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“Shh, look who just walked in.”
Turning her head slowly to see what had Haven’s panties all in a bunch, Naima was shocked to see Emeri and Camille sitting at the bar engaged in animated conversation like life long friends.
Shaking her head as she mumbled, “What are the odds?” Naima was too through.
“I wonder how they know each other.”
“Yeah, that seems weird and just weird.” Naima added for emphasis.
Getting up as graciously as possible as a full term pregnant woman could, Haven joined Naima on her side of the table to get a better view.
“Look, they’re no longer laughing, they seem to be arguing now.”
The waiter came over to their table then, “Are you ladies ready to order?”
“Water please.” They said in unison without taking their eyes of the two at the bar.
“Would you like to start with an appetizer or salad?”
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Haven was beginning to get irritated with the waiter; she just wanted him to go away.
Breaking her gaze from the bar she looked him up and down. “We haven’t looked at the menu yet. Can you just get our water please?”
“Sure Misss.” The waiter huffed and walked away.
Finally, she thought. Turning her head back to face the bar, “Ok, what I miss?”
“Nothing much, they still seem to be arguing.”
“Oh. Camille better watch her step, because that bitch Emeri is crazy.”
“So, now you want to defend Camille? No more than two seconds ago you wanted to pull a Bonnie and Clyde on her.”
“Ha ha, very funny. I don’t want to see her die; I just don’t want her fucking my husband.
Movement to the side caught Naima’s eye, “Speaking of husbands, isn’t that Chris right there?”
“What th-“
Haven watched in disbelief as Chris strolled up and kissed Camille on the lips right at the bar for the entire world to see.”
Naima knew that any voice of reason was out of the window now. No one knew Haven like she did, and she knew Haven was going to explode, pregnant and all.
“Oh hell nah, it’s on now.”
Jumping up like a hurdle jumper, and not like someone that was pregnant, Haven was across the restaurant at the bar before Naima could pick up her cane.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Haven screamed as she smacked Chris across the face and kicked Camille in her knee.
Reaching her hand back to slap Chris again, he caught her arm in mid swing. “You need to calm down,” he hissed.
“I will not calm down.” The other people at the bar had cut off their conversations to watch the scene. Naima saw one of the bartenders signaling security. This is about to get ugly.
“Why the fuck are you at the bar kissing this bitch, when your sorry ass isn’t returning any of my calls or coming home at night?”
“You must have lost your mind.” Chris replied in a low menacing voice. “You need to lower your voice and if you attempt to hit me again, they will be taking you out of here on a stretcher.
Do you understand?”
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Sucking in her breath, Haven spit directly in Chris’ eye, “Fuck you.”
Releasing her hand to grab a napkin from the bar to wipe the spit out of his eye, Chris was seething. “You are going to regret that.” Grabbing Haven by the arm, he practically dragged her out the door of the restaurant.
Naima didn’t know what to do, she wanted to give them time to talk and figure things out.
Standing directly in front of Camille and Emeri, she decided to address Camille since Emeri was refusing to acknowledge her presence, which was fine, she had no desire to speak with her anyway.
“Camille, how could you?”
“I’m good, thank you and how are you?” she replied.
“I was better before you and Chris were kissing at the bar. How could you do this?”
Shrugging her shoulders, “Why do you care anyway? She’s the same ‘friend’ that was sleeping with your husband. I think it’s pathetic that you befriended her again.”
“What does that have to do with you and Chris? Who I chose to be friends with is no concern of yours.”
“Neither is who I’m kissing at a bar.” Camille turned back to face the bar, dismissing Naima.
“Camille, don’t turn your back on me.”
Turning back to face Naima, “Why are you harassing me? I no longer work for you. I don’t owe you anything, especially an explanation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I would like to get back to enjoying my dinner which doesn’t include you.”
Properly chastised, there was nothing for Naima to do but leave. The only problem with that was Haven had driven and who knows where Chris had dragged her off too. Figuring it was a good idea to at least gather their things and look for Haven, she went back to their table to retrieve their purses and also let the waiter, who was just placing their water on the table, know that they would not be returning.
Dragging her into the garage, Chris was finally going to teach Haven a lesson. Who did she think she was causing a scene in the restaurant like that?
“Chris, let me go! I swear I'm going to fuck you up for this!" She screamed.
Throwing her into the back wall of the garage, “You're not going to do shit.” He said smacking her across her face with enough force to bust her lip. “Who do you think you are causing a scene?”
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Haven was in shock. Who was this person; he'd never hailed off and hit her before. Wiping the blood off her lip, she tried to push away from the wall.
"I'm your wife."
Chris almost laughed in her face at that statement.
"I'm carrying your child, why are you doing this to me?"
In his rage for her acting out in front of Camille, Chris had temporarily forgotten about their baby. "Shit, what was he doing?" He thought.
