The Prada Plan 2: Leah's Story (21 page)
Read The Prada Plan 2: Leah's Story Online
Authors: Ashley Antoinette
POP!
The sound of YaYa’s bone shifting out of place was sickening.
“Agh!” YaYa yelled in excruciating pain as she lost her balance. She stumbled because she could no longer put weight on her injured leg, and it was the perfect distraction for Leah. It gave her just enough time to regain some composure.
She pushed YaYa to the ground, causing her head to crash into the floor. YaYa grimaced and closed her eyes. The impact was enough to make her dizzy. She was so disoriented that she didn’t feel Leah’s hands as they wrapped around her neck. Leah straddled YaYa and choked her out. The intense pressure was almost unbearable, and YaYa clawed at Leah’s hands as she desperately gasped for air.
“Die! Just fucking die already,” Leah said menacingly through gritted teeth. She squeezed, digging her fingernails into YaYa’s skin as her own blood fell onto YaYa’s neck.
YaYa’s lungs burned with desperation. She couldn’t believe what was about to go down. She couldn’t go out like this, not after everything she had been through to find Leah. She struggled to free herself from Leah’s grasp, but she had the strength of a lunatic. It was as if she were fighting with a grown man. Leah was so strong, and the sick look in her eyes frightened YaYa.
She’s killing me,
she thought as her eyes bugged wide in fear.
Leah’s forehead broke out in a sweat as she used all of her energy. She could barely see through the blood in her eyes, but she could feel YaYa weakening beneath her. She jerked YaYa’s neck violently until she felt her stop moving. She lowered her face to YaYa’s mouth, and when she didn’t hear her breathing, she smiled in satisfaction.
“She’s dead,” Leah whispered as if she couldn’t believe it. “She’s dead.”
Heaving in exhaustion and sweating profusely, Leah loosened her hands. She began to laugh as tears of relief and happiness came over her. She had wanted to rid the world of YaYa for so long, yet she never thought she would actually see the day. She laughed directly in YaYa’s face, mocking the dead woman.
Leah stood to her feet and looked around her home. It was in shambles. Furniture was overturned and blood was everywhere, but she didn’t care. All of her broken possessions could be replaced. YaYa’s death was all that mattered.
Now I just have to get rid of the body.
CRASH!
Before Leah could finish her thought, she took a blow to the back of the head, sending her flying to the floor.
YaYa had stopped breathing. She knew that if she didn’t give up and play dead that Leah would actually kill her. She didn’t mind going, but she for damn sure was going to take Leah to hell with her.
Leah moaned as she weakly got on her knees and tried to crawl toward YaYa’s gun. Just as her hand wrapped around the weapon, YaYa stomped on it.
“Shit!” Leah screamed as YaYa crushed every bone in her finger.
“Aghh!” YaYa shouted as she kicked Leah in her face. “Agh! Agh! Agh!” She stomped Leah’s head, and it bounced off of the ground as if it were a basketball.
She backed away from Leah and rubbed her tender neck. Leah had choked her to the point where her skin was red and raw. Tired of the games, it was time for her to do what she had come to do. It was obvious that they both were all in. They were going hard, and each refused to allow the other to win.
“I’m never going to let you beat me, bitch,” Leah said as she spit a few of her teeth out of her mouth and dragged her bloody body across the white-carpeted floor.
As YaYa loomed over Leah, she kicked her one more time for good measure. Panting, her chest heaved as she thought about what she had to do. “That is quite unfortunate, Leah. See, bitch, I know you will never stop making my life hell, and I have accepted the fact that I will probably never stop allowing you to. We’re stuck in this sick-ass cycle, me and you,” she said as she reached into the pocket of her skinny jeans and pulled out a cigarette. Her hands shook as she removed a lighter. Placing the cigarette between her lips, she continued to speak. “That’s why this ends today. This shit is over today.”
“Only one of us can walk out of here,” Leah shouted. “You know who that’s going to be, don’t you? You can’t kill me, bitch! Even when I die, I’ma live forever through you. You won’t have a choice but to think about me every day.”
