"He's paying for everything out of his pocket?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, Mrs. Black and if I may note, he seemed… " her voice faltered as if unsure how to describe Ethan. "I'm not sure how to say this, but he seemed different."
"How is different?"
"Excited."
Lynne almost dropped the phone. Ethan Black didn't get excited about anything. "Are you sure about this?"
"Well, I'm not expert on emotions, especially when it comes to Mr. Black who usually never says two words to me, but he was so talkative, hurried, and flushed. It was so different. He almost reminded me of James."
That was different. The brothers were like night and day. James took nothing serious and Ethan took everything serious. He was agitated and huffed a lot, but looking excited about anything was just not in his nature.
"Thank you, Kristen," she said and hung up the phone not even giving the girl any time to say anything else.
The door downstairs opened then closed and Lynne jumped out the bed so fast she almost twisted her ankle getting down the stairs.
She located her husband in the kitchen making his own sandwich.
Even though he was clean shaven, Ethan looked haggard. His hair needed cutting and he wore work clothes and not the usual suits. This wasn't what caught her attention though. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she was able to see the unguarded look of… happiness in his eyes.
She started to sweat feeling nervous and caught. Did he know about the lovers? The many gifts she had bought for them? The homes she had them living in with her husbands money? "Good morning, Ethan," she said lovingly.
He masked his expression immediately giving her a wary look before biting into his sandwich.
Lynne stared at him noticing the cocky way he stood as if he had conquered the world. "You didn't come home last night and you didn't call."
"I slept on site," he explained.
"You never sleep on site," she noted.
He only shrugged not going into any more explanation than what he already had. "I was tired. I didn't feel like driving. More or less I passed out over some plans I've been working on."
Lynne busied herself by making coffee knowing her husband was being evasive for other reasons.
He didn't speak, but took another bite.
"Kristen also tells me you've got a private project in the works."
He stiffened. "What else did she tell you?"
This was the Ethan she was use to with the familiar growl. Now she would be able to work her wiles on him. Moving slowly and seductively, each move made to draw the eye of any man except her husband who only turned his back on her. With two more bites he purposely hurried and finished the sandwich and used the opportunity to get him something to drink pushing past her to get to the refrigerator.
Lynne didn't like being ignored and the man she had devoted her life to was doing just that. Matter of fact, this man had purposely gone out of his way to avoid her for the last three weeks. "What's going on, Ethan?"
"What do you mean?" he asked innocently.
"I mean you aren't doing things normally Ethan. This isn't like you and I don't like it."
He closed the refrigerator quietly and sat on the stools by the sink in the middle of the kitchen facing his wife. The water chose this time to sound off startling her frazzled nerves.
Slamming the pot on another eye, she faced him waiting impatiently for an answer folding her arms across her chest and even tapping her foot.
He looked remotely amused as he surveyed his wife's upset condition. She was nothing like Nicole or should he say Nicole was nothing like her mother. So was his plan for revenge against this trifling woman going to be worth it in the end when he would have to break Nicole's heart? Just thinking about those beautiful brown eyes welling with tears over his betrayal turned an invisible screwdriver in his heart.
Ethan hardened his emotions to this. Keeping his eye on the goal he'd set for himself would make all this worthwhile then he could go on with his life staying very far away from women in general. He realized that it didn't matter what color they were all of them were nothing, but a bunch of trouble and now he knew why his father had died lonely and bitchy.
"I would like you to pack your things and get out. Before you leave, you'll place all the keys I've ever given you on this table. After all of that, you'll go to your lawyer, which I know you have and have him draw up divorce papers. You'll initialize the process because you will not get one red cent of anything I have."
She gripped the counter top so tight her nails dug into the wood grain. Seething, she said through gritted teeth, "You can't do this to me. I'll ruin you financially you cold heartless asshole."
He reached in his back and pulled out a thick envelope. "You can try. You can try real hard, but you'll get only what you're worth - shit. If you go my way, I'll let you walk out of here with your dignity and personal belongings. If you want to do it the hard way, I'll leave you in the middle of the city with nothing to your name and not a stitch on your body."
"I have places to stay," she said slanting her eyes at him. "There are plenty of people I have."
"Like Carlos? Enrique? How about Stanley? Is that all of them or should I try the list of lover's in New York I've recently spoken to?"
She wanted to scratch his eyes out. She wanted to take away that triumphant smirk on his face. What else did he know?
Standing up, Ethan said as cold as he could, "The houses, the credit cards, the cars, everything is gone. You're on your own. Even your lover's homes you've so generously bought for them are gone. I've confiscated all the gifts you've bought them. Yes, I have been keeping track of all the cars and jewelry gifts you've gone out of your way to keep from me."
She turned her back to him so angry. "How long have you known?"
"The past two years, but I thought I could handle it. I mean I was just in lust with you. I thought you would make me love you. I could have, given time, but you used me, just like you have used everyone else in your life. Even that bastard you had and tried to hide from the world by fostering off on your own mother."
She gasped and turned to look at him. "You knew about her?"
