CHAPTER 25
Jada
I let my son leave the hospital, thankful all the reporters had followed him. I didn’t try stopping or calling Darius. I had to tend to my unfinished business with Grant and meet Bambi at CUT in Beverly Hills before visiting Fancy. For me, Ashlee’s timing was perfect. For Darius too but he didn’t realize it.
The lack of my ability to control Grant’s actions and reactions made me lose self-control. Irrespective of my words, the outcome remained unchanged. I didn’t get what I wanted. I got the truth. But I wasn’t ready to deal with my truth. I expected Grant to tell me what I deserved to hear: “Baby, I love you. Regardless if Honey’s babies are mine or not, nothing between us will change.” That was my wishful thinking.
Telling my son, “Darius, don’t,” was my way of protecting Grant. Saying, “He’s not worth it,” was my way of degrading Grant. I had the right to humiliate Grant but didn’t want my son or anyone else to do so.
I dismissed Darius’s misdirected anger when he’d said, “Maybe you’re the one who’s not worth it,” understanding my son was stressed and hadn’t meant what he’d said.
DJ was fine with Ashlee. Ashlee being crazy didn’t change that fact that she was DJ’s mother. My son hadn’t slept in two days. I accepted his aggression as the result of sleep deprivation. My son had good intentions but he was wrong to confront my man.
I turned to Grant. “You owe me closure. And if you’re smart you won’t end this relationship before finding out if those babies are not yours. ’Cause once I’m gone, don’t expect me to come back.”
Calmly, he said, “You’re free to leave anytime you’d like. You’ve given me back my ring. There’s nothing else you can give me. You’re really too old to behave like your grandson.”
Embarrassed, I scanned the lobby hoping no one had heard his insults. “So now you’re talking down to me?”
“Can dish it but can’t take it? I’m not worth it, remember? Why you wasting our time? If it’ll end this nonsense, I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. Come to the nursery and see my boys. Maybe seeing them will convince you they’re mine,” he said.
My feet wanted to kick Grant, then walk out the hospital. My envy had to see the babies. I stood there like a damn fool but jealousy wouldn’t let me move. What was wrong with me? I’d rather argue with a man who obviously doesn’t want me than love myself and move on.
“Don’t apologize. You said what you meant. Doesn’t mean it’s valid.” I followed him to the ninth floor. The nurse told us the babies were with Honey in room 9109. “Now what?” I asked him.
“You’d better go check on Fancy. I don’t think Honey would like having you in her room. I’ll check on you in a minute.”
“Are you insane? You asked me to come up, now you’re telling me to leave?”
“I didn’t think you’d come. Nor did I know they weren’t in the nursery,” Grant said, walking into the men’s room.
I saw Valentino coming toward me with the twins in his arms. I moved in his direction to get a glimpse of those babies.
A nurse walked up between us and took the babies. “I’ll take them, Mr. James,” she politely said.
“Cool. I’ll pick them up when I come back from grabbing a bite,” Valentino said, getting on the elevator.
Intentionally I blocked her path. I stared into the infants cradled in her arms. It wasn’t her face I had to see. I had to see Honey’s babies’ eyes. “Oh, they’re so adorable,” I said, staring at the boys. Their tiny pupils, little brown irises, button noses, and ruby red lips were too young to tell if they resembled Grant.
“Miss, please,” she said in a muffled sweet soft voice. “I have to keep them away from strangers. H1N1 is everywhere. I have to go.” The face mask covered her nose and mouth. Her fiery red hair was neatly spiraled into a bun. She had gray eyes. Cocoa brown skin with freckles. Wide hips. Flat ass. Her mauve scrubs didn’t have a wrinkle. Her arms were covered with a white long-sleeve shirt that fit snug around her thick wrists. Her shoes were white. But that triple diamond pear-and-heart ring was amazing.
Go where? Something didn’t seem right. One of the boys started crying. The woman rushed to the end of the hall and disappeared beyond the NURSERY sign.
I went to the nursery window waiting for her to put those boys in beds and roll them out alongside the other newborns. When no one was watching, I tiptoed inside the nursery, peeped around. I had to see them one more time before Grant came out of the restroom.