YaYa smirked and lit the cigarette. She took her time as she toked it long and hard, inviting the nicotine into her lungs.
“I know,” YaYa said as she closed her eyes and hit her cigarette again slowly. “Neither one of us is going to walk out of here. I’ma burn this bitch to the ground with both of us in it.”
YaYa was past the point of trying to piece her life together. Life was no longer worth living. Her revenge is what had fueled her for this long. Without Indie and her daughter, she didn’t want to be here. Leah had pushed her over the edge, and now all she wanted was finality.
Leah could see that YaYa was limitless, and for the first time, she feared her. “Noo!” she shouted as YaYa grabbed Leah’s legs and dragged her kicking and screaming across the floor. Leah’s tender womb banged violently against the floor. The infection had set in to the point where she couldn’t even touch her stomach without wincing in pain, and the feeling of all of her weight bearing down on that spot almost made her pass out. She screamed, as it felt like tiny bombs were going off inside of her.
“Shut the fuck up! Don’t bitch up now,” YaYa replied as she gave her another slap across the face. She held the cigarette between her lips as she manhandled Leah.
The gas had already been poured. Once YaYa tossed her cigarette, the house would go up in flames.
YaYa grabbed Leah by her long, luxurious mane and slammed her head hard into the end table, knocking Leah out cold. When YaYa thought it was safe, she let her legs give up on her. She sat on the floor beside the woman who had ruined her life and she cried. She just broke down, looking at Leah’s motionless body while she smoked the square. It was a soul-wrenching cry, because she knew that everything, including her own life, would be over soon.
It seemed as though her entire existence had been one long journey that added up to this moment. She hadn’t known that Leah had been in the shadows with envy in her heart from the very beginning.
I didn’t start this shit, but I’m definitely about to end it.
YaYa pulled on the square one last time, and as she blew out the smoke, she tossed it into the air. As soon as it hit the floor, a bluish-orange flame erupted and spread instantly.
YaYa sat back, mesmerized, hypnotized by the very fire that would take her life. Seeing the flames dancing before her reminded her of the fire she had started as a child, when she was being raped at her foster home. Back then, that had been her way to get revenge and to escape. Irony had come full circle, because again that was her reason for starting this blaze.
Waaa!
Waaa!
Thinking that she was going crazy, she began to speak to Skylar.
I know, baby. Mama’s coming. I’m coming to be with you, Sky,
she thought.
She began to cough as the poisonous smoke robbed the air of any breathable oxygen. Her lungs burned as she closed her eyes and began to pray.
Waaa!
It wasn’t until she heard the shrill cries again that she realized that they weren’t coming from inside her head.
Oh my God. I completely forgot that Leah had a child. Her baby is inside this house!
YaYa climbed to her feet, and was hit in the face by all of the smoke. The sting from the thick fog of death tortured her eyes as she tried to see through the black cloud. Her conscience began to eat at her as she thought of Leah’s baby being injured in the fire. She hated Leah, but did not have a cruel bone in her body. Leah’s baby was Indie’s baby, and she couldn’t allow the baby to burn up in a fire that she had started.
Waaa!
YaYa finally located the door where the sound was coming from. Perspiration drenched her from the excessive heat. She could feel her skin frying off as the fire grew more monstrous with each second. She feared that even if she did make it to the baby, neither of them would make it out alive.
Waaa!
“Aghh! Damn it!” she shouted when her hand touched the doorknob. It was scalding, and took layers of skin off of her hand. Her skin stuck to the door handle, crackling as it cooked, causing her stomach to churn. The heat was overwhelming, but it didn’t frighten her as much as the thick, black smoke that was clogging the air. She was suffocating, and although she was pushing herself to move forward, she realized that within seconds she would be dead. She held the hot door handle and screamed in agony as it burned her. She didn’t let it go, however; she couldn’t as long as that baby was on the other side of the door.
