by D D Bridges
“No, Darius. You still have it all,” he informed me. “This company is already worth over a billion dollars and five years from now it will be worth ten times that.”
I think that was the first time that I realized just how rich I was. Don’t get me wrong, when I looked at my bank account and saw all of my millions I always felt blessed. I had become a millionaire literally overnight. But now to find out that I’m actually a billionaire was mind-blowing. But in light of what I discovered about my father and his family that was kept a secret from me, the amount of money that I had really didn’t seem to matter to me at the moment.
I sped down my driveway and brought my car to a screeching halt right in front of the mansion. I couldn’t get out of the car and into the house fast enough.
“Momma!” My voice echoed throughout the foyer and the rest of the mansion as I came through the front door. Walter also confessed to me that my mother was already aware of all of these secrets as well.
“Ma’! Where you at?!”
“I’m in the kitchen, sweetie.”
I made my way toward the kitchen. I should have known that this was where I could find her since she was always in the kitchen at this time of day. The truth was though that I really wasn’t thinking clearly. All I could think about was how my mother better not even think about lying to me about what I was about to ask her.
“We need to talk,” I told her after walking right up to her as she stood at the stove stirring a pot. She was making her famous gumbo and cornbread which was one of my favorites, but I wasn’t about to let that distract me from what I wanted to say to my mother. Martha was standing by but she immediately turned to leave when she discerned that something was wrong.
“Okay, what’s up?” my mother said. She seemed not to notice my mood.
I stared at her profile while she focused on what she was doing. “I met D.J. today.”
“D.J. who?” she asked with a genuinely confused expression as she placed a lid on the pot and then looked at me.
“Daniel, Jr.” I said simply. My mom’s eyes became wide with shock. I could tell that she couldn’t believe what I just told her, but that didn’t stop me from continuing. “He told me everything. And Walter confirmed it all too.”
“You already talked to Walter?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, I talked to him. But now I want to understand why you lied to me.”
“What are you talking about, Darius?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about so you can stop with the bull shit!” I said, my anger coming out.
“Darius, I am still your mother,” she said sternly.
“And you’re also a liar,” I spat, causing an appalled look to come to her face. “How could you do this to me? How could you keep me away from my father and then make me think that he didn’t want me when he did?”
“Darius, I did what was best for you,” she told me. “Now I don’t know what Walter told you, but your father wasn’t the man that you think he was.”
“Oh really? How so?” I said folding my arms.
My mother sighed and looked away as if it pained her to look into my eyes any longer.
“Sweetie, your father and I met at a charity event. Before I had you I was very active in the community and things like that. When Daniel met me and began to pursue me I didn’t know that he was engaged and I didn’t know that he was rich either.” Her eyes drifted away from my face and I could tell that she was reminiscing about my father. This kinda made me jealous because she at least had a chance to know him which was something that I never had.
“He was very charming,” she continued with a reminiscent smile. “We began seeing each other intimately and things were going great at first. But things went bad real quick,” she said as her expression changed. “He got married and the only reason I found out was because he just so happened to have his wedding reception at the hotel that I worked at part time. He went on his honeymoon and when he came back, he acted as if nothing had happened. He thought that we could just pick up our relationship where we left it. And I was dumb enough to let him have his way with me.”
I could see that having to talk about this was hurting my mother. I was tempted to stop her, but I wanted to hear the whole truth so that I could understand why she felt the need to keep me away from him.
“Then I got pregnant with you,” she said with a sigh. “I was afraid to tell him but I knew that I had to. Honestly, I thought that if he knew that I was carrying his child then he would love me as much as I loved him. And at first, it seemed that way. He spent more and more time with me after I told him about you and he promised that he was going to leave his wife. But then his wife ended up pregnant a few months after I did. When that happened he decided to not divorce his wife, so I cut all ties with him. I realized that I couldn’t let him play me anymore. I knew that he would never be mine and that he would never be the father that you needed. I had given him my heart and my body, and I refused to give him anything else, especially you.”
“But do you really think that was fair?” I asked after I let her words sink in. “You took something away from me because of what he did to you.”
“I protected you,” she tried to claim.
“Now it all makes sense. You being so bitter for all these years. Even when I was a kid I could never even ask you about my father without you getting mad and shit.”
“Darius, don’t you dare try to judge me,” she said and I was stunned at how she continued to make this conversation about herself. “You have no idea what I had to go through; what he put me through. I wish I never met him. The only good thing that came out of my relationship with him was you, and I was not about to let him take you away from me.”
“Do you hear yourself?” I asked, becoming frustrated. “This isn’t about you. Because of your selfishness and your inability to forgive I had to grow up without ever knowing my father. But all you care about is how he hurt you over twenty-three years ago. Get over it!”
“Shut up!” she said, releasing the frustration that had been mounting in her chest. Tears of anger began to run from her eyes, but that didn’t faze me. My whole life I had been a slave to my mother’s emotions, but that was about to end today.
