“How long have you been married? Where did you get married?”
“Three months, and in Vegas.”
“Ugh,” she said as she stopped applying the eyeliner. “Okay, three months is not a lot of time. What does he do?” she said as she went back to tracing her outer lid.
“He is a player in the NFL.”
She stopped as if she became interested again and said, “Really. Well, maybe we can handle this. Do you know who is representing him?”
“His attorney is out of Atlanta. I think a Joseph Martin. Before we married they only gave me a little child support and I don’t want it to happen again. He is hiding money. I know he has millions. He has a recording studio and property. But he is trying to put everything in his mother’s and cousin’s names so he won’t have to give me anything.”
She stood up and said, “My retainer to handle this case will be at the very least twenty thousand dollars. But I assure you that when I finish with him, twenty thousand will not be anything. I will take his house and make sure you get half of everything. We will go to the media if necessary. Has he hit or shoved you before?”
“Well, no. He walks away. But he put me out of his car before.”
“He shoved you out of the car—perfect. That is domestic abuse. Trust me, he doesn’t want that type of label. None of them do. I had a case like this before. I set up a press conference and before my client reached the microphone, his attorney wanted to make a deal.”
“But he is not a big star.”
“It doesn’t matter. The NFL affiliation alone is enough to garner media attention and embarrass him.”
I was excited. She was saying everything I wanted to hear. She was like a vicious attack dog. It was like all I had to do was say get ’em, sic ’em, girl, and she would go and bite DeCarious right in the ass.
Chapter 64
Cherise
DeCarious sent flowers to my job. He called, e-mailed, and texted me tens of times, saying how sorry he was. I didn’t want to hear his sorry. I didn’t know what would make him think he could just walk out of my life and then come back and everything would resume as normal. I was not having it. I refused to answer his calls and return any of his messages.
He couldn’t get me on the phone or by text, so he decided to show up at my job. As I was walking out of the building, he grabbed my arm and said, “Can we please go somewhere and talk?”
“No, I just want you to leave me alone. I want you to stop sending me flowers and stop calling me.”
“Please, Cherise. Please, Cherise, will you talk to me?”
“I’m tired. It has been a long day.”
“Please, I just have a few things I need to talk to you about.” Seeing his face made me angry. I felt like taking my fists and pounding his chest and asking him why he’d hurt me.
“I am so sorry how everything played out, Cherise. I thought I was doing the right thing for my daughter, and with Adrienne being pregnant again, I just wanted to give it one last chance.”
“I don’t care, DeCarious. I don’t want you, and I don’t date married men.”
“Cherise, I’m trying to get the marriage annulled, but she is not having it.”
“DeCarious, we can’t have this conversation here. Let’s talk in my car.” I figured if he said everything he needed to say, then he would finally leave me alone. He followed me to my car. Once we were in, he just began pouring everything out and I just sat and listened.
“She has a lawyer already and she said she is going to the press and will tell them that I hit her, and is making all this stuff up. I talked to my attorney and he said I don’t have anything to worry about. She married me under the false pretense that she was pregnant. That is reason enough for annulment. Whatever it takes, I’m getting out of the marriage. I might have to give her temporary alimony, possibly a small lump sum, and definitely child support, but I don’t have an issue with taking care of my daughter.”
“I just can’t take you back into my life, just like that. I’m too hurt.”
“I understand and I want to do everything in my power to make it up to you. So what’s next, Cherise?”
“I don’t know. Day by day.”
“Can I come home with you? I don’t want to go home. I’ll just sleep on your sofa.”
I let DeCarious sleep on my sofa. I wanted to be around him. I didn’t want him to leave. I handed him a blanket. We said good night and I went into my bedroom and closed the door. I wanted DeCarious to get in the bed with me. I wanted to join him on the sofa, but his presence alone gave me peace.
Chapter 65
Zakiya
I had decided to forget about the stupid blogs and the girls on them. Jabril loved me. Even though we weren’t even sure what we were having yet, he got a tattoo with JS II in cursive letters on his bicep.
He said that once the baby was born he was going to put the baby’s face and birth date underneath. On his forearm he got my name tattooed in big Greek-style letters and he begged me to get his name tattooed on my back.
“You are crazy, boy. Please, stop marking your body up.” I laughed.
“I only have eight tattoos. I know people who have like twenty. This dude when I was getting my last tattoo had a few tats on his face.”
“That’s next for you.” I laughed. “You are going to be looking like Lil Wayne.”
“Never.”
“Hurry and get dressed, Kiya, so I can see JS2.”
“I’ll be ready in a few.”
We were on our way to the doctor’s office. Jabril couldn’t go to all my doctor appointments with me, but he tried to go to most. I was getting my ultrasound done today to see what I was having. Last time we tried to see, the baby’s hands were blocking the view and they couldn’t make out if the baby was a boy or a girl.
The ultrasound tech came in the room. Happy and cheerful.
