by Pace, Pepper
The next day Scotty drove to Lebanon Correctional Institution to pay a visit to his brother only to learn that he had been released two weeks before.
Chapter One
September 21, 1982
Vanessa danced while she cooked breakfast in Scotty’s neat little kitchen. Everything felt different now. September 17th had not only been her eighteenth birthday, but also the day that she had lost her virginity and the day that Scotty Tremont had asked her to be his wife.
They’d been back home for two days and still her heart would skip a beat as she realized that her childhood dreams were coming true. Time had continued to move forward but Scotty hadn’t changed. He was still the sensitive, intelligent nurturer that he had been when they were children.
How could she not fall head over heels in love with him despite all of their differences? Back when they were kids, people called him white trash because his mother was a drugged out hooker and his family was so poor that they either had to steal what they needed or sell drugs to make ends meet.
By comparison, she had grown up in a complex that was situated over the projects. It was still the ghetto but Garden Hilltop was like being in a Fairytale castle where nightly Vanessa would look out of her window down to where the life and the action took place. Everyone thought you had to be rich to live on the hilltop—and because of that Vanessa had never fit in.
If not for the fact that she had to go to school right along with the project kids, Vanessa would not have known that her life was privileged. Being with the other kids who talked louder, acted wilder, and pointed out that she had ‘white people’ hair was both frightening and exhilarating.
Scotty Tremont sat right smack dab in the middle of what scared her, and yet he didn’t seem at all phased by the fact that people looked down at him. He ignored the name calling but if pushed he could fight as good—if not better than anyone else in the ghetto. Scotty fit in despite his looks and she supposed it made her wonder why she couldn’t do the same.
And then one day he noticed her. And everything changed when her fear of him transformed into her first crush.
Vanessa flipped the sausage patties while she grinned to herself. Everything in her world was right and it hadn’t been like that in ages—if ever. Soon she would collect her trust fund and she and Scotty could start looking for their own house and then she would be Vanessa Tremont.
As she cracked eggs into the skillet she toyed with variations of her name. Should she be Vanessa White-Tremont or just Vanessa Tremont.
She didn’t know that Scotty was behind her until she felt his hands snake around her waist.
She jumped and yelped when she felt the stubble of Scotty’s early morning beard tickling her cheek.
“Mmm, I love having you for a roommate,” he grunted. “Three home cooked meals every day and I get to make love with my baby. I’m getting spoiled.”
“Good morning baby. Breakfast will be served shortly.” She turned her head and shared a long sensuous kiss with her man. Once he discovered that she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath her oversized shirt he cupped her breast and began playing with her nipples.
They both smelled the sausage burning and Vanessa quickly pushed the skillet from the fire while Scotty big hand palmed her sex once he discovered that she had gone without panties as well.
Vanessa was intent on being domesticated by cooking and cleaning when she wasn’t trying to experience every sexual act that two people could imagine.
Over the last two days she and Scotty had made love on just about every surface of the apartment. And just this very morning she discovered a new position; Scotty sexing her from behind while she braced herself against the stove.
She had just lost her virginity a few days before, but Scotty acted like sex with her was the first time he’d ever touched a woman. She wasn’t complaining but she was sore and could stand a few hours of relief from Scotty’s giant penis. Well maybe it wasn’t exactly giant, but it didn’t fit into her as easy as the girls made it sound. Scotty thought that her tightness was amazing—she still found it somewhat painful. Still, she loved his penis and the way it came to life as soon as he set eyes on her. She wanted to tell Jalissa all about it—at the same time that she wanted to covet everything about him to her self.
The burnt sausage was cold by the time they ate it but neither Scotty nor Vanessa seemed to care. She watched him eating and love for this man seemed to bloom anew in her chest. Vanessa wondered if it would always be like that; like she’d be minding her own business, maybe watching television and then BAM she’d look at Scotty and be staggered by her love and need for him. Maybe that’s why people described love as if being shot by cupid’s arrow.
She wouldn’t stare at him as if he was a rock star but couldn’t help peeking discreetly at him. She took in the way his messy hair fell into his face as he chomped on the burned sausage and hastily scrambled eggs coated in blackened sausage fat because she had been too distracted to drain the skillet after burning the sausage. Yet he ate it as if it was a five-star meal.
He was shirtless and wore just a pair of athletic shorts that he had slipped into after rising out of bed. Vanessa admired his arms, which were thick with muscles while his body remained sleek and hard in the way that a runner was shaped. His broad chest tapered down to hardened abs enhanced by the workout equipment that he kept in the living room of all places.
To her he was simply perfect from blue grey eyes that looked out from beneath his broad straight brow and golden tan complexion. She could barely take her eyes from him. Her need for him again after such a short time, spread urgently throughout her core sprouting electrical fingers that caressed her pleasure zones. Her nipples still ached from the way he had just pinched them but they also hardened with need of his touch. And although her vaginal canal was still swollen from their act of love just minutes before Vanessa needed him again. She stood and swept off her shirt.
