The Aftermath

by Shelia M. Goss

  “Your uncle Jason took advantage of me during a weak time in my life. Yes, we slept together, once.”

  Hope gasped. “How could you do this to Dad?”

  “Hope, let her talk,” I said.

  She went on to say, “During that time, Royce was spending an incredible amount of time away from home. Every weekend he was going over to Marshall, Texas to be with his other woman; Tyler’s mom. I felt abandoned. Jason kept feeding me information and one night, in a drunken state of mind, I succumbed to him. I’ve regretted that one-time incident ever since.” Tears flowed down her face.

  Lovie got off the couch and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Mom, it’s okay. Uncle Jason was a rat. He hurt you. He hurt Dad and all of us. I don’t want you to keep holding on to that guilt.”

  Hope said, “But what about Lovie? You never answered Charity’s question.”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know. In my heart, he’s Royce’s, but to be honest, I just don’t know.” She started crying and her body shook. Lovie had to hold Mom up. We’d seen her cry before but never liked this.

  Lovie glared at me. “Are you satisfied now? I told you this wasn’t a good idea.”

  Mom waved her hand. “That’s okay, Lovie. It needed to be discussed.” She faced Lovie. “I keep feeling your phone vibrate. Answer it. It might be important.”

  Lovie looked at her. “There’s nothing more important than my family.”

  I said, “It may be Dad.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Lovie looked at his phone. “Dad’s tried to call me several times. That’s the number from the jail.” He held out his cell phone so we could see the number. “Mitch called me too,” he added.

  “Call him back and see what he wants,” Mom insisted.

  Lovie called him and placed the call on speaker. “Mitch, this is Lovie. I’m with the family and I have you on speaker.”

  “Good. I talked to Royce.”

  Mom asked, “Is he okay?”

  “Lexi, yes, he’s fine. He sends his love.”

  Lovie asked, “Then what’s going on?”

  Mitch responded, “I’m not sure of what you all know. But Royce has asked me to set up a DNA test to prove to the courts that you are his son and not Jason’s.”

  “But what if...” my voice trailed off.

  “He’s Royce’s son and this will settle it for once and for all,” Mom said.

  “Good. I’m glad you’re confident, Lexi. This will help the defense if it does come back proving Royce is Lovie’s father.”

  “When do I need to come take the test?” Lovie asked.

  “That’s the thing. I’m required to get a court order first. Once I do, I’ll be in touch. It shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”

  “Thanks, Mitch,” Mom said.

  Lovie hung up the phone.

  Mom said, “See, after this test, we can put all of this behind us.”

  I was still upset that Mom had been so careless and because of that, Lovie and I might not have shared the same biological father. It’s funny how you always think your parents are just parents. Rarely do you see them as people who are going through life’s struggles exactly like you. Mom was my mother. Up until lately, I hadn’t really looked at her as a woman with pain or desires like I would have.

  Mom sighed. “I realize it may be hard, but please don’t let this affect our relationship. I love each and every one of you. I would give my life for you all.”

  “It won’t, Mom,” I assured her as I gave her a tight hug.

  Hope remained quiet. She sat with her lips poked out.

  Mom took a seat next to Hope. “Can y’all leave us alone? Hope and I need to have a little talk.”

  I motioned for Lovie to follow me. We were now in the kitchen. I gave him a can of Coke from the refrigerator. I poured myself a glass of water. We stood by the kitchen counter in silence.

  “Are you scared about the DNA?” I asked.

  “Nope. Regardless of what the DNA says, Royce Jones is my father.”

  I agreed. I gave him a tight hug. I didn’t want to think about the aftermath if the DNA results showed differently.

  CHAPTER 10

  Hope

  Charity and Lovie were in another room. I really didn’t want them to leave me alone with Mom. She didn’t like it when any of us got sassy with her. But I was disappointed in her. How could she not know who Lovie’s daddy was? I expected more from her. She’d always been my role model.

  “Hope, I’m talking to you and expect for you to respond.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t feel like talking.”

  “I’m going to ignore the eye rolling because it’s a stressful situation. But I suggest you get control of it before I forget and go old school on you. Understood?”

  I still didn’t say anything.

  “Understood!” she repeated.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I responded.

  “Good. Now, baby girl, I understand why you’re upset. I’m upset as well. I should’ve said something to Royce years ago and if I had, maybe he wouldn’t have done what he did to you.”

  I didn’t want Mom feeling guilty about me sleeping with Jason. I was eighteen. I understood what I was doing. It wasn’t her fault I’d always had a secret crush on Jason.

  I spoke out. “It’s not your fault Uncle Jason took advantage of my naïveté.”

  “If he wasn’t part of our lives, then maybe none of this would have happened.” Mom stood and walked to the mantel. She picked up the picture frames filled with pictures of the family.

  She turned and faced me. “You and I are more alike than you know. You have that free spirit and fire in you like I did at your age. Don’t let what Jason or Tyler did to you kill that.”

