Tiya pulled up in a brand new BMW, scrambled out of the car without bothering to close the door behind her. Her children stayed put in the rear seats, totally engrossed in whatever was on their iPads.
“What are you doing?” she yelled, running to within a few feet of Reign. Always that few feet between them. She might be stupid, but she wasn’t altogether dumb.
“I can’t smack the entire Bollywood crap out of you,” Reign said, without putting eyes on the woman. “But since your little episode landed you a nice little chunk of change, you won’t have a problem living elsewhere.” She scanned the area and found that the neighbors were filing out of their houses and other nearby buildings to check out the scene. “Because after what you pulled, you can’t live here.”
“You can’t do this,” Tiya screamed.
Reign waved the two documents that gave her the authority to do exactly what she planned. “I can and I will.” She shifted to face the house again. “You have two choices. You can go in and take what you can carry then come get all of your stuff off the street. Or the movers can put everything on the truck, and it’ll go into storage.” She placed a document with the terms in front of Tiya. “You’ll need to sign this first, though. And if it’s not done within the next five minutes, my people are going to do exactly what I paid them to do.”
A brand new Mercedes convertible came barreling into the empty space behind Tiya’s car, “What is going on here?” Hiran demanded, scrambling out from behind the driver’s seat. He pulled a phone from his ear. “Who are all these people?”
“They’re here to evict us,” Tiya said.
The children finally left the car, realizing that something major was going on.
Hiran swung a look toward Reign then to the burly men camped out on the front lawn. “That can’t happen.”
“Devesh owns this place,” Reign said, grinning. “And I’m here to evict you—unless you have an executed lease. You know, the one you refused to sign because you were haggling over getting a lower price. When you were also trying to get my son out of his condo so you could have it because you deserve to have a better living space. Not to mention the space you were living in has three bedrooms to accommodate you.” She tilted her head, taking in their panicked expression. “Do you even have the money you owe him? No? Didn’t think so. No lease? You are guests, not tenants, and you are no longer welcome here.”
Tiya snatched the sheet, scribbled her name and thrust it into Reign’s chest.
Reign nodded toward Hiran. “You need to sign it, too.”
“I want to talk to Devesh first,” Hiran growled.
“You do that,” Reign shot back and signaled for the movers to get to work. “Put everything on the street, fellas.”
“Noooooo,” Tiya screamed, pushing against her husband’s chest. “Sign that thing.”
Reign raised her hand to stall the men’s movements. They halted—in unison, just like a synchronized swimming team.
Hiran placed his signature on the space provided right next to his wife’s then held the sheet out for Reign. Before she could grip the end, he released his hold and let it float to the ground.
Reign left the document where it fell, refusing to pick it up from the ground. Instead, she turned to George, the bald man in charge of the teams, and said, “On the front lawn works for me.”
“You can’t do that.” Tiya quickly scooped the pages off the grass and tried to fall in step as Reign walked away.
“You keep saying that and I keep proving you wrong.” She opened the driver side door of her Buick Enclave and said, “I was going to pay for them to move it to storage. But you all still don’t seem to get the fact that you’re on the low end of this equation. If you want your stuff on the trucks, you pay for it. I’m not spending a dime to help you after what you did.”
Hiran whipped out his wallet and produced a credit card.
George signaled a look at Reign, who shook her head. He put his eyes on the card and down at Hiran “Sorry, we’ll need to have cash at this point.”
Hiran glared at Reign, and said to his wife, “I’ll be back. I need to hit a cash station.”
When he drove off, Reign leaned on the passenger door closest to where Tiya stood. “Think I can’t put my hands on you for your willful disregard for me and mine? Oh yes, you brought it to my house, and now I’m bringing it to yours.”
Reign stroked a hand through Tiya’s short-cropped hair. “If you ever come against my family and me again, this right here”—she gestured to the men going inside to start the process—“is the tip of what I’m willing to do.”
Tiya was trembling with an anger that she didn’t dare let run wild, or else she would receive another valuable lesson right on the front lawn.
“I’m more than willing to live down to your low expectations of me.”
“So my brother did this?” Tiya asked.
Reign smiled, started the truck and left Tiya standing in the front yard while strangers dismantled her life.
Chapter 37
“Nareigna Lisa Maharaj.”
Reign swiveled her office chair to face Devesh, only slightly alarmed by his tone. She was grateful that the twins were with his parents tonight. She had a feeling that this storm might take a while to blow over. “My whole name, huh? Means I’m in real trouble, yes?”
“You evicted my sister without discussing it with me first,” he said, as a vein throbbed at his temple. “Probably because you knew I wouldn’t have been alright with the viciousness of it.”
“That whole everything in its time thing was not working for me,” she shot back. “Truth be told, I would have preferred putting my entire foot up her—”
“Come on, Reign,” he warned. “Behave.”
“But that wasn’t an option,” she finished, getting to her feet. “So I did the next best thing. No way does that heifer get to live on our dime after doing something so foul.”
“Now, Reign.”
