In the book he had everything he needed along with printed copies of the payments made to him by Nigel Washington. The man had only begun to pay him for his services. It was time to visit the man like a ghost from the past.
17
Vernon and Vera stood next to each other at the entrance to the laboratory. Neither of them were nervous, they were ready. Nigel had asked for everything that was about to come his way. The moment Vera was made aware of what truly happened the night of their separation, every ounce of her being was ready.
She stood long, lean and beautiful next to her brother who was only inches taller than her. Her body tensed only slightly at the sight of her ex-husband making demanding strides up the side walk.
Once Nigel realized that the siblings were waiting for him at the entrance, he almost stopped in his tracks. There she was. Vera. The bride that he had once been head over heels for only to fall out of love and become bored with her during their union.
As he got closer to her, he began to take in her appearance a little more. She had changed, a lot. Nigel did not approve. The beautiful hair that once traveled midway down her back was gone. All the way gone. In fact, she had cut every single inch of her hair off of her head and dyed what little dusting remained a color that was only slightly darker than her complexion.
This was something he had strictly forbade while they were together. She was never permitted to cut her hair and never, ever allowed to color her hair. He saw that as toxic. In his opinion, her haircut made her look manly. He despised everything about it and immediately decided that she must have done this to spite him.
A scowl stretched over his face. This only made Vera smile stronger. Things were going according to plan.
“Nigel.” She stated plainly once he finally reached them.
“Let’s get this over with so you can go crawl back under the rock you came from.” Nigel was livid. He was certain this had to be one big mistake. Whatever she did to make this happen had nothing to do with him and as far as he was concerned, the quicker he could prove it, she would be gone and he could go back to life as he knew it.
Nigel’s attorney Levi began to sprint up the sidewalk just as the group was about to enter the building. “I’m sorry I’m late. I had to move some meetings around that were scheduled in advance.”
“No one cares Levi, come on.” Nigel was visibly irritated. Levi was just as annoyed. It seemed as though Nigel refused to take his advice and go with a family attorney. He had sent the man a list of names and numbers of some that he recommended if Nigel didn’t want to use the same lawyer that he used for their divorce. None of that seemed to matter to the man. He wanted what he wanted and there was no way that he would take no for an answer.
Levi was surprised when he got the demand to meet Nigel at the lab at such short notice. He assumed that his so called friend would appreciate all that he had done to make sure that he was present for the meeting. Apparently not. Sadly, this was typical behavior for Nigel.
“Vernon Coleman. I am representing Vera Coleman in this matter.” Vernon stretched out his hand to acknowledge Levi.
“Levi,” Vera said plainly. They knew each other well and she wasn’t surprised by his presence.
“Hi Vera, I hope you have been well.”
“What the hell are you addressing her for? Can we just get this shit over with?” Nigel yelled before heading up the hallway as though he knew where he was going. His chest was poked out as he took each stride.
Just as they made their way to the reception area, Nigel stopped abruptly and turned on his heels to face the siblings. “Coleman. I forgot your last name was Coleman before we got married. Who is this man that I’ve never met before that you share a last name with?” If Nigel was curious before, he definitely knew something wasn’t right now.
“That’s no longer any of your business, Nigel. Let’s handle the business we did come here to attend to, shall we?” Vera was pleased that everything was coming together so well. She wanted him confused, frustrated, irritated and whatever emotion that he could muster. This was only the beginning. He had no idea that he had only made things worse for himself with every passing moment.
The group was brought to a room where the test would take place. Everything about the room was clean and sterile. Nigel looked around as though he were trying to find a reason to say the place was not suitable for the test he was about to take but found nothing. With a furrowed face he directed his attention to Vera.
“So where is the child, Vera?” His tone was laced with venom which only brought her joy.
“My child has already been tested. You could have come alone and gotten your swab done had you read the paperwork.” Vera responded.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“If I’m not mistaken it was you who demanded I be present. My child is in great care. You don’t have to worry about that. Let’s just take the test, shall we?”
Vernon stifled a chuckle as did Levi. The only one who didn’t find anything funny was the man turning red. Nigel waited impatiently for the lab technician to come in the room and administer the mouth swab.
“How long does it take for these results to come in?” He nearly screamed at the technician.
“Nigel, there is no reason to be rude. We are all here for the same reason and with the same level of urgency.” Vera interjected.
“Urgency! Who waits four years to request paternity testing then uses urgency to describe what’s happening? You have some nerve.”
The technician took the swab and left the room as quickly as they entered as to not get caught up in the obvious family drama that was unfolding. This wasn’t anything new to them. Paternity testing always was tricky as far as emotions were concerned.
“Honestly Nigel, you didn’t read the paperwork at all did you? Usually it takes three to five days for results. However, knowing that you would want answers much sooner, the lab agreed to have the results back in one business day. I believe we are finished here.”