“Y’all ready to see what you’re having?” she asked as she applied this cold brown gel to my stomach.
“I think she is having twins. Look how big her stomach is,” Jabril joked.
I tried to punch him playfully. I saw the image of the baby coming on the screen.
The woman laughed herself, and said, “This is a big baby.” She adjusted the band around my stomach and went over to the screen and then told me to turn to the side. I turned to my side and then she kept swiping the instrument back and forth across my stomach. Then she said, “I’ll be right back.” Jabril and I kept laughing and playing until the woman came back in the room with my doctor.
“Doctor Fisher,” I said.
He said, “Hi, Zakiya.” His sternness let me know something was wrong. He looked at the screen and said, “I don’t want to alarm you, but your baby is not moving and does not have a heartbeat right now.”
“Huh?” we both said together. We both looked over at the screen.
Then Dr. Fisher said, “I’m sorry, your baby is dead.” The words hit me like a bag of bricks. Your baby is dead. I started screaming at the thought of not meeting my baby in the next ninety days. I had a dead baby inside of me.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes things like this happen. We will not know anything until we check for congenital birth defects, such as heart malformations, in the baby.”
I don’t remember anything after that. They offered me counseling and all sorts of things and the next day they induced my labor. I had to push the baby out, but I knew there was not going to be a crying baby. When I finally pushed out Baby Smith, the room was somber. No cameras, taking pictures, or celebration. Jabril was crying, I was crying, and so was Claudette. How could this happen? What did I do wrong? They asked me if I wanted to see him. I said no. I wanted to get up and just leave. I didn’t want to name him or give him a service, but Jabril insisted that we bury our son. He made all the arrangements.
They wrapped our son up in a blue blanket. The funeral home came to pick up our child and we buried him a few days later.
Chapter 66
/> Adrienne
Itried to give DeCarious one more chance to see if he would come to his senses and wake the fuck up. See if he would realize he had more to gain with me than without me. Somebody needed to inform him that it is cheaper to keep her. My attorney is so good. If he still wanted to go through with the divorce, then fine, because my attorney said that he didn’t have a case against me. He couldn’t prove that I didn’t know I was pregnant. He couldn’t prove that I didn’t have a spontaneous abortion. But if DeCarious wanted to play hardball he could. And if he did, I was going to go right ahead with the domestic abuse allegations and release all the threats he left me to the news media. I would ruin him, and I tried to explain that to him, but he was stubborn and dumb. If he knew what’s best for his finances, he would heed my advice.
“DeCarious?” I yelled into the phone.
“What?” he yelled back.
“I just wanted to say—”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Get it through your damn head. We are never going to be together. Stop calling my damn phone. I have the woman I love back. She loves me. She has her own money, career, and she would love me tomorrow if I was broke. Listen, don’t call me if it is not about Asia.”
He hung up on me again, and I called him right back.
“DeCarious?”
“What, Adrienne? I thought I just told you not to call my phone if it was not pertaining to my daughter.”
“I’ll call you whenever I feel like it. Okay? You like your house, right?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Adrienne?”
“It means exactly what you think it means.” I tried to take the bass out of my voice and sweeten up my tone. “DeCarious, I didn’t call to argue, but I do want to explain something to you.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me. I don’t want to hear it, Adrienne. Something is really wrong with you.”
“I’m going to tell you anyway. By law, I’m entitled to half. I’m your wife! I know you have an attorney, but he is giving you wrong information. My attorney is a beast, and she is not playing. So you might want to think twice about trying to move forward with this annulment.” I paused. “I am willing to make it work with you. But if we don’t make a deal, I will make sure that you never see Asia again!” I screamed, and then I hung up on him.
He called my phone and left a message. I listened to the scathing words he left for me. “Adrienne, if you keep my daughter away from me, I will hurt you. I will kill you, bitch. They will find your dumb ass in a ditch.”
I called him back and said, “DeCarious, thank you for leaving me more threats. Don’t say I didn’t warn your dumb ass. And did you just say you were going to kill me and they are going to find my body in a ditch? A judge will love to hear this. Maybe I need to call your girlfriend’s job or FOX 5 and let them know that DeCarious Simmons is a deadbeat dad and abuser, and he is threatening to kill me. I think I’m going to get a restraining order on you now, because I’m scared.” I laughed and then hung up on him again.
“Adrienne, you are really crazy.”
“Yeah, well, my crazy ass is going to hang up so I can call the police now. I think I have some photos from when you choked me, too. You know I bruise easily.”
“Adrienne, you are the fuck crazy. No one is going to believe you.”
“I bet they will.”
“No one likes a man who beats on his women and doesn’t take care of his child. You are going down. I’m taking everything, DeCarious. Everything. You hear me? Your house, your money, and your life.”
“You can’t take my house or my money.”
