White Lines III (21 page)

“For all you young kids out there who think these celebrities are living the good life, doing drugs and carrying on all the time, you see that there are consequences to that life. No one thinks it can happen to them until it does.”

Mindy shook her head. “Wow. What a sad story. She was such a beautiful woman.” She dabbed at her eyes again. “Well, today on the show…”

Jada let out a deep sigh. That's all that Sunny's life in the public spotlight had boiled down to. A cautionary tale for young people. What not to do. And now the show must go on. Everyone who knew Sunny was watching to see what Mindy would say. Jada and Ava watched together at Jada's house after picking up Sheldon from Brooklyn after court. Camille and Misa watched in Camille's living room on Long Island with their mom. Olivia, who had been released from police custody with a desk-appearance ticket, watched at home with her grandmother. Born watched while sitting in his hospital room with Anisa.

An hour later, Jada walked into his hospital room. Born had called her as soon as he heard about Sunny's passing. But Jada hadn't answered his calls, too distraught to talk over the phone.

Anisa had been standing near the window when Jada arrived. Seeing the look on Jada's face, Anisa knew that today was not the day for a confrontation. Old rivalries aside, the woman had lost her best friend. Anisa gathered her things and left without a word.

Jada collapsed at the foot of Born's bed and cried. He wished that he could pull her close to him, but he was in no position to do so. “Come here,” he beckoned her. “Come here, Jada.”

She got up and moved closer to him. Folding herself into the crook of his left arm, she laid her head against him and sobbed for the loss of her friend, and for what felt like the loss of her relationship with Born. She was aware that Anisa was always hanging around now. And she was too drained from grief and worry to put up a fight.

Born spoke soothingly to her, reminding her that Sunny was at peace now. But it hurt like hell anyhow. Nothing was making the loss easier to handle. Jada cried until her eyes would no longer produce tears. Once she ran out of tears, she just laid there in silence.

“Sunny wouldn't want you to be crying,” he said. Born tried to think of more words of comfort, but he came up empty. In his heart, he felt that Sunny was a fool. Her overdose was a sad final chapter in what had been an incredible life. Born was sad to see her go. But he placed all of the blame for Sunny's demise at her very own feet.

Jada sat up. She wiped her face and composed herself.

“Born,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “With everything that happened today…” Her voice trailed off as she recapped the past twenty-four hours in her mind. It was almost too much to process. Ava's arrest, Sunny's death, Born's injury. Jada felt her pulse quicken at the thought of it all. “I forgot to tell you this. When I went home yesterday I had an envelope in my mailbox. It had only my first name, no address or anything. And inside was a crack vial and a note that said ‘For old time's sake.' I don't know who would send me something like that.”

Born frowned. “Where is it?”

“I have the letter at home. I flushed the crack down the toilet.”

Born thought about it. “You didn't recognize the handwriting?”

Jada shook her head. “No.”

Born frowned and thought about it. He wondered if this had anything to do with the bomb left at his door, or the arrests and indictments that had swept the crew off the streets of New York City. He made up his mind right then that he had to get out of this hospital. The people he loved were vulnerable. Until they figured out who was behind everything that was happening, everybody was a possible target.

“I'm getting out of here,” he said. “I can't stay in this hospital like this.”

Jada sat up. “No. That's not happening. Your doctor—”

“My doctor nothing.” He sat up. It took some effort, but he got his bearings and positioned himself. He rang for the nurse. “I can't have you out there in the open like that while I'm laying in here eating applesauce.” He shook his head. “Your best friend just died. Your sister just got arrested. Now you're telling me somebody's leaving crack vials and notes in your mailbox. That's too much to deal with by yourself.”

The nurse came in.

“I'm leaving,” Born announced. “Get me discharged.”

“Mr. Graham, I—”

“Just bring me the forms to sign so I can leave. I don't care about nothing else.”

Anisa returned, this time with Miss Ingrid and Ethan. The nurse turned to them and threw up her hands. “He's signing himself out,” she said. She left to prepare his paperwork, and Anisa charged into the room.