“Excuse, me. But you can’t come in here,” a nurse said.
“Oh, I’m from Child Protective Services.” What in the world made me tell that lie? Maybe secretly I wished I were so I could legally take those innocent little creatures away from that whore. “I was checking to make sure the Hill twins were here. I’ll go get my paperwork out of the car,” I lied again, then left the nursery.
Grant hadn’t come out of the men’s restroom so I went in. I saw his shoes underneath the stall door. “Oh, wee! What you been eating?”
He flushed the toilet, opened the door, then washed his hands. “You.” He laughed, then said, “Why are you still here?”
I didn’t find humor in his response.
He kissed my cheek. “I’ll call you later.” Grant squared his shoulders. I watched my man swagger down the hallway to his Honey.
I wasn’t releasing Grant without a fight. I had a few minutes to spare before meeting Bambi at CUT. I had to look into her eyes when I asked, “What happened to my grandson yesterday?”
I waited until the door to Honey’s room closed, then followed Grant to 9109.
CHAPTER 26
Honey
Valentino was great with the boys.
I appreciated Valentino taking my boys back to the nursery so I could rest. A part of me hoped we’d occasionally get his twins and his older son, Anthony, together with my boys but his wife Summer had moved and no one knew where she was. The last time Valentino called her, the number belonged to someone else. He feared Summer had gone crazy after her twin sister, Sunny, was killed.
My best friend, Sapphire Bleu, who was an undercover cop, had Valentino’s murder charges dropped but none of us knew for sure whether or not Valentino was responsible for Sunny’s death. In my heart, I couldn’t believe he killed Sunny.
I didn’t judge Valentino. What drew us together was we were survivors. I knew firsthand what it was like to take a man’s life. Would kill again if I had to. I closed my eyes. Before the upper lids touched the bottom, I heard, “Hey, Mommy. How are you?”
Grant stood beside my bed, held my hand. “I still wish you would’ve told me.”
I shook my head. “Stop it. Please. I did what was best for me. You were the one who told me don’t call you ever again. I honored your request.”
I’d been a fool so deep in love with Grant I swam beyond the horizon and almost drowned. He was the first and only man I’d given my heart to. I was going under and he refused to toss me a life preserver. What hurt the most was he wasn’t considerate enough to give me back my heart. He dropped my love, stepped on my emotions, walked away, then stole Jada’s heart. I picked up my broken heart almost a year ago. Took me some time to heal but I’m good now. What I didn’t understand was why, when our relationship was over, Grant treated me so heartlessly?
He nodded. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me.”
How happy I’d made him? Was I supposed to be happy now that I’d become a single mother? Was I supposed to be happy because Grant was happy?
“Maybe you can tell me,” Jada said, standing in the doorway.
I’d seen Jada on television sitting in her plush box office suite at Darius’s games. And I’d seen Grant strutting back and forth in Jada’s suite like he owned the team. Jada was more beautiful in person. Her dark skin was flawless. She had beautiful hazel eyes and to say she was fifty, her body was banging, flat stomach, perky tits and all. I could put her on a stroll or two, make a quick five figures. She
was that sexy. But I wasn’t a madam any more. Got out of the business shortly before I’d gotten pregnant.
Grant released my hand. “Don’t come in here like that. You know I love you.”
I wouldn’t readily believe that if I were her. I could tell by the tone of his voice he was lying. I smiled, recalling the times Grant and I shared those words. I also remembered telling him, “Sometimes love isn’t enough.” Like musical chairs, I’d gotten up, and Jada had sat in my seat. Better her than me. Grant taught me never to love a man who didn’t love me first. It was hard for me not to call and tell him I was pregnant with his babies but in my former business, a person’s word was bond.
“I guess her having your babies could be a good thing,” Jada said, standing by the door, inside my room. “You have your sons, we don’t have to adopt, and we’ll have joint custody,” Jada said, as if the decision was hers and as if her bitch ass could rightfully demand to see my boys. Now her ass wasn’t so cute. She was about to get some Flagstaff whup ass. I might be from a small town in Arizona but I’d been around the world twice.
