*1950*

My mother, Evelyn Pace, is the maid, or the help as they would call it, who works for Mr Ted Jakes and Mrs Sarah Jakes. Ted Jakes, an attorney, is the father of Charles Jakes, who married Jada Jakes, and the couple had a son named Mike Jakes.

Evelyn cooked, cleaned, and practically spend most of her hours running the household of the Jakes family. Mrs Jakes, a housewife, was always at some function of a kind, representing her husband, as she would so kindly point out. The only real time she really had with her husband and kids was at Christmas dinner, lunch, supper or birthdays.

Mr Jakes grew fond of Evelyn and later developed feelings for the woman who was his maid. He tried fighting his feelings, but, because she did a brilliant job at her work running his household and caring for him and his kids, the attorney fell in-love. It was her affection, care and beauty that attracted him to her, but in all his life, he had never imagined falling for the help.

For weeks, Mr Ted Jakes tried ignoring what he felt, but all he could think about was Evelyn. He eventually stopped fighting his feelings and started thinking of ways to get closer to her. He knew Evelyn was married, and he was also aware that her husband drank a lot and was often very jealous.

“What’s wrong Evelyn?” Ted asked one day.

“Nothing,” Evelyn responded. “You know how emotional we women are.”

“You’re lying, tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s my husband, Manuel. He’s got this violent behaviour. Since losing his job, he’s become this mean person, and he drinks a lot. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Evelyn always feared the worst for her son because, in his father’s eyes, nothing he ever did was good enough. It was at that point when Evelyn opened up to Mr Ted Jakes that the relationship between boss and the help escalated. Evelyn, who had strong Catholic believes, couldn’t believe that she was now sleeping with a married man, and both of them knew what they were doing was wrong, but yet they continued to have an affair nonetheless.

Ted could not leave his wife and child. What would people say? He was this well-known hotshot attorney, for crying out loud. Evelyn would also never leave her husband and child, although she was unhappy. She could never imagine leaving her husband. Nobody ever grew suspicious about their relationship until Evelyn’s husband saw them together. All of a sudden, Ted started dropping Evelyn off regularly, which was something he never did, and that infuriated her husband. He eventually accused her of all kinds of mischief without any concrete evidence.

“So, Mr big shot is bringing you home now, is he?” Manuel asked.

“Manuel, please, you’re drunk,” Evelyn responded. “And it was late, so he insisted on bringing me home!”

“That’s Bull, Evelyn!”

“Stop it! You might wake Johnny!”

“No, he should know what his mommy is doing!”

“I’m fine, really, Mr Pace,” Evelyn said sarcastically. “I’m okay.”

Evelyn wanted to confess, but she kept thinking of Johnny, her little angel. She didn’t want him to grow up without a father figure like herself. So, instead of confessing, she said nothing. Later on, she started having severe headaches and started having memory loss. She was all of a sudden always tired and pale. She wasn’t herself, and Ted too noticed that.

“Oh, my head!” Evelyn said one day in front of Ted. “I just need to sit for a while, Ted, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. You’ve been having headaches for such a long time now!” Ted said. “That’s it! I’m taking you to the doctor.”

Tell us: Do you think the Evelyn and Ted are fair for having an affair, even though they are happy together?