Diamond Revelation

by Sheila Copeland

No? Topaz couldn’t believe what she was hearing…and from Nina, who had been a part of her career from the beginning and by her side ever since. No from my blood? Although Nina had a sister, she and Topaz were closer than close. Topaz still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Danny handed Topaz the CD with an apologetic glance as the others left the conference room.

  “No hard feelings, right cuz?” Nina held out her arms to give Topaz a hug. “It’s only business.”

  “It’s only business,” Topaz agreed. She kissed Nina on the cheek, dropped her CD in her bag, and left the building as quickly as she could.

  Chapter 7

  Traffic on Robertson Boulevard between Third Street and Beverly Boulevard, the heart of the interior design district, was always congested. Probably because of the paparazzi and other stargazers trying to catch celebrities at The Ivy or some fancy boutique like Kitson that the younger celebs were known to frequent.

  Nina was seated on the sunny patio of The Ivy at her favorite table where she could people watch. She ordered an apple martini while she waited for Sky and Sabre, who were running late. A waiter seated Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher at a nearby table. She popped out of her seat to greet the host of Punk’d and his wife. Nina had been Ashton’s contact when the show wanted to punk Topaz.

  Back at her table, Nina made note of information Ashton had given her about an upcoming event he wanted Topaz to attend. She sat there staring at the slice of apple in her drink. It seems like no matter what I do in this business, my connections to the real players in Hollywood are always because of Topaz.

  Nina constantly tried to create a distinct separation in her life between her and Topaz, but things always seemed to begin and end with her famous cousin. Even though she had written an intriguing New York Times best-selling novel about her adventures in Hollywood, they had come from her life as Topaz’s personal assistant and cousin. It didn’t help Nina’s ego when her editor insisted that she mention her relationship to Topaz in Nina’s brief biography on the back of the book. Nina’s first real high-paying job had been as Topaz’s assistant. She met Jamil, her best friends, and even her husband either through or with Topaz. But this new position at Revelation Music was an opportunity for Nina to leave her own personal mark in the industry.

  Her BlackBerry vibrated. She read the message and quickly typed a response and looked up to see Sky speaking with the maitre d’. She studied Sabre as the ladies approached her table. As gorgeous as Sabre is, she has no real star power, Nina realized. That je ne sais quois—the “it” factor—that special something that made her stand out in a crowded room, unlike Topaz who stopped traffic everywhere she went.

  Nina thought about the meeting with her cousin for the thousandth time and wondered yet again if she made the right decision. Did my desire to separate my life from my cousin’s subconsciously factor into my decision to pass on her music? The songs were exceptionally good. I didn’t know Topaz could write like that.

  “Always go with your first inclination,” Kyle always told her.

  No one wants to see Topaz trying to be India. Arie…just like no one would want to see India. Arie trying to be Topaz, Nina reassured herself.

  Sabre and Sky walked over to the table as Nina wrestled with her thoughts. “Ladies.” Nina stood and greeted them warmly. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

  “Sorry we’re late, Nina, but the traffic was terrible.” Sky had on a banana-colored sundress with sandals. She had pinned her hair up, and the gold chandelier earrings were the perfect accessory for bare shoulders and marvelous skin. Sabre had on faded jeans and a “Baby Girl” T-shirt. She could have been some cute teenager at the mall rather than the hottest thing in music. Someone really needs to groom her, Nina couldn’t help thinking. After they ordered lunch and drinks, Nina went right to work.

  “Sky, how would you like to be a Revelation artist?”

  Sky’s eyes widened with surprise. Sabre was equally shocked.

  “Me?” Sky finally blurted out.

  “Her?” Sabre sputtered without thinking.

  “Yes, of course you. Why not you?” Nina sipped a fresh martini. “You were a member of So Fine. You should have your own deal just like Sabre.”

  “Wow. I never thought about being a solo artist.” Sky’s humility was refreshing.

  A waiter served them lunch.

  “Did you think about being a solo artist when you were in the group, Sabre?” Nina poured dressing on her salad.

