When I got to my car, I told Henry to take me somewhere to get a drink. Henry knew me well, so I was confident he would choose a place I could go in and de-stress. He punched some digits into his GPS and we were on our way.
When Henry pulled up to the Northside Tavern, I exited the vehicle and went in to find a seat. There was a Blues band playing and that helped take my mind off the idiocy in my life. As I sat in the tavern, I kept rethinking the things I could have done differently. It was my phone vibrating on my hip that shook me from the buzz of my third drink.
“Hello,” I said as I fumbled to get the phone positioned in my hand.
“How are you holding up, Son?” Dad asked.
“Not so good. How about you?”
“There is something majorly wrong in the accounting department at Turner Enterprises. I’m not happy about it and I need you to come fix it, right now.”
“I can’t come now. I told you Destiny is in the hospital. I’m staying close by in case she needs me for anything.”
“And I understand all that, but this is important! I went into the office today and did a random check of the books.”
“And? There couldn’t be much off, because I just checked everything a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, but there is some funny business going on and I want it fixed before the end of the day.”
I could tell by the sound of Dad’s voice that the problem was urgent. “Dad, you taught me everything I know. Can’t you handle it?” I said, hoping he would give me a pass this one time.
“We are talking about the sum of twenty-two million dollars missing from our bank account,” Dad said, causing me to sit erect in my seat. “Yes, I know this business from the top to the bottom, but this is happening on your watch,” my Dad added sternly.
“There’s no way! You’ve got to be frigging kidding me!”
“You know I don’t kid about money. That’s why you must come and check these figures behind me. If you come up with the same thing, I want heads rolling before the open of business tomorrow.”
Any buzz I had from the drinks was completely gone. I quickly considered my options. I could stay and fight with Montie and Ms. Clara, hoping they would let me in to see Destiny, or I could go and find out who had the balls to steal from my company. It was a no-brainer that I wouldn’t get anywhere with the first option.
“I’ll be there in a few hours,” I assured Dad. My plan was to straighten out our account and be back before Destiny was released from the hospital.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Destiny
Two Weeks Later
“Thanks Montie,” I said as he helped me into my bed.
After just over a weeklong stay in the hospital and another week at home, I was starting to feel some normalcy in my life. It was Monday night and Mama was in the kitchen cooking a big pot of soup. The kids were in the living room playing board games. I wanted to hang out with them, but I was just too tired after taking my pain medicine.
“You don’t have to thank me,” Montie said with a genuine smile. “I don’t plan to leave here for one minute, until you are up and going. I’m gonna be here for you every step of the way.”
“I appreciate everything you’re doing, but you don’t have to do that, Montie. My mother is here, so I will be perfectly fine when you go back to your house.”
“I know I don’t have to stay. I want to,” Montie said, taking over pulling the covers over me and tucking me in.
I laid back against the pillow and put my hands on top of the covers. I was tired just from the exertion of a long day taking care of the kids. All of the internal swelling had gone down and the doctors gave me a clean bill of health. My arm was in a sling, due to a hairline fracture I got when I tried to break my fall after Justine hit me. I was left with an ugly, dark bruise on my forehead, but I was alive. The doctor said that in time all of my wounds would heal.
Montie leaned down to kiss me on the lips. I moved my mouth just in time for him to catch my cheek. “Don’t try to kiss me like that,” I said pushing him away.
He moved his head. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“Thanks for everything. Mama has the kids taken care of, so you can leave now. I’m going to get some rest.”
“I’m just going to hang out in case you need me, Destiny. I’ll be in the living room playing board games with the kids.”
I studied my ex-husband’s expression for his true motive. The words coming out his mouth didn’t even match the person I’d come to know. For him to take a day off work to play board games with our children would’ve taken an act of Congress when we were married. It would have been out of the question. “You don’t have to do that,” I said again.
“I’m right up the hall, if you need anything,” he ignored me and turned to walk out of the room.
I shook my head. It took me getting banged upside the head with a pistol to see this side of Montie. At the same time Montie was playing his too good to be true role, I wondered where Jacob Turner was in all of this. I woke up after two days in the hospital and he was the first person I wanted to see, but he wasn’t there. I asked mother if he had come to the hospital and she said he hadn’t come back after the first day. The entire week that I’d been home, he still hadn’t called or visited.
My attention turned to Junior when he walked into my room to give me a kiss goodnight. “Hey Junior,” I said after placing a sloppy kiss on his cheek. “Hand Mama her cell phone right there.”
He ran to my dresser and got my cell and handed it to me. I checked the phone for messages or missed calls from Jacob. There were none.
“Mommy…” Junior said with a serious look on his face.
“Yes, baby.”
“Is Jacob coming to see you while you’re sick?”
I pondered what I wanted to say to him. “Do you want him to?” I asked, pretty sure what the answer was going to be.
He enthusiastically nodded. “Mr. Jacob likes you and I want him to come make you smile, but grandma said he better not bring his fancy butt around her no more.”
