I was so sick and tired of his shit! I got up from the couch and went to our bedroom to watch TBS. I was through dealing with the drama of his kids. It was enough I didn’t know he had four only to find out he has another.
It was almost at the end of the movie when I heard Jeremy coming down the hall. I looked up to see him standing in the doorway.
“Angel, you’re right. I’ll tell her we’re just getting Jazzy.”
I nodded, even though I had a feeling this conversation was far from over.
42
JANELLE
“Please let her be a’ight.”
I was driving like a crazy woman trying to get to the University Hospital and Clinics. I had gotten a call Mommy’s sugar had dropped so low she was delirious.
Ever since I caught her in bed with Uncle Todd I hadn’t been around anymore than needed, and now I was praying for a chance to talk to my mother again.
By the time I made it to the emergency room I was frantic. The nurse directed me to her room and I hurried down the long hall. The moment I stepped inside, I released a sigh of relief. Mommy was sitting up in bed watching television.
“Mommy, you scared me!” I said as I came around to the side of the bed and pressed my lips to her cheek. It felt so good to be able to do that again.
She waved her hand dismissively. “I don’t know why they’re making such a fuss. I’m fine.”
I lowered onto one of those hard plastic chairs. “Mommy you couldn’t have been okay, otherwise your nurse wouldna called the ambulance.”
“All she had to do was give me some orange juice,” she explained with a scowl.
“She wasn’t risking her license fooling with your mess.” She just scowled, which pissed me off even more. “Mommy you really need to start listening to your doctor before you lose more than a leg.”
For once she actually looked scared.
A nurse came in and checked her vital signs and explained they were waiting for her blood work to come back before she could be released. I figured we’d be there at least another hour or two so I clicked on the evening news and eased back on the chair. It was my Saturday off, so I had nothing but time.
We were sitting there talking when I heard a soft knock and the curtain was pulled back. As soon as I saw who was standing there, I frowned. “What are you doing here?”
“I just found out your mother had been brought in,” he said, ignoring my tone.
As much as I wanted to be angry at Uncle Todd’s sorry behind for showing up, there was no denying the concern in his eyes.
“Sweetie, how are you feeling?”
Mommy waved an impatient hand. “I’m fine, really. It was a little scare. I just need to remember I can’t be skipping lunch.”
“No, you can’t,” he scolded and anyone could see he cared about my mother. However, that didn’t stop me from mumbling under my breath.
She patted his hand. “Todd… can you give me and Jae a few minutes alone, please?”
He hesitated but finally nodded, kissed her cheek, and stepped back out of the room. I leaned back in the chair and waited.
“I owe you an apology,” she finally said.
“Yes, you do,” I said and crossed my arms. I know I was acting like a spoiled brat but I didn’t care. “How could you do that to Daddy?”
“Do that to him? What about what he did to me all those years!” she cried and I flinched. Never and I mean never in the twenty years he’s been dead had she ever mentioned the way he’d treated her. “I was nothing but a good wife to him. Cooking, cleaning and raising his children yet nothing I did was ever good enough.”
She was right. It never was.
“So why didn’t you leave him?”
Mommy sighed. “I tried.”
“You did?” That was news to me. “When?” I pressed on, hoping to get her to continue.
Mommy nodded and suddenly had this distant look in her eyes. “Chile, I tried to leave him so many times I lost count! But each and every time he would make me feel so sorry for him I took him back.”
The same way he used to do to me. Daddy would play on my sympathy, beg me to forgive him.
The same way Kaleb does.
“But after a while I got tired of the mood-swings. One afternoon I packed you and Brice up and left.”
I wanted to ask her how old I was but I was afraid if I asked too many questions she’d stop talking so I just sat there and waited for her to continue.
She shifted on the bed. “I went to live with my sister, but Bradley used to come over and act a damn fool all the time. He had your auntie so scared I decided to leave.”
“Why didn’t you get your own place?” I blurted out.
“With what?” she snorted. “My good looks? I didn’t have money like that. I wasn’t working. So I went back to your father and once he knew I had nowhere else to turn, that’s when he got crazy. Nan couldn’t even control her own son.” She paused long enough to scratch her stomach through the hospital gown. “Once he started beating me again, I knew I would never be able to get away from that man. I tried going to the police but that was a waste of time. He was a cop! They were all Bradley’s buddies and they never did anything except tell me they’d talk to him. Yet it didn’t matter how many black eyes or busted lips, they still wouldn’t charge him. And he knew it.”
My stomach flipped when I spotted a tear running down her cheek she didn’t even bother wiping away. “When he started beating you and Brice, I realized just how helpless I was to do anything to help us.”
I was lost in thought as I remembered the way Mommy used to try and protect us the best way she knew how. One time Brice was playing baseball in the yard and had broken the window in the kitchen. Mommy lied and said she didn’t know what happened just to save us from a beating—Brice for breaking it, and me for failing to keep my brother out of trouble.
“By the time Todd had returned to Columbia and had rejoined the police force, things had gotten so bad I was just trying to keep the entire neighborhood from knowing what was going on in our house.”
