The Joneses

by Shelia M. Goss

  “Mom, are you drinking?” Lovie asked, startling me.

  I looked up at him. He was still wearing his outfit from last night. He looked as bad as I felt.

  “Dear, have a seat.”

  “This isn’t going to take long.” Lovie sat down in the seat next to mine.

  “I’m sorry about everything,” I blurted out.

  “I’ve had time to think. We don’t need to do a blood test. I don’t want to hurt Dad.”

  I squeezed Lovie’s hand. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “In my heart, Royce Jones is my dad.”

  I silently thanked God for answering my prayers. “He is your father. You look like him. You two act alike. Jason is just trying to wreak havoc in our lives.”

  “Mom, I don’t want you to worry about Jason anymore. I’m going to take care of him.”

  “No, you need to stay clear of Jason. For him to come over here like he did last night means he’s losing control. It’s best that you stay away.”

  “What if Dad had seen him? He’s done enough to this family. I refuse to let him do anything else.”

  Lovie jumped up out of the chair and stormed off.

  “Lovie!” I called out. Lovie didn’t stop. I heard the front door slam.

  “Lord, please don’t let him do something he’ll regret later.”

  CHAPTER 57

  Royce

  “Happy belated birthday, Mr. Jones,” Frank, one of my workers, said as we were preparing to head out to a funeral.

  “Thank you. I missed you last night.”

  “I had to stay at home with my mom. You know she has dementia, and my wife had to work last night.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  Frank said, “I heard about it. Glad you had a good time.”

  “It was fun. My wife and daughter did a great job.”

  We chit-chatted all the way to the church. We were supposed to meet another one of my workers at another church in two hours.

  I’d spent all day going from one funeral to another. I sent Lexi text messages in between locations. She normally would have messaged me back or called, but she was probably exhausted. She deserved a day of rest to herself.

  “Frank, I’ll lock up. See you on Tuesday,” I said, as I grabbed my jacket off the coat rack.

  I heard a noise. “Frank, did you forget something?” I asked out loud.

  “This isn’t Frank.” Tyler walked to my doorway, revealing himself.

  “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?” He stood in the doorway, and I stood in the center of the room.

  “We need to talk.”

  “When I tried to talk to you, you didn’t want to. So at this point, we have nothing to talk about.” I dangled my car keys. “Now, I’m headed out, so you need to leave.”

  “I don’t think either one of us is going anywhere.” Tyler didn’t move. He raised his hand.

  My eyes focused on the silver, shiny gun in his right hand pointed directly at me. I eased back a little. The back of my leg hit the chair, causing me to stumble a little. I caught myself from falling.

  I held my hand out. “Wait a minute now.”

  Tyler pointed the gun down. “Sit. We have a lot to talk about.”

  Not wanting to set him off, I did as instructed. The jacket in my hand fell to the floor.

  “Get your wife on the phone,” he insisted.

  “Leave Lexi out of this. This is between me and you.”

  He pointed the gun and fired toward the wall near my shoulder. The sound resonated through the room.

  “Tell her you need her to get down here.”

  I looked up at Tyler’s cold, black eyes. “You can do what you want, but I’m not calling Lexi to come down here.”

  Tyler gripped the gun. “You’re not running this show. I said get her on the phone.”

  “I will do whatever you want, but I’m not asking her to come here.”

  “Fine. You can do it over the phone.”

  Reasoning with Tyler didn’t seem to be an option. I would do anything at this point. “What do you need me to do?” I asked.

  “I want to hear you tell her about my mom.”

  I picked up the phone and dialed Lexi’s number. The call went to voicemail. I exhaled. “She’s not answering.”

  “Try it again.”

  This time instead of calling Lexi, I dialed Charity’s number. “Lexi, dear, I’m glad I got you.”

  “Dad, it’s me,” Charity responded.

  “I know, Lexi. I’ve been so busy today that I didn’t get a chance to call you. But I’m calling you now.”

  “Stop with the small talk and tell her,” Tyler yelled.

  “I’m trying. This is hard for me,” I looked up and said to Tyler.

  He waved the gun. “Do it now, or I swear I’ll shoot you.”

  “Oh my God, Daddy, where are you?” Charity yelled.

  “Lexi, I’m still at work, but that’s not what I called you about.”

  I could hear Charity talking to the 9-1-1 operator on her other phone.

  “Lexi, I have a confession to make. I cheated on you.”

  “Tell her with whom,” Tyler directed.

  “Lexi, I cheated with Ruth Ann. We were together for a couple of years.”

  “You loved her. Admit it.”

  “I loved Ruth Ann,” I lied.

  Tyler walked to the desk, snatched the phone out of my hand, and hung it up. His arm had to be getting tired, but he continued to hold the gun up.

  “Now what, Tyler?” I asked.

  “Give me a minute.” He eased the gun down just a little.

  “Hand me the gun. I’ll pretend like this never happened.” I eased my chair back and stood up.

  “Sit. I’m warning you.”

  “No. You’ve done enough damage. This has to end now,” I said, as I walked closer to Tyler.

  “Royce, I don’t want to shoot you, but if you don’t stop, you will give me no choice.”

