Missing

***Eighteen years ago***

Leona's Point of View

It started as any other day, but I never knew he would change my whole life. With just a sudden glare, Henry Burket threw my life down a spiraling downfall, but I would do it all again.

"ZELA!" I scream up the stairs as I wait for her, leaning against the staircase. "YOUR GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" I scream after her as I hear her little footsteps emerging from her room.

"I'm going mommy" Zela little voice emerges as she walks down the stairs as I smile as I see her again. Her little pigtails, her pink shoes and her beautiful smile brought my own to my lips.

"Come on, honey" I coo to Zela as I take her hand into mine and walk her out the door.

*************

"And class that's it for today" I say as the iconic bell rings. "Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow" I announce throughout the classroom as I start to erase the chalkboard.

"Can I please talk to you?" I hear somebody from behind me as I sigh.

"I'm sorry but my conference hours are 5:00 to 7:00 on Tuesday" I inform them as suddenly I turn around and I finally see him.

There before me stood a man like I never expected. Curly haired, hazel eyes and a blazer. I think right there was when I knew, Henry Burket put me under a spell.

"I'm Michael's father" The man explains as I can't talk, I can't move, I'm completely frozen. "And I wanted to talk to you about his grades" He tells me as suddenly I'm brought back to reality.

"Yes" I start as the man in front of me stands in confusion. "I'm Leona Sanchez. You wanted to talk about Michael's grades?" I ask him as I try to keep myself busy. Picking up the spare pencils that littered the desks. "But he really needs the extra help" I tell him as I try not to look at him, something about his eyes made me feel like the most vile creature. Like I was cheating on my husband from a five feet distance. "But I don't have any extra time right now, I have to pick up my daughter" I tell him as I rush to my desk and grab my purse. "I can meet with your wife next time if you have work or something" I tell him as I cling to my purse. "We can meet again Tuesday at this same time" I quickly say as I speed walk out of the room and run out of the school in frustration.

************

That night, as I stood over the stove my conscience was in jeopardy. I couldn't help but think I cheated. I indulged myself in somebody else's looks, company that I found attractive, and I hated that I did that.

"Dinners ready" I announce wearily as I try to distance my thoughts. Putting on a strong face as I place the green beans on the table. And the moment I dreaded finally happened. I saw my husband's face, cherishing his bliss in front of me. "How was your day?" I question him as he shrugs.

"Fine" he barely lets out as with that one word I broke at my guilt.

"I'm not feeling too well" I say as I stand beside the table. "Thomas can you watch Zela?" I ask him as he just quietly nod his head and I rush up the stairs. My legs carrying me to me and Thomas's shared room as I close the door behind me and sigh. As the guilt hits me in one huge way, my legs aching at the weight. As they barely carry me to the bed as I sit there and think.

How could I? Break up my family? But perhaps it was broken up before? It had been years, specifically our fifth date since I laughed with my own husband. I was so wrapped up in this fantasy as the perfect little housewife to realize that maybe, just maybe I'd fallen out of the man I pledge my life to. Did this realization make me a monster? Was I to now grow horns and descend to hell? How could I do this to my daughter? The answer was easy, I couldn't! I wouldn't dare!

As I sat there, it came to me in a epiphany, I'd ignore the man that stirred these feeling I buried. Not for the sake of me, but for the sake of my daughter.

Finally with this thought as my last hope my legs regain their strength and I stand in them again. Standing back up I see one of Thomas's shirts tucked behind the closet door.

"This man can never put his laundry in a simple basket" I taunt him behind his back as I bend down and pick up the simple shirt as when I stand back up I don't see it, I smell it. The scent of another woman, the overwhelming scent of pomegranate and passion fruit drowning my nose. A weird scent indeed.

And it all made perfect sense. Thomas was never mine to have. As I dug in the pockets of the man I grew to love over the years I saw it, a pair of diamond earring and underwear that weren't mine!

I was here, shivering at the thought of even feeling for another man as my husband laid with some one else without any thing close to repulse! Why?

As my eyes filled with tears, feeling nauseous at the thought. But there was no other earthly explanation for this. And I was ashamed to say that I loved my husband, and my heart broke. As my fingers twitch with rage but I stood in the same place as before only thanks to my heartache.

But now I knew, I knew why he would never try. His eyes gleamed when he was without me, and when we were together it felt as if his feeling had died for me long ago. The sad part was he never cared since the beginning, not even enough to fight for me.

That night was a blur, at least that's what I preferred it to be. As I slept next to the man I promised my heart to and I asked myself how could he sleep knowing what he was doing to us? To our child? And why was I the one feeling this pain? The next day went by so fast, as I was in deep thought. And before I knew it I sat across Henry Burket, still riddled in my own head.

His words flew over my head as I thought, was it me? Did I wear the marriage out?

"Hello?" Henry calls to me from my overwhelmed thoughts as he lays his hand on mine.

"Yes" I quickly say as I try to focus. "I'm fine" I say as I move my hand away from his, "Continue, please" I ask of him as he obliges.

But as his mouth continues to move I don't understand a damn thing that he's saying. And I finally cry in the midst of it all.

"Are you okay?" He ask me as I really don't know the answer to his question. Between those murky lines, physically I was fine but inside I felt as if I was dying.

"There is just so much going on, it's all so.....devastating" I admit to him as I try to stop the tears but I can't. My heart is morning it's pain. "I just don't know what I did wrong?" I question myself as Henry stands up from the table. With one hand he helps me stand up and pulls me close to him. Hugging me and caressing my hair as I sobbed.

"It's okay" he reassure me but strangely those words seem to make all the difference in the world for me.

"He had to have cheated for a reason" I say weakly through my slowed tears as Henry pulls away slightly and looks to me. "Was I the reason?" I ask him as he nods his head to my question. "I ruined my own marriage!" I sigh as the tears pick up again, and the next thing I know I feel a foreign warmth residing on my lips.

This warmth was like no other. I felt what others described as passion, something I'd never felt with my own husband. As bliss filled me he suddenly pulls away. His hazel eyes mocking my own.

"I couldn't let a woman like you doubt your worth" he justifies as I'm surprised. Mostly for the fact that I was just kissed by a stranger and trying to identify the feeling that he made me feel. "I'm sorry" he says as he lets go of my arm and takes his coat off the chair and heads for the door.

"Don't be sorry" I say as I chase after him, catching him by his jackets sleeve. "I'm sorry" I say as he turns to me and I grab him by the hem of jacket and kiss him once more.

The dying feeling Henry Burket stirred inside of me were only the beginning. And like the best story it never got the ending it truly deserved.