Her eyes swelled with tears as she thought about the haunting secrets of her own past. There were nights when she woke up in a sweat, terrified that Derek or God forbid, her friends and family, would discover the dark secret she herself was hiding.
She never intended to do anything to break the law, but she had to save him. She couldn’t stand back and watch him being abused. He was just a child. A little boy with no one to care about him.
The day it happened, Peyton knew that God was on her side. The little boy had been left at home all alone; and it just happened to be the day before she was scheduled to return to Chicago, where she’d established a comfortable life.
For the past two months, she had been in Memphis after moving there because of Winston, a wonderful man she had met online. After communicating back and forth for almost a year, she accepted his offer to come and visit him for a couple of weeks. Winston had come to see her in Chicago a few times during their long distance relationship, so they both had hopes that their relationship could work. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way after she made the trip to Memphis. He was a really nice guy, but he did not satisfy her at all. They both finally concluded that there was no real love connection.
As a sales and marketing executive for a national pharmaceutical company, Peyton was blessed to be in a position to work from just about any location outside her company’s headquarters in Chicago. She hung around Memphis, enjoying the city and working from a loft apartment she short term leased in downtown Memphis.
While in Memphis, Peyton reached out on Facebook and found one of her old college friends named Breyonna. She thought it would be nice to see Breyonna after all this time, plus it would hopefully give her someone to hang out with while she was in Memphis.
It took a couple of weeks before Peyton heard back from Breyonna, but she was excited to learn that Breyonna still lived in the city. The two former friends decided to meet for lunch downtown. When Peyton met up with her, she immediately saw that Breyonna hadn’t fared as well as she had when she was in college. In fact, Breyonna’s life was troubled and harsh. Breyonna confessed that she was a heroin addict.
Peyton helped Breyonna by buying her a few items of clothing, giving her money for food, and she even paid Breyonna’s rent when she learned that she was about to be evicted. Breyonna started calling Peyton. Sometimes they talked like normal. A couple of times, she met up with Breyonna and they went out to eat. Breyonna ate like a rabbit. She would much rather have drugs.
Peyton grew somewhat concerned when she received a phone call from her late one evening. Breyonna told her she was in trouble and she needed her help. The phone went dead while Breyonna was talking. Peyton tried to call her back but the phone went to voicemail. She tried several more times, and the same thing happened. The following day, Peyton tried calling Breyonna again, but she still couldn’t get in touch with her. This time when she called her, the number she’d given Peyton was disconnected, and when Peyton went on Facebook to try to track her down, Breyonna’s page was deactivated. Peyton grew worried because usually, every few days, Breyonna would call and ask her for a few dollars. Peyton was no fool; she knew that Breyonna was more than likely using the money to buy drugs, but Peyton had a soft spot for the girl, especially after Breyonna told her that she had a little boy.
Peyton decided that she would go check on Breyonna at her apartment which was located in a gang and drug infested neighborhood. Peyton had been there twice before, but had never gone inside. She hoped Breyonna and her son were okay. She’d heard too many horror stories about drug addicted mothers and their kids, and she hoped Breyonna hadn’t become a statistic.
Peyton thought about the last time she saw Breyonna. Breyonna had her son with her. He looked dirty, hungry, and frightened. Peyton took the both of them to get something to eat. She even bought the little boy a toy. Before she dropped them off at her apartment, Peyton strongly cautioned Breyonna to take better care of her child before the authorities stepped in and took him away.
When she arrived unannounced that morning, Peyton knocked on the door to the apartment. No one answered. She knocked several more times. She was about to leave when she heard a childlike cry coming from the other side of the apartment door. She knocked on the door again. Still, no answer. Peyton, frightened and nervous, turned the doorknob, and much to her surprise, it was unlocked. She called Breyonna’s name as she slowly opened the door. The stench filled her nostrils as she called Breyonna’s name again, making another step into the apartment. It was filthy. Trash was everywhere.
Peyton walked deeper into the apartment. She was stunned when she saw the little boy huddled on the side of the bed, crying. Peyton picked him up gingerly. His hands and arms were riddled with bruises. She had to call the police, someone to come and get the child. Just as she was about to contact the authorities, Breyonna appeared. From the look on her face, Peyton could tell that she was high.
“What are you doing with my kid?” Breyonna charged at Peyton. “Give me my kid,” she said followed by a long stream of expletives as she reached out to take the toddler away from Peyton.
“What is wrong with you? Why would you leave him alone? You’re a mother. You need to stop messing with those drugs and get yourself some help.”
“I don’t need help. Plus, my li’l sister been watching him. This is my business anyway,” Breyonna lashed out.
Peyton’s hand flew up to her mouth. “What is wrong with you?”
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.” Breyonna’s words were slurred.
“You’re pathetic.”
Breyonna laughed and stumbled forward. She almost dropped the little boy from her arms, but Peyton grabbed him just in time.
“You think you can do a better job? You want him? Then gimme a grand and he’s yours.”
“What? Are you serious?” Peyton looked at the little boy and then she looked at Breyonna. “You’re crazy.”