Turning on her heels, Vera started for the door. She was more than pleased with the outcome of the visit. She knew the results would come back in her favor. It was Nigel who needed to be nervous.
“We are not finished until I say we are.” Reaching for Vera’s arm, Nigel’s hand instead met the unfriendly grasp of Vernon’s.
“I assume you have more questions for my client and I can assure you as we sort out matters of paternity, you will have plenty of time to air out your grievances once the results have been returned.” Vernon met Nigel’s gaze in a manner that read a warning. Either Nigel back down or things would get a lot uglier than need be.
With those words the siblings walked out of the room and out of the building leaving Nigel fuming. “Do you want me to have the lab send the results to my office or directly to you?” Levi finally spoke.
Turning his anger on his friend, Nigel rose his voice to a decibel that could shatter the windows. “Now you want to step in and be my lawyer? Now you have something to say? What the fuck am I paying you for?”
Levi wanted to walk away and leave the man to sulk in his woes on his own. Reminding himself just how much money Nigel brought to his firm he decided against going against the man in defiance.
“I’ll have them send the results to both places and will have my office start a paternity case for you.” With that Levi left Nigel standing in the room alone. He honestly wanted no parts of this whole debacle. Truthfully, he had always liked Vera much more than Nigel. Levi was just as eager to have the results as his friend. He hoped the test was positive so that someone could finally stick it to the man who felt he was untouchable.
18
One Week Prior
Vera walked into Vernon’s office like a woman on a mission. Slamming a stack of papers down on his desk, she took a seat on the couch that rested on the far corner of his office.
Without speaking Vernon flipped through the paperwork. It wasn’t until he reached the highlighted portion did he
realize why his sister was so pissed.
“Oh shit.”
“Oh shit is right brother. All these years I assumed that I got caught slipping. Sure, Nigel was an asshole, demanding and unbearable but do you know what you are looking at!”
“I assume some type of payments.”
“That’s right! Motherfucking payments to the dude I assumed all these years had raped me. I’ve been holding all these feelings in against the pianist and you wouldn’t believe what I found out.”
Vernon leaned back in his high back leather chair. “This isn’t going to be good is it?”
“I finally get my moment alone with Herschel after years of plotting to get him back for changing the direction of my con only to find out Nigel hired him to sleep with me once I went to sleep. He purposefully came home late that night, paid that man to stay until I went to bed to come in and sleep with me so he could get the affair on camera. And do you know why? All so that he could prevent from having to pay me alimony because our damn prenuptial agreement was about to expire.”
Vernon continued to stare at the bank statement. It was nearly all the proof they needed to accelerate their plans. The only question he had was how did she want to play things out. “So, what’s next?”
“Oh, I still want to us to do the long con, but he has to pay. We have to make sure that my son becomes his heir. It’s time.”
“Okay, well I will put the plan into motion. Everything has already been prepared. I was just waiting for you to make a final decision.”
For four years to be exact Vernon had questioned Vera’s readiness. Ever since her son was born her heart had seemed to soften in a way that he had not anticipated. Not one to get between a mother’s love and her child, he allowed her to enjoy being a mother.
He was surprised when she finally decided to act on information he had dug up on the pianist regarding his whereabouts. His sister always had a very vengeful spirit about her when she felt that she was crossed. While there was never a doubt in his mind that eventually she would get payback with Herschel, he had assumed that her plans with Nigel were put on a permanent hold.
“Ever since I got this information from Herschel, I’ve wondered how I want to handle it. This changes everything. I mean, my con had always been built on principle, but now I’m battling something more severe. He needs to pay.”
“Now sis, remember to be smart about this. I wasn’t all the way sold on your plans with the pianist, but Nigel… I just think you should focus on the con and maybe up the ante.”
Vera wanted to do way more to Nigel than she had done to Herschel. When she told her brother her plans, as a man he felt the punishment severe. However, as her brother thought about her rapist, he had her back in any way she needed. There were times when they had to fend for themselves when they were younger that fine tuned their sinister side. Knowing his sister, Nigel was in for it.
Just the look in her eyes told him what she was thinking. Vernon grew concerned. “Vera, we aren’t killers. We are a lot of things, but murderers we are not.”
The siblings were close enough to know exactly what each other were thinking even without thinking. Vernon wished that he could take away her pain, make her feel protected. He knew that she felt hurt and betrayed by Nigel. It was true that she never really loved him the way she had portrayed to all of those years, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t have any feelings at all. She didn’t deserve what he had done to her. An easier route would have been to just say he no longer wanted to be married to her. Instead, he set out a plan to ruin her.
“No, I’m not going to kill him. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought long and hard about that. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to act on it. Nigel deserves to feel what I’m going to do to him and I’m going to enjoy every single moment of it.”
He could see the wheels in her mind turning. Becoming alarmed at her behavior, Vernon decided against questioning her motives. Instead, he got up from behind his desk and walked over to his sister to give her a hug of comfort.