"Does she know you tried to use her too? That her supposed Daddy wouldn't give a whore the time of day, so you tried to abort her and when she wouldn't just disappeared you gave her up to your mother? Does she know even after she was born you still tried to get money out of a man who wasn't her Daddy?"
Lynne came around the counter. "Why should I tell a brat who gave me nothing but pain about a worthless Daddy who didn't mean shit to me but a good fuck? I could have had a real man who loved me and I loved him."
"He only wanted a good fuck and that you are, Lynne. You only wanted him for the money."
Trying her best vindictive tone, she said, "You wouldn't know about love, you unfeeling bastard."
"And you did at thirteen with a fifty year old man? You were a whore then and you're a whore now."
Instead of hitting him, she grabbed the hot pot and hurled it at him, but he ducked to avoid it letting it slam against the kitchen wall behind him. "Is that all you have to say?"
"No, I got a lot more. You will never have anyone who will fuck you as good as me. You will never know love, because your idea of it is a five-hour marathon of you sweating and pumping like a damn rocking horse. Men like you will always grow old lonely and bitchy because you have no idea how to please a woman. Take your shit, because I can find a real man to satisfy my needs."
"Before you go finding a real man why don't you go be a real mother to that little bastard you left." He stormed out the kitchen fighting his willpower not to throttle that bitch for her hurting words. He'd started the mess and should feel damn good he had ended the whole thing, but he knew he had just started some more mess with Nicole that would kill her mother emotionally. Now all he had to do was get the kid to fall in love with him.
She was putting up a good fight, but he knew she wanted him. Hol
ding back only spurred him to make her want him more. Was it race? Or was it age?
He was only thirty-three to her nineteen. Yes that was a bit of a challenge, but he was positive any young woman her age would be enamored by the attention of a rich older man no matter what color he may be. Lighting up a cigarette to calm his nerve, he thought long and hard about his decision to deceive her. Hell, she was a whore just like her mother, except she was a little smarter and honest and asked for the money up front.
No emotional ties were her exact words. This clearly told him she wasn't interested in any relationship, but she wanted something. Every woman wanted something and he just had to find out what this particularly intelligent young beautiful woman wanted and then give it to her.
Chapter 5
The doctor checked her one last time, and then pulled Nicole outside the room so Nanna could get some rest. Doctor Vincent Rucker, a nice kind man who reminded her of Roger Moore when he played in those Bond movies. "She's getting enough rest," he assured her. "I don't want her moving at all. Not until we can find out for certain if there will be a heart donor before the end of the year."
"And if there is not one?" she asked worriedly.
He looked at her gravely. "I would like her to come to the hospital and stay. She will be even weaker and I don't want her in this environment. I would also like you to speak with her about resuscitation. She is still coherent enough to discuss her options."
Stubbornly her chin went up. "There are no options. You will resuscitate her if she goes into arrest."
"I can't just do it because you said so." He handed her an envelope. "Give this to her. Read it over for her and then have her check what she wants and sign at the bottom."
Tears welled up tight in her eyes at the thought of losing her Nanna. "I don't think I can, Dr. Rucker."
"I know you can be strong, Nicole. I know you can," he assured her giving her a comforting hug.
After he left, she went back in the room where Nanna rested quietly. The lighting was low and soft music played in the background. Nanna loved the symphony Phantom of the Opera and the music played morning noon and night comforting the old woman in her time of need. All last month it had been the songs of Shirley Caesar. If Nanna made it to the New Year, Nicole was very interested in what the old woman would pick.
When she sat down beside Nanna in a chair, the old brown eyes opened. Her skin was pale from lack of blood flow. Already the elderly woman had lost one of her legs to the knee from lack of blood flow.
Watching the woman who had been more of a parent to her than anyone dying was heart wrenching. Nanna had been the strong independent woman Nicole had told herself she would grow up to be.
A faint weak smile crossed Nanna's features as she forced herself to awake. "How's my Nicole?" she asked her deep southern drawl coming forward slowly. The stroke had slowed her speech drastically until it sounded as if she spoke in slow motion.
Nicole wiped her eyes again from the fresh stream of tears. "I'll be fine and you?"
"Sometimes I feel bad, sometimes I feel nothing." She paused to catch her breath. "I don't mind the badness. It's the nothing that scares me."
She covered her mouth to hold back a sob. Nanna's eyes went to the papers in Nicole's hands and without being asked to explain she said, "Dr. Rucker gave me these papers. They're about you choosing to be revived if… your heart should fail. I told him I could make the decision for you."
"Can you Nicky? Can you really?"
Nicole began to weep earnestly. "I don't want you to leave me. I don't want to be without you, Nanna." She fell to her knees and gently laid her head on her grandmother's bosom. "Please Nanna, say you'll stay."
"Nanna's tired baby." Weakly Nanna patted Nicole's shoulder offering her as much comfort as she could. "Look at me child."
Nicole looked up at the eyes just like her, but tired and old, yet filled with so much unconditional love, the pain of losing these feelings made Nicole's chest hurt.
"I've been talking to my Jesus and it's time for me to join him, child, but I got a lot to say to you so hush now."
