Authors: Angela Winters

Almost Doesn't Count (20 page)

BOOK: Almost Doesn't Count

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She turned to Jonah. “I have to go.”

“We should talk soon.”

She shrugged. “I'll see. Good night, Jonah.”

“Good night, Erica.”

She took a few steps forward before looking back at him. He was still looking at her and she saw a tenderness in his eyes that she wished didn't reach her. She had to be careful. Terrell was right. Every girl wants a daddy and she was no exception. This man was her father and she had to consider that some relationship, any kind, was better than none. Wasn't it?

Playing with Cady in the backseat of her car while it was parked on Eighteenth and M Streets in DC still wasn't enough of a distraction from the insanity of what Sherise was doing. This was her life now? It wasn't acceptable for her. She didn't know how it could be for any woman.

She looked out across the street at the office building her husband had gone in for his two
P.M.
meeting with a client. She had been following him since that morning, but nothing much had happened. At least not from this end.

Sherise felt like she was in some kind of daze, a nightmare that she might wake up from. She imagined that was the only reason why she hadn't gone insane after last night's revelations. Neither LaKeisha nor the waiter, whom Sherise found and dragged around the ballroom in search of Jennifer, could find her. She had gone. Sherise ignored LaKeisha's request she meet with Northman. Instead, she grabbed a cab home immediately.

Jennifer Ross was not on Google. At least not the one she was looking for. When found, Jennifer was either some elderly woman, white, too young, or from out of the country. LaKeisha didn't have much information for her, but Jennifer was a very attractive black woman in her early thirties. She had long, auburn hair and hazel eyes. LaKeisha knew her only through a friend that Sherise did not know, but knew her to be part of the society set in the Dallas area who used to live in the Maryland suburbs of DC for a few years.

Who was this woman and why did she have it out for her? Was she someone Sherise had stepped on to get to the top? She was a coldhearted warrior when it came to her own interests and had made more than a few enemies, but she remembered her enemies for the sole purpose of being on the lookout for revenge. How many times had someone she'd just screwed over for a promotion or stolen credit from told her she was going to get what was coming to her or karma was a bitch? Or maybe this woman had no idea who she was but was out to get her based solely on the fact that she wanted her husband. That, however, would not explain the message on the napkin. It was so confusing, it made Sherise's head want to split open.

Putting all of these elements together, nothing led her to this woman online. This amazed Sherise. In a day like today, how could someone not be traceable online? It was probably just a coincidence but it made her more paranoid. It seemed like the only way for someone to be this hard to find online was because they were purposefully trying to stay hidden. So who was she dealing with?

And, after nearly tearing her bedroom and the home office apart that morning, Sherise was getting desperate. If she was going to find out what was going on, she would have to follow Justin.

She had thought herself insane to suspect that Justin was behind the records request from the doctor's office, but she felt almost certain that the two were connected. The day she received the fax that had been sent to her doctor's office, she hadn't put the two together, but she had last night. The fax number showed the fax had been sent from the Fairmont Hotel. What she'd forgotten was that first day, the one when her suspicions began while sitting in the courtyard of the Blue Duck Tavern; the man she'd thought resembled her husband jumping into a cab had been doing that a few steps from the Fairmont Hotel.

Her mind raced, wondering why Justin and his lover would do this? Was it because she wasn't getting pregnant that he began to suspect something was up with Cady? Medical records alone wouldn't prove anything. There had never been a paternity test. If he wanted to know, all he'd have to do is get a sample himself.

She had checked Cady from head to toe that morning to see if there had been a prick anywhere someone might have taken a blood sample, but there wasn't. There was no way that could happen to her baby and she wouldn't know it. So what did they want with the records for and what were they going toâ

“Oh, shit,” she said as she leaped into the front seat of her Lexus SUV.

Justin had just stepped out of the building and was heading to the corner to catch a cab.

Just then, the phone rang. It was Billie. She put on the headset so she could talk and drive, and then started her car.

“What did you find out?” Sherise asked as soon as she answered.

“Nothing,” Billie said. “I spent all morning on this, Sherise. That woman has no connection to this firm. I can ask around, but . . .”

“No,” Sherise said. “Too many people will know someone is asking about her. It'll get back to her. I need to catch her off guard. Justin just left his meeting.”

Billie suddenly had flashbacks of driving around DC in her car in search of her cheating husband and his girlfriend, the perky, cheerleader stereotype Claire. It was sickening to think of another woman going through that.

“Just confront him, Sherise,” she said. “This is ridiculous. Demand answers.”

“I can't do that yet, Billie. I have to know more.”

Sherise was at the end of her rope. She needed to let it all out, but couldn't bear the thought of revealing her sins, even to her best friend. She was too ashamed, too afraid.

Justin finally caught a cab and Sherise picked up the pace to follow.

“What's wrong with you?” Billie asked. “You're holding out on me. Don't deny it, Sherise. I know you better than you know yourself.”

No, you don't,
she thought.
If you did, you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore.

“No, I'm not. I just don't like going in blind.”

The truth was, this was about more than an affair. This was about someone with an agenda for revenge. Most importantly, this was about her baby, and there wasn't a chance in hell Sherise was going to make her fight public without knowing what was up.

“Look, honey,” Sherise said. “I appreciate all of this. Call me if you know more. He's due back at the office, but he's headed in the wrong direction. I think I have something here. I'll talk to you later.”

