The Snow Angels: Part Three

❄❄❄❄❄❄ The Snow Angels: Part Three ❄❄❄❄❄❄

Melvin loved Claudia. He knew it right away. He bonded with her quickly over their similar struggles of failed musical aspirations, having to find work at run-down gas stations, as well as the grief of losing their mothers at a young, tender age. After a single romantic night together, he looked into the mirror and for the first time in a long time, he was able to smile. She made him able to smile.

But Claudia only loved his money. She didn’t tell him, but she already knew who Melvin was when he first walked into the Tiki bar the day prior. She recognized him as the son of one of the wealthiest and most influential landlords in the state of Texas. She thought he was rich. She was wrong. He kept up the ruse for as long as he possibly could have, letting her max out his credit cards, taking her to the most expensive restaurants he knew he couldn't afford, and keeping her away from his trailer park home as well as his minimum wage food service job.

But secrets are like jagged knives through the iron bonds of love. They create separation. They cause argument. When he wouldn't let her see his non-existent four-story house, she yelled at him. It all came to a head one day at a jewelry store to buy her a special two-thousand dollar silver necklace with a snow angel embed in the center. It gleamed with a shiny sparkle that brought joy to her heart.
"I'm sorry sir," the cashier said to Melvin, with Claudia right behind him. "Your card is being declined."

"What? That's bull, why would it do that?" Melvin jeered. "I have excellent credit."

The cashier shook his head. "No sir, you said debit, not credit."

Melvin could feel his cheeks getting hot and his hands starting to itch as Claudia started to breath down his neck. "Why would it decline debit?" she asked.

"Let me use credit," Melvin suggested. "I...I always use credit!"

But it was just the beginning of his lies becoming unraveled. Two days later, when she called wanting to visit so he could buy her a new cell phone, he lied and told her that he was at his father's home. Using Google Maps, two days later she decided to surprise him with a visit to his father's abode, expecting him to be in there with him somewhere. 

He wasn't there. His father was. And he told her everything.

Melvin had no money. His father did, and the two of them were no longer on speaking terms. And so she immediately cut off all ties to Melvin. The fact that she would abandon him, use him for his money shattered any and all love he had for her. As far as he was concerned, Claudia was dead, and as far as Claudia was concerned, Melvin Arnold never even existed.

Until one month later, when she knocked on the door to his trailer park home.

“Pregnant?” Melvin exclaimed.