“Cashmere, get the fuck out of my—”
“What you tell my child, bitch?”
My aunt’s eyes were wide. “What? Nothing?”
“Bitch! What the fuck did you tell my child?”
My aunt had fear in her eyes. But her pride outshined it. “I told her the truth! It’s about time somebody did.”
I secretly hoped that my aunt didn’t mention what she told me about my daddy.
“The truth huh? Well you know what, let’s tell the truth.” My mom looked at me. “Baby. I was not totally honest about some things. Yes, I was a prostitute and I was addicted to X. But what your aunt is not telling you is that she had the power to stop all of that shit! Only she chose not to because she was such a miserable, insecure bitch trying to protect her sorry-ass husband. Dominique. She put me out when I was only thirteen. Your age. A baby. Remember that aunt? When I came back here and told you what my sister Desiree did? Remember what you told me? You put your niece out in the streets because you refused to accept the fact that your husband wasn’t shit! His not being shit had nothing to do with me. So instead of accepting reality you chose to accept fiction. That he was okay even after he fucked my sister! It was better to get rid of the proof that he wasn’t shit than get rid of the shit. Yet that shit still exist and I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard about him fucking other women, strippers, prostitutes, strawberries still to this day!” My mother stomped one of her feet and my aunt’s eyes were wide at the admission.
“The sad part about you is that your piece of shit husband tried to rape me and I didn’t tell you. My aunt. My flesh and blood because I knew you wouldn’t believe me and I was afraid you’d put me out. You were all the family I had left. You pushed me to the streets. From that point forward, everything that happened to me was against my will. I was a victim! I have always been a victim in all of this. And I never, ever set out to kill my sister. Damn you to hell for telling her that! Despite how bad my sister was I loved her! Her death was an accident. So how dare you sit there and judge me and tell my child lies to make her hate me, bitch!”
God the look in my mother’s eyes was so hateful I had to look away. “But I’ll tell you who I wouldn’t mind killing off. You. Forgive me, God, but, Auntie, I should have murdered you the last time I was here.”
My aunt backed up some more. My mom came forward some more.
“I’m about to destroy this whole house and you and my mama and your piece of shit husband can’t save you this time!” Without reprieve, in a rage, my mom started flipping couches over. She slammed my aunt’s flat screen into the wall along with her DVD and surround sound speakers. She knocked over lamps, the pictures on the wall.
All the while my aunt screamed as she rushed over to her phone and called 911. “Yes, I have an intruder in my house. 9533 Butler Avenue. Nooooo!”
My mom paused in front of a huge cabinet with glass china in it. Pretty pieces sparkled behind the glass.
My mother knocked the entire cabinet over.
My aunt covered her face with both her hands in disbelief.
“I’m not done with you, bitch!” Then she went after my aunt. My aunt took off running but she was no match for my mom who grabbed my aunt by her wig and started throwing blows to the back of her head, all while saying, “Bitch, you turned my daughter against me. You didn’t have the motherfucking right. After what I been through and you could have stopped all of it. You hateful, miserable bitch. Everything you have done to me I let you get away with. But not this time. This time I’m not turning the other cheek.”
My aunt spun around and tried to grab my mom. But my mother backed up and squared up. “Bitch, I been waiting for this moment since I was thirteen. I want to kill you I hate you so much!” She started punching my aunt in her mouth and every time my aunt took a swing my mother backed up or ducked like a skilled fighter. My mother gripped my aunt’s head in her hands and started kicking her.
My mom continued to kick my aunt in her head like she wanted to kill her. My mother used all her strength to body slam my aunt into the floor. I could still hear my aunt screaming.
Suddenly, I could hear sirens getting closer and closer. But my mom didn’t seem to care about them one bit.
My mother stood over her. “Bitch, don’t you ever say a word to my daughter or I will come back and kill you.”
I could hear feet pounding on the pavement. From one of my aunt’s open windows I saw four police run in the yard and up the steps, and they poured into the living room. They had their guns drawn and they all shouted, “Police! Get your hands up!”
I put my hands up and watched as my mother froze over my aunt. One of the officers secured me and placed my hands in cuffs.
“Get your hands up!” one of them repeated to my mother.
My mother took a deep breath and released my auntie. Two of the cops came forward and tackled my mother to the floor. They placed her in handcuffs.
My mother looked my way and her eyes widened. “Wait!” my mother demanded. “Don’t take my daughter to juvenile hall! She had nothing do with this! Call my mother please and have her released to her. Please.”
“Yes, she did! She was helping her destroy my house and she participated in assaulting me!” my aunt yelled.
I gasped and looked at my aunt.
“Bitch!” my mother tried to go toward my aunt.
“Hey shut the fuck up!” one of the cops yelled in my mother’s ear. They held on to her and she struggled against them.
“My daughter didn’t have nothing to do with this shit!” my mother insisted. The cops escorted us outside. My mother continued to struggle the whole way. “Don’t take my daughter in!”
I was put in the back of one police car while they cops struggled to put my mother in another one. She fought them the whole time, twisting her body every which way and whatnot.