  “Mom, I don’t want to talk about either one of them.”

  “You need to because if you run away from it, you’ll never be able to move past things. Don’t do like I did and pretend like it never happened.”

  She sat back down beside me. The anger I had felt about her actions slowly disappeared.

  “Mom, I’m sorry about earlier.”

  “No apology needed.”

  “Can you answer one last question, please?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Did Jason rape you?”

  She placed her hand on top of mine. “No, dear. Although he took advantage of me by getting me drunk and enticing me, I was unfortunately a willing participant in what we did. Yes, I felt violated but it wasn’t rape.”

  “That’s how I feel sometimes. I feel like he violated me. I feel like he took away my innocence.” For the first time I’d said what I’d been feeling for years. The tears I’d been suppressing finally fell. It was like a floodgate had opened; I couldn’t stop.

  Mom wrapped her arm around me and held me. “Let it out.” She patted me on the back as I closed my eyes and let her rock me back and forth with her.

  She continued to say, “Jason’s gone and he will not be able to hurt you or any of us ever again.”

  I continued crying. Mom handed me some tissue from off the table. In between sniffles, I managed to say, “I come across as a spoiled brat sometimes, but there’s more to me than what people realize.”

  “I know there is, dear.”

  “When we were going through our money issues, I found out who my real friends were. And truthfully, Charity’s the only one I could depend on. When I stopped splurging and spending money on my friends, they stopped returning my calls.”

  “Then they weren’t your real friends to start off with,” she disclosed. “I didn’t like the people you were hanging around with anyway. They looked like opportunists. What about Maria? You two used to be close at one time.”

  “We were close until her boyfriend tried to talk to me. I told Maria about it and s
he accused me of going after him. Which was a total lie, Mom, because I would never do anything like that to Maria.”

  “Love will make women turn on their friends. The last time I saw Maria’s mom, she mentioned Maria was depressed over some loser.”

  “That’s probably him.”

  “Maybe you can use this time to go make things right with her.”

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that. Maria’s lack of trust in me really damaged our friendship. “She said some hateful things to me, too. She accused me of being a self-centered, spoiled brat.”

  Mom laughed. I didn’t see anything funny. She rubbed my hand. “You have to admit you do like to have your way.”

  “But there’s nothing wrong with that,” I said.

  “No, there isn’t. But when you don’t get your way, you do like to pout.”

  “But…” Then I stopped talking. She was right. In fact Maria was right to some extent, but she was my friend. She didn’t have to say all of those things to me. I did need to make some changes.

  Mom brushed my hair out of my face. “Look at you. You’re beautiful. You’re smart. You have your father’s sense of humor. You have my street smarts. Baby girl, you are a diamond. Know your worth. Never ever again allow any man to make you feel less than the precious jewel that you are.”

  “Mom, confidence has never been an issue for me.”

  “On the surface, it appears that way, but underneath.” She touched my chest. “You were insecure. You know why I know? I was like you at one point. I pretended to be Ms. Confidence so that my insecurities wouldn’t show. “

  She was right. I tried to overcompensate for things because of some of my insecurities. “I’m going to work on being a better me,” I said.

  “You have good qualities, dear. Work on loving yourself more. And try to show a little more compassion for others. Everyone is not out to get you,” she said.

  “I know. But they sure are out to be like me.”

  “Well, I can’t disagree with you on that. Because...”

  We said in unison, “Everybody wants to be like the Joneses.”

  We laughed together. I felt better about everything. I even felt hopeful about Dad’s situation. I hoped and prayed when the DNA tests were done, it proved he was Lovie’s father and not Jason.

  CHAPTER 11

  Lovie

  I’d seen some interesting things happen while sitting in the waiting room of the hospital. I’d overheard a conversation between a couple that was having marital problems due to the woman’s infidelity. I witnessed a couple’s grief after losing their only child. I witnessed the miracle of a woman being saved after having a heart attack. I surfed the Internet on my phone and posted a few things on my Facebook page.

  I kept watching the door, hoping that my name would be the next one called. Mitch was able to get me in to do a test within a couple of days like he had promised. I only wished it had been at another location; someplace that didn’t take forever to call their patients back to be seen.

  “Mr. Jones, we’re ready for you,” the petite nurse said from the doorway.

  “Finally,” I mumbled under my breath.

  I followed the cute nurse back to an open door. “Have a seat and the tech will be here shortly.”

  I didn’t know if I was supposed to take a seat on the bed or on the chair. I sat in the chair.

  The lab technician knocked on the door and then walked in. “Mr. Jones,” she said.

  “Yes. That’s me,” I confirmed.

  “I’m here to swab you and then you’ll be on your way.”

  “Hold up. You don’t have to take any blood or anything?” I asked.

  “No, sir.” She tore off the paper to what looked like a huge Q-tip. “Now open wide.”

  I did as instructed. She stuck the swab inside of my mouth and then placed it in a plastic envelope and sealed it. She wrote something on it and placed it in a container.

