Don't Tell A Soul

by Tiffany L. Warren

Eva emerges from the building’s side entrance and starts jogging over to my car, waving the whole way. Then she sees the other car in the parking lot. A look of terror comes on her face. She stops in her tracks, spins, and runs back toward the church. Two car doors swing open, and big, very big, men jump out of the car and pursue Eva!

  I don’t know what to do, so I get out of my car and scream at the top of my lungs. Then I call 9-1-1.

  “Help! I’m at New Faith on Kinsman. There are two men trying to attack a girl!”

  I hear Eva scream, and I grab my umbrella from the backseat and run in her direction. One of the men has Eva in a headlock, and the other one kicks her in the stomach. I let out a war cry and charge at one of the men with the end of the umbrella. I make contact with the side of his head and hear something crunch.

  Then everything goes black.

  CHAPTER 35

  EVA

  From her stretcher, Eva looked at the unconscious Yvonne. Roe had sent his goons. Of course he had. It had only been a matter of time until he did, until he got revenge for the whipping Eva had put on him at the strip club. She had expected it to be soon but had hoped none of her new friends would be involved.

  Why did it have to be Yvonne? The one she really cared about?

  Although the other women had been nice to her, none of them had really accepted her like Yvonne had. Yvonne knew the worst about her, but she came back.

  Yvonne didn’t deserve to be punched in the side of the head by that fool Roe’s henchmen. Eva had gotten in a few good licks after he’d attacked Yvonne, but he had subdued her, as well, and had disappeared before the sirens sounded.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Eva asked one of the paramedics that sped by after leaving Yvonne.

  “She’s got a pretty massive concussion, but I think she’ll be fine.”

  Eva sighed and fell back onto the stretcher. She’d been so worried about Yvonne that she hadn’t been paying attention to her own injuries. Something wasn’t right with her abdominal region, but the doctors were going to check her out at the hospital.

  On another stretcher was the goon that Yvonne took out with her umbrella. He had an oxygen mask on his face and looked like he was still unconscious, too. That made Eva smile. Yvonne had been a beast! She’d taken that umbrella and gone straight upside his head. They would laugh about this later, when Yvonne woke up.

  On the ride over to the hospital, Eva heard the paramedic mention something about internal bleeding, but she wasn’t in too much pain.

  “How are you feeling?” one of the paramedics asked.

  “Like somebody beat me up.”

  “Sense of humor, I see. We’re gonna get you all patched up, but hopefully you break up with the guy who did this to you.”

  “He wasn’t my boyfriend.”

  “I’m so sorry. Most of the time when we see this much damage, it’s usually the boyfriend.”

  “Wait. How much damage?”

  “You’ve got at least four broken ribs. Luckily, your lungs weren’t punctured, or any other vital organs, so far as we can tell. And you’re conscious. That’s always a good sign.”

  “Four broken ribs. Y’all gonna fix ’em?”

  “The orthopedic surgeon at the hospital will.”

  “Good, because I don’t think I’m going to be conscious that much longer.”

  Eva went in and out of consciousness for the rest of the ten-minute ride to the hospital. As she drifted in and out of her sleep state, Eva thought of her grandmother, Uncle Parnell, and all the horrible things that had happened to her on every movie set. It was as if she relived every violation that had ever happened to her. Then she thought of Yvonne, who’d come to rescue her, even after she knew who Eva was and what she had done.

  After a few hours she awoke to a nurse standing over her. “Good. You’re awake. Let me take your vital signs.”

  “Am I all right?” Eva asked. She felt like she’d been hit by a semitruck.

  “Yes, ma’am. Your surgery was a success. You’ll probably be leaving tomorrow or the next day, at the latest.”

  Eva was sure that if she had medical insurance, the recovery time would’ve been a couple more days, but she supposed she could take pain medication at home just as well as she could at the hospital.

  In the hallway outside her room were several police officers having a conversation.

  “What’s up with the police?” Eva asked.

  “They’re here to arrest your attacker, I believe.”

