by Anna J.
Besides, her mom thinks that Monica was just there to see her son, and that part is true. She doesn’t know that I got up in her guts and it was the best thing since sliced bread. I’m chalking it up to being a freak accident, because I’m sure that wasn’t her motive this time around. It was something that just . . . well, happened! Neither of us was really at fault, we just fucked up and gave into our urges. My heart was definitely heavy, and I had a lot on my plate right now. I just needed to figure out what to do next so that we could be moving along. The sooner Monica got back to Atlanta the better we would all be.
I dozed off sometime around seven in the morning, and the next time I opened my eyes I was looking at the doctor. I wondered how long he had been standing there as he made notations in Jazz’s chart. I sat up, wiping the crust out of my eyes, waiting for the verdict.
“Good morning, Mr. Cinque. Glad you could make it over here last night. I’m sure your wife is happy you are here. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to really discuss all of the goings-on with your wife when you first arrived.”
“I’m glad she’s awake.”
“Well, she’s pretty much right on schedule. We began weaning her off of the drugs that were keeping her asleep a few weeks ago so that she could slowly wake up with the least amount of pain. She may be out of it for a few days because of the dosage of pain medicine she will be given. Her jaw wire is scheduled to be removed by noon, and then we will take it from there. Your wife should be home within a matter of a few days.”
That was a lot to take in, but I was ready for whatever came next. Jazz was gone from the kids long enough, and the sooner we got into our new routine the better off we would be. She didn’t appear to have any memory issues, and knew who I was. She had yet to talk though, so that would really be the determining factor. Things were looking up for the most part, and I was ready to tackle what was to come in the future. Whatever it was, and with the help of God and family, I was ready for it.
After the doctor finished up his progress report he gave me all the ins and outs of the quick surgery that would allow Jazz to talk again; then he was on his way. I called and gave the family the 411 on Jazz’s situation, and I told Jazz’s mom that I would take a cab back to the house once Jazz was out of surgery and stable. That way I could be home by the time the kids got in from school, and maybe by then Jazz would be up to seeing them. I knew they were missing her as well.
I was determined to get my life back on track, and move my family forward. I had to get Monica gone, and I had to make this work. It had to because if this didn’t work I had no more options.
Jasmine
Back in the Swing of Things, Kind Of
I lay there like I was asleep, but I heard every word that was said. The pain medicine that was being administered made me sleepy, so I was waking up for intervals, but I so had a bone to pick with him. He probably thought I was crying because I was happy to see him, but I was really just pissed that I couldn’t get out of this bed and beat his ass. He did this shit to us! Now I’m banged and bruised for no damn logical reason. Okay, maybe my texting and driving played a small part in it, but had he been on his game none of this shit would have happened. Point. Blank. Period.
I was in a coma for five weeks. Five weeks! Like, for real? I breathed a sigh of relief when he told me the kids were okay, and I was happy to be alive so I wasn’t going to complain. I was, however, going to knock his ass clean out the first chance I got. He thought that my brothers got with his ass back in the day. He ain’t seen nothing yet. I would make sure of it; he would definitely pay for this.
A few times during the night I woke up briefly, and stared at James while he was sleeping. It was a restless sleep nonetheless, and I wondered what else had this man troubled besides this horrible accident. What happened while I was lying up in this hospital all this time? I knew James well enough to know that he was leaving shit out, and he wasn’t giving me the full story on what was going on with everybody. I was certain something went down while I was asleep, and I would definitely get to the bottom of it. As for right now, I just needed to get through today so that I could get the heck out of here.
There was a lot on my mind, and I didn’t even really know how to bring it up. By the time I dozed off a few times and woke back up I was being wheeled down to surgery. To be honest with you, every time James would wake up I would close my eyes real quick and pretend like I was asleep until I actually fell back to sleep. I wasn’t really ready to face him just yet, even though I was so mad I could spit fire. I didn’t have the capability to curse his ass out just yet, and if he said something crazy I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to read him his damn rights. Nope, he wouldn’t get off that easy, so I would just wait. Hell, I’d been out all this damn time and didn’t even know it, so waiting a few more days or so wouldn’t make that much difference.
I had the weirdest dream while I was in surgery, and I was certain that my blood pressure had to have been sky high. It felt like it was so real, and it had me nervous. I was still shaken when I woke up, but I played it cool like it was just from the surgery. I wasn’t in recovery for long at all, and pretty soon I was back in my room. It felt like I was asleep for days, but once I heard the voices in my room I was pretty sure that it had only been a few hours. It still hurt to move my facial muscles, and I tried to be as still as possible when I opened my eyes.
