by Ina Carter
“What? You went to see Max and Ty?” I halted, looking at him in disbelief.
Kevin pulled his body up the bed and adjusted a pillow behind him to sit. When I tried doing the same, he grabbed my waist and pulled me to sit in front of him, wrapping his hands around my front, like he knew I might need to feel his embrace for what he was about to tell me.
“Yes, I met your friend Max. I explained to him who I was and that I was there because you couldn’t be. He is a great guy, by the way. He told me Tyron was released from the hospital, and thank God, he hadn’t suffered some serious injuries from that fight – just bruised ribs, but nothing broken. But besides getting to know your friend, I think I found something. It might be connected to your dad, Lauren.”
“What? Did Max tell you something? In his letter, he was saying something about his mom…”
“Yes, babe, He had something important to tell you. He told me his mother hasn’t visited him in jail for two and a half years until she showed up unexpectedly two weeks ago. She was crying and feeling guilty for abandoning him. What she told him was shocking. She finally left his stepfather, who was one hell of an abusive monster. But then she said something about her husband being blackmailed by the prosecutor on his case, and that Max went to jail for nothing. Your friend said she just whispered the sentence, looking behind her back, like she was afraid someone might be watching her. Then she left abruptly. He was confused and had no idea what this was about, but it sounded important, so he reached out to you, hoping you might be able to find out more.”
“Kev, this does sound strange. I know about the deal my Dad made to give Max and Ty an easier sentence, but this is something else…I have to go talk to his mother. Did he tell you where to find her?”
I felt a sense of urgency, a force that propelled me to action. My friends needed me, and I had to do something. I was already getting out of bed, searching for my dress from yesterday, so I could go to my room and change. Kevin was also on the move, taking clothes out of his closet and pulling on jeans like he understood this couldn’t wait.
“I am coming with you, babe. I think you need someone who knows where to find Brenda.” Kevin’s tone was not up for argument and made me smile. My boyfriend was not letting me face any battles by myself. It was great to have someone by your side. I was not alone anymore, and the thought gave me a strength I hadn’t felt before.
Chapter 22
Kevin said that Max’s mom told him she was staying in a motel in Simi Valley and complained about the noise from the highway. She didn’t leave an address or phone number, and my friend seemed worried about her. From the abuse Max suffered at the hands of his stepdad, I could imagine what the poor woman was running from. The wheels in my head started spinning, and while Kevin drove, I looked up the motels in the city she mentioned. There were four that were next to the highway, and I picked the cheapest one.
“Why this one? Max said she looked tired, but was well dressed, and put together.” Kevin wondered, when I entered the address in the navigation system on my phone.
“She might have taken money before she left, but one thing I learned when I was homeless is that you want to stretch your resources. I had five hundred bucks when I ran away from home, but I was rationing, making sure they lasted me as long as possible. She is in the cheapest motel, trust me! The question is, how do we recognize her? I’ve never seen her before.”
“Max said she was a real estate agent, babe. Look her up - Brenda Young. I am sure she has a picture on her profile.” I was going to kiss him! Kevin was, as usual, thinking ahead and had the common sense to gather all the details from Max that could help us locate his mother.
A quick search and I found her. I looked at the smiling woman in the photo, and my heart skipped a beat. She looked around forty-something, pretty, with coffee-colored skin and big brown eyes that looked so familiar. I tried not to think of how much my friend might have changed in prison or if he was still the handsome boy I remembered. It’s strange how deceptive pictures can be. Brenda looked charming, approachable, someone who seemed to have a good life. The fact that she was a victim of domestic abuse, that her son was in prison, and all the things that I might not know yet were hidden from the camera – the scars were on the inside.
When we got off the highway, Kevin made a detour and went through the drive thru of “In-N-Out” and ordered a few sandwiches, fries, and even a milkshake.
“Are you hungry?” I was surprised by his choices, considering his healthy diet.
“No, babe. I have a plan. Also, we should not go empty-handed to Brenda. People are more willing to talk to a stranger when they come over with food, right?”
Five minutes later, we parked in front of the run-down one-story building. Just looking at the seedy motel made me feel queasy. This seriously looked like a place that had an hourly rate, and half the customers were dealing one thing or another. Kevin reached toward the back seat, got his baseball hat with the Dodgers logo, and then took off his jacket, giving it to me.
“Shove this under your sweater and try to look heavily pregnant.” He pointed to my stomach, winking. I had no idea what he was planning to do, but I followed his direction. I was wearing jeans, and a baggy pullover, so it wasn’t difficult to make a makeshift baby bump. Kevin looked at me when I got out of the car and smirked.
“If you say something about Shakespeare and ten babies, I am going to kill you!” I looked him down.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” He lifted his hands in surrender, but by the grin on his face, I knew it had crossed his mind.
I followed my “baby daddy” to the motel’s lobby still not sure what his plan was, but I trusted him. The old lady behind the register lifted her wrinkly eyes to us and scowled. She was watching some day time soap on the small TV in the corner of her small room and didn’t like the interruption.
