by King, Deja
“Thanks for asking but I’m good for now.”
“We’re going to have a security guard posted outside your room at all times so don’t worry you’re protected.”
“Thank you, Genesis. I’ll let you” . . . before I could finish my sentence the phone started ringing. “This is probably Supreme calling me back.”
“You take your call, we’ll be back later.”
“Thank you both for everything,” I said, before answering the phone. “Hello.”
“How are you?”
“Pretty good. Are you back?”
“Not yet.”
“What are you waiting on?”
“This business I had to handle is taking a lot longer than I expected. But Xavier is good. He’s with my parents.”
“What about me?”
“You said you’re good.”
“I guess it’s crazy for me to think my husband
would want to be with me while I’m in the hospital.”
“Precious, even if I was in town there’s
nothing I could do for you anyway.”
“How about give me your support.”
“You have my support. How is Quentin?”His surgery went fine but he’s in ICU. I’m worried about him.”
“So am I. Quentin is a good man. He didn’t deserve that.”
“I know. So you’ll be back tonight?”
“Hopefully.”
“Hopefully! Supreme, there is so much going on right now. I need you.”
“Precious, I’m trying to handle some very important business. As soon as I’m done I’ll be home. I’ll call you later on to check on you. I love you . . . bye.”
“Bye.” When I hung up the phone all I felt was despair. My daughter was in jail, my father was barely clinging on to his life and my husband seemed to be slipping away more and more each day. I decided to call Xavier because I knew hearing his sweet voice would make this dark cloud over me disappear. But right as I was dialing the number the devil herself stepped in my room.
“Precious, I’m so glad to see you’re doing better. I was concerned.”
“Maya, what the hell are you doing here and why in the hell did the security let you in my room?”
“I’m your sister. Of course they let me see you, we’re family.”
“Can’t you go torture somebody else . . . I can’t deal with you right now.”
“I’m not here to torture you. I was devastated to hear that not only was my sister in the hospital but my father was shot and is in critical condition. We need to put our differences aside and come together right now. Our father would want that.”
“Maya, I’m just starting to get over my concussion if I have to continue this conversation with you I might end up in a permanent coma.”
“You shouldn’t joke about something so serious, Precious.”
“I’m not joking, I’m being very serious. I’m supposed to be resting and you bring out the very worse in me. So if you’re truly concerned about my well-being then leave.”
“Our father would want me to be here with you . . . you know to show my support. Speaking of support where is Supreme?”
“Don’t worry about where Supreme is at. None of us is any of your business.”
“I understand why you’re being so hostile. Because of you our father may die. He was trying to protect the daughter who constantly turned him away. That must be a heavy burden to carry. The guilt must be eating you up,” Maya stated sliding her hair behind her ear. The other side of her mid length bob slightly covered her eye but I could still see the evil lurking. I looked down at her nude pumps with cream slacks and a baby powder blue blouse. She stood there casually dangling her crocodile clutch purse. She even had on a string of pearls to compliment her look. I couldn’t lie her entire appearance was the replica of what an upstanding woman about her business would look like and that shit was scary because the bitch was crazy. Maya was the perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its cover.
“The only thing eating me up is that we’re in a hospital and I can’t muster up enough strength to get up and whoop yo’ ass up out my room. But I’m cool wit’ that because I’ll see you again and your presence is motivating me to get well soon.”
“You do that, my dear sister because with your husband nowhere around and your daughter about to spend the rest of her life in prison, Xavier needs somebody to care for him. It’s such a shame how you used to have it all but now look at you. And to think I used to want to be you. All I can do is shake my head, oh how the mighty has fallen.”
“I see age hasn’t taught you nothing because the harder I fall the stronger I rise. Now get the fuck out my room.”
“Get well soon, Precious,” Maya smirked before making her exit. When Maya left I sat there for a few minutes regretting that I didn’t allow Supreme to have someone kill her or better yet that I didn’t kill her myself. I wanted Quentin to live but at that moment I promised myself that if he didn’t pull through I would see to it that Maya died right along with him.
Aaliyah
AS I STOOD WAITING for the police officers to escort me into the courtroom the fear that I had buried for the last few months swallowed me. The day had finally arrived, the beginning of my trial. I was facing First Degree Murder charges and Attempted Murder. For some reason I didn’t believe this day would ever come I guess because I didn’t want to believe it.
“Let’s go,” I heard the officer say, grabbing my arm. When I entered the courtroom even though the air conditioner was blasting I could feel sweat surfacing on my forehead. I felt like I was in a sauna. Luckily my hair was pulled back in a bun or it would’ve been sticking to my face.
“Are you okay?” my attorney asked me when I reached the table where I would be sitting for the duration of the trial. “Sit down, you look like you’re about to pass out,” he said, pouring me a glass of water. “Drink this.” Mr. Anderson practically had to shove the glass in my hand because drinking water was the last thing on my mind. There were only two things I kept thinking about: spending the rest of my life behind bars and my grandfather dying.
