Black President Season 2 Collection

by Brenda Hampton

  I had to laugh at his performance. His wife looked at me like she believed him. Her anger was now geared towards me.

  “You need to march your ass out of our house right now! Don’t bring your filthy lies over here, and as my husband warned, we will call the police if you don’t leave.”

  I cocked my head back, looking at both of them. “Am I supposed to be scared of the police? Trust me, I’m not. I’m the one who needs to call them on your husband. He’s a criminal, liar and a cheat. You can believe what you want, but you can’t deny how small it is. Sex with him only lasted five minutes and there is a tiny mole on his right butt cheek that blends in with some of those dents. I noticed it when he got out of your bed last week. The same canopy bed you’re sleeping in tonight with the pretty, silk and ruffled pink sheets on it.”

  Her head jerked in her husband’s direction. With fury in her eyes, she barked at him. “You piece of shit! How dare you screw this woman in our bedroom? Did you invite her over while I was at my parents’ house last week? For God’s sake, Jeremy, my mother is dying and you were in our home screwing another woman?”

  “Correction,” I said. “He didn’t screw me. He just poked me with a pencil. I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. What a shame?”

  She growled and stormed toward the stairs, threatening to leave. Jeremy turned to me with fury in his eyes.

  “See what you’ve done? I told you to get out of here, didn’t I? I warned you and now you must pay for bringing this bullshit into my house.”

  He reached for his phone to call the police.

  “I don’t know why you’re so bent out of shape. Her ass isn’t going anywhere, and as long as you keep paying the bills, she’s good. Now, hit the end button on that call and tell me what you plan to do about Mr. McNeil.”

  He ignored me and spoke to the 911 operator. “Yes. An intruder and she won’t leave. Send someone right away.”

  He ended the call, and as he reached for my arm, shoving me toward the door, I pushed him away. He pushed back, and as I stumbled and almost fell, that’s when I let him have it. I took off my shoe and charged him with it in my hand. I was able to strike him one time in his head with my shoe, but he managed to grab it and fling it near the stairs.

  “You are fucking crazy!” he shouted and grabbed my shirt. This time, he pushed me on the porch and elbowed me in the chin when he released me.

  “You can wait out here for the police! Don’t you ever come back here again, Teresa, and hell no I will not prosecute Mr. McNeil! Not now, not ever!”

  As he turned to go back inside, I took my fist, pounding it against his back. He crouched down, his glasses flew off and he attempted to grab my waist to get control of me. I was swinging too wildly. He couldn’t get control of me, but two police officers surely did. They pulled me and Jeremy apart from each other. With a heaving chest, he yelled for the officers to arrest me.

  “I want to press charges,” he said. “She assaulted me. Threatened to harm me and my wife.”

  The officers held my arms while waiting for me to respond to the accusations. “I did not threaten anyone. He invited me to come here tonight for sex. His wife came home and now he’s upset that he got caught. We got into an argument and he put his hands on me. I wasn’t about to let him put his hands on me, so I threw my shoe at him. After that, he pushed me outside and here we are.” I wiggled my arms from the officers’ tight grip. “Release me, please. Obviously, you two don’t know who I am.”

  Jeremy made my status clear to them. “She’s the president’s mother. Regardless, I want her arrested, now!”

  They were reluctant to arrest me, and with him and me going back-and-forth, they couldn’t decipher who was telling the truth.

  “Miss Jefferson,” one officer said. “Have you been drinking tonight?”

  “I had one drink. That’s it and it has nothing to do with him putting his hands on me. He’s the one who needs to be arrested. Arrest him now, before I call my son.”

  Just then, Mrs. Blackstone appeared in the doorway. Tears streamed down her face and she could barely catch her breath as she spoke.

  “Officers, we want this woman arrested. She just . . . just rushed into our home, threatened us and we couldn’t get her to leave. I’m afraid for my life. I don’t know what she came here to do, and her accusations against my husband are false.”

  After that, it didn’t take long for the officers to grab my hands behind my back and cuff me. With one shoe off, I limped my way to the police vehicle, cussing and shouting.

  “How in the hell does she have more clout than the president? I know what this is all about and heads are going to roll for this. I can promise you that!”

  One of the officers put me on the backseat of the police car, but before he shut the door, I asked him to get my shoe for me.

  “Those are some expensive shoes. We’re not leaving here until I get my shoe. I can’t walk around like this. I need my shoe!”

  One officer ignored me, but the other one went inside and got my shoe. He tossed it on the backseat, but I wasn’t able to touch it. When we arrived at the police station, the media was already there. Reporters swarmed the police vehicle, banging on the windows, snapping pictures and questioning what had happened.

  “Move back!” the officers yelled as they escorted me out of the vehicle and towards the police station. “Move back or you people will be arrested too!”

  One reporter put her mic close to my mouth. “Miss Jefferson, did you have an affair with the prosecutor, Mr. Blackstone? Is that why you were at his house tonight?”

