The next day Keith finally answered his phone. The first call he answered was from his mom. Cameron could hear his mom defending Phebe so she rolled her eyes and got out of bed. She even heard her asking him why he just wouldn’t leave Cameron alone because she was up to no good. She mentioned something about her having some kind of Voo Doo on him. Cameron wanted to grab the phone and cuss her out but that would only cause another argument between her and Keith. She thought they would have some amazing morning sex, but he killed her mood again. While Cameron was in the front watching TV, Keith was still in the back on the phone and her phone starting beeping with text messages:
Phebe: What kinda woman are you?
Phebe: You ain’t a woman at all. You a tramp bitch!!
Phebe: Don’t you have a husband you could be fucking instead of my man?
Phebe: Yo mama probably a hoe too!!
After that message, Cameron decided to reply:
I could fuck my husband but I love Keith’s big dick better, you bitch!!
That message was followed by pictures of Keith sleeping in Cameron’s bed, as well as Phebe’s bed. She even sent pictures to let her know that she was very familiar with her house. Phebe started calling Cameron’s phone instead of texting after she received those pictures and messages, but Cameron turned her phone off and started back watching TV. After about ten minutes, Keith came from the back. “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?” He yelled at Cameron.
“I did what she wanted me to do,” Cameron replied while rolling her eyes. “And you better watch how you talk to me, with your crybaby ass,” Cameron said. She mumbled so he couldn’t hear the last part. They spent the rest of that day arguing. Still no sex. Cameron was ready for him to go home if they weren’t going to have any peace. She didn’t have peace with Malcolm and refused to be constantly arguing with two men.
On Sunday morning they were finally talking to each other without arguing and screaming. Cameron decided to get up and go grab some breakfast. She called in an order of pancakes, sausage, and eggs from a local restaurant and went and picked it up.
When she made it back with the breakfast Keith was laying on the couch watching TV. They ate together then he grabbed her and started kissing her. She was instantly turned on and made her way on his lap. She pulled her shirt over her head and he unsnapped her bra then removed it. She held her head back in ecstasy as he kissed and sucked her breasts. She wanted to feel him inside of her so bad that she hopped up and pulled off her pants and panties while he pulled his off at the same time. Fuck the foreplay, she thought. She eased back down slowly on his dick and threw her head back. He grabbed her hips and met her thrust for thrust. “Damn I love you bae,” she said while continuing to ride him.
“I love you too Phebe, and I’m sorry,” he said.
“What the fuck did you just call me?” Cameron said while jumping up. He didn’t even realize his mistake until she said something. “Shit, I’m sorry bae. My mind is so fucked up right now,” Keith said. Before he could even finish with his explanation Cameron had all of her clothes back on and was standing there pissed the fuck off. Keith left to go home, and that was the end of their crazy weekend together.
***
Cameron stopped thinking back to the weekend when her phone rang at her desk. Her boss needed her to send a document to the courthouse that she could’ve sworn she had sent already. Her personal and work lives were both in shambles. Cameron was happy when five o’clock rolled around. What a fucking day, she thought to herself while getting in her car in route to pick up Kingston. After she safely made it home with her son, they relaxed together for the rest of the evening.
Cameron had just put Kingston in bed when she heard her phone beeping with a text message. When she picked it up she noticed that she had several text messages from the group chat, a couple from Malcolm, (along with five missed calls from him), a missed call from her sister, and one from Keith. Her sister had been calling her on the regular since Thanksgiving and they had become closer than ever. Cameron felt good talking to and confiding in her. She had always wanted a closer relationship with her sister so she would be sure to call her back soon. She was glad that Thanksgiving had mended their broken relationship. Cameron still didn’t know exactly why it was broken in the first place but she was just thankful to have her sister in her life. She opened up the group chat first:
Shay: I finally got my tree up (sent with a picture)
Toya: Pretty! I’m finishing mine up now. I’ll send a picture later
Sonya: That’s pretty Shay. We are putting ours up tomorrow.
Toya: I can’t believe your slow ass finished first Shay
Shay: Whatever. Where’s Cameron. She has been MIA since Friday.
Toya: IDK. I haven’t talked to her either. I called a few times but her phone has been going straight to voicemail every time I try. Hopefully everything is OK
Sonya: I hope she’s OK with all that drama she had going on this past weekend.
Shay: Me too
Cameron: I’m here and the drama has been nonstop. I turned my phone off because I was tired of Phebe calling so I’m just now getting all of my messages.
Shay: What else happened?
Cameron: Phebe kept calling and texting all weekend while Keith was here
Shay: So he really stayed. Ump ump ump
Cameron: Yep. Then I sent her pictures of us together in his house and mine. Then when we finally had sex, he called me her name and I put him out.
Toya: YOU DID WHAT??
Toya: WHAT DO YOU BE THINKING?
Cameron: I wasn’t thinking. I was mad at the moment.
Toya: So what you gonna do if she send those pictures to Malcolm?
Sonya: Wow Cam!! What were you thinking?
Cameron: I didn’t even think about her sending them to him. She doesn’t have his number though.
Toya: Did you give her your number?
