The Appraisal

by Brielle Montgomery

  Jayla turned up her lips in disgust. “The fuck? Are you kidding me?” she said, feigning sincerity. She threw up her hands and shook her head, really selling that shit. “I’ve been to Spades a few times with some friends, and one particular time, she tried to talk to me, and I refused. That was it. What the hell is she saying about me, Derrick? I can’t believe she’s trying to pull some ratchet shit like that.” Jayla thought a moment and then laid it on extra thick. “Damn, and you said she was sneaky too.” She sucked her teeth, peering at Derrick through narrowed eyes.

  She licked her lips nervously when he started pressing buttons on his phone. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m about to get to the bottom of this shit,” he said, putting the phone to his ear. “My sister’s pulling that same bullshit like she used to. Lying and shit. That’s why I stopped dealing with her before.” Anger had colored his eyes with something Jayla had never seen before.

  Fuck. The next thought came like a life jacket, and Jayla grabbed it desperately, letting the lie fall free. “This is fucked up,” she sputtered. “Got me all upset, and I’m pregnant and shit.”

  “Hello, Derrick?” She heard Joi answer the phone with a triumphant tone, but Derrick was already pulling the device away from his face as he stared at Jayla.

  “What did you say?” he whispered.

  Jayla licked her lips again, her eyes quickly darting to the phone, which he clutched in a vise grip. At least he had hung up. She took another breath to calm her nerves. “I didn’t want you to find out this way,” she confessed, struggling to read his face. “I took a test. And it was positive.”

  His face split with the smile as he dragged Jayla toward him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, but he didn’t bother waiting for a response before crushing his lips against hers.

  Damn, she hadn’t expected him to want the baby. She had just needed a brief distraction. Something. Anything to keep him from speaking with Joi. She had expected the initial shock. Followed by the “I’m not ready to be a father,” “We’re not married” type of bullshit excuses men were so quick to throw out. Then maybe a tentative abortion suggestion, which she would quickly agree to. This was damn sure not what she had expected. But then, Derrick hadn’t been what she expected from the moment she saw him.

  “Please don’t let her come between us, babe. Plus, we have only this short weekend together, so let’s enjoy it.” Jayla angled her head to look him in the eye as she spoke.

  “No, babe, I’d never let her do that,” he said and then kissed her deeply to reaffirm his promise.

  * * *

  It wasn’t a total lie, she reasoned as she wheeled her luggage to the Atlanta Airport parking lot. She hadn’t taken a test, so she very well could be pregnant. Hell, when was the last time she’d taken her birth control, anyway? Jayla scrolled through her cell phone calendar and frowned when the dates didn’t jog her memory. She had been so busy, she couldn’t even remember.

  As Derrick had made his way to California, Jayla had headed back to Atlanta with one thing in mind . . . slowing down her business so she could spend more time with Derrick. She had racked her brain on the solo plane ride back and had finally settled on one of two options. Either get pregnant or fake a miscarriage.

  Option B had had Jayla shuddering. She didn’t know how Derrick would react to news of a miscarriage. Her mind had immediately flashed back to the last time she’d pulled this stunt: The guy had beaten her so damn bad, she’d been in the hospital for two weeks. It was her fault, he had insisted. Her fault she’d had a miscarriage. Part of her knew Derrick would never go that far. Part of her. The other part had decided option A was the only viable one.

  She finally found her car in the parking lot. After stowing her luggage, she climbed behind the wheel and left the lot. Then she turned her truck in the direction of Chris’s house. Maybe she could test her luck. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t lose Derrick. Not to the truth. Not to a lie. Maybe, just maybe she could fashion a fairy tale out of the hell she had built for herself.

  Jayla parked across from Chris’s house. She eyed the master bedroom window, felt satisfied when she saw a light on. Chris would never raw dog her. He was much too careful for that. Keeping that in mind, she pulled a condom out of her glove compartment, and gently made a small tear in the wrapper, then removed the latex glove. Next, she found a safety pin in her armrest compartment and began placing strategic holes in the condom. Satisfied with her handiwork, she placed the condom back in the wrapper and stepped from the truck.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, Jayla?” Chris yelled as soon as he opened the door.

