HEY EVERYONE! Thanks for reading my thoughts. SPECIAL THANKS TO Greeneyes89 for pushing me and helping me come up with better material. all forms critique are encouraged and welcomed. Hope you enjoy Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sam stepped out from behind the fogged glass shower door and walked across the heated tile flooring into the bedroom where he found his wife had returned and was now sitting on the far corner of the bed. At first he stood still not knowing what to say to her. He could see she had been crying, her once flawless makeup now sported streaks down the sides of her face where the streams of tears once traveled. What seemed like forever passed between the two before either spoke.

"The girls are staying at Sydney's tonight. She wanted to take them to the movies in the morning. Have you seen my reading glasses? I can't seem to find them anywhere." Mercedes eyes scanned the room for her glasses once again.

"Mercedes I am so sor.." before Sam could finish his sentence Mercedes cut him off.

"My glasses? Have you seen them? She stood from her position on the bed and rummaged through the nightstand drawers frantically.

"They're on the Mantle in the family room." He said flatly.

Mercedes left the room and headed to retrieve her glasses without saying another word to her husband. Once she found them she headed to her piano and played out some chords at random until she found a melody she liked. She took the pencil she had been storing from behind her ear and began drawing notes on her sheet music. The melody began to echo out through the house and as it grew longer it also grew darker. The song lyrics came spilling from her lips as quickly as they appeared in her brain

" its always been you

Who I gave my heart to

The sun in my sky

The light of my life

But who are you now

Cuz him I don't know..

The tears began to flow again, heavier this time. She continued playing the keys on the piano until the tears clouded her vision and she no longer had strength in her fingers and her lyrics turned into wails.

She promised herself on the way home that she would not let Sam see her cry. She would act as if nothing happened earlier because she wasn't ready to accept the news she'd been slapped with.

He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her tightly and there she sobbed loudly into the crooks of one of his chiseled arms.

"let me go! How could you? How could you?" She repeated the question while Sam continued to hold her until she was too weak to break free of his grasp.

"Cedes' I'm so sorry, so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I love you so much." Hearing this gave her the strength she needed to break free of him. She looked venomously into his eyes and yelled "two years Sam? She's been around our daughters for God's Sake! Do not tell me you love me! Do not feign concern about my feelings now! For two years you have been living a life with this woman and the girls.." her voice trailed off. "who do the girls think she is?

Sam's head rose from the spot his eyes were trained on at the piano to meet hers and answered. "The girls only know her to be my friend. I don't bring Bailey and Riley around her that often and I'm never inappropriate with her when they are present."

Her eyes almost popped out the sockets at his comment. "You're never inappropriate around them? Did you really just say that? You bringing our daughters around another woman, your mistress is inappropriate!" Mercedes let out a throaty laugh at the sheer thought that he was being appropriate at all. "You know what, I am not doing this. Not tonight. "Mercedes pointed in the direction of the front of the house. "I don't care where you go but you need to leave."

"I'm not leaving until we talk about this. Please." Sam reached out to grasp Mercedes' hand but she yanked it from its reach.

"You have exactly 5 minutes to pack a bag and go. Or don't pack a bag either way you're leaving this house unless God comes down in the physical form from his comfy cloud or wherever and He and President Barack Obama both Sit me down and persuade me to change my mind. And since I don't see that happening anytime in the foreseeable EVER then you will in fact be getting the Hell out my house." With that Mercedes stormed out of the family room and into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine.

Sam knew he didn't really have a choice in the matter. He knew his wife meant what she said and he deserved every ounce of anger she threw his way. He had betrayed his best friend and his vows and he knew he was going to have to pay greatly for it. He headed towards the hall closet to retrieve his gym bag and indeed pack a few things. The entire time he was in the bedroom packing Mercedes sat on her side of the bed silently letting tears fall from her eyes. He couldn't stand to his her hurting so Sam grabbed up a handful of items threw them into the bag and headed towards the door. Before he exited out the bedroom he stopped and turned to face his wife one last time. " I am truly sorry and I do love you" were the last words he spoke.