  “There were two of them.”

  The nurse shrugged. “The other one must’ve gotten away, then. Was he not injured?”

  Eva remembered one of the dudes jetting as soon as the sirens sounded. Roe was going to be annoyed that his henchmen didn’t finish off the job, but maybe what they had done was enough. Maybe Roe would be satisfied with breaking a bunch of her ribs.

  “How’s my friend? The lady that came in here with me?”

  “She’s fine. Nasty bump on the head, but she’s just fine. She’s got two men out there making a fuss over her.”

  Eva lifted her eyebrows. Two men? Sister Yvonne played the role of the shrinking violet pretty well, but when it came down to it, she was pulling two men?

  Eva laid her head back on the pillow and sighed, wondering if her brand-new friendship with Yvonne would survive this. First, Eva kissed Yvonne; then she got her beat up. That definitely felt like two strikes.

  Eva didn’t know if she could be her own friend after all that! But she hoped deep down inside that Yvonne didn’t hold all this against her, because she sure didn’t know how to live as a saved person.

  All Eva knew about being saved was what her grandmother had preached from her big chair. Holiness or hellfire. She couldn’t use any of that in the real world. She wasn’t even sure her grandmother had any use for it, other than to torture the rest of the family.

  Eva wanted to be grounded in her faith like Yvonne. She wanted to believe that God was going to make everything be okay, even when it looked like everything was a mess. Like Eva’s life.

  Eva touched her bandages and stared at the ceiling. She started crafting yet another apology to Yvonne. She’d give it as soon as she had the chance.

  Eva had a sneaking suspicion that she’d have to lay it on extra thick this time.

  CHAPTER 36

  YVONNE

  I could just kick myself for not changing the emergency contact on my hospital records. I thought I’d handled everything when I got a divorce from Luke, but that was one little detail I forgot. When I opened my eyes and saw that fool sitting in the corner of my room, I almost passed back out.

  “Yvonne, you’re awake,” Luke says.

  I roll my eyes at him and rummage through my purse on the bedside table. I text Kingston, I’m at University Hospital, in the ER. Please come when you can.

  “So you’re just gonna act like I’m not even here?” Luke asks as he strokes his silver goatee. I have never felt more like stabbing someone.

  “Why are you here, Luke?”

  “The hospital called me and said you had me down as an emergency contact. As a minister of God, I couldn’t leave one of His little ones unattended.”

  I narrow my eyes at him and feel a pain shoot through my head. Guess I’m not all the way better yet. I close my eyes and breathe deeply.

  “Are you in pain? Do you want me to call the nurse?” Luke asks.

  “I don’t want you to do anything.” I press the on-call nurse button.

  Kingston texts a response. On my way. You all right?

  Then my phone rings. I knew it would. Kingston and I are too old to be communicating just by text. Our generation likes to hear a person’s voice. I find myself getting angry at Pam and Taylor sometimes, because they like conducting entire conversations by text.

  “Hey.”

  “Yvonne, you sound bad. Are you hurt?” Kingston asks.

  “I have a head injury, but I think I’m going to be all right.”

  I
hear Kingston gasp. “A head injury? Did you fall trying to change a lightbulb or something? You know you can call me whenever you need anything done around the house, right?”

  “It was nothing like that, babe. But please come to the hospital, because I’ll need someone to take me home.”

  Oh no, Luke did not have the audacity to bristle when I said “babe.” He’s got a whole lot of nerve after all the stuff he’s done to me.

  Luke says, “I’ll take you home, Vonne.”

  I stretch out in the bed and snatch the covers all the way up to my chin. Luke sitting here is annoying. Him using my old nickname is infuriating. So I cover the phone with my hand. “Can you leave please?” I ask.

  “Was that a man’s voice?” Kingston asks. “Who is that?”

  I suck my teeth. “The hospital called my ex-husband down here, and he showed up because he’s a man of God.”

  Kingston, I’m sure, can hear every last drop of sarcasm that I give with those words, because he immediately bursts into laughter.

