The Pleasure's All Mine

by Naleighna Kai

  Raven’s heart grew heavy. “I can’t talk about that right now.” She wouldn’t mention that she would probably never be able to talk about it. Two of her books were now tied into his success. It’s one of the main reasons that she wanted Ava to stay on the case with Pierce. Ava had her sign the deal, so her ass should be the one to make sure everything came out all right. Plus, she could at least hear some good news about Pierce every now and then.

  “You all are too old for this. I’m tired of you two!” Ava huffed. “Every time I talk to him he asks about you—sometimes in a roundabout way and sometimes flat out.”

  Raven pressed a hand against her chest to quell the pain. “Ava, it won’t work. Stay out of it, okay?”

  “Thanks to you, I’m all up in it!” Ava shouted back. “Sometimes just the mention of your name makes his eyes glaze over. He looks like hell, Raven! And he’s going through it, too. He loves you. It’s in his eyes, in his voice. So suck up all that damn pride and call him!”

  She would certainly love to hear the sound of his deep voice, feel his massive arms around her, bury her head in his chest, and lose herself in his arms. She so needed it right now. Instead, Raven answered her friend’s impassioned plea for her to finally open up with, “My mother left the responsibility of her arrangements to Drew, as well as the insurance to be split between him and the grandchildren. Janetta’s not happy.”

  Ava remained silent for a moment, then asked, “And nothing for you? How do you feel about that?”

  “The money’s not the issue for me—I know why she did that. But saying that only he can handle the arrangements? That’s different matter. I’m pissed.”

  “Maybe she thought it was time for Drew to grow up.”

  Raven hadn’t thought of that. “Sounds like a disaster in the making. They’ll have it so mama will have to paddle her own casket to the funeral.”

  “Stop it!” Ava chided, but joined Raven’s laughter at the visual she provided. “I’ll get on the custody thing right away.”

  “Okay.”

  “You do realize she’s going to fight you on this.”

  “My mother wanted those children safe and well cared for,” Raven responded, pacing in front of the entrance. “Janetta doesn’t give a damn about them. She left Manny in the tub for hours, just so she wouldn’t have to change his diaper. Lazy heifer! On top of that, she had so many men running through her house that they couldn’t find out which one of them molested Kayla at two, and again at four!” Raven paced, trying to calm down. “Take away the money, and let’s see how fast she drops them. They’ve had enough with her promises to get her life straight and come back for them. They deserve better.”

  “Are you going to talk this over with Eric?”

  “I don’t think he’ll have a problem.”

  “But give him the courtesy of expressing his opinion.”

  “We’re talking about Eric,” Raven said dryly, picking up the pace again, making her way to the window to peer in. “Is that ever a problem?”

  “Regardless of how grown up he seems, he’s a kid at heart and an only child. He might resent the intrusion if you don’t ask first.”

  “Oops, gotta go. The home team’s coming back.”

  “Keep your chin up,” Ava quipped.

  “It’s not my chin I’m worried about.”

  “And don’t kill anybody, either.”

  “Can’t promise that.” Raven sprinted to the door. “Bye.”

  As she hung up, then maneuvered into the office, Raven slipped the folded paper into her pocket just before Ms. Sullivan led her sister and brother back into the room.

  Janetta leaned over to whisper to Andrew. His handsomely chiseled features turned to stone before he asked Raven, “How much are you putting in? I need that insurance money for bills.”

  The walls around her expanded, then shrank. Raven looked at him as though she wasn’t quite sure she’d heard correctly. She opened her mouth and closed it again. The sheer greed shook her to the verge of tears. Her sister’s smirk let her know where the idea had come from. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Drew had never had that kind of greed—just an unwillingness to think for himself if his sister was doing all the talking.

  Before Raven could blow up, Ms. Sullivan diplomatically moved between them and pointed to the papers. “Actually, your mother left specific instructions that you alone were to handle this.”

  “Fine, then use the insurance, and she can give me her half in cash.”

  “You do mean one-third, right?” Raven said calmly, crossing one leg over the other as Ms. Sullivan frowned at her brother and sister. “I’ll do it the moment Janetta puts in her portion. Since we’re splitting the bill fairly and all that.”

  Her sister’s lips twisted into a bitter sneer. “You know I’m not rich like you.”

  Another sore point for Janetta and Drew. But she wasn’t rich—well off, maybe, but by modest standards. Eric was the one with the money—his books had outsold hers two to one. Raven turned to her brother. “Mom didn’t leave a will, but it’s clear that she wanted you to be in charge. Your bills didn’t factor into it then, and they shouldn’t now.” Raven stood, smoothed out her pants. “Get it done, people! I have to go.”

  She scooped up a card from the desk, nodded conspiratorially to the funeral director, whisked out of the office and through the glass doors before anger beat down her common sense. Then again, speaking her mind might not be so bad. Now they, too, would know exactly how it felt not to have Mama to protect them anymore.

  Once in the car, Raven whipped out her iPhone and dialed the number on the card. “Ms. Sullivan, please.”

  “She’s with a client right now.”

  “I know. That client is my family. But please do not tell her who’s on the line.”

  Moments later, she heard a curt, “May I help you?”

