Chapter 4
"You're a filthy tart," shouted John viciously. "You couldn't even keep your hands off my own brother. What kind of woman are you?"
Selina was afraid. She had never seen John like this. Normally he was quiet, and not prone to loud and violent outbursts. She would have to calm him down. Unless she did there's no telling what he would do. It wasn't the divorce that bothered her any more, though that was still in the back of her mind. Selina was afraid of something more dangerous, something more tragic. What if he should begin to assault her. John was a terribly jealous man. There was no telling what he might do. He might even try to kill her.
"Please John ..." she pleaded, "You're acting terribly childish. Let's discuss this like two civilized people. After all we're not children any more. We're two grownups so let's talk. I'm sure we can straighten this out."
John started laughing.
"What do you take me for?" he asked. "Some kind of moron or something? What's there to talk about? You put out for my brother. You don't even let me come to bed with you, but with my brother Wendell, you don't mind. You're a shameless little bitch, and I'm sorry I ever married you. That's the biggest mistake I ever made."
"If you want a divorce," started Selina very slowly, "I won't stop you. You have a perfect right to a divorce. I'll admit, I've been far from the perfect wife. But if you give me a second chance, you'll see I'll be good to you. You'll see, I'll change."
Selina was terrified of the prospect of a divorce. It was the last thing in the world that she wanted. Here she was, in America, a foreign land. At least she had a husband to depend and rely on. At least she wasn't all alone. At least she wasn't by herself.
If John ever left her, she didn't know what she would do. She had no education. She couldn't read or write. She wouldn't be able to get any kind of decent job. Without John, Selina was helpless.
She would be turned into a gutter tramp. She would have to sell her body in order to survive. She would have to become a prostitute, just like her sisters.
And that was the one thing that Selina couldn't stand. She would commit suicide first She didn't want to enter a life of vice and degradation. She knew how such girls ended up. By the time they're thirty, a street-walker is all washed up. Their faces grow old, and their bodies dry up. Selina didn't want that kind of future.
"Come on," she said once again, taking John's hand. "Come on and let's talk it over. I'm sure we can patch it all up."
Selina pressed herself against him, guiding his fingers to her soft nubile breasts.
"Please, sweetheart" she whispered, "don't be mad at me I didn't know what I was doing. I promise to be good to you from now on. I'll treat you real good, just like you want me to. All right, sweetums?"
When John had first entered, he had wanted to kill. After what he had seen that afternoon. And now he was all confused. He didn't know what he wanted.
Originally, John had talked to his brother Wendell about his problem with Selina. He didn't want to tell Wendell about his private life, but he couldn't help himself. He had no one else to turn to.
After listening, Wendell suggested that he talk to Selina, and try to find out what was bothering her. Why did she refuse to allow John into her bedroom.
"All I have to do is talk to her," Wendell had said. "I have a way with women I'll get to the bottom of it, and straighten it all out"
John agreed to this plan, with reluctance. He was afraid Selina would be angry with him for airing their dirty laundry in public. He never expected what occurred. Never, in a million years, did he suspect that his own wife would cheat on him. It never even entered his imagination.
Wendell said that he was meeting Selina at two o'clock. John figured that the meeting would only last an hour. So at about three, he took off from work, and drove over to Wendell's apartment He wanted to talk with Wendell, and find out what had occurred.
He was greeted by a most shattering scene. He watched from his car, as Wendell led Selina, up the stairs, to the house. They had just emerged from a cab, and she was kissing and hugging him, pressing herself against him wickedly.
John waited and waited, in his car, for the two of them to re-emerge. It was six-thirty when Selina left Wendell's apartment John didn't know what to think. He suspected that Selina had been seduced. He knew about his brother's reputation with women.
"I thought," said John, staring at Selina, who sat across from him in the living room, "that it was Wendell's fault I thought that he was the one responsible for what had happened. So, after you left the apartment I went up, to have it out with him, man to man. I even had a knife prepared. I was going to kill him. But what could I say, after hearing what he told me. He said that it was all your fault. That you had asked to come up to his apartment for talk, and that after five minutes of talking, you stripped naked and flung yourself against him. He said that it was all your fault He said I should get rid of you. You're no good."
"He's a bastard liar," snarled Selina. "I didn't want to go to bed with him. He forced me. It was all his fault. He forced me to come up to his place. He practically raped me. He said that if I didn't go down for him, he would beat me black and blue. I was afraid of him. Honest I was afraid of what he would do to me."
John scratched his head incredulously. He didn't know who to believe anymore. Nothing made any sense to him. Who was the bar? Who was telling the truth? Maybe they were both liars? There were so many questions in John's head that he was going batty. He was going out of his mind.
Should he believe Wendell's version of what had happened or his wife's?
John chose to believe his wife for various reasons. He now had a hold on her. From now on she would accede to his wishes. From now on she would do as he commanded. It would be just like it had been in the beginning. When John had married her-those were the happiest days of his life. He often thought about them and wished that things could have remained like that.
"Don't worry," Selina assured him, "things will be better. I'll be the best wife any man has ever had. You'll see. I'll give you such pleasure that you'll never regret you're decision. You'll never regret having given me a second chance."