BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2

by Mallory Monroe

  “That’s a bald-faced lie!” Quince blared out.

  Charles looked at him. “Are you calling my wife a liar? It’s the truth! You court-ordered her to stay away from those girls.”

  “Is that what she told you?” Quince asked. He would never let his girls know the truth of why Jenay stayed away so long. “Another one of her tall tales. That’s why I had a vasectomy, man. I never wanted her to be the mother of any child of mine.”

  Jenay looked at him. She and Charles both were floored. “You had a vasectomy?” she asked him.

  Quince smiled. “You wasn’t having any child of mine. Not your black ass. You weren’t good enough to have my children.”

  Jenay stared at her ex-husband. What a snake, she thought. It hurt her to her heart to hear him confess it. During the entire time she was married to him, he insisted that she was the reason she never got pregnant. He had two daughters, he would say, so it couldn’t be him. It had to be her. When he had rigged the results all along.

  But even through her pain, she nor Charles were going to rise to his bait.

  The doorbell rang again.

  “I don’t know what game you’re playing, Quince,” Jenay said, “but you won’t be playing it with me. You know and I know that you court-ordered me to stay away from your daughters.”

  But it didn’t matter. The girls had his back. “Court-order or no court-order,” Ashley said, “if you really loved us you should have found a way to come and see about us.”

  Quince smiled. He was their universe. They weren’t about to take her side over his. “Get the door, Ash,” he ordered.

  Ash stood up and headed for the door. Jenay looked at Charles. Charles, however, was staring at Quince. It was a game he was playing all right. Charles just didn’t quite know what the stakes were. That question was answered, however, when he heard a voice at the front door.

  “Is your father at home?” Arianna asked Ash when Ash opened the door.

  Charles looked toward the front door. That voice sounded so familiar! But when he saw his ex-wife walk in, he was stunned. “Arianna?” he asked.

  Jenay knew the name, and vaguely the face from a few old photos of her she’d seen. And she was floored herself. What in the world was going on?

  But she and Charles weren’t the only confused ones. Quince was even more confused. As Charles rose to his feet, Quince did too. He wondered what in the world was Arianna doing here. Her appearance here was not a part of their plan. They had worked out every detail so methodically. So carefully. What was she doing?

  Charles stood up, but he stood up slowly, as if he was more puzzled than surprised. He looked at Quince, to see if his face was revealing the real story behind this shocker, but Quince looked even more puzzled than he did. And Quince stood up too.

  “Oh my,” Arianna said as she entered the house and saw Charles standing there. Her right hand man, Ed Anderson, entered behind her. “I see he’s gotten to you already,” she added.

  Charles stared at her. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Protecting my children,” she responded.

  Quince frowned. “Your children?” He had pure amazement in his voice. What did her children have to do with this? He didn’t know what she was up to at all, but he knew a double-cross when he smelled one.

  Ash and Carly looked at their father. They were dumbstruck too. They knew he had been plotting and scheming with this woman. They didn’t know what it was about, but they knew Jenay’s appearance here today, and his need to get back in good with her, had everything to do with it. But now their father looked as thrown as they were.

  “What are you talking about, Arianna?” Charles asked. “What does our children have to do with this?”

  “He’s trying to blackmail your wife,” Arianna said as she walked further into the house.

  Jenay stood up and stood beside Charles. Charles took her hand. “Blackmail me?” she asked, and then she and Charles looked at Quince.

  But Quince was so floored, he was staring at Arianna. “What are you talking about? What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “He came to me first,” Arianna said to Charles as she removed her gloves. “It was quite an elaborate story, but I heard him out.”

  Charles didn’t say anything. He was too busy watching his ex-wife, Quince, the girls, all of them. He was sizing up the room.

  Arianna was sizing up Charles. It had been years since she’d been in the same room with him. She had forgotten how utterly gorgeous he was. But that was beside the point. Contrary to what she had led Quince to believe, she didn’t give a flip nickel about Charles and the last person on earth she wanted to get back with was him. But that was her trump card. That was her business. But she also saw that look on Charles’s face. She would have precious few minutes to make herself plain, before he turned on her.

  “As you may or may not have heard,” she said to him, “my husband recently passed away. I was in town to handle some property he owned here in Richmond. Quince’s wife at the time, Vernita Franklin, was the local attorney handling my case.”

  Quince frowned. “Why are you lying like that? My ex-wife never handled any case of yours!”

  “She wasn’t your ex-wife at the time and you know I’m telling the truth. So shut up,” Arianna ordered.

  “Ash,” Jenay said, sensing that this was about to get ugly, “why don’t you and Carly go to your room?”

  But they both immediately hurried over to their father and stood behind him. They weren’t going anywhere. They had always been completely devoted to Quince so it wasn’t entirely a surprise that they still were. But Jenay looked at Quince, hoping that he would at least do the right thing and get them out of earshot of this foolishness. But he didn’t. He allowed them to stay right where they were.

