Читать книгу Betrayal In Blood - Michael Benson - Страница 20

CHAPTER 13

Root Canals and Crownings

One thing Kevin took care of right away was Tabby’s teeth. Because they were snaggled, they had never been given high priority on Tabby’s vanity meter. Neglect had caused her teeth to go from bad to worse. The nerve had died in one of the top front teeth, and that tooth had discolored. Many of her teeth now caused her constant pain.

Tabby needed a full dental overhaul, and so Tabby underwent a series of root canals and crownings. Her appearance improved tremendously. The new smile was just the first step in Tabby’s playing of her latest and greatest role, that of lawyer’s wife.

Her hair was cut and allowed to remain straight. And she completely changed the clothes she wore. According to Tabby’s sister, her behavior did not change when she married Kevin, but her dressing style sure did.

“I didn’t notice a change attitudewise,” Samantha said. “But she did feel that she had to be, appearance-wise, the lawyer’s wife. She wore a lot of suits. She really toned down, because before she dressed pretty wild. I don’t mean wild bad. I mean she liked to wear funky clothes. She had this pink dress. It came to . . . well, it was real short. And it had polka dots on it. She would wear big, long earrings that dangled down to her shoulders. She wore makeup and everything was real bright. After she married Kevin, she kept her old clothes in her closet, but I never saw her wear them a whole lot.”

Tabby’s mom agreed that Tabby loved the change in class her marriage brought. “For Tabby, the whole idea of being the wife of a lawyer, the whole persona, fascinated her,” Ginny said.

Persona was one thing, and real life was another. It didn’t take Tabby too long to realize that life in the big suburban house was not the heaven-on-earth that she had dreamed about.

“She loved it, but only up to a point. She was having trouble with the fact that she was never around people her own age. Everybody was Kevin’s friends,” Ginny said.

Infidelity entered the picture right away, according to Ginny: “She told me in the first six months that she was married that she thought Kevin was having an affair, but she couldn’t prove it. Something about a hotel room and bubble baths and champagne.”

Tabby attempted to gain information through cyber-sleuthing. She read her husband’s private electronic communications, Ginny said. “Then Tabby said she read his e-mail and she knew who it was—but she still couldn’t prove it, because she couldn’t tell if he was really having an affair or if he was just mouthing off on the e-mail. He wasn’t happy that she had gotten into his e-mail account.”

Despite these domestic disputes, Tabby became pregnant twice and had two kids—Kevin C. Bryant Jr., known as K.C., in 1998, and Steven in 2000.

And still Kevin wasn’t making ends meet and she had to work. After a time she had to work two jobs. Kevin’s folks looked after the babies a lot. In addition to her duties at Kevin’s office, Tabby took a second job as a teller at the Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company Bank (M & T Bank) in Perinton. As a teller she worked the “drive-thru” window, and gave lollipops to drivers who turned up their radios so she could better hear the music.

On weekends she sometimes chose not to be with Kevin and Kevin’s friends. Instead, she would pack the kids in the car and head down to Greenwood. Actually, Tabby already returned regularly to Steuben County on weekends, both before and after she had her boys. She would visit her family and attend her old church in Greenwood. According to her old boss Andy Carbone, she often made a point of stopping back at J.C.’s Café to say hello to her old customers and coworkers.

Befitting her position as the wife of the boss, and mother of the boss’s children, Tabby was promoted to head secretary at Kevin’s office.