“I would think you would want him. After all, he is Carlton Porter’s kid. You still love you some Carlton, I bet.” Breyonna teased and laughed, while struggling to maintain her balance. Her eyes looked like she could hardly see.
“Girl, you sound crazy and stupid! You’re more than high, you’re delusional.”
“Oh, it’s his kid alright and that’s fa sho. And you don’t know everything about Carlton’s business. I bet you didn’t know that me and him hook up and get our high on together every time he comes through Memphis for one of those church conventions he attends.”
“I don’t believe that!” Peyton shouted, holding the boy tighter. “You are such a liar. You always have been.”
“I don’t have to prove anything to you, so I definitely don’t have to lie. I bet a lot of people would be shocked at the double life that man leads. Pretending like he’s so into God and all, but he hunts me down every time he sets foot in this city. He can’t get enough of this.” Breyonna pointed at herself like she was a beauty queen. She used to be a beautiful girl but drugs had aged her considerably. “He loves to get high, too. So I give him everything he wants when he’s here. And this is what he left me with the last time he hit this city.” She looked at the little boy with disgust who appeared to be a little over one but not quite two years old.
Peyton was absolutely appalled at all the things Breyonna told her.
“Anyway, this kid ain’t nothing but trouble. He’s holding me back. The next time he came here, I was going to tell Carlton that he knocked me up, but now that you’ve come along…anyway, what you wanna do? You want him or not?”
Peyton didn’t think a second too long. She drove to the bank with Breyonna and the little boy, withdrew the money, and gave it to her in exchange for the little boy - that was the day Peyton became a mother.
That happened twelve years ago, and she hadn’t heard anything from Breyonna since. Through the years, Peyton searched online and on social media, but she couldn’t find anything about her. She started to hire a private investigat
or but decided against it. She felt it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. As far as the boy being Carlton Porter’s kid, Peyton believed Breyonna told her that to toy around with her because she knew that Peyton used to be in love with Carlton. Their relationship didn’t work out because back then Carlton had a strong penchant for messing around with lots of girls and drugs.
After graduating from ACU, with the help of his father, Carlton secured a high-level position at a medical device company in Adverse City. He began to carve a highly successful life and career for himself but the call to ministry was something he could not seem to shake, so he returned to school and studied theology. Fresh out of divinity school, Carlton met and later married Meesha. He founded Perfecting Your Faith shortly thereafter. All Meesha ever knew was that Peyton and Carlton knew each other from when they both attended ACU.
Peyton returned to Chicago with the little boy that she told everyone she had adopted. She later met Derek, fell in love, got married, and moved to Florida. With each day that passed, Peyton convinced herself over the years that it was God who had allowed her to find love, unconditional love, in a little unwanted boy she named Liam.
Chapter 9
“I wish you told me from the start that you were gonna break my heart.” Unknown
The housewives gathered at Zodiac Café at Neiman Marcus, one of their favorite places to meet. It was located inside Bal Harbour Shops, an upscale, open-air shopping mall they frequented. This was the first ladies’ day out they’d had since Avery was discharged from the hospital three weeks ago.
They studied their menus while they talked and caught up on what had been going on in each of their lives.
“Meesha, you’re awfully quiet. What’s on your mind?” Eva asked, looking up from her menu.
Peyton stared and so did Avery.
“Why are you all staring at me?”
“Like Eva said, you’re sitting over there all quiet. Something’s on your mind,” Peyton spoke up.
“She’s trying to decide what she’s going to eat,” Avery replied.
“Avery’s right. I’m trying to decide what I’m having today.”
“Girl, we’ve been to this place a hundred times, and you order the same thing every time. You know the menu like you know the back of your hand, so don’t play. Now, tell us what’s going on,” Peyton insisted.
Meesha laid the menu down on the table, pursed her lips, and looked at each one of her friends like she was trying to decide if she could trust them. She finally released an audible sigh, closed and opened her eyes and then spoke.
“Carlton wants a divorce.”
Eva’s hand flew up to her mouth. Peyton picked up her glass and took a big swallow of her cosmopolitan.
Avery immediately spoke. “You can’t be serious. Please tell us this is some kind of joke.”
“I wish I could tell you that I was joking, but I can’t.” Her eyes teared up.
The waitress came to take their orders so the housewives put their conversation on pause, placed their orders, and waited for the waitress to turn and leave.
“But why?” Avery inquired.
“Yeah, why?” asked Eva. “You and Carlton are the perfect couple. I’ve never even heard that man say one cross word to you.”
“Well, nothing surprises me these days. I don’t care how perfect things look on the outside.”
Eva rolled her eyes at Peyton. “Do you have a sympathetic bone in your body?” she recoiled.
“I’m just telling you what God loves—the truth.”
“When did he tell you?” Eva turned from Peyton and looked at Meesha who was wiping a tear from her face with the ball of her finger.
“A few days ago,” Meesha explained, looking briefly at Eva. “He said he couldn’t do it anymore. Said he wasn’t happy and that he hadn’t been happy for a long time. He swore that it wasn’t another woman, but he had been praying about it for a long time, and he felt finally that God had released him to tell me how he felt.” More tears came.