His fork froze just before his parted lips as his cornflower blue eyes took in Vanessa’s beautiful body. He came to his feet and hastily swept the dishes out of the way. One ceramic plate landed on the tile floor and spun like a top without breaking. A half empty cup of orange juice splashed its contents to the floor.
Neither noticed.
Scotty slid his hand into his shorts and when it reappeared, it was gripping his erect penis.
Vanessa captured her lip between her teeth as she eyed what he held in his hand.
“Is that mine?” She asked seductively.
“It always has been and it always will be.”
Vanessa did not make it to see Jalissa or her grandmother that day.
The next day it was Scotty leaving the apartment that finally gave Vanessa the initiative to finally take care of her own loose ends. Scotty had gone downtown to get a copy of his school transcripts in order to get registered for the winter semester at the University of Cincinnati. She decided that she needed to get her business together as well.
She hadn’t called her grandmother since before her birthday but she knew that Bertha Mae was disappointed that she hadn’t spent the special day with her. She would surely think that Vanessa had decided to spend the time with ‘those people’ and Vanessa knew that at some point Bertha would say just that. Vanessa also knew that she would never admit to her grandmother that she had in fact spent her birthday with a man.
She realized that she was intentionally avoiding the talk with her grandmother about Scotty. Not out of shame for him or their love. But because she knew that if her grandmother didn’t like Scotty then it would profoundly affect their relationship. She had withstood her grandmother’s terrible ideas about Aunt Callista and Jalissa but she wouldn’t stand for it when it came to Scotty.
They were the two most important people in Vanessa’s world and if one didn’t like the other than it would be a terrible blow to her. Grandma would just see a white man with a criminal record. And if her grandmother knew that she was living with him then all kinds of shit would hi
t the fan!
But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. Vanessa decided that if she wanted her grandmother to treat her like an adult, then she would have to act like one.
With a sigh, Vanessa picked up the telephone and dialed her grandmother’s house. She reminded herself that she was eighteen—an adult and despite the argument that she was sure to face, she intended to stand her ground.
“Hello?” Bertha Mae said.
“Hi grandma.”
“Hi, Vanessa. Are you back from your birthday vacation?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She stated, feeling guilty that she was only just now calling her grandmother.
“Did you and your cousin have fun? You didn’t do anything crazy like getting drunk did you?”
Vanessa’s lips twisted in amusement. “No ma’am. We just wanted to celebrate and we had a good time.”
“That’s good baby.” Her grandmother’s voice became hesitant. “I suppose that you will be wanting to collect your trust money.”
She didn’t want her grandmother to think that was the only reason she was calling. “Yes, I will soon-“
Bertha Mae sighed. “Then I think you and I better have a talk.”
Here we go. ”Sure grandma. I can come over later today.”
“Okay. Bye.” And the phone went dead, surprising her. Grandma had just hung up the phone. Now that didn’t make sense, she hadn’t even told her anything that should make her mad … yet.
Since she didn’t have the car, she decided to splurge and take a cab, using some of the money that Scotty had left for her in the bedroom drawer when he’d gone to New York.
She was sure that her grandmother would think that she was being wasteful when she saw her pull up in a cab, Vanessa thought as she sat in the back seat. But it would be stupid to take a bus when she could use this opportunity to pack up some of her things to take back to the apartment.
Vanessa walked up to the house that she had lived in with her grandmother, wondering how much this would hurt their relationship. Her grandmother meant the world to her but she would not live by anyone’s conditions but her own. If her grandmother didn’t want to accept her relationship then that was her decision, but one thing she could no longer do is control the trust fund.
Vanessa knocked on the door at the same time that she used her key to enter the house. “Hi, grandma. It’s me.”
“In here,” the older woman called from the kitchen.
Vanessa was surprised that she didn’t smell the aroma of something cooking. They had made plans to meet hours ago and her grandmother would have had plenty of time to whip up something to eat. Anytime Vanessa had returned home to visit, her grandmother would have something prepared for her to eat because she thought ‘those people didn’t know how to cook. Sometimes it was greens and a meatloaf with all the fixings, or pinto beans and cornbread. And when there wasn’t much time, grandma would at least throw together salmon croquettes and rice.
Vanessa walked into the kitchen a little disappointed, not that she necessarily wanted something to eat but because it was something that her grandmother always did.
Bertha Mae White watched her granddaughter, her face expressionless without even a smile of greeting. Vanessa tried to think back to what she’d done wrong—what her grandmother could have discovered that she’d done in just one week.
“Sit down Vanessa.”
“Is everything alright?” She asked while taking her seat. Oh Jesus … grandma was going to tell her that she had cancer or something. Vanessa felt as if someone had just socked her in the stomach and she looked at her grandmother with open fear.
“No. Everything is not alright.”
“Are you okay?” She asked, her voice rising high in fear.
“Vanessa, you are not going to like what I am about to tell you. But you will not be collecting your trust until you’re twenty-one.”
Vanessa was speechless. She couldn’t even respond because there were so many things that she wanted to say at once.
