Heartbreak of a Hustler's Wife: A Novel

by Nikki Turner

  Desember digested all that Yarni said. It made her look at things in her life in a totally different light. Desember’s wheels were turning in her head. “Wow! That was powerful food for thought. But why do we gamble with our lives?” she asked.

  “In life, nothing is free. Eventually you have to pay the piper.” Yarni paused for a second, thinking how the same thing applied to Des’s life. He had done things and now they seemed to be chasing him.

  “Dee, I know it hurts, but you should be glad that Fame loves you enough to protect you. Some men are so selfish that they will let you die right beside them on some fake Bonnie and Clyde type stuff.”

  They both were quiet when Des entered the room. “What’s going on in here? You girls bonding?” he asked.

  “Yup, I’m finding out that Yarni isn’t the wicked stepmother after all,” Desember said, smiling. “She’s giving me priceless heirlooms of wisdom.”

  “Oh so she’s your stepmother now?” he questioned.

  “A figure of speech,” Desember countered.

  Yarni put her arm around Desember’s shoulder, drawing her close. “You know, it doesn’t really matter what the test says. In my heart you are my baby, and even though we weren’t connected by the umbilical cord, we are connected by heart, and as far as I’m concerned you’re my daughter too.”

  Desember gave Yarni a hug. “That made my day. I’m not usually no crybaby, but you making me cry again.”

  “I mean it.” Yarni looked into Desember’s eyes and knew in her heart that Desember was Des’s daughter, without a doubt.

  “Well, look what the mailman brought.” Des held up the envelope. “Do we even want to know?” he asked. Desember grabbed for it but he pulled it out of her reach. “I mean, we all seem to be getting along as one big happy family.”

  “Yes, regardless of what the test says, I believe you belong here with us,” Yarni said, half joking. “But the next time you need to borrow something out of my closet just make sure you ask first.”

  Desember agreed, but her focus was on Des, trying to get the valuable information he was holding hostage. She was shaking inside. And she didn’t know if it was because Des might not be her real father, or because he may be.

  Des tortured the two ladies for a few more moments before opening the results, and when he did, in a Maury Povich voice he said, “I’m the father.”

  Desember started dancing around. “So I guess you got a lot of making up to do, huh, Dad?”

  The moment was surreal. They had all known there was a high probability that this day would come, but the reality was enormous.

  Yarni had thought she’d lose part of her intimacy with her husband; instead, she’d gained a second daughter … and a friend.

  Life would never be the same for Desember. From the only child of a single parent to a big sister, a Daddy’s girl with two moms—winning the lottery wouldn’t have made her feel as excited and happy as she was now. Well, maybe just as happy.

  “After things calm down here, I’m going to have my sister throw you a welcome to the family party!”

  Des smiled because he knew that Yarni was adjusting to the idea that Desember was now officially a part of their lives. He took it all in. He loved nothing in the world more than family. Love is family, and family is love.

  How Dare He?

  After the positive results from the DNA test came in, Des, Yarni, Desi, Desember and Joyce all went out to a posh restaurant for a celebratory dinner. Little Desi had a ball, but she couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. She already knew Desember was her big sister; they even resembled each other. Grown-ups can make things so complicated at times, she thought.

  The next few days breezed by without incident, which was a welcome change from the prior week.

  Des was still extra-cautious and made sure the whole family—including Joyce—let him know where they were going to be at all times. Until the identity of the person or persons responsible for the shooting and robbery were discovered, that’s the way it had to be.

  Joyce had been the hardest to convince to stick to the script.

  “I’m a grown-ass, unmarried woman,” she protested loud and clear. “And my days of reporting my comings and goings to a man are over.”

  Des figured she didn’t want him to know how often she frequented the bingo spot. At least that’s where she said she went every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and more often than not, Saturday evenings. Maybe she had a male friend she was keeping a secret, Des wondered. Before leaving the restaurant to head home, Des told his mother, firmly, that it had to be this way until he got to the bottom of things.

  Later that night, after the celebration, it didn’t take long for Des and Yarni to get busy.

  Yarni’s breathing became quicker and quicker. “Don’t.” Short breath. “Stop,” she managed to get out. Des had been making love to her for an hour.

  The soft sheets, tangled around one of her raised legs shimmied with each and every one of Des’s deep thrusts.

  They were in perfect harmony, like hearing a favorite song at just the right moment. Magical.

  Desi had been long put to bed. Yarni tried to keep the volume of her cries of bliss to a minimum in order not to wake her.

  Then he hit the spot.

  “Oh-my-God!” She shouted, forgetting all about the noise. “Please … Des … don’t make me … come,” she cried, matching his rhythm.

  Then she shook.

  Des knew the sign.

  He had taken her to her limit; and it was a good thing too, because he’d reached his own.

  Now he pushed himself inside her as far as he could go.

  They stayed that way for a few beats. Then they clammed together.

  After a couple of minutes of heavy panting, unable to distinquish where hers began and his stopped, Des finally spoke.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Des.”

  Their bodies were painted with perspiration and their breathing was just beginning to become normal. As normal as it gets for two people in love, lying almost on top of each other in the clothes they were born with.