Pushing open the door, she staggered into the room.
Waaa!
The smoke had consumed everything, and all she saw was black. Following the sound of the cries served as her only navigational tool. She held out her hands as she roamed the room as fast as she could, until finally she felt the wooden edges of a crib. She reached down and grabbed the baby.
COUGH! COUGH!
When YaYa lifted the child to her face, she almost dropped her in disbelief.
“Skylar?” she said, thinking her instincts were playing tricks on her.
Although she couldn’t see her, she could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat as she held her closely. Something inside of her went crazy as her stomach knotted and tears came to her. The hair on her neck stood up, and shivers ran down her spine.
Is this my baby? Is this my Sky? Can’t be! Oh my God! Sky?
Waaa!
The sound of the cries were so familiar to her. Even the way the child clung to her was familiar.
This is my baby, she thought. Oh my God! Oh my God! This is Sky. Thank you, God!
She thought as she cradled Skylar to her chest.
“It’s okay, Sky. Mommy’s here. Mommy’s right here,” she soothed as she frantically looked around the room. “Mommy’s going to get you out of here,” she promised as she cried and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. She didn’t have time to waste.
I have to get out of here,
she thought with renewed determination. Her heart swelled at the thought of holding her daughter in her arms. For so long she had grieved, only to find her alive. Now she had to keep her alive.
Her heart began to beat out of her chest as she cradled the screaming baby to her body, wrapping her as best she could. The blaze was uncontrollable as it jumped and burned in the hallway. There was no way she could get out of the room without being burned.
She went to the windows in the room and saw that they were barred from the outside. It was the only room in the house with bars. It had been Skylar’s prison. Leah had made sure that no one could come in and take away the little girl.
YaYa broke the glass with her elbow and attempted to break through the bars. She wrapped her hands in Skylar’s bed sheets and pushed on the black security bars with all of her might, to no avail. That wasn’t her exit.
She had no choice but to go out the same way that she had come in. Fear paralyzed her, but the diminishing wails of her daughter pushed her forward. She could hear Skylar growing weaker by the second. She quickly wrapped the bed sheet around her daughter’s tiny body. She had nothing to protect herself from the flames, but she didn’t care.
Huddling over Skylar like a running back moving a football, YaYa ran through the fire. She gritted her teeth as it bit at her, charring her to the bone.
“Aghh!” she yelled. The pain was unbearable, but she refused to stop moving.
I have to get Skylar out of here. She can’t die in a fire I started. God, please!
YaYa could see the sun shining through the living room windows, and she knew that she was close.
Without warning, it felt as if the floor had been taken from beneath her. She fell with her daughter in her arms.
“You’re going to burn in this fire, bitch!” she heard Leah scream. “You’re not going to take Skylar away from me. You’ll never take anything away from me again. I’m her mommy now!”
YaYa kicked her foot and felt it connect with Leah’s face. She couldn’t see her. It was too dark inside, but she could hear her crazed rants.
“I’m going to kill you, bitch!”
COUGH! COUGH!
YaYa held onto Skylar for dear life and crawled on the floor. The air was lighter down there, allowing her to breathe a bit easier. She saw the outside light underneath the front door frame, and she crawled in that direction.
“Bitch, where are you?”
Leah’s voice was behind her as YaYa desperately crawled toward her escape. She was moving as fast as she could, but when she felt Leah’s hand grab her calf, she knew that it was over. There wasn’t enough air in her lungs to put up a good fight. She released Skylar as Leah pulled her back into the depth of the blaze.
The two tussled as they weakly flipped over, Leah on top, then YaYa. Scratching, biting, nothing was off limits, but neither of them could get the upper hand. The sound of splintering wood caused them both to look up, but by then it was too late. The last thing that they saw was the second floor as it came tumbling down on top of them.
As the fire chief stepped through the remnants of the house, he shook his head in disgust. There was no stopping this blaze. The amount of gasoline accelerant that had been used was enough to burn down an entire suburb. He had recognized right away that it was arson.
