He gifted her with a plush robe and slippers, as her clothes had been soaked by the recurring rain storm that she refused to escape, in an ill planned attempt to wash the blood that she was convinced now flowed from her skin. While watching the embers glow in his massive fireplace, Heath listened eagerly as Natalie recounted the details of the conversation that threatened to destroy the remaining pieces of her family. He assured her that no one would blame her as he prepared dinner and hot tea for her. Her hopelessness pained him as he brushed her limp hair.
Natalie gratefully accepted his offer to use his private jet to travel to Maryland. After insisting that he travel with her, Natalie called her brother and informed him of the newest developments. He too, agreed to join the family at Rosemary’s hospital bed.
When they emerged from the airport, a black town car awaited them. Had Natalie not been overwhelmed by her own psychological turmoil, she would have commended Heath for being so well prepared and generous. He held her hand as they traveled to Sibley Memorial Hospital in a suburb of Maryland. Her exhausted eyes looked into his in an expression of gratitude that allowed the two a communication void of words.
After she was well, she would explain and apologize for not calling and being so dismissive of his efforts. She would thank him for not thinking twice about their ugly exchange when she needed him most. She would let him in. His eyes told her that he could wait until then. He was her knight in shining armor.
The entrance to Rosemary’s room was crowded with church congregants and co-workers all with looks of dismay etched deeply in their faces. Natalie grasped Heath’s hand tighter as to protect him from the stares that would undoubtedly dissect him and challenge his presence. He informed her that he would wait in the waiting room and looked around expectantly hoping others would follow the same suggestion of decorum and respect for the family. No takers.
Once she entered her room, Natalie realized her greatest fear. The woman who she regarded as a larger than life and opposing titan now appeared shriveled with her mouth twisted into
A PRICE TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING an unnatural smile. There, next to her bed, stood an embattled husband and father, who himself had taken refuge at the bottom of a liquor bottle to assuage the crushing guilt that was now his to bear. His eyes watered when he saw Natalie. His attempt at a smile was futile.
“Baby girl. I am so glad you’re here.” He embraced her in a primal way that only a parent can embrace a child who has been exposed to unspeakable harm. His embrace was hard and unyielding. Natalie returned his embrace as she eyed her mother who lay on the bed with the same unknowing smile that defied the worry and aggravation that she personified for years. After releasing her, Earl looked to his wife and spoke fretfully to his youngest daughter.
“Doctor said that she suffered a psychological something or other. I think he don’t want to tell me that she had a nervous break down. After that, she suffered a stroke and couldn’t speak. Doubt if she will ever make full sentences again.”
Tears and emotion flooded his throat as he continued to speak.
“So, we gonna get her a speech therapist and physical therapist to get her back to where she used to be.”
Tears now flowed uncontrollably from Natalie’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she was crying for her father’s pain or her mother’s resentment. She turned to look at her mother whose Oil of Olay trained skin now appeared gray and lifeless.
“She can understand what we saying, but she can’t talk as yet. She’s been making sounds, though.”
Earl commented as he prepared to leave the room to allow mother and daughter time together. His exit was a relief for his worn soul as well. As he closed the door, Natalie noticed her mother’s eyes fill with tears. The crooked smile now labored movement in an attempt to speak.
“Momma, don’t talk. Just rest. We got plenty of time to talk later. Just get better, please.”
Rosemary stubbornly moved her head from side to side suggesting that what she had to say superseded her physical and mental condition.
Natalie leaned in closer. Rosemary’s words were merely a whisper and an amalgamation of unrelated sounds. The frustration of Rosemary’s condition overpowered Natalie as she began to speak to her mother.
“Momma, the doctor said that you will be able to talk after a while. Just wait. Whatever it is, you can just wait until then.”
Again, Rosemary adamantly shook her head no. This time more ferociously. She squeezed Natalie’s hand as she leaned in closer. This time her muffled sounds combined to make a word that jolted Natalie and released ripples of pain and reconciliation through her body all at once. With eyes trained on her daughter, Rosemary Logan, at the weakest point in her life, mouthed “Sorry.”
It was the strongest point in Natalie’s life and she had her mother’s weakness to thank for it.