Sherise was a seasoned DC driver, so she maintained a good distance behind the cab. It took only a few minutes for her to get a feeling in the pit of stomach that it was about to go off. She knew the streets of northwest DC well, and not only was Justin going in a direction away from his office, he was going toward the Foggy Bottom area. After Foggy Bottom was the West End neighborhood. West End and the Fairmont Hotel.

By the time the cab reached the Fairmont, with Sherise only two cars behind, she was gripping the steering wheel so hard she was losing all the color in her hands.

“You son of a bitch!” she yelled.

She quickly passed the hotel as the cab went into its driveway. She reached the alley between the hotel and another building. She was about to pull out so she could find a place to park facing the hotel, but she realized that Justin stopped as soon as he got out of the car.

He looked around and she panicked. Did he see her? She suddenly realized that she was stupidly driving her own car, which he could recognize in a second.

“Well,” she said, putting the car in park. “If it's about to go off, then so be it.”

She waited for him to notice her. She wasn't that far away. He wasn't moving, so she stayed where she was. An employee of the hotel, standing near the side employee entrance to get a smoke on his break, looked at her like she was crazy. Yes, she knew she couldn't park there and she knew she was blocking the alley, but just try to ask her to move.

Sherise grabbed her phone to take pictures. Just then, whatever Justin was looking for, he saw. He cautiously put his hand up for a tepid hello and smiled. Following his line of sight, Sherise saw a blue BMW slow down in front of the hotel. She could tell the driver was a woman from the long hair, but the reflection from the windshield was preventing her from getting a good look at her.

Sherise felt her heart stop and time move at a snail's pace as the woman stopped in the entrance to the driveway. Justin started walking toward the car. He grabbed the door handle and opened the door. He was blocking her view of the woman as he got in.

He's my husband,
she was saying to herself.
He is my husband!
She felt enraged and defeated at the same time. It wasn't until the woman started backing out of the driveway that she realized she hadn't taken any pictures. It was too late. She tossed the phone in the passenger seat as she put her SUV back in drive.

“Dammit!” she yelled as a taxi drove by at turtle speed just as she was trying back out of the alley.

The woman had already cleared the driveway and was heading back down Twenty-fourth Street.

“Move!” Sherise honked her horn.

Finally the taxi cleared the alley, so she backed up. Still, this same car was traveling at a snail's speed toward the hotel.

Sherise slammed on her horn as the woman's car turned right on M Street and picked up pace.

When the taxi slowed into the driveway of the hotel, Sherise swerved around him and slammed on the gas. The light turned red just as she reached it, but she didn't care. She turned a hard right and headed down M.

She searched for the blue BMW and spotted it making a left on Twenty-fifth. She sped up and did the same.

There was only one car between them when the next light turned yellow. The BMW sped through the light and right down Pennsylvania, but Sherise was trapped. The car in front of her, a van, stepped on the brakes.

“Motherâ” Sherise realized she couldn't drive on the sidewalk to her right and there was traffic in the lane to her left going the opposite way. She had her baby in her car. She couldn't be reckless. Not even Justin was worth that.

“I failed,” she whispered to herself as her head lowered and she hugged the steering wheel.

She thought she'd meant that because she had been unable to keep up with them, but she realized she didn't. She had failed in so many ways, and even though she wanted to hate Justin, she couldn't blame him. She had been an awful wife, a liar, and a cheat. She had regretted her choices before, but suddenly it all came at her like a brick to the face at fifty miles an hour. Regret was crippling and she could feel her knees getting weak.

She was willing to take the punishment for all of this, but no matter what, she wouldn't let anyone hurt her baby.

She took a deep breath and lifted her head. The light turned green, and after taking one quick glance back at her baby, Sherise faced forward and stepped on the gas. She was living the consequences of her own choice and she had to face this head-on. But she wasn't alone. She was never alone. It was time to lay it all on the table, and maybe if she was lucky, really lucky, she could save her marriage and keep Cady's family together.

“Look at yooouuu!” Mabel Peterson opened her arms wide as she rushed out from behind her desk toward Erica.

“Hi, Mrs. Peterson.” Erica smiled and braced for the hug.

Mabel Peterson was a very large woman, and Erica had endured her very warm and tight embraces for as long as she could remember. She usually let go when you told her you couldn't breathe anymore.

“Stop that.” Mabel released her to look her over. “You're a big girl now, you can call me Mabel.”

“My mother wouldn't like that,” Erica said.

“Bless her heart.” Mabel, a devout catholic woman, made the symbol of the cross across her chest. “I miss her so much, but I'm so glad to see you. You never come by here anymore.”

Here was Sibley Hospital. This was the place that Erica's mother, Achelle, Mabel, and one other woman were the only black nurses working there a few years before Erica was born. Mabel had come from a nursing school in Atlanta and knew no one. Erica's mother and her became fast friends. Thirty years later, a widowed mother of three, Mabel had gone from a first-level registered nurse to the head of the entire hospital's nursing department and a member of the hospital's board.

“I'm sorry about that,” Erica said. “Things have been crazy for me. I haven't been by since your twenty-five-year anniversary party.”

“Wasn't that fun?” Mabel did a dancing move with her hips as she sauntered over to the sofa in her spacious office. “We were dancing and carrying on girl.”

Erica obeyed Mabel's instruction to sit next to her on the leather sofa.

“You have to come to my retirement party,” Mabel said.

BOOK: Almost Doesn't Count

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