Best Dressed Lie (Keisha Jackson)

by Batiste, Kimberly

  “You haven’t changed,” she said breathlessly.

  “Since it’s my sister, I don’t want your dirty money. You

  sick bastard!” She was crouched on the floor trying to catch

  her breath.

  “How much?! God damn it,” he said in rage.

  “You are pathetic. What about your daughter? She needs

  you. You’d rather pay me off to save your phony-ass life.” “What daughter? I have one child and she’s not here yet.”

  There was a malicious look on his face.

  She started shaking her head left to right in disbelief and

  her eyes teared up. “Wow. “What did I ever do to you? What did I ever do to cause this hate in your heart towards your only daughter? We’ve been through hell since you left us. Do you even care about your daughter! She’s nine years old for

  goodness sake.”

  “Listen; don’t think your tears are going to…”

  She interjected in a tearful voice, “She was raped for goodness

  sake! No one was there to protect her. Instead, I was out

  tricking for you! Sleeping with old men to get money so you

  could be successful, sleeping with dirty old men to help get

  you to the top! You left us and I will never forget that, ever!” A door slammed. Bill was livid. The thought of someone

  ease dropping petrified him. “Did you bring someone with

  you?” He slowly moved towards the door. He tiptoed towards

  the door. He stopped at the door then swiftly looked back

  towards her and whispered, “Did you”

  “No,” she shouted.

  Bill hurriedly opened the door but no one was there. “Someone was here! Someone was here and I think I know

  who it was,” he said, holding a pen with his company logo

  imprinted. “I need to go to the hospital,” she yelled, startling

  Bill. “I need to go to the hospital now!”

  He moved towards her and shouted, “Shut the fuck up!

  You are not going to destroy my life with your lies and

  manipulative ways! I’ll kill you before I let you do that. All of a

  sudden you’re in pain?”

  “It’s my kidneys and I need to go the hospital. For once in

  your life, help me. My child needs me, I can’t die here !” He laughed. “That’s great news; at least I wouldn’t have to

  worry about you, now would I? Get your shit and let’s go! I’m

  dropping you off at the nearest hospital. I will not carry your

  ass. You got two feet use them.”

  The woman had been on dialysis for 6 months. Her

  kidneys were failing. The only reason she agreed to meet her

  sister was that she needs a kidney transplant. She knew that it

  was a possibility she would be a match, if DNA turned out to

  be true.

  “I can’t. I’m too weak to walk. Call an ambulance !” “For what? So they can air it on the news? Hell no. Get

  your ass up or I’m leaving you here!”

  Bill was enraged. She was the missing pieces to Keisha’s

  puzzle and a nightmare that would destroy her life. This

  woman was going to stop at nothing. Although she was in

  pain, she wanted revenge on Bill and the first steps of her plan

  succeeded.

  Bill finally came to the conclusion that he had to go ahead

  and get it over with. Keisha was blowing his phone up and

  this woman wasn’t budging unless he helped her to the car.

  “Get up! Get your ass up!” he shouted.

  “I’m trying to get up! Stop being a little bitch and grab my

  hand, Bill. I need your help getting up!”

  He grabbed her hand and forcefully yanked her up. He

  nearly pulled her should out of its socket. ”Ouch! That hurt.” “You need to…”

  Before he could finish his sentence, she fainted. ”Damn

  it!” At that moment, hatred got the best of Bill. He felt like

  dumping her body at the nearest dumpster.

  SEVENTEEN

  I was impatiently waiting for Bill at the hospital. I called his phone numerous times and he didn’t answer. “Where are you Bill?” I asked myself.

  “Keisha!” Amy shouted, bursting through the curtains that separated my cubicle from the other patients.

  “Oh my goodness, Amy you scared me! What’s wrong?”

  “I thought you were in labor!” she said, passing my sweater to me.

  “Did you bump into Bill?”

  Amy hesitated. “It was dark and the sweater was lying on the floor as soon as I opened the door. If he was there, I didn’t see him.”

  “Well, he’s not answering the phone. I’m getting worried. This is not like Bill. He would never ignore my call. Do you think he’s hurt or something?” I said, tearing up.

  “No he’s fine Keisha, don’t stress yourself out. He’ll be here, be patient. Okay?”

  There was a discreet knock on the door. “It’s him.” I exclaimed excitedly.

  “Ms. Jackson, the doctor is discharging you tonight. You’ve only dilated two centimeters. We’re getting your discharge papers together. Before you leave he also has some important blood work results to give you,” the nurse said.

  I was upset when the knock on the door wasn’t Bill. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t here. What could he possibly be doing that was more important than answering my call? I’m sure he got the numerous messaged I left on his voicemail.

  “Thank you, nurse. Amy, will you take me home?” I sobbed.

  “Sure, I’ll take you home. I’m going to pull my car around to the front entrance.”

  “Okay,” I said, flatly.

  Amy rushed down stairs. She was almost out the front entrance when she noticed Bill’s car pulling up. She slowly walked over to the car. She snatched the door open and the other woman nearly fell out. “Bill! Have you lost your damn mind?”

  “What was I supposed to do with her? She’s up to her nogood ways again. She showed up…”

  “Spare me the details, I was there. I heard every word.”

  “Amy, please tell me you didn’t mention any of this to Keisha!”

  “Why would I?” she said. “Look, you need to get it together. I can’t keep digging you out of every hole you fall in. I like Keisha a lot and it hurts me to my heart to keep this from her!”

