Lies of a Real Housewife (6 page)

Phaedra and her brother attended the gala affair with me. We had

such a fabulous time. There was a six-foot long ca
ke, and countless tables of food. A live band played throughout the night, and revelers jammed to the latest tunes. Good music filled the air and I danced, feeling nothing but joy, joy, and more joy. It was a real celebration. We celebrated making it through the millennium alive, and the world had not been destroyed as everyone had predicted. I wasn’t afraid anyway. Honestly, I felt that it would be better if we all died together. It wasn’t like we could do anything about it if it had

happened anyway.

Like a young doting sister, I loved and looked up to Phaedra Parks. There are times when I still do. She put me up on all kinds of game. She taught me to always look good, and act like I had money even if I didn’t have a dime. She taught me to walk with my head held high, and never be ashamed of who I was or where I had come from. She always saw the greener side, and to her, nothing was the end. She felt everybody deserved a second chance. Her attitude was always positive. She had a can-do attitude and was always

helping. She always preached that everything would be alright.

“It’s where you are going, that should be your concern,” she once

advised me.

I remember that particular incident like it had happened yesterday. We were eating at Pappadeaux’s Seafood Kitchen. It was one of her favorite place to dine. Her hair was pulled back in a bun. Her big eyes were dead-set on me. Phaedra spoke with so much conviction, she made me feel as if I was a child being reprimanded in a gentle way. It was just the way she spoke, and how she looked at me. This mild scolding had everything to do with her presentation, and I got it. I understood completely what she was saying, and I believed her! It was all about where I was going.

In a funny kind of way, Phaedra gave me my
life back. A few

months of hanging with her, and I had ceased being mean and so hateful. I also stopped dwelling on the past. Like sand in the hour glass, all the hurtful things I had been through, slipped away. Phaedra made me feel secure to be around h
er. I assumed that she was genuinely on my side. Meeting her actually gave me a chance to fix what was wrong with my life. It was an opportunity for me to grow as an individual. This was a chance to actually be

somebody. That was all I really ever wanted—
a chance.

I could never forget the year that Phaedra hosted her own Halloween

birthday party. She was born at the end of October, and she organized a full scale, spare-no-expense, costume party—Phaedra style. It was very exquisite, and very tasteful
.
She was dressed as a cat. My cousin, Cookie, was a

bunny rabbit, and I was a French maid. We had such a blast.

Drama showed up with another one of his girlfriends. That really

bothered me, but my girls were constantly in my ear, telling me to forget him. E
specially Phaedra, Drama was her star client at that time, and she toured

with him. She knew more about him and his lifestyle than I did.

Phaedra always told me that Drama was messing around with a

bunch of other women. When she told me these things, s
he had no idea that Drama had been telling me that he had sex with her also. It seemed as if they were tossing me back and forth. So I disclosed to Drama that Phaedra had been telling me to leave him alone. This piece of news caused him to be very upset. He claimed that she was just mad because he wouldn’t be with her

only.

Thinking back, I found that their work relationship was quite un-

usual. It seemed really odd for an attorney to travel on tour with clients. Once I told Drama how Phaedra hated on him
, he swore up and down to me that he and Phaedra had a sexual relationship. I even had her call Drama on a three-way call, and remained silent on the line. He denied that they had ever had sex. Looking back, I realized that he knew that I was listening to the call. She had already prepped him on what to say, similar to the way she briefed all her clients. It was common protocol for Phaedra. She had mentioned this

fact previously to me.

At the end of the day, all signs confirmed that Phaedra was a real

freak. It was not a stretch to believe she had an intimate relationship with Drama behind my back. She even admitted it on national television, when she blurted out that her freak number was an eight or nine. Besides that, Drama had told me the same thing
too many times, on too many different occasions.

Just about every conversation Phaedra and I had would result in her

talking about sex. She would often elaborate about her performance of some type of sexual act. Phaedra threw herself at any man she felt she could benefit from, and that was just about any entertainer or athlete who showed interest. She even threw herself at my brother a couple of times. Lee always politely

passed on her invites. He said, “She’s not my kind of lady…”

I considered Phaedra a friend, so there were plenty of visits to her

home. Some were for business, and plenty for pleasure. Sometimes I would visit her just so we could talk over a glass of wine. We talked about every-

thing from men, clothes, sex, children, and the future.