“You are so ungrateful,” she said shaking her head.
“No I’m not,” I said, getting right up in her face. “You are selfish and full of resentment. All my life you’ve been controlling me, and it hasn’t been out of love but out of fear. You’ve been afraid that you were going to lose the only part of Daniel King that you’ve ever had. And I love you with all of my heart, ma’, but right now I can’t stand to look at you.”
My mom’s eyes were wide with horror as her tears continued to flow. I felt my own heart constricting with emotion as well, but the only thing that showed on my face was anger. I was convinced that she still had no idea how much she had hurt me. I decided that until she could stop thinking about herself long enough to help me heal, then I had no reason to be anywhere near her.
*******
That same night I called Natalie and told her that I needed to talk to her. I left the house a few hours before calling her, but I just wanted to be alone at first so that I could think. Natalie was the only person that I could really talk to about this. She invited me to her house after she sensed that something was wrong.
I rang her doorbell and then sat on the porch steps of her two-story townhouse while I waited for her to open the door. When she did she quietly came out of the house and sat beside me on the steps. She was wearing a long silk robe and she looked comfortable and relaxed like she always did. At first I just kept my head down and didn’t say anything.
“Hey,” she said softly.
I looked at her and she offered me a gentle smile. She was so beautiful and I was sure that I didn’t deserve her friendship or compassion. I was grateful that God had put her in my life, especially at a time like this.
“Hey,” I finally replied after staring at he
r for a few moments.
“What’s wrong?” she asked with concern written all over her face.
I sighed and then proceeded to tell her everything that transpired over the past twelve hours. I told her about how I met my half-brother for the first time and how he was threatening to take the company away from me. I told her how betrayed I felt by Walter. And lastly I told her about the blow-up between me and my mom. I shared all of my pain with her and I could only hope that she understood since it seemed that no one else did.
She moved closer to me, causing our knees to touch, and then put her hand on my shoulder.
“Darius, I am so sorry,” she said sympathetically as she rubbed her other hand up and down my back. The amount of emotion that she expressed in her voice was almost enough to push my emotions over the edge.
“All this time I’ve thought that I was an only child. But I had siblings living right here in Atlanta all along,” I said shaking my head from side to side and staring into the distance. “My father was trying to have a relationship with me my whole life, but my mom robbed me of that. I would’ve given anything to have known him while he was living. Just to see what he looked like, his mannerisms, to hear his voice, to have him come to my basketball games, to hear him say that he was proud of me.”
I stopped speaking because I felt my emotions catch in my throat. Tears brimmed in my eyes but I shook them away. I didn’t know what Natalie would think if she saw me crying.
“I hate to see you go through this,” she told me. “But at least you know the truth now. And I’m sure that your father was proud of you your whole life. And he would be even more proud of you now. You have become such a great man and I know that he would want to be here to see how you turned out.”
Natalie’s words comforted the depths of my heart in such a way that I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. I tried to look away before Natalie could see the tears fall, but I was too late.
“Darius, it’s okay,” she said, now hugging me tightly. “You don’t have to be ashamed to cry in front of me.”
That’s all it took for the dam to break. I began to sob uncontrollably while Natalie held me in her arms. I had never cried like this, not even as a child. Most men would have felt embarrassed, but the way that Natalie held me kept me from feeling anything other than her love and care for me. She held me for what seemed like an eternity, not letting go until my emotions were under control. I came there feeling lost, but suddenly I felt like I was right where I needed to be.
She stood and led me inside. Holding her hand, I followed her into the bedroom where the lamp on her nightstand lit the room. She turned to me and kissed me slow and sensually. She untied her robe and peeled it off, allowing me to see her beautiful body. All she wore now was her black bra and panties.
Her gaze now locked with mine, she began leading me to the bed, stopping when we were standing beside it.
“Natalie…” I tried to speak but she hushed me by putting her finger to my lips.
“Shhhh,” she said quietly. “Just let me take care of you.”
I stood there obediently as she began to undress me. I only assisted her by taking off my belt while she unbuttoned my shirt and pushed it off of my shoulders. She unfastened my pants and pushed them off of my hips, causing them to fall to the floor. She pulled back the comforter, climbed into the queen-sized bed, and I climbed in on top of her.
“You sure you want to do this?” I asked her. It had been an emotional day and night, but I didn’t want her to feel like she had to do this just to make me feel better. I wanted her to want this as much as I did.
“Does it look like I have any doubt?” she replied. “I want you to make love to me, Darius.” I could tell by the passionate look in her eyes that she was serious. No woman had ever looked at me that way, and that was all it took for me to grant her request.
We made love to each other over and over again that night. Holding her in my arms and being inside of her had a better effect on me than any therapy session could. Being with her that night made me glad that we hadn’t rushed things. If we had, then that moment would not have meant as much. Natalie may not have known it, but she was teaching me lessons that no other woman had ever been able to. Lessons about love.