  “The fuck you think you talking to, Chris?” She met anger with anger, just like he liked it, and shoved him backward into his living room. “I did what you asked. I gave your pussy ass some space. Now I want my dick. I hope you ain’t got no bitch in here, because she about to get a front-row seat.”

  “You a crazy-ass bitch,” he mumbled, grabbing Jayla’s arm to shove her back toward the door.

  Jayla snatched her arm from his grasp and slapped him. She smirked when his eyes darkened. “Yeah, I hit you,” she taunted. “The fuck you gone do about it, pussy?”

  He slammed her back against the door, briefly knocking the wind out of her. His hand was around her throat, and Jayla kept her grin in place, even as he tightened his grip.

  “You want to beat me,” she breathed. She lifted the condom wrapper for him to see. “Or you want to beat this juicy-ass pussy, huh? You want to make me squirt like you used to, don’t you, Chris? You want to shove that thick-ass dick deep in my cervix, huh?”

  “You stupid-ass, fuck-ass bitch,” he growled, snatching the wrapper from her hand. He used his teeth to tear it all the way open and expertly maneuvered the condom on his rock-hard dick through the slit in his boxers.

  Jayla wrapped her legs around his waist and gasped when he shoved it in so deep, it felt like it ripped her walls. He kept his grip around her throat as he pounded her, the force of each thrust slapping her ass and pushing her back against the plaster wall. She moaned through the delicious pain, his breath roaring in her ears, as he increased his speed.

  “Damn, I missed this pussy,” he whispered.

  Jayla felt the wall crack just as he erupted and his cum slithered through the puncture holes in the condom to lather her insides. She smiled. Hell, between Chris, the bouncer at the strip club, and even Derrick, she damn sure should be pregnant by somebody. Maybe her thinking was skewed, but damn it, she would get the life she wanted with Derrick. If she got pregnant and he found out the baby wasn’t his, well, she would handle that shit like a boss too. But first, she would make damn sure the truth never came out.

  Afterward, Jayla was able to sneak the condom out of Chris’s house, and she was nearly gloating as she trotted back to her truck. For some reason, the prospect of a life with Derrick excited her. Was it love? She giggled to herself as she climbed back in her truck. She didn’t give a damn. She just didn’t want it to end.

  The muffled jingle of her ringtone had Jayla frowning at her purse. Her eyes slid to the digital clock on the dashboard. It was 2:17 a.m. Who the hell could that be?

  Jayla saw the cell phone’s light illuminating the darkness inside her purse, casting an eerie glow on its contents. She saw Jackie’s number on the caller ID, took the call, and quickly placed the phone to her ear.

  “Jaye.” Jackie’s voice was thick with tears and laced with fear. She was in an obvious panic.

  “Jackie, calm down. What is it?”

  “It’s Jocelyn,” she said. “Jaye, you have to get to Regency Hospital fast. There’s been an accident.”

  “What?”

  “Just hurry!” Jackie pleaded, and then the line disconnected.

  Jayla held the phone in her hand and felt rising panic. Accident? What the hell had happened to Jocelyn? She prayed the baby was okay.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The air in the hospital was tainted wit
h the faint odor of antiseptics and lemon Pine Sol. Jayla burst through the emergency room’s automatic doors and immediately felt nauseated from the smell. Though it was only close to six o’clock in the morning, the waiting room was packed. Couples, children . . . some holding their stomach, pressing ice to their head, or fiddling with the gauze on their arm.

  They were all a blur as she ran to the registration desk. “Excuse me,” she said, speaking even though the woman on duty held a phone to her ear. “Can you please give me the room number for Jocelyn Morgan? She’s pregnant, and there’s been an accident.” The woman cupped the receiver with her hand and motioned to a set of double doors. She then touched a buzzer under her desk, and the doors swung open to let Jayla through.

  Jackie was in the small hallway, pacing like a caged panther. She looked distressed, her eyes downcast, her normally kempt hair tousled from nerves, lack of sleep, or both.

  “Jack,” Jayla called as she trotted up, nearly breathless. She looked frantically at her sister for answers. “What happened? Where is she?”

