was a very deep sleeper and would not wake easily, so he left him to whatever little boys dreamed about. He carried his precious daughter into his bedroom and sat on the bed next to his wife.

She awoke and couldn’t believe her husband was sitting next to her. He wasn’t due to be home until the afternoon. She couldn’t figure out if he was really home or if she was dreaming.

“You’re home!”

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Yes, dear, I’m home.”

She smiled at him.

“I tried contacting you last night to let you know I would be home early. Where were you?”

“Busy.”

“Doing what?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re home.” She sat up and hugged him, kissing his cheek and giggling, much like their daughter, in perfect glee.

Richard relented. He always made it a point to avoid arguing with his wife when he had been away for a long time. She deserved better.

The rest of the morning and afternoon were filled with playtime with the kids. Monique loved to watch her husband play with their children; she was so proud to have a loving husband, who was also a devoted father. The family went out to a restaurant that night. Richard couldn’t have been happier, that is, until Monique’s smartphone rang.

“Hey, now isn’t a good time. … I can’t talk right now, let me call you back. …… Ok, ok, give me a minute.”

Monique excused herself and disappeared to the other side of the restaurant. A few minutes later she returned and sat down like nothing had happened.

Richard tried not to show his frustration in front of his kids. “Who was that?”

Monique smiled and waved her hand away, dismissing his question. “Oh, it was nobody.” She turned her attention to the kids so that Richard would not ask again.

The family returned home and went to bed after a very tiring and eventful day. Once his wife was asleep, Richard grabbed her cellphone and went into the bathroom. He looked at the call history, determined to know who had interrupted their dinner.

It was Bryan.

Richard spent the next thirty minutes reviewing every detail of his wife’s communication with this asshole named Bryan. They called each other every single day during Richard’s last deployment. Richard matched up the dates to all of his deployments from the previous year to discover that Bryan only called when Richard was not stateside. The phone calls were frequent and many lasted for hours. Growing angrier with each passing minute, Richard moved on to his wife’s text messages. If he had any doubts, the texts messages from Bryan erased them completely.

Hey girl, call me.

I just want u to know that u r my closest friend and I’m thankful u r always there for me.

U coming over tnght?

When r u getting here?

Make sure u put on the dress Monica gave u.

Stop freakin out no 1 is going to find out!

OMG! u r soooo bad! Stop it before Daddy gets the belt! LOL

Did u make it home yet?

Had a lot of fun tnght. Call me when u get home.

I know u felt gulity about last night. I’m sorry. Call me.

Richard couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t need to read any further; the last text sealed the deal. He knew his marriage was over. Instead of letting himself break down and cry, he instead turned his sadness into rage. At first he focused his anger on himself for marrying that cheating bitch in the first place. He had made the right choice when he joined the Navy. Breaking up with her had been the right thing to do; he couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to marry her.

In his fury he had completely forgotten about his wife’s lover. Rage poured over him like hot lava. He knew that he needed to stay in the bathroom and not come out or he would do serious harm to the mother of his children. Instead, he took deep breaths and focused his mind like the top-notch Navy SEAL he had spent his life training to become. He thought about his next move.

He was going to kill that motherfucker.

Richard had no intentions of ending his stellar military career or going to prison. He would bide his time and plan the death of his wife’s lover, even if it took a very long time to accomplish. Richard was certain he could get away with the crime; he had made a career out of slipping into hostile territory to murder the enemy and get out undetected. Accidents happened all the time. People died of mysterious illnesses; some people even vanished into thin air never to be heard from again. The possibilities were endless. Richard knew he would not be satisfied until he could see the life fade from the man’s eyes. He wanted the piece of shit to know why he was dying.

The first step of his plan was to meet this guy and enthusiastically shake his hand, thanking him for keeping his wife company while he was gone. He did not want the asshole or his wife to have any indication that he knew about their secret love affair. The next step would be to meet Julia, his wife’s friend and supposed love interest of Bryan’s. He knew the bitch would lie and cover for his wife, but he was confident that he would be able to catch her in the falsehood. He thought about Monique dropping his children off with his Aunt Martha and running off to cheat on him. He knew it wasn’t going to take long to figure out exactly where they had gone.

Richard was satisfied that he had made the right decision to be patient and not do anything rash. He slipped back into bed and tried to go back to sleep. He had to get up early to take his family to church.

In the morning, the family loaded up the car and began the thirty-five minute drive to the Winchester Street Baptist Church. Richard had on his Class A uniform as he always did on his rare visits to the church. He found a seat for himself amongst the crowd of five hundred. Monique was singing in the choir, and his children were at Children’s Worship on the other side of the campus. Richard was one of a handful of white faces in a sea of black ones. The fact had never once bothered him; he always felt welcome in the congregation. Richard had always wanted to fly his parents out to go to church with him. He would have a blast watching his father try to swallow his racism. Hell, the old man would probably choke on it before he took his seat.

When the congregation finished singing, the pastor took the podium and the choir quietly dispersed into two hallways. Each hallway would take them around to the back of the sanctuary so they could take their seats with the least amount of disturbance to the congregation. Richard tried to pretend that he was paying attention the sermon. After a few minutes had passed and most of the choir was seated, he shifted in his seat, checking to see if Monique had made it into the sanctuary after a quick pit stop to check on the kids. Richard sat uncomfortably in his seat for ten minutes and pulled out his smartphone to text his wife.

“Where are you?”

A full ten minutes elapsed before she replied.

“Flo is here and I’m cramping real bad, went home.”

Richard searched his memory to the night before; he was certain he had not seen any tampons or other telltale signs in the trashcan. He could not recall seeing the usual boxes of feminine products near the sink as his wife had always left them when it was her time of the month. He thought as hard as he could about what exactly happened during the menstrual cycle and like most men, really had no idea. All he knew was cramping and bleeding were involved and it lasted for five days. Or was it seven?