  Sabre nodded her head up and down as she swallowed a bite of her burger. “I always wanted to be a solo artist. The group helped get me there.” Sabre reached for the ketchup.

  “I never knew that.” Sky looked at Sabre.

  “Yes, you did. The other day you said that I was the one who always wanted to be Topaz when we were little,” Sabre defended.

  “But we were just kids and we were pretending,” Sky fired back.

  “You used to pretend to be her too,” Sabre countered.

  “Maybe you were pretending, Sky, but Sabre was obviously very serious. That’s why she’s a solo artist now.” Nina buttered a hard roll while Sky sat back in her chair and reflected on Nina’s words.

  “So what do you want to do, Sky?” Nina asked.

  “I love singing. I did background vocals on Sabre’s CD. We wrote a couple of songs together. I love being in the studio, but I love performing the most.”

  Nina laughed. “All of this passion from someone who was only pretending to be a singer. Have you been working on your rhymes?”

  “Not as much as I should,” Sky confessed.

  “You were so great on ‘First Kiss’. I’m surprised Sabre didn’t ask you to rap on a cut.” Nina smiled at Sabre.

  “Yeah, why didn’t you ask me to rap on a cut?” Sky looked at Sabre.

  “I didn’t think about it and neither did any of my producers.” Sabre crunched on a dill pickle spear.

  “Sky.” Nina was back in control. “Jamil has a great catalogue of unrecorded material and I’d like to get you in the studio with several producers. I think JD would be the absolute perfect producer to team you up with. I’d like to get Jermaine to do a couple of tracks. Let’s get you in the studio and see what kind of magic we can create.” Nina took out her BlackBerry and quickly made a call.

  “Hey, Nita. Can you hook me up with JD? I want to get Sky in the studio ASAP.” Nina looked up and smiled at Sky, who was ready to explode from excitement.

  “Sabre, I’m going in the studio with Jermaine Dupree. I can’t believe it.” Sky’s voice was two octaves higher than normal.

  Sabre carefully chewed on a carrot.

  Nina was still on the phone. “Yes, I’m with Sky at The Ivy right now. We were just finishing lunch. Can we be there in forty-five minutes?” Nina looked at Sky, who eagerly bobbed her head up and down. “Cool beans.” Nina clicked off her cell.

  “You can ride to the studio with me, Sky.” Nina gave both girls a plastic smile.

  “Sabre, you should come, too,” Sky suggested.

  Nina opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Sabre spoke up.

  “I have to meet Victor. I’m doing Nick Cannon’s show this evening.” Sabre took out her Sidekick. “I gotta go now.”

  “We need to leave now, too. We don’t want to keep Jermaine waiting.” Nina paid the bill with a black American Express card.

  The three of them stood curbside waiting for the valet with the cars.

  Sky was elated. “Sabre, this is too cool. Now we can be superstars together. I’ll tell you everything…”

  “You a star?” Sabre laughed nastily as she cut Sky off. “You definitely got jokes. Me and you will never be superstars together. I’m the only star up in this piece, babe.” She put on a pair of sunglasses and placed a hand on her hip. “You can be all up in the studio with JD, Jay-Z, and Diddy, but it ain’t gonna help your nonsinging ass.”

  Sky stared at Sabre, speechless and amazed.

  Nina, who had been
on the phone, missed the exchange between the former group members and best friends. She clicked off her cell and smiled at the girls. “I can’t get over the two of you pretending to be Topaz when you were younger. That is so cute. I can’t wait to tell T,” Nina commented.

  VMG had upgraded Sabre’s PT Cruiser to a C class Mercedes. A couple of photographers snapped away as she got into it.

  Hollywood’s It girl. “Humph,” Nina grunted out loud. The media is too powerful. It can make you anything it wants you to be.

  The attendant parked the Bentley in front of Nina. She carefully scrutinized Sky as she walked around to get inside. She was a very pretty girl with an excellent figure. It wouldn’t take much grooming to mold her into a great solo artist. The time she spent as a member of So Fine had adequately prepared her. Nina was more than willing to navigate Sky into the major leagues.