  “Yes. We had an ongoing affair that his wife just found out about tonight. Things turned ugly and I’m the one being arrested. While I’m not proud of myself for this, there is no reason why I was the one arrested and Jeremy Blackstone is the one who put his hands on me. I mean, where in the hell is the justice? Is this how women in this country are supposed to be treated? After all, he’s the one who assaulted me.”

  I was sure that would give everyone something to debate. They surely debated it, and with so many people agreeing with my assessment of unfair treatment of women, the officers released me almost an hour later. My car had been towed to my new apartment complex, but I took a taxi to my next destination, before going home.

  I knocked on the door, and within minutes, Michelle opened it. It was in the wee hours of the morning; I guess she thought I was Stephen. She displayed an attitude and didn’t allow me to come inside. All she did was step into the hallway and shut the door behind her.

  “If it’s not your son coming here in the middle of the night, it’s you. What do you want, Teresa? My children are inside sleeping. I don’t want them to wake up.”

  “I don’t either, but you and I haven’t talked in a while. I wanted to know how things are going between you and Stephen. He’s been real irritable lately. I don’t really know what’s troubling him.”

  “It’s called running a country, having a mother who is trying to run or ruin his life, and being married to a wife who doesn’t always support him. That’s what troubling him, so there’s no need for you to come here and ask.”

  “Well, we can thank you for being so perfect and giving him all the pussy he needs. I’m not trying to cause him no harm, and shame on you for thinking you have the facts. The one thing I do know is troubling him is not being able to see his son. I know how close you and Stephen are, and whether you realize it or not, he cares deeply for you. I’ve said some things before which implied he doesn’t care, but I was wrong. Dead wrong, and when I spoke to him about you, I saw something deep in his eyes. Something I’ve never seen before. It is you, only you, who can give him what he wants.”

  Michelle rolled her eyes, but it was obvious that she wanted to hear more. “What do you think he wants from me? I haven’t figured it out yet, and as a matter of fact, we agreed not to see each other anymore. I think it’s best, and I truly wish everyone would just leave me alone.”

  “I know how you
feel, but you have so much to gain from all of this, Michelle. You have the president’s heart and he has never felt this way about another woman, not even Raynetta. You need to have his child. Give him a child and make him the happiest man in the world. I will pay you whatever you want. I would hope that I wouldn’t have to give you anything to do this, but just to see him happy, I would give you anything. You do want to see him happy, don’t you?”

  Michelle’s brows were scrunched inward as she frowned. “Of course I do, but I’m not having any more children. Not for him and definitely not for you. Goodbye, Teresa. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but you need to exclude me from your plans.”

  She went back inside and closed the door. Maybe I’d have to come up with another plan to shake Stephen up. When I returned home, I called Raynetta. She hadn’t been answering her phone; I could only imagine what she had been up to.

  First Lady,

  Raynetta Jefferson

  Whoever said there was a thin line between love and hate surely didn’t lie. My wake-up call came the moment I sat in that sweltering bunker with Stephen and saw with my own eyes exactly who he was. He didn’t care about nobody but himself. I couldn’t believe it had come to this, and I could honestly say that the man I had been married to for many years was totally out of control. Power had caused his head to swell. He truly believed he was invincible. He was going to obliterate any and everything around him, but in no way was he going to destroy me. I’d had enough, but you’d better believe I was going to use the situation I was in to benefit myself to the fullest. It was time for me to start being the woman I always yearned to be and start building more wealth for my future. Whenever we left the White House, I expected for Stephen to leave me high and dry. He’d already told me why he needed me; it was to simply protect his reputation. What he didn’t know was, at this point, I cared about my reputation as much as his. I fought back against those accusations about me and Alex being together. And every time anyone asked me about Alex, I denied everything. They pointed to the salacious photos that had been released, but since the photos were fuzzy, I insisted the woman in them wasn’t me. Basically said someone was out to destroy me and had been doing so since day one. Day by day, the news cycle changed and the story about me and Alex faded. Stephen was on the front page of every newspaper, and people were talking about the white man who’d spit on him committing suicide while in jail. After that story was released, a story about Teresa being arrested followed. Once again, things were chaotic at the White House, and I had no idea how Stephen intended to deal with his or his mother’s mess.

  Quite frankly, I didn’t care. I needed to find out the truth behind my supposedly connection to Mr. McNeil. That was my priority, because the truth was, my background had always been shaky. There were so many missing pieces and I didn’t know much about my family. I never had anyone to turn to, but when Stephen and I got together, I felt as if I had found a man who loved me and would be there for me forever. At that time, no one else mattered. Where I came from didn’t matter, and it didn’t bother me that I didn’t know much about my family. Now, it mattered. In no way did I want to be related to a man like Mr. McNeil, but if I was, I saw it as being beneficial to me too.

  A Secret Service agent drove me to Mr. McNeil’s mansion. On my way there, I reached for my phone to call Teresa. She had been calling me like crazy. I was eager to find out the details of what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into this time.

  “It’s about damn time,” she said. “What took you so long to call me back? I had something important to tell you.”

  “I’ve been busy. Besides, ask your son why I couldn’t talk to anyone for almost a week. He knows. I’m sure he’s probably already told you about my little stay in a bunker.”