  “Yvonne, don’t commit any felonies,” Kingston says. “I am leaving now, and I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “I can’t wait until you get here.”

  I disconnect the call and roll my eyes at Luke again. “Can you get out of my room please, before I call the hospital security?”

  “So you’ve got a beau, huh? I didn’t think you’d find anyone to fill my shoes.”

  “Oh, please.”

  The on-call nurse peeks her head into the room. “Do you need anything, Mrs. Hastings?”

  I purse my lips together and shake my head. “I am Ms. Hastings, not Mrs.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. The chart said . . . and isn’t this your . . . ?”

  “Ex-husband. Get out, Luke.”

  Luke laughs. “Yvonne, stop acting like this. At least let me keep you company until your beau shows up.”

  I don’t like the way he says “beau,” like it’s an insult. I don’t like him.

  The nurse says, “Ma’am, would you like me to get security?”

  “Come on, Vonne. Let me just talk to you for a second. Then you won’t have to call security. I’ll leave on my own.”

  “Is there anything you can get me for this headache?” I ask the nurse as she’s backing out of the room.

  “The intravenous pain meds must be wearing off. Let me ask the doctor what we can give you besides Tylenol or Motrin.”

  “Thank you.”

  When the nurse leaves, I turn my attention back to Luke. “You’ve got two minutes, because my man is going to be here soon, and I don’t want to subject him to you.”

  “Did you get my invitation?”

  “Yeah, I got it, and you ain’t funny, Luke. You like to get your jollies by mentally torturing people, but I’m serving you notice, devil. You can’t touch me anymore.”

  Luke bursts into laughter. “Devil? Yvonne, it’s been eight years, and you haven’t changed one bit. But I have. I invited you to the wedding because I thought that if you came, then Taylor might come and bring my son. I want him there.”

  “Why don’t you just leave them alone? Spencer and Taylor don’t need you meddling in their lives.”

  “Because Joshua is my son! I know I haven’t done right by him, but I want to. I may have been a womanizer, Yvonne, but I am a good father.”

  “Yeah, well, Joshua’s wanted for a whole lot of things.”

  “And that’s going to change.”

  Luke stands up from his seat and clasps his hands together. Standing there, in his black suit with his minister’s collar, he sure does look the part of an anointed man of God. I know better.

  “There is no way in the world I’d come to your wedding, Luke. You wouldn’t want me there, anyway. I might just stand up and give my testimony.”

  “You could do that. It would be evident to everyone around you how much I’ve changed, no matter how you try to keep me tethered to that old man.”

  “Get out!”

  “You might want to do as the lady wishes.” Kingston steps into my room and closes the door behind him.

  Luke spins and appraises Kingston. Looks him up and down and scoffs. “Vonne, you’re always supposed to upgrade the second time around. Looks like you didn’t get that memo.”

  Kingston chuckles. “She has upgraded. From a cheater and a woman beater to a real man who appreciates a real woman.”

  “A pretty boy with some slick lines,” Luke says. “You should bring him to the wedding. Then you won’t look so pitiful.”

  “Not going to your wedding,” I say.

  “She doesn’t look pitiful at all,” Kingston says. “And she wants you to leave, so this is the last time I’m going to say it.”

  Luke looks Kingston up and down again and laughs. “Well, I would kiss you on the forehead and tell you to get well soon, but that wouldn’t be appropriate with your man here. So I’ll just say, ‘See you next time.’”

  I cross my arms and refuse to answer Luke. He strokes his goatee and chuckles as he walks out of the room. I don’t say that I hate anyone, not anyone, but I have a serious dislike for this man. I think that I need to go back to the prayer closet again if Luke is just going to be showing up all over the place.

  “Kingston, I am so glad you showed up,” I say. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  “I didn’t do anything that hospital security couldn’t have done.”

  I don’t know exactly what Kingston is implying by that statement. “Do you think I wanted him here?”