“Really? Well, can you keep a secret?”
Junior’s eyes got big and he looked excited. “I can. I promise.”
I smiled. “I plan on calling Jacob tomorrow to find out why he hasn’t been over here. I know he wants to see you too.”
Junior clapped. “I won’t tell anyone."
I gently patted his head and he ran out of my bedroom door. Mama told me she didn’t like Jacob, so I figured she was projecting her dislike onto Junior. I didn’t know what the future held for me and Jacob, but I would get closure for my children.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Destiny
Mama Said:
There’d Be Days Like This
Mama handled all of the cooking, cleaning, and errands while I was rebuilding my strength. I didn’t feel bad overall, I just had these nagging headaches that would come anytime I thought about the attack. My arm didn’t hurt much, unless I overexerted myself by washing dishes or doing other extraneous housework. However, the nagging pain in my heart was constant. I missed Jacob.
It was a couple hours before dinnertime and I was doing some light housework. I had on a comfortable pink jogging suit and fuzzy white socks. Mama had on a comfortable green gown, slippers, and her reading glasses hanging off her nose. We were in Montana’s room going through her old clothes when Mama said, “Honey, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Go ahead, shoot,” I said, knowing whatever it was I probably didn’t want to hear. I was tired of the snide remarks she’d thrown around about Jacob over the past week.
“The night you went to the hospital, Jacob came to the hospital saying that you two were engaged,” she started.
I looked up and caught her penetrating gaze. “I told you it was true when I was in the hospital.”
“Chile, I thought you only agreed because you had a head injury. So you are his fiancée?”
“Well, I was. He proposed to me
that night, but I am giving him back his ring.”
“Good. I think that will be your best bet,” Mama said as she folded an old onesie and put it in the pile of clothes we were giving to the thrift store.
“You don’t even know him, Mama,” I said.
“But I know men like Jacob, very well. They will take the best of you, use you up. Then when you are all used up, they will go back to their side of town and live like you never existed,” Mama said as she held one of Montana’s shirts up to her chest.
“I felt that way last week when he didn’t come to visit,” I said in agreement. “My mind tells me that giving his ring back is the right thing to do, but my heart Mama.” I broke eye contact with Mama as I traveled to a faraway place…a place that included me, Jacob and my kids. “My heart tells me that giving him the ring back will be my biggest mistake ever.”
“Oh my poor baby, you are smitten, but you have so much to learn,” Mama said as she put the shirt in a pile and pushed the rest of the clothes aside. “Destiny, listen to your Mama. You’re doing the right thing. Jacob has proven that he doesn’t deserve you. You are the real gem in all of this. Don’t let him or his possessions make you feel anything less than a treasure.”
I threw an old shirt in the pile. “He has never made me feel less than him.”
“Well, that’s just for now. One day, he’ll come to you and tell you that you can’t exist in his world of white power and privilege. He might not say it verbatim but when he tells you, you will remember every stinging word until the day you die. I’m trying to tell you now.” Mama went back to picking up clothes and folding them.
“I just don’t think Jacob is like that.”
“They all are like that!” Mama said, throwing the clothes down on the floor and jumping to her feet. “Can’t you understand? Just let Jacob go before you get hurt, again!”
“Mama, he didn’t know Justine would come to Atlanta and attack me. She is the one that is conniving, not him.”
“Don’t forget that he had no problem getting out of your bed of lust to go to another woman. If you accept him back, that will become a common feeling for you.”
“That’s just not true. You don’t know what you’re talking about!” I said, walking out of the room. “I’m finished with this conversation.”
“Get back in here, young lady! I ain’t raising no fool. Men like Jacob Turner always leave women like us alone, and then go and make a decent woman out of someone else,” Mama said following me into my room.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Mama.” I started to walk into my bathroom, but Mama rushed over and blocked me from closing the door.
“Baby, listen to me,” she said with tears building in the corners of her eyes. There was so much hurt in her eyes that I hugged her to console her.
“Mama, I hear you. I have no plan to call him, so as long as he stays away that will be my answer to everything.”
I had attempted to dial his number after I talked to Junior, but my pride wouldn’t let me dial the first digit. I didn’t have it in me to call Jacob. I felt he should be there for me without me reaching out for him.
“He’ll come back to hurt you again,” Mama said with certainty.
“Mama, please stop it.” I just wanted to drop the subject all together.
“You know why you never saw me with a man when you were younger?” she asked. “It’s because I didn’t want different men over my daughter. That doesn’t mean I was never in love.”
My mother never talked about her love life, so my interest was sparked by her admission. I let go of the bathroom door and went and sat on the side of the tub.
“A man cut from the same cloth of privilege as Jacob, stole my heart from my chest and I didn’t even know it was gone until it was too late. He put my heart in his pocket and carried it around everywhere he went. I didn’t even own it any longer. I was his without question. He was mine too.” She smiled, remembering pleasantries about this man she once loved. I’d never heard her talk about my father, so I only imagined she was talking about him.
