She was crying. She was coughing and choking to get the words out. “He hurt me.”
Lance frowned. “Cheeks?”
Arykah’s sobbing became louder. “I was calling for you. Where were you?”
Still frowning, Lance didn’t have a clue what she was saying to him. “What?”
Arykah screamed into the telephone. “He raped me!”
Lance jumped up from his desk at church. “What?” He was already running from his office. “Baby, I’m on my way. I’m on my way, Cheeks!” When Lance ran past Mother Gussie’s desk he yelled, “Sharonda, call the police and send an ambulance to my house, now. Right now!”
Lance ran down the church steps, out the door, and got into his car at the speed of lightning. He had tears in his eyes. The thought of a man violating his wife infuriated him. “Baby, hold on. I’m coming home.”
Arykah lay on the living-room floor moaning and crying. “Lance? Lance?” Her words were just above a whisper.
“Cheeks!” Lance yelled into the telephone. She didn’t answer him. Lance was worried that Arykah had lost consciousness. “Arykah! Arykah!”
Still no response. He disconnected the call and dialed emergency.
“This is nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
Lance could hardly get his words together as he fumbled with his keys. He had too many on the key ring. He couldn’t distinguish his car key from any other key. “My wife ... she ... my wife ... please—”
The operator couldn’t understand him. “Sir, what’s your emergency?” she asked him again.
He found the key, slid it into the ignition, and turned it. In the next ten seconds, Lance was speeding. “My wife was raped. Please send an ambulance to my home. Please!” he cried out. Lance was driving beyond the speed limit and had already decided that if a cop tried to pull him over for driving too fast, he wouldn’t stop. He would make the squad car chase him all the way home. Nothing or no one would stop him from getting to Arykah.
“Sir, what is your name?” the operator asked.
He sniffed and wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand. “Lance Howell.”
There was a pause before the operator asked Lance to confirm his home address. “Sir, there’s an ambulance already dispatched to your home and the police are en route. They should be there momentarily. What is your wife’s name?”
“Arykah. Arykah Miles-Howell.”
Another pause. “Okay, Mr. Howell, I have confirmation that the police have arrived at your residence. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, thank you,” Lance answered.
“Well, good luck to you and your wife, sir.”
“Thank you,” Lance whispered.
Twenty-five minutes later, Lance drove on his lawn like a madman. He was halfway to the living-room window before the grass had slowed the car down. He put the gear in park, jumped out of the car, and left the engine running.
There were four police cars in the driveway and two were parked on the street. Lance saw a policeman standing next to the garage talking into a two-way radio. Three more policemen were huddled in a semicircle on the front porch. It was a real live crime scene.
Lance saw yellow tape that read, “Police Line. Do Not Cross.” The tape spanned across the front porch and down the steps to the banisters.
“Hey. Hey, you,” one of the policemen on the porch called after Lance as he ran past them into the foyer.
Lance walked in further and entered the living room, where he saw a crime-scene investigator and a female detective taking pictures of the blood-soaked white carpet.
“Arykah,” he called out.
The policeman who had called after Lance followed him inside. “Who are you?” he asked Lance.
Lance couldn’t take his eyes away from the massive amount of blood on the carpet. “This is my house. Where is my wife?”
“Can I see some identification, please?”
Lance didn’t hear his question. He wanted to know where Arykah was. “Where’s my wife?” he asked again.
“Identification, please.” The policeman had to prevent Lance from taking another step further into the home. He could accidentally tamper with the evidence.
Lance pulled his wallet from his back pocket and opened it. He found his driver’s license and gave it to the policeman. “Please tell me where my wife is. Is she okay?”
The policeman studied Lance’s driver’s license, then gave it back to him. “Mr. Howell, your wife was assaulted—”
“I know that,” Lance yelled at him. He was losing patience. “Where is she?”
The female detective heard Lance yell and hurried over to where he and the policeman stood. “Sir, your wife has already been taken to the hospital, but I wanna ask you some quest—”
Lance looked at her. “Which hospital?”
