Talk a Good Game (45 page)

“
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.”

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.

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.”