  “That’s it?” I asked.

  “That’s it. We should have the results back in a couple of days.”

  “Wow, that was not painful at all.”

  “It’s one of the simplest tests that we do,” she assured me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  I drove to the Caddo Correctional Center in silence. Now that the test was done, I would soon know something that had been weighing heavily on my mind since Mom had revealed what happened with Uncle Jason.

  An hour later, I was seated across from Dad, looking at him through a glass partition and talking to him with the phone up to my ear.

  “Son, I want you to know that regardless of what the DNA results say, you are my son. You hear me,” he said.

  I looked him in the eyes and nodded. “I know.” I hoped I sounded convincing.

  “How’s your mom really doing?”

  “She’s handling it the best she can.”

  “And your sisters?”

  I looked downward. “They were a little upset when they heard about the paternity test.”

  “How did they find out?”

  I couldn’t reveal to him that Omar had shared the information with Charity. Especially since I knew one of the guards was listening in on our conversation. We were the only ones in the visitation area so it was easy to overhear us.

  “Let’s simply say that Charity was the one who found out. So you know if she knew, she was going to tell Hope.”

  “I really hate they had to be put into the middle of all of this.”

  “Me too. But the tests are done. All we have to do now is wait.”

  Dad’s eyes changed from brown to black. “I hate the day Jason became my friend.”

  “He had us all fooled,” I said in my attempt to make him feel better.

  “Your grandfather used to tell me Jason was jealous of me, but I wouldn’t listen to him. I bet you he’s rolling over in his grave, saying, ‘I told you so.’”

  “Dad, you can’t keep beating yourself up over it. What we’re trying to do is find evidence to show you couldn’t have killed him.” I wasn’t supposed to tell him. I sure wasn’t supposed to say it over a monitored phone. I simply wanted to say something to him to give him some hope.

  “Son, what do you mean?”

  “We’re going to get you out of this, Dad.”

  “Lovie, I only want you to do two things: take care of your mother and sisters and the family business.”

  “I wish I could promise you that, but I can’t. You’ve always taught me to be a man of my word. So Dad, as sure as my name is Lovie Jones, I will do whatever it takes to prove your innocence.”

  “Son, I’m giving you a direct order. Stay out of this and let the police do their job.”

  “And I’m telling you I’m not going to sit back and let them make up false evidence. The jurors will believe everything they show them so we have to make sure we’re able to prove everything they have is incorrect and based on false pretenses. I will not be moved.”

  “I don’t want to be up in here worried about your safety or your freedom. It doesn’t make sense for both of us to be incarcerated.”

  I looked at him straight in the eyes. “Nothing is going to happen to me. But the real killer will not get away with what he’s done. I’m not trying to find the real killer because I care about Uncle Jason. I’m trying to find the real killer to obtain your freedom. Right now, you’re here because of a crime you didn’t commit. The justice system is not fair.”

  “No, son, it’s not always fair. But sometimes it is. I still don’t think a jury would convict me.”

  “I can’t trust that,” I said.

  “I love you for wanting to help me. But Lexi would kill me if she knew I put you in harm’s way.”

  Little did Dad know that Mom was behind us searching for the real killer. I kept that information to myself since
he seemed to be under enough stress.

  “Dad, don’t worry about a thing. I’ve got everything handled out here.”

  “Time’s up,” the guard said.

  We said our goodbyes. A tear rolled from my left eye as I walked out.

  CHAPTER 12

  Omar

  I stood in the doorway and watched Charity sleep. The more time I spent with her, the more I cared about her. I would do whatever I could to protect her. It’d been a few years since I’d found myself in a serious relationship. Some women were all about themselves, but not Charity.

  As a police officer I’d seen a lot. She was like a light in an extremely dim, sick world. I hadn’t always made the best decisions in life, and I hoped those bad ones didn’t come back to bite me. Being around Charity made me want to be a better man.

  My phone rang. Charity yawned. I walked inside of the room and got my phone from the nightstand. It was my partner.

  “I’ll be right there,” I said after a brief conversation.

  Charity said, “Who was that?”

  “Baby, I got to go in.”

  Charity looked at the clock. “It’s three o’clock in the morning.”

  “There was a robbery at the Franklin store.”

  Charity turned toward me. “Be careful.”

  “Always,” I said, while looking for my belt.

  Charity reached on the other side of the bed and handed me the belt I’d been looking for. “Here you go.”

  I bent and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Thanks, babe.”

  “Let me get my stuff together so I can leave, too.”

  “You’re welcome to stay here. Not sure of how long I’ll be, but you’re welcome to stay.”

  “You sure? Men tend to feel some kind of way about having a woman in their personal space when they’re not around.” She smiled.

  “This man here doesn’t have anything to hide. So baby, you’re welcome to stay whether I’m here or not.”

  “Good. I’m still a little sleepy. You wore a sista out.” She licked her lips.

  “Don’t do that with your lips. Got me having a woody and I’ve got to work this case.”