Imperfect

T W E N T Y - F O U R - D A R R E L L R U S S E L L

My footsteps revived the steps loudly as I went down them.

My wife was in the living room, reading a news article from her phone—the article was about a woman killing her husband inside of their home with a kitchen knife.

The woman's name was Amanda Peters, who lived in Tennessee. The married couple had two children, one not being hers.

  On the article, the children's names were unknown—refusing to be listed.

Amanda Peters wasn't arrested for the murder. It was investigated as that the killing was self-defense—stating that the husband was an abusive man to her and that he was charging towards her with belt, threatening to choke her to death with it.

My wife was so intrigued with the online article, it frightened me a little—wondering if she would harm me if we get upset with each other.

Terri looked at me, wondering why I had that look on my face.

"What's wrong baby?" she asked me, putting the phone on her lap as she rubbed my chest gently.

"I saw how you looked while you were reading that article... would you ever do something like that to me?"

"That's a silly thing to ask," she laughed as she continued to rub my chest, "now why would I do something like that to you? I love you and you never abused me."

I got over it, being relieved—but soon jumped quickly as the telephone on the wall startled me.

"Why do we even have a phone line," my wife said, "we have smartphones now—we should have it disconnected."

I laughed at my wife as I walked towards the phone line slowly, catching my breath—waiting until my heartbeat slowed down to its normal speed.

Picking up the phone, I answered it, "This is the Russell residence, and may I ask who is calling here?"

"Hey," a female voice approached the phone, "I wanted to say congratulations on your daughter's small, church wedding."

"My daughter's small church wedding," I said shocked, looking at my wife, "who is this?"

Terri stood up from the couch, walking over closer to me, wanting to know what was going on during the phone call.

"This is Rachel," she answered, "she got married to my boyfriend's friend Clarence a few weeks ago—didn't you know?"

"We had no idea," I responded to the woman, upsettingly, "I had no idea..."

Not wanting to start a conversation with the woman, I immediately hung up the phone and watched my wife as she walked up to me, grabbing my arm, wanting to know what the woman had said during our phone conversation.

"What's going on," my wife begged for a answer, immediately, "what was that talk going on about our daughter's short church wedding?"

"She didn't say any names," I told my wife, "but, either Abigale or Kelsie married a guy named Clarence."

My wife eyes widened, not believing a word that I said.

  Her body began to shake—she started to lose control as the words didn't seem real to her.

I grabbed her body, holding on to her—rubbing her, making sure if she was alright.

It was more visible to see that my wife was upset, but you couldn't tell that I was upset.

Although it didn't seem like it, I was very upset about finding out that one of my daughters got secretly MARRIED—possibly again.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was Kelsie again... she did it once, so I believe she would do it again...