  “This is Ms. Ripley, and please don’t say my name out loud.”

  “Okaaay…”

  “Please don’t let them penny pinch their way to putting my mother in a pine box. Just give them what you and I spoke about. Take my brother’s five thousand and I’ll put in the rest. But don’t tell them that.”

  “But you can’t—”

  “Yes, I can,” Raven replied. “I’ll even do the programs myself, since I want them in color. You can still charge him for them, then shift those funds to pay for other costs. It’s just paperwork and money. Please make it happen.”

  Seconds ticked by.

  Raven sighed. “She didn’t say I couldn’t help in other ways.”

  Still no answer.

  Raven changed tactics. “Do you realize how many people are going to be at my mother’s funeral? She was a social butterfly at church, and the turnout’s going to be huge. They all know I have money. When people see her laid out in less than the best, they’re not going to blame me—they’ll blame the funeral home.”

  “Okay, we’ll work it your way,” Ms. Sullivan finally agreed. “Were you always the rebellious one?”

  “I think my mother would have definitely said yes.”

  “And she’d be right. But it’s obvious you loved her.”

  Raven’s heart took a leap in her chest. “Thank you. I’ll call you with my phone numbers after my family leaves.”

  She slipped the phone into her pocket and went straight to her mother’s now-empty house before her sister could ravage the place. With Ava’s help, she quickly typed up a document on her mother’s computer then finished sorting through the rest of the papers.

  Raven had just made the last of several trips to the car when the caustic words, “What the hell are you doing here?” stopped her cold.

  She looked up into Janetta’s beady little eyes. “These are some personal papers I need,” she said, making reference to the documents in her hand. “My original birth certificate, grade school report cards, things like that.”

  “You need to ask us before you do anything here. This house belongs to us. Our daddy bough
t this house. You’re only our half-sister, if even that.”

  “Stop it, Janetta,” Drew growled, throwing his hands up in disgust. “We don’t know that. Mama said we shouldn’t say that to her.”

  “Well, Mama ain’t here, is she? So I can say what the fuck I want. She wasn’t in our house as a baby. Mama transplanted her ass from somewhere. Probably from under a rock,” Janetta shot back.

  “Stop it!” Drew yelled, bearing down on his older sister. “I’m not having it. Not today! Mama’s gone and all you can do is bitch.”

  It seemed strange to hear him speak out on Raven’s behalf. Janetta obviously thought so too, because her eyes blazed with anger.

  But Raven’s heart hurt at hearing those same old words spew from Janetta again. It was said that Jaylon had tried to give Raven away at birth, didn’t even want to leave the hospital with her. A neighbor took care of Raven for the first eighteen months and it would have continued that way until Anita came into the picture. Only then had Jaylon felt shamed that she had abandoned her beautiful little daughter. She brought Raven home, but by then the damage had been done. Janetta and Drew would never accept Raven as their true sister, no matter that she actually was.

  Raven held back tears as she gathered up the last of her things, looked around the house that she had spent sixteen long years growing up in, realizing that it would probably be the last time she’d set foot inside.

  She already had the things she wanted packed in the trunk of the car. Since Ms. Henry couldn’t stand Janetta’s thieving behind either, Raven had moved the gifts that were too large for the trunk to Ms. Henry’s house.

  During her scavenger hunt, Raven had found Kayla and Manny’s school and medical records, a certificate from the Governor of Illinois citing her mother’s thirty years of service to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, as well as her mother’s school records and birth certificate—all things that could never be replaced. They were now safely tucked away in her car, along with her pictures, the clothes she had purchased for her mother that she wanted to give to a women’s shelter, as well as her aunt’s cookware and television and Uncle Ted’s toolbox. She would make sure everything was returned to its rightful owner.

  “I want that,” Janetta demanded, pointing at the dress in Raven’s arm, which still carried the price tag.

  It took every effort not to slap the woman silly. “I’m dropping this at the funeral home.”

  “You can buy her something else,” she said, grabbing the hemline of the dress.

  Raven took a deep breath. If she’d moved a little faster getting things done she wouldn’t be caught in the coming bitch storm. But once she had started, she’d kept finding new things she needed to protect. And she’d had to make a quick run to the currency exchange to get that release notarized. The dress in her arms was actually covering the more important documents in her hand: court papers awarding her mother custody of the children because of Janetta’s incompetence and negligence. Those documents and the supporting evidence alone should be enough for Ava to do her work.

  Janetta moved back as Drew followed, just as he’d done when they were younger—rarely did he stand up for Raven when his “real” sister was involved.

  “She loved this, and I bought it for her,” Raven said, barely keeping her disgust in check. “And like I said, I’m taking this to Ms. Sullivan. Get in my way and you’ll know exactly how gentle Maurice was with you.” Raven paused for effect. “Hot water anyone?”

  Janetta winced.

  Raven strolled toward the open door when Janetta grabbed the dress again. Raven went suddenly still. All her life she’d had to fight these two for her mother’s love while taking the snide remarks about her mysterious parentage. She’d be damned if she’d have to fight for this—a dress she’d purchased for their mother. “Janetta, get your grubby hands off before I show you how low I can go,” she said in a deadly tone, her eyes narrowed at her sister. “I might talk proper and have more class, but I was raised right here in Jeffery Manor just like you. I will grease up and whip your ass.”