“Out of nowhere, one day he came to me and said we couldn’t be together anymore. He’d gone and told his family about me and they weren’t too thrilled about their son picking up a woman from the other side of the tracks. His family had too much at stake for him to be dating an afro puff, plaid-suit wearing girl who lived on a dirt road. Even though my family scraped and scrubbed to get me into the same college as him, I was not good enough.
The day he came and told me that we couldn’t be together was the last I heard from him. After him, I didn’t date until I met your father. Besides giving me you, your father was the worst thing that could have happened to me. He was so bad to me that I gave up on love. From that day forward, I loved you.”
It was sad to hear that my mother was never in love with my father. “Mama, I’m so sorry that happened to you,” I said going to hug her.
“Don’t be sorry for me. Just cut Jacob completely off. He’s going to cause you so much heartache and pain. I just know it!” Mama said, grabbing her chest as if she felt the pain already.
“Are you okay, Mama?” I asked and she nodded. “I’m sorry I’m causing you to worry.”
“Don’t be sorry for me, Destiny. Just do what I ask, so you won’t be a sixty something year old woman still feeling sorry for yourself.”
“I’m trying to do what’s best for me, Mama,” I said honestly.
“Oh, God honey. You may be in love, but you are not stupid. You gave Montie hell because he wasn’t there for you and the kids. Yet, you give Jacob a pass for bringing you so much pain in such a short amount of time.”
Mama shook her head.
“I don’t think this conversation is going anywhere.”
“And neither is your relationship,” Mama said glaring at me.
“I’m done.” I waved my hand and signaled for Mama to leave out of my bathroom. She walked out and I closed the door behind her.
“One day, you will listen to this old woman. I’ve been in this world long enough and experienced more than I hope you’ll ever know,” Mama said on the other side of the door.
CHAPTER NINE
Jacob
Discrepancy
I was tired of looking at numbers on the computer screen. I buzzed my secretary as I thought about where I would rather be than dealing with this mess.
“Wanda?” I said pushing through my weariness.
“Yes, sir!” she said with her never-failing enthusiasm.
“Have you had any success reaching Destiny?” I asked. I had given Wanda the single task of calling Destiny’s cell phone and house numbers, since she hadn’t been answering for me.
“It goes straight to voicemail for both her cell and house phone. I will let you know as soon as I get her,” Wanda said.
“Thanks Wanda.” I hung up the phone and took out my cellphone. I pressed star sixty seven to block out my number. Montie answered on the first ring.
“May I speak to Destiny?”
“She’s busy.”
“Busy doing what?” I asked, boiling hot over Montie answering her phone.
“She’s getting her rest, so she can build her strength after being attacked.”
“Take her the phone and let her tell me she’s too tired to talk,” I ordered.
“No, and don’t worry about calling back,” Montie said before he hung up. I called back, but it went straight to voicemail again.
I stood up from my seat. I was one instant away from firing up the jet and heading back to Atlanta. “If it wasn’t for this damn meeting with Tom, I would be gone,” I said to myself.
All I knew was Tom’s shit had to be together when he came into the meeting I scheduled. It was his fault I was straightening out a financial mess, instead of keeping that vulture away from my woman. I wondered what Destiny was thinking by having him answer her phone.
I was livid when I went back to compiling financial data for my meeting with Tom. M
y father interrupted my fact checking when he walked briskly into the room saying, “You have to get to the bottom of this discrepancy, Son. You’ve only been in charge for a year and for something like this to happen will not bode well with our investors.” He sat on the other side of my desk tapping the folder that contained the information I gave him regarding the embezzlement on his chair.
“I know I have to figure this out. I’ve gone over every possible scenario of how a check the size of twenty-two million dollars could walk out the door, without the required signatures,” I said, worn out over the financial debacle.
My father shook his head. “That’s not an acceptable answer. Everything we have worked for is on the line. If people think they can walk out of here with that kind of money, we’re in trouble. This has to be handled swiftly and with a heavy hand.”
“I know,” I said, agreeing.
“No one crosses Turner Enterprises.”
“That goes without saying, Dad. I have come up with a few plausible things that could have happened,” I said.
I pulled the company’s financial records up on my computer. I’d spent the last two days and nights going over the statement, identifying any suspicious activity.
“What you got?” Dad asked.
“Last month when I came in the office, I asked Jalisa to have Tom run the financials and get them to me,” I said.
“And did anything look out of place then?”
“No. I spent at least four hours that day going over the records and everything looked tight. But today, I noticed the payment from that DOD contract for twenty-two million. It was posted in our financial statements a month ago.”
“The DOD wouldn’t have paid the entire invoice like that.”
“And especially not in advance,” I added. “But that’s not the interesting part. A wire transfer was made to an undisclosed account in the same amount of twenty-two million dollars the following week.” I turned my computer screen around and showed my father the electronic transaction. “I’ve got a team working to find out who the owner of that account is as we speak.”
Breathless 2: In Love With An Alpha Billionaire Page 4
