by Ancelli
Everyone in the yard started clapping. “P&A! P&A!”
“Don’t be shy, now.” Alicia strolled over to him. “We’ve done this before.”
“Not for an audience,” Perry replied.
“Oh, come on.” She gazed at him. “You’re saying ‘no’ on my birthday!” Alicia batted her long eyelashes.
Byron blurted out, “I’ll do it.”
Alicia rolled her eyes at him. “You’re not my first love,” she said into the mic.
Perry stood, gawping back at her. She extended her French-manicured hand as he started singing along to the music, making her tingle all over. The man had a sexy, husky voice. Their daughter had inherited his singing ability. Perry took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. Alicia started swaying from side to side, listening to the words. They were each other’s first love. They stared at each other like no one else existed but them, and she began singing the woman’s part.
Byron went to move and Marco grabbed his shoulder. “It’s only karaoke.”
“Let him go.” Milan smirked. “He’ll be lying on the floor in three seconds for ruining my baby sister’s birthday.” She glared at him. “Stop being so insecure. Alicia knows what she wants and she just claimed it.”
Byron pushed Marco’s hand off him, and grabbed a bottle of beer, chugging it down in one gulp.
Perry and Alicia messed up the song, and they started laughing. She moved in closer to him and caressed his cheek with her left hand, and then wiggled her ring finger in front of his face. Covering her mic, she spoke. “Thank you. Can you forgive me for my part in all of this?”
Perry stopped singing and dancing. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
Alicia smirked, pulling away from him. “Who’s next?”
Milan and Marco got up. “Perry, play our song.”
Perry was still glued to the spot on the dance floor that she’d walked away from. He watched her hand the mic to her sister and her brother-in-law.
“Perry!” Milan snapped her fingers. “Play ‘We Have Something in Common’ by Bobby and Whitney.”
He ambled over to the sound gear and looked up the song on his iPad. His heart skipped a beat when Alicia had showed him the ring. She wore it, but what did that mean?
Marco and Milan murdered the song they tried to sing, making everyone laugh. The night was filled with laughter and fun. After an hour or so, people started slowly leaving the party. Alicia had started cleaning up, throwing away the used cups and plates in the trash bag when she heard Perry singing “Forever My Lady” by Jodeci. His voice carried through her body, and she couldn’t help but smile when their gazes met and held.
Byron downed another drink before grabbing Alicia’s upper arm and pulling her to the side. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Don’t touch me.” Alicia pulled away from him. “I’m enjoying myself at my party, that’s what I’m doing. You’ve been overstepping your boundaries a lot, lately.”
“Why did you invite him?” He pointed at Perry.
She tilted her head, looking at him as if he were crazy. “I can invite who I want. I’m very tired of always having to explain to you the ins and out of what I do. Perry is the father of my child and he will always be in my life.”
He smirked. “You like being second best.” Byron stepped closer to her, looking down at her like he was challenging her. “I like you a lot, and think I can offer you what you’re seeking.”
“And what exactly am I seeking?” She stared back at him, and from the corner of her eye she saw Lorie carrying Tiffany through the side gate of her yard.
“Perry!” Lorie yelled, placing Tiffany on the ground.
Perry took off his headphones, and stared at his little girl. He rapidly walked up to her. “What are you doing here?” His words were rushed.
“Tiffany.” She looked down at the little girl. “This party was more important to your daddy than being home with you.” Tiffany rubbed her sleepy eyes.
“Videotape this now.” Getting up, Marco handed his cell phone to Milan. “Lorie, this isn’t the time or the place for this.”
“This has nothing to do with you. Mind your business.” Lorie glared at Marco.
“You’re making it our business,” Marco sternly replied. “Do you think this is appropriate for a child?” He looked at Tiffany.
“Daddy!” Tiffany tried to get to Perry but Lorie yanked her back.
“No!” Lorie screamed at the little girl. “He didn’t want you then and he definitely doesn’t want you now!”
“Let go of my daughter.” Perry took a step forward and Marco intervened.
