One Sunday at a Time Read online

  One Sunday at a Time

  Book Two of the Forever Divas Series

  By E. N. Joy

  One Sunday at a Time: Book Two of the Forever Divas Series Copyright © 2016 E.N. Joy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes used in reviews.

  First Trade Paperback Printing April 2016

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all the women out there who feel like they have so much going on in their life that they are about to lose control. Know that losing control is a good thing . . . when you plan on letting God take control.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to acknowledge Stacy Johnson-Leonard, Shawn Hamilton, K.k. Burks, Tonya Woodfolk, Qiana Drennen, and Jocelyn Boffman Green. You didn’t know me from Eve or Adam—I’ve yet to meet all of you in person—yet you became my unofficial street and social media team by supporting me and advocating for me and my work simply on the strength of your belief in what I do. That alone speaks volumes as to why I write. Thank you for sharing my work and introducing me to readers around the world who otherwise would have no idea who E. N. Joy is. Lovers of the written word like you truly makes an author feel like a rock star. Thank you!

  OTHER BOOKS BY E. N. JOY:

  Me, Myself and Him

  She Who Finds a Husband

  Been There, Prayed That

  Love, Honor or Stray

  Trying to Stay Saved

  I Can Do Better All By Myself

  And You Call Yourself a Christian

  The Perfect Christian

  The Sunday Only Christian

  I Ain’t Me No More

  More Than I Can Bear

  You Get What You Pray For

  When All Is Said and Prayed

  Behind Every Good Woman (eBook and audio only)

  She’s No Angel

  Ordained by the Streets (eBook only)

  “A Woman’s Revenge” (Anthology: Best Served Cold)

  Flower in My Hair (eBook only)

  Even Sinners Have Souls (Edited by E. N. Joy)

  Even Sinners Have Souls Too (Edited by E. N. Joy)

  Even Sinners Still Have Souls (Edited by E. N. Joy)

  The Secret Olivia Told Me (N. Joy)

  Operation Get Rid of Mom’s New Boyfriend (N. Joy)

  Sabella and the Castle Belonging to the Troll (N. Joy)

  Prologue

  “You can’t leave me!” Deborah yelled at Lynox, spittle flying from her mouth. She looked like a madwoman. She felt like a madwoman. Her hair was in disarray, and perspiration had beaded up on her forehead. It was a wonder she didn’t have foam caked up in the corners of her mouth. She was acting rabid, like the victim in a science fiction horror movie who had failed to escape the vicious plague that was attacking all of Earth.

  She needed help; that was no longer the million-dollar question. The question now was, why hadn’t she gotten the help she so desperately needed, or rather, why hadn’t she continued getting the help she’d once been receiving? For a minute there she had felt that she’d been doing so well that she didn’t need any help. There had always been the possibility that if she fell back into her slump again, she could just pick up where she’d left off in her treatment. Not only had some of her old traits reared their ugly heads, but she was far worse off now than she had ever been before. What had started off as a manageable snowball was now an avalanche. If Lynox didn’t get out of the way, he’d be buried alive underneath it.

  “I can leave you, I am leaving you, and I’m taking the kids with me,” was Lynox’s reply to his wife’s statement.

  So now not only was her husband leaving her, but he was also taking their two sons with him? The rage that welled up in Deborah’s being was uncontrollable. That didn’t come as any surprise. She’d lost jurisdiction over her emotions a long time ago. At first, when her life had seemed to be getting hectic, she had managed somewhat. She’d hidden the darkness under the beam of an invisible flashlight. Outsiders couldn’t see the darkness or the object projecting the false lighting. But then, emotionally, it had felt as if one thing was piling on top of the other. Anger issues. Depression. Anxiety. The need to be in control. Compulsion for order. There had been times, after researching the term, when she’d even thought she might be bipolar. Heck, maybe she had been experiencing a little bit of all of them, which was a recipe for disaster. With her husband standing in front of her, a suitcase in hand, and threatening to leave her, it looked like the recipe had been followed to a tee, and now the timer on the oven was sounding. It was done. Over. Finished. Kaput.

  “Why are you doing this?” Deborah cried out. “Why are you hurting me?” Deborah stood there, blocking the closed bedroom door. She’d already told Lynox that he was leaving over her dead body. Those hadn’t merely been desperate words flung out of her mouth. She’d meant it.

  “I was hurting you when I was pampering and pacifying you, instead of making you go do something about it,” Lynox told her.

  “So now what?” Deborah raised her arms and then allowed them to fall to her sides. “You call this helping me?”

  Lynox shook his head. “No. I call this giving you the opportunity to help yourself.” Lynox slowly walked toward his wife. It pained him so much to see her like this. He didn’t understand how a person’s emotions and behavior could shift so erratically. Why was it that he and Deborah could experience the best night in the world, but then Deborah would wake up mad at the world? Or how could one little thing that threw her off schedule or was out of order send her on a rampage?