  By now, I was up on Tyler. We wrestled for the gun. The gun went off.

  “Oh no!” I yelled.

  CHAPTER 58

  Charity

  My heart stopped beating briefly when I realized my dad was with Tyler. He must have had a gun on him. When my dad called me and kept calling out my mom’s name, I knew something was wrong. With him on my cell phone, I called the police from my business line.

  I jumped in my car and drove straight to the funeral home. I called Lovie while en route. The police were already there when I pulled up.

  Officer Underwood saw me and pulled me to the side. “Ms. Jones, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

  “My dad’s inside. I need to get to him.”

  “Don’t panic. Someone’s been shot. We’re waiting on the paramedics.”

  “Is it my dad?” I asked.

  Officer Underwood responded, “At this point, I have no information.”

  “But, you just told me someone was shot.”

  “That’s all I know.”

  “You’re supposed to be the police. Find out!”

  Lovie’s car pulled his car beside mine. He jumped out of his car and ran up to me. “Where’s Dad?” he asked.

  In between tears, I responded, “I don’t know. Somebody’s been shot. They won’t let me inside. I don’t know if it was him or Tyler.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Lovie left to try to gain entrance to the inside of the funeral home, to no avail. I noticed the officer turning him around.

  “Did you call Mom?” Lovie asked.

  “Not yet. I wanted to see what was going on first.”

  “I better call her before someone else does,” Lovie said.

  “Too late,” I said, when I heard my mom’s car screeching into the parking lot.

  She jumped out of the car and ran through the crowd that had formed.

  “Royce!” she yelled out.

  Lovie grabbed her. “Mom, calm down. We don’t know anything right now. The police are handling the s
ituation.”

  News media and bystanders were filling up the parking lot.

  I explained to my mom and Lovie what happened. I left out the confession that my dad was forced to make over the phone.

  “I was on the patio. I’d left my phone on the kitchen counter,” my mom explained about not being available for his call.

  “That’s okay, mom. He got me, and I called the police.”

  We hung on to each other. The waiting was killing us. It’d been thirty minutes, but no one was telling us anything.

  “Where’s Hope?” my mom asked me.

  “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to reach her, but I haven’t been able to get an answer.”

  We were talking about Hope when Officer Underwood walked out. The paramedics followed him, rolling a bed with a body bag.

  My mom fainted. Lovie caught her right before she hit the concrete sidewalk.

  My heart skipped a beat. I exhaled when my dad walked out of the funeral home, bloodied but alive. I pushed past everyone, and to Officer Underwood’s dismay, into my father’s arms.

  I’d forgotten about the lies, deceit, and betrayal. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he was alive. He squeezed me tight. “I love you,” he repeated over and over.

  “I love you, too.” He rocked me back and forth.

  Officer Underwood said, “I hate to break up this reunion, but we need to get your father down to the station so we can question him some more about what happened.”

  “You’re not going to put him in your police car, are you?”

  Officer Underwood looked at me and then at my father. “No, but he’s in no condition to drive himself.”

  “I’ll drive him. We’ll meet you there,” I responded.

  Cameras were flashing and news reporters were asking questions. Lovie had revived my mom. My mom and dad’s reunion was caught by the cameras for the world to see. She cried tears of relief as they clung to each other.

  “I’ll drive,” Lovie said.

  We all piled up into his SUV. I sat in the passenger side, while my mom and dad sat in the back seat.

  So many questions were running around in my head, but none would come out. I found myself looking behind me to make sure my dad was not a mirage—that he was actually real and alive.

  “I’m so glad it was Tyler and not you in that body bag,” I said.

  “Me, too, baby girl,” my dad responded.

  “What happened?” my mom asked.

  “We can talk about details later,” my dad said, as I looked back and watched him hold on to my mom.

  There were news reporters waiting outside of the police station. Officer Underwood escorted us inside.

  “As long as your dad cooperates, he should be going home tonight,” he assured me.

  I squeezed my mom’s hand. We sat and waited in the lobby as the police interrogated my dad about the shooting.

  CHAPTER 59

  Hope

  I was lying on Tyler’s bed with my hands tied behind my back and my ankles tied. I couldn’t move. It’d been hours since he’d tied me up. My phone rang. It was in my purse, which was on the nightstand. I heard the ringtone I had setup for Charity play several times.

  Since I’d been here, I realized Charity and Lovie were right. I should have left Tyler alone. I thought telling him about the possibility of me being pregnant would draw us closer together, but instead, it upset him.

  Would anyone think to look for me here? My life flashed through my mind. I’d made so many bad choices; most of them concerned men. I thought about the relationship with Jason. I shouldn’t have allowed it to continue as long as it had.

  I tried to justify my actions of being promiscuous as a teenager with the fact that my parents didn’t show me enough love. In reality, that’s a lie. My parents showered me with love and anything my heart desired. Charity and I seemed to be in competition with one another because of our own selfish actions. There was no reason to compete.

  Where did things go wrong for me? At least Charity had the drive to do something with her life. As for me, guess my time was almost up, so there was no need for me to try to figure out what I wanted.