She also shared her personal photo album with me. There was all

kind of pictures of her dressed up as a dominatrix, bent over, and posing in different positions. I was shocked, but it didn’t stop me from looking. Phaedra tripped me out, and I continued viewing the album, but I was mostly in

disbelief.

I recalled the first time I visited her home on Oregon Trail in Mari-

etta, Georgia. My cousin, Kate, tagged along with me on this particular visit. Now my cousin and I were known for c
racking jokes, and talking bad about people. Just like any other buddies who were also family members, we shared a lot of laughs. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to invite my cousin, but it was already too late. Phaedra’s home was nice, but was not all that fancy as I had thought it would be.

At the time, she was living in a three-bedroom, with two baths, and

a two-car garage home. There was a small front yard, and the home was in a middle class neighborhood. Inside, maroon carpet was on the floor and when you walked in, the garage was located on the right. There was a big spacious living room on the left decorated in maroon and gold colors. The kitchen was located further down the hall. Her bedroom had a queen-size canopy bed and

there was a master bathroom
.

Her home was average, at best, but what really tripped us out was

her bedroom. There was a pair of handcuffs attached to the headboard. Whips, and freaky-ass underwear were hanging everywhere. This was a den for S & M. Her tools were openly displayed as if she wanted people to know she was a freaky woman. In her bathroom, she had at least four thousand dollars

worth of various makeup products scattered everywhere.

This scene was hilarious and ironic. Since she was a ‘big-time’, en-

tertainment lawyer,
we thought she would be somewhat conservative and modest, especially since she was the daughter of a preacher. Yeah right! Phaedra was into all kinds of S&M activities. Back in those days, everybody in Atlanta heard the rumors about her sleeping with over ninety percent of her clients. I didn’t personally witness any of her sexual acts. Phaedra did talk about some things, sex was one of them, and she owned everything associ-

ated with a dominatrix lifestyle.

Phaedra loved to run her mouth about whatever she could find to

talk about. So it came as no surprise when she gave me the inside scoop.

Like when Mystical was first arrested. Phaedra represented him as well. I knew a lot of details about him based on my conversations with Phaedra. So much for attorney-client confidentiality. One time, she talked really bad about Mystical’s baby’s mother. She told me about the time she first met the young woman at an area shopping mall. According to Phaedra, Mystical’s baby’s mother had some nerve being outside and wearing bedroom slippers. She kept insinuating how his baby’s mother was soo ghetto despite all of the money generated from Mystical’s musical success. At the very minimum, she

thought the least he could do was buy the girl a nice pair of shoes.

I remember thinking, why was she so concerned about what the

woman was wearing? Was she jealous? Of course, she was jealous because I’m quite sure she was screwing him too. It was obvious.

Mystical, if you read this book, you might want to ask Phaedra

a
bout your attorney-client privileges. I will not elaborate on too many details for the sake of Mystical, but I would like to say that Phaedra told me that Mystical was guilty, long before he was ever convicted. The hairdresser and those checks, right? Oh yeah… Yeah, I remember about you and your boys

at the hotel.

Phaedra told me that Mystical was the dumbest motherf***** she

had ever met in her life. She told me that his hairdresser, a woman that he had known for a long time, stole some checks out of hi
s checkbook, and stole eighty-thousand dollars from him. Instead of calling the police, Mystical called the woman to the hotel under the pretension that he wanted his hair braided. Then he and his entourage, raped the woman, beat her, and sodom-

ized her!
Phaedra Parks was absolutely livid.

Phaedra and I shared a lot with each other. I remember Phaedra call-

ing me several times about a professional football player she was dating at the time. He dragged her butt through the ringer and she deserved it. She
went through so much with this guy, and I could not understand why she was having these problems. I thought she was everything a man could want, and that any man would value and be honored to be in a relationship with a successful

entertainment lawyer.

She was really hurt when she found out that her NFL ballplayer boy-

friend had impregnated a stripper from Atlanta’s infamous strip club, ‘Magic City.’ She went on and on about how the broad was nothing more than a stripper, and that she was a lawyer. She ju
st couldn’t believe her boyfriend would stoop so low. Phaedra had spoken to me several times about this particular football player, and by her conversation she had high hopes for this relationship. Phaedra had mentioned to me previously that she assumed he was messing around. I found out about him when she brought him up in a telephone