“Lorie, go home. You can calmly talk to Perry about this tomorrow.” Marco tried settling her down. “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“Fuck you!” Lorie shouted at Marco, and then pointed at Alicia. “You fucking piece of shit, you left me for that bitch!” She narrowed her eyes at Perry.
Byron smirked. “So you’re the side bitch?” Without warning, Alicia turned and slapped him across the face. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her back. “I will knock your ass out,” he said through gritted teeth.
“If you touch her—” Perry’s words were lethal as everyone that was left at the party looked at the action in the yard.
“What are you going to do?” Byron puffed out his chest.
Perry rushed toward them, and Lorie clutched his arm, pulling him back. “You’re not choosing her over me, again!” Lorie yelled as she threw her fist back and then forward, connecting with Perry’s jaw. The sound echoed throughout the back yard. Everyone gasped, and then the only sound was Tiffany, crying.
“Daddy!” Tiffany cried. “Bad mommy!” His little girl hit Lorie on the hand she’d just punched him with. “Daddy!”
Perry’s nose began flaring and he cracked his neck as his chest heaved up and down. Alicia’s heart began racing. She could tell from his eyes he’d lost whatever ounce of control he’d had at that point. He narrowed his eyes at Lorie as he balled up his shaking fists.
“Dawn, take the baby out of here,” Alicia snapped. “Now!”
Dawn grabbed Tiffany, guiding her out the side gate. “Daddy!” she yelled. “I want my daddy!”
Everything after that happened so fast. Lorie grabbed a bottle of champagne and broke it on the side of the table, and held it to Perry’s neck. “You’ve always been so weak.” She pressed the glass against his skin and blood dripped down his neck. “I fucking told you I would kill you, and you dare defy me.”
“Lorie,” Alicia called out, stepping closer. “Don’t do this.”
“Shut up!” She turned her head to look at Alicia, and in that moment, Perry grabbed the hand holding the bottle, and twisted. Her wrist made a cracking sound as the bottle fell out her hand to the ground and Lorie cried out in agony.
“You broke my wrist!” Perry didn’t release her hand. His grip only got tighter.
“I fucking warned you.” He wrapped his other hand around her neck, and hoisted her up on her tiptoes, slamming her against the brick wall. “You’re going to learn to keep your fucking hands to yourself!” Perry spat the words out, banging her body over and over on the wall. Lorie clawed his forearm with her fingernails, extracting blood, but it didn’t seem to faze him. His eyes were empty. “You’ve disrespected me in front of my child for the last time!”
Alicia ran up to him. “Perry! Let her go! She isn’t worth it.” She knew better than to touch him when he was so far gone. “Perry…”
“Perry!” Marco tried to get him off Lorie but his grip just got tighter around her neck. “Let her go!” Marco also moved back. “Think of everything you have to lose. This is what she wanted all along, a reaction. Perry!”
“I…can’t…breathe!” Lorie held his wrists.
“He can’t hear us.” Alicia watched Byron on the phone, she heard him say that Perry had hit Lorie. “Step back!” She pushed everyone away. “Baby,” she said with tears in her eyes. “Baby, please let her go. You’
re going to kill her. Please…” she begged. Lorie was starting to gasp for air. “Perry, think about your daughters, think about me. What will I do if you’re locked up? What about the babies we haven’t had yet?” she begged. “Please! Think about the girls. Me and you against this crazy world,” she whispered in his ear.
He twisted his head to the side and gazed at Alicia.
“My answer would’ve, should’ve been yes then, and it’s yes now!” Alicia cried. “Think about your future—”
He closed his eyes. “I fucked up.” He slammed his fist against the wall, right beside Lorie’s head. “Come after me or mine again, and I will kill you!” Perry said viciously, and stormed out of the back yard.
“This,” Lorie grabbed her throat, coughing, “is all…your fault.” She cried out, holding her wrist. “He’s going to jail for a long time. He…hit…me… He’s my husband!”