  How could Tyler do this to the mother of his child? He should have been overjoyed with the prospect of being a father, but instead he accused me of trying to trap him and called me all sorts of names.

  I coughed. My mouth felt dry from lack of fluid. The sound of the door opening startled me. I closed my eyes in fear. I tried to control my breathing as I waited for Tyler to enter the room.

  I heard several voices, but none sounded like Tyler.

  “We got someone tied up.” The voice was closer.

  I opened up my eyes and cried when I saw the policemen.

  “Ma’am, I’m Detective Franklin. We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Someone took a picture of me. One of the officers took out a knife, and I felt the rope loosen around my wrists. I brought my hands to the front and rubbed them. I winced in pain. The same officer cut the ropes around my ankles. I eased up on the bed.

  “Tyler Williams is responsible for this,” I blurted.

  “Ma’am, what’s your name?”

  “I’m Hope Jones. Can someone call my dad, Royce Jones, or my mom, Lexi?”

  The officers looked at each other. “Ms. Jones, we called the paramedics—as soon as they check you out, I’ll have one of the officers take you home.”

  “Can someone hand me my phone over there? I need to talk to my parents.”

  The officers looked at each other again. “Is there anyone else you can call?” the officer asked.

  “Yes, my sister.”

  “What’s her number? I’ll call her for you,” the officer responded.

  A few minutes later, I was on the officer’s phone talking to Charity. “Why are you at the police station?”

  Charity gave me a condensed version of what had occurred. “I’ll be there,” I responded.

  I tried to stand up, but fell back on the bed. One of the officers tried to assist me. “The paramedics just pulled up.”

  A man and woman rushed in and took my vital signs. The female paramedic asked, “We can take you to the hospital for further testing. That’s up to you.”

  “No, I just need someone to take me to the police station.”

  The officer who first saw me said, “Your father’s been released. Your family should be at home by now, so I’ll drop you off there if you like.”

  “Yes, please do.”

  I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and followed the officer through the apartment. There were police going through Tyler’s things. I saw the photo album sitting on the table.

  “That’s mine. Can I have it?” I asked.

  “It’s part of our evidence,” one of the officers said.

  “Has it been tagged yet?” the officer who was taking me to my parents’ home asked.

  “No.”

  He picked up the photo album and handed it to me. “She’s been through enough trauma for one day.”

  The officer tried to lift my spirits as he drove. When the front door opened, I flew into Lovie’s arms. “Where’s Dad?” I asked.

  “He’s in the living room.”

  I turned and faced the officer. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  “Ms. Jones, we are sorry for your tragedy. If you all need anything, call me.”

  I took his card and slipped it inside the photo album.

  “What’s that?” Lovie asked, as we walked toward the living room.

  I shoved it in his hands. “It’s the photo album that was at Tyler’s. Get rid of it.”

  Lovie looked at me curiously. “Don’t ask me any questions, Lovie. Just do it.”

  Lovie took the photo album and headed toward the den. I walked in the living room by myself. “Daddy!” I cried out.

  My mom sat on the edge of the sofa holding my dad’s hand. I bent down and hugged him.

  My mom reached for me. “Baby, are yo
u alright? One of the officers told us what happened.”

  I coughed. “I’m fine. Just thirsty.”

  “Charity, get your sister some water.”

  Charity obeyed and returned with a bottle of water.

  I sat on the floor beside my dad and gave them a recap of what happened. I’d never been so scared in my life. Thankfully, I was now safe and secure with my parents.

  CHAPTER 60

  Lovie

  It’d been awhile since I spent the night in my old bedroom. In light of all that happened, I thought it would be best. My dad was in no shape to field questions from the media and my mom, well…the less she stayed out of it, the better. Being the oldest, I felt it was my duty to be the family spokesman.

  The phone started ringing as early as seven o’clock. I spent most of the day filtering calls from reporters.

  “I think the people need to see your dad on TV, to know that he’s okay,” my mom said, as we all sat around the dining room table.

  My dad, who had been quiet most of the day, said, “Lexi’s right. Let the reporters know we’ll do a quick news conference right outside in front.”

  Two hours later, our family stood outside in front of the house surrounded by local media.

  My dad read a statement my mom helped him to write. “We want to thank the community for their outpouring of support. I thank God that He spared my life, but we are saddened that during the ordeal, a young man lost his life. Pray for his family. Pray for the Joneses.”

  One of the reporters asked, “Why was he there?”

  I stepped in front of the microphone. “My father won’t be answering any questions at this time. We do thank you for coming and please, keep the Joneses in your prayers.”

  With our hands locked with each other’s, the entire family walked back inside of the house. The reporters were disappointed that their questions weren’t answered but the less my dad said, the better.

  “Dad, I think it’s time you got your attorney involved.”

  “Lovie, I haven’t done anything wrong. Tyler came after me.”

  “While you two discuss this, I’m going to whip up something for dinner,” my mom said. “Girls, follow me.”

  Charity and Hope followed her. This was the first opportunity my dad and I had time to talk alone. We walked into the den. I glanced at the doorway to make sure we were still alone.