“I saved most of my allowance every week until I had enough money to buy it.”
“And what about the monthly charges? And how did you get it activated? And why haven’t any statements come to the house?”
Curtina hesitated until she saw the impatient look on Charlotte’s face. “I buy prepaid debit cards from the convenience store, and I pay the bill online. The statements only come to my email address.”
“Did you buy the phone online, too?”
“Yes, and that’s also how I activated it.”
“But you have to be eighteen to have your own cell phone account.”
Curtina looked away from her and didn’t comment.
“Did you lie about your age?”
She still didn’t respond, but now fake tears flowed down her face.
“Did you?” Charlotte said, raising her voice.
“Yes.”
“Curtina? It’s almost as if I don’t even know who you are anymore. And when did you get this phone? And whose house was it delivered to?”
“Mom, why do you keep asking me all of these questions?”
“Because I want to know everything. Now answer me.”
“I had it delivered to Mark’s house last September. His older brother had the flu really bad that week, so he signed for it and gave it to Mark when Mark got home from school.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “You’ve had it for six months?”
Curtina stared at her with more fake crying.
“Well, if you’ve had it that long, then why did you always have a fit every time we took the phone that we bought for you? You would even constantly beg to have it back. And what about that Sunday in church when you told your grandpa that we took your phone? You had tears in your eyes, like you were devastated.”
Curtina shrugged her shoulders.
“You know what? I’m going to ask you again. Why did you always get so angry when we took your other phone? And kept asking for it back?”
“So you would think I really needed it.”
“I don’t get what you mean.”
“I knew that if you and Daddy thought I was desperate to get my phone back, you would never suspect that I had another phone I was using.”
Charlotte wanted to laugh out loud, because this girl was way too much. She was only twelve years old, yet she’d plotted, schemed, and deceived Charlotte and Curtis like they were children. Charlotte also hadn’t realized how much damage giving a child a fifty-dollar-a-week allowance could do. Plus, it wasn’t like they usually monitored what she did with it. Mostly they’d just assumed she spent it on junk food, lip gloss, fingernail polish, young adult books, Frappuccinos, and other normal things that girls tended to want. “So let me get this straight. You were putting on an act? Deceiving us the whole time?”
“I’m sorry, Mom, and please, please, please don’t tell Daddy.”
“And what about this boy, Mark? Did he use a condom?”
“We didn’t do anything.”
“Stop lying, Curtina. That officer saw both you and that boy with your pants and underwear down. So you either tell me the truth or else. Did he use a condom or not?”
“Yes.”
“Are you lying again?”
“No, Mom, I told him I didn’t want to get pregnant, so he always used—”
Charlotte bugged her eyes. “Always? What do you mean ‘always’? You’ve done this before?”
Curtina broke into tears yet again, but this time they seemed genuine.
Charlotte wanted to cry, too, but she couldn’t show any signs of weakness. “What’s the passcode?”
“Mom, please, don’t go through my phone.”
“Either you tell me that passcode or I’m calling your dad. Then I’m calling your sister and two brothers and your grandparents. And I’m telling them everything.”
“But, Mom—”
“But Mom, nothing! Tell me the code. I mean it, Curtina.”
Curtina still hesitated, but when she couldn’t see a way out, she rattled off the numbers.
Charlotte typed them in and opened the phone.
“Mom, we were just playing around. That’s all.”
“Who was playing around?”
“Me and Mark when we were texting.”
Charlotte opened the text messaging icon and scrolled pretty far up so that she could read the texts in chronological order. Still, the date that appeared was from yesterday, so Curtina and this Mark boy had to have been texting all evening. But when Charlotte read the first text, sent by her sneaky, lying daughter, she could barely contain herself.
Curtina: I want u 2 do 2 me wut that man just did in that video. U never go down on me, n Taylor’s man goes down on her all the time.
Mark: That’s not my thing. But I’ll think about it.
Curtina: Wut is there 2 think about? I’ve been doin it 4 u for months.
Mark: That’s different.
Curtina: How?
Mark: Just is.
Curtina: If Jeff can do it 4 Taylor so can u. He even did it Saturday nite when we snuck you guys in her house. He always does it.
Mark: I’m not Jeff. I like the real thing. We still doin it 2morow at school tho right?
Curtina: Are you gonna go down on me?
Mark: I already told you. I’ll think about it.
Curtina: Maybe I should find me another man. lol
Mark: Maybe u should. lol
Curtina: That’s not funny.
Mark: U know ur my woman. And only u.
Curtina: Then u betta start actin like it. We been doin’ it ever since last year and I’m tired of doin it the same ole way. Maybe I shoulda never gave it up to u.
Mark: Yea, and u wouldn’t be my woman either. I told u. I don’t date women who think their stuff is too good to give up.
Mark: R u still there?
Curtina: My dad is callin me. Yellin his head off. I’ll text u later.
Mark: I can’t wait til after 6th hr 2morow. Ur goin 2 get it good.
