Truth & Consequences: A Miss Independent Novel

by Leach, Kiki

  He raised his head and sat back, balling his fists and sucking in pounds of air that filled his lungs the moment he saw her rounding the corner.

  “Nik,” a strong, husky voice aggressively called out.

  Her head jerked back in surprise.

  Grabbing her chest, she fumbled back and tripped across the curb when she realized that the person calling out to her was none other than Oscar.

  There was no way in hell that this was going to end well, and they both knew it.

  He stood up quick and jumped down every other step to reach her.

  Before he came any closer, Nikki held up her hands and started backing away. “I don’t have time for whatever the hell this is right now.”

  She spun around him, but he turned on his heel before she was even out of his eyesight and grabbed her back by the arm.

  “You’re going to make time.”

  Looking up into his normally cool blue eyes that often told her without speaking just how much he loved everything about her, she saw nothing but fury. She instantly suspected the reason behind it, but wasn’t sure if she could muster up enough emotion to care. As he squeezed her arm a little harder than she was used to, unless it was during sex, she tore away from him and backed into the railing of the stairs behind her.

  “What the hell is your problem?” she asked. Despite knowing the answer, she wanted to hear the words come straight from his mouth.

  “What the hell is yours, Nik?” He threw his arms out to either side and bent his face down to meet hers. His cheeks flushed as rage surged through him. “Do you think you can just go around slapping my wife in public like that?”

  “She told you.”

  “Of course she told me,” he said. “What the hell were you thinking going to see her in the first place? Calling her up for a meeting in the park? Her number is listed in the employee handbook as an emergency contact only. It was in case you couldn’t get in touch with me for any reason at work. It wasn’t for you to use so that you could go around attacking my wife in front of a bunch of strangers on a Thursday morning in Central Park!”

  “First of all, this is a well off neighborhood, meaning that the people around here are fast to call the police if your voice hits higher than the octave of a pigeon or lower than a baritone. Second, I needed to ask her a few questions about something--”

  “Questions like what?” he snapped.

  “They don’t really matter all that much now, do they?”

  “The hell they don’t! I know that the shit between all of us is complicated as hell, but it doesn’t give you license to go around contacting Melanie whenever you see fit. In fact, you shouldn’t be going anywhere near her right now, and that includes The Bean.”

  “You’re baring me from my own place of business now? You can’t do that.”

  “I can and I will as the owner. Besides you haven’t been to work there in a month, Nicole. The only reason I still bother to keep you on the payroll is because of our relationship and the fact that this acting thing might in fact blow up in your face as you always feared.”

  Stunned at his apparent carelessness and abrasive tone, she stepped back and bobbed her head. “Muchas gracias por el aliento,” she said.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her, though she wasn’t the least bit convinced by the immediate sound of remorse. “I didn’t mean to put it like that – I was out of line. You know that I’ve always been your biggest champion about this and no one is more proud of you getting top billing in this play than I am. But truth be told, this shit today has me feeling a little more fired up than normal, and it’s not making me feel all that great about us.”

  “Fácilmente podría decir lo mismo,” she muttered. “In fact, what ‘us’ are you even referring to? I’m starting to get a little mixed up – is it me and you? You and Melanie? Me and her, all three of us? Which is it -- ?”

  “Nik,” he blurted in a harsh tone. “Melanie and I haven’t even signed the papers yet--”

  “Which is evident by the fact that you continue to refer to her as your WIFE.”

  “Because in the eyes of the law, that’s what she is, which is why the shit that you pulled with her today could easily cost me time with my kids if she chooses to have it documented by her attorneys! How the hell do you think that’s going to look in court and to the judge when he reads that my mistress sought out my wife and attacked her in a public park over some shit that could have -- ?”

  “Mistress?” She angrily snatched her keys from her purse and pointed them toward his face. He jumped back. “Are we really back to that again, after EVERYTHING?”

  Realizing his choice of words, Oscar suddenly became apologetic and reached out his hand to touch her face. “Nik--”

  “No!” She dodged her head from one side to the other, avoiding him. “Let’s just get this straight – let ME get this straight since I’m still the only one who seems to be in a state of confusion.”

  “Nicole--”

  “Shut up!” she screamed. “Melanie is still your wife, not just on paper but in actuality. And I’m still the slut who keeps your bed warm at night. The one you choose to see when no one else is around, which means you knew the moment you showed up here that William was gone, just like before. And just like before, we are still a fucking secret. And we’ll continue to be a fucking secret, which means that even after EVERTHING, AGAIN” – she waved her arm back and forth across her chest – “absolutely NOTHING! NOTHING! has changed. You came here with promise after promise after fucking promise just like you did before and I believed you, JUST like I did before and I fucked you, I fucked you good and hard and long MORE than I EVER did before. But this time it was inside of a house that I share with a man who is proud to be seen with me, who is proud to love me out in the open and show me off and introduce me to his friends and his hija, aye Dios Mio, his hija. And even with all of that, ALL of it, I am still the idiota who would darlo todo en dos segundos because of how much I am still in love with you, a man who will never, EVER have me as anything more than a quick fuck in the dark.”