Chapter 52 Ilene
After a year and three months in the Prince Georges correctional facility, Ilene had conceded defeat. She had been served with the final decree of divorce from Charles and the house was sold. Her half of the proceeds settled her financial debt to the attorneys who fought to have her sentence commuted to two years, as opposed to the original eight, due to her exceptional service to the community. Thank God for those ridiculous charities Charles made her join. No one posted bail on her behalf, forcing her to foster friendships and alliances with those who shared her plight.
Charles, now happily married to Regina, never corresponded and returned the letters unopened that she penned in moments of repentance and atonement. Marc had since moved to the west coast to pursue a new career in consulting for newly formed non-profits.
Ilene was indeed on her own. She found that she was quite resourceful and learned how to con lonely old men with money to correspond with her on-line. A few of them even came for visits and pledged to marry her once her time was done. One suitor stood out considerably among the marks, a term she acquired in the facility, who provided much promise.
Howard Devonshire, III was not only wealthy, but a dastardly middle aged man that had been long divorced and abandoned by his family. After meeting him on a dating site for mature daters, Ilene quickly offered her friendship and loyalty. She remembered him from a write up in Fortune Magazine, but pretended that she was as ignorant of his past as he was of hers. They shared stories of the past. She, claiming to be incarcerated because the man she devoted her life to embezzled money and placed it in her account, making her an unwitting co-conspirator. He, suggesting that his only true love was his money and that he needed a woman who recognized that financial fortitude is more useful erotic emotion. He sent her pictures of himself and his estate. She sent pictures of other women she found on the internet for six months, until finally he demanded that they met in person. She ignored his balding and robust framed and he overlooked the age that settled in her face as a result of harder living. The two would be married and she would become the first lady of a prominent financial empire built on wise investments and shrewd business dealings.
Life was going to be okay for Ilene. Her stint in jail sharpened her skills and prepared her for the re-emergence of exorbitant living to which she was accustomed. The two years of her existence spent paying for the sins of her former life seemed fair and harkened the beginning of a new and certainly, to her relief, a more fitting one.
Chapter 53 Marc
“Thank you for calling Campbell Associates. This is Marc, how can I help you?” Marc’s voice boomed through the line as he addressed potential clients. His former career that he abandoned a year ago was lucrative, but left him questioning his life’s worth.
On a trip to the west coast with Reggie, who rededicated his life to Christ after being cleared of sexual battery charges, he found a struggling architecture and general contracting firm owned by an aging man ready to exit the business. After selling Sherise’s former condo in DC’s white hot real estate market, he invested $250,000 to settle the firm’s outstanding accounts and to take over the existing clientele, t
his time offering his expertise as a project manager.
The proceeds, after a generous draw to the firm’s original owner for the next three years, were largely reinvested in Compton’s revitalization projects, not far from his trendy Hempstead Heights home in the land of tans, power lunches, work out sessions and plastically enhanced bodies. His schedule afforded him time to volunteer at the Boys Club and sponsor a few kids for the annual basketball camp held by the Lakers.
His attempts to reach Natalie were unanswered. He sent a few clippings of the new businesses that he opened and houses he built in low income areas. No response. After realizing that her approval did not affect his desire to help those in the community, he doubled his effort and even ran for a local office.
Though close, he was defeated by a well known councilman that had a long standing reputation in the community. It was during one of his political debates that he met a spit fire reporter/activist/bohemian queen/poet named Andrea Samuels who challenged every stance that he promoted on his platform. A fierce defender of the “indigenous community of the under privileged” as she would call them, she proved his toughest critic and ultimately his most endearing lover.
Together, and in spiritual congress, another Andrea-ism, they created a life. Marc’s new little sister, Nia, was only a few months older than the child that he and his new wife named Zola.
Marc’s father and his new wife, Regina, had visited a few times and appeared enamored with each other. Charles noted the happiness to be one of shared passions and love, something otherwabsent in his father’s former marriage to his mother.
Marc found himself often wondering whatever happened to Sherise, but never allowed it much thought. He thought he saw her on the arm of one of the first round NFL draft picks, but couldn’t be sure. Then he thought he saw her dancing on a hip hop video of one of the newer rappers.
