by Miss KP
She looked at me with a funny expression before agreeing. Moments later, we made our way to my car. As soon as we pulled out of the driveway, I decided to go in and start my questioning.
“So Ma, whatever I ask, please be honest.”
“What is it, son?”
“Why did you go out with Cornell? Was it for the money?”
She gave me the look of death. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. Why Cornell, why my friend?”
“Juan honestly, at first, I did look at him as a come up. I looked at him as an opportunity to get ahead in life legally. But after spending time with him I got to know another side of him. He let me know the guy off the court. He wasn’t the superstar player, Mr. Three everyone else sees. He was just Cornell. With all of the fancy restaurants I’ve been to in my life, my date with him had to be one of the best.”
“Where did y’all go?”
“We went to Chipotle in downtown Silver Spring,” she said with this huge smile.
I was confused. “What? That nigga is a fool. The chicks always said he was cheap. How can he spend thousands in the club popping bottles of champagne, but can’t even take my mother to a nice restaurant?”
“No Juan, you’ve got it all wrong. He had the place cleared out. It was just the two of us in the restaurant sitting at a table by candlelight. Now, don’t get me wrong, when we pulled up at first I was like what the fuck, but after showing me all that, I knew then that my night would be full of bliss.”
She seemed happy. I knew that I was trying to protect her, but maybe I needed to stop being so hard on the both of them. Maybe Cornell was what she needed to stay off of drugs and keep her life on track. Even better, maybe this would help her get past both Carlos and Rich.
When we arrived at Carlos and Marisol’s house in Potomac, MD it was just as I remembered. I hadn’t been there since I was younger, but the house was still off the chain. After having to be buzzed into the gate, the long brick driveway led us to the house. With at least seven bedrooms, the house on Newbridge Drive was huge. Looking at the 9,000 square foot home, Carlos was definitely getting paper, even more so than Rich thanks to Uncle Renzo. And I was willing to do whatever it took to be living like that, too. I wanted Uncle Renzo to take me under his wing and teach me everything I didn’t know. I could be the protégé that he needed me to be.
There were a few cars parked in the circular driveway, but I didn’t see Rich’s car yet. Once we parked and went inside we were greeted by Marisol. My mother and Marisol didn’t say two words to each other. Instead, they just looked each other up and down. The funny thing about them both was, they were both wearing the same pair of boots which I thought was hilarious. Women were so petty at times. This wasn’t the time or place for my mother to be acting annoyed with Marisol so I thought I’d remind her to be easy so we didn’t run into any issues.
I grabbed her arm. “Ma, please no drama today. Marisol is mourning her husband, so you need to respect that. We don’t need no shit.”
She looked at me like I’d just called her a bitch. “Juan, don’t forget who the mother is. I’m fine. I know what I have to do.”
At that moment, her attention quickly drifted from what we were talking about as she caught a glimpse of Carlos’ name with angel wings tattooed across the top of Marisol’s back. Her dress was open in the back, which I thought looked quite sexy, but of course my mother was instantly pissed.
“No, that bitch don’t have a big ass tattoo of Carlos’ name on her back,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That shit looks terrible.”
“Ssshh,” I replied as we took our seats in the theater room.
They had completely transformed the room for the service and it looked great. There was an urn with a huge photo beside it of Carlos, Marisol, and their two daughters along with a slide show of Carlos’ pictures throughout his life. There were a lot of photos of Rich and Carlos during holiday celebrations or while they were all on vacation. Every time a picture appeared with Marisol in it, my mother frowned then sucked her teeth.
“Why do we have to keep seeing her? She’s not the one dead, Carlos is.”
Her comments were irritating the shit out of me. Suddenly, our attention was drawn to the back of the room when we heard Marisol get excited when Rich came in. Both my mother and I looked at each other with weird expressions.
“What the hell was that all about?” my mother asked.
As I was about to answer, I noticed Uncle Renzo walk into the room. Since I knew him and Rich had some tension between them, I thought what better time to go and talk to him.
