White Lines III (22 page)

Jada kept her bearings about her when dealing with them. She didn't say too much. She told them everything that happened in the parking lot. But she left out the incident with the crack vial. She didn't want them snooping around Sheldon, asking questions. Jada was afraid of having her parental rights taken away. She had fought to rip Sheldon from the system's grasp before. She didn't want to have to go down that road again. Even with all that he had put her through, she loved him too much to lose him. She also didn't tell anyone about the dreams she'd had. Jada felt like she was living in a strange and surreal nightmare.

She told them that she didn't have any enemies that she knew of. Anisa didn't count, she reasoned. It had definitely been a man that attacked her tonight. She took them up on their offer of an escort home. Someone out there wanted her dead. Or maybe it was an attempted kidnapping as the bystanders suggested. Either way, Jada was scared stiff. Her car was taken to sweep for evidence while the officers drove Jada home.

On the way she thought about Born. She had been tempted to call him to tell him about what happened to her, but decided against it. The thought of him reminded her of her anger. She had called Ava to tell her that there had been an accident, and that she would be home soon. Jada urged her sister to lock every door and secure the alarm.

“Keep your phone charged and close by,” Jada told her. “I'll tell you everything when I get home.”

Arriving at her condo, the officers escorted Jada to her door, and came inside to have a look around. Sheldon was upstairs asleep, and Ava was on the couch wrapped snugly in one of Jada's bathrobes. The cops reminded Jada to call them immediately if anything happened. Jada thanked them and saw them out. Then she locked the door, secured the alarm, and collapsed on the couch next to her sister.

“What the hell happened to you?” Ava asked.

Jada shook her head. “Where do I begin?”

By the time Jada recounted all of the details, Ava was shivering with fear.

“This is serious, Jada. You need a gun.”

“I can't have a gun with Sheldon in the house,” Jada said.

Ava agreed. “Well, you have to do something.” She nudged her sister with her foot. “I know you're mad at Born. But you should call him and tell him what happened.”

Jada shook her head. “All I want to do right now is pray and go to sleep.” Jada knew that was only half true. She'd be praying alright. But sleep would elude her as it so often did these days. There was so much happening that she couldn't get her mind to relax long enough for her body to catch up.

*   *   *

It took a long time for Born to get through all of the red tape of getting an early discharge from the hospital. The doctor had emphasized the need for his body to rest so that his wounds could heal properly, and suggested that he remain in the hospital. But his mind was made up, and Born had stubbornly refused to be persuaded otherwise. Instead, about two and a half hours after Jada had stormed out of his hospital room, Born had walked out as well.

Now it was close to midnight, and he was propped up on Anisa's couch watching TV while Ethan snored softly in the recliner across from him. Born smiled down at his son, grateful to be back at home with him. But as his gaze shifted to Anisa, Born's smile faded. He knew that it was time for them to have a very difficult conversation.

“Come here,” he said.

Anisa stopped flipping through the tests and notices in Ethan's school folder and set it aside. She came and sat beside Born on the couch, and laid her head gingerly in his lap.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I told you it takes more than some pipe bomb to kill me.”

Anisa chuckled and shook her head. “You must have a guardian angel. Some divine intervention was at work for you to survive that. Your condo was practically destroyed.”

Born nodded. He hadn't been back there since leaving the hospital. But his mother had warned him that what awaited him was a pile of rubble to sift through.

He cleared his throat. Right now the condition of his home was the furthest thing from his mind. “Listen, Neece … earlier today … at the hospital … something happened.”

Anisa sat up and faced him, concern etched all over her face. “What?”

Born eyed her, cautiously. “We always keep it 100 with each other, right?”

She nodded, a frown slowly forming on her face. “Yeah. Of course we do.”

“So I want to tell you the truth of how I'm feeling.” Born wiped his face with his good hand, the other held hostage in a sling. He let out a deep sigh and looked Anisa in the eyes. “There's a lot of history with me and Jada. It's like … the connection I have with her can't really be explained.”