Trying to calm down and get his emotions in check, he prepared to help Haven up by reaching out a hand to her.
She flinched, scooting down the wall, "If you touch me again, I will tell them that you attempted to rape me and they will put your ass back in jail. And for longer this time because it will be your second offense."
All Chris saw was red as he grabbed her by her throat and began to squeeze the life out of her.
He was not going back to jail again for a crime he didn't commit. Haven's eyes were starting to roll back in her head; Chris squeezed harder.
"Hey, what's going on out here?"
Breaking out of his trance, Chris turned to see security racing toward him with a concerned Naima right behind them.
Letting go of Haven's neck, he took off through the door to the exit stairs. If he kept fucking with Haven, that dumb bitch was going to make sure he ended up back in jail.
Making her way to the parking garage behind security at a slower pace, a bad feeling overcame Naima as she saw Chris run into the stairwell. She felt like something tragic had happened or was about to happen. She stopped short when she heard what sounded like gasping noises coming from the far back left side of the garage. Moving as fast as her legs and cane would allow, she saw Haven slumped on the floor in the corner with blood escaping from a gash in her forehead.
“Oh no.” Letting go of her cane, falling to her knees to be able to check Haven for body injuries, “Haven, can you hear me?” Naima was frantic. Haven didn’t look good at all, in addition to the gash on her forehead, she had finger marks around her neck, her mouth was Copyright © 2010 Mychea
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bloody and two of her teeth were on the ground. Reaching for her purse that she had dropped on the gro
und, Naima recovered her cell and dialed 9-1-1.
Sitting in the waiting area as the hospital was taking care of Haven, she was visibly shaken.
The Doctors’ had decided not to take any chances and chose to do an emergency C-section to get the baby out. As a result baby Kadir was doing just fine. She had chosen the name since Haven hadn’t been in the frame of mind to do so and no one had seen or heard from Chris since the fiasco at the restaurant. She hoped Haven liked the name. The Doctor said that Haven’s wounds weren’t as bad as they looked. Granted she would have to get her teeth replaced, but the gash in her head wasn’t that deep and she hadn’t suffered a tremendous loss of oxygen when she was choked. All in all, she would be fine, emotionally beat up yes, but physically, she would recover.
Dropping her head into her hands, Naima was beat; she wondered if God had heard her prayer tonight. Awakened by the sound of footsteps, she was unaware that she had dozed off. Looking up to see who was approaching her, her heart did a flip flop, as she watched Kaden make his way to her. She was beyond grateful, even if just for tonight, God had answered her prayer; Kaden had come when she needed.
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Chapter 9
Interlude
It really pisses me off that Mama still thinks I need a baby sitter. Talking about I’m at that age where all teenage girls made bad decisions about boys. Instead of worrying about boys, she should have been worrying about the man that was in charge of watching me. Things were different now. I was no longer the green twelve-year-old that Mr. CT had first encountered. I am fifteen now and if he wanted the goods, damnit, he was going to have to get used to paying for them. I would be eighteen in three years and I planned on going to college. There was no way my Mama could afford that and even keeping my grades at a 4.0 average, there was no guarantee that I would get a full scholarship from the school of my choice. It was time to take my future into my own hands; Mr. CT was going to be my full paid scholarship. Yes, it’s time we turned the tables, time for a new commander-in-chief.
Emeri had Coleen exactly where she wanted her. She was running scared, who would have thought that the haughty Coleen could be brought down a notch. Someone should have taught her long ago that if you lie down with dogs you are bound to catch fleas.
Entering the outpatient therapy clinic Emeri was elated to be meeting with Dr. Tyson Mills again. He was her new therapist and she couldn’t have been more thrilled, it had been too long since she had male stimulation in her life. Having signed in at the receptionist desk for her appointment, Emeri sat down to wait for them to call her name. Looking through the magazines on the table, not seeing anything of interest to her, she took to observing the waiting area instead.
To her immediate right, there was a young teenage girl with a baby. Emeri wondered why she was here, remembering her own pre-teen and teen years, she could only imagine.
“Emeri Castado, the Doctor will see you now.” The receptionist called out. Finally, she thought as she rose to meet the girl at the front who would escort her to Dr. Mills’ office.
Following the rotund receptionist to his office, she had to slow her pace so she wouldn’t run the girl over. Letting her into his office, the receptionist left her alone to wait. Sitting in the chair at the front of his desk, she wasn’t alone for two minutes before he entered his office.
“Hello Ms. Castado.” He said as he closed the door.
“Hi Dr. Mills.”
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“Please, this is our second meeting, call me Tyson. I want you to be comfortable. If it’s ok with you, I’d like to call you Emeri, so we can have a less formal environment.”
“I would like that Tyson.”
“Good.” Pulling his chair around his desk so he could still face her without the desk being an obstacle between them, he continued, “How are you today?”
