Underestimated Too (8 page)

“Glad to see you could make it,” Deidra started in
on Drew right away. She wasn’t looking at me. She was directing everything to
him. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this, maybe you two should just call it quits right
now.”

“This is what I’m paying you for? You think I’m here
because I want to be here? You think I want to come in here and listen to your
smartass comments. We’re never calling it quits. If that’s what you think is
going to come out of this, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“Actually that’s not what I think at all. You want
to know what I think? I think you’re stupid,” she blamed, pointing right at me,
“and I think you’re one lucky son of bitch. I will tell you one thing. If she
comes in here, trying to cover bruises again then you can take your sorry ass
out of here and to somebody that doesn’t mind a wife beater.”

“You can’t talk to me like that. You don’t know
shit.”

“Morgan, how’d you get the black eye? Did Drew hit
you? If he didn’t, I’ll gladly apologize.”

“Can we just get on with it?” I asked, wanting to
get away from the touchy subject. She called Drew a wife beater. Oh, my god.
His skin was probably burning from the boiling blood. I was definitely taking a
cab home.

“Drew?” Deidra asked with raised eyebrows.

“Sure, whatever.”

“You were telling us about when you moved in with
Michael.”

“Yeah, what about it?” Drew standoffishly replied.
He wasn’t talking. She was going to have to get him started again, ask the
questions, and hold his hand.

“Can you give us five minutes?” Drew asked.

Deidra nodded and left us alone. Drew turned to my
puzzled face, taking both my hands.

“Morgan, I don’t think this is such a good idea. I
don’t want you to know things.”

I halfheartedly smiled. “I want to know, Drew. I
want to know everything about you. I’m here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’ve never told anyone about my life. I don’t want
you to hate the father you never knew.”

“Drew, if you hate him. I want to hate him with you.
Would it be better if we didn’t talk about it with Deidra? What if we just
talked in the privacy of our own home? Would that make it easier?”

“No. I’m afraid of doing that alone with you. If
you’re making me do this, it has to be here.”

The door opened and Deidra resumed her seat opposite
me.

I was surprised when Drew didn’t wait for Deidra to
ask questions at all. He stood and walked to the window again, away from both
our inquiring eyes. My pulse was rapid, anticipating what Drew had to say. It
was something bad. I knew it was.

“Michael took me under his wing and started teaching
me everything there was to know about Callaway Jewels,” Drew began, staring out
the window. “I wanted to be just like him. He was so strong and powerful with a
distinct façade. People watched Michael when he entered a room. Women flocked
to his side and bowed at his every command, not just any women, beautiful, goddess
looking women. Maybe it was my age and the hormones, but I wanted to be just
like him. I wanted women to treat me that way. Hell, I even wanted to treat
women the way he did, not just women, everyone. He talked to everyone like they
were mud on his shoes. I watched his every move, mimicked his walk, his talk,
and even started dressing like him. Imagine that one if you will.” Drew
snickered, turning to look at me. “I was thirteen, dressing in three thousand
dollar O’Brian suits, Richelieu leather shoes, and Rolex watches. If Michael
had it, I wanted it. I was the big man on campus. Kids at school worshiped me,
and the more power I acquired the more I wanted. I even charged twenty bucks a
day for stupid kids to wear my eight hundred dollar sunglasses for the day.  By
the time I was fourteen, I outgrew junior high. I didn’t fit in with those kinds
of kids anymore. Michael took me out of school and sent me to Breakon Ridge, an
all-boys school where I was surrounded by rich snobby boys just like me. I
didn’t see my mother for three days after that day. Michael had locked her up
when she argued that she didn’t want me in a private school. He didn’t care, it
wasn’t up to her. And, of course, I wanted to do what Michael wanted me to do.

‘Locked up where?’ I was the one to ask Michael.

‘The gym,’ he sadly replied. I knew that was going
to be Michael’s answer. I just needed to hear it for myself.”