  “His wife at the time was my lawyer,” Arianna said to Charles. “You can look it up.” Arianna was no idiot. She had covered all of her tracks. “But one day, while I was in the lobby waiting to meet with her, Quince showed up. We started talking small talk, nothing serious, until I mentioned how I had sons in Jericho and how I wanted to leave my Richmond property to them. Well he started talking about how his ex-wife lived in Jericho too and she was married to this rich man named Sinatra, and we both were shocked, of course, after I revealed that I was a Sinatra too.”

  “You’re not a Sinatra,” Charles made clear.

  “I was allowed to keep your name. I am a Sinatra.” She exhaled. “In any event, he told me about his plan to use his daughters to get Jenay back. Or, more actually, to wrestle money from Jenay for his daughters’ sake. Major money.”

  Quince was shaking his hand. “Why you double-crossing bitch!” he yelled. “You’re lying and you know it!”

  “I’m telling the truth and you know it!” Arianna shot back. “I went along with your scheme to protect my children’s best interest. And not having somebody blackmail their father’s wife is in their best interest. So I played you like a fiddle. You thought I was on your side. But I wasn’t. I was on my children’s side. And as long as Charles is my children’s father, you were going to lose. You fool.”

  Quince lunged at Arianna so fast and violently that he had his hands around her neck and had dropped her to the floor before even Ed could fully react. The girls ran to help their father, Ed ran to pull Quince off of Arianna, and Jenay attempted to run to get the girls. But Charles held her back. They weren’t getting caught up in any of these scams, no matter who was telling the truth or who was lying, he didn’t care how Jenay felt about those girls. Because as far as he was concerned, they were lying too.

  Ed pulled Quince free, tossing him off Arianna, and then he helped Arianna to her feet. The girls stayed by their father’s side.

  When Arianna stood on her feet again, however, she managed to smile. Especially now that Ed was blocking any more tackles. “Truth hurts, doesn’t it?” she asked Quince. But then she looked at Charles. “As you can see, it was a good thing that I was looking ou
t for you and our children. He’s a user and a liar, and he’s got his daughters using and lying right along with him. They deserve each other.”

  “Quit lying!” Carly shot back. “You were the one who came to our Dad. You were the one who lies and uses people! You’re the one who made up this scheme just so we can fool Jenay. Now you’re trying to act like you had nothing to do with it?”

  “Fool me?” Jenay asked Carly. “What were you fooling me about?”

  Carly and Ash both looked at Jenay. They wanted to lash out at her too, but they couldn’t. They knew all the terrible things their father had said about her. They knew how she should have made more of an effort to see them again. But she was still Jenay. She was still that woman who once loved them so unconditionally. They could never hate her.

  “Just leave,” Carly said in tears, and hugged her father.

  Ash hugged him too, and Quince hugged his girls. They were all each other had just as he had drilled into them. Now Arianna’s double-cross just proved his point.

  “Let’s go,” Charles said to Jenay. “Let’s go home.”

  But Arianna was looking at him. She was floored. “You can’t just leave, Charles,” she said as if he had just harmed her. “What are you doing? I stopped him from blackmailing your wife. I stopped him from using those girls to get next to you and your wife. You can’t just leave! You’ve got to let me in. You’ve got to let me back in.”

  Charles frowned. “Back in to what? My life?”

  “My children’s life! I don’t give a damn about your life! I want my children back. They won’t have anything to do with me. You’ve turned them against me.”

  “I didn’t turn them against you,” Charles said. “Your neglect, your running off with some man in the first place, turned them against you. I had nothing to do with that. That was all on you.”

  “But you can turn them back to me! You have that power over them. That’s why I went along with Quince’s scheme.”

  “Liar!” Quince shot back.

  But Arianna wasn’t thinking about him. She had to convince Charles. “I protected you. I went along with the scheme so you can see how sincere I am. I want my children back, Charles!”

  “Let’s go, Jenay,” Charles said as he began to move his wife toward the exit.

  “Charles!” Arianna begged. “You owe me now!”

  Her comment angered Charles. “I owe you?” he stopped walking as he asked her. “You create some elaborate scheme with Quince, and then you turn on him and pretend you’re the good guy, and you expect me and Jenay to fall for that? Both of you can kiss our asses. We aren’t falling for any of it!” Then Charles looked at Ashley and Carly. “None of it!” he added.

  But Jenay looked at the girls. And just as they were about to clear the exit, she broke away from Charles and went to them. Quince pulled them closer.

  “I know you love your father above anybody else,” she said. “And I’m sure he told you horrible lies about me. But one day, when you’re adults and you can work things out for yourselves, come to Jericho, Maine and look me up. We can have that conversation then. But right now, as long as you’re minors and under his control, it will probably not be possible. But I’ll be there if you need me. I don’t blame the two of you for any of this. I don’t blame you at all.” Then she looked at Quince. Charles walked up to her, to protect her, when she turned her attention to Quince.

  “There’s more to this story,” she said to him. “I’m certain of it. I don’t know what the full story is, or what you and Charles’s ex-wife are really up to, but it’s not anything like what you’ve been telling us so far. But the truth will win out in the end. And both of you will pay. I have complete confidence in that. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how. But you’ll pay. Both of you.”

  Jenay stared at Quince a moment longer, looked at the girls with regret and love in her eyes, and then she and Charles headed for the exit.