Curtina: lol. I gotta go boy
Charlotte set the phone down and was too distraught to comment. But when she gathered her thoughts together, she looked at Curtina. “So you girls snuck boys into Taylor’s home last weekend?”
“I told you, Mom, Mark and I were just playing around. Those messages aren’t real.”
Charlotte got up and grabbed Curtina by her arm. “Don’t you lie to me…not even a little. You hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Now answer me. Did you sneak those boys in or not?”
“Yes.”
“And what video did you and this Mark boy watch? And where?”
“Online.”
“You watched it together?”
“No, we watched it and then started texting again.”
“And you’ve been having sex with this boy all this time and giving him oral sex, too, Curtina?”
This was the part that Charlotte couldn’t get over. Her daughter was having both oral sex and sexual intercourse—at twelve years old.
“I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again.”
“You got that right,” Charlotte said, scrolling through the phone to an earlier date.
Curtina hopped out of her chair. “Mom, give me my phone…or I’m telling Daddy that you’ve been drinking. And then I’m telling him that you’ve been drinking and driving me around, putting my life in danger. Because I know you’ve been drinking today. I can smell it.”
After Mr. Norton had called Charlotte, she had left the house so quickly that she hadn’t thought about drinking coffee, and apparently the gum she’d chewed hadn’t worked very well.
“Give me my phone, Mom.”
“Look, Curtina, I’m still your mother, so don’t you ever try to threaten me like that again.”
Curtina locked eyes with Charlotte. “You’re only my stepmother. My real mother is dead…and I hate you.”
Charlotte’s mind must have been playing tricks on her. Or maybe she was hearing
things. She had to be, because there was no way the girl she’d loved and raised as her own for the last ten years would ever speak to her this way. “What did you say?”
Curtina never as much as flinched and boldly stood her ground. “You’re not my real mother, and I hate you.”
Charlotte was furious, but she was also hurt beyond words. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Because you never wanted me to come live with you and Daddy in the first place. You hated everything about me, and you were cruel to me when I first moved in here.”
“Who told you that?”
“One of the girls at church. Her mother told her everything. And her mother can’t stand you.”
Charlotte felt dazed and out of sorts. Like she was losing her mind.
But Curtina couldn’t have cared less. “And she also told me how you slept around on Daddy and got pregnant with another man’s baby. Some man named Aaron. So now I know the truth about your daughter, Marissa. The one who died. She wasn’t even Daddy’s real daughter, which means she wasn’t my real sister. So I wish you guys would stop pretending like she was.”
Charlotte’s hands shook the way they sometimes did when she’d had too much caffeine, and all she could do was set the phone down and look at Curtina. She couldn’t deny any of what she’d just said, and she was so sorry that Curtina had found out all of this from someone else—and at the church, no less.
“Curtina, I’m so sorry, honey. I’m really, really sorry.”
“Well, don’t be, because I don’t need you. All you do is lie to Daddy all the time, anyway. And I hate that you’re a drunk. You’re drunk right now, and I’m so ashamed to call you my mom. I was so embarrassed when you came to pick me up, because I’ll bet Mr. Norton smelled liquor on you, too.”
Charlotte covered her face with both hands, but then grabbed her purse and Curtina’s phone.
“Mom, give me my phone back,” she said.
But there was no way Charlotte was leaving that phone in Curtina’s possession, when all she would do was delete every single message. So she dropped it in her purse and left out the door. She seriously needed to get away and clear her head. And Father, forgive her, she needed a drink. She needed something now, so she got in her car and drove down the long driveway and into the street.
She drove for a couple of blocks, sniffling and wiping her face, and then it dawned on her that before she’d left home to go pick up Curtina from school, she’d taken another quick drink of vodka and dropped it in her handbag. She’d completely forgotten about it, so she pulled it out, drank a large gulp of it, and kept driving. She drove for miles until she turned a corner much too fast and lost control of her vehicle. She slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. She couldn’t stop in time and plowed her car into a tall brick wall that surrounded a huge cemetery.
Chapter 35
Curtis had driven as fast as he could from Chicago, and now he hurried toward the automatic double doors of the emergency room and walked inside.
Curtina immediately rushed toward him, crying uncontrollably and hugging him around his waist. “Daddy, it’s all my fault. I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it. I don’t hate Mom, Daddy, and I don’t want her to die.”
Curtis had no idea what she was talking about, but whatever it was, he knew it wasn’t good. “Honey, try and calm down. And why do you think this is your fault?”
“It just is, and I’m so sorry, Daddy. I really messed up this time. But I didn’t mean it.”
Curtis took her by both her arms. “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to pull it together so I can go see what’s going on with your mom.”
Curtina still wailed loudly, but he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her over to where their friends and family were sitting and standing. Curtis spoke to everyone, and many of them got up and hugged him.
Alicia stood next to Curtis. “We’re still waiting to hear something, Daddy. But they’ve had Charlotte in there for almost two hours.”
“What happened?” Curtis asked.