Anisa's eyes narrowed visibly. She didn't like where this conversation was heading at all.

Born pressed on, aware that they had reached the point of no return. “I used to wonder if she put some kind of magic on me. 'Cause it don't make sense the way … she plays me and I can't even stay mad at her.”

Anisa let out a heavy breath. “Okay, so you're going back to her even after all the shit she's put you through? Seriously, Born? You falling for that old-ass damsel-in-distress shit again?”

Born pretended not to be bothered by Anisa's implication that he was playing a fool.

Anisa was angry now. “Months of silence. She ignores your calls, won't let you come around her son, and even hangs up on you. No respect, no love. Then the minute she sees that you might be happy with someone else, she comes running back with her pitiful stories of how she needs you.” Anisa shook her head. “You're a fool.” She rolled her eyes at Born so hard that he felt slapped.

He sat silently for several moments. “I might be,” he said at last. He nodded slowly, pondering the possibility. “But I love Jada.”

Now it was Anisa's turn to look wounded.

“I'm not trying to hurt you,” Born said. “In fact, I told you out the gate that this wasn't gonna be—”

“I already know.” She cut him off, not wanting to be consoled or reminded that this dalliance with Born was supposed to be light and fun, nothing serious. But she had fallen for him all over again, despite telling herself not to. So this speech about his love for Jada stung more than it should have.

Born sighed again. “Seeing her there today, and how hurt she is about Sunny … I need to be with her night now.” He looked at Anisa, hoping to really make her understand. “When she asked me whether I wanted you there, I realized that I wasn't sure what I really wanted right then. I care about you a lot. We got Ethan here. Shit has been good. But when I saw the pain in her eyes today, it got clear to me. I'm gonna always love Jada. So I have to make it clear to you, to her son, and to everybody else that she's the woman I want in my life. And I'm done playing games. Life is too short.”

Anisa was tempted to react in anger. After all, her feelings for Born ran deep. For years she had been pining for him, hopeful that he might come to his senses and give their love another try. Then it seemed that he had done just that. But there he was now professing his love for Jada, and all Anisa wanted to do was cry.

“Okay,” she said softly. “I still think you're a fool. But I respect your honesty.” Anisa stood up from the couch and looked down at Born, disappointment and sadness etched all over her pretty face. “When she breaks your heart again, I might not be there to help you piece it back together.” Anisa went upstairs to bed, and allowed her tears to fall in the darkness of her room.

*   *   *

At just after one thirty in the morning, Jada's cell phone vibrated. Her heart pounded in her chest. With shaky hands, she reached for it, half expecting that it would be a message from her tormentor. Instead, to her simultaneous relief and dismay, it was a text from Born:
Come open the door.

Jada thought about it, and considered leaving him standing out there in the rain that was still falling, though not as heavy as it had been earlier. The thought of her tormentor out there with Born alone in the dark, sent her running quietly downstairs. Jada peered through the window, and watched Born walk toward her door. She disarmed the security system and unlocked the door, ushering him quickly inside. She reset the alarm, secured all of the locks, and pulled the blinds on the windows once again. Born had no umbrella and was wet, and Jada stood facing him in her foyer.

The sling on his right arm had gotten drenched. He didn't seem to care.

“What happened to your eye?” Born asked. “Why are you all scraped up?”

Thunder roared.

“When I left the hospital somebody attacked me.”

“Attacked you? Attacked you how?” Born looked ready to blow his top.

“I got in the car and some man busted the driver's-side window out.” She held her arms up briefly to illustrate. “He punched me.” She gestured toward her eye. “I drove off, but he ran after me. I got away.”

“Why the fuck didn't you call me?” Born was furious.

Jada frowned at him. “Keep your voice down!” She was whispering herself, but with such venom that her point got across. “Call you for what? So you can pull yourself away from your old standby to come and rescue me?”