  “What time does your flight leave tomorrow?” he asked.

  She could still smell the sliced peaches they’d had so much fun with on his breath.

  “At three,” she said. “I’m supposed to arrive in Florida at six-thirty. You sure you don’t want to come with me?”

  Her mother’s operation was scheduled to be performed the following morning after Yarni’s arrival. She planned to stay with her mother until she recovered from surgery. “The doctors say she’ll be in the hospital for a couple of days before she can be released.”

  Des turned on his back, looking at the ceiling. “Of course I want to go with you to be there for Gloria. But I can’t,” he said. “There’s too much going on.”

  Yarni understood. She knew how much he loved Gloria. He was doing what he thought was best. He had to stay and hold down the fort.

  Gloria and her husband, Sam, were waiting by a Starbucks when Yarni finally deplaned and headed for baggage claim.

  “Mommeee!” Yarni ran across the carpeted corridor and gave her mother a huge hug.

  “Girl,” Gloria spoke in a hushed voice still in Yarni’s embrace, “people are staring at us. You acting like a little girl,” she added.

  “I don’t care who is looking. And I am, and always will be, your little girl! At least that’s what you used to tell me, anyway.” Yarni finally let her mother go. “I’m starved,” she added. “I hope y’all haven’t eaten.”

  “Hey, Sam,” Yarni spoke to her stepfather but offered him no embrace. That was the closest she came to even acknowledging him. Ever since her mother told her about the indecent extracurricular activities she suspected him of, Yarni felt differently about the man.

  On the way to the baggage claim Sam asked, “How was your flight?”

  The flight was the worst. Yarni vowed never to fly coach again. She had been penned in a middle se
at between an old man who smelled like Ben-Gay and Old Spice, and a mother with a baby that wouldn’t stop crying or hitting her. Between the noise, the spats and the horrible scent, her head wouldn’t stop throbbing. She thought the madness would never end.

  She kept her response short and blunt. “Just glad to be here.”

  Sam was either too dumb to realize she was giving him the cold shoulder or too big-headed to care. No sweat off her back either way.

  After they got Yarni’s two oversized pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage secured in the SUV, Gloria suggested they go to a place she knew that perfectly grilled steaks.

  They ate outside under a canopy, and Yarni could hardly believe how wonderful the weather was: eighty degrees in December. “They say we may get a few dustings of snow back home.”

  “That’s just one of the reasons you should consider moving down here.” Gloria had been trying to convince her and Des to move to Florida for years.

  It was tempting, Yarni thought to herself. She could practice law anywhere.

  “Maybe we will. One day,” Yarni mused.

  Sam was on his fourth drink and paying the girls no mind. Yarni didn’t care in the least, but she felt sad for her mother.

  The next morning, Yarni and her mother headed to the hospital for Gloria’s lumpectomy. As Gloria lay in the back of the building somewhere getting prepped for her surgery, there were two questions that Yarni could not get out of her head: where in the hell was Gloria’s husband, Sam, and more importantly, why was he not at her mother’s side? It was killing her that Sam had not been home since the night before. Both Sam and her mother had picked Yarni up from the airport and took her to dinner. Then Yarni and Gloria decided to go to Target, and when they returned Sam was nowhere to be found.

  “Ma, do you think that Sam will meet us?” she asked on the way to the hospital.

  “I don’t know. I called him and he didn’t answer. Maybe he’s out with one of his skallywags.” She sucked her teeth. “But, I tell you what, I can’t focus on him now; I have to give my all to myself and getting me better.”

  Yarni agreed. “That’s right, Mommy, you sure do!”

  Gloria sighed. “Oh honey, once I’m back, trust and believe I will deal with him, because he’s been getting out of control. Don’t you worry, he will be dealt with. It just takes too much of my energy right now.”

  Yarni didn’t comment because she didn’t want to get her mother worked up. Yarni always knew her mother to be a strong woman who normally would never put up with any kind of nonsense from a man, not even a husband.

  Once Gloria was wheeled off for surgery, time flew as Yarni began on some of the work that she had brought with her. She was sitting in the waiting room when someone startled her. “Hey, pretty lady.”

  Yarni looked up and was surprised to see her father, Lloyd. “Dang, Daddy, what are you doing here?”

  He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “I decided at the last minute to get on the first flight out this morning. I had been kicking around the idea since you told me about your mother. She was my good friend and wife for many years, mother of my child, and she was there for me all that time I was in prison, so the least I can do is come visit her when she needs her loved ones around her the most.”

  Yarni looked at her father as he stood with his hands in the pockets of his slacks. Lloyd was so slick and his swagger was still swift. It was almost like he didn’t walk, he glided across the floor. And though he was well over fifty years old, he hadn’t lost his charm, charisma or quick wit. With his salt-and-pepper hair, he was still very handsome and debonair; she could tell why her mother had loved him for so many years.

  “That’s big of you, Daddy. But I thought you were going to hang around Richmond in case Des needs help with things.”