Shutting them quickly, I was sure I was maybe still in a dream because there was no way I was seeing what I just saw. Yep, that good old anesthesia still had me in a zone because there was no way this was happening to me so soon. I chanced a peek out of one eye and then the other, trying to focus either way. A sheen of sweat quickly appeared all over my body. I wanted to get out of the bed and run but I couldn’t move. I closed my eyes and counted to ten only to open them and still see a nightmare. My husband was conversing with the twins, one of whom was my kids father. I still didn’t know which one had actually gotten me pregnant, and had successfully avoided them up until now. What were they doing here, and did James know how we were connected?
I could have gotten run over by a bus at this very moment and wouldn’t have cared. This was just too damn much at one time, and Lord knows I wasn’t in the mood. I closed my eyes again, and zoned in on their conversation, and sure enough the cat had been let out of the bag. James found out that the twins weren’t his. That wasn’t even what intrigued me the most though. Did he just say that Monica was in town and had come by? Yeah, I had to have been hearing things, because there was no way God would allow both of my pains in the ass to visit all at once.
I chanced a peek again, but this time James saw me and immediately ceased the conversation, walking over to my bed with a straight face. Gone were the relief and the happiness to see me alive. Although he didn’t have a look of death on his handsome face, he definitely didn’t look happy. I looked him in the eyes with worry on my face, for the first time happy that I couldn’t talk just yet because he would undoubtedly want answers that I couldn’t give right now. The twins came to the foot of the bed as well, and they all had the same semi-pissed look on their faces. I could clearly see my twins in their identical faces, and it was weird that all three men favored so much, like they could be related. How did he get in contact with them?
“Jasmine, I’m certain you know who these gentlemen are,” James spoke in a strained voice, like he was trying to control his anger. “We have a lot to discuss, but it won’t happen today. We do have each other’s contact information and once the time is right we will all sit down and hash things out. Okay?”
I slightly nodded my head up and down as best I could as tears streamed down the side of my face. Things were not good, and more secrets were flying out of the closet. James bid the men farewell, and sat by me on the side of the bed. It wasn’t a loving sense of comfort I felt this time around, and all of the shade I planned to throw him was retracted. Seems like I’ll be kissing ass for a while.
I wanted to talk to my mom
and dad, and I knew they would be here eventually. I was scared to stretch my jaw because it was still painful, and I wished I could go back to the day before I met Monica so that we could do things differently. I should have never agreed to that threesome. Things probably would have been way different and better between me and James now. My head hurt, and I just wanted to ball up under the covers and go to sleep.
Pressing the button to administer more medicine, I allowed the drugs to rock me into a fitful sleep. I was so not ready to deal with all of this, and I hoped by the time I woke up my family would be here. I would just avoid this situation with James for as long as I could, but I did have questions. Lots of them. I needed to know all the details, and, furthermore, where was Monica?
Monica
Fit to Be Tied
My head was pounding when I came to. I shook my head a few times to clear the fog only to be met by an overwhelming smell of piss. I was lying on my side on something kind of soft like a mattress, and my mouth was covered. My hands and legs were also bound tight, and I could barely move. I saw enough movies in my time to know that this wasn’t a good thing. The room was pitch black, and the only sound I could hear were the muffled voices coming from the next room. There were no windows in the room I was in, so I assumed they took me to some location where my body would probably never be found. Laying my head back down on the surface I was lying on, I could only breathe and think. I knew one day it would come to this. Well, maybe not this exactly, but I had done so much dirt to people over the years that it was bound to come back to me eventually.
Jaydah definitely had me fooled! Out of all the people in line to get payback, I never thought that she would be the one smart enough to set me up. It’s a small world, and you’d be surprised how many people know each other. She and Sheneka know each other? Wow, I would have never put that together in a million years. Shit, they were both crazy as hell, and they always say birds of a feather flock together.
I was trying to ear hustle on the conversation, but I couldn’t really make out anything they were saying. I just knew that this might be the last of me that Philly, or anyone for that matter, may see. I wished I had done so many things differently in my life. At the same time so much horrible shit happened to me that revenge and payback was all I really knew. It started with my uncle molesting me when I was young, and from the time I tried to kill his ass up to now I had always been in survival mode. Shit, if family doesn’t give a damn about you, you can’t expect anyone else to. My mother taught me that early on.
Out of all of the horrible things that happened in my life I couldn’t really say that I regretted everything. I managed to open up a refuge for young girls who had been molested just like I was at their age. I remembered feeling like there was no one in the world who could understand the pain I was going through at home, and I had nowhere to turn. At least I made a way to give back to the community and help people. I also got to live out my dream by opening my art gallery. I spent so many nights up painting my pain away, and the pieces that I created and sold helped to fund the Safe Haven that these girls called home. That definitely made me feel good on the inside. These young ladies went from battered and bruised victims of abuse to college students, and other forms of furthering their education. Of course there were a few who got away, and we couldn’t undo the damage, but the good outweighed the bad and the refuge helped.
