“No,” Cassandra corrected him with her hands on her hips. “Here you are. I’m not about to let you drag this family through the mud like this. So you better fix this and fix it quick.”
“What do you want me to do, Cassandra?”
“Settle it out of court.”
“How? They want a million dollars.”
“No. They want five hundred thousand a piece. Offer them a hundred thousand each and settle it.”
“Even if they would take a hundred thousand, where would I get that kind of money? You’ve seen our bank account just as well as I have. We don’t have it.”
Cassandra’s foot started tapping as she stared at JT like he was some slick used car salesman stringing together one lie after the other. “What about the hundred and twenty-five thousand in our savings account?”
Now it was JT’s turn to look at Cassandra crazy. “You know that money belongs to Lamont. How can you even ask me to spend his money on something like this?”
“You didn’t have a problem spending the money when it was supposed to go to Lamont’s father. Back then you spent it on a house and a car and you are going to stand there and tell me that your wife and children aren’t worth more than a house and a car?”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all, Cassandra. But a man should pay his debts. I owed Jimmy that money and he asked me to give it to his son and that’s what I intend to do.”
“What about the debt you owe your family?”
“I owe you all my loyalty, my commitment and my love.” He walked toward her and attempted to put his arms around her as he said, “But that money isn’t ours. I won’t steal from Lamont.”
She pushed him away from her as she glared at him.
“I need you to be with me on this one, Cassandra.”
She walked over to the bed, pulled the blanket off and threw it at JT. “And I need you to sleep downstairs.”
“Cassandra, be reasonable.”
“I’ve been too reasonable. That’s the problem.” She picked up a glass and threw it at his head.
JT ducked and the glass shattered against the bedroom door. JT’s eyes bucked. “Cassandra!” he said as if he was shocked at her behavior.
She walked over to the mantle to grab hold of the glass picture frame that held their wedding photo and threw that at him as well. He dodged that one also. “I’m going to keep throwing things until I find something to knock you out with. So keep standing in here if you want.” She looked around the room for something else to throw.
“All right, all right. You don’t want me to sleep in here tonight. That’s fine; I’ll go hang out with the kids. Just stop throwing things,” he said as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Cassandra picked up the candy dish off the nightstand and threw it at the door. It crashed and shattered against the door just as the glass had. She sat down on her bed thinking about the fool she had been to let down her guard and trust JT Thomas with her heart again. She looked to heaven and said, “See where all this trusting has gotten me? I’m headed to court and will probably be in every newspaper in the city as the silly wife whose husband can’t keep his pants up.
She had called this morning and cancelled her appointment for Tuesday with Dr. Clarkson. She’d thought that she and JT could work things out without the need of a therapist. But now it looked like she would have to call his secretary and reschedule her appointment. She needed to tell Dr. Clarkson that she had found her anger.
Fifteen
Margie and Diane were seated in comfortable black leather chairs in Luke Watson’s office. Luke had agreed to represent them in their sexual abuse lawsuit against JT and Faith Outreach Church. Margie was fidgety and her hands were shaking. Diane was popping gum and sitting in her chair like a mac.
“So what’s next, Luke?” Diane asked.
Luke Watson looked at the paperwork on his desk before he spoke. “Well, I had the proper documents filed quickly like you asked. Someone at the church should have received them yesterday. I’m still waiting on a response from their attorney.”
“How long is that going to take? I’m not trying to drag this out. I want everyone to know all about JT Thomas’ womanizing right now,” Diane said with an emphasis on the words ‘right now’.
“These things take time, Mrs. Benson,” Luke said.
“Why? When you file a lawsuit don’t you get a court date?”
“Yes, we’ll get a court date, but there’s a lot we need to cover before we ever step into court. And I’ll need the response back from Faith Outreach’s attorney so that we’ll know what their defense will be.”
“JT has no defense. He’s a mangy dog and he likes sex. That’s it, end of story,” Diane said.
“That may very well be the case, but I guarantee you the response will not say anything like that. And you need to remember we have alleged that Faith Outreach is just as culpable as JT because they allowed his behavior. They may have a very different take on that, and we need to see what they are going to say,” Luke tried to explain.
“Whatever,” Diane said as she waved her hand in the air as if dismissing Luke’s comment. “I don’t see why we just can’t contact every television station in Cleveland and tell them all about what JT did to us.”
Margie had been quietly listening to the back and forth exchange between Diane and Mr. Watson. But when Diane mentioned contacting the television stations, she raised her hand as if she were in school and needed permission to speak.
Luke turned to Margie. “You have something you want to say?”
Margie cleared her throat and nervously said, “I-I didn’t agree to go on television. I want this handled as quietly as possible.”
Diane swiveled around in her seat. “Margie, now you need to stop being a doormat. You were misused by that man more than anyone else. You should be thrilled about having him exposed for the devil he is.”
“I’m not out for vengeance. I only want justice. I agree that JT owes me, but that’s no reason to drag the man and his family in the gutter.”
“You’re still in love with him.” Diane spat the words at Margie.