“I’ll be back, Ma,” I said getting up. I made a b-line straight to the most important person in the house. “What’s up, Unc’? How are you holding up?”
“Well, under the circumstances, I’m trying my best to mourn my son’s death and handle it the best way possible.”
“I can understand that. I’m really sorry.”
“Well, whoever is responsible for this will definitely be sorry. I’m going to send a clear message to everyone that I have a million dollars for whoever can give me information, and I mean concrete information on who did this to my boy. Somebody will talk, I’m sure.”
“I guess that’s the way to do it. What’s the old saying, money talks and bullshit walks?”
He nodded his head full of silver hair. “Yup.”
“Unc, I know this might not be the best time to talk about this but…”
“Where’s your mother?” he asked, totally ignoring me as if he knew what I was about to ask.
I pointed. “She’s sitting down in the front.”
“Let me go say hi to her.”
As he walked off, I felt as though my dreams had walked off right along with him. Like a lost puppy, I followed behind him determined to finish my conversation once he greeted my mother.
“Hi Lisa sweetheart, how’s everything? Don’t you look lovely?” Uncle Renzo stated.
“Hey Renzo, I’m so sorry about Carlos,” she said as she turned to him. She seemed startled like she’d seen a ghost.
“When are you going to come out and visit your uncle?”
“Umm, well you know Rich and I are going through a divorce right now, and it is getting very…”
“I didn’t ask about Rich, I asked about you. Oh my goodness, before I forget, congratulations on the baby girl. Marisol told me she’s adorable.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Maybe I can come by the hospital before I leave town to visit.”
“I would like that,” my mother replied. As she started to get emotional, she got up to go to the bathroom.
“Don’t worry Unc’, she’ll be alright. She’s just going through a rough time right now, but I try to help her get through everything,” I said.
“You’ve always been good to your mother. I told your father that Lisa is a good woman and he should’ve stuck it out.”
“Well, he’s not a good husband and she deserves better, so she’ll be okay without him.”
“Maybe, but he lost a good one. Juan, when you get a good one, hold on to her. A good woman is hard to find these days.”
“I agree. But Uncle Renzo, can you hear me out for a minute? I want your advice on something.” I thought that I needed to change my approach to make him look at me as a protégé as well as an opportunity to get more money.
“What’s that son?”
“Well, I was looking into trying to break away from Rich completely and eventually joining you team. Our relationship has always been broken and the only reason I deal with him is on business, that’s it.”
He paused for what seemed like forever. “Juan, I don’t know about that. I really don’t want to be responsible for something happening to you in this business. You’re a good boy. Look at what happened to Carlos. I introduced him to this life, him and your father. It shouldn’t go beyond their generation. You need to make something out of your life boy. You’re still young. Get out while you can. Y
ou already dodged jail once, with one hell of a rabbit’s foot.”
Damn, I hope he don’t go into how I got out, I thought. “It’s too late. I’m already in too deep. This is all I know, Unc. I promise you I’ll be loyal to you, even if it takes me helping you and Marisol get to the bottom of Carlos’ death.”
I was desperate. I needed him to know that he could trust me. After a little more convincing I was finally able to break through to him. It seemed like he was willing to give me a chance. With Carlos gone, he said he needed me, and asked how I felt about working with Marisol. I agreed and let him know it wouldn’t be an issue. Never before had I worked with a woman, but Marisol was different. Despite how pretty she was, her ass was ruthless, and like one of the boys. I knew my mother wouldn’t be happy about it, but I had to do what I had to do. When it was time for the memorial service to begin, I saw Rich shoot me a puzzled look wondering about my intense conversation with Uncle Renzo. Little did he know, I was ready for the big league and I couldn’t wait to shut him down.