“You’re a very lucky little girl,” he said as he held baby Skylar in his arms. They had recovered three bodies from beneath the rubble, but Skylar was the only one who had come out of the blaze unscathed. As hot as the blaze had been, Skylar was blessed. Nothing short of God could have spared her. She had a few minor burns, but when they uncovered her, she was conscious, screaming and kicking from fear. Undoubtedly, if they hadn’t found her when they did, she would have suffocated.
Walking past the EMTs on the scene, the chief said a silent prayer as he watched one of the bodies being zipped up in a body bag. Burn victims were always the worst, because their families usually didn’t have much to bury when it was all said and done. His job was a hard one, but as he held the screaming baby in his arms, he knew that it was rescues like this one that put a silver lining around his dark cloud.
He handed baby Sky off to an EMT, knowing that she would be in safe hands.
“Chief? We have a live one over here!” he heard one of the firefighters yell out. He looked up in disbelief, surprised that anyone else had survived such a ferocious blaze. He dropped his heavy fire resistant jacket and ran over to the gurney.
“We have a pulse. It’s faint, but it is there,” the EMT announced as they prepared to move the victim to the hospital.
The fire chief turned to the other set of EMTs, who were transporting the victim who unfortunately hadn’t survived. He looked at the female paramedic that was pushing the gurney and said, “Make sure no one sees that body.” He nodded toward the media cameras that were just arriving on the scene. “We don’t need our burn victim all over tonight’s broadcast. Let’s respect the family.”
The woman nodded and then put the body in the back of the ambulance. Sirens filled the air as it drove away.
At that moment, Buchanan Slim and Elaine came racing through the crowd. They were stopped by the police officers that had arrived on the scene.
“Wait a minute. My daughter was inside that house!” he protested. Despite what Disaya thought of him, he had truly looked at her as his child. Yes, he was a pimp, but she had stolen his heart from day one. He would have never inflicted any pain on her.
“Let them through,” the fire chief yelled.
Slim and Elaine rushed over to the gurney.
Please, don’t let this be YaYa. I don’t want to have to tell Indie that she is dead,
Elaine thought as she clasped her hands together tightly in desperation.
When Elaine saw the charred body that the EMTs were working on, the contents of her stomach came up in her mouth. “Oh my God!” she shouted as she heaved uncontrollably. The body was unrecognizable. Her face, body, hands, even her hair: it was all black. Only small pieces of pink flesh showed through, and the smell was horrendous.
“Is she alive?” Slim asked.
“Barely,” the chief replied. “We are going to take her to the hospital now. There were two women in the house at the time of the blaze. I know it’s hard, but can you identify this woman at all?” he asked.
Elaine stood to her feet and gave the body a once over. There was nothing left to assign identity to. She was about to give up, until she saw the sun bouncing off of the diamonds in YaYa’s ring. “It’s her. It’s YaYa,” Elaine choked out. “That’s the ring that my son gave to her. That’s Disaya Morgan. Will she be okay?” she asked as she watched the paramedics load her into the ambulance.
“Only time will tell, but they will do all that they can to keep her alive. Now, there is the issue of the baby…”
“Baby?” Elaine asked in shock. It was then that she recognized the sounds of a screaming child. She turned toward the noise and took off running when she saw her granddaughter’s face.
“Thank you, God! Thank you!” she cried as she retrieved Sky and rocked her gently in her arms. “Oh, God, thank you!” She held the baby up in front of her face as she examined her injuries. She was so grateful that Skylar was in one piece that all she could do was cry.
Slim came up behind her and put his hand on the small of Elaine’s back. “Is this YaYa’s daughter?” he asked.
Elaine handed Skylar over to him and watched as his eyes pooled with emotion. “This is Skylar.”