  Although Deborah loved her job as a literary agent and an editor, it was hard for Lynox to tell sometimes. Getting steady, good-paying projects was every freelance editor’s dream. But as an agent, sometimes Deborah could get overwhelmed by submissions or needy authors. So when all her projects collided or piled on top of one another, she often operated out of fear of not getting done what she already had on her plate before another healthy portion was served up. When Deborah was working on one project, her mind would already be on the next one, and the one after that. God forbid Lynox or the children needed her to do something for them. She’d bite their heads off just for asking.

  For Deborah, there were instances when she felt pangs of guilt for feeling as though she’d put her job before her family. She’d be regretful, which would make her feel like less than a good wife and mother, sending her into a bout of depression. Everything about her life was like a double-edged sword, and now she was cutting up. Lynox had already received one wound too many. It was time for him to go, but Deborah wasn’t going to allow that without putting up a fight.

  “I promise I’ll be better,” Deborah pleaded, looking into her man’s eyes. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” Deborah bounced up and down like a child begging her parent to buy her something from the ice-cream truck.

  Lynox rested his hands on Deborah’s shoulders. The gesture was both to comfort her and to make her stop bouncing. He could see that his leaving was eating her up. He was afraid. He really didn’t know what his wife would do after he walked out that door, but he was more afraid of what might happen if he didn’t.

  “Don’t you get it, baby? I don’t want you to do whatever I want you to do. I want you to do what you need to do. You need help, and unless you feel that you need help and you get that help for yourself, things won’t get better.”

  Lynox was right. The way
Deborah stared into his eyes with no rebuttal was silent proof that she agreed. Still, if she did get help, she wanted him to be there by her side during the process.

  “I will be getting help for myself because I want to,” Deborah said. “But I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t doing it for the family too. I know if I’m better, then you guys will be better,” she said. Made sense too, because when she wasn’t happy, nobody was happy. Her misery seemed to eject from her pores, bringing everyone in the house down or forcing them to walk on eggshells. Even her nine-month-old son was whiny and cranky when Deborah was having a bad day or just a bad moment even.

  “I will support you,” Lynox said. “For the sake of our children and our marriage, I will support you.”

  Deborah exhaled a gasp of hot air. “Oh, yes. God, thank you!” Deborah threw her arms around Lynox and cried. This time hers were tears of joy and relief. She gripped his shirt, holding on to him as if she never wanted to let go. She didn’t want to let go.

  “But I’ll just be doing it from another address.”

  Instantly, Deborah’s demeanor changed. She stiffened, and her tears of joy seemed to stop midway down her cheeks. She pulled back from Lynox but still gripped his shirt. “You’re dying to go out there and be with her, aren’t you?” Deborah glared at Lynox. “That’s what your leaving is really about.”

  “Be with whom, Deborah?” Lynox noticed that Deborah’s eyes were turning wild. “No. You know what? I’m not even about to do this with you. Not again.” Lynox removed Deborah’s hands from his shirt and walked over to the door. He turned to face Deborah. “Call me when you get some help . . . for real this time.” He opened the door, his back now to Deborah.

  He should have thought twice about turning his back on Deborah. The Beats Pill speaker crashing against the door, missing Lynox’s head by inches, was proof of that. Lynox held the doorknob. He gripped it tightly, causing the palm of his hand to turn red. The veins in his hand were pulsating. He squeezed his eyes shut so hard that he got an instant headache. It was like déjà vu all over again from only a couple of months ago. He had to get out of there before things got physical, like they had the last time. He still carried far too much regret from that night to pile on more. He opened his eyes and took two steps out the door.

  “You took vows. You said you would be with me until death do us part,” Deborah shouted at Lynox’s back.

  Deborah’s words stopped Lynox in his tracks. He turned around and faced his wife. “The death of what, though, Debbie? The death of being in love? The death of trust? Given how our marriage is disintegrating, the death of one of us? How many things have to die, things that are supposed to be the foundation of our marriage, before the marriage itself dies?”

  Deborah had no reply for her husband. Sure, the vows they’d each read from the Bible and exchanged included the words “till death do us part.” But Lynox was right. Their vows didn’t specifically say that this death was the physical death of the husband or the wife. So many things had already died, some that probably couldn’t even be resuscitated. Deborah was willing to ride this thing out, though, until the wheels fell off. That was easy for her to say, considering that she was the one wearing them down until they did.

  How had things gotten this bad? They were at the point of no return. And now she feared that once Lynox walked out that door, he wouldn’t return. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing that she was the cause of her marriage being over, the cause of her family being split. She couldn’t live like that. She couldn’t live without Lynox. She couldn’t live without her family together as one. She couldn’t live. She wouldn’t. So allowing Lynox to walk out that door and go on with his life, leaving her on her own to bear such devastation, wasn’t an option. So Deborah did what she had to do to stop the pain before it ever hit.

  Chapter 1

  A few months prior . . .

  “Would you know what crazy looked like if you saw it?” Deborah said as she sat on her therapist’s couch. It was a different therapist than the one she’d seen regularly almost two years ago.