  “Listen. He doesn’t tell me anything about the two of you. But he did mention that the information Alex gave you about Mr. McNeil wasn’t true. I don’t know where that bastard Alex is, but it appears he was told to give us that information so we’d look like fools.”

  I rolled my eyes as I thought about being tricked. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? I’ve been given a lot of false information lately, and I don’t know who or what to believe these days. I do know that I’m tired of being your son’s puppet. I honestly do not care what happens to him anymore.”

  Teresa remained silent for a few seconds. “I don’t know what to do about him either, but he mentioned something to me about a connection you have with Mr. McNeil. What’s that about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Stephen seems to think I’m somehow related to Mr. McNeil. He says that I’m his granddaughter, but I tore up the so-called proof he gave me. I don’t know what to say. I’m anxious to find out what’s going on, and Mr. McNeil is the only one who can tell me.”

  There was more silence on the other end. But this time, the silence remained. Teresa had either hung up or the battery on her phone went dead. I called her again, but my call went directly to voicemail. I didn’t bother to leave a message. She was probably upset about my breaking news. She was a person who’d never had my back before, so I wasn’t too worried about how she’d felt. The news, however, about Alex giving me false information stung a bit. It confirmed for me that he had been working behind the scenes with Stephen after all.

  The hefty agent with black hair and chubby cheeks pulled in front of Mr. McNeil’s mansion. He buttoned his jacket as he got out of the black Suburban and opened the door for me. With dark shades on and with my hair in a sleek ponytail, I stepped out of the car. The jean jacket and waist-high jeans I wore were simple. The pink shirt and shoes added vibrant color to my attire, yet I wasn’t there to impress anyone.

  “Mr. McNeil is expecting us,” the agent said as he closed the door. “He said he would be around back by the pool area.”

  “Thank you. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to go alone. I’ll be okay. If I need you, I will holler loudly.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you by yourself. The president would be very upset about that.”

  “What the president doesn’t know doesn’t hurt. Just keep this between us.”

  I swayed my hips from side-to-side, leaving the agent behind. As I made my way down a long concrete path that took me to the back of Mr. McNeil’s mansion, I saw him sitting in a lounging chair, smoking a cigar. There were two young kids splashing water on each other in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and the resort-style backyard area was filled with lounging chairs, tables with umbrellas and an outdoor kitchen where a chef was preparing food. From a distance, Mr. McNeil saw me coming. He contracted his eyes as I strutted his way, then he sat up to put his cigar in an ashtray.

  “I don’t have much time,” he said in a grouchy tone. “What do you want?”

  I remained cordial, even though he seemed ready to attack me. “What I want to know is the truth about our connection. I’m not going to beat around the bush, and I want to know if you really are my grandfather.”

  The old man struggled to get up, and when he did, he stood face-to-face with me. His wrinkled, pale face shook as he spoke. “You were disowned by me before you were ever born. My son made one of the biggest mistakes of his life and no one in this family is allowed to sleep with dirt. I don’t want my blood running through your veins. I want no part of you, and when you married that nigger you’re married to now, I hated you even more. I hope that answers your question. And if money is what you came here seeking today, you will never get one dime from me.”

  My stomach rumbled. I’d be lying if I said his words didn’t hurt. They cut deep, but I would never allow him to see how deep.

  “Listen up, you foolish old man. I don’t want your dirty money, nor do I want to be a part of your family in any way. I’m embarrassed by you. To know you’re my grandfather makes me feel ill. The truth, however, is important. I plan to keep on doing my homework, and all I wanted to do was start here. I’m done, so have a good day and enjoy the rest of your day with family.�
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  I walked away, feeling like I wanted to throw up. By the time I’d reached the Suburban, I hadn’t shed one tear. What I intended to do was use my connection with Mr. McNeil to open a few doors. It was exactly what I intended to do as first lady, and my days of playing nice with the people around me was over.

  The second I returned to the White House, reporters were everywhere. I was questioned about the situation with Teresa and asked to share my thoughts about my husband being spit on. I didn’t answer one question. I was escorted inside, and as soon as I sat at my desk in my office, I called my assistant, Emme, to help me with a few things.

  “The first thing I want you to do is help me research some of the items on this list.” I reached across my desk and gave her a long list of things I’d been working on, pertaining to Mr. McNeil. “Find out what’s true and what’s not. After that, I want you to find me an agent who is willing to sell my tell-all book to a publisher. The least I will take is sixty-million-dollars. Anything less than that is non-negotiable.”

  Emme sat across from me with wide eyes. Her hands trembled as she read the items on my list.

  “Are . . . if these things are validated, are you going to tell everyone about all of this? What about the president? I’m sure there are things about him he doesn’t want the American people to know.”

  “Yes, I’m going to tell it all. My relationship with two of the most powerful men in the world will be beneficial to me. And after how they’ve treated me, why in the hell should I keep their secrets?”

  Emme shrugged. She seemed reluctant to participate in this, but her loyalty meant nothing to me. I intended to push ahead with my tell-all book, no matter what.

  President of the United States,

  Stephen C. Jefferson