  He shooed off that thought. “Des got Joyce, plus your nanny; Desember and Bambi around there to help out too. And he has Stanka and Slim watching his back. But I asked myself, who do you have here with you? So Big Daddy is here to the rescue.” He took the seat beside her.

  “Thank you, Daddy.” She smiled.

  “I know it’s got to be tough on you, baby, dealing with all this shitty bullshit. From those ungrateful ass shucking and jiving clients of yours, and then Des’s situation, the wild-buck stepdaughter and Joyce …” He shook his head. “That lady is something else.”

  “Ain’t she?” Yarni agreed. “I think she means well, but she’s just misunderstood.”

  Yarni thought about when Des first went to jail. She was a week away from her eighteenth birthday, and Des had been her knight in shining armor. She was devastated when the judge banged his gavel and ordered the man she loved more than life itself to what might as well have been an eternity.

  When Yarni finally got back to the condo that she and Des shared, the place was empty. Joyce had hired movers to take everything. Clothes. Jewelry. Furniture. Everything. At that time, Joyce thought that Yarni was a young gold-digging chick looking for a free ride from her son. It took years before Joyce realized how much Yarni really loved Des.

  Yarni shared that story with her father.

  “That was some bullshit,” her father stated.

  “Yeah, it was, but she was looking out for the best interests of her son. She really does love him after all.”

  “You might be right, but she’s still a piece of work. Anyway, I wanted to be here for Gloria and for you also. So how you holding up with everything going on?”

  Yarni took a deep breath. “You mean dealing with Mom’s situation?”

  “No,” he shook his head, “not just that. The church, Des, Desember, work—everything.”

  “It’s all wearing on me for real. Desember coming to live with us, work, all of Des’s bullshit, raising a child.”

  Lloyd put his arms around her to comfort her. And when she felt the embrace from her father, she felt comforted, protected, and she let loose her tears.

  “Ahh, baby, just let it out.” He reached for his handkerchief.

  “Oh, Daddy, I don’t know what to do. Just seems like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders,” she managed to get out between sobs.

  “I can imagine. You know I love Des like a son, but if it gets to be too much for you, you know you can step away if you need to.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not really an option.”

  “I know, but sometimes you have to do what’s right for you.”

  “Daddy, I only want Des to decide what it is that he wants, get his act together, and keep both feet in a legitimate business. I just feel that we’ve strived so much to get to where we are and now it all may be taken away because he won’t stop indulging in that life and because of things he did in his past.”

  “That’s understandable, but remember who you married,” her father said. Before she could respond, her phone rang. It was Layla giving her the good news that Tangaleena’s case had been null processed. Yarni didn’t know which she was happier about: the news that she received on her client or the fact that Layla’s call got her out of the long lecture Lloyd was about to give her that she needed to hear but didn’t want to listen to.

  Actually, Yarni had lied to her father. She had thought about leaving Des almost every time she stepped foot inside a courtroom. Whenever she heard a judge sentence another black man to a life behind bars she remembered how she used to think when she was young that being the girlfriend or wife of one of the most feared and respected hustlers in the city was exciting.

  Invidious.

  She wanted more.

  Needed more.

  Deserved more.

  Leaving Des would be one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but things in their life seemed to get only more complicated throughout the years. But the love they shared seemed to keep them together.

  The following evening after Yarni got Gloria home and settled, Gloria slept while Yarni and Lloyd played Scrabble, and her father asked, “Where is the joker she married?”

  “I was wondering
the same thing.”

  It was burning Yarni up that Sam had not even called to check on Gloria. Once the game was over, Yarni got Lloyd set up in one of the guest rooms and went into her own room and pulled out the papers Gloria had faxed her. When Gloria first mentioned her problems with Sam, Yarni had hired a private investigator. She looked at the charges on the bill and the report the detective had given her to figure out the places that Sam frequented and compared it to a calendar. Today was Tuesday and on every Tuesday, the dummy usually dined at the same restaurant.

  She knocked on the door to the guest bedroom. “Daddy, listen out for Ma for me, please. I gotta make a quick run.”

  She knew that she shouldn’t stick her nose in other people’s business, but this was her mother and Yarni couldn’t help it. She grabbed the keys to Gloria’s car and headed down to the restaurant.

  She pulled the luxury vehicle in front and tipped the valet to keep it there. “I’ll only be a few minutes,” she said with a smile. Inside was upscale but most of the patrons were casually dressed.

  “Ma’am, do you have a reservation?” the maître d’ asked after he greeted her.

  “I’m looking for my stepfather. I believe he’s here, seated already,” she said with a grin. Yarni scanned the restaurant, and spotted Sam sitting in the company of a woman with whom he was laughing, having a grand old time. Yarni’s blood began to boil. The damn gall of him. She strolled across the dining room with rage in her eyes.

  By the time Sam saw her, she was conveniently and swiftly placing her bag on the back of a chair as she took a seat at their table. “Hi, Sam,” she said. “Well, aren’t you going to introduce me?” Sam seemed to be too busy picking up his smile off the floor and was at a loss for words, so Yarni kept talking. “Hi.” With a warm smile, she extended her hand to the woman sitting there. “I’m Yarnise, and you are …?”