“Mr. Howell, I need to ask—”
“Where did they take my wife?” He wasn’t in the mood for answering questions. First things first. He needed to know Arykah’s whereabouts.
The detective exhaled. She knew she wouldn’t get anywhere with Lance until she told him where his wife was. “Dupage County Hospital, but please—”
Lance was already out the door and running to his car.
“Mr. Howell?” she called after him. When she and the policeman followed Lance outside, they saw that he had reversed the Jaguar backward on the lawn and was already heading down the street.
Monique’s cellular telephone rang. She was sitting behind her desk at the radio station when she saw Lance’s name on her caller ID. “Morning, Bishop.”
“Arykah’s been raped. I’m on my way to the Dupage County Hospital.”
Monique’s eyes bulged from her head. She stood up. “Oh my God. Lance?”
He started crying again. “Blood was everywhere.”
Monique became frantic. “How ... who ... where ...?”
“She was raped at home. That’s all I know.”
Monique started gathering her things. “Okay. Dupage County?”
“Yeah, Dupage County.”
“I’m on my way.” Monique disconnected the call from Lance and immediately called Adonis and told him what had happened to Arykah and which hospital she was in. An electrician, Adonis was out on an assignment. He told Monique that he’d leave work immediately and meet her and Lance at the hospital.
It took Lance half an hour to reach the nurses’ desk in the emergency wing at the hospital. He was out of breath from running from the parking lot. “My name is Lance Howell. I was told that my wife, Arykah, was brought in.”
The nurse keyed in information on the computer. “Yes, she was but—”
“Where is she? I wanna see her.” Lance was sweating and panting.
“Mr. Howell, please have a seat in the waiting area. The doctor is with her now. I will let him know that you’re here.”
“Can you just tell me how she’s doing? She lost consciousness while I was speaking with her on the telephone. Is she breathing? Is she alive?” Lance broke down and sobbed loudly at the nurses’ station. “Why won’t anyone tell me anything?”
The nurse pulled Kleenex tissue from a box on the desk and gave it to Lance. “Yes, Mr. Howell. She was conscious when the paramedics brought her in fifteen minutes ago. If you’ll have a seat in the waiting area, the doctor will come out and talk with you as soon as he gets Mrs. Howell stable.”
Arykah was alive. That was what Lance had been praying to hear. He had been pleading to God all the way to the hospital. Lance could calm down, but he couldn’t relax.
He walked to the waiting room and sat down. He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “My God,” Lance said. “My God. Please let Cheeks be okay.”
His cellular telephone rang, and he answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Bishop, this is Weeks. What happened?”
After Sharonda ordered an ambulance and the police to Lance’s home, she had called Minister Weeks. She had been bri
efed by Mother Gussie where to find the bishop’s personal information and to always contact Minister Carlton Weeks in an emergency. He was Lance’s right-hand man.
“It’s Arykah,” Lance said. “Weeks, she was raped.”
“Raped?” Carlton shrieked into the telephone. “What do you mean ‘raped’?”
“She was raped at home this morning.”
“Oh my God,” Carlton said. “Is she gonna be all right?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her yet. I’m at the hospital waiting for the doctor to come and talk to me.”
“Which hospital?”
“Dupage County.”
“I’m on my way.”
When Lance looked up, Monique was running toward him.
“How is she?” she asked.
Lance stood to hug Monique, then sat down. “I don’t know yet.”
Monique sat in the chair next to Lance. “They won’t let you see her?”
“I’m still waiting for the doctor to come and talk to me.”
“Well, who told you that she had been raped?”
“Cheeks did. She called me at the church. She was crying. I heard her say, ‘He hurt me.’ Then she mumbled something else. I told her that I couldn’t understand what she was saying, then she screamed that she had been raped.”
Monique placed her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”
“I should’ve been there. I wasn’t there when she needed me,” Lance cried.