  “No, not really, but it had to make you feel special that your ex-husband, who is about to remarry, rushed down to the hospital when they called.”

  “I don’t know if he rushed down, but it also didn’t make me feel special. It just made me feel ridiculous for not having named a new emergency contact.”

  Kingston nods slowly, as if convincing himself of my explanation. “He invited you to his wedding?”

  “Yes. He wants me to convince Taylor to come with Joshua, but I don’t want anything to do with it.”

  “Enough about him. How are you feeling? What happened to you?”

  “I went to pick up Eva for breakfast, and there were some men at the church waiting for her outside. They attacked her and started beating on her, so I called nine-one-one, and I hit one of them with my umbrella.”

  Kingston bursts into laughter.

  “What’s funny?” I ask.

  “Your umbrella, Yvonne? Two men are attacking your friend, and that’s your weapon of choice?”

  I narrow my eyes angrily. “Well, look, it’s a big golf umbrella. I hit the guy with the long metal tip on the end. That thing is heavy. I knocked him out, so it must’ve been the right thing.”

  “That was a move of God, girl. That’s like how God let that little stone slay Goliath. Your arm was anointed if you knocked that guy out!”

  As much as my head hurts, this makes me laugh uncontrollably.

  “Let me touch your arm!” Kingston says, and I snatch it away from him. He needs to stop teasing me.

  “Okay, seriously, I’m worried about Eva. What’s going on with her that she’s got goons waiting outside her apartment to beat her up?”

  “Does she owe someone money or something?” Kingston asks. “That sounds like a drug deal gone wrong.”

  “Can I tell you something and you not say anything? I mean nothing!”

  Kingston lifts his eyebrows with interest. “You can tell me anything, and I won’t ever repeat it.”

  “Well, she used to be in X-rated movies, so maybe it has something to do with that.”

  Kingston takes this in for a moment and says, “That’s not really a career of choice, but, I mean, they usually work for a check. This sounds like more than that.”

  “Maybe I’ll just ask her,” I say. “I think I have the right since I got punched in my durn head.”

  “I agree. But I want you to be safe, Yvonne. You scared the mess out of me calling me from the hospital.”
/>   “I did?”

  “Yes. You had me rushing down here, and you didn’t even say what was wrong. Don’t do that to me again.”

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “I forgive you.”

  “Thank you, Kingston. I don’t know if anyone’s ever worried this much over me.”

  He clears his throat, and walks over to my bed. He brushes the hair out of my face and kisses my forehead. My skin tingles beneath his lips. Then he kisses each of my cheeks, and I think my entire body shivers. When he places the sweetest kiss ever on my lips, I almost can’t enjoy it, wondering how my breath smells after being unconscious.

  My eyes get cloudy with tears. It’s like I’ve never been kissed before in my life, but I was married for twenty years.

  “Yvonne . . . let me worry over you. Let me pray over you.”

  “O-okay. All right.”

  “Yvonne . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “Let me love you.”

  I open my mouth to reply, but no sound comes out. I just nod enthusiastically, because what I feel right now feels like the Lord sent it straight from His throne. I feel like how Eve must’ve felt when Adam told her she was the bone of his bones and the flesh of his flesh.

  Is this what love feels like? If so, I’ve been deprived for way too long.

  CHAPTER 37

  PAM

  Yvonne, Taylor, and I have not had any girl time since Troy left or since Yvonne had her big date with Kingston, so we decide to have lunch at Mallorca, our favorite Portuguese restaurant downtown, before our Sister to Sister meeting tonight. As usual, I get here first and hold the table. I am always the first one to arrive.

  Yvonne arrives next, and she’s still got a bandage on her head from her run-in with her new friend’s enemies. Only Yvonne would’ve been smack-dab in the middle of that. The one person at the church who’s probably never been in a fight—other than with Luke—and she’s the one that had to run into the goons.

  I wave Yvonne over, and she jogs over to the table and hugs me. She’s got a huge smile on her face.

  “What is going on with you?” I ask. “You are positively glowing.”