“I’m fine,” I finally said as my voice cracked. I took a few sips of water and rubbed my sweaty palms together. I looked around and saw my mother and father sitting together. A few seats behind them I saw Nico and Genesis sitting together. They all gave me warm smiles trying to reassure me that everything would be ok. Then my eyes darted to the other side of the courtroom and I saw Justina. When I thought my heart couldn’t be crushed any further, a painful knot in the pit of my stomach formed when I saw Amir sitting next to Justina. Our eyes locked for a few seconds and then I turned away as I didn’t want him to see the single tear that had escaped my eye. I tried to discreetly wipe it away but wiping away the tear couldn’t wipe away the pain.
“Please rise.” I heard the officer say when the judge presiding over my trial entered the courtroom. My legs felt so weak when I stood up I was afraid they would buckle up under me. I held on to the table to maintain my balance. The room seemed to be spinning and I was relieved when we were able to sit back down. My mind had zoned out. I was no longer in the building. Instead of listening to opening arguments I reflected on what my mother said to me yesterday when she visited me in jail. She promised me that I would beat this case and be able to finally come home. My mother seemed so sincere when she rubbed the side of my face, looked me in the eyes and told me that. I looked down at the taupe colored dress she brought for me to wear. With the bun and the conservative dress I resembled a young and innocent schoolteacher. But all of us knew it was going to take much more than a pure as the driven snow image to beat these charges, it would take a miracle.
I looked over at the jury that consisted of five women and seven men and the two alternates. When they were sworn in I wondered would these be the people that would give me back my freedom or have me locked up for the rest of my life. My attorney told me the trial shouldn’t last longer than a week, two weeks max but
I knew it would be the longest week or two of my life.
“Your Honor, the first witness we’ll be calling is Justina Morgan.” When I heard the prosecutor say that it got my attention and snapped me out of my daydreaming. As scared as I was I needed to focus.
“I had no idea Justina was the first witness,” I whispered to my attorney.
“Clearly the prosecutor is trying to set the stage early.”
“What do you mean?”
“She wants to immediately imprint in the minds of the jurors that you are the killer. So either they believe they have a very strong case or a weak one.”
Fuck . . . Fuck . . . Fuck is all I kept screaming to myself. I watched in disgust as Justina’s pathetic ass strolled to the witness stand with her head slightly down like she was a victim. Her hair was blown out straight hanging slightly past her shoulders. She had that, I really don’t have that much makeup on look but in all actuality her face was beat to perfection in very natural tones. Her pink blouse and pencil skirt with heels gave off young but sophisticated. Justina must’ve had her mother dress her because the outfit had Chantal written all over it. Yeah, these heifers were no doubt out to fry me and came dressed for the occasion.
“Would you please state your name for the courtroom,” the prosecutor stated after Justina was sworn in. Damn, we done heard her name a few times we know who the fuck she is, I said to myself, trying not to let the repulsion I had for Justina show on my face. My attorney had already warned me not to wear my emotions on my face unless it’s one of innocence. The thing was, I knew I was innocent so every face I made still made that true but I guess jurors didn’t see it that way.
“Justina Morgan.”
“Justina how do you know the defendant?”
“We grew up together. We used to be best friends before I was shot.” I caught the jurors glance their eyes towards me and tried to sit up a little extra straighter. I felt those sweat beads about to accumulate again so I quickly took another sip of water. My attorney gently touched my hand letting me know it would be ok.
“Justina, can you walk us through the events that led up to the shooting on July 15th.”
“It all started when I caught Aaliyah trying to have sex with my boyfriend.”
“Objection, your Honor,” Mr. Anderson swiftly stood up and barked. Now I understood exactly why she was the prosecutor’s first witness. They wanted to assassinate my character before jurors even had a chance to hear the evidence. By the time we put on a defense in their mind I would already be guilty. I sat in horror for the next hour listening to Justina give her version of the play by play of that night. Most of what she said was completely one sided. She was the loyal sweet girlfriend who was backstabbed by her conniving best friend. The way she described what went down she almost had me not liking myself until I realized it was all lies.
“I have no further questions,” the prosecutor said, sitting back down. I let out a sigh of relief. I was tired of hearing Justina spew her lies so eloquently. I was now praying that my attorney could do some damage control but I wasn’t optimistic. The scary part was that Justina really was a victim, which didn’t help my cause. Somebody did put a bullet through her but the problem was it wasn’t me. But how did my attorney prove that Justina was lying without attacking her since she was a victim.
“Why were you in Sway Stone’s hotel room in the middle of the night?” that was the first question out of my attorney’s mouth. I was surprised but pleased he took that route. He completely bypassed that love triangle bullshit that Justina conveniently threw out there to make me look like shit.
“I already answered that question,” Justina responded in a sugary tone.
“Actually you didn’t. So can you explain that to me now.” When I thought about it, my attorney was right, the prosecutor never asked her and she never explained. They just conveniently jumped to the hotel room without explaining how she ended up there.
“Yeah, expose all her hoe shit,” I mumbled under my breath as I waited for Justina to give her explanation. Justina looked over at the prosecutor’s table as if she expected for her to object but instead she leaned forward with her glasses perched on the tip of her nose as if anxiously awaiting the answer too.