  Yep…I know Sky can do this. She has everything Sabre has, plus she can rap. If Topaz no longer wants to be a pop superstar, then I’ll just have to create another one.

  As Sky got into the car, Nina relaxed for the first time in weeks. Finally…I’m going to make a name for myself in this business.

  Chapter 8

  Sabre, lying on her back in the full-sized bed, stared at the ceiling fan as it spun around. It was the first time in months that her schedule had permitted her to relax. She had been reading, but now Eric Jerome Dickey’s latest book rested on her stomach. She had always loved to read because she could escape into the lives of the characters. It was also something she could do alone, and Sabre had spent lots of time alone.

  Victor talked in his sleep. He coiled around her like a snake warming itself in the sun, wearing only a pair of blue boxers. Sabre focused on his muscles rippling underneath his smooth skin toasted golden brown by the California sun. She ran her index finger across his forearm and instantly regretted touching him the moment he rolled over and opened his eyes.

  “Hey, baby.” Victor gave her a little smile as he massaged Sabre’s knee and began working his way up her inner thigh.

  “Stop it.” Sabre slapped his hand off her and reached for the book she had been reading.

  Victor laughed and continued the game, paying her mood little attention because Sabre was always a bitch. He kissed her gently on the lips until he felt her kissing him back.

  “Why did you stop?” Sabre tossed the book on the floor and climbed on top of Victor until she straddled him. She kissed him slow and hard until neither of them could stand it and then she stopped.

  “Sabre…” Victor hoped he wasn’t begging. He hated the way she made him feel so out of control.

  “Say, please.” Sabre tried not to giggle, but she loved being in control. Men could be such pushovers when it came to sex. Before she knew what was happening, Victor flipped her off him. He climbed on top of her and slowly traced her full lips with a finger.

  “Stop it, Victor.” Sabre lay writhing beneath him. “Get the fuck off me.”

  He laughed and covered her hands with his, causing her to twist and turn even more. “I love it when you play hard to get. You are so damn sexy and hot.” He watched her squirming beneath him and tried to kiss her.

  “I told you to get the fuck off me, you stupid-ass son of a bitch. Get off me.” Her scream was bloodcurdling. There was a crazed look in her eyes that frightened him. She pushed him off her and he fell on the floor. Sabre ran into the kitchen and returned with a huge butcher knife and charged toward Victor. His eyes grew wide with horror as she brandished her weapon, and he frantically tried to get out of her way.

  “I’ll kill your fucking ass if you ever touch me again.” Sabre pointed the knife at him.

  Victor rolled across the bed as she plunged the knife into the mattress with every ounce of strength she had.

  “I swear I’ll kill your motherfuckin’ ass.”

  Sky came in from shopping while Sabre was screaming. “What’s going on in here? I could hear you screaming downstairs, Sabre.” She looked at Victor and then Sabre for some sort of explanation. “Did you guys have another fight?”

  Victor was never so glad to see anyone in his life. He slipped into the bathroom and returned wearing sweats. “You guys need to find another place to live because you can’t stay here anymore. I don’t trust her crazy ass. She tried to kill me,” Victor said and bolted out of the apartment.

  “Sabre?” Sky looked at her friend and was surprised when she broke into tears.

  “Him touched me.” Sabre cried tears from deep within. Sky had never seen her like this…except when her grandmother died a few years ago.

  Sky held her friend, watching her cry crocodile tears, and tried to think of something to say to calm Sabre down. It was then that Sky saw the huge knife stuck in the mattress. Sky pulled it out and stashed it under the bed. “Sabre, what happened?”

  “I told you, him touched me.” Sabre was talking and sounding just like a three-year-old.

  “Who touched you? Victor?”

  “Un-huh.” Sabre sniffed and appeared to be slightly calmer.

  “What are you talking about? Victor’s your boyfriend. He’s always touching you and you’ve never tried to stab him with a butcher knife before, have you?”

  “No. But I told him to stop.” Sabre dried the last of her tears.