“That’s a bunch of crap,” Peyton retorted. “There’s no way a man, especially a man like Carlton Porter, is going to tell you he wants a divorce because he isn’t happy. There has to be a woman, or, God forbid, I hope it isn’t a man in his life.”
“You’re too much,” Avery said. “A man? Why are your thoughts so perverted?”
“That’s not perverted; that’s just real talk. You, of all people, should know how freaky people can be,” Peyton bit back.
“You know what, Peyton, I don’t see why Derek stays with you. You’re nothing but a drunk and a hater. No wonder he’s disgusted by you,” Avery snapped.
Peyton rolled her eyes at Avery, hurriedly picked up her glass, and took the last swallow of her drink. “Excuse me,” she said to their waitress when she saw her waiting on one of the customers nearby. “Bring me a vodka on the rocks.”
“Drinking yourself to death is not going to make your problems go away,” Avery told her.
“Neither is choking down a bottle full of Percocet,” Peyton replied with a tinge of venom in her voice. “But you did it. Now what?” she retorted angrily.
“Stop it, both of you,” Eva scolded under her breath. “This is not the time or the place. Meesha,” Eva said. “If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”
“He said he felt like a hypocrite standing in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday knowing that he didn’t feel the way he once felt about me. He said he wanted the divorce to be quiet and that he would give me the house, and make sure me and the kids were financially taken care of. He even went so far as to say that he had already spoken to an attorney that guess who recommended?” Meesha eyed Avery.
“Ryker?” said Eva.
“Ryker?” repeated Avery. “I swear I didn’t know. He hasn’t said a word to me.”
“Well, your husband referred him to a divorce lawyer, one of the best from what I’ve heard. But it’s all good. I can’t fault Ryker or anyone else for Carlton’s actions.”
“That insensitive dog,” mouthed Peyton.
The waitress interrupted their conversation once more, placing their orders on the table.
The ladies toyed around with their food and for several moments they sat at the table engaged in silence.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Meesha said, breaking the silence, as she used her fork to stir around in her vegetable fruit salad. “He hasn’t said anything about moving out. It’s like he told me all of this in one day, and he hasn’t said anything since.”
Eva used her fork to slice off a piece of her blackened salmon and put it in her mouth. “I don’t know what to say. I do know that if I were you, I would not let him have custody of my children.”
“You don’t know what you would do, Eva. You don’t have children, so don’t be so quick to shell out parental advice,” Peyton warned.
Eva looked hurt by Peyton’s remarks. “You can be so cruel when you drink,” Eva told her.
“What I said has nothing to do with drinking. It’s the truth. You shouldn’t do that.”
Avery spoke up and turned her attention to Meesha. “We’re here for you. Just let us know what you need.” Avery looked at Peyton and Eva before returning her gaze toward Meesha.
Meesha opened her bag and brought out some tissue. She wiped her tears a final time before saying, “God is not going to let this happen. Carlton is going to realize that he loves me and that we’re supposed to be together until death do us part. Everything is going to work out. It has to.”
Peyton, who minutes earlier had been condescending, reached across the table, taking hold of Meesha’s hand. “You’re right. Everything is going to work out just fine. You’ll see. Don’t you worry about a thing.”
After they finished eating, the women convinced Meesha to join them on a shopping excursion. At first Meesha balked against the idea. All she wanted to do was go home, and crawl up in her bed.
“Look, you know what I just went through, Meesha. It’s o
nly by the grace of God that I’m still alive. I don’t want you to sink into a deep hole of depression like I did. I’m still trying to recover. But, slowly I’m beginning to understand that no matter how bad things get, it’s not worth giving up on life and living.” Avery stood in front of Meesha as the women surrounded her outside in the restaurant parking lot.
“Avery’s right. I know it hurts. I can’t even begin to imagine your pain, but you have a strong belief system,” Eva reminded her. “You’re always telling us to seek God, to have faith, and to never give up. Well, we’re here to remind you that you have to do the same. You can’t throw in the towel. You can’t allow Carlton to make you give up on your faith.”
“God is in control. Isn’t that what you always say?” said Peyton.
Meesha wiped more tears from her face. Eva stepped closer to her as Avery moved slightly to the side. Eva wrapped her arms around her friend. Avery and Peyton joined in and the three of them held on to Meesha as if they were trying desperately to save her life.
As they stepped back, Meesha looked at her friends. “Okay, I’ll go, but I have to be back in time to pick up the boys.”
“You’ll be back in time,” Eva assured her.
“You all can leave your cars here, and ride with me,” Avery offered.
“No, that’s okay. I’ll drive my own car,” said Meesha. “I’ll be fine.”
“Peyton, you already know that we are not going to let you drive, so what’s it going to be? Who are you riding with?” asked Eva.
“I’ll ride with Meesha since you have Avery with you. I’ll come back and get my car later, or I’ll get someone to get it for me.”
“Come on. My car is right over there,” Meesha said, pointing to the right of her.
“We’ll meet you there,” Eva said as she and Avery turned away from Meesha and Peyton and walked the few steps to Eva’s car.
The Real Housewives of Adverse City Page 4