  “None of that is true, Nik.”

  “EVERY piece of it is true, Oscar. Every. Single. Piece has been true since the very beginning of this. And I realize now that they are the only truths we will ever have.” She tightened her fingers around the keys and turned to the stairs.

  But he grabbed onto her arm and tried pulling her back. “Nicole--”

  “Dejar ir de mi brazo, ahora.” Her tone was stern, serious. Oscar tried to look down into her eyes, but she refused to move any part of her body until he released her.

  “Those are not the only truths we have,” he said, keeping his hand around her. “The moment we got back from the Hamptons, I ended things with Melanie, just as I said.”

  “And yet here you are coming to yell at me about her.”

  “What the hell was I supposed to do – what would you have expected me to do? Let it slide? Have your back in slapping her when she didn’t deserve it? I may be in love with you, and you may not believe it beneath all of the anger right now, but I am, more than I’ve ever been in love with any woman I’ve ever been with before in my life. And I may want to spend the rest of that life with you. But no matter what happens with us, or when, because it will, Melanie is still the mother of my children. No matter what the circumstances are between all of us, you are going to have to respect her as such. That’s the bottom line.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  He looked away from her for a few seconds and allowed his eyes to close. What the hell had all of this become? And would the pain of it ever stop?

  Shaking his head, Oscar was only determined to know what thing from her now.

  “Then what the fuck are we doing?”

  “I have been asking myself that very same question,” she said, her lip quivering as she tried her damnedest not to shed a single tear in front of him, “since the exact second that we met. And I still don’t know. What’s more is that I’m starting to b
elieve that none of it was ever worth it.”

  Oscar didn’t want to admit that he was beginning to wonder, and fear the same.

  “What the hell is going on here?” a deep, guttural voice suddenly boomed from behind Nikki.

  Oscar lifted his eyes first. Nikki turned to the side, instantly recognizing the voice of the man who spoke.

  William stood just a few feet away with his daughter at his side. She was eating from a bag of candy as he stood glaring at the two of them, unsure of who to be angrier with or suspicious of more, until he turned his attention directly down to Oscar’s hand, which still seemed to have a tight as hell grip around Nikki’s arm.

  His feet shuffled across the concrete and as he moved closer, Oscar released Nikki’s arm and stepped back.

  After adjusting her blouse and running her hand across her face a few times to relieve it of the flushed expression she felt rising in her cheeks, Nikki spun around quick and smiled at William and Corrinne.

  “Hey, you guys,” she said.

  Corrinne sucked down on her candy and rolled her eyes at Nikki before muttering a quick ‘Hi’, but the young girl was the least of her concern.

  Timidly, she walked up to William and placed a loving hand on his shoulder. She could feel the heat rising from his skin as his anger grew second by second the longer Oscar stood across from him, guarded and unmoving.

  Gently shoving Nikki back and leaning down into Corrinne’s ear, William gave her the keys to the house and asked her to go inside and wait while the adults had a discussion he didn’t believe she needed to have any part of. She snatched his keys as fast as she could and dodged around Oscar to run up the stairs.

  William kept an eye on that door until it closed, then gradually moved around Nikki, who tried holding him back by wrapping her fingers around the edge of his shirt, and headed straight for Oscar. He looked him up and down a few good times and then smiled, though genuine isn’t exactly what Oscar would have described the very second he saw it.

  “Are you lost?” he asked. William waited a few seconds for Oscar to answer. When he didn’t, William bent over to his side and leaned his head, then quickly stood returned his body to normal. “I asked you a question.”

  “I’m not lost,” Oscar finally replied, glancing over at Nikki. William noticed, but refused to acknowledge it. “I just needed to talk to Nikki about something regarding The Bean, that’s all.”

  “Now see.” He dropped his hands in his pockets and laughed. “I don’t exactly buy that. Because she doesn’t work for you anymore.”

  “She’s still on the payroll--”

  “It won’t last,” William replied, purposely cutting him off. “Not with her being such a hot commodity now. So maybe you should look into hiring other people to work for you instead of one at a time. Or maybe that’s something you and your wife can decide together for your business. Because you’re still married right?”

  “In name,” said Oscar. He glanced back at Nikki again, hoping for a reaction to his words. “For now.”

  “Well for now you should probably go and see about her, right? And your kids. Two, right?” he asked. Oscar slowly nodded his head. “And when you’re on the way there, I want you to think real hard about showing up here again and then realize that if you do, I may not be as pleasant next time.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “I don’t…” William opened his hands and laughed. “I don’t threaten people, Oscar. I’m not a thug in a business suit. I can be if the time ever calls for it, but it’s not generally who I am. I just want to let you know that I don’t appreciate you coming to my house unannounced. It’s like the few times you’ve called here in the past. I’m just not feeling it as being appropriate. So why don’t you just do us both a favor and keep yourself away from here. Alright?”

  Oscar peeked over William’s shoulder to glance back at Nikki one last time. It was as if he was asking her with his eyes if that was what she wanted to. He couldn’t get a definitive answer.