“Get the fuck in the car!” one of them yelled at my mother. At one point, one of the cops grabbed my mother’s hair and had a balled fist ready for her.
“Go ahead beat me up, motherfucker! I’m not making this shit easy. Call my mother! 661-554-2211 and have her pick my daughter up and I’ll go easily. If not y’all motherfuckers gonna need some pepper spray ’cause I’m gonna fight all the way. Jail or bullets don’t mean shit to me when y’all got my child in those cuffs for some shit she had nothing to do with.”
One of the cops, the one who told her to shut the fuck up, took a deep breath and said, “Ma’am. Because your aunt made an allegation against your daughter we have to take her in.”
“Y’all don’t understand. She didn’t do shit. My aunt is lying. My daughter just stood there! Let my child go. Call my mother to pick her up please!”
But they ignored my mother and she continued struggling against them. But they managed to get her in the car despite her fighting them. At one point she was sprayed with something and hit several times with their billy clubs. The car I was in drove behind them; my mother screamed and cried all the way to the station. And I was honestly scared because I had never been locked up before. How would I survive that?
Chapter 31
Cashmere
I slid in the passenger seat of Bev’s car, taking a deep breath. She leaned over and hugged me, then demanded, “Girl! What in the world?”
Once I got booked I was allowed a phone call so I called my mother and demanded that she and her husband do something about the predicament I was in.
“Mom, you gotta get Dominique released. She didn’t do shit. Your sister is lying.”
“Well why were you even over there?”
“’Cause your sister ran her fucking mouth to Dom that’s why! She told her stuff that turned Dominique on me and into the hands of leeches that are tricking my daughter off! Look I ain’t got the time to go into all of this. Can you have your husband do something and get her out? And then get her, Mom. I don’t want her out of your sight. And bail me out if you don’t wanna be bothered with her.”
“We
ll, Cash, Hank is retired.”
I closed my eyes briefly. I did not want my daughter locked up so she could learn how to be a fucking criminal. Get introduced to some bullshit or even one of the pimps of the girls who’s locked up. A lot of networking happened in prison. I didn’t want her to have anything on her juvenile record either.
“What! With all the motherfucking bragging—”
“I will see what I can do. Don’t worry.”
Three hours later I was released. When I called my mother to pick me up she said, “I’ll send someone to get you! I’m here with your fast-ass daughter at your house and if she look at me wrong again I’m going to fuck her up! Matter fact! Take your ass in your room! Cash. What happened to my sweet grandbaby?”
“Your piece of shit sister. Now. How am I free?”
“Yes. Because I talked to my sister and she dropped all the charges. And her price was almost as much as the fucking bail to do it. But hey family is family. You know you left your truck over there, girl. I had to pay Bryon to move it back to your house. Cash, you had no business going to her house in the first place! What you did was stupid. You could have killed her. I know you hate her but that’s still my sister and your aunt. Blood!”
I stopped listening after “bail.” My only concern at this point was my kid. “Mom. Listen to me. Do not let Dominique out of your sight even for a second. “
“I’m not! Relax and get your ass here so you can tend to her ass. ’Cause she burning her bridge with me, honey.”
Bev’s voice zapped me out of my thoughts. “Girl, how did this happen?” Bev demanded.
I told her everything that happened. Unlike my mother I was more comfortable talking to Bev.
“Ummmph. That miserable bitch.”
“I know. But I’m just happy that my child is not locked up and she is home because despite how I feel about the extra shit she been doing lately this really was my fault. I thank God my aunt didn’t press charges.” I just couldn’t reveal to Bev all the shit about Dom from Dame to the disgusting video that I saw. It was too shameful on me as a parent to not know what my child was doing.
“Now something you forgot to mention to me is how you know Caesar?” Bev asked.
“Well do you remember when I told you I had a crush long ago that went away to college?”
“Yeah. The rich boy.”
“That’s Caesar.”
“What?” She busted up laughing. “It’s a small-ass world.”
Thing was I never told Bev how the relationship ended. I merely told her he went away to college.
“We had sex,” I blurted.
We were down the street from my house at this point. Bev’s eyes got wide and she pulled over. “Repeat what you just said.”
“We had sex.”
Bev screamed in laughter.
“I know that’s bad huh? Since my husband just passed away a few short months ago.”
“No. It’s not. You have to move forward. And I’m happy you did. I’m also happy you chose Caesar to move on with. He really seems like a great guy. Funny thing about the entire situation is that he was who I had in mind to set you up with once I saw you were ready. Shit you beat me to it, child.”
Just then I got a text on my phone. I glanced down at it. “Speaking of the devil.”
“What? Who is it?”
“Caesar.”
The text read: You were on my mind. I wanted to make sure you were okay. Call me.
Before I could do or say anything else my phone rang. It was Caesar. “Hello?”
“Hey. I was worried about you. Are you okay?”
Hmmm. Should I tell him that I was arrested? Hell why not. He knew how my aunt was. “Well I got in a little trouble let’s just say.”
“Ahh yeah,” he said in a husky voice. “What kind of trouble?”