“You will not touch my boys unless I say so,” I told her.
“You, my dear, are an unfit mother. You don’t deserve those boys. Keep it up and I’ll make sure they’re taken away,” she said, excusing herself from my room.
Jada had said some ignorant shit but the bitch wasn’t crazy enough to keep standing in my doorway. Coward.
CHAPTER 27
Honey
I pointed at Grant. “You had better put that bitch in check. She does not know who she’s fucking with. I don’t give a fuck about your marrying her but if either of you touch my boys without my prior permission, I will kill you.”
“Mommy, calm down. She’s upset. She’s not serious,” Grant said, holding my hand again.
I told him, “Let me say, you’ve been put on notice.”
“Honey, you and I were never right for one another but…” He paused, pressing his fingers into his tears, then continued. “Now that you’ve had my boys, I will always have a place in my heart for you. Honey, you have given me the greatest gift a woman can give a man.”
“Yeah, and what if I slam your heart on the hot concrete, then stomp it into the ground? Huh? How would you like that? Don’t try to play me again. Be glad I let you stay for the delivery.”
Grant shook his head.
“Knock, knock,” Sapphire said, walking in with Velvet and lots of flowers. “Grant, close your mouth. Only two things come out of a man’s mouth and that’s burps and lies.”
“Well, I did not die. I had two babies,” I said, laughing. “Y’all making me hurt my stomach.” I loved my girlfriends. Their timing was perfect. Men were unpredictable. My girlfriends were loyal.
“That’s why we brought you two bouquets,” Velvet said. “We know Luke has to have his own everything.”
“And six balloons,” Sapphire said. “You should’ve named one of them Bleu. But I do like the names you picked.”
I frowned, tilted my ear toward the door. “Do I hear Luke crying?”
“Girl, you need some rest. This is a maternity ward. All babies cry,” Sapphire said, sitting on one side of my bed while Velvet sat on the other.
“No seriously. I know his cry. Grant, please. Go check on the boys,” I said to his back. Grant was already on his way out the door. He needed something to do other than listen to my conversation with my girls.
My stomach contracted. “Let me see your ring, girl,” I told Velvet, reaching for her hand. “You think it’s big enough? Sorry about interrupting your proposal while you were onstage at your premiere. Damn! Congratulations are in order. You are one bad bitch.”
Sapphire said, “I second that emotion. I’ve seen her make a full water bottle disappear in her pussy and come out empty.”
Velvet’s smile was wide and bright. “Yeah, I guess stripping had its benefits.”
Sapphire said, “If anyone would’ve bet that the three of us…each of us, would be in happy meaningful relationships, I would have told them they were crazy. I’m married to a wonderful man and both of you are happy and engaged. Honey, when you get settled back in Atlanta, we have to celebrate.”
My engagement to Valentino wasn’t legit. But he was there for me throughout my pregnancy and sometimes that’s all a woman needed from a man—for him to be there. I held their hands, smiled. “I want both of you to be godmothers to my boys.”
“I’ve got Luke. He’s a lot like you,” Sapphire said.
Velvet smiled, then replied, “I guess that means I’ve got London. I’m going to teach him how to act.”
Grant rushed into the room, interrupting our conversation. “Honey, did Valentino take the boys?”
“Yes, to the nursery.” I sat up.
Sapphire and Velvet stood.
Grant shook his head. “The boys are not in the nursery.”
“What! Oh, God. Don’t tell me Jada took my babies for real.” I placed my feet on the floor. The stitches in my uterus hurt so bad I had to sit down.
“Velvet, you stay here with Honey,” Sapphire said. “I’ll find whoever this Jada bitch is.” Grant followed Sapphire.
Velvet held me. I cried until Grant and Sapphire came back to the room with the nurse, no babies. Valentino walked in behind the nurse. “What’s going on?”
The nurse said, “A woman came into the nursery after you left.” She pointed at Valentino. “Said she was with Child Protective Services. We were obligated to…”
Valentino and Sapphire ran out of the room. Grant rushed out too.