We all were. But according to Frankie, they had known our dirty secret.
Mommy looked at me with a sad smile. “Right off the bat, Todd could tell something wasn’t right at the house, so he asked me about it. I denied it and when he confronted your father, Bradley came storming home.” She paused and drew a shaky breath. “That was the first time I was actually afraid he was going to kill one of us.”
A shivered raced up my spine at the memory. The dungeon. It was our nickname for the basement where he used to lock us when we were bad. After Uncle Todd had questioned him, my father had locked all three of us in the basement for the weekend. The dungeon was damp and full of mice. He used to unscrew all the light bulbs so the room was dark. At night, we used to climb to the top step and pray the mice didn’t come up there.
“Right after that last weekend in the dungeon, Todd came over while your father was at the range, and told me you told him about the beatings.”
“That was because he had touched my shoulder and I flinched!” I cried in a panic and realized I was still afraid of Daddy finding out I had told.
“It doesn’t matter. By that time, I just lost it and told Todd everything.”
I was afraid to ask but I did. “What happened?”
“I confronted him.”
At the boom of Uncle Todd’s voice, the color drained from my face. I watched him step back into the room and lower on the edge of the bed. This time I didn’t ask him to leave because I wanted—correction—I needed to know. “What happened?” I dared to ask and noticed I was whispering.
“I told Brad I was giving him to the end of the week to pack his shit and get out of that house. After that I was going down to the precinct with your mother to file charges that I was going to make sure stuck.” Uncle Todd turned, gazed at my mother then reached for her small hand. As soon as I saw the way the two of them looked at each other, there was no denying the love.
>
“Did you kill Daddy?” I asked suspiciously.
He looked at Mommy, meeting her watery eyes. “Go ahead and tell her,” she whispered.
I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. “Tell me what?” I asked although I was afraid at what he was about to say.
Uncle Todd finally looked my way and said, “I didn’t kill Brad. Your father killed himself.”
43
NYREE
I was sitting at my kitchen table reading the newspaper when the phone on the wall rang. Frowning, I went to retrieve the call. The only people who had the number to the apartment were doctor’s offices and telemarketers. Neither Jeremy nor I had an appointment so I was all prepared to cuss someone out for disturbing my Sunday morning. “Hello?”
“Is Jeremy there?”
This didn’t sound like any telemarketer I knew. Not with all that attitude. “Who’s asking?”
“This is Mia.” She said pronouncing every single syllable slowly like I was illiterate or something. I wasn’t about to let her know she had ticked me off.
Somehow I managed to respond without a touch of attitude, “Hello Mia, this is Jeremy’s wife, Nyree.”
She made a tsk sound. “Hello Nyree. You tell that mothafucka I want my child support!”
“We sent you your child support.” Like I said before, I pay all the bills.
“No, I’ve only been getting half my child support. I’m still waiting on the other half.”
Half? What the fuck! “I don’t know anything about that so I’ll have to have my husband call you when he gets back from the gym,” I said innocently. “But while I have you on the phone, I wanna thank you for allowing us to have Jasmine come down.”
“Excuse me, Nyree, but I didn’t even know Giggles was married. And now that I do, I understand why he suddenly has an interest in being a daddy. He must be trying to impress you.”
“Impress? I’m the one who told him to call and get Jasmine. My husband wants to be a father to his daughter. I mean come on, Mia, you conned the man into adopting your daughter, then you want child support, but yet he has to beg you to spend time with her.”
“First off, I didn’t con him into doing shit!” This wench truly had a lot of nerve barking at me.
“Oh really? He’s paying for a child that isn’t even his and then you have the audacity to ask us to keep her little friend Caitlyn as well. So tell me what do you call it?”
“I call it a mothafucka who’s got you fooled.” That bitch had the nerve to start laughing. “Now believe it or not because I really don’t give a fuck either way, but Jasmine isn’t adopted. That’s Jeremy’s biological daughter.”
Her words sent chills down to my toes. “What?”
“You heard me. And since you know so much, Caitlyn ain’t nobody’s little friend. She’s that mothafucka’s daughter, too.”
I felt a wave of panic and stumbled back over to the table and practically fell on the chair.
“Hell, I’ll even email you their fucking birth certificates if you don’t believe me.”
I wasted no time in giving her my email address. Because before I tore into my husband’s ass I needed proof.
“You tell him I better have my money wired in the morning or I’m calling my lawyer.” And then there was a click.
I paced back and forth waiting for the email. An hour later, still nothing. It took everything I had to keep it together when he came home from the gym. While Jeremy showered, I checked my email on my phone for the twentieth time feeling hopeful that Mia had been simply messing with me, but sure enough there was an email with an attachment waiting. I went over to the computer we kept in the back bedroom and took a seat. As I clicked Download, my heart raced like crazy. Please let it be a lie. I prayed over and over again and when the file finally opened my heart sank.
Jeremy’s name was on both birth certificates. And just in case I still thought Jasmine was adopted, Mia also included a copy of Jasmine’s footprints, taking the day she was born. Baby Girl Samuels. So much for being adopted.