Alicia was about to go after Perry but Marco and Milan were already on it, escorting him out to the front. She ambled back to where Lorie was crying in agony. “I warned you to keep your hands to yourself. I warned you to stop playing with fire, and now look at you. The fire burned you!” Alicia cried out for Perry, and in guilt. “I told him to marry you, when all he ever wanted was me. It was me who pushed him into your willing arms…” She looked at Perry’s retreating back. I’m so sorry, she thought to herself. “All this pain started with me. You know he loves me, you always knew, and that irks you, doesn’t it? It made you lash out, didn’t it? It doesn’t give you the right to hit him!” she screamed. “It didn’t give you the right to try to kill the man I love…” She made sure she pronounced the last three words strongly. “He was always mine and you knew it, you bitch!” Alicia went to walk away and stopped dead in her tracks. He couldn’t do it, but…she took a deep breath, then turned back around and slapped Lorie’s cheek backhanded, making her stumble. The few people left in the back yard gasped as she jumped on her, swinging on her with no mercy.
“You hurt the wrong man.” Alicia wrapped her fingers tightly in Lorie’s hair and pulled with all her might.
“He will…never be free…to love you.” Lorie placed her legs on Alicia’s stomach and pushed off and Alicia landed on the ground. Lorie took the opportunity to rush at her, and straddled her. “You bitch!” She hit Alicia in the stomach and they wrestled and Alicia landed on top, pinning down Lorie’s arms. Alicia had the upper hand, being that her opponent already had a broken wrist. “I swore…if he left me…I would kill you!”
Alicia’s heart instantly sank to the pit of her stomach. Was that why he’d stayed with her? She got angrier. She grabbed her broken wrist and bent it, making the bitch cry out in agony.
Someone grabbed her by the waist and dragged her away while others held Lorie as she yelled at her. “Put me down!” Alicia tried to get away from the grip, and then she realized who it was.
He placed her on her feet without saying a word. She turned around. “Perry.” Tears rolled down her face when she saw his cheek and the scratches on his arms. Alicia cupped his face and caressed the injuries. He had some blood on the side of his neck. She’d cut him. “I love you.” His hands were shaking and his knuckles were bleeding. “You need to go to the hospital.”
He shook his head. “I lost it,” he whispered. “I hit her.” Perry opened and closed his fist. “You warned me this was going to happen.”
“You didn’t hit that witch, you gave her a taste of her own medicine.” Alicia inched closer to him. “If you hadn’t defended yourself, you would be in the hospital right now. That woman is crazy.”
“I shouldn’t have lost my cool,” he said softly, sitting down on the sidewalk. “Now I’m going away.”
“That won’t happen.” Alicia sat down on the curb next to him, taking his still-shaking hands in hers. “They won’t take you. We have witnesses to account that she attacked you.”
“I’m going to jail, Alicia.” He stared at her through red-rimmed eyes. “The girls are going to think I abandoned them. I failed them as a father the moment I laid hands on her.”
Alicia laid her head on his shoulder. “You’re not going to abandon them.”
“Fuck.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “What kind of a man hits a woman?” Perry whispered as the sirens drew nearer.
Three police SUVs pulled up, guns drawn, followed by an ambulance. “Hands in the air. Nobody leaves.”
Everyone who was still at the party obeyed and the cops made their rounds, searching and asking questions.
“He,” Lorie pointed at Perry, “he attacked me for no reason! Look!” She showed the cops her swollen, bruised wrist and the fingerprints around her neck. She rubbed the back of her head and her fingers were covered in blood.
“You bitch!” Alicia got up. “That’s a lie. You attacked him first.” She went to charge her, but Perry held on to her. “She’s lying. Look at his face and neck.”
“She telling the truth,” Byron chimed in. “He lost it when she appeared at the party with their daughter and before I knew it, he’d jumped on her. We tried to get him off her but he was too far gone.”
“You fucking liar!” Alicia forcefully pushed Byron. “You’re lying to the cops over a piece of pussy.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “You think this gives us a chance?”