  Prior to her arriving for her first visit with this particular therapist, Deborah had, once again, pictured the stereotypical couch in a shrink’s office. Her old therapist had had a leather one. She figured almost every therapist would offer his or her patients a couch. She’d also pictured herself being the stereotypical patient, lying on a couch and pouring out her life story to a stranger. The previous therapist had never even got a quarter of Deborah’s life story before she stopped seeing her.

  So here Deborah was once again, taking another stab at it. She’d share her deepest and darkest moments with someone who wouldn’t judge her. Well, he might judge her, but it would go against all his professional ethics to do so verbally . . . to her face. No, he’d save it for pillow talk with his significant other. Deborah was okay with that. What she wasn’t okay with was lying down on the couch on which now she sat. It looked like a tweed couch someone had salvaged from the curb on trash pickup day. It gave Deborah the heebie-jeebies. Her skin crawled as she imagined all the unseen bedbugs that might be getting comfortable on her clothing. On top of whatever the outrageous therapy bill might be, there would be an exterminating bill.

  All this better be worth it, she thought. She had said she would never get to the point in her life where she had to see a therapist again, and now she felt so foolish, having done exactly that. She felt like a failure, like her past treatments, efforts, and prayers had all been in vain. Here she was, back at square one, after she’d come so far. That was one of the reasons she had decided to try a new therapist. She didn’t want the old one to think that she was a loser who couldn’t keep it together. And that was the same reason why she hadn’t told her husband anything about this appointment. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Sure that policy had once been meant for the military and not for marriages, but if the shoe fit . . .

  Deborah had chosen this therapist because she’d heard he was one of the best psychiatrists in town. Word in the industry was that if he couldn’t help put all the nuts and bolts in place, then the patient was pretty much broken for life. God, Deborah hoped she could be fixed. Walking around broken, whether physically or mentally, amounted to less than a good quality of life.

  This MD had been officially back to practicing for only a few months, but he had been highly recommended by one of the sisters at Deborah’s church, New Day Temple of Faith. As a matter of fact, it was her fellow church member’s praise report and testimony about what he’d done to help her situation with her ex-husband and his birth mother that had penetrated Deborah’s spirit and given her the impetus to seek him out.

  “Why would you ask that? If I’d know what crazy looked like if I saw it?” Dr. Vanderdale asked Deborah as he sat behind his old wooden desk. It looked as though it, once upon a time, might have been sitting on the curb, right next to the couch. When he had decided to start practicing again, he had had his old office furniture brought out of storage, rather than buying new items to furnish his office. It made him feel like he’d never stopped practicing. He’d had it all professionally cleaned, dusted, and polished, though. “Do you think you are crazy?”

  “Isn’t that why people like me come to see people like you?” Deborah asked legitimately. She had done her research when initially trying to find a therapist. She had needed to know what the difference was between a clinical therapist, a psychiatrist, a counselor, and a psychologist. When all was said and done, she hadn’t been able to grasp 100 percent how one could help her more than the other, and so she’d gone for the one who could write prescriptions. Because she had been about a day away from trying to find a street drug to get her mind right.

  “Growing up, I was always told that people who go see shrinks also get a monthly check,” Deborah said.

  Dr. Vanderdale squinted his eyes and shifted his head slightly to the side to signify that he wasn’t quite sure he understood what Deborah was trying to say.

  �
�You know, a Social Security check?” Deborah determined by the expression on Dr. Vanderdale’s face that he still didn’t get it. “Mental disability check.” Deborah took her index finger and twirled it at her temple. “You know . . . cuckoo.”

  Dr. Vanderdale nodded his understanding. “Ahh, I get it.” He chuckled. “I know there is a stigma attached to seeking therapy, especially in the African American community.”

  Deborah gave Dr. Vanderdale the side eye. “And you would know this because . . .” Given Dr. Vanderdale’s blond hair, which had some gray peeking out, pale face, and green eyes, Deborah couldn’t imagine this man knew anything about what went on in the African American community. Not giving Dr. Vanderdale the opportunity to respond, Deborah added, “Oh, I get it. Knowing that was part of your professional research and studies. If you are going to try to help African American patients, I suppose you would need to know a little bit about them.”

  “That too, I suppose,” Dr. Vanderdale said, “but mainly because I’ve worked with quite a number of African Americans in the past. On top of that, I have two African American granddaughters.”

  Just then everything clicked in Deborah’s head. “Oh, yes, that’s right. Paige’s girls.”

  Dr. Vanderdale was the former father-in-law of Paige, the church member who had referred Deborah. Even though his son, who had once been married to Paige, had passed away, Paige still remained close with the family. Her oldest daughter was from a previous relationship with a black man, while her youngest daughter had been fathered by Dr. Vanderdale’s son. The Vanderdales made no distinctions between the two. They were both their grandchildren, no matter what.

  Dr. Vanderdale nodded his head. “Yes, Adele and Norma are Grandpa’s little princesses.” His face lit up, like that of any proud grandpa. He turned the five-by-seven picture he had sitting on his desk in Deborah’s direction so that she could get a good look.