“Hey, I am with Uber Eats.” Kevin showed her the In-N-Out bag. “I got an order from someone in this motel….” He looked at his phone like he was checking the name “Brenda Young… She said room 103, but that was some dude… She must have typed it wrong… Do you mind…”
“We can’t give info on a guest!” The old woman cut him off and turned back to her TV show.
“C’mon…If I don’t deliver this order, this chick might give me a bad review on the app, and then I am fucked… Look – my girlfriend might go into labor at any moment. I fucking need to make some cash because we are both broke. I work two jobs and do deliveries during my lunch break…If I lose this job…” he begged.
The woman gave him a second look, her beady eyes studying him appreciatively. She spared a look in my direction for a split second, but then she turned back to Kevin and smiled.
“What did you say was her name?” she asked more affably.
Kevin looked at his phone again, “Brenda Young.”
The receptionist checked into her computer and then announced. “Here – room 105, she must have typed it wrong.”
Bingo! Kevin turned to the lady and smiled. “Thank you! You are a lifesaver! I better go before her food’s cold.”
He was already pushing me out the door when the woman peeked out of her glass partition and shouted after him. “You better buy your girl a lunch, not a joint! She’s too skinny for a pregger… Oh, and you two are having a giraffe. Congrats!”
I looked down at my fake baby bump, and sure the sleeve of Kevin’s jacked was hanging between my legs. Kevin and I couldn’t help it and started guffawing. Before he closed the door, he peeked back and said to the old woman, “Thanks for the help anyway!”
“Kev, we are so bad at this!” I said through the giggles.
“No, babe. We are great! You were right, and we found Brenda on the first try.” He pointed out. “And the best news – our son takes after me.” The idiot grinned impishly.
I took out the jacket and threw it at Kev, and he caught our giraffe baby with the long appendage. I was not mad at him. He made me laugh, even when we were
facing a pretty serious situation. He promised he would bring me happiness even when the sky fell, and he was keeping true to his word.
We both ran down the path around the building, checking the numbers on the doors as we went.
Once we got to Brenda’s room, the laughter was all gone, and we looked at each other more somberly. It was time to find out what Max’s mother knew and why she was hiding in this hellhole. Kevin leaned to me and kissed me, his quiet intimacy giving me the reassurance that all was going to be fine.
I felt different today. It was not just my relationship with Kevin that had changed last night. Love is not simply a feeling, a warmth in your chest, or bodily response to one person. Love fills you in, saturates your whole being, and makes you feel like a superhuman, ready to fight for anyone you love. Last night Kevin told me about the different types of love you feel, and now standing here, I remembered the two boys who offered me their friendship, made me feel accepted, and loved.
A few years ago, when my father offered me the “deal,” I thought my submission to his will was the one way I could help Max and Ty. But then I was damaged, scared that yet again the people I loved were torn from me, and I was powerless to stop it. Maybe by finding Kevin, I had also found my bravery, and today was the first battle I had to face in my journey to defeat my demons. Love drives you to action, and I was determined to find a way to free my friends. I hoped Brenda held the key to that.
I knocked on the door, my heart beating like a drum in my chest. When the door opened, I recognized the woman from the photo, even though she didn’t look as put together as she was on her real estate profile. She was wearing loose sweatpants, no makeup, and had dark circles under her eyes like she hadn’t slept in a long time. Her eyes were haunted, and she looked at Kevin and me warily, like she was afraid we might be here for the wrong reasons.
“I haven’t ordered anything.” She looked at the take-out bag in Kevin’s hand and was about to shut the door in our faces. Kev reached out and held it open, stopping her.
“Brenda, wait! We are friends of your son. Max told us where to find you,” he said hastily. This made the woman halt, and she gave us another look like she was trying to estimate if she should trust us.
“How do you know Max?” she asked probingly. I understood her caution. She was running from an abusive husband, probably not trusting people in general.
“We want to help him, Brenda. Max is one of my best friends, and I owe him a lot. My name is Lauren, and this is my boyfriend Kevin.” I introduced us.
“Lauren? Lauren Wilcox?” She looked at me with fear. “Did he send you here? Tell your father I won’t say anything…”
Brenda seemed panicked and eager to get away from us. Something was really off, and I had no idea how she knew my father. Kevin moved and pushed at the door she was trying to shut, holding it with his strong arm.
“Brenda, Listen. Lauren’s father didn’t send us. In fact, she is also in danger from him and is risking a lot coming here. We can help you! Can we please talk?” he begged.
She was looking at me warily, but I knew that look well. It was laden with pain, dread, and mistrust. That poor woman knew the same hell we were both running from.
“Did he tell you it’s your fault, Brenda? That he is protecting you, providing for you, so you should be grateful he gave you a roof over your head. That without him you are nothing! Did he tell you that you are a worthless piece of shit who wouldn’t make it a day on her own? My father did this to me – told me to keep my mouth shut, obey his demands, or he would hurt my friends. For years he used Max and Tyron to keep me imprisoned. He didn’t let me even go visit them in jail unless I was ready to face his wrath. I understand, Brenda. I also felt I abandoned them, took my punishment silently, while inside, I felt like a coward. I should have done something – found his weaknesses and used them against him. Stopped being a victim. But it’s not so easy to feel strong when your will is being crushed every single day, is it? I am here to offer you my help. If you have any information that can help Max, maybe the two of us can set some wrongs right and find a way to get your son out of there.”