Cameron: No
Toya: MY POINT EXACTLY!!
Sonya: You gotta be smarter than that girl
Shay: Lord Cam!!
Cameron was tired already and didn’t feel like being lectured anymore so she opened Keith’s messages next.
Keith: First off, let me say I’m really sorry for calling you by her name. My head is just really fucked up. I know I would be pissed if you called me his name but you call us both bae so that won’t happen will it? It’s like you wanna just keep playing games but I really want you and only you. I done laid it all on the line, but you ain’t making no moves so I think it’s best if we just chill out for a while. I love you so much, but you don’t want me like I like want you so I gotta stop hurting ole girl. I shed tears in front of you and it didn’t even faze you. You think a nigga wanna cry for real? I’m lost and confused. Until you figure out what you wanna do, we gotta chill. I’ll always love you no matter what.
She didn’t even reply to him or look at anymore messages. If she would have checked her other messages she would have known how pissed off Malcolm was. She just went and popped four pills, downed them with some Orchard Splash cranberry juice then went to bed and cried herself to sleep. Keith said he was lost and confused, but how could he not understand that she was too?
***
Chapter 23
Malcolm was glad to be back working, but he still hated to be away from home. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Cameron specifically, he really just didn’t trust women period. The experience he went through as a child left him that way, and he always told his self that he would never fully trust a woman. Any woman who drinks could especially not be trusted, and he knew Cameron drank from time to time. She didn’t drink before they got married and he never once thought that he led her to do it afterwards. He had also watched his mom and sister play men like keyboards throughout the years so he learned not to trust women through them too. Women had ways of breaking men down and he always said that he would get them before they got him, which is why he was the way he was. All he wanted was for Cameron to qu
it work, have two or three more children and take care of home like a respectable woman was supposed to do.
Cameron would kill Charlotte if she would have known that she had been giving Malcolm information on her. Malcolm had no idea that stranger that he had confided in at that truck stop about the DNA test he wanted on Kingston was Charlotte’s ex-husband who had also recognized Malcolm from Facebook. Charlotte always seemed obsessed with keeping up with her family but never called them or tried to have a decent relationship with them. She was now divorced and for Thanksgiving had brought a friend home pretending to be her husband, making everyone believe that she was still happily married. She had gone to the justice of peace and didn’t have a wedding so no one knew what her husband looked like anyway because she didn’t invite her family up. She just called her parents one day and told them she was married. They were disappointed that she didn’t allow them to share in her happiness but there was nothing they could do about it.
Charlotte’s husband was tired of her crazy ways and when she had an abortion behind his back knowing how badly he wanted kids, he divorced her. That marriage only lasted nine months. Her ex-husband had told her about his conversation with Malcolm, not knowing that she would use the information against her sister at a later date.
Malcolm was driving down the road when his phone started beeping with a text message. Before he could pick it up it beeped a couple more times. When he finally grabbed his phone and opened the messages he didn’t recognize the number, but he noticed Cameron with a man with a caramel colored skin complexion. He looked familiar but Malcolm couldn’t place him and had to pull over to keep from wrecking. He was livid. The pictures were of Cameron and this dude in bed together. They were in HIS bed and some other bed too. He immediately called Cameron’s phone back to back to back but she didn’t answer so he sent her a couple of text messages. She didn’t reply. He called two more times and she still didn’t answer. If he stopped his route now, he could make it home by noon the next day and that’s exactly what he did after he called his boss and told him that he had a family emergency. He was headed to kill Cameron and the man in the picture if he could find him. He kept trying to figure out where he knew the man from but couldn’t wrap his brain around it.
***
Chapter 24
The next morning Cameron woke up with a banging headache along with being nauseous. She felt like shit. She was barely able to get Kingston ready for school but that was all. She called and asked one of her cousins to come and pick him up and drop him off for her, and then she got back in bed. She called her boss and left a voice message saying that she was sick and couldn’t make it in today. This was her second time having to call in and she felt terrible about it, but there was no way she could make it to work with how she currently felt.
She went right back to sleep and woke up at about eleven o’clock feeling somewhat better. She rolled out of bed and her phone beeped with a text message. She picked it up and noticed that she had ten missed calls from Keith and several text messages. “I thought he said it was over,” she said while rolling her eyes. She dragged herself in the bathroom. She turned the shower and got in with hopes that the hot water would bring her back to herself and relieve some of the nausea.
As soon as she got out of the shower her phone started ringing again. She knew that it was Keith by the ringtone because she hadn’t changed it yet. She wanted to, but couldn’t bring herself to do it because she actually missed him. In the midst of her thoughts, she realized that she hadn’t heard from or called Malcolm back. Strange that he hasn’t called, she thought. Just as she was about to check his text messages from last night, Keith started calling back again. “I thought you said we needed to chill out for a while,” Cameron said as she answered the phone.
“Look, now is not the time for all that so listen up. I overheard ole girl on the phone with Charlotte. She had it on speaker and it seems like they reconnected or some shit around Thanksgiving. Anyways, your trifling ass sister gave her Malcolm’s number and she sent him those pictures last night that you sent her,” Keith said. Cameron couldn’t move because was in shock. “So I don’t know what’s gonna become of all this, but Malcolm knows. Has he called you?” Keith asked.
