Next, she called Dr. McNabb’s office.”
“Hi, Gwen, this is Cadence Goldsmith.”
“Umm …”
“I know, but if Dr. McNabb could give me a moment of her time, I can explain everything. Please.”
After holding for a brief spell, Dr. McNabb came on the line.
Cadence explained everything in detail and gave a sincere apology. Dr. McNabb even agreed to be their family therapist. She’d also see Jackie for individual therapy twice a week once she confirmed with Braelyn.
Jackson and Braelyn swooped out of the automatic sliding glass doors, holding Jackie’s hands as they lifted and swung her along. Cadence’s heart lurched at the sight. All he had asked for was one child. And she would not be the first to give him one.
“Everything’s okay,” Braelyn said with a relieved sigh.
Cadence turned to Jackson for confirmation, and he nodded.
A calm passed over Cadence’s body. They knew Lester had been doing something to her, but at least he hadn’t physically damaged her body. Her mind was another thing.
“I thought I was getting a shot, but I told the doctor no,” Jackie said clicking in her seatbelt. “No shots for me.”
They drove to McDonald’s Play Land, and the four of them had lunch. Jackie scoffed down her meal, then climbed into the play area with the other kids.
“I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I can take care of my daughter,” Braelyn defended, squaring her shoulders as she held onto the check that Cadence slid her way. “She’s coming home with me.”
“That’s not happening,” Jackson snapped. “Lester isn’t fit to be around her. He doesn’t care about her well-being, flashing his gun. Did you even know he had a gun in the house?”
Cadence raised a hand, halting any further conversation. “And you’re unemployed.”
“So, you’re judging me now,” Braelyn snarled. “Struggling doesn’t mean that I can’t take care of my daughter.”
“I never said that.” Cadence gestured to the check. “That right there should be enough to start fresh, find a place of your own, and put some away for a rainy day.”
Braelyn covered her mouth, and her blue orbs nearly popped out of its sockets.
“This right here,” Jackson commented, placing a hand over Cadence’s heart. “Is one of the reasons I love you so much.” He leaned and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to put that back in your account tomorrow.”
“Mommy,” Jackie screamed, waving from the top of the jungle gym before she disappeared inside a pink sliding tube.
“Find you a job and get back on your grind,” Cadence advised, making Braelyn focus in their direction again. “I’m not trying to take your place, trust me, but no way in hell is she going back there.”
“I don’t know what to say…thank you.” Braelyn folded the check and slid it into her bra.
“There are two stipulations,” Cadence added. “We have to go to family therapy.”
Jackson cocked his head and gazed at her. “All of us. Together?”
“Yes.”
Sounds of laughter and kids screaming with joy echoed around them, causing Cadence to scan the area for Jackie. “And you have to allow the police to escort you to get your things from that house.”
“I don’t know about that,” Braelyn said, frowning as she lowered her head. “Lester has a connect in the police department who tipped him off about an upcoming raid … so his business hasn’t been good, and he’s been taking it out on me,” Braelyn confessed, slowly lifting her hair, showcasing the finger-shaped bruises around the side of her neck. “World War III will break out if I bring the police in there.”
Cadence gasped.
“He’d never put his hands on me before, and I was afraid that if he’d hit me, he might hit Jackie. So, I did what I had to do,” she said, covering the heinous marks. “My brother, Steven was able to get us VIP passes, and Lester came up with the scheme at the Convention Center. We planned to get as much money from you as we could,” Braelyn admitted. “When I came away empty-handed, Lester became more violent and controlling. That’s when I realized Jackie needed a father and a protector more than I needed that money. If something happens to me…”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Jackson reassured. “Jackie will always be taken care of, and you have our support as long as you do right from here on out.”
“And who cares if he gets pissed about the police,” Cadence added. “That’ll be your last time in there. Get what you and Jackie need right now, and you can purchase everything else later. We’ll make sure no one goes without.”
“Why are you so willing to help me after all the shit I’ve done to you?” Braelyn inquired, her eyes glassy with tears.
“Because I want that sweet little girl up there to be okay,” Cadence said aiming a finger in the direction of the jungle gym. “And to do that, we have to be civilized and get all of these old feelings out of the way.”
Jackson leaned over her shoulder and whispered, “Thanks for not giving up on us.”
Cadence squeezed his hand. “This is bigger than us,” she said gazing into his eyes, then stroking his cheek. “I’m sorry for not believing you. I should’ve known better.”
Chapter 13
Cadence was in the middle of the Skype meeting with Canada and twelve of Adali’s board members when Jennifer burst into the conference room. “Pardon me,” she interrupted, briskly walking over to Cadence, then whispered, “Jackson’s on line one. He says it’s urgent.”
She gauged Jennifer’s worried expression. Her assistant knew better, so it had to be of the utmost importance.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Cadence said, following Jennifer toward the oversized doors, glancing upward at the wall clock.
Cadence had two hours to spare before their scheduled therapy appointment. What was so urgent?
Mike pushed out his chair and quickly fell in step with Cadence. “Can’t this wait,” he grumbled with sweat glistening around the outskirts of his face. “We’re in the weighty part of this meeting. You need to be here.”