“Why are you leaving?” she demanded.

“'Cause there's too much going on right now out there for me to just sit in here. That's why.” Born was pulling his clothes out of the little closet near his bed. His IV was still connected and he dragged it along behind him.

Ethan was smiling. “Good! I want you to come home with us, Dad.”

Jada frowned slightly, perplexed by Ethan's choice of words.

Born looked at him and winked, smiling slightly. “Okay,” he said, calmly. “Help me get my shoes on.”

Ethan eagerly walked over to the narrow closet and retrieved his father's sneakers.

“This is not a good idea, Born. You can't go climbing on your white horse all the time to save the day.” Anisa stood with her arms folded across her chest.

Jada wanted Anisa to mind her business, but she held her tongue.

Miss Ingrid chimed in. “Marquis, I heard about what happened to Sunny. But you shouldn't leave the hospital early for that. You got hurt pretty bad. You need time to heal.”

Born looked at his mother. He didn't want to have this conversation right now, but he knew that she wasn't about to let it go. “That's not why I'm leaving. Jada got something crazy in the mail yesterday.”

Anisa chuckled. “Of course she did,” she said under her breath. “How convenient.”

Jada's jaw clenched.

“Somebody sent her a threatening letter. After what happened to me, I don't want to take any chances.” Born sat down as the nurse reentered and set about checking his blood pressure. He looked at his mother again. “Plus what happened with Sunny and all the trouble that Ava's in now…” He shrugged a little. “It's a lot to handle.”

“She's a grown-up,” Anisa said. “I'm sure she can survive on her own.”

Jada hit her boiling point. “Keep your mouth shut, Anisa.”

Anisa shook her head. “No. I won't keep my mouth shut. After all these months when you never even had a second of time to spare for him.
All
this time you disappeared from his life. And now you're the one in trouble. You're dealing with grief. So he's supposed to drop everything? Born has to get up out of his hospital bed because
you're
in a crisis? How selfish!”

Jada stepped closer. “What goes on between us has nothing to do with you. You shouldn't even be here.”

Anisa stared Jada down. “Born wants me here.” Her words were heavy with meaning. She sneered at Jada.

Miss Ingrid fidgeted in her seat, mumbling, “Oh, Lord,” under her breath.

Jada was enraged. She waited for Born to correct Anisa, to tell her that Jada was the only one he wanted there. But instead, Jada was met with silence. Miss Ingrid looked at the floor. Ethan watched uneasily. Jada looked at Born, questioningly. He said nothing.

“Is that true?” she asked. “You want her here?”

Born stared at Jada. He wasn't sure what he wanted anymore. Silence lingered awkwardly in the room. Jada heard Anisa give a slight chuckle. It felt like a punch in the face. Finally, Born spoke.

“I just want to get out of this hospital,” he said. “That's what I want.”

Jada stood there for a few minutes while the nurse returned to remove Born's IV. She looked at Miss Ingrid, who was still avoiding eye contact. Then Jada glanced at Anisa, still standing there, still waiting for Born after all of these years. She came to her senses. Her worst fears had been realized. Born had wandered back into Anisa's arms. Suddenly he was calling her sweet nicknames, and she was speaking to his doctors on his behalf. Ethan wanted him to “come home with us.” Jada thought back to when she'd walked in on Anisa draped across Born, the two of them giggling together. Anisa was right. Clearly, Born did want her there.

Jada stared at Born, and felt a war within herself. Part of her knew that she alone was to blame for this. She had pushed Born right into Anisa's arms. But the other part of her felt sucker punched in the gut for all the world to see. She wanted to fight, cry, and scream all at the same time. Instead, she bolted, practically running toward the exit. She didn't want to give Anisa the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She caught the elevator just as the doors were about to close, and rode the few floors down to the lobby deep in thought. She felt like her life was spiraling out of control and she was powerless to stop it. Her heart was broken in so many pieces that she wasn't sure she would ever be the same again. Sunny was dead. Ava's life was in chaos. Sheldon had her sleeping with one eye open. And now Born and Anisa were acting like the fucking Huxtables.

