THE BOSS OF BOSSES: THE COMEBACK OF JUDE ARIMIDAS

Chapter 4: AFTEREFFECTS

Chapter 4: AFTEREFFECTS

Jude believed that he had to be dreaming. That had not just happened. It was not even a dream, it was a fucking nightmare. A nightmare out of the pit of hell.

He rushed to the doors, knocking and knocking, and then the windows. But they had all been closed and the drapes pulled closed as well.

He was tormented with the knowledge that the man was probably still in there, fucking his wife. He was devastated. He didn't know what to do.

His neighbors had started to peek out of their houses, wondering what the ruckus was about.

He was bruised and dirty. He was in pains. Emotionally and physically and mentally, he didn't know how to begin to unravel the deep depths of his pain and his anger and humiliation.

How could Alicia do that to him?

He cradled his rapidly forming black eye in his palm and shuffled like a defeated man back to his car.

He entered the car and this time he slammed the door. The old rickety thing creaked and cried out, but it closed.

In deep grief, Jude punched the steering wheel. He punched it again and again until even his knuckles hurt. Now the whole of him burned and ached with pain.

Jude gripped the steering wheel and his head lowered slowly, achingly to rest on it. But he did not cry.

He breathed in and out, easing the pain on his lungs.

His phone blinked beside him as it started buzzing. He didn't even look at the stupid old thing.

He couldn't remain here in the lot when he had just been humiliated. He was going to go somewhere else and figure this out. It still felt unreal, like the last few hours had not happened.

He started the car and drove out of his driveway, leaving his neighborhood as his hands shook on the steering wheel. Shook with barely concealed rage. His life had ended as he knew it, his world was now upended, but everything outside was still the same.

The night traffic continued and families sat in front of TV's in their living room, as if all was perfect with the world.

He drove to Brady's car wash and parked in the lot out front. The car wash had since parked up and now the place was empty and quiet. Maybe Brady was still inside. The other man often remained late into the night.

Jude stepped out of his car and closed the door after taking his phone and the keys. He could barely see out of his left eye and he wobbled in pain to the front door of Brady's store.

The door was locked. Which meant that no one was inside. Jude unlocked the door with his own set of keys. Because he sometimes locked up for Brady, he always had the keys to the store.

He entered and then locked the door behind him. He was going to have to sleep here. There was no other place he knew, he had a few friends from his school, and he knew he could probably count on them, but he would rather not just appear out of the blues on their doorstep.

He went inside Brady's inner office and settled his long, tired frame on the couch resting against the wall. He groaned as his back met the hard ridges underneath the surface of the couch.

It was now that the events of the day were dawning on him. Fully replaying in his head.

Alicia had cheated on him. Alicia, his high school sweetheart, now despised him.

Because he was poor, she said. Because he was now the equivalent of trash in her eyes.

His phone screen came on and the low buzzing irritated him. He picked it out of his pocket and tapped on the screen. It was a message.

Who on earth was texting him?

He tapped on the notification and was carried into the message itself. A credit alert.

—$10,000,000,000