“I’m afraid it can’t,” she replied with regret. “This won’t take long. I’ll be right back.”
“Jacks–––”
“Something’s wrong. Braelyn never showed up to get Jackie from school.
“What do you mean?”
“I was leaving out to meet with a parent and Jackie was sitting in the main office. I came back thirty minutes later, and she’s still here. The secretary called Braelyn and didn’t get an answer.”
“Did you try calling her?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I called and texted several times. No response. I had to disclose our situation to Principal Tate because she was on the phone with the police to report child abandonment.”
Cadence covered her mouth.
Braelyn had found an apartment, but still insisted she needed to go back to Lester’s for more of her things.
“That’s CPS policy when a parent doesn’t show without any notification after thirty minutes. I had no choice but to tell her.”
“No worries,” Cadence said looking over her shoulder in the direction of the conference room, finding that Mike was hovering outside of her office. When she made eye contact, he tapped his watch, then walked away. “I have to get back in this meeting.”
“What am I supposed to do? Jackie won’t stop crying and–––”
“Take her home,” she directed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Cadence went back inside. Steven was giving her presentation and going over her stats. He’d always been the one waiting on any opportunity to show her up, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. She still couldn’t believe he was Braelyn’s twin.
Indeed, something was wrong. Cadence’s initial thought was that Braelyn cashed that check, then skipped out, but she wouldn’t leave her daughter behind. She sat quietly and listened for as long as she could before she excused herse
lf for the rest of the day.
Mike hopped out of his seat, causing the conference room to fall silent. “What’s going on with you?” he questioned, crossing his pudgy arms. “You’ve been distracted lately, and it’s affecting your performance.”
This was what Cadence had been afraid of, being judged harsher than her Caucasian counterparts for doing less than an ounce of what they did on the regular.
“Mike, I apologize. This is extremely important, and I need to leave. Otherwise, I’d be right here.” Cadence glanced over at Steven who’d been watching the exchange with a smug expression. “Your sister’s missing.”
All the color drained from Steven’s face, possibly from the information she shared, but more than likely from the shock that Cadence knew they were related.
Cadence left the office and shot Jackson a text. I’m on my way home, but I’m going to stop by Braelyn’s house first.
He texted right back. Don’t you dare.
She pulled in front of the house, the block was jumping with loud music and the neighborhood riffraff hanging about. Cadence left her car and climbed those cracked stairs with caution.
“He ain’t home, but I’ll give you whatcha need,” a guy slurred from the sidewalk, holding his crotch.
“Stay the hell away from me,” she shot back, reaching into her purse to position the keys as a weapon.
She rang the doorbell and knocked on the door several times. No answer. She waited a few minutes, then turned to descend the stairs. A gunshot followed by a crash on the opposite side of the front door made Cadence bang on the steel again. She twisted the knob, and it opened. She stuck her head inside in enough time to see someone sprinting toward the rear of the house. Cadence jumped back, gathered herself, then entered after the footsteps ceased.
“Braelyn,” she called out, stepping in something sticky.
Cadence glanced down at the peeled linoleum. Handfuls of blonde hair were stuck in a red liquefied substance. She willed the contents of her stomach to remain in place.
The back door was wide open. Swallowing the fear past the lump in her throat, Cadence inched into the living room and almost passed out.
Braelyn was sprawled out in a pool of blood, battered and beaten with a hole in her stomach, clutching a gun at her side.
Chapter 14
Cadence’s lip quivered as she fumbled with the phone to dial 9-1-1. “Ca––– dence,” Braelyn gurgled speaking in a hoarse whisper between breaths. “Les–––Lester–––”
“Shhhh. Don’t talk.”
“Take––– care––– of––– Jackie. Tell––– her––– I’m––– sorry––– and––– I––– love–––” Braelyn’s head slumped to the side.
“Hold on, Braelyn,” Cadence cried, clutching the woman’s free hand. “Open your eyes. Help’s on the way.”
By the time the police and ambulance had arrived, Braelyn had passed on to the other side. The cops questioned Cadence extensively before she could leave the crime scene with instructions to come to the station in the morning.
Cadence trembled as she trudged through crowds of onlookers toward her car.
“Cadence,” Jackson bellowed from the parameter of yellow tape with Jackie arms wrapped around his thigh.
She ran over and fell into her husband’s embrace. “She’s gone,” Cadence whispered. “Get Jackie back to the car.”
Before he could comply, the paramedics wheeled a stretcher out with a white sheet over a body. The blood-spattered feet were exposed in a pair of sandals with polished green toenails.
“Mommy,” Jackie wailed, bolting toward the ambulance.
They ran after her. Jackson scooped her up and cradled his daughter in his arms. She cried so hard that her nose bled. Cadence rambled through the contents of her purse and found some tissue.
“Are you gonna be my mommy now?” she asked between sobs. Cadence wrapped her arms around them and gazed deeply into her eyes. “Yes, I would love to be, Jacqueline who everybody calls Jackie,” she said, forcing a pleasant tone.