“Don’t you ‘now Reign’ me.” She put a hand on her hip and studied his face. “I had to take the children out of school, Devesh. Their friends say their parents call you a rapist. Imagine having to explain that word to Leena and Kamran when I took them into school this morning,” she said sourly. “They don’t want you anywhere near their children. And they don’t want our children playing with theirs because in their eyes, there’s a thin line between rapists and pedophile. The director of the center disagreed with the parent’s stance and asked me to stay. But the outcry from women everywhere has been devastating. This is not going away anytime soon.”
“And putting Tiya and her family out on the street is going to make it go away?”
“Oh no,” she said with a mild shrug. “I was being real petty on that one, since putting my fist in her face would’ve meant going to jail and paying her more money.” She grasped his hand. “She hurt you. She hurt our children. I couldn’t let that ride.”
“You’re acting real twenties right now,” he shot back, scowling as he took a seat.
“No love, I’m being straight up hood,” she admitted without an apologetic bone in her body. “My kind of twenties would mean stomping her correctly. And I would’ve made it worth the jail time, too.”
Devesh flinched.
“If I’m going to be sitting in the pokey,” she confessed, chest heaving with indignation. “I want to be smiling the entire time. She will not come for me and mine thinking that there won’t be a piper to pay.”
“Pokey?”
She looked upward as though accessing her memory banks. “Another word for jail.”
“Should I ask why?”
Reign released her anger long enough to chuckle. “I don’t believe it’s for the reason you think. And it would be the pokey for you”—she pointed a finger at his chest—“and certainly not for me.”
Devesh smiled a little but was obviously still processing her earlier statement as he pulled her into his arms. “Honey, I need you to be the adult in this relat
ionship.”
Reign outright laughed at that one. “So what does that make you?”
“Alright, let me rephrase the statement,” he said, releasing her so he could guide them to a different area. “I need you to be the grown ass woman that I fell in love with. You can’t be going around kicking butt left and right. How would that look?”
“It’ll look like I’m a grown ass woman who doesn’t stand for anyone’s bull.”
Devesh’s shoulders slumped. “Don’t have me put you over my knee and—”
She perked up. “My God, you’re into that, too?”
“Reign, I’m trying to have a serious conversation here,” he said failing to hold back an ear-to-ear grin.
“I hear you chirping, Big Bird.” She took a moment to think about what he said and sighed. “And I’m sorry that—” She shook her head and waved him off. “I can’t even tell that lie.”
Devesh exhaled slowly, weighing his next words carefully. “I’m going to say this, love. God doesn’t need you to help Him along with that karma thing, alright, honey?”
“Alright,” she replied, completely deflated.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t—how do you say it? Get in that tail. But only if it’s necessary. Even Jesus turned over the tables in the temple, right?”
She gave a victory fist pump. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
“But I’m going to need you to make sure you don’t do something that will require me to come up with bail money.”
Reign lowered her hands and pouted at hearing her own words thrown back at her. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, my love. You’re no good to me if you’re behind bars.”
Devesh took her in his arms again, placing a kiss on her temple. “I understand why you did this, but we can’t start giving an eye for an eye, or it’ll never end. Good never follows bad when we know better.” He stroked a finger across her cheek. “And we’ve been so blessed. Things that I’ve wanted for so long are finally happening for me, and for your son who’s getting more business than he can handle. He’s had to hire assistants. Even Anaya is thinking of accepting Jay’s offer of a position that will allow her to help with my upcoming world tour. He says having people I can trust in key positions will benefit everyone in the long run. We have to be above board on how we do things.”
“Tiya shouldn’t hurt you that way,” she whispered. “All because she wanted money to fund her shopping addiction? They weren’t even using it to pay their bills. Please.”
Devesh waited a moment and took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m hurt by what she did, but I’m not going to let it change how I do things.” He leaned forward, laid his forehead against hers. “She’s hurting, honey. All the jealousy, all the pain, we know where it comes from.”
“But that doesn’t give her the right to screw with everyone else just because she’s had bad things happen to her,” she whispered. “Hell, they happened to Anaya. They happened to me. You don’t see us going around bending people over without oiling them up.”
“I didn’t need that kind of visual, honey.”
“Sorry, but it’s the truth,” she countered. “She’s mean because you all have allowed her to get away with bullying everyone for so long that she thinks it’s normal. I was just her latest victim. Well, she thought I was a victim.”
Devesh stroked a hand across her bare arms. “I understand how you feel, Reign, but God has been merciful and kind. We have to know that these blessings won’t come to us without a challenge. That’s how life is, but what will make the challenges less chaotic is facing them together. Understand me?”
She gave him a weak, “Yes.”
“So no more going gangster on folks.”
The defeated set of her shoulders told him she couldn’t make that promise. “We have to move her back in?”
“Oh hell no,” he confirmed, waving that off. “I’m riding with you on this one.”
She roared with laughter, and when it died down, she said, “Your family’s mad at me again.”