“Watch me. Start packing your shit because you are getting evicted,” I said as I hung up on him again. I was done playing nice. I called my attorney and told her to go ahead. She could do whatever was necessary. I’d do a news conference with my big, black, round sunglasses on, and sniffle for the cameras as I wiped away imaginary tears. I laughed at the thought. I didn’t want to do it to him like this, but he did it to himself.
Chapter 67
Cherise
DeCarious ran in the door, huffing and puffing. I was scared to ask what was wrong.
“What’s wrong?”
He then went to the door, opened it and slammed it, and began punching his fist into his palm. “How can this bitch think she can just take my money? How can she say she deserves half? She never worked hard a day in her life. I want to kill her.”
“Calm down, baby. What is going on? I don’t understand.”
“My attorney called Adrienne and asked her if she was served with the annulment papers. I called her and she told me to call her attorney. So now her attorney is threatening to have a news conference saying that I’m an abuser.”
“She doesn’t have any proof,” I said.
“She does. She was making me so mad, I did leave on her voice mail that she was going to make me kill her.”
“DeCarious, you didn’t.”
“I did. It was dumb, but she kept calling me and saying how I won’t be able to see my daughter, and I just got so angry. So my attorney called back and said that they want spousal support and child support. She wants my house. I was willing to give her five hundred thousand. So then Adrienne calls me and says that if I don’t give her what she wants she will take half of my income. Then she said she was going to the media and say that I have been physically abusing her. She is trying to ruin me. I hate her. I swear, I hate her. I’m ready to have someone kill her.”
“Stop talking crazy. We will work this out.”
“I worked hard for all this. I’m not super rich, but I’m doing okay. I did this work. I ran them miles. I get up at 5 a.m. I went to college, worked out in the snow and rain in high school. This was my sacrifice. I will kill her before she gets half of everything I’ve worked for. I swear on my daughter. I will kill that bitch.”
I had to calm DeCarious down. I could never understand how someone could want to kill someone, but this woman—someone needed someone to do something to her. She was insane. I wanted to kill this bitch myself.
“Babe, just calm down. We are going to figure this out.” I couldn’t help but think if he had never gone back to her none of this would have happened.
DeCarious had a meeting with his attorney and wanted me to accompany him, so I did. We came into the office and had a seat. He introduced me as his girlfriend. I knew they were probably thinking, Aren’t you still married?
“DeCarious, listen. This is going to hurt, buddy. But she has this attorney, and she is threatening all types of allegations. She asked for two point five million dollars to walk away.”
“Two point five million dollars? Is she crazy?” I said.
“Are you joking? I was married to her for two months. Does she really think I would give her a million dollars for every month that we were married?”
“No, it is a game, but they have to start high and we are going to have to meet them in the middle. Around one million.”
“What? That’s too much money. You said I would only have to give her half of that.”
“I know. That’s what we thought initially. But you have a contract extension on the table and you don’t want her to find out about that. And she is saying you hit her and she has proof. She said something about voice mail messages that they will release to the media. And we just don’t walk that path at all. It would be a public relations nightmare. The league just doesn’t need this. Think about your franchise, team, and fans.”
“But it is not true.”
“It doesn’t matter, DeCarious. I’ve been trying to keep this negotiation a secret, but as soon as you sign this new deal and you are still legally married to her . . . then she can ask for half. You have to get out of this marriage as soon as possible.”
Chapter 68
Tanisha
Thanks to God I had all my children, and my Kevin back. We were taking things slow, but I was going to move back in with him. I think everything I’
ve been through has made me more compassionate, understanding, and less judgmental.
I wanted to meet with Adrienne. I had been so evil to her, and she didn’t deserve it. She is lost and confused and she needs someone to help her. I had to let her know that I didn’t blame her about everything that happened to me in my life. At first I was going to call her, but I decided I was going to visit her in person. I called her and asked if she was available for lunch.
“What’s up, Adrienne? What are you doing?”
“Just leaving my lawyer’s office. Why? What’s up?”
“I wanted to meet up with you.”
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. I think we have a lot that we need to discuss and just need to meet up face-to-face.”
“I’ll let you know,” she said.
That didn’t sound very promising. I really wanted to talk to her. I wasn’t sure where she lived. “Adrienne, I just wanted to let you know I forgive you. I am sorry I blamed you for everything. You were only being a friend. You thought that was the best thing to do at that time. I don’t know why all this happened, but I know it has made me stronger. I don’t blame you. You gave me advice and I took it. It is not your fault.
“But since I’ve been through all this, I feel like I have to tell you. You have your life—don’t waste it. I feel like I wasted so much time. You have your health and you are beautiful. You have a healthy, beautiful child, so you need to stop playing with your life. I’m so serious. Stop playing with your life.”
“Tanisha, thanks, but no thanks. I get it, but please don’t tell me how and what I should think. I love DeCarious and I want to be with him. If he doesn’t want to be with me, then I am entitled to whatever he has.”
“One day you will wake up. You can’t do dirt and stay clean.”
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