“I’m doing ok.”
“Just ok?” he asked while fixating chocolate brown eyes on her light brown ones. She blushed. Horrified that he could make her react to him she broke eye contact. What the hell is wrong with me? No man has ever made me blush before.
“I’ve been better I guess.”
Really?” he asked as he picked up his pen and paper, while cutting the tape recorder on.
“Would you care to elaborate? When do you remember life being happier, better?”
Shrugging as she gazed off into the distance. “When my Mama was alive, she always made life better.”
“So, is it a safe assumption to say that you’ve only been happy when your Mother was around?”
“Yeah, I’ll agree with that.”
“Your mom has been gone for about five years now, correct?”
“Mmmhmmn.”
“You haven’t been happy since then?”
“Not really.”
“You know, happiness is what you make it. No more, no less. If you think happy, you’ll be well on the road to being happy.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to be happy, my life has never offered me anything to be happy about.”
Something about Emeri touched a place in Tyson’s heart. It saddened him to see such a beautiful young woman actually believe that there was no reason for her to be happy.
“Why do you feel that way?”
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Interlude
I was officially a college student. I had just registered for my last class and everything was a go.
My life was on its way to getting better. Mama had cried her little eyes out when I left, but I had to get away from that place, it was suffocating me. Mr. CT had the nerve to try and see me before I left for school, running up on me in an alley as I walked home from my part-time job one day. When I refused him sexually, he tried to attack me. Too bad for him, it would be the last alley he saw.
Pressed against the wall, gasping for air as his fingers tightened around my throat, my mind wanted to take a leave of absence. I knew if I stopped concentrating on breathing and passed out, this would mark the end of my existence, right here at this spot, in this dirty alley and I refused to have the story of my life end this way. Frantically reaching my hands into the back pocket of my jeans as he continued to squeeze the air from my body, I knew I didn’t have much longer before consciousness was lost. Finally, feeling what I was searching for, I made my move quickly. With the blade concealed in my hand, I raised my arm up and dug the tip into the back of his neck with all my might. Yelling in pain, he released one hand from around my throat, to grab the back of his neck, giving me a second to suck air back into my deprived lungs. A second is all the time I needed. Not giving him a chance to continue the assault, I raised the blade masked in my hand, and cut the wrist that was co-conspirator to the hand that was trying, though unsuccessfully now, to cut off my air supply.
With him now withering in pain, it was amusing to see the assaulter now become the assaulted. Taking full advantage of the table turned situation, I was not letting him get away with what he did to me. Blade swinging, I got him to the ground. Straddling him, I proceeded to keep slicing. He moved his hands to cover his face. Little did he know I didn’t want his face; I wanted his throat, which was exposed. Walking away from the stilled body, I grinned from ear to ear, mirroring the deep gash the police would find etched in his throat.
Pushing the unfortunate memory out of her mind, Emeri twisted her mouth to the side; she knew she was going to have to talk about Mr. CT sooner or later. She couldn’t avoid the topic forever.
“I was sexually abused as a child.” She had spoken so softly that Tyson had to lean forward in his chair to hear her.
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“Did you ever tell anyone?”
&n
bsp; “No, this is my first time mentioning it.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Because I was ashamed of myself for letting it happen.”
“Emeri, look at me.” Shifting liquefied eyes to his, “There is no reason to be ashamed; this was something that was done to you, not vice versa. You are the innocent in this situation.”
Diverting her eyes once again, “I’m ashamed because as I got older, I started to like it. That’s not normal.”
“On the contrary, it is very normal for an abused person to feel that way. You’d be amazed at how many victims fall in love with their abusers over time and begin to think that they can trust no one but them. Listen to me; you’re not the only one that something like this has happened to.”
“Then why do I feel as if I’m in a world of one, where no one can understand?”
“Because you’ve kept this bottled up for so long. I’m going to recommend that you start attending a support group for people that have suffered from sexual abuse, so that you can see that you are most certainly not in a world of one. Would you consider going down to the station and filing a police report about the person that did this to you?”
“There is no need.”
“Are you sure? I know it’s been a while, but the court system can still make them pay for what they did to you.”
“He’s dead.” Tyson stopped writing when she said that last statement with such finality in her voice.
“Okay. Do you know how he died?”
“Yeah, I killed him.”
Ill prepared for Emeri’s confession, Tyson was, for the first time in his career at a loss for words. He had never suffered abuse. His own family had been a nurturing and loving one.
Considering the notes that he had read in Emeri’s file, he knew she was pretty messed up, mainly because she hadn’t grown up with the father that she had yearned for, but he had no idea that another big reason stemmed from sexual abuse as a child. Put in her position, he didn’t really blame her for killing her abuser. He probably would have done the same if the opportunity presented itself.
“Did that shock you? You’ve read my file, they say I’m crazy, you shouldn’t be surprised.”
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