Reaching the lobby, Jada stared straight ahead as she barreled toward the exit. To her dismay, it was pouring rain. She had no umbrella and raindrops fell heavily on her as she darted through the parking lot toward her car. Despite the rain, there were still a few cars moving about in the parking lot. Jada saw several people dashing to their cars like she was. She hit the auto-unlock button on her key ring as she neared it, and cursed herself under her breath for leaving her umbrella in the car. She was drenched in seconds, her blue cotton dress clinging to her tightly.

Climbing behind the wheel, Jada hurriedly shut the car door and locked it. The raindrops beat down on her car with ferocity. She hugged herself, wiping the rain away and soothing her nerves at the same time. Jada wanted to cry, but had no more tears. Instead, she took a long, deep breath. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she willed herself to put the key in the ignition. Just as she leaned forward to start the car, she was startled by someone rapping on her window in rapid succession, and pulling at her car door. Jada gasped, and squinted her eyes to see if she could peer through the sheets of rain to identify the person. For a fleeting moment, she thought it might have been Born. But now the person was tapping with such ferocity that the window shattered loudly, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. Jada gasped, in fear for her life, and quickly stuck the key in the ignition and started the car.

A hand reached through the window, and punched Jada with such intensity that she was momentarily dazed. She leaned on the horn, hoping that the noise would get someone's attention. With the car still in park, Jada floored the gas, but quickly realized her mistake. Scared for her life, Jada slammed the car in reverse and peeled backward. Her perpetrator was running alongside her car.

“You fucking bitch!” he yelled. He reached inside the car, trying to open the door as he ran at top speed to keep up. Jada didn't recognize the voice. She tried to get a look at him as she sped through the lot. He wore a black hoodie pulled low over his head, and he had gloves on his hands. She couldn't make out much more than that.

She kept honking her horn, whirling the car backward at a much higher speed than she was comfortable with. But this was life or death, so she peeled backward, her tires skidding in the parking lot.

The sound of the car racing through the lot, and the horn honking got the attention of a few people passing by. Several EMTs began running in the direction of Jada's car. She slammed the car in drive and floored the engine again, finally shaking the crazy stranger loose from her car. She sped out of the parking lot and raced toward home. Her thoughts were scattered, and her hands were trembling. The wind blowing through the shattered window was a constant reminder of the ordeal she had just endured. It occurred to her after a minute that she could have sought help from the people in the parking lot. But she had been too scared to think in that moment. All she wanted was to get away from the man who was trying to kill her. About four blocks away from the hospital, Jada was pulled over by the cops. She didn't know whether to be scared or relieved.

With the police lights flashing behind her, she sat back in the driver's seat, and exhaled slowly, willing herself to calm down. The left side of her face stung from where the man had punched her with all of his might. Looking down at her hands, she noticed for the first time that she was bleeding. Heavily, it seemed, though she felt no pain. Jada trembled in fear, still as afraid as she had been the moment the man began pounding on her window, pulling at her car door. She wondered if she might go insane as she watched the two officers approach her car.

By the grace of God, one of them was a woman. Jada felt comforted just by the presence of her. They assessed her car, the blood, her shaken state.

“Did you have an accident, ma'am?” the woman asked. “We got a call about an attempted abduction. Are you alright?”

Jada shook her head. “Somebody … I don't know who it was. He hit me. He hit the car. He broke … Oh my God, who was he?” Jada's trembling intensified, and she saw looks of concern on the officer's faces. The male cop called in for backup, while the woman reassured Jada.

“It's okay, ma'am. Calm down. We're gonna get you some help.”

Jada nodded, and her tears returned again. Help was exactly what she need right now.

*   *   *

As it turned out, an ambulance arrived and took her back to the hospital she'd fled from only a short while ago. She suffered a mean cut to her right eye, and a few scratches from the glass on her hands and arms. But she was free to go home after giving a statement to the police.