“Get out!” I yelled at the nurse.
Velvet sat on the side of my bed facing me. “Luke and London will be back shortly. I’m sure it was a simple mix-up….”
As Velvet continued talking, I got up, gathered my open gown in the back. I held my stomach, dragged my feet two steps from my bed.
Valentino entered my room. “We’re on it, baby.”
A police officer opened the door, then asked, “Honey Thomas?”
“Yes, I’m Honey Thomas. Thank God you’re here. Where are my boys?”
The officer asked, “Do you have knowledge of the whereabouts of Anthony Valentino James?”
My heart dropped to my stomach. My body tensed. I closed my eyes.
Valentino said, “I’m Anthony Valentino James.”
I looked at him, at my BFF, and wanted to cry but I didn’t.
The officer gripped his cuffs, locked Valentino’s hands behind his back, and said, “You’re under arrest for grand theft auto. Anything you say can and will be held against you.”
“Velvet, go find Sapphire!” I cried. All of this was like a living nightmare. “Where are my babies?”
Velvet ran out the door.
I didn’t shed a tear for Valentino. We both had jaded pasts. We knew the lives we’d lived could lead to imprisonment any given moment. I removed Valentino’s ring from my finger. “I’ll give this back to you when you get out. Don’t worry. Sapphire will have you out in no time.”
It was great having an undercover cop as my friend. Sapphire could get anybody out of jail. Grand theft auto was minor in comparison to Sapphire having Valentino’s attempted murder charges dropped.
Valentino stared at the ring he’d given me, then asked, “Lace, why?”
Not responding, I watched the officer escort him out, praying Valentino hadn’t betrayed me. Until they found my boys, everybody was suspect. He was the last one I saw with my babies. Did he know where my boys were? Was he plotting against me with Jada? Was everything Valentino had said and done for me during my pregnancy a damn lie? If he didn’t know where my babies were, was Valentino the kind of man I wanted to raise Luke and London?
We knew Valentino had stolen that car. What I didn’t know was how the police in Los Angeles knew about the car theft in Atlanta. Some hocus-pocus shit was going on. As upset as I was about Valentino, I was furious not knowing where my boys were. Alone in my room, I could not continue to lie
in bed doing nothing but worry. I had to do something. I made it to my door, opened it.
Jada stood in front me, shrugged her shoulders.
The space in front of my eyes faded to black.
Silently I prayed. Brain? Courage? Heart?
I will strangle this bitch if she says one word.
CHAPTER 28
Bambi
Damn, I’m good.
Jada saw me yesterday and didn’t recognize me disguised as a nurse today. I’d pretended as though I was going into the nursery. Quickly, I detoured into the stairway.
Hurrying down the stairs, I stumbled. “Oh, shit.” I fumbled one of the babies like a football, recovered him before his head hit the iron rail. What would I do if one of them were to get hurt or become sick? Well, the Pacific Ocean is part of my backyard. I had no intention of repeating a double homicide. Hopefully for all our sakes, I won’t have them too long. If necessary, I’ll sell them, two for the price of one. I could easily sell twin boys on the black market. Hell, they weren’t my kids. I just wanted Jada’s ass in the hot seat with Grant so she wouldn’t have time to focus on Darius or Fancy.
I turned my back to the Exit door, pressed my butt against the bar, opened the door. The twins were each bundled in beautiful blue blankets. “How cute.” With only their faces exposed, they looked like two pigs in a blanket. I prayed Darius didn’t want any kids. That one he had was more than enough and exactly where he belonged, with his crazy ass mama. I had to make sure DJ stayed with Ashlee but I was positive that kid never wanted to be alone with me again.
One of the babies wailed. I prayed no one heard him. His golden complexion turned beet red. He was kicking and getting on my damn nerves already. “Shut up, you sissy. Toughen up like your brother and shut up all that goddamn crying,” I yelled at him, rushing into the garage. My car was closest to the stairs. I turned my back and confirmed the duct tape I’d placed over the surveillance camera’s dome a few minutes ago was still there.
Darius Jones Page 9