When it came to my little sister, I did all I could do to help her. I figured taking her out of Philly would help, but there were drugs and dealers everywhere, and the girl had a habit she couldn’t control. My mom always told me to look out for my siblings, but there wasn’t much I could do for someone who wasn’t ready for help. All I could do was be there when she needed me, and ready to go when she was willing to get help. I knew once I was dead she would be gone soon after. The money that she would inherit from me would no doubt be used to support her habit until she overdosed. It was a crazy demise, but that was probably how it would all go down if I knew Yolanda like I thought I did.
I got to see my son. The thought brought a huge smile to my face and tears to my eyes. After all of these years I never thought I would step back into Philly for anything. Coming back here put me in the situation I was in now, but I accomplished what I came for, and I was okay with that. At least he got to see me face to face, even though it was a lie how we were introduced. He would forever think I was his aunt, but I felt great knowing he was in good hands. The Cinques were good people, and I was glad that my son would be okay. Maybe they would tell him all about me one day.
As the tears flowed I thought about James. I regretted sleeping with him, but I wished I could do it again once more before these goons killed me. He was so gentle with me, and I briefly wondered how life would have been if I were his wife instead of Jasmine. I would have made sure he never looked outside of the marriage for sex and support. That’s what they were lacking, and that’s how I was able to get in. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t have done the same thing to me, because men are never satisfied.
I had been nothing but a huge burden for the Cinque’s since I came on the scene, and it was all just pure selfishness. I could have just had the threesome and kept it moving, but I had to be greedy and mess up a good thing. I probably could have kept getting it if I had played my cards right. It was like I fucked up everything and everyone I came in contact with. Maybe it was better that I did go now. My son didn’t need me coming back messing up what he had, and no one else really needed me around for that matter. The Safe Haven and my art gallery were left to a trusted business partner, so everything would be run as planned. I was at peace with leaving this earth knowing that.
Closing my eyes, I lay there and listened to the incessant muffled conversation on the other side of the door, wishing that they would just come and get it over with. Would they torture me or would it be over before I knew it with a quick shot to the head? All of this was because they thought I got Rico killed. I could tell them until I was blue in the face that I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I learned a long time ago that when a person’s mind is made up there was no changing it. I wasn’t even about to waste my time or breath trying to convince them otherwise.
It felt like I was still clothed, and my body didn’t feel sore in any other places but my head, so at least they hadn’t raped me. Hell, I probably deserved it after all the shit I’d done. Sheneka looked crazy and deranged when we got into that fight, and I remember the day I met her up at the prison when the guard was giving me a hard way to go. I didn’t know that I was there seeing her man at the time, and she even helped me mess up the guard’s car afterward. It just goes to show you never know people. Not that I knew her like that before, but came to find out she was more of a lunatic than I was.
The sound of footsteps nearing the door snapped me out of my trip down memory lane. I wished I could wipe my tears from my face before they came into the room, because although I was scared to death, I didn’t want these fools to think they had me that easily. This was some fucked-up shit, but everybody had to go somehow, and this was the way it was written for me.
The door opened up and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light that was streaming in from the space behind them. I couldn’t make out any faces in the semi-dark room, so they just looked like big black shadows looming in the doorway. I was holding my breath, trying to pretend like I was still out. I didn’t know what to expect, and I wanted whatever was going to happen to be done quick so that I could meet my Maker. Wasn’t any use in dragging out the inevitable, right? Closing my eyes tight I started to pray in a low whisper, and that was my plan for up until they shut my lights out.
I heard the footsteps of one of them come closer, and my body tensed up as I forced myself to keep my eyes closed and to stay in prayer. I asked God over and over again—in my mind, because I didn’t want them to see my lips moving—to forgive me of my sins. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought a heart attack would take me out b
efore they could. This was some bullshit, and I just couldn’t believe I got caught slipping like this.
“Is she still out?” asked the guy who sounded farthest away. My palms became sweaty instantly, and my head pounded harder than before.
“I don’t know, she’s not moving still,” another answered as he gripped me by my hair and pulled me up on the bed. I wanted to scream, but I managed somehow to stay quiet with a limp body. I knew there was a possibility that they were going to beat the shit out of me, or at least Sheneka would. They were definitely going to let her get her shit off since she had waited so many years for revenge.
“Well, it’s time for that bitch to wake up then. Flip the switch and bring a chair in here. We need to get this done and over with.” The guy near the door barked out orders. I heard several pairs of feet shuffling to fulfill the command, and when he tossed me back to the bed I blinked my eyes and pretended like I was just waking up. The light was definitely blinding, and my face ached from the earlier attack from Sheneka, but I still played it cool.
I was dead weight as my body was hoisted roughly from the bed and up to a sitting position in a hard chair. My head rocked back on my neck as I performed like I was really out of it. A painful moan escaped my lips as they cut the bind from my hands and secured them roughly with rope to the back of the chair, afterward doing the same to my legs on the sides.
“You sure your sister won’t say anything?” I heard one of the men ask.