Alicia’s eyes turned sad, and everyone got quiet: Matthew, Stacey, Dillon, Porsha, Levi, Janine, Carl, Bethany, a few of the elders of the church, Sonya from the women’s ministry, and a few other friends and members of the church.
“Tell me,” Curtis said.
There were other families in the waiting area, so Alicia took him by his arm, and they walked back over near the entrance. “You see those policemen down the hallway?”
Curtis looked to the left and nodded.
“Well, they’re waiting to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Charlotte.”
“What about her?”
“Daddy, try not to get mad. Please.”
“Just tell me. What is it?”
“They think she was driving under the influence.”
Curtis’s heart beat faster. “Please don’t tell me she was drinking.”
“They asked Matt, Dillon, and me if we thought she might have been, but we told them no.”
“I really hope she wasn’t.”
“I do, too. And I hope she’s going to be okay.”
“Was Curtina in the car with her?”
“No.”
“Then why is she so upset and saying it’s all her fault?”
“I don’t know, Daddy. She told me the same thing, but when I asked her why, she just hugged me and started crying again.”
“Who brought her to the hospital?”
“Once we all got here, we wondered where she was, so I called her and then went to pick her up from home.”
“Something bad must have happened, but right now, I’m just going to focus on what the doctors have to say about Charlotte,” Curtis said, and saw the two police officers coming toward them.
“Pastor Black,” the older one said, “I’m Officer Dean, and we’re sorry to have to bother you right now, but can we have a word?”
“Sure,” he said, walking with them back in the direction they’d come from.
The other officer, who looked to be no more than twenty-five, said, “I’m Officer Conroy, and we’re really sorry about your wife’s accident.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“We just wanted to ask you a few questions,” Officer Dean said.
“Okay.”
“Were you aware that your wife was drinking and driving?”
“No, not at all. I wasn’t aware that she was drinking, period.”
“Well, when we searched her vehicle, we found a bottle of vodka with a broken seal. It was lying on the floor of the passenger side, but wasn’t completely empty.”
Curtis was hurt, angry, and embarrassed. “I guess I don’t know what to say.”
“I understand,” Officer Dean said. “We don’t know if she drank some of the vodka today or another day. We’re waiting on her blood alcohol results now, but even if she wasn’t drinking, we’ll still have to charge her with an open container violation.”
Curtis sighed deeply.
“And if it turns out that her blood alcohol level exceeds the maximum, she’ll be charged with reckless driving and a DUI. My hope is that this won’t be the case. But we still needed to inform you about what we know so far.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
Officer Dean pulled out a card with his name and number on it and gave it to Curtis. “If you think of anything at all or if we can be of help in some kind of way, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”
“I will.”
“And again,” Officer Conroy said, “we’re very sorry about your wife’s accident.”
“Thank you.”
The officers walked away, but all Curtis could do was think about the fact that he hadn’t followed up on his suspicions. He so regretted not confronting Charlotte to see if she was drinking again, and now she’d had a terrible accident. He also had a feeling that her blood alcohol results were going to return sky high, and that she would
be arrested on all three of the charges the officer had mentioned.
Before walking back toward the family waiting area, Curtis pulled out his phone and called his in-laws. When Alicia had called him about Charlotte, he’d jumped in his car, heading back to Mitchell, but he’d also contacted Joe and Noreen to let them know what was going on. He’d then promised to call them with an update.
“Curtis, how is she?” Noreen asked right away.
“We still don’t know anything.”
“After all this time?”
“Yes, but I’m sure she’s going to be fine, and I prayed all the way here.”
“Well, we’re praying as well, but now I hate that we didn’t ride back with you.”
“I know you want to be here, but I also think you did the right thing by staying. Joe doesn’t need to be here, getting himself all worked up, and as soon as I find out anything, I’ll call you.”
“Please take care of our baby, Curtis. But I know you will.”
“Yes, and please try not to worry.”
“We love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Curtis slipped his phone into his jeans, but when he looked up, he saw a doctor walking toward the waiting area.
“I’m looking for the Black family.”
Curtis moved closer to the doctor. “I’m Pastor Black, Charlotte’s husband.”
The man shook Curtis’s hand. “I’m Dr. Tisdale.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“If you want to come with me, I’ll give you an update on your wife. Your children are welcome to come also.”
Alicia, Dillon, and Matthew stood and walked over, but Curtina stayed seated.
Curtis looked at her. “Honey, are you coming?”
She shook her head, and Curtis wondered again what had happened between Curtina and her mother. Curtis could tell she was afraid, but what he couldn’t understand was why she thought her mother’s accident was all her fault. And why she’d told Charlotte that she hated her.
When they entered the conference room and took their seats, Dr. Tisdale spoke.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why it took us so long to come talk to you, but for a while, we had a very hard time getting your wife’s bleeding under control. She has some pretty deep lacerations, and she lost a lot of blood. She also kept going in and out because of low blood pressure. But we finally got everything under control.”
Better Late Than Never Page 21