When Sam stepped outside he remembered that his truck was still at the bar and that he also lacked a cell phone so instead of going back into the house to dial a car service, he decided to take the thirty minute walk back to his car.

When she heard the last click of the lock on the front door, Mercedes slid to her knees from her bed and continued to sob. Everything about her relationship was now being questioned. How could she not have noticed that Sam was being unfaithful? Why hadn't the girls ever mentioned "daddy's friend".

Weakly Mercedes rose from the floor. She had cried every ounce of tear out she felt. Just then her cell phone rang. It was her sister. She considered letting it ring but since her daughters were with her she decided against it provided something could be wrong with one of them.

Taking in a deep breath Mercedes offered a hello.

"Hi mama! We are eating green ice cream! And Bailey is being scared of Aunty Sydney's dogs. She was crying for a long time. I wasn't scared tho' ma, I was a big girl when I saw them." Mercedes heart smiled a little. She loved hearing her daughters' voices. Riley was the tomboy-ish of the set. Nothing scared her. She was always climbing, jumping and daring Bailey to do something. Bailey on the other hand was only interested in dresses, shoes and her beloved pink accessories. Anything that threatened to get her dirty was not for Bailey. Struggling to find a balance in her voice Mercedes replied "that's good baby, I'm glad you're having fun." Mercedes could hear riley in the background asking for the phone so she instructed Bailey to hand the phone to her sister. " Mama I wanna come home. Aunty Sydney's dogs are going to bite me and Riley keeps on teasing me mama. Please can you or daddy come get me?" This was usually what happened whenever Bailey was without one of her parents for a few hours. Mercedes calmly explained to Bailey "honey, if I come pick you up, you won't get to see the movie in the morning with your aunt and your sister. You're going to miss out on the pizza and popcorn and all the arcade games that Aunty Syd lets you play after the movie. Do you really wanna miss all that? When Bailey took too long answering her mother Mercedes knew she had won. "love you lee. Give big kisses to aunty and Rhi" Don't worry baby nothing is going to bite you and I will be there tomorrow to pick you up." Knowng her mom was right Bailey offered an "ok mama I love you too." Before hanging up the phone. It was now Mercedes turn to wash off the events of the day and try to get some sleep.

When she awoke from her slumber it was almost noon. After adjusting her eyes, Mercedes rolled over and reached for her cell phone off the nightstand. She saw that she had three voicemails and a few text messages. Putting her phone on speaker she played the voicemails first. The first one was from her manager reminding her for the thousandth time that she had a meeting with her label Monday morning. The second was from her manicurist wondering where she was because she was late to her appointment that morning. And the last was a message from Sam letting her know that he purchased a new phone that morning and that he wanted to sit down and talk with her. She knew that eventually she would have to talk to Sam, especially before the kids came home but she wasn't ready to just then. Plus she hadn't had her morning coffee and the day was already venturing out of morning and into afternoon. By the time Mercedes finished getting dressed, returning calls and emails and trying to write some new material for her album it was going on 7pm. She figured since her sister was keeping the girls an extra night she should stop ignoring Sam's Phone calls and speak to him, But just as she went for her cell phone to call him the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?" She called out as she neared the door. When she got near the door she peeked out the side window to see red and blue flashing lights in her drive way. Immediately she went to the door and opened it.

"Yes officers? May I help you? she stared into the eyes of two uniformed officers and awaited their response.

"Good evening. Are you Mrs. Mercedes Jones- Evans? The first officer asked.

"Yes I am. Is there a problem officer?" the worry was evident on her face and her heart began to pound.

"Ma'am there has been an accident. We need you to come with us" said the same officer.

Now the shock showed completely showed all over her. "an accident, who was in an accident?"

"ma'am it is imperative that you come with us right now. We will explain it all on the way to the hospital" the second officer spoke this time and by the bass and authority in his voice Mercedes knew that he meant business. She ran to the kitchen to grab her purse and phone and fled out the door to the officer's already running car.

As soon as she was in the backseat of the squad car the officers backed out of her driveway and sped down the street with sirens blaring on their way to New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Who was in an accident? did they survive? what does this mean for Sam and Mercedes? New chapter coming soon!