“No, honey. They’re upset at the lengths that Tiya would go to discredit me. I’m more amazed that my mother stood her ground and wouldn’t let Tiya move back into her house. She told her that the children could stay, but not my sister or Hiran. I didn’t think Mumma had it in her.”
Reign grinned and sang, “Mumma don’t take no mess.”
Devesh frowned, trying to figure out the reference.
“James Brown,” she supplied.
“Ah! Godfather of Soul.”
Reign checked her cell. “TMZ called.” She scrolled up the screen. “The View, The Talk all of them want an exclusive.”
Devesh shook his head. “I’m not into any of them. They’ve been raking me over the coals without trying to check out the story first. Ellen? Iyanla?”
“Even she knows she can’t fix this family.”
Devesh struggled not to laugh. “As long as Mumma and Papa, Anaya, Aunt Kavya, and Pranav are alright, then we’ll be cool.” He sighed and it seemed like the weight of the world was hanging on that sound. “I never wanted this. For money to tear my family apart. I thought we were stronger than this. I believed we could survive anything. We even made it through Uncle Mitul’s actions. Though, he might not survive the prison time they’re going to give him.”
“Do you regret that we—”
“No,” he said, and his tone was adamant. “Never that. I am at peace. I haven’t felt this in a long time. Peace is within us. We’re not going to let Tiya, Bhavin, Hiran, or anyone steal that away.”
The cell rang. She peered at the screen. “One of the producers from Oprah. They left a voicemail earlier.”
Devesh thought about that for a minute and said, “Take it, if you feel we must.”
“Your silence keeps everyone wondering if what Tiya’s saying is true.”
“No, we can’t … how do you say it … let that ride.” He held his fist out for a pound, and she obliged. “But next time …” he warned.
“Yes, yes. I hear you,” she playfully whined, switching over to take the call. “Take the high road.”
Chapter 38
Reign helped to prepare the Maharaj home and her own place for Diwali, one of the most popular festivals which spiritually signified the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair. With Tiya and Uncle Mitul, that had been the most recent instance of that kind of challenge.
Diwali is a five-day festival that typically falls toward the end of October, or the first half of November and comes right after Navratri, the nine-day festival that is observed in honor of the divine feminine—Devi. The main night centers on the new moon—the darkest night of autumn. Candles and lanterns called diyas, make Diwali the festival of lights. The sights, sounds, and feasts of Diwali ritually bring family and friends together every year.
Everyone in the family had been cleaning, clearing out unwanted items from their home, renovating, and decorating their homes and offices. Devesh had shown Reign a video of last year’s celebration in India where millions of lights were shining on housetops, doors, windows, temples and other buildings.
Reign had suggested that he ask the neighbors if they would like to participate so they could learn about the festival—also so they wouldn’t mind that the festivities were going to be loud when the fireworks were lit. Surprisingly, most of the families in the area accepted the invitation. For the first time, the Maharaj family applied for a permit to erect formal white tents on their property, and rented chairs and tables to accommodate the outpouring of guests they expected.
Tonight, for the main celebration, people dressed in new clothes or their best outfits. While the Maharaj family participated in family puja—prayers—to Lakshmi, the goddess of fertility and prosperity, other families said prayers that were reflective of their own cultures and religions.
At Reign’s suggestion, the outdoor food spread accommodated all levels of tastes. Spicy foods were on one side
of the tent, and mild foods were on the other.
“Sort of like a Heaven and Hell party,” Reign explained to Mumma. “When I was growing up, our church had a fundraiser where R&B music and hot foods like chili, tacos, spaghetti and devil’s food cake for dessert were in one place, while gospel music and cold foods—like salads, sandwiches, and angel food cake were on the opposite side of the room. Those were so much fun.”
“I think I know what side appealed to you more,” Mumma teased.
“The angelic side, of course,” Reign replied, batting her eyelashes innocently causing Mumma to laugh.
A lavish salad and fruit bar was laid out for those who might not find Indian cuisine to their liking. All were encouraged to at least have a taste, and some found they enjoyed it, though they had been afraid to try it before.
“Wow,” their neighbor Angela Levin said to Devesh. “This is amazing. Thank you for inviting us. Are you guys going to do this every year?”
Papa hesitated, then nodded as he nudged Devesh who said, “Looks like we will if it’s something everyone would be interested in being a part of.”
Jackie, a robust woman who was filling her mouth with some Tandoori chicken, said, “If the food is always this good, then I’ll be here.”
Reign smiled and asked Angela, “You’re Jewish, right?”
“What gave it away?”
Reign gestured to the emblem around the woman’s neck.
“Yes, I am,” she said, fingering her necklace. “A traditional one.”
“It would be nice,” Reign said where Mumma, Papa, and Anaya, could hear, “If we could celebrate a Passover and learn something about Jewish customs.”
“That would be awesome,” Angela said, and her barrel-chested husband agreed.
“The more people learn about the religions and cultures outside of their own, the more tolerant and understanding we all will be,” Reign said. “Some of us barely know each other around here. I’d like to change that.”
“Sounds good,” said Lu McCoy who moseyed up arm in arm with her husband, Darek.
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