“No. I realize that what JT and I had wasn’t love.” She also knew that what she had at home wasn’t much closer to love either. Love was offered to everyone else but her; until she gave birth to Marissa. Thinking of Marissa gave her power. With conviction she told Diane, “I have a child, and I don’t want her hearing about all of this and being ashamed of her mother.”
“Who’s the mama, you or her? I’ve got kids too, and if they ask me anything about my business, I just tell them to stay in a child’s place and get out of my face,” Diane told her with her hands on her hips. “You don’t let kids run your life. That just doesn’t make sense.”
“Actually, Margie makes a very good point. I think both of you ladies need to talk with your children if they are old enough to understand what’s going on and you need to make sure your husbands are okay with how a case like this will affect their lives,” Luke told them.
“I’m not married,” Margie said with the same look of shame she’d carried since she allowed Tony to move in with her. But as she left her attorney’s office she decided that she did owe Tony the courtesy of knowing what a case against JT could mean for them. Yeah, Tony was fine with the lawsuit. He wanted to help her spend the money. But did he want it blasted across every news station in Cleveland that the mother of his child had an affair with a married preacher?
She had signed up with a temp agency and was supposed to go to their offices after the meeting in Luke’s office, but she took a detour home so that she could talk to Tony first. She pulled up in front of their apartment and got out of the car. Tony had been laid off from his job over a year ago and hadn’t been able to find employment since. But what bugged Margie was the fact that she still had to take Marissa to the daycare even though she knew Tony had given up looking for work six months ago. All he did now was sit in the house, finding frien
ds on Myspace and Facebook.
“Tony,” she yelled as she opened the front door. She picked up two glasses and two dirty plates off the coffee table in the living room and took them to the kitchen. He was such a slob. Margie didn’t understand why he couldn’t clean up after himself since he was home all day making the mess in the first place.
As she stood by the sink, she heard whispering in her bedroom, as if Tony was talking to someone, but didn’t want her to hear. She walked out of the kitchen and tried to open her bedroom door. It was locked. “Tony, what’s going on in there?” she asked.
The whispering stopped, but Tony didn’t answer her.
She shook the knob. “Open the door. Who are you talking to in my bedroom?”
Still no response.
“Don’t make me break this door down, Tony.”
She heard someone on the other side of the door whisper, “What are we going to do?”
“You’re going to open this door and get out of my apartment. That’s what you’re going to do,” Margie shouted.
The door opened and Tony stood in front of her, no shirt on; pants unzipped. The woman behind Tony had a yellow button down dress on, but her feet were bare. She had this terrified look on her face as if she were playing a part in the movie Obsessed, and Margie was about to beat her down.
Margie was normally very reserved. She’d been raised in church by a God fearing mother who taught her to wear long dresses and not to cross her legs when seated on the front row. She’d stopped wearing long dresses when she became an unwed mother and she’d not only not crossed her legs on the front pew, she’d slept with the pastor.
Beyond that, Margie had given up her church, her dignity and her relationship with her mother was now in tatters all for the love of this man standing in front of her with a shoeless woman behind him. So, Margie was about ready to let loose and beat this girl until she never wanted to steal another woman’s man. “You’ve got about five seconds to get out of my apartment,” Margie told the woman.
“Where am I supposed to go?” Tony asked
“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to that thang standing behind you,” Margie said as she reached her arm into her room, trying to grab a hand full of the woman’s long red hair. Tony grabbed her arm as the woman ran past him, picked her shoes up out of the living room and ran out of the front door.
Margie pulled her arm out of Tony’s grasp and said, “It’s going to take you more than five seconds to pack your stuff. But I need you to go also.”
He picked his t-shirt up off the floor and put it on. “What about Marissa? I guess you think you can raise her on your own.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing,” she said as she walked away from her bedroom. She couldn’t inhale the smells that were coming out of that room one second longer, so she sat down in the living room and put her head in her hands. She had loved Tony and had given up everything to be with him. Within the past few months she had come to understand that he didn’t care as deeply for her as she did for him. But she’d never imagined that he would disrespect her by having another woman in the place where she paid all the bills.
“Oh, I don’t help. Is that what you’re trying to say?” Tony spat.
“When’s the last time you paid child support, Tony? And to think, I was nice enough to tell the child support enforcement agency that you lived with me and was helping provide for Marissa so they could stop the child support order.”
He was in the living room standing in front of the couch now. “You weren’t lying. I do live here.”
She looked up at him and said, “Not anymore you don’t. I’m tired, Tony. You won’t get a job. I’m paying all the bills and now I come home and find you sleeping with some woman in my bed!”
“So I don’t help out around here?”
“Are you listening to anything I’ve said? I just caught you with another woman in my bed. Do you really think I care that you do the dishes and take out the trash?” She rolled her eyes and flung her hands in the air. “Just get out.”
“So that’s how it is, huh? You’re getting ready to get all this money because you slept with a married preacher and suddenly you don’t need me around anymore.”