“Drew, did Michael hurt you?” Deidra interrupted
Drew’s story.

Drew looked at her, sliding his hands in his
pockets. “No, he never hurt me. Why would you ask that?”

Deidra held a straight face, staring him down. “When
was the first time he
didn’t
hurt you?”

Drew turned back to the window, standing quietly for
what seemed like hours. “Michael took me to New York City. I spent the entire
day right beside him, watching him negotiate and snake his way into three very
lucrative stores. I’ve never seen a grown man so excited about diamonds. That
man was obsessed. We ate in a restaurant right in downtown Manhattan on a
rooftop, overlooking the entire world. I knew right that moment, I was going to
be rich and powerful just like Michael.

‘You like this?’ Michael asked me.

‘Yes, sir. I sure do,’ I beamed. I was a
fourteen-year-old business man, playing a very important role.

‘You do what I tell you to do, and keep your mouth
shut when I tell you to keep it shut, and you’ll have all of this. I’ll teach
you everything you need to know about money, power, and women.’

‘But you have my mom. What about her?’ I foolishly
asked him.

‘I’ll always have your mother, but that doesn’t
change the fact that a man has needs. You’ll learn that soon enough. Men have
many needs, some different than others, but nonetheless, we all want pretty
much the same thing.’

I nodded, agreeing with everything he told me. I had
no idea what I was agreeing with, I just knew Michael Callaway could do no
wrong, not in my eyes anyway. His word was gospel, and he was the only one I
needed to listen to. I would walk in his shoes someday. I was sure of it.
Michael drank a lot that night. I sat alone most of the evening overlooking the
city while he danced and spent money on beautiful women. We didn’t retire to
our hotel room until almost two in the morning. Michael plopped his drunk ass
to the white leather sofa and I retired to my room, exhausted. Stripping down
to my boxers I crawled in and passed out cold.” Drew paused.

I placed my hand over my mouth, listening to Drew
describe life with my father. I knew what he was about to tell us. I knew it in
my gut, and my heart was already breaking for him. . No. Please don’t let it be
what I’m thinking it is.

 Drew continued, “I didn’t even wake up when Michael
crawled in bed beside me. I didn’t wake up until I felt his hands, sliding
through the elastic of my shorts.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked Michael, trying to
move away from him.

‘Shhh, remember how I told you to do what you were
told and keep your mouth shut? This is one of those times you keep your mouth
shut,’ Michael reiterated. I was sure I’d never been so humiliated in my life.
I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like I could defy him. He was Michael
Callaway. I was afraid of him, of what he’d do to me or my mother, so I didn’t
do anything. I lay there staring out the window into the dark night while my
body reacted against my will and caved to the hands of Michael.”

“Drew you can stop,” I offered. I’m not sure what I
was expecting, but it wasn’t this, not at all.

Drew turned and looked at me. No, Drew looked
through me. He wasn’t seeing me at all. He was in a dark place, recollecting things
he’d tried to burry with my father and his mother.

“That’s all he ever did. He never made me touch him.
He’d just climb into bed with me and fondle me until I was finished,” Drew
stated, turning back to face the alley below. “He still treated me like a king
during the day, teaching me everything he could teach me about success. It
wasn’t like he was hurting me, and he assured me over and over that as long as
I let him take care of mine and his need the way he wanted, he’d always take
care of my mother. I did what I needed to do to insure that. Michael changed
things up a bit shortly after I’d turned sixteen. I walked into his office one
afternoon with a beautiful strawberry blonde, sucking his dick. He was
instantly pissed.

‘Get the fuck out!’ Michael demanded. I turned,
quickly leaving him and the female I’d known as Valerie.”