“He invited me there,” she answered clearing her throat.
“Mr. Stone invited you there for what reason?’ “He wanted to talk.”
“About?”
“He was interested in pursuing a relationship with me as he had grown tired of dealing with Aaliyah.”
“I see. So it was a romantic conversation?”
“Yes. Sway Stone was romantically interested in me.”
“Was the feeling mutual?”
“No I still wanted to work on my relationship with Amir.”
“But you were still at Mr. Stone’s hotel room in the middle of the night.”
“Objection Your Honor, this is argumentative,” the prosecutor barked.
“Strike that, I’ll move on to my next question, Your Honor. Justina, after Sway made his intentions known to you what happened next?”
“That’s when Aaliyah showed up. Sway asked her to leave because he told her he wanted to be with me and he was done with her. ”
“Didn’t Aaliyah show up because Mr. Stone left the room key at the front desk for her?”
“Yes, but that was only because he wanted to break things off with her, face to face.”
“And that’s what he did when she arrived?”
“Yes, as soon as she arrived they started arguing because he said he was done with her.”
“But you just testified that when Aaliyah got to the hotel the two of you were arguing about Amir, which one is it?”
“It’s both.”
“It can’t be both. It’s called a sequence to events. Did Aaliyah argue with you first or did she argue with Mr. Stone?’
“She argued with me first and then Sway,” Justina huffed.
“So after the two of you argued about Amir, that’s when Mr. Stone then told Aaliyah he wanted to be with you and not her?”
“Yes. She couldn’t take the fact that after she threw herself at Amir he didn’t want her and now Sway didn’t want her. They both wanted me.”
“Stop lying! You came to that hotel room and threw yourself at Sway and he still turned you down!” I yelled out as if I wasn’t in a courtroom full of people.
“Aaliyah, sit down,” Mr. Anderson directed me, coming towards the table.
“Justina, why don’t you tell the truth for once and stop lying! This is my life we’re talking about,” I continued, sick of this deceitful bitch playing with my livelihood.
“Control your client, or she will be escorted out of this courtroom, immediately,” the judge threatened as he banged his gavel up and down.
“Aaliyah, get a hold of yourself. Are you trying to spend the rest of your life in jail?” Mr. Anderson said in a low but furious voice. “I understand you’re upset but let me handle the witness. You need to sit there and just listen. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” I answered still ready to give Justina the riot act.
“Are you sure because if not then you need to leave. You’re no good for me if you can’t sit there quietly.”
“I’m sure.”
“Are you able to get your client under control because outburst like that won’t be tolerated in my courtroom.”
“Yes, Your Honor and we apologize. It will not happen again.”
“It better not or your client will be in even more trouble than she already is.” I caught the smirk on Justina’s face and I swear I had to call on the good Lord to give me strength. I turned around and I caught my mother mouth the words be strong to me. I turned back around and shook my head. There was a part of me that wanted to believe that maybe the injury Justina sustained had messed up her memory and she was confused and that’s why she was pointing the finger at me. But now it was clear, Justina was malicious and she was willing to tell whatever lie necessary to bring m
e down.
The only way I was able to sit through the rest of Justina’s testimony without flipping was to completely tune her out. I pretended to be somewhere else other than a courtroom at my trial.
This bitter hoe was gambling with my freedom and quite frankly she was winning. Is this my destiny to spend the rest of my life behind bars? My freedom gone and left with no hope, I thought as I put my head down wondering what would become of Aaliyah Mills Carter.
Precious
“This is some bullshit,” I said to Supreme as we were leaving the courthouse. When we got outside we came up on Justina, Amir and her parents. My mind told me to keep walking but my mouth didn’t listen.
“This is the type of daughter the two of you raised? One that would lie and let an innocent girl spend the rest of her life in jail over a boy?” I spit, eyeing Amir.
“How dare you. You want to blame us because you raised a murderer. I think she takes after her parents, all three of you,” Chantal said, with a smug look on her face. I jumped at her ready to knock it right off.
“Precious, don’t do it,” Supreme belted holding me back.
“Yeah, I advise you to control your wife.”
“What the fuck you say to me?” Supreme stepped in front of me and got in T-Roc’s face. “You heard what I said, you need to check your wife.”
“My wife is good but if you don’t get your people under control you gon’ have to check yo’ entire family if you know what I mean.”
“Nigga, is you threatening my people?”
Supreme paused for a moment, nodded his head and responded calmly with a, “Yes.” Then all you saw were fist swinging. It happened so fast that I couldn’t even tell who threw the first punch.
“Stop!” Amir yelled out but that wasn’t stopping nothing. It wasn’t until Nico, Genesis and Lorenzo came running up that they were able to pull the two men apart.
“Motherfucker, don’t you ever threaten my family!” T-Roc roared, while trying to straighten up his suit.
“Nigga, that wasn’t a threat. You and yo’ people keep fuckin wit’ what’s mine, it’s a done deal. No threats . . . promises, nigga.” Supreme made clear.