Monique leaned over and wrapped her arms around Lance. She had to fight back her own tears. “Arykah is strong, Lance. She’ll pull through this.”
“Mr. Howell?”
Lance looked up and saw two men wearing scrubs standing before him and Monique.
He wiped his eyes, and the two men became one. He stood up. “Yes.”
“Please sit down,” the doctor said. He sat down in a chair directly across from Lance.
“Your wife is stable. She has a concussion. There was a blow to the back of her head. I’ve ordered a brain scan to see if any real damage has been done. We were able to stitch the gash in her head. I’m sorry to tell you that she was sexually assaulted.”
Lance lowered his head. “Yes, I know.”
“She was beaten badly,” the doctor continued. “Her right eye is swollen. Over the next few hours it will close completely. The swelling will start to reduce in about two days. The bridge of her nose was fractured. She took a blow to her upper lip which knocked out two of her teeth.”
“My God,” Monique cried out. She couldn’t imagine someone brutally beating Arykah that way. “Who would do such a thing?” she wondered out loud.
“Also,” the doctor said, “she has a few broken ribs. I won’t know exactly how many until I review the x-rays.”
Lance started crying openly, and the doctor patted his knee. “If there’s any consolation, Mr. Howell, your wife put up a darn good fight. She has plenty of the assailant’s DNA beneath her fingernails. Whoever did this horrible thing has to look like a rake slashed his face. I’ve ordered a rape kit for Mrs. Howell. The DNA samples will be taken immediately.”
“Good,” Monique said.
The doctor pursed his lips. “I, uh, I’m sorry to say that we couldn’t save the baby.”
Both Lance and Monique sat straight up.
“Baby?”
Monique heard Lance but asked her own question anyway. “There was a baby?”
The doctor was confused. “You didn’t know?” he asked Lance.
Lance shook his head from side to side. What was the doctor talking about? “Know what?”
“Mr. Howell, your wife was pregnant. She suffered a miscarriage because of the rape. She lost a lot of blood, but we were able to stop the hemorrhaging.”
A baby. There was a baby, and now there isn’t one. Lance laid his head on Monique’s lap and cried.
Monique couldn’t fight her tears any longer. She let them freely fall down her face.
She rocked back and forth and caressed Lance’s shoulder as he lay on her lap. “A baby. This is going to kill Arykah.”
“After the DNA samples are taken, I’ll order a sedative to be given to Mrs. Howell intravenously. It’ll make her rest comfortably for a few hours. I didn’t tell her about the miscarriage. I’ll leave that for you to do,” the doctor said to Lance.
Lance sat up and wiped his eyes. “Thank you, Doctor. I’d rather she hear it from me.”
The doctor stood up. “You can see your wife briefly.”
“Thank you,” Lance said again.
Monique wiped her tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I wonder why she didn’t tell me that she was pregnant.”
Monique thought back to the spa two nights ago. Arykah had a glass of champagne.
“She didn’t know, Lance. Arykah never would’ve drunk champagne at the spa had she known she was pregnant. She didn’t have a clue.”
Lance stood up. “I’m going to see her. You can come with me if you like.”
Monique was happy that Lance had invited her to see Arykah. She was more than willing to give Lance his privacy, but she was just as anxious as he was to kiss her best friend’s cheek.
Arykah had been moved from the emergency room to the fifth floor of the hospital.
Lance and Monique walked into the private room and didn’t recognize her at all.
Arykah’s face was grotesque. Her right eye was almost swollen shut. Lance saw stitches going down the center of her top lip. Arykah’s nose was no longer centered in the middle of her face; it had been tilted to the left side. Blue bruises, black bruises, and purple bruises colored her face. Dried blood was encrusted around Arykah’s nostrils. There was a small clear tube running from her nose down the center of her hospital gown.
Lance couldn’t stand to see her like that. He turned his back from Arykah and Monique saw his shoulders shaking. She knew he was crying. Monique stepped closer to Arykah’s bed and looked down at her closely. If Monique hadn’t been told that Arykah was lying in the hospital bed, Monique would never have believed that it was her.