Forcing her sobs to dissipate, she moved back in the chair, but moved it closer to the bed. Nanna requested some air and Nicole turned on her oxygen that ran up into her nose. Nanna had requested to go home instead of staying at the hospital because she didn't like being away from the home she had married in and raised her family in. There were home nurses that visited daily and there was an emergency alert button if ever they needed to rush her to the hospital not far from where they lived.
"I've lived a long time," the old woman said after taking several deep breaths. "I've loved many, but your grandfather was a man I will love forever. He's waiting fro me and I can't wait to see hi." Between each sentence she took long deep breaths. "When it's time, let me go, child. Let me go home to my husband, my daughter, and most of all, my Lord. I know it will be rough, but you won't be alone, Nicole. This body I'm in now can't take another year on this earth and I can't protect you like I want to. When I get my new body, me and the Lord will watch over you. We'll make sure you are safe. Understand?"
Nicole nodded. Opening the papers, she filled out the appropriate information for Nanna, then put the pen in her grandmother's hands and put the document where Nanna could sign and date the appropriate lines.
When Nanna finished, she ordered Nicole to place the document in the secret compartment in the wall Nanna had built before Marvin had first moved in that contained all of Nanna's private documentation. No one knew of it except Nicole. Nanna hadn't even told that shady lawyer Lynne had supplied for free to Nanna for any legal help.
"You'll make peace with your Mother, Nicole," Nanna said quietly as Nicole came to sit back down.
She stiffened. "She's not my mother."
"When my Ecole left for those smart schools when she was twelve, I prayed to the Lord to send me someone who would take the place of her here in my heart. I tried so hard to raise Lynne but everything anyone said to her she did the opposite. Drove your grandfather to an early grave with the stress she put on him. Lynne was rushed to the hospital because of a failed abortion attempt. I ordered her to have the baby and I have never regretted that decision. When you were born and I looked into the same eyes as mine, I knew the Lord was giving me another chance at having a daughter in my life. You got Echols brains and my spirit. That's all you need in this life to make it past the bad elements. Yes, she is your Mother because it takes anyone to be a mother or father, but it takes real women and men to be mommas and daddies."
Nanna always had a way of making things that troubled Nicole makes sense. She was always in tuned with Nicole's emotional health.
"Where is Marvin?" Nanna asked.
"He's at the Laundromat, he he'll be home soon so I can go there for the night shift. A new nurse will be coming to stay by your side."
"When I go home to my Lord, Lewis Kraus will be visited by Armando Bellini, Esquire. Mr. Bellini will deliver several letters to certain persona and you. At this time, Mr. Bellini will read my last will and testament I drew up the day before my last stroke." Deep pain came to Nanna's face and Nicole wasn't sure if it was present or past pain.
The day Nanna had her last stroke she had been at the Laundromat and Marvin had been at home with Nanna at the time. Nicole suspected Marvin of foul play, but it cold never be proved.
"After this you will go to Parker Mills of Advance Laundry Service and work on paying back money he advanced to Marvin for the sale of the Laundromat. This amount I am not sure of."
Nicole gasped. "How do you know this?" she asked.
"Just because Nanna is bedridden child, don't mean she's out of touch. People don't know these walls have ears and I've been it too long not to know what its saying." Nanna held out her hand towards Nicole and Nicole grasped it with her own tightly for support. "Which is why I can't understand you, Nicole."
"Me? There's nothing wrong."
""A woman who sleeps so restless lately thro
ugh the night means she's got a lot on her mind and heart. Who is he?"
Nicole blushed so hard she thought her cheeks would catch on fire. "He's no one."
"But you'll tell me all about him tomorrow; child .Now let this old woman get some rest."
She kissed by grandmother's cheek tenderly. "I love you Nanna."
"And I you, Nicole," she whispered before drifting off to sleep.
Nicole quietly left out the room and sighed to herself. Were her emotions that evident? No, Nanna was always tuned into Nicole and always knew what bothered her.
The doorbell rung to bring her out of her musings. Upon opening the door, she stood in shock at the site of Lynne standing in the doorway.
"Are you going to stand there looking stupid or are you going to let me in?" she snapped at Nicole's stuck on stupid look.
Nicole moved out the way to let her in. This was about the first thing this woman had said to her in her whole life. When she was little she was ignored or sent to her room. For the past three years, Marvin would just send her to the store for cigarettes every Tuesday morning, except today wasn't Tuesday.
Seizing up her, Nicole noted the shortness and skinniness while Nicole had more curves. "Nanna's sleeping."
"I'm not her to see her."
"Marvin's at the Laundromat."
Lynne only ignored her and looked around her in disgust.
A knock on the screen brought a new face. She opened the door to the smiling taxi cab driver. He set down a seven piece Gucci luggage set in front of her, tipped his hat, then jumped back in the cab and drove away.
"Moving?" Nicole asked Lynne now understanding her mother's reasons for being there.
"Don't worry, I won't be here for long, you worthless brat," Lynne sneered.
Nicole bit her lip before saying, "I thought you were talking about yourself." Instead she said stiffly, "Your bedroom's still in back." She closed the door and walked up the stairs to her small attic room without another word to the horrible woman. Mother or not, she would not take another unkind word from her.
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