“I’ve missed so much,” he whispered. “I just hope that YaYa pulls through and gives me the chance to make all of this right. I have so much making up to do.”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The sound of YaYa’s heart monitor was deafening as Elaine, Bill, and Slim sat around her bed. Skylar lay in her grandmother’s arms as they all anxiously waited for YaYa to come to. The white bandages that covered her from head to toe made her look like a mummy. Her appearance would be forever altered. Many surgeries lay ahead, and cosmetic procedures would be the only thing to ever fix the damage to her features, but still she was blessed to be alive.
Days had passed and her vitals had been improving every day, but the doctor explained that it would take time for her to come to.
“YaYa, you have to be strong, baby girl. It’s me, Slim. I’m here now,” he said. The sound of his voice caused her eyelids to flutter wildly.
“She can hear you,” Elaine announced in surprise. “Keep talking. I think she’s trying to wake up.”
“I’m so sorry for leaving you out here alone. I’m going to make it up to you. You just have to be strong and come back to us. We are all waiting for you. Skylar’s here. She’s safe. Just wake up, YaYa,” he said.
“Oh my Lord,” Elaine gasped as she stood to her feet. Slowly, YaYa’s eyes began to open. “Bill, go get the doctors! Hurry!”
Bill rushed from the room, and Slim kept talking. The more he spoke to her, the more she came back to the land of the living.
A team of specialists rushed into the room.
“Can you tell us your name? Do you remember anything?” the attending physician asked as he shined a light in YaYa’s eyes to make sure that she was coherent.
“Disaya…Disaya…” She moaned, still too weak to speak.
“Take your time,” the doctor coached. “Tell me your name.”
“Disaya Morgan,” she finally said. “The baby. Where is she?”
Elaine stood up and held Skylar so that YaYa could see. “She’s right here, YaYa. She’s safe. You just get better, you hear?” Elaine turned to the doctor. “She sounds different.”
“Her larynx was badly injured from the smoke inhalation. She will sound different for a while, if not indefinitely, but the important thing is she is alive. After being trapped in a fire like that, she is very blessed to even be here. Yes, her features will never be the same, but you have to look at this optimistically, for her sake.”
YaYa lay back and closed her eyes as she thought about the moments just before she had blacked out in the fire….
Leah tried to lift up, but the weight of the house on her back was too heavy a load. YaYa lay dead right beside her as the smell of burning flesh invaded her nose. The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance.
All I have to do is hold on. They’re coming for me,
she thought.
“Is anyone alive in there? Please, call out if you can hear my voice!” she heard a fireman say.
The only response he got was the sound of Skylar’s cries, because Leah was too injured to speak. Her body was burning like hot coal. YaYa was dead. Finally her mission had been accomplished. Now Leah could do what she had always wanted to do—take her place. She used the little bit of strength she had left and removed YaYa’s ring from her finger. She slipped it onto her own.
She could feel her skin frying off of her face. Just from the sight of YaYa, she knew that if she did make it out alive, she would be too badly burnt for her identity to be confirmed. The ring would be significant, and would help her become a new person. It would help her become YaYa. She could finally step into the shoes she had always wanted to fill.
Despite the pain that she was feeling, Leah smiled slightly. Just as she heard the firefighters burst through the door, she gave in to the pain, but the sick smile was still stuck on her face, because she knew that if she awoke, she would be a new woman—literally.
No longer would she be known as Leah Richards. She would be Disaya Morgan.
Leah opened her eyes, and the smile was still stuck on her face.
“YaYa? YaYa?” Elaine called as she frowned slightly from YaYa’s odd behavior.
Leah jumped as she remembered to acknowledge her new name. She quickly wiped the smile from her face.
“Huh?” she mumbled.
“Are you okay? You blacked out for a moment,” Elaine said.
“I’m fine. I just hurt all over,” she whispered.
“Well, someone is here for you. Your father, Slim. He is here for you,” Elaine said.
Leah gasped as Buchanan Slim came into her view. He was just as she remembered him, and more handsome than ever.
“Hey, baby girl. I’m right here with you. I’m always going to be right here with you. I’m so sorry for deserting you, and I love you.”