“I was arrested.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m grown,” I snapped.
He chuckled. “The old sassy Cashmere came out. Anyway I’m on my way over your house right now.”
“How you just gonna tell me—”
“Babe, be quiet. I’ve been worried about you. Last thing I thought was that you were locked up. I really wish you would believe in me and let me be there for you. I’ll be pulling up in a couple minutes. I don’t even need to come inside. But what I need to see with my eyes is that you’re okay, baby.” Before I could respond he hung up. I kinda liked him telling me what to do.
“Uhh. Well I’ll say.”
I looked at Bev and giggled. “You know the funny part is that when I’m with him he takes my mind off Demarco. It’s crazy to me that after all these years we were able to reconnect. And he said he doesn’t care about my past. I mean when I was out there in the streets I had slept with his brother and I told him and he still don’t care!”
“Well if he can take your mind off of Demarco and all that pain, Cashmere, I say keep him around. Look, life is just too damn short to dwell on pain and shit you can’t change. You deserve happiness, love, and some goddamn peace. And you can give all of this to yourself and quit thinking you don’t deserve that shit ’cause of your past. You were the victim, Cashmere, I tell you time and time again. But you don’t have to be a victim forever.”
“Yeah. Ms. Hope always said not to define yourself by your pain.”
“And she was right.”
“Bev, I’m going to tell you something I never told a soul.”
“Okay.”
“Another reason why I stayed with Demarco is because I didn’t think another man would want me because of my past.”
“That’s some bullshit. And someone just showed you that that’s not the case.”
“Yep. Well if I can get things in order with my child, then maybe just maybe there can be some sort of future with Caesar. But we’d have to take it slow.”
Just then some headlights shined behind us and parked on the street adjacent to my house.
Bev busted up laughing. “Ain’t that some shit.”
With the quickness, I hopped out her truck. “Let me see what he wants.” I tried to sound like I didn’t care. But I wanted to be in Caesar’s arms again. They comforted me and made me feel like everything was going to be okay. I needed that feeling again.
Bev saw right through it and started laughing while saying, “Yeah, Right. Handle your business, baby girl.”
“Thanks for being here for me. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, baby. Kiss Dominique for me. Tell her I still love her.”
I chuckled and walked to Caesar’s squad car. He was getting out of his and I ran up to him and gave him a hug. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey,” I whispered against his chest. Something about being in his arms . . . I don’t know. It made me feel like I could be vulnerable and completely break down. So that’s what I did. I let more tears out. “I don’t know where to start. Dominique knows the truth about my past. My aunt told her. One thing led to another and I ended up I jail.”
“So your aunt’s still up to her same trouble? You know what? That is a miserable woman. She is really no better than my mother. Did you bond out?”
“Yeah. And my mom was able to get my aunt to drop the charges.”
“Cashmere. Next time something like that happens call me.”
“I didn’t want to get you caught up in that shit. You’re a cop; how embarrassing for you.”
He lifted my chin. “Look at me, baby. And listen well. Next time something goes down, I don’t care what it is, call me and I will be there for you. Cashmere, stop thinking you can do all on your own; if you need me, it makes you no more weak. I told you I would be there for you and I will. From this point on I always will.”
Why did all of what he just said give me butterflies? Like I was that same thirteen-year-old girl all over again. I believed what he said despite my trust issues. Naturally, my reaction to what he said was calm. I felt no need to question it. That was my first instinct. Then
when I started to overthink, that’s where the doubt came in. But I pushed those thoughts out of my head. Shit I had to trust someone.
“Okay. I have so much going on. I have to get everything settled with Dom. I need to get her in a detox and some counseling because I know she is on something.” But the thought of that led to a whole ’notha can of worms.
Thing was if the question came up about who Dominique’s father was, what did I do? Did I tell her who her real father was? All the bad things he had subjected me to? Damn my aunt to hell for speaking on this shit to my baby. And damn myself for never quite coming clean. But I was trying to protect her and also maybe I didn’t want her to see me in a negative light. But the fact of the matter was she did now and she hated my guts. I had to find some way to fix this before my daughter’s life was ruined.
“So I know I never ask but how are things with you?”
“Pretty good; thanks for asking, babe. Just working hard. I’m investigating the death of a young girl who died from taking this new form of ecstasy called molly. She was only fourteen. I’ve been questioning witnesses all day but I think I have a crack in the case. There’s a woman who I believe was supplying those girls in Starz with the drug. I’m going to question her tonight. I’ve been looking for her for the past three days.”
I stopped listening after he said “fourteen.” It made my heart speed up. Shit that could have been my child. I really had to get a hold on this shit. I had to save my baby before it was too late.
“Well I have to get inside and check on Dominique. When I get things in order I’ll give you a call okay?”
“Okay, baby.” He kissed me on my lips. It gave me instant butterflies again! I blushed and looked down at my feet.
As I turned to walk away he said, “Hey, Cashmere.”
I turned around quickly.
He stared at me and said, “Is it possible to love the same person for all these years?”
The People vs. Cashmere 2 Page 17