Chapter Thirteen
RICH
What the hell could Juan and Uncle Renzo be talking about, was all I could think of as the memorial service started. Most of the time Juan was so busy tryin’ to fuck women, he didn’t have time for long conversations with anybody. My mind wondered in so many different places as I thought back to the day that I killed my only brother. His last words, I love you Rich, played in my head as I stared at one of his pictures. Him havin’ love for me was never a doubt in my mind. He’d obviously just gotten caught up. I told myself over and over, if I’d known he was fuckin’ Lisa before catchin’ them in the motel room, things probably would be different.
That bitch Lisa would be the one in pain right now. I would’ve put Marisol on her so fast she wouldn’t even have known what hit her. That bitch was responsible for all the trouble in my life and as long as she lived on this earth, I would see to it that she had a life of misery. Especially since she’d made me lose the two most important people . As soon as that blood test came back and the judge could see how much of a whore she was, then everything wit’ the divorce would work in my favor. That bitch was gonna pay. I cut her a dirty look as she sat there lookin’ miserable and cryin’ as if Carlos was her damn man.
Marisol was in so much pain. Even though Uncle Renzo and I barely said two words to each other, she sat between us as we both took turns comfortin’ her. After the priest spoke and prayed over Carlos’ ashes, there was a soloist who sung and then it was time for family and friends to speak about their memories. Many I hadn’t seen in years. When I saw Carmen, Los’ six year old daughter get up and speak, I tried my best to hold back my tears.
“I remember when my daddy used to take me to the zoo. It was fun. My daddy used to always take me to get ice cream. I miss my daddy and I hope my granddaddy gets the bad man that killed him.”
Loud cries came from different parts of the room, but Marisol was the loudest of them all. She stood and held Carmen as they both sobbed uncontrollably. Knowin’ it was my fault, knowin’ I’d filled the room wit’ so much pain and knowin’ there was nothin’ I could do about it made me feel like shit. For once in my life, money couldn’t fix my problems.
Following Carmen, Uncle Renzo got up to speak. He looked like he was agin’ so much. Never before in my life did I wish the old man would just croak, but I needed the added stress of him comin’ after me out of my life.
“I have many memories of my boy, but the one I would like to share with you today is one that will hopefully make you realize how much he meant to me and how much his caring, selfless personality had an effect on everyone in this room. It hurts me to tell you all this, but there are very few of you who know this story. When Carlos was born, my late wife Celeste and I, we both knew that he was a special child. The only problem was I was sterile and there was one of two things, either Carlos was a miracle or my wife had conceived with someone else. The fact that I was sterile was something that I hadn’t shared with my wife, so I went on praying that my son was a blessing.”
I couldn’t believe Uncle Renzo was about to tell that story in front of everyone. Now wasn’t the time. I looked at Juan as he put his head down. I couldn’t help but wonder why. Uncle Renzo got a little choked up, but held it together and continued.
“One night when Carlos wasn’t even a year old I got a phone call from my sister in law saying she had something that she wanted to tell me, but would like to keep it amongst us. That was the night I learned that my Celeste had an affair with my brother while I was in jail. That explained a lot. I held this in all of these years and still raised my nephew as my son. He meant the world to me and I knew that I had to put my pride aside and raise him as my own. I know that many of you are in shock wondering why I chose to speak of this now, but we are among friends and family and that’s why I chose to have this ceremony in an intimate setting. I wanted to let all of you know in front of my Carlos, that no matter what, he will always be my son and I loved him. We had great memories and as I deprived my brother of raising his son as some of you might think, the only way I could deal with the betrayal, was to be a man and be his father. I knew he was the only child I would ever have and the only regret I have is keeping this from you Rich. I’m sorry and I’m sorry to you, to Marisol, my daughter. Now, I feel my heart is no longer heavy with keeping the truth from you all.”
Marisol was in complete shock and gasps shot through the room. I thought it was my duty to get up and save the service. I thought maybe I could win back my Uncle Renzo’s trust if he felt like I had his back. When I got up to speak I caught eye contact wit’ a familiar face that I didn’t want to see, not now. If she got up to speak, she would ruin everything. It was Jade. She sat alone in the back tryin’ to be unnoticed. I was speechless. She made me feel like she had my life in her hands. She held all the cards since she knew what I’d done. And since Uncle Renzo was in a confessin’ mood, I prayed that he didn’t rub off on Jade.