Leah was too choked up to respond. Tears fell from her eyes, irritating her already burnt flesh, but she couldn’t stop them from falling.
This was all she had ever wanted. Slim’s acceptance was what she had been chasing her entire life.
Finally, he loves me. Finally I’m going to get what I deserve.
As Indie stood before the judge, he couldn’t keep his focus. He grimaced as a painful shudder wracked his body. He could feel the universe shifting; his center of gravity was off. His intuition told him that something was wrong. Sweat formed on his brow as his pulse quickened. He could hear his heart beating in his head.
“Mr. Perkins, it seems as if the officer in your case…”
Indie could see the judge’s lips moving, but he couldn’t hear the words that came out. The courtroom was hazy as his anxiety level arose to an all-time high.
He turned his neck and looked at the crowd. Through his blurry vision, he saw Chase and Trina sitting in the crowd. He adjusted his tie as he attempted to gain some composure. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but all of a sudden it felt as if the thermostat had been turned up a hundred notches.
“It’s hot…it’s…it’s…hot. Can I get some wat—” Indie gripped his chest in agony. He could feel it in his soul that something was awry. It was as if he were sharing in YaYa’s death. He could feel the flames as if he were right there with her, as if he were suffering her fate. Her face flashed through his mind as he closed his eyes.
“Mr. Perkins, are you okay?”
Indie could hear his lawyer speaking to him in concern, but he couldn’t respond as he gripped the wooden defense table. He could see her clear as day, as if she were standing right in front of him.
I love you, Indie.
He heard her voice in his ear. God had connected them in her final fleeting moments, and whether he knew it or not, his dear YaYa was no more. His insides felt as if they were being twisted torturously as he doubled over.
“Call…a…doctor,” he managed to gasp. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”
A small crowd gathered around him, and despite his health, he was immediately cuffed. Chase hopped up and walked into the front row.
“Indie, you good, fam. They’re calling for an ambulance,” he said. “Hold on, big homie. They’re on the way.”
“YaYa,” Indie choked out as his face scrunched in excruciating pain. “Something’s wrong with YaYa. Find her.”
It was the last words that left his mouth before he fell to one knee and the court workers frantically went to his aid.
Chase approached the hospital room with Indie’s attorney, and they were stopped by the armed police officer that stood at the doorway.
“You can’t go in there, boy,” the officer said as he put a forceful hand onto Chase’s chest.
“Boy?” Chase huffed with a smirk and laugh as he calmly removed the officer’s hand from his chest. He ignored the officer and walked through him, shoving him slightly with his shoulder as he entered the room.
The officer put his hand on his pistol to show his authority, but before the situation could escalate, Indie’s attorney stepped in.
“Indie Perkins is no longer under your detail,” Stanzler informed.
“I’m just doing my job,” the officer replied.
As the sound of hard-bottom shoes echoed against the tiled hospital floor, Stanzler turned to see the U.S. District Attorney coming down the hall, along with Agent Norris.
“They will explain. Now, move. This man is no longer government property,” Stanzler said. “Stand down, officer.” The authority in his tone was enough to make the cop step to the side unsurely as Stanzler entered the hospital room behind Chase.
Indie was awake and speaking to his doctor about his condition when his company entered the room.
“You had a heart attack, Mr. Perkins, a very mild one, but an attack nonetheless. I’m not sure what brought this on. All of your test results came back favorably, but I am still concerned. I suspect it is stress that caused it, and there is no medical remedy that I can prescribe for that.”
“Perhaps your freedom will do the trick?” Stanzler said as he folded his hands behind his back and stepped toward Indie.
“What?” Indie asked.
At just that moment, the D.A. and Agent Norris burst into the room. The sour look on both of their faces caused an arrogant smirk to spread across Indie’s.
“Your indictment has been thrown out. Due to your incoherency during your apprehension it was warranted as an unlawful arrest. The warrant wasn’t even presented to you or Ms. Morgan before the officers entered your home. They messed up Indie. When you get out of here you’re a free man,” Stanzler explained.