I printed off a copy and gazed down at the evidence. Either Mia was good or they were both Jeremy’s daughters.
I was lying across the bed when he stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
“How was your workout?” I asked, trying to remain calm.
Jeremy had the nerve to be smiling. “It was good. You really need to come and join the gym with me,” he urged and walked over to his dresser.
“We might have to do that,” I mumbled then watched as he rubbed baby oil all over his hairless body. Lying bastard. “Did you get a chance to talk to Mia about Jasmine?”
He shook his head. “Nah, she hasn’t returned my call but I’m definitely going to tell her what my wife and I decided.”
I rolled over to the edge of the bed and said, “Oh well, then you might want to give her a ring. She called while you were out running. We had a pretty interesting conversation.”
He shot me a look. “What?”
Nodding, I slipped my feet into my sandals. “Oh yeah, she said to tell you the other half of her child support was late.”
At first he tried to play as if he had no idea what I was talking about but I guess he figured that move wasn’t going to work so he tried that dry laughter of his. “Oh yeah. I’ll send that to her in the morning.”
I think my puzzled expression frightened him. “Now I’m confused. I thought we paid your child support for the month?”
He gave a nervous head shake and replied casually, “No baby, you must have confused what I said. That was only half. We have to pay that same amount again in two weeks. But I guess she changed her mind and wants it all at once.”
He had some damn nerve trying to act like I was the one who was confused. “Hmmm, so I guess I’m stupid now, right?” I said and noticed the way his big shiny bald head was sweating as I reached down on the side of the bed for my purse. “So tell me… is Jasmine really adopted?”
He blew out his breath the way he always does when he doesn’t want to answer the question. “Angel, what difference does it make?” he asked suspiciously.
I looked at him with sheer disgust because that’s exactly what I was feeling at this point. “Oh it makes a difference, so I’m going to ask you again, is Jasmine adopted?” I paused, then added, “Oh and once you get done answering, let’s discuss Caitlyn too.” The color drained from his face. I was hoping he would just confess everything. Instead, he took forever to speak again. That was all the proof I needed to confirm what I already knew—I was married to a liar.
Jeremy was slipping into a pair of boxers as he said softly, “Nyree, I wish I could answer that, but I honestly don’t know if they’re really my daughters.”
My eyes nearly popped from their sockets. “Oh my God! Here we go again! When are you gonna stop with the lies?”
He turned to me. “I’m not lying.”
What hurt most was that my husband really thought I was an idiot. He managed to fool me before and he really thought he could fool me again. Sorry, not this time. “From the word go, you’ve lied to me. You’ve lied about kids, jobs, moving to Hawaii, degrees you didn’t have and now a three and a four-year-old I had no idea you had. I am sick of it. You hear me! Sick of it!”
“Angel… I just—”
“Save it!” I screamed, wishing I had followed my mind and not my heart with this man. “I’ve had it with the lies and I’ve definitely had it with you!” I left the apartment before the first tear had fallen. There was no way I was giving Jeremy the satisfaction of knowing just how devastated I was over this entire situation.
44
JANELLE
We had just finished the lunch rush and I was showing a contractor a small leak in the ceiling when the door to the restaurant opened. I looked over and spotted CJ heading my way. There were still several customers talking and eating so I waited until he was close enough before I said, “Why aren’t you at school?”
“I left early.�
�� CJ shuffled his feet slowly toward me. “Can I talk to you?”
“Where’s your father?” I asked and looked toward the door expecting Kaleb to step through the door at any moment.
He shook his head. “He doesn’t know I’m here. I caught the bus.”
I stood there with a hand at my hip gazing at him with so much resentment, CJ suddenly started rocking on the ball of his feet.
“Come, let’s go to my office.” I turned and headed toward the back and didn’t bother to check and see if he had followed me until I had reached my chair and took a seat. As soon as CJ moved inside, I pointed toward the door. “Close it and have a seat.”
“Yes ma’am.” He looked so afraid I almost expected him to bolt out the room. Instead he closed the door with a click then slipped onto the chair across from me.
“What can I do for you?” I sat there with my arms crossed waiting for him to find the courage to talk. Under normal circumstances, I might have taken pity on the kid and helped eased his mind. But I don’t forget that damn easy.
“I-I wanted to tell you… I’m sorry,” he stammered nervously.
“Sorry for what?” I asked, while tapping an impatient fingernail onto the table.
“Sorry for lying on you.” There was that damn rocking again.
“Help me to understand why you would tell your counselor those lies.”
Rock. Rock. “Because I was mad.”
“Mad? Mad about what?” I didn’t mean to snap, but I did.
“I…” He swallowed. “I was mad because you left me. You promised to be my stepmother.” Rock. Rock. Rock.
Damn, I did promise. My voice softened. “I know and I am sorry. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want. But, it has nothing to do with you.”
His lips quivered. “But I-I was hurt.”
“And you think I wasn’t hurt when you said those mean things about me to your counselor?” CJ pushed his glasses onto his face and looked on the verge of tears. “All I have tried to do was provide a little normalcy to your life. Lord knows I never had any in my life but I thought you and I understood each other.”
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