  Slowly, cautiously, Janetta dropped her hands.

  Raven placed items from her mother’s purse into her brother’s hand. “Here’s the house key. The van keys are also on that ring. They’re all yours now. Remember how much stuff you have upstairs before you let too many people have access to the house. There’s about, what? Ten thousand music albums? Most of them are collectors’ items.” She looked at both of them. “I don’t want anything else. And this sheet of paper right her says exactly that.”

  She gave each one of them a copy of the document Ava had helped her put together—a release from any interest in her mother’s estate. Both of them scanned it quickly, as she had expected, signed it and gave it back.

  As Raven walked out the door, her brother said, “I’ll call you later. We’ve still got things to pay for.”

  “Has the funeral been covered?”

  He looked over at Janetta and shook his head.

  “Well, my dear boy, seems like you’ve got work to do.”

  “And you’re just gonna leave it like that?” he hollered after her.

  “She can help you,” Raven said calmly, pointing at Janetta. “You’ve always listened to her. Don’t change on my account.”

  “But that will take all the insurance money.”

  “As well it should,” she said with a wink as she opened the car’s door. “There’s always the pension. Don’t forget that.”

  Raven peeled out of the driveway and hightailed it to her bank.

  One of the keys she had taken was to Jaylon’s safe deposit box.

  Twenty-Eight

  Raven pulled up to Royal Bank, showed her identification and was shortly escorted shown downstairs. Inside the box, she found her baby pictures, another birth certificate—which differed from the one she had in the car—a letter addressed to Eric, and others to her brother, niece, nephew, Lorrie and Anita, Janetta, but no letter for Raven. She tried to ignore the small stab of disappointment. There was a locket with a picture of Raven inside, wearing long ponytails and a toothless smile. Underneath lay the jewelry that Raven had bought her mother for every birthday for the last five years. Some of it her mother had never worn. Those pieces would go to Kayla one day.

  Earlier at the house she had found a large silver box that contained every card and letter Raven had sent from college, along with every newspaper clipping from Raven Armand’s career, the first edition of each of her books, autographed specifically for Jaylon Ripley. But here, inside the steel box in her hands, she found a note scribbled in her mother’s longhand under Raven’s author photo: My baby girl’s a star!!! I knew she would make it. She was always the strongest one. The most beautiful and the most loving.

  Raven put a hand over her mouth to muffle her sob. That little note was better than any letter! She sat that way for nearly an hour reading it over and over. Her mother had thought she was strong. And beautiful. And loving. She could not stop crying at that thought.

  She was glad she had hounded her mother to let her procure this box for her valuables—especially since Janetta was light with her fingers. Raven was the only other person who had access. She would never know that most of what Jaylon considered valuable had to do with Raven alone.

  After searching through some of the papers at the house, she found the house on Merrion Avenue was near foreclosure. Mama had refinanced it with an aggressive second-rate mortgage company that had a reputation for taking a house rather than working with the owner when the going got tough. Raven flipped through the letters—the nastygrams, as Ava called them—from bill collectors threatening to do one thing or another. With all this stress, plus a runaway grandchild and an addict daughter, her mother’s last months must have been hell.

  Evidently, Jaylon hadn’t adjusted to living on her pension, half of what she had been making when she worked for the State of Illinois. Raven had sent money every month, and now she wondered why her mother hadn’t tol
d her she needed more.

  Right now, Jaylon Ripley was probably in shock—and possibly giving someone in heaven pure hell over her early departure. All Raven knew was, with no will left here on earth and with her sister and brother’s tight bond, she had best protect Manny and Kayla’s interests, and divorce herself from any confrontation. Now, Drew and Janetta had all legal rights to any property and possessions of her mother’s that were still in the house. Ava would file the document in court, opening a probate case, so Drew and Janetta alone could settle their mother’s affairs.

  She shuffled through some more paperwork, and then she saw them—pictures of a man with ivory skin, wavy hair, lips just like hers, and brilliant, dark brown eyes. He was handsome and obviously Latino. She had never seen him before. Her fingers trembled as she thumbed through the rest of the photos. She found one of her mother smiling up at the man, looking as if she were the happiest woman in the world. She had never looked at James Ripley that way. Or Anita. Was this her father?

  Raven flipped the picture over, saw the name Roberto Cordoso, and the date, then counted back to the time when she would have been conceived. The timing would have been about right. This had to be her father. What had happened to him? If he loved Jaylon so much, why didn’t he stay? Was this why James had been so angry with Jaylon all this time, because Jaylon had loved anybody, everybody, but him? She had even given that love to a woman—which had to punch old James in the gut.

  Raven took everything except the letters to the others—and closed the box. She’d give the key to Drew. Later she’d put the jewelry and other important items into two safe deposit boxes in her own bank, with Manny and Kayla as the co-owners. When she got home, she gave Eric his letter and watched as he read the first few words. Soon he blinked to clear his vision. He failed in an effort to smile. “She loved me, too.”