As far as my girl, Rhonda, she might have gotten the guy, but she didn’t get the happiness. She wouldn’t be getting to live it up all lavish with my husband like she had planned. I tried to tell her that there was only one me, so how was she going to try to be me when she didn’t have the formula? I was the one that stayed in class late, studied late, and was a whiz when it came to business, books, and psychology. I was also the one that worked beside Titus for years providing him with the much of the brains behind his operation. Without me by his side, all of that business had slowly gone faulty – only when he stopped including me in on decision making. Suddenly, he thought that he could go it all alone. I was there before he got the big head, and Street ended up selling him out. I had earned my keep by helping him earn our millions. He knew his next move a lot of times only because I was counseling him, but when he got too big to listen to me, Big Shirley rolled in and made him small time. Yeah, it was when he got too big for ‘lil ole me’, who had his back before the money rolled in, that the streets ate him alive and spit out the bones. People may have thought I was just this stupid little broad who just played the role of a kept woman, but little did they know who was really the brains behind the operation. I was smart enough to know that Titus needed to be the enforcer and the face behind our business, so I tried to let him do HIM. Unfortunately, doing him meant screwing me – go figure.
To date, Lil’ Red and his crew had taken over every street corner doing drug business in east Alabama, holding down every block from here to Albuquerque. By the time Titus figured out that Street was robbing the business blind and working undercover for Big Shirley, it was a wrap for the multi-million dollar business that we had set up from nothing but a hope and a dream. Lil’ Red was Titus’ second-in-command, but what Titus hadn’t banked on was that Lil’ Red had held more loyalty for Street than for him. When Street had gotten gunned down at the hotel by my wonderful husband, Lil’ Red secretly harbored more than a little bit of resentment. He had acted like he was down for Titus when he had gotten locked up, but in reality, he was more than ready to move into the number one spot and avenge Street’s death. I guess loyalty is harder to find than snow in Alabama.
Titus knew what betrayal felt like up close and personal, then. When Lil’ Red set up that final hit to steal the last million from his Titus’ rim shop in California, it was a total wrap for him ever getting his baller status back up. As slimy as Street and Lil’ Red had turned out to be, I don’t harbor any bad feelings for either of them. Believe it or not, I really didn’t have any bad feelings for Titus and Rhonda either, who had officially moved in together and were expecting their daughter in a few months. I should have still felt the residual emotions of anger, hurt, betrayal, disgust, and a million other negative feelings, but I did not. I thank God for that small favor.
After he got out of jail and realized from our phone conversation that I had truly moved on and was not coming back to his trifling tail, he used the video that captured Anthonio and I hugging one evening at Tanya’s house as an easy out to go be with his baby mama. I knew what that was really all about. His ego wouldn’t allow me to leave, so he had to make it seem like he left me to be with Rhonda.
That was ok by me. Whatever it took for him to release me and allow me to finally find happiness elsewhere was just fine. He wouldn’t be doing me any favors by staying with me. Thanks, but no thanks. He and I both knew that after that last conversation, I was done.
As for my girl Gladys, she is living life to the fullest and couldn’t be happier. I had filled her in on all of the grimy details about what had happened between Titus, Rhonda, and I, and she couldn’t believe the news. In all honesty, she was more surprised than I was when I first caught the two of those trifling assholes in my den. Gladys had never really trusted Rhonda, but she never thought that she would stoop so low as to betray one of us – the Sisters-from-Another-Mother. Gladys tried to comfort me and be my shoulder to cry on, but it was unnecessary. I guess I may have been more upset if Anthonio hadn’t entered my life when he did, but since he was providing me with all that my little heart could desire in the form of a newly budding love, I supposed that I was just relieved to know that it was finally all over between me and Titus. He was my hot Latin distraction, and I am so grateful for his sincere love and affection.
I guess you could say that all three of us are happy. That’s if you include Rhonda. Even though she was scurvy with what she did to me, at least she’s happy. Titus was what she wanted, and she got him. I know what awaits her with him, though. Once a dog, always a dog, as they say, but I honestly hope that they can work something out for the sake of their love child. It’s not the child’s fault that it is being brought into this world in the midst of lies, dishonor, and betrayal. Rhonda has had a really painful life, and I know better than anyone the hurt that she has been through because I witnessed some of it with my own eyes. Some people are able to pass through that kind of fire unscathed, but others, like Rhonda, come out of the other side scarred and burned looking to hurt someone else as badly as they themselves have been hurt. I was once the target of her malice, but I am a victim no more.
THE END
Secrets of a Kept Woman (Volume 1) Page 22
