Chapter 46 I'll Stand By You

“I love her,” John said confidently taking Anna’s hand and wiping away the fresh tears with the other.
Melissa’s mouth fell open and Anna’s heart soar.
“What? Are you crazy?”Melissa seethed.
“No, I trust my wife.”
“You, trust her? I didn’t raise a fool and she is clearly having sex with someone else in these pictures, what is wrong with you?”
“I know she would never do anything like this.”
“But it’s right there in front of you! Your wife is on top of someone else.”
“That is not my wife in those pictures,” John said as he smiled at Anna.
“What!!” Melissa screamed in fury “Are you crazy?”
“I know every inch of my wife’s body and I can tell you that is not her body.”
“You’re so blind, She is lying to you, how can you doubt the proof right in front of your eyes.”
“As I said I trust my wife first and foremost, but the time stamp on the photos says they were taken last week. The woman in this picture does not have a tattoo on her lower back like my wife does. Someone is obviously lying to you.”
Melissa’s face fell and the color drained out of it leaving her a sickly grey. She opened her mouth and stared. Anna stood tall and straight beside her husband, so proud of him she could burst.
“Who gave you these pictures?” John said in a deadly calm voice.
“John, it doesn’t matter does it?”
“Actually it does, this goes way beyond trying to break us up, this is malicious and I’m going to make sure someone pays for it. Who gave them to you, I won’t ask again.”
“I…I… It was Isabel.” She finally muttered looking away unable to meet their eyes.
“Did she tell you these were fake?”
“She told me they were real. I was just so heartbroken for you darling.”
“Really, cut the crap Melissa,” Anna said in a growl, “You couldn’t care less if he’d broken-hearted, you knew those pictures were fake, admit it!”
“I love my son and would do anything for him, including trying to save him from you.”
“Mother that is enough!”
“It is not nearly enough!” Melissa shouted grabbing John and pulling him away from Anna. She shook him roughly a crazed look in her eyes. “You do not need to throw your life away.”
John pulled her off him and gripped her shoulders firmly. He looked into her eyes and make sure she was listening to him. “Mother, you have stuck your nose in where it doesn’t belong for the last time. I want you and May to move out of the house.”
Melissa looked up at him lost as if she were a child in woods, completely bereft. Her lips trembled and she began to shake. “What?”
“I said move out of our house, both of you.”
“How can you pick her over us? We are your family.”
“You brought this on yourself, I warned you before that if you still came after Anna that you would need to get out. You didn’t do what I asked so now you have to go.”
“Where will we live? You would throw your sister and I out of the house onto the street?”
“No, actually I bought you a house on the other side of town. I had a feeling you couldn’t leave Anna alone. I’m just sorry it took me so long to do it.”
“You’re telling her you’re sorry?” Melissa screamed as she grabbed his wrist hard,” How about your own mother, who you’re throwing out on the street?”
“You are dramatic as always,” he said as he shook her off “You and Melissa will be fine in the new house. I’m hiring movers in the morning. For now, I want you both out, I don’t care where you go, but get out of my house.”
Melissa deflated as John shook her free. “So this is it? You choose this low life trash over me and your sister, your father would be so disappointed in you.”
“No,” John said with Icy fury “He would be disappointed in you for how you treated me and my wife.”
Melissa stood, wiped her eyes, and straightened her shirt. She glared at John. “You know nothing about marriage or how to treat those who love you. Mark my words you will be sorry that you chose her over us. Don’t come crying to me when she turns out to be just as awful as I told you she was.”
“Out.” He said pointing at the door “Now.”
Melissa nodded and turned to Anna. “You will pay believe me.”
“Mother now!” John roared pointing again.
Melissa turned and walked out slamming the door into the wall so hard that a picture fell and shattered.
Anna turned into John’s arms, thankful that he trusted her. She smiled up at him and cupped his face bringing him down for a kiss.
“Thank you for trusting me, it means everything to me.”
“I told you it was you and me against the world when we got married, that I would stand by you. “Plus, you didn’t really think I’d forget the tattoo you got on our honeymoon?”
“I’d almost forgotten it,” Anna said as she ran her hand under her shirt over the small group of three birds that resided on her lower back.
“I never did,” He said with a smile as he ran his hands across it “I remember everything about you.”
Anna smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist as Melissa slammed the front door. She saw the pictures lying on the table and felt unease creep up her spine as Melissa’s words replayed in her mind. The determination had been real and it caused fear to ripple over her as she worried at what they might try next.