Tarnished Armor
Part 165

Adam and Liza’s bedroom.

Liza enters. She goes over to her dressing table and picks up her purse. She takes out her wallet and takes out the photo of Belinda.

Adam enters unnoticed.

Liza begins to cry.

Adam comes over. Liza looks up. Adam looks at the photo.

Adam: Is that Belinda at her worst?

Liza: There was no worst to Belinda.

Adam: I’m sorry, Liza. I know that the only reason you did what you did was because I created a situation where you had no choice.

Liza: No. There’s always a choice.

Liza is silent for a moment.

Liza: You know what I sometimes ask myself? I think about what I’ve done, or what I’m about to do, and I ask myself, “What would Brooke English do in my situation?”

Adam: Brooke? Why?

Liza: Because she would do what was right.

Adam: Not always.

Liza: More often than me. Maybe I should be asking myself what Belinda would have done.

Adam: What would Belinda have done?

Liza: I don’t know. Brooke is easier.

Adam: Why? What would she have done?

Liza: She would have... she would have met with Jake privately and told him the whole situation. The real situation. And after a few weeks of the Martins damning you to hell, they would have agreed to keep the secret. Maybe even wanted to have Jake remain as Colby’s father.

Adam goes over to the bed and sits. His eyes fill with tears. He doesn’t say anything.

Liza puts the photo away. She turns and looks at Adam.

Liza: Oh, Adam.

Liza goes and sits next to Adam.

Liza: I know you love me. And I know that you love Colby very much. I just...

Adam: You just know that I hurt the people I love.

Liza: I think it’s... it’s marriage, you know?

Adam looks at Liza.

Liza: I always thought that marriage, when it worked, was two people sharing everything -- even the worst of themselves -- and working through it all together. No betrayal, no hidden agendas. But that kind of marriage would never work for us. Because you have this problem. You are so insecure that you do things that are so much of a betrayal of trust. You sabotage what marriage is supposed to be. I don’t know. Maybe I’m still eight years old, and my idea of what marriage is doesn’t really exist. But that’s what I want. And it was just my luck that you were the one I loved and you were the one who loved me.

Adam doesn’t speak.

Liza: God knows, I’m no saint either. So it’s not just you. When we made love yesterday, I wanted to make love with you. But I knew it was going to be the last time. And you’d done it to me so many times before. Making love to me when you knew we were over. And now I can see how that happened. No matter how cruel it was. You are so much a part of me that I wanted one last moment of knowing what that was like. Because I know I won’t find it again. And I know I can’t live with things the way they are in our marriage.

Adam: I did this to you.

Liza: We did this to us.

Adam: I’ll get my things. I’ll go tonight.

Liza touches his cheek. They lean into each other and gently kiss. Then they pull apart.

Adam gets up and leaves. Liza gazes after him.

Then she begins to cry.

Tarnished Armor Index
Part One Hundred and Sixty Four
Part One Hundred and Sixty Six