  By now, William had had enough of the both of them.

  He waved his hand to capture Oscar’s attention and took another step closer. “Don’t look at her again, alright? I’m certain you got enough of that before I showed up. So just turn around and walk away.”

  They stood staring at one another for a few minutes like two cowboys ready for battle just outside the Ok Corral. Oscar broke away first, never looking at Nikki again as he turned on his heel and paced down the sidewalk.

  William followed for a few steps to make sure he had no intention of turning around, then turned to Nikki as she tried easing toward the steps.

  “What the hell was he doing here?” he asked.

  She raised her hand, then dropped it down to the railing. “Like he said, he came to ask me about work.”

  “You don’t work for him anymore,” he said. “When the hell is this shit going to stop?”

  As he whizzed past her and into the house to join his daughter, Nikki remained on the stoop, leaning over the railing and watching Oscar as he continued to move further and further down the street. Never once did he look back at her; even as she willed him to, he never budged.

  “When is it going to stop?” she asked herself. “His guess is as good as mine.”

  As soon as he was gone from sight, she turned to the door and prepared herself for whatever the hell William was sure to throw at her the moment she was inside.

  Part Twenty-Four

  “It must be your lucky day,” Officer Joe bellowed to Nathan as he reentered the room, jingling his keys with one hand while keeping a grip on that club with the other.

  Nathan stood by the window wiping the dried blood from beneath his nose and around his mouth and coughed. "And why the hell is that?"

  "Two people aching to see you in less than twenty-four hours and both paying good money to make it happen. That being said, the visitors who come after five are always more charming than those who show up before 10am."

  Nathan made a face, confused as to what the hell was even being said, and glanced over his shoulder. "What?"

  "What I'm saying is that you've got another visitor, kid," said Officer Joe. "And this is one I think you might actually want to see."

  Nathan turned as soon as Officer Joe stepped aside and allowed Vanessa to ease into the room in front of him.

  After getting a good look at Nathan, as much as she could see beneath the dim lighting, and realizing he was alert enough to talk and move, Vanessa give the officer a quick nod, indicating that she wished for them to be left alone. He eyed Nathan one last time before backing out of the room and closing the door.

  With her hands draping either side of her waist, Vanessa looked around the dingy grey room and coughed a few times as dust from the ceiling floated down in front of her face. “So this is where they keep you,” she said, her eyes roaming from one side of the cell to the other.

  Nathan’s eyes followed hers, but he had yet to take a single step forward. He wanted her to see his face, to see ... damage Maurice had caused earlier during his own 'visit'. At the same time, he wondered what the hell good it would do in letting her know. It wasn't as if she was going to do much about it. Hell, had she been there to see the whole thing, Nathan was convinced she would've cheered Maurice on -- which is what she was probably doing internally last night right before calling the cops -- and maybe even encouraged him to do a little further.

  He sighed heavily and wiped his face again, and spit on the floor as more dried blood from his nose started draining down the back of his throat.

  “It's like being an animal inside a cage," he told her. "I’m guessing from the wide eyes and the fact that you are so determined not to touch a damn thing inside of here that the juvenile hall you were sent to back then looked nothing like this?”

  “That place was a five-star luxury hotel compared to this shit hole. On par with the Waldorf. Not to mention, we weren’t stuck in rooms by ourselves and locked in cages like walking infections or
open wounds, which seemed to work out better for some than others. But I guess this is why you didn’t know Mo had already gotten out this morning.”

  Nathan thought about responding to that, but couldn’t bring himself to say something that wouldn’t piss her the hell off, and more than likely send her walking right out of that building with his wallet still somewhere deep inside one of those pockets. His eyes were like laser beams as he visually searched her pants and tried picking out where it sat.

  Vanessa didn't seem to notice his roaming eyes and moved closer to the cage. She rested her hands between the bars and kicked one leg behind her while using the other to balance forward.

  “I know that despite you wanting me down here to help and get you out, that you’re probably pissed at me just like he was. Even though neither one of you really have a right to be mad at me for any reason considering I’m the one who had shit to clean up as a result of your ongoing stupidity.”

  “Yeah." He gulped and looked to the floor. "I'm sorry for all of that shit, V. He pissed me the fuck off, but I didn't mean to fuck up your house as a result of that. And I’m willing to pay for my half of the damage."

  “Oh, I already know that. The few hundreds I found in your wallet that won’t be used for your bail are going to get me a new chair, a coatrack and maybe even a new couch for my office, just because I muthafuckin' can.”

  He scrunched his brows and took a few steps forward, standing directly beneath the only light in the cell.

  When Vanessa got a better look at his face, she gasped, horrified, and covered a hand over her mouth.

  A large bruise covered nearly the entire right half of his face, his nose was even more swollen than it was the night before and the left side of his mouth looked to have a variation of cuts and bruises.

  “What the fuck happened to your face?” she asked.

  “You were there last night, V. You saw what happened. It’s not as if Maurice’s looks any better.”