Her grandmother’s eyes became sympathetic. “I didn’t make this decision lightly-”
Vanessa shook her head. “What decision? You can’t stop me from collecting my money.”
“Vanessa, I want you to take a minute to listen to everything I’m going to tell you.” Vanessa fought back a hysterical response to scream and rant against any idea that she wouldn’t be collecting what her mother had meant for her to have. But she needed to hear exactly what her grandmother had to say and so she clenched her teeth and waited silently for her to explain.
“When you were still a baby, your mother took out a life insurance policy which named me the beneficiary.” Vanessa frowned in confusion at the direction the story was taking. “When she died I … couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d lost her life. To me that money was not something that I wanted possession of. So what I did was I put it in the bank … for you.”
Vanessa’s mouth parted in confusion. Was her grandmother telling her that she had a trust as well as the money from her mother’s life insurance policy?
“When you first came to me you were so lost. I wanted to give you something to focus on, something that would show you that your mother loved you very much-”
“My trust … ” Vanessa whispered.
“There is no trust. Your mother had a savings account with fifty-two hundred dollars in it but that money is long gone.”
Vanessa began to tremble. Her mouth just hung open. “Gone? But … ”
Bertha Mae shook her head. “That money was taken out of your mother’s bank account the same day that we found out about her death. Your mother didn’t have a will and she never talked to me about setting aside money for your college fund. It was you that told me that. When I checked her bank statements I saw that there was money in her savings account but it had been taken out; fifty-two hundred dollars. Once I produced her death certificate and showed the bank that I was the beneficiary of her life insurance I was able to get a copy of the withdrawal slip. It was signed with her name, and dated after her death.”
Vanessa lowered her head into her hands. She felt tears stinging her eyes. She looked up quickly at her grandmother. “Who took the money out of my mother’s account?”
Bertha Mae White leaned forward and stared directly into her granddaughter’s eyes. “Your guess is as good as mine,”
Vanessa blinked and then sat slowly back in her chair.
She changed the house after your mother … you know, Jalissa had said.
The morning that she had been told about her mother’s death, aunt Callista had left with the police to identify her mother’s body. But after doing that … maybe she got possession of mama’s personal effects, her identification. And maybe Callista had gone to the bank and used that identification to make a withdrawal. She didn’t look like her mother but they had some similar qualities …
Bertha Mae continued to talk, her voice quieter but just as firm. “So there is no trust fund. There’s only the money that was left to me; the money that I’m giving to you. When I feel that you’re ready for it.”
Vanessa felt like fainting. Everything in her life had once again gone upside down, and even though her aunt had never fooled her, it destroyed something in her that the woman’s treachery could be so far reaching.
“There is no trust fund.” Vanessa repeated as if trying to absorb the information. Aunt Callista had stolen the money. And her grandmother had sixty thousand dollars that she had promised her for years would come to her on her eighteenth birthday.
Vanessa felt her face drain of color as her blood grew cold. She met her grandmother’s eyes.
“Would you have told me the truth if I hadn’t spent the summer with them, if I hadn’t moved out and told you that I wasn’t going to college.”
Her grandmother sighed. “No. You would have just thought that your mother had left it directly to you. I wouldn’t have told you about the stolen savings. I would have allowed you to … have a relationship with those
people. I would have kept that secret.”
Heat stung Vanessa’s eyes and she realized that they were swimming in unshed tears. “Are you punishing me because I didn’t go on to college--because you think I chose them over you?” her voice was soft but accusatory.
Bertha Mae leaned in close her eyes suddenly so much like those of her mother’s.
This is real talk, her mother had said once upon a time.
“If you are going to control your destiny, then you need to know what and who you are up against. In the perfect world your mama left you sixty thousand dollars-“
Vanessa shook her head in denial and balled her hands into fists as they rested in her lap beneath the table.
“No, that wasn’t my perfect world-“
Her grandmother continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “In reality your Mother was robbed by her so-called sister and there was nothing left for you.”
“You didn’t have to make up a trust fund!” she snapped and the first tears spilled down her cheeks. Vanessa covered her face but a second later she refused to give in to her tears and she angrily swiped them away. “As long as I did what you wanted you were going to give me sixty thousand dollars?”
Bertha Mae sighed and leaned back against the rickety kitchen chair. “Your mother had hopes and aspirations. She died before seeing them come true. When she left me that money, she did so knowing that I would use it to help you to become the best person that you could be. She didn’t leave it to her sister, she didn’t make you the beneficiary. She turned it over to me. There were no conditions on the life insurance policy that said ‘when Vanessa turns eighteen give her what remains’. She trusted that I would use that money to make your life as good as possible.
“There is enough money for you to further your education the way you said you always wanted and then more. But there is no money to be used foolishly by a child that can’t see what is right in front of her face.
Vanessa felt anger well up inside of her and boil over. She came to her feet. “I don’t believe you! You are making this up so that …” she couldn’t understand why her grandmother would make this up but it had to be a lie.