As for Natalie, he thanked the Creator that he was ever allowed to meet her. It taught him that passion unbridled was powerful and fleeting, but true love sustained everything, at all costs. An investment of $7000 taught lessons that would last a lifetime.
Chapter 54 Natalie
Rosemary’s labored word a year ago had changed the face of Natalie’s life. After witnessing her father struggle to care for her ailing mother, she moved them both to her home in Houston, despite Eric’s animated warnings. Even Latonya, who was now employed as a correctional officer, offered protest.
Her relationship with Rosemary evolved into one of codependence, the elder needing it to sustain life, the younger needing it to validate a death.
Despite Earl’s valiant attempts, he was never able to face his beloved daughter to address the pain that his lifelong friend had caused her. He died of a heart attack eight months after Rosemary was released from the hospital, without ever expressing the sentiment that laced his saddened eyes and remarked of his guilt.
The two women in the house mourned him for different reasons and managed a relationship that was strained at times and celebratory at others.
Heath regularly took them on shopping trips and tried to convince them to move into his massive estate. Rosemary, now able to speak modestly, implied that he should marry her daughter if he wanted that luxury. She would wait patiently as he struggled around his own insecurity of Natalie’s response and ultimately turn into an interesting shade of burnt red. It provided a constant source of amusement to her.
Natalie resumed her visits with Dr. Reade, after much pleading and apology. The voices seemed to emerge with lesser occurrence. This encouraged Natalie to return to work with full vigor.
After learning that she was terminated due to her “inconsistent performance and excessive absenteeism”, Natalie simply did what was natural to her. She had spent years selling a corporate persona that the public would buy. Refreshed and recharged, Natalie sold herself. She began consulting with the very companies that she once worked with at her former employer. She adhered to a strict code of ethics and worked hours that were sensible. Only, she was a lot less expensive to hire and took home a lot less at the end of the day. The most important perk to her new found career was that she was able to choose her clients. No more blatantly racist companies trying to appear diplomatic and just. No more sexual harassment cases paid off and orchestrated to silence another victimized woman or man. This simple expression of independence gave Natalie what she had been longing for, that which she later found that money could not buy… a happy ending.
Coming soon from Kameisha Jenkins,
“C h e a p e r t o K e e p H e r”
Ilene Devonshire Chapter 1 The Comeback
Ilene glared over the large conference table of attorneys at her newest enemy. Mariska Devonshire vowed that she would do everything in her power to prevent her father’s will from enriching a woman that she knew was involved in his untimely death.
Howard Devonshire married Ilene months after she was released from prison and quickly made her the only heir to his massive million dollar estate and holdings. His estranged children were mysteriously left out the will, and in most recent months, forbidden to contact their father by his very controlling and surgically enhanced new wife, Ilene.
The two women locked in stares that would melt iron. Mariska launched her attack
A/> “Look, Ilene. We all know about your tawdry little past in Atlanta. I have informed my father’s estate advisors that he was
CHEAPTER TO KEEP HER coerced into changing his will. There is no way my father would hand over his entire estate to you, and I certainly don’t mean any disregard to you…But frankly, you’re an uneducated convicted felon. The board will never allow it.”
Ilene’s cosmetically refreshed face allowed a smirk. “Mariska. I do believe you are misunderstanding the reason that we are here. My husband loved me. I was at his side constantly when he became ill. He confided EVERYTHING in me. I am offering you a generous settlement. His will is iron clad and valid. You and I both know why there was no one else is listed. I am not here to entertain your hysterics. I lost the man that I love and my best friend. I expected that you would show a little more decorum.” Mariska rolled her eyes in disbelief.
“Decorum, Ilene? Where the hell was your decorum when you moved your ghetto assed crack head lover into my father’s home? Why didn’t you call one of us when you found out that he had cancer? Or did decorum slip your mind while you were blowing his money in Paris while he was dying alone with his nurse? You’re a bitch, Ilene. I swear on my life that you won’t touch a dime of my father’s money. Not over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged.” Ilene thought to herself as she rose to excuse herself from another unproductive and hate filled mediation. The past year had enough drama in it to last a lifetime. Her current crisis would be no different.
A Price to Pay for Everything Page 33