  Bill grabbed Amy’s face and forced her to kiss him. “Thank you, I owe you. Just like ole times. We were a great team,” he said, caressing her face. She slapped his hand away. “You’re pathetic! Get her checked in and hurry up because Keisha is on her way down! Did she bring that kid?”

  “I don’t know where she left the kid and don’t care. I need to get her out of sight.”

  Bill threw her arm around his neck and led the way to the check-in counter. The woman was going in and out of consciousness. She was moaning and groaning, “It hurts so badly.”

  “Sir… Do you need a wheelchair?” the receptionist rushed over. The woman was holding her side and her face was a mask of pain.

  Bill did not want to be involved so he lied to the receptionist, “Yeah, I found her on the side of the road. She told me she had pain on her left side.”

  “Nurse!” the receptionist yelled.

  “Does she have any identification?” she asked Bill. “I have her purse. I’ll see if she has anything in there.”

  Bill searched through her purse to see if she had a driver’s license. “Here,” he said handing it over to the lady. The receptionist took the ID and the nurse sat her in the wheel chair. “What’s her complaint?” the nurse asked while she rolled her towards the back.

  “She has pain on her left side.”

  “I need an armband for her, quickly!”

  The receptionist hurriedly keyed in some of her information. The rest of it populat
ed without any further input. “She’s on the transplant list,” She said.

  Bill heard the receptionist and asked, “Did you say transplant?”

  “Actually it’s against hospital policy to give out any information. I’m sorry Mister….”

  He hesitated, “Bill…”

  “We will try our best to find her relatives. Looks like she has some contacts in her file. Is this all her personal belongings?” she said, holding the woman’s purse.

  “Yes. That’s all she had with her when I found her,” he lied.

  “Okay. Thank you Mister Bill. We’ll handle it from here.”

  Bill walked off headed to the door. He heard Keisha call his name. He didn’t know if she knew he was there or what he was up to with the woman. He turned around and played it off. “Baby, they got me running all over the hospital looking for you.”

  Amy was standing beside her giving Bill the side eye. “It was a false alarm.” She smiled, reaching for a hug.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t make it in time. I really need to get my phone checked. The battery can’t seem to hold any charge to it,” he said, looking at Amy as he hugged Keisha.

  “I’m sorry for yelling at you. Promise me we’ll never fight again. All that matters is you’re here and I love you.”

  He kissed her cheek, leaned towards Amy, and said, “Thank you for caring for my wife. You’re always there at the right time. Thanks for being a great friend.”

  She forced a smile, “My pleasure. I’ll always be there.” Once they got me in the car and situated, Amy got in her car and drove off. “I’ll call to check on you later babe.”

  “Okay. Thanks Amy. I love you,” I said.

  We were half way home when I realized I forgot my sweater again. “Oh my goodness.”

  “What’s wrong?” Bill asked. “I forgot my sweater. That’s not cool after Amy went out of her way to pick it up from the library for me. Since I’m on the subject, I have something to tell you.”

  Right in the middle of me telling him about the investigator and him finding my sister, Bill interrupted me, “Tell me about it later. My main concern is you and the baby right now. I want you to be stress free and rest. Once I get you settled in, I’ll run back and get the sweater. Okay?” I didn’t like his response, but respected his wishes. I really didn’t feel like discussing the issue anyway.” Thanks baby.”

  We finally arrived home. My ankles were about to give out. My feet swelled and I was miserable. All I could think about was my bed. He helped me out of the car and got me into the house. “Baby I’m so tired, all I want to do is sleep.” I groaned, holding the bottom of my stomach.

  “I know baby.” He put my things on the table and slowly walked me to the bedroom. “Do you need to change or shower?”

  “No, I’m too tired. I just want to lay down.”

  He tucked me in, kissed my forehead and asked, “Do you want me to go back and get the sweater tonight?

  Little did I know, he wasn’t concerned about my sweater, he had another agenda.

  “Sure if you insist. I thought you wanted to wait until tomorrow being I just go home.”

  “I don’t want to take any chances on it getting lost.”

  “Babe, I can buy another sweater.”

  For some odd reason, he was eager to go back to that hospital and leave me. “Fine baby, just hurry back. Okay?”

  He kissed me and headed towards the door. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Call me if you have pain. I think my car charger is in the kitchen drawer.”

  My eyes were shutting as I spoke, “Bye babe. Drive safe.” Bill was not out the door ten minutes before my phone rang. “Babe you just left,” I mumbled into the phone.

  “Miss Jackson…Keisha Jackson?” a woman spoke. I responded in a sleepy tone with my eyes closed, “This is Keisha. Who is this?”

  “I’m calling from Florida Hospital. We have a patient here with you listed as one of her contacts.” Amy was the first person that came to mind because Bill had just left. I sat up quickly, “What happened?!”

  “A patient by the name of Kayla Richards was brought in. She was found on the side of the road by a stranger.”

  “Oh my God, Is she okay? Is her daughter with her?” I was shocked.

  “What was Kayla doing in Florida?” I wondered.

  “I just left there. My fiancé is on his way there. I’m going to try to drive myself out there.”

  “Okay. Thank you,” the nurse replied.

  I didn’t mention the reason I was there because I didn’t feel like hearing any suggestions to stay in bed. Kayla needed someone and I was going to be there for her for the sake of her daughter Kelsey. Poor child had been through hell. It was time for Kayla to put this mess to rest and let her child live a normal life.

  I dialed Bill’s number and like always, it went straight to voicemail. I grabbed my car keys and wobbled out the door. “It’s a good thing I didn’t’ undress.”

  To Be Continued…

  .