Born made a face like he had a bad taste in his mouth. “Please!” he said. “Give me a break with that bullshit, Jada. All of a sudden you care? Really? Since when?” He waited briefly for an answer, but knew that she had none. “For weeks, no word from you. I call you and text you, and nothing.”

“Why did you come here?” Jada asked. “You can go back where you came from. I know Anisa must be waiting up for you.”

Born looked Jada in the eye. “It's not like you think it is.”

“Don't lie to me,” Jada said.

“I'm not lying.”

“Did you fuck her?”

“What?”

She gestured toward the door.

He sighed. “Come on, Jada!”

She looked at him and knew the truth before he told her.

“Yeah,” he said.

Jada closed her eyes. Hearing him admit it cut worse than she thought it would.

Jada opened her eyes, and looked at him for a long time. Not knowing what to say, she shook her head.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

So many words fought to spill forth from her lips. They fought so hard that Jada pressed her mouth closed. She said nothing. All she did was shrug her shoulders and shake her head, tears gliding down her face to the beat of the rain.

“Please don't cry,” Born said, softly. “I promise you, Jada, I—”

“I just can't deal with this right now,” she said. “Somebody is trying to kill me.”

The thought of death brought Sunny to mind. Jada thought for a moment that Sunny might be better off than she was.

Jada chuckled through her tears at the absurdity of what she was about to say. “The last time I saw Sunny she told me that I have to make things work between me and you.” Jada's eyes flooded at the memory. “She said that Sheldon will get over it.”

Born smiled, too. “I think she was right.”

Jada's smile faded. She looked Born in the eyes. “You gave yourself away.”

Born didn't respond. Instead, he stared back at Jada unable to find the right words. Finally, Jada looked away, disappointed. She brushed away the tears.

Born stepped forward toward her. “You shut me out completely, Jada.”

“So that's your excuse?” Jada was steamed.

“What was I supposed to do? I didn't want to just show up here because I know that Sheldon's not feeling me. I felt like I was stalking you! I called you constantly. Texted you. You would hang up on me, if you even answered at all. And you never even called me back.” Born threw up his hands in frustration. “I don't know what you want me to say.”

“I don't want you to say or do anything,” she said. “You should just go. It's late. I'm tired…”

“No.” He sounded defiant, like a child. “Not this time. I'm not leaving. I'm tired of doing things your way. You can go upstairs if you want. But eventually, you're gonna talk to me. You owe us that.”

Jada stared at his lips and pictured them kissing Anisa. She rolled her eyes at him.

“Us,” she repeated, mockingly. “What
us?
There's no
us.
It's you, and it's Anisa. That's the way you made it.”

“I'm not in love with Anisa.”

“Does she know that?” Jada felt her adrenaline surge.

He nodded. “Yeah. She knows. You know it, too.”

Jada shook her head, sadly. “You hurt me for the last time, Born.”

“You're right. Yes, I have,” he said. He took another step closer to her. “And you hurt me for the last time, too. You ran from me. Kicked me out of your life, and out of Sheldon's. You shut me out.”

“For my son.”

“I asked you to marry me,” Born said. “
Marry
me. You know what that means? That means it's no more you and then me. It's
us
. Your son, my son, and we're a family. How would you feel if I had a problem with Ethan, and I stopped talking to you while I solved the problem by myself? That's not a family.”

Jada looked away, knowing that he spoke the truth. “Well, now you have your family,” she said. “Congratulations.” Jada caught the bitterness in her voice, and fought to tone it down. She pictured Born, Anisa, and Ethan as one big happy family while she was left stuck with “Jamari, Jr.”

“I want to build a family with
you
.”

“It's a little too late for that, Born. You're over there with that—”

“I fucked up.”

“—bitch!” Jada was determined to finish her sentence. Her face was etched with disgust.

“I swear, I'll never hurt you again. I promise—”

“You couldn't
wait
to go running back to your good 'ole standby.”