“How did you know her?” I asked Drew, forgetting
that Deidra was even there. I didn’t feel like we were in the middle of a
counseling session at all. I felt like it was just Drew and me. I wanted to go
to him, hold him, and tell him I loved him. I didn’t do that. I knew he’d shut
down, and as hard as it was to hear. I wanted to know. I wanted to know all of
it. It was so surreal. Drew wasn’t the person I’d thought him to be at all.
Yeah, he was strong and secure on the outside, but on the inside, I was sure he
was a shattered mess. He had to be. What boy could keep all this bottled up and
be okay? It instantly made me think about my own son. I’d kill anyone that hurt
him.

“Her husband was a big time movie director,
traveling a lot, leaving her alone more than he should have. He and Michael
were good friends. He sent a lot of rich, famous people to Michael for
expensive purchases. Valerie was there a lot,” Drew answered.

“And your mom?” I curiously asked, waiting for
Deidra to stop me. She didn’t, she let us interact with each other without a
word.

“She knew. She couldn’t do anything about it. She
made excuses for him, saying he was just a man with needs. She was still sure
he was going to marry her. He’d never had any intentions of marrying my mother.
Trying to convince her of that fact was like pulling teeth, not that I ever got
the chance anyway.”

“What do you mean?” I probed, confused.

“You know how the house is. I didn’t plant all those
cameras; Michael did. He could hear every word we said. He didn’t let us around
each other much, not alone anyway. She came down for meals, looking like a
million bucks. She escorted my father to all his parties and functions, playing
the role of the perfect couple. You of all people should know how that is. You
played it too, Morgan.”

I only nodded, remembering the same dinner parties,
with my arm looped through Drew’s, playing the flawless wife as well.

“Mind if you fill me in too?” Deidra asked.

“Later, that’s getting a little ahead of time,” Drew
countered, and she nodded for him to continue. “Valerie left shortly after I’d
walked in on them. Michael was furious when he came looking for me. I’d never
seen him that mad before.

‘Go to my office,’ Michael ordered, taking a call on
his cell.

I went to his office, bouncing around nervously,
waiting for the unknown. I glanced at the computer screen, seeing my mother on
his monitor, sewing.
Why the fuck was she sewing? What the fuck was she
sewing?
I wondered, trying to occupy my mind.

‘Take your pants down, boy.’ Michael startled me,
closing and locking the door behind him. I’d never done that in front of him.
He’d always just crawled in bed with me. Hesitating he screamed for me to do
it, now. I did. He moved his eyes down my scrawny sixteen-year-old body and
removed his belt.

‘Bend over,’ he ordered.  

I took his blows from the belt, gritting my teeth,
and reminding myself that I was a man, and I wasn’t going to cry. He couldn’t
make me cry,” Drew spoke vehemently.

“Drew, you were not a man. You were a boy,” I
assured him.

“SHUT-UP!” Drew yelled, turning to me.

Deidra lightly shook her head, motioning me not to
respond and for Drew to continue.

Drew then calmly proceeded, “That became Michael’s
next thrill; me messing up so he could bend me over his desk and humiliate me
with his belt. He still visited me whenever he wanted at night but never spoke
of it. I never mentioned it either. I did what was expected of me. I’ll never
forget the first time I stood in front of a group of men and led a meeting. It
was in the Chicago store. It was struggling and Michael had given me three
months to come up with a plan and fix it. I did, leaving him and a room full of
men overly impressed with me. I never felt bad at all when I was the one made
to fire three employees and up the hours of three more. I felt powerful,
prevailing, and unstoppable. I was on top of the world and nothing was stopping
me.

By the time I was
seventeen, I could run Callaway Jewels, fire anyone without an ounce of remorse,
and close a major deal better than Michael himself. I didn’t care about anyone,
or anything. I only cared about the next big deal, how much money the stores
were making, and how much power I held over others. You think I’m cocky now,
you should have seen me then.” Drew smiled my way.

I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted to hear more.
Deidra stopped him after that. We’d already gone over our hour by ten minutes.

“Have a seat, Drew.” Deidra nodded to the sofa
beside me.