“He texted me and called but I didn’t answer or check the messages,” Cameron said while finally finding her voice. “You need to be careful bae,” Keith said.
“So now I’m your bae again?” Cameron snapped.
“Look, focus and kill the dumb shit. Be safe and keep in touch. I don’t have a good feeling about this shit,” Keith said. Cameron told him OK and hung up. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 11:43. She finally opened Malcolm’s text messages from the night before:
Malcolm: ANSWER THE GOTDAMN PHONE!!
Malcolm: I’M GON KILL YO MOTHERFUCKING ASS!!!
Malcolm: AND THAT NIGGA TOO IF I SEE HIM! WHO IS HE?
Cameron’s knees went weak. She called Malcolm’s phone but he didn’t answer. She tried again and he still didn’t answer. All of sudden she felt sicker than she had felt earlier. Her phone beeped and she checked it. It was a message from the group chat:
Sonya: Malcolm left from up here about fifteen minutes ago looking for you. I guess he’s trying to surprise you but he looked pissed off. What’s going on?
Cameron didn’t bother replying at the moment. She hurried up and finished slipping on some clothes. She threw on the quickest thing possible which was a pair of skinny jeans that were almost too little and a Hollister tee. Her sneakers were right by the bed so she threw them on without socks. She grabbed her phone, purse and keys and headed for her car. Once she pulled out of the driveway she picked her phone up and texted back:
Cameron: A whole bunch of shit has happened but I don’t have time to text it all right now.
Just as she sent that text, she met Malcolm down the street in a curve flying. She sped her car up and panicked even more.
Cameron: He’s chasing me. I can’t text and drive this fast. Talk to y’all later.
Cameron sped down the highway driving ninety plus miles per hour trying to get away from the lunatic who was chasing behind her. She gripped the steering wheel tight as her heart beat rapidly and tears streamed down her face. She could not believe she had been so stupid and sent those pictures. Not thinking had most definitely backfired on her. One part of her wanted to just let go of the wheel and let her Camaro crash so that this chase would end, however her sane conscience thought about her son Kingston. Not to mention the child she recently found out she was carrying. With that second thought, she quickly cast her impractical thinking aside and regained her composure. The black car behind her was closing in and all she could do was pray. The expectant mother had ignored the beeping noises until her car began to slow down. She then realized she was running out of gas, but the crash that came from behind sent her car flipping violently off of the highway.
***
Chapter 25
Malcolm had really lost his mind this time. He couldn’t believe what he had just done, but at the same time he wished he could have done more. After he ran Cameron off the road, he didn’t even stop to check on her. He went to the store and made an anonymous 911 phone call saying that someone had just run off the road and their car had flipped a couple of times. He hung up before the operator could ask if he was still on the scene. Malcolm’s car had a few scratches so he decided he would take it and put in the shop to kill time until someone called about Cameron. He got a rental which wasn’t out of the norm because he sometimes rented cars for his trips home from work so no should question that. His plan was to act like he was still at work whenever the call came through. I hope they don’t call my boss since I told him I was going home, he said to himself while trying to figure out a plan.
After he got his story together the phone call came through about Cameron’s accident. He told them that he was actually close to home and would be there as soon as he could. He didn’t know if her parent’s had been c
alled or how she was doing. Mentally, he was a complete mess.
Malcolm finished off the last beer out of the twelve pack he had brought before heading to the hospital two hours later. He almost wrecked a couple of times before he got there because he was so out of it. Cars were blowing at him the entire time. Once he got to the hospital and was told that Cameron was in coma, he went ballistic and started cussing the doctors and nurses while telling them that they better save his wife. He told the doctors that he was not leaving her side no matter what. When he saw her parent’s walk in, he went numb. He had no idea how much they knew and when he saw two police officers walking closely behind them he fainted.
When he woke up he was in a room and the same two officers he saw before he passed out were there. “Mr. Price, how are you feeling?” asked the first officer.
“I…I don’t know. What happened? Where am I?” Malcolm replied, trying to act as if he was still out of it.
“You fainted when you saw us walking toward you,” said the second officer. Malcolm began to fake a hysterical cry as he asked, “WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE IS MY WIFE?! WHAT HAVE Y’ALL DONE TO HER? I NEED MY WIFE!!” The second officer asked Malcolm to calm down several times before he actually did so, but it was obvious that the officer was not falling for Malcolm’s bullshit. “We need to ask you a few questions Mr. Price,” said the first officer. Malcolm immediately began to become defensive, asking the officer, “You think I had something to do with this? WHERE IS MY WIFE?!”
In reality, Malcolm was afraid of what the officers may already know. He began to become fidgety, and he broke out into a nervous sweat. The second officer said, “Mr. Price, no one is saying that you had anything to do with what happened to your wife, this is just routine protocol,” while side eyeing the first officer. Malcolm realized that he needed to calm down and cooperate with the officers to keep the heat off of him. “Go ahead officer, I’m just so stressed out and worried about my wife,” said Malcolm.
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