His words stung. Yes, she had indeed gone against all her mother’s teachings and fallen into the arms of a married man. She had hurt Cassandra just as this mystery woman she’d just found in her bedroom had hurt her. Her mother always said, ‘you reap what you sow, little girl. So make sure you sow seeds you want to reap on yourself one day.’ Oh, she was reaping all right. But it wasn’t from the money she was going to get from a lawsuit. Margie was reaping all the wrong she’d done and she didn’t like it one bit.
***
Diane was ticked off by Luke’s suggestion that she discuss this lawsuit with her husband. But as she left her attorney’s office and thought about the fact that Joe was footing the bill for her attorney, she’d thought better of talking things over with him. She still wasn’t going to let him tell her what to do though. What did she care what Joe had a problem with? He should just be glad she was back home and helping him take care of them brats.
She pulled into the parking lot and rolled her eyes as she noted that people still weren’t buying cars. Joe had scrimped and saved in order to buy this car dealership five years ago. Money was flowing into their hands left and right in those days. But when the economy tanked, folks stopped buying cars and Joe had to get a second job. Since he could build a house from scratch, he’d gotten an evening job at Lowe’s in the lumber department. But things were still tight, so Diane was thinking about suggesting that he get another job. Jamaican’s worked a bunch of jobs, why couldn’t he?
Joe was on the show room floor talking to a guy that looked as if he couldn’t count to ten, let alone come up with the ten grand needed to purchase that marked down Capri. She walked over to him and said, “We need to talk.”
Joe had been explaining the features of the car to his customer when Diane approached. He turned to her and said, “Why don’t you wait in my office, honey. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Diane put her hands on her hips; neck bobbed as her eyes bulged out of her head. She just knew this man had lost his mind. Keep her waiting so he could talk to this as-soon-as-my-luck-turns-I’ll-buy-a-car-so-called-customer. “I don’t have all day, Joe.”
“Look, if this is a bad time, I could always just take your business card and get back in touch with you,” the customer said.
“No sir, you came at the right time. I’m sure my wife will give us a few more minutes to discuss your interest in this car.” He turned back to Diane and asked again, “Can you please wait for me in my office?”
Diane huffed as she turned around and walked out of the showroom. She didn’t have time to wait on Joe. Her schedule was just as busy as his. He thought that she didn’t have anything to do just because she worked at home. But housewives were just as busy as working husbands.
As she drove out of the lot, Diane picked up her cell phone and dialed Mattie. “Did my attorney contact you about next week?” she asked as soon as Mattie said hello.
“Who is this?” Mattie asked.
“Don’t play games. You know who you’re talking to.”
“Well, don’t call my house acting so informal. You and I are not best friends. So, you need to identify yourself before asking me questions.”
“O-kay,” Diane said, taking a deep breath and rolling her eyes. “Hello, Mattie, this is Diane. I was calling to find out if my attorney contacted you about the preliminary hearing next week?”
“Ain’t that what you pay him to do?”
“Of course, Mattie, but I forgot to ask him if he’d been able to reach you. You know the Bible says that we should be good stewards. So I’m just trying to handle my business.”
“Don’t that Bible of yours also say treat people how you want to be treated?”
“Yeah, it sure does,” Diane answered, happy that she knew about at least t
wo scriptures.
“Well, I don’t bother you, so don’t bother me.”
Diane rolled her eyes. Why did she have to deal with this old hateful woman? “Look, Mattie, can you just tell me if my attorney contacted you or not?”
“If that’ll get you off my phone, then yeah, he called. And I remembered every lie you asked me to tell, so you don’t have to keep calling here. I told you before; I don’t like you, and the less I speak to you the better.” Mattie hung the phone up in Diane’s ear after saying those sweet words.
Shaking her head at the audacity of the mean old woman she was forced to deal with, Diane put her cell phone back in her purse. She didn’t have time to worry about crazy Mattie, talking about she had asked her to lie. What lie? All she asked Mattie to say was that Cassandra mistreated Lily and JT ignored her. Diane couldn’t imagine Cassandra not mistreating a child that had been forced on her due to her husband’s infidelity. Mattie wanted to play games, and act like her child was too much of an angel to mistreat a child. Hah… whatever. Mattie could believe what she wanted, just as long as she said what Diane had told her to say. She didn’t care and wouldn’t spend another second worrying about Mattie Daniels. Her judge show would be on at two o’clock, and if she rushed home, she would just make it in time to watch that fine Judge Mathis bringing down the gavel.
Sixteen
Cassandra sat across from JT at the dinner table glaring at him. JT had put the kids to bed and slept on the couch the night before because Cassandra refused to come out of the bedroom after their argument. He wished there was something he could do to restore the joy she’d had this weekend. But she was afraid again. He could see it plain as he knew his name, but he was powerless to do anything about it.
“I talked to Lamont today,” JT said, trying to draw Cassandra out.
Stabbing a few string beans with her fork, Cassandra kept her face directed toward her plate as she asked, “Did you ask him if you could borrow that money?”
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