“Everything is going to work out sis. This, I promise you.”
19
Nigel pulled up to his home once again perturbed. What was it with unwanted visitors, he wondered, irritated by a man standing on his doorstep. In that moment he made a mental note to put in a call to a realtor to find a new home in a gated community. There was no sense in him staying in the same home he had shared with Vera all those years anymore. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was the very first home he had bought even before they had married, he would have sold it a long time ago. The home held sentimental value. However now, it was starting to become a nuisance.
“Can I help you?” He asked the man as he walked towards his front door.
Slowly the man turned around causing Nigel to freeze in his tracks. “Yeah, you can.”
Puzzled as to why he was owed a visit, Nigel shifted slightly. “Look I’m not sure what this is about but I’ve had a very long day.” He hoped that the man didn’t recognize that he noticed him. It had been years, but the timing was a little more than ironic.
“Well I think you need to make time. If you know what I mean.” Herschel looked unnerved, as though he hadn’t slept in days. He eyed Nigel up and down, ready to take him down if need be. He was going to be heard.
Rolling his eyes to the sky, Nigel walked to his front door and unlocked it. Knowing that Herschel would be on his heels, he decided against his better judgement and let the man in. “Close the door behind you.”
Nigel slammed his keys in a catch all bowl that sat on a wood table in the foyer. As he walked down the hall, he loosened the tie around his neck. Suddenly he felt as though he was being suffocated and didn’t know exactly why.
“I believe our business has been over for five years. What are you doing here?” Nigel was short on patience and wanted whatever this was to be over quick. He had enough on his mind and this visit couldn’t have come at a worse time.
“On the contrary. Our business is just beginning. Guess who paid me a visit last week?”
For a fleeting moment Nigel thought it was the woman whom had told him about Herschel and his unsavory side business in the first place. The pit of his stomach told him that it was not. He started to get a migraine. He could only hope that it wasn’t Vera. And further more, he hoped that the idiot he hired hadn’t told her more than hello.
“Look, you have been paid handsomely for your services and they are no longer required. I don’t know what angle you are playing here but I’m not interested.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? Your ex-wife paid me a visit. I think you should be very interested in what I have to say.”
Walking to the kitchen, Nigel made his way to the refrigerator. Taking out a beer, he declined to offer one to his unwanted guest as he popped the top and took a swig. “Look, you have sixty seconds to tell me whatever it is you came to tell me before I contact my friends on the police force and let them know how I have a stalker.”
The words Nigel spoke pissed Herschel off. Since the very first day that he had met the man there was a discourse between the two. If he hadn’t hated the man before that moment, it was starting to sink in then. Everything about Nigel was annoying. The way he walked around with an air of conceit as if everyone was beneath him. The way his voice dripped in sarcasm. The way he seemed to dismiss any voice that was not his own.
“Man, you are truly a piece of work. But you know what, let’s just get into it. I thought you would like to know that your ex-wife knows what really happened that night. And the information didn’t come easy either.”
“I hardly believe that. What did she do, seduce you into telling her?” He let out a sinister laugh frustrated that his day had went from bad to worse. “Hadn’t I paid you enough to just forget about that night. Why would you tell her anything?”
“Look, I didn’t have a choice okay!” Herschel looked up to the ceiling becoming upset with how this meeting was going. He didn’t know what he e
xpected to come of it. There was zero satisfaction that followed him breaking the news that Vera was hip to Nigel’s antics. He was expecting at least some show of emotion. There was nothing.
“What do you mean you didn’t have a choice? There is always a choice! What type of weakling are you?” Nigel looked at the man with disgust. Herschel was indeed weak. It was easy to get the man to do as he wished five years ago and he imagined it was easy for Vera to get him to speak now. It was all coming together. The reason she had suddenly shown back up in his life had something to do with the information she had on him and nothing to do with this child. He was now even more certain that he would be proven not to be the father.
Herschel stared Nigel up and down. There was no way he was going to let this man get away with what he had done. He had not only ruined his ex-wife’s life, he had also ruined Herschel’s as far as he was concerned.
“I’m not here to argue with you.”
“So why are you here?”
“I warned you that this had better not come back to bite me and it has. So, I deserve more.”
Nigel sent a hearty laugh into the atmosphere. He simply could not believe his ears. This man was bold enough to stand before him demanding more money. “What kind of idiot are you? I mean really? I don’t know what type of game you and my ex are playing, but I suggest you walk yourself out of my house and never return.”
“You don’t understand. Either you pay me or I go public with what you did and I bet that will cost you way more than what you will pay me.”
“I’m not paying you shit else. And I’m tired of talking about this. Get the fuck out of my house.” Nigel had lost all of his patience with dealing with the man. He had just about enough of this merry go round he was playing.
“Oh, you will pay and soon or all of your secrets will come out of the closet and be on display for the world to see.”
The Confident Woman Page 8