Brenda’s eyes filled with tears and softened. We understood each other, as we were both victims of domestic abuse and shared a mutual pain and love for the boy we missed.
“You should come inside.” Brenda opened the door and let Kevin and me into her motel room.
Kevin closed the door behind us and hugged me, telling me silently at this moment he was the support system I needed to be strong. It’s strange how he understood instinctively when I needed him to be affectionate, when to make me laugh, and when to simply be my friend.
Brenda sat on her unmade bed and looked down like she wanted to hide her tears. Her voice was shaky when she spoke.
“I abandoned my baby, Lauren. Marvin made Max pay for his own sins, and I had to stay silent and watch my boy rot in jail for nothing. He said If I went to see him, if I spoke a word to someone, they’d find me in a ditch somewhere…My husband is a dangerous man, Lauren… He beat me so bad last time that when I woke up throwing up blood, I knew he’d kill me anyway, so I gathered all I had on him and ran…”
“Oh, Brenda. I am so sorry!” I sat next to the poor woman and wrapped my arms around her shoulder. I had so many questions, wondering what she meant by Max being in jail for nothing, but I gave her space, offered her comfort because I understood how much she was hurting. She sobbed on my chest, like the human touch unleashed the sorrow she held inside. We all needed someone to hold us when we fell apart. Once she stopped shaking, she looked up at me, her brown eyes clearing up, like she was seeing me for the first time.
“Can you really help my baby, Lauren? If I give you all the evidence, can you free him?”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what you know? The three of us can think of something and find a way to free Max.” I promised her.
“My husband… He was rich, charming, promised to take care of my boy and me. I sold him that huge house, and he said he was looking to settle down, have a family… I didn’t know then about the drugs… how he made his money.”
“He is a dealer?” Kevin asked quietly, and Brenda nodded.
“Marvin owns a few food trucks and stuff, but that’s just a cover. He is not a dealer – he supplies some big shots, deals with the Cartels in Mexico…It’s some high-end stuff…When they arrested Max …the three of you, he didn’t want to press charges at first. He told the police to let the boys go, that they just took the car for a joyride. But then the cops found the cocaine and the money in the car, and Marvin freaked because it was all leading to him…”
She stopped speaking for a moment and looked at me like she was contemplating her next words.
“What happened, Brenda?” I urged her to tell me everything.
“After you got arrested, the next morning, a man came to the house. It was your father, Lauren. I hid in the bedroom and listened to what he and Marvin were saying. The man said he was the District Attorney of L.A., and that he knew of Marvin’s dealings. He threatened my husband, told him he wanted in, or he would blow his whole operation. That bastard Rob Wilcox – he was the one who put my son in jail. He promised Marvin that if he paid up, he’d take care of the investigation, make the boys take the fault, and steer the police off my husband’s tracks.”
I was about to cry because my evil father wanted to punish me, control me, and needed leverage against me, so he incriminated my friends.
“So, they went to jail because of me?” I whimpered.
“Lauren, No!” Kevin pulled me to him and hugged me tight. “I don’t think it was about you at all. For Rob it was just a bonus that they were your friend. Listen to what Brenda is saying. It was about the money. Your father was blackmailing her husband.”
“Yes, sweetheart. Marvin is still paying that bastard. Rob comes to our house once in a while to remind us he’ll set his investigators after Marv if the money stops coming. That evil man and h
is prosecutor, they painted the boys as some delinquents during their trial. Marvin didn’t let me go to court, he blames me for all of it – for Rob, for the fact that my son stole his car and put him in this situation… My sister went to the trial and told me what went on. The prosecutor – some woman that works for your father… Annabelle Barrett was her name… she sent the police to Tyron’s house. They raided it and found marijuana, pills… so she said to the judge the boys were dealers, and that’s why they had so much cash on them…”
This was unbelievable! It meant there was a chance Max and Ty might be completely exonerated, and my father was the actual criminal. I always suspected he was a dirty politician and used his position as a DA in some felonious ways, but this was huge.
“Brenda, we have to go to the police! You have to tell them everything you know!” I started saying, but she was already pulling away and shaking her head in disagreement.
“I can’t trust the cops, Lauren. Your father has ears everywhere. He would find out and then do God knows what to me. Return me back to Marvin… What good would that do for Max if I was dead?”
She was surely afraid, and likely for a good reason. We had to be smart about this because I didn’t know how far my father’s hand extended.
“Brenda, did you say you took some evidence before you left?” Kevin asked. He seemed to be paying more attention than me.
“I took photos of Marvin’s book – the one with his suppliers and dealers. I also recorded him talking to the DA. I hid in the bathroom and took a video on my phone when they were talking in the hallway. It’s not here. I am not stupid – I locked my phone with the evidence at a locker at the post office and sent a letter and a copy of the key to my sister in Alabama. Told her to call the police if something happened to me and give them the letter.”