Chapter XI
After our night of love-making, Natalie suggested that I spend the weekend with her and I agreed. The last place I wanted to be was at the mansion. Even though I had been living there for five years, that huge castle-like place was too big sometimes and just never felt like a home. With me and my mom at odds I knew that it would be even more depressing to be there. I spent all of Saturday with Natalie. We didn’t do much at all and it felt good to just be able to chill with my lady. Being with her gave me the time away from everything else that I needed.
The main thing I needed to do was think. I needed to think about how I was going to handle everything that was going on. My mom and Walter had been blowing my phone up, but I had no intention of talking to either of them even though they left me multiple messages. What was my next move going to be? The two people that I trusted the most betrayed me, and now D.J. was in the picture. There was no doubt in my mind that he was serious about taking my company from me. How far he was willing to go to rip it from my hands was still to be determined though. Then on top of all of that I had a big meeting with Francisco Baptìste coming up. So much had happened since our first encounter and I didn’t even know what I was going to say to him.
There was one thing that I did know; from this point forward, I wanted my boys with me. The last thing I needed was to be out here with no one in my corner. I needed people close to me that I knew that I could trust to hold me down no matter what. The truth was, I had been thinking about employing my friends for a while now. They all needed better opportunities and this was the perfect way for us to help each other.
On Sunday I called each one of them up and told them to meet me at the old cottage out in Macon. This was a place that we used to use as one of our hideaways when we were in high school. After school we would all hop in Mike’s truck and ride for about an hour until we got to the back woods where the small house was. The house belonged to Mike’s grandfather and when he passed away the family never did anything with it. Mike was the only person in his family that still visited the place so we knew that we didn’t have to worry about any surprise visitors. We hadn’t been out there in a while, but the place was still deserted. We were in the middle of nowhere. Once they all arrived we stood outside in the wooded area in the back of the house. Mike was the last one to get there. He got out of his F-150, grabbed a black case from the back and came over to us.
“Did you get it?” I asked him.
“Yep. And there’s plenty more so just let me know what else you need,” Mike replied.
“Cool,” I said nodding my head. “A’ight fellas, y’all ready to work for me?” I asked all of them.
They all looked at one another before Terry said, “Hell yeah! It’s about damn time.”
“Yeah, D. We been ready for this,” Kenny said.
“Ok, good,” I said with a smile. “Because this shit just got serious. I’ll fill y’all in on everything later, but right now I need y’all to give me your guns.”
“What? Why?” Derek asked.
“Yeah, what you need our guns for if you want us to come work for you?” Kenny asked.
“Look, just trust me,” I said as I held open the black cloth bag that I was carrying. Derek and Kenny reluctantly pulled out their guns and put them inside. Terry just stood there looking at me like I was crazy.
“Come on, T.”
He sucked his teeth. “Man, you must be crazy if you think I’m giving you my piece.”
“Terry, these guns are all stolen and we both know that yours got a few bodies on it. We gotta get rid of them if y’all are gonna work for me.”
Sucking his teeth again he pulled out his gun and dropped it in the bag. I handed the bag to Mike and he handed me the case.
“Mike is gonna get rid of those for us,” I told them before opening the case. “In the meantime, we gon’ rock with these.” Inside the case wer three 9 millimeter Glocks and two 45 millimeter pistols. We each took one.
“Hell yeah. This is what I’m talkin’ about,” Kenny said.
“We’ll get some better ones soon. These are just temporary,” I told them.
“These will work just fine,” Derek said as they all admired their weapons.
“Yeah, it ain’t no thang,” Terry said as he pointed his gun at a tree and fired.
*******
After a few rounds of shooting practice with my boys, I went back to Natalie’s place. She came to the door to let me in and was wearing an apron on top of her shorts and tank top.
“Damn baby. You look sexy as hell in that apron,” I told her as I followed her back into the kitchen. She laughed as she went over to the stove and stirred one of the pots. “What you cooking?”
“Dinner.”
“For me?” I said as I came up behind her and put my hands on her hips.
“Yes,” she said as she turned to face me. We shared a kiss that didn’t seem to be long enough for me; they never did.
“I missed you,” I told her.
“I missed you too, baby. Where were you?”
“Hanging out with the boys.”
“Oh yeah,” she said as I backed away from her and leaned against the counter that was opposite of the stove. “So what’s next? You going back home?”
“Why? Are you kicking me out already?”
“No,” she said with a sigh as she walked over to me and leaned her body into mine. “I want you to stay, but I think that you should go back. I mean, you’ll have to face all of this eventually, right?”
I grimaced at the thought of having to deal with everything that had been going on. At that moment I wished that I could just run away from it all and live happily ever after with Natalie. But she was right. This was something that I couldn’t run from.