  “Stop what? You’re not making sense, girl.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” Sabre went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

  Sky looked at her like she was crazy. “Girl, you are scarin’ me. Sometimes I think you’re crazy.”

  “Whatever.” Sabre slammed the bathroom door closed, and Sky shook her head. Sky thought about taking the knife back into the kitchen but decided against it. Sabre was acting very strangely.

  Sabre looked at her reflection in the mirror. She wasn’t ready to move. Victor lived in Hollywood and the location was great. She was saving for a condo in Malibu. She was going to have to think of something to keep her and Sky from being evicted. But what? Victor did all the cooking. He would whip up the healthiest dishes with vegetables, shrimp, or chicken. And she wasn’t about to clean. That definitely wasn’t an option. Maybe I could get Sky to do a threesome. Victor had suggested it when Sky first arrived and Sabre moved her into his apartment. Victor could get pretty freaky, but nothing he ever did in bed surprised Sabre, who was even freakier…until that morning.

  Sabre cried a fresh batch of tears. Would the awful memories ever go away? “Maybe I should tell Sky,” she thought out loud. “I can’t,” she cried. “I can’t,” she told her reflection. Sabre jumped in the shower and scrubbed her body until her skin was sore. She had kept her secrets too long.

  Martina Cruz, Sabre’s mother, was only seventeen when Sabre was born. Tina, a straight A student, had the world in her hands. She graduated early and was accepted to every college she applied to from New York University to Stanford. Tina had the lofty ambition of becoming a pediatrician, and the Puerto Rican teen was on her way.

  A pretty, dark-skinned Latina, she was sheltered from life in her Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Marisol, her single mother, worked three jobs to ensure that her daughters had the best. Tina’s older sisters attended Catholic school, college, then married well. She was expected to follow in their steps.

  Tina had decided to attend Stanford when she went to a school party with a friend. There she met Darren, who was articulate, intelligent, and well read. She had never known anyone like him, and he felt the same way about her. She was his delicate, sweet flower. They were inseparable. Several months later, right before Tina was scheduled to depart for Stanford, she discovered she was pregnant. When Marisol learned that her daughter was expecting and insisted on having the baby, Marisol withdrew all support and refused to have anything further to do with her.

  Tina decided she would attend New York University, have the baby, put the baby up for adoption, complete her education at Stanford, and apply to medical school. The schoolwork was more difficult than s
he expected, and her pregnancy was complicated. It seemed like she was always sick. She was eventually fired from her part-time job. Darren got her evicted from her dorm because they were always fighting, so Tina dropped her classes, took a leave of absence from school, and moved in with Darren, who she thought attended a junior college in Queens. It was all too late when she realized that she had been conned by a smooth-talking drug dealer.

  Tina had her baby, and like most pregnant teens she ended up on welfare. Although she loved her baby girl, she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Marisol refused to speak to her, let alone offer assistance. Tina had brought shame on the family. Bored and depressed, she started smoking weed with Darren, but the high wasn’t enough to make her forget her problems, so she decided to try some of the crack cocaine Darren had left in the apartment. It gave her a high that took away her pain. Tina refused to cook, clean, or take care of the baby. Her sole agenda was finding a way to support her new habit.

  At first, Darren helped with the baby. He even cooked and cleaned, but constant fights with Tina over sex, drugs, and money drove him away from the apartment for days at a time. Tina fled to the streets to support her habit. She would leave the baby wet, hungry, and alone in the apartment. One of the neighbors finally called Children’s Services. Sabre was placed in foster care, and Tina and Darren were evicted from the apartment.

  Marisol still refused to care for her young granddaughter, and Tina turned to prostitution to support her habit while Sabre was moved from foster home to foster home until Tina entered rehab, got some career training, and took Sabre out of foster care five years later.

  Tina received a placement in the accounting department at the county hospital in Brooklyn. Mother and daughter moved into a decent one-bedroom. She also received money and food stamps in addition to her part-time hours. Tina’s social worker tried to simplify her life so Tina and Sabre could bond, making Sabre’s transition back to her mother as smooth as possible. Sabre had already been placed too many times for her five years, and she hoped this would be the last.