  Jackie enveloped her in a desperate hug, and Jayla felt the tears dampen her pullover. “I should’ve been there.” Her voice was muffled by Jayla’s sleeve. “Something told me to go over there tonight, but she swore she was okay.”

  Jayla pulled back, grabbing her shoulders. “Calm down. Tell me what happened. Where is Joce?”

  Her eyes reddened by tears, Jackie tossed a look at the double doors behind her. “She’s in surgery. They’re having to do an emergency C-section to try to save the baby.”

  Jayla felt the gut punch of the words. Her knees grew weak from the reality of the situation. She lowered herself onto a bench against the wall.

  “Surgery?” Fear had Jayla’s voice lowered to a whisper. “To try to save the baby?”

  Jackie nodded and slid on the bench beside her. “They are hopeful, but they don’t know.”

  Jayla shut her eyes against the threatening tears. Oh, Lord, please let her sister and nephew be all right. “Did you call Aunt Bev?” she asked.

  “Yeah, but she’s not feeling good, so I tried not to make it sound so bad, so she wouldn’t come.”

  “Start from the beginning, Jack. What happened?”

  When Jackie took her time responding, Jayla braced herself. “Well, after you left for your trip, I asked Joce if she wanted me to come spend the night. You know, cook her dinner and make sure she was okay. I didn’t think she needed to be by herself. She swore she was fine. Said that she was tired. Said you had left some cooked spaghetti in the house, so she would probably eat that and go to bed. Said the baby had been kicking like crazy.” Jackie paused, and Jayla’s heart quickened as she waited.

  Hospital staff moved about with the same steady urgency they felt on any given day. Some even smiled at Jackie and Jayla and murmured a cordial greeting in passing, clearly oblivious to the fact that the two women were about to have nervous breakdowns right there on the emergency floor. With the exception of a distant alarm sounding in the sterile hallway, Jayla wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.

  “So, I said okay and left it at that,” Jackie continued hesitantly. “Well, the next day I was supposed to go over there and stay with her, anyway. She told me not to worry about it and that she would be okay. So I didn’t go. I should’ve, but I didn’t. Today I decided to check on her again, even though I knew you were supposed to be back. You know, see if she needed anything. Her phone kept going to voicemail. I figured she had just turned it off, but then I wondered why she would do that, knowing you were out of town, I was at home, and she was over at your place alone. Hell, anything could’ve happened. So I drove over there . . .” Jackie trailed off, and Jayla saw the flicker of fear and the restrained panic play on her face. “Jaye.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper. “Someone had broken in.”

  “What?” Jayla felt the fear snake up the back of her neck. “Broken in to my house?”

  “The front door was open. Just wide open. When I went in, I saw Jocelyn at the bottom of the steps.” Jackie’s voice cracked with the words. “She was bleeding, Jaye.” Jackie began screaming so loud now that nurses headed in their direction to quiet her down. But then she composed herself. “Shit, she was bleeding so bad. It was so much blood, and she was just lying there on her stomach. She was unconscious. I thought she was dead.” Jackie buried her face in her hands, and Jayla shut her eyes, struggling to erase the image her sister had just painted.

  Jayla couldn’t speak. She immediately pictured one of her disgruntled ex-clients attacking anyone who was at the house. The thought sickened her, and she felt a wave of nausea bubble in the pit of her stomach.

  Jayla opened her eyes as Quentin and Jasmine dashed up. Quentin quickly enveloped his wife in a hug. “What the hell is going on? Are you two okay?”

  Without thinking, Jayla threw her arms around Quentin. She felt comforted when he brought his other arm around to grip her shoulders. Just like old times.

  * * *

  A couple of hours later, they were still waiting for a doctor to provide an update on Jocelyn’s condition. Having exhausted herself by crying every ounce of tears she had in her, Jayla sat slumped in the stiff hospital chair, waiting for news. All that could be heard was the occasional intercom call for this doctor or that doctor, and the slight squeak of Jackie’s sneakers on the linoleum floor as she paced in front of her.