“Excuse me,” said a man in dark denim jeans and a black bulletproof vest. “Are you Cadence Goldsmith?”
“Who’s asking?” Jackson questioned, placing Jackie in Cadence’s arms and standing in front of them.
“Detective O’Brien, with the Major Crimes Unit. We need to speak with you,” he said glancing over Jackson’s shoulder to Cadence, “at the Area South Police Station.”
“Officer Douglas told me to come in the morning,” she informed him, pulling the officer’s business card from her purse.
“We have questions that can’t wait until then,” the detective said, resting a hand on his belt inches away from his service weapon. “Follow me.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jackson insisted.
“No. Take Jackie home,” Cadence said. “She needs to be away from all of this.”
Cadence tried to put Jackie down, but she tightened the grip around her neck.
“I wanna stay with you,” Jackie cried.
“I’ll be back soon, okay.” Cadence pried her arms apart. “Go with your daddy.”
“There’s no way I’m letting you go down there alone,” Jackson demanded, grabbing Jackie’s hand.
“You don’t have a choice, baby. I’ll be fine,” Cadence said, stroking the little girl’s shoulder. “She needs you more.”
Cadence settled in the back of the Expedition and shuddered when her skin touched the leather seat. She desperately wanted Jackson by her side. What was so important that couldn’t wait until the morning?
“I told Officer Douglas everything I saw,” she said, plucking her cell from her purse. “Why are you taking me to the station?”
Cadence pressed the QuickVoice app on her phone to record the remaining of the conversation because his demeanor screamed shady. She didn’t want to become the next victim of a mysterious mishap while riding with law enforcement.
“There are plenty of unanswered questions,” Detective O’Brien remarked in a dry tone.
“Like what?”
Detective O’Brien glanced at Cadence through the rearview mirror. “Like why were you there? Why would you write a twenty-thousand-dollar check to the girlfriend of a man who’s a known drug supplier to the southeast side? Did the deal go bad?”
Cadence head spun faster than a spin cycle. “What––– my husband’s daughter lived––– her mother––––oh my gosh.” Cadence’s chest heaved at the insinuation. “What is it you think I’ve done?”
“We checked the recent activity on the Braelyn’s phone, and there’s a scanned image of a mobile check she tried to deposit a few hours earlier.”
“That’s unrelated.”
“We call it motive,” the detective said with a sly grin.
“Why would I subject myself to this if I’d done something wrong?” Cadence asked, angling the phone, but keeping her focus on the side of his face.
The sedan lunged forward, and Cadence’s heart sank as Jackson and Jackie faded in the background.
“Cute.” He smirked before putting his eyes back on the road. “We’ll finish up at the station,” he responded, stopping at a red light one block away from the crime scene.
Cadence placed an aimless stare toward the people standing at the bus stop. She only wanted to be a good person, and now she was wrapped up in a mess beyond her control.
A clean-shaven man in a brown suit wearing a baseball cap stepped off the curb and glanced down the street, only inches away from the rear window. Cadence didn’t pay the stranger any attention until he positioned his face so close to the window that his breath fogged the glass. She flinched, glancing in Detective O’Brien’s direction, then back at the unknown man. How could he not know someone was that close to his vehicle?
The man flashed a slip of dull blue paper with red blotches. Right away, Cadence recognized the check displaying her name, address, and signature. Her heart sank lower than the Titanic because now he knew where she lived.
The light had turned green, and the Expedition crept forward, then halted as a woman in a wheelchair slowly inched across the street, blocking their path.
The man grinned, removing his hat, unveiling fresh cornrows as he backed away from the vehicle.
Cadence flashed back to the scene of the crime, and one thing stood out––– the gun covered in blood at Braelyn’s side.
She tilted her head, pointed an imaginary gun at Lester, pretended to shoot, then blew her smoking fingertips. Cadence aimed a quick glance toward the detective, then back to Lester, lowering her focus to his midsection, raising an eyebrow.
He slid a hand across the front of his waistband and frowned, patting his sides. His eyes grew larger than a teenager’s who accidentally walked in on his parents getting it in.
Cadence winked as the car drove away.
Sweet Whispers of the Devil
Honey
Sierra Kay
Chapter 1
Her son was gone.
Victoria Hill raced past the four-bedroom gray-and black-trimmed house, located in Naperville, Illinois, as fast as her well-worn, three-inch heels would allow.
She wished she had worn trainers today. She’d already split her pencil skirt rushing to get out of the car. Navigating the brick path leading to the two-bedroom guest house she rented, the familiar face of her best friend—whose light brown skin appeared even paler than usual–– stared back at her. The pain resonated in Antoine’s cinnamon eyes and punched her in the gut.
His stiff six-foot-tall stance was the opposite of his normal loose-limbed slouch. Maybe she’d misread his expression. Maybe any second he’d break out into laughter, and Luke would run from behind the maple tree. Maybe this was some cruel practical joke. Maybe.
When ten-year-old Christian arrived home without his brother, who was a year older, Antoine sent her a text, “Luke made Chris drag home his backpack. Guess he decided to walk again.”
But after the time he should have arrived came and went, Antoine called. “Luke didn’t come home.”
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