For a while, I stood there and nothin’ would come out of my mouth. My thoughts were no longer on Carlos, they were on how I could kill Jade. After standing there, finally Marisol snapped me out of it.
“Rich, are you okay?” Marisol whispered.
Respondin’ wit’ just a nod, I snapped out of my daze and started to speak. “I’m sorry. Umm, this is really hard for me. So, now I guess you all know that Carlos was actually my brother. But I want to let you know Uncle Renzo, that we loved each other like brothers without even knowin’. We were always brothers. We were never cousins. I loved him wit’ all I had. Man, you talkin’ about a good dude. He was all that and then some. He would give you the shirt off his back and I’m sure everyone sittin’ here knows that. We definitely had our moments, but when I needed Carlos, he was always there. When I was away, he helped my family as much as he could and I’ll always be grateful for that. The bond we had was somethin’ that not even death could take from us.”
Before I broke down, I managed to hold it together so I didn’t look guilty. Marisol then got up and spoke, while I prayed that Jade was gone by now. The entire time I spoke, she shook her head like I was a hypocrite feedin’ my audience lies.
“First, I would like to thank everyone for coming to share in the homegoing for my husband. Memories of such a humble loyal man, I don’t know where to begin. Even though we all know that God doesn’t make mistakes, I’m gonna be selfish and say, my husband didn’t deserve this. We still had more memories to create, more years to share as husband and wife. Now, my girls have to grow up without their dad and that’s what hurts the most. After months of telling my girls that their dad was coming home soon, it’s hurts to know that he’ll never walk back through the door. When my daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia and I had to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay, even though I had no idea where Carlos was, it hurt like hell. I just don’t know what to say to you right now about good memories because I’m hurting right now. I want to take somebody out. I want whoever t
hat did this to me and my family. I want them to hurt like I do. I want to destroy them, I want…”
Before Marisol could go any further I pulled her away from the podium then helped her back to her seat. She cried like a baby in my arms. Soon, the kids gathered around cryin’, too. It was such an emotional moment. Seconds later, I finally stood up and thanked everyone for comin’ before lettin’ them know where they could go get food and refreshments. Before I was done,ook guiltood back up and interrupted me.
“I’m sorry everyone, I just want to be alone. Can you all please just go?”
“Gladly,” Lisa responded as she stood up and rolled her eyes.
All of a sudden, someone started clappin’ like they were at an awards show.
“Rich, you’re so damn good.”
Everyone instantly turned in Jade’s direction.
“I can’t believe you can just stand there as if you really care when this is all your fault!” Jade blurted out.
Everyone’s eyes bulged, especially Uncle Renzo’s and Lisa’s as Jade made a swift exit. If I thought I could’ve gotten away wit’ it, I would’ve pulled out the gun that was tucked in my waist and took Jade’s ass out right there. I could feel my temples thumpin’ on the side of my head along wit’ my heart that started to beat out of control.
“I have no idea what she’s talkin’ about,” I said addressin’ the small crowd. “Bitter bitch. I don’t have time for this shit today,” I said under my breath before lookin’ at Marisol. I hoped she wasn’t buyin’ what Jade was sellin’.
Knowin’ I had to act fast, I gave Juan a look which he knew exactly what it meant, and jumped out his seat. Jade had to go.
Chapter Fourteen
RICH
An hour after Jade’s crazy eruption, Marisol went to her room once her cousin volunteered to take the girls for some ice cream and take Lisa home. Before Uncle Renzo left, he let me know he would be in touch wit’ me before he went back to the West Coast. I didn’t know how to take it, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Wit’ me owin’ him money and Jade’s outburst, it was clear I was on borrowed time. Textin’ Juan every ten minutes, I wanted to make sure he was on her heels. It was important that he knew exactly where she was stayin’. I had to make sure that bitch didn’t make it back to New York alive.