  She was grateful for Derrick. She had called him to relay the night’s events, and he had called Tara and Kevin for her. He had listened to her cry and had comforted her with words of encouragement and support. It felt like he wasn’t even thousands of miles away. She hated appearing weak, but she didn’t have the time or the energy to care.

  “Jack,” Jayla mumbled, her voice slightly hoarse. “Please sit down.”

  “I can’t sit still,” Jackie responded. “Where the hell are the doctors? Why hasn’t anyone said anything yet?”

  Jayla stood. Her leg muscles had tightened from the seated position she’d maintained in the stiff chair. “I’ll go ask,” she said and headed to the desk in the center of the waiting room.

  Two nurses were giggling about something. One sat at the computer, and the other was leaning casually against the counter beside her. They looked to be in their early twenties. Jayla sighed. She wondered how they could be so happy, so carefree in the middle of a crisis center.

  “Excuse me?” she said, and both of them looked at her. “I just wanted to get some information on Jocelyn Morgan. She came in a couple hours ago, and the doctors took her back to do a C-section. We haven’t heard anything yet.”

  One nurse nodded, her lips curved in a compassionate smile. “Yes, ma’am,” she said, lifting the telephone receiver to her ear. “Let me get someone down here to speak with you.”

  Jayla nodded, turned, and started to head back to Jackie, but she stopped when she spotted Tara and Kevin rushing through the doors. She immediately engulfed Tara in a grateful hug.

  “Thank you for coming,” she murmured, comforted by her best friend’s embrace.

  “I’m sorry we took so long,” Tara said. “I didn’t see the missed call until we woke up this morning. How is she?”

  Jayla sighed, suddenly feeling the urge to cry again. “We don’t know. The doctor’s on his way to tell us something.” She glanced over at Kevin, caught the strange look in his eye before he looked away. “Hi, Kevin,” she said, slightly uneasy about his expression. He looked just like he had at the strip club.

  “Hey, Jayla,” he said.

  Jayla watched the corner of his lips twitch. Was he trying not to smile? She opened her mouth to address this, but Tara spoke up first.

  “Sweetie, I’m sure everyone is hungry. Can you go down to the cafeteria to get some food?” she said to Kevin.

  He nodded and then gave Jayla another look before strolling off.

  Tara turned her gaze to Jayla. “What happened?”

  Tara’s question brought Jayla’s eyes back to hers, and puttin
g Kevin’s bullshit attitude out of her mind, she led the way back to her seat in the waiting room. Tara greeted Jackie and then sat down beside Jayla.

  “A break-in at my house,” Jayla explained. “I don’t know. Jackie found Jocelyn at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding. They rushed her into surgery to perform a C-section, and we haven’t heard anything since.”

  “Damn.” Tara shook her head, and she immediately grabbed Jayla’s hand. “I’m so sorry. Who the hell would do this?”

  “I just hope everything is all right,” Jackie interjected.

  Kevin soon returned with plastic bags full of to-go boxes. Jayla was appreciative, but as he cleared the stained magazines from the coffee table to make room for the food, she didn’t know how she was going to eat. She felt nauseated and damn sure didn’t have an appetite.

  Tara rubbed Jayla’s back. “I know this isn’t the time or the place.” Tara spoke in a hushed tone. “But I did want to congratulate you.”

  Jayla’s head was spinning as she struggled to wrap her mind around Tara’s words. “What?”

  “Derrick told Kev about the baby,” Tara said. She offered a weak smile. “Congratulations. I know this must be extra difficult, considering . . . the circumstances.”

  Jayla lowered her eyes. She felt dizzy, and another flood of tears was threatening to burst free.

  Just then a doctor rounded the corner, a petite man with horn-rimmed glasses and a head full of gray hair. He stopped when he reached them. “Are you the family of Jocelyn Morgan?” he asked, and everyone stood up.

  Jayla spoke up first. “Yes. What happened? How is she?”

  The doctor’s lips compressed in a grim line. “I’m Dr. Patel, by the way,” he said, introducing himself, but he did not bother to extend his hand or wait for a response. “I performed Ms. Morgan’s surgery. She is out of surgery and still in recovery. She lost a lot of blood. She also suffered a slight concussion, but she’s going to be all right. We’re going to keep her here for a few days for observation.”