She grabbed Arykah’s hand and saw the IV needle taped to the back of it. Gently, she brought Arykah’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “I’m here, sis.”
Lance didn’t touch Arykah. Instead, he sat down in the chair next to her bed.
More tears dripped from Monique’s eyes. She looked at Lance and saw his eyes were closed. Monique knew he was praying.
A nurse came into the room and announced that Arykah had another visitor but only two people were allowed in her room at a time.
“It’s probably Adonis,” Monique said. “I’ll leave so that he can come in.”
“But only if it’s Adonis,” Lance stated. “Cheeks would kill me if I allowed anyone else to see her like this.”
“Who else besides Adonis knows?”
“Minister Weeks knows what happened. He told me that he’d be here.”
Monique left the room and found Minister Weeks sitting in the waiting area. “Minister Weeks.”
He stood and greeted Monique. “Sister Cortland, how are you? How is Lady Arykah? How is the bishop doing?”
Monique hugged Minister Weeks and sat down in a chair. “Bishop Lance isn’t doing too good. Arykah took a beating. I don’t even recognize her. Her face is swollen, stitches are everywhere, and the bruises are beyond belief.” Monique didn’t tell Minister Weeks about Arykah’s miscarriage. That was personal information that only she and Lance should reveal if they chose to. “And as for me and how I’m doing,” Monique started, “I’m still in shock. I just don’t understand how something like this could happen. I don’t even understand why it happened.”
“Bishop told me that she was raped at their home.”
Monique nodded her head. “They live in a gated community. A security guard at the gate must call the residents and announce that a visitor has arrived. It’s hard for me to believe that someone from their community did this to Arykah.�
�
“And if she accepted a visitor, who could it have been?” Minister Weeks wondered.
“Babe?”
Monique looked up and saw Adonis walking toward her. She stood and ran to his open arms. “Oh, honey, thank God you’re here.”
Adonis held on to Monique for what seemed like forever. He thought about how he’d feel if it had been Monique that had been violated instead of Arykah. He kissed her cheek.
“How is she?”
“Not good,” Monique answered. “But she’s conscious and stable. Lance is with her now.”
Adonis went to Carlton and extended his hand to him. “How you doing, Weeks?”
Carlton shook Adonis’s hand. “Bless you, Brother Cortland.”
Monique and Adonis sat down. “Did you call Aunt Myrtle?” Adonis asked Monique.
She shook her head from side to side. “Uh-uh. I didn’t wanna call Gravy just yet. I wanna give her good news when I do. Arykah will be given a sedative through the IV soon. Her doctor said she’ll sleep for a few hours. I’d rather wait ’til after that, then call Gravy.”
Adonis felt Monique’s hands shaking. “You all right?” he asked her.
More tears fell from her eyes. “No.”
Adonis pulled her into his arms. “Arykah will be okay.”
In Arykah’s hospital room Lance pulled his chair closer to her bed and reached for her hand. He looked at her disfigured face and felt guilty that he wasn’t home to protect Arykah when she was attacked.
Living in a gated community and paying three-quarters of a million dollars for his home, Lance assumed his neighborhood was a safe one. Doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, and retired entrepreneurs were his neighbors. Many of Lance’s neighbors leave their homes in the winter and travel south or across the ocean to their million-dollar summer cottages.
He wondered what predator had abused his wife. Which neighbor? Was it the married heart surgeon that lived on the corner of the block? He and his wife had four kids. Lance wondered if a father and husband was capable of violating a woman. Could it have been the dentist across the street who wasn’t married but took care of his elderly mother? Or was it the baker in the middle of the cul de sac on Lance’s street? Arykah had told Lance that he always complimented her on her different hairdos. Lance had assumed that the baker had a little sugar in his tank. He wore his clothes tighter than Arykah did. And only men were ever seen coming to and leaving his home.
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