Her friends defended Perry, but she could tell they were adamant on taking him in. In most cases, if cops were called because of a domestic dispute they usually took the person they suspected was the guilty party, and now because of Byron, they had more ammunition on Perry.
“That’s not what happened here tonight.” Marco pulled out his cell phone. “This woman has a mental problem,” he said, giving the cop his card. “This has been a pattern in her life from childhood.”
Alicia hadn’t known Marco knew about the abuse.
“Where do I give my statement?” Byron asked the cops, and then he stared at Alicia. “You’re just a side piece, bit—”
In a sudden move, Perry took a couple of strides. His fist connected against Byron’s nose and chiseled jaw, causing a cracking sound. Byron grabbed his mouth in agony.
“I’m pressing charges!” he screamed, looking at the cop. “You saw that?” Blood dripped from his nose.
Without saying another word, Perry extended his arms in front of one of the police officers.
“You are under arrest. Anything you say…”
Perry clenched his jaw in obvious pain as they grabbed his hands and placed them behind his back.
“Don’t you say a word to the cops. They will twist anything you say,” Milan said, making a call. She used to be a legal assistant before she was deemed disabled. “You will have the best damn lawyer our money can get. Mom…” She limped away, speaking to their mother.
“His hand,” Alicia voiced. “You’re hurting him.”
“Ma’am, step back.” An African American female cop stopped her from touching him.
“He needs to be seen by the paramedics,” she pleaded as they clicked the cuffs on.
“We’re taking him down to the station until we get down to what happened tonight.” They started walking Perry to the cop car as Alicia ran after Lorie, snatching her out of the ambulance.
“You fucking liar!” She slapped Lorie and pushed her against the vehicle. “Tell them the truth!”
The paramedic intervened, separating them.
“See,” Lorie said between breaths. “That’s…his mistress. They both want me dead.”
Alicia placed her wrists up. “Read me my rights,” she snarled, glaring at the cop. She wasn’t leaving Perry alone. Never again would she allow anything or anybody get between what they’d always had.
Chapter Thirteen
“You want us to believe that your smaller-than-yourself wife abused you?” The female cop smirked. She leaned closer to him. “Come on, you look like you could bench, what, three hundred and fifty pounds?” There was a knock on the door and another cop came in and handed her a folder. Whatever she was r
eading made her smile. “Well, well what do we have here?” She flipped through the pages. “You have a record.” She stared at him. “Assault charges—isn’t that a coincidence? So you got tired of hitting grown men, and you started on women.”
Perry rubbed his broken knuckles. The pain there was nothing to how he was feeling. He’d failed his daughters and Alicia the moment he’d laid hands on Lorie. He’d always known his past would come back to haunt him. His aunt had gotten him out of spending time in juvie, but she couldn’t erase his record clean.
“Your friends are backing you up, so why aren’t you speaking? Did she finally get enough of your abuse and fight back? That recording doesn’t prove your innocence. It can go either way.”
There was another knock on the door. “His lawyer is here.”
“Lawyer?” She raised an eyebrow.
A tall, Hispanic guy with green eyes entered the small room. “You questioned my client without his attorney present. Strike one.” The guy placed his briefcase on the table. “You let his crazy wife seek medical attention, but my client is sitting in that chair with a fractured or broken hand. Strike two.” The police officer stared at Perry’s swollen and bloody knuckles. “I don’t like being called in the middle of the night because the police who are supposed to protect and serve are not doing their jobs. Why isn’t his wife also sitting in a room, being interrogated?”
“She’s at the hospital, thanks to him,” the cop replied.
“You sound like you have a problem with my client.” The lawyer glared at the cop. “Why is that?”
“I don’t like woman-beaters,” she mentioned. “They are cowards, in my book.”
“Why is it impossible for his wife to be the abuser?” He tapped his lips. “Oh, let me guess—because he’s a man? Strike three. After I’m done, this precinct will apologize to my client with more than words. Can you let us know when he’s cleared to leave?”
“The judge won’t be able to see him until Monday.” She stared at the lawyer.