  Arianna was livid. She was screaming that Charles owed her. She was screaming and yelling and Ed was holding her back. But Charles and Jenay didn’t give her ranting and raving a second thought. They left. They weren’t trying to look back.

  But as soon as the door slammed shut, Arianna looked at Quince. Quince looked at Arianna. “Why didn’t you play along, you idiot?” she yelled. “I knew what I was doing!”

  “What were you doing?” Quince asked. “Talking about your children. What did they have to do with this?”

  “The same thing yours had to do with Jenay! I want my boys back in my life. But he’s the barrier. He’s the wall. I was trying to get in good with him, to get to my boys. But you blew it.”

  Quince was even angrier. “Why didn’t you tell me that was what you were doing?”

  “Because it would have been unauthentic! You had to be shocked. You had to feel betrayed.”

  “And it didn’t work,” he said.

  “No,” Arianna admitted sadly. “Not this time. But we aren’t done yet. The plans will have to change, but the goal never will. We aren’t done by a long shot.”

  The girls looked at their father. “What’s she talking about?” Carly asked him. “And what about Jenay?”

  “You forget that bitch!” Quince snapped. “Forget Jenay. You saw how easily she left you again. You saw how she chose that man over you. Why would you even bring her name up? From here on out, after the way she treated us, neither one of you will ever speak her name again. You hear me, Ash?”

  Ashley nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said. She still cared for Jenay, but her loyalty was with her father.

  “Yes, sir,” Carly responded a lot slower. She was only eight when Jenay left their lives. It should have been easier for her. But it wasn’t. Because she was no fool. Because she knew deep within herself that Jenay was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

  Two weeks later, Jenay was just leaving Reuben’s Market on Harvey Street. Reuben, the owner, was walking with her, carrying her bags of veggies. It had already been eventful. One punk had taken a corner so wildly that he nearly ran both of them over, causing them to jump back onto the curb. They had both been spooked by such a close call. Now they were headed for her red Mercedes across the street.

  But just as they stepped back off of the curb and were headed that way, her Mercedes exploded into a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke, knocking both of them backwards and undoubtedly killing everybody inside that car. Jenay knew her baby was inside that car, and her baby’s nanny. She had left them both inside when she hurried over to Reuben’s to pick up her order. That was why she wailed. That was why she ran. That was why she came within inches of throwing herself in that fire too. Her baby was in that car! She had to get her child!

  She fought and she fought. She cried and she prayed. And she fought. She broke away from the men and was again within inches of throwing herself into that fire. If Reuben and the other men of Jericho would not have stopped her once again, that fireball would have consumed her too. Charles Sinatra’s wife, right along with his baby girl, would have met her end on Harvey Street.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  He was in his big pick-up truck, on his way to his bank, when the call came in. The person on the other end was hysterical, and the background noise sounded manic, so he couldn’t make out anything the man was saying. But he knew it was bad. He knew it had to have something to do with his wife or his children or both. He knew it was bad.

  “What are you saying?” he yelled into the phone. “Tell me again!”

  “An explosion on Hardy,” the man finally said plainly.

  “An explosion?” Charles asked.

  “Across the street from Reuben’s Market. Your wife’s car exploded. It’s crazy out here!”

  Charles’s heart dropped through his gut as he swerved his truck, completed a U-turn, and then raced like a bat out of hell for Reuben’s Market. He knew exactly where it was. That wasn’t the problem. Getting there fast enough was.

  A full mile away from Hardy Street, he could see
the black smoke bellowing up even from that distance. He could hear sirens too. And he drove even faster. He covered a ten-minute ride in two. He was praying as he drove. He was praying for a miracle as he drove. All he could think about was Jenay, and Bonita, and his sons, and he couldn’t stop praying.

  When he arrived at the scene and got out of his truck, the Fire Department was there, and police cars, and the rescue wagon. And he could see what was apparently the red Mercedes he had purchased for Jenay, blown to smithereens. There was nothing but smoke and chaos. It looked like a war zone. But where was his wife? He didn’t see his wife!

  Then he saw a body. It was completely covered and being lifted into the ambulance. Charles ran up to the truck. His suit coat was off, his dress shoes were on, but he ran faster than he’d ever run in his life.

  When he made it up to the ambulance, he pushed the EMT aside and hurried inside. The emergency worker and a policeman attempted to pull him back out, but when they realized that it was Big Daddy Sinatra they were trying to yank out, they both backed off.

  Charles’s heart was hammering when he lifted that sheet. He was praying almost uncontrollably when he lifted that sheet. Don’t let it be Jenay. Please God, don’t let it be Jenay!

  It was Tess. Tess Magrid. Bonita’s Nanny. She was charred and burned and dead. Barely recognizable. His heart sank for her. That poor young woman. But if Tess was there, that meant that Bonita had to have been there too. And Charles jumped back out of the ambulance, still in a state of hysteria.

  “Where’s my wife and child?” he asked the EMT.

  “I don’t know, sir,” the EMT responded nervously.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? Were they here too?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” the EMT responded again. Big Daddy Sinatra had the kind of reach that could get him fired. He wished he knew everything. But he had just gotten there. He didn’t know a thing.