As soon as she parked and climbed from her vehicle, he exited his as well. “Jessa, your mother won’t let me in the house,” he said.
She nodded. “That’s because you no longer live here, Hammer,” she said plainly, barely sparing him a glance as she climbed the stairs.
He rushed up the stairs to stand in front of the door, blocking her.
Jessa sighed.
“I’m sorry. I am so sorry, Jessa. We have to talk about this,” he urged, reaching for her hands.
She looked up at him. Studying his face. Taking him in. Looking for the man she thought he was. “You are a stranger to me,” she said. “I don’t know you. I don’t think you know yourself, you too busy pretending to be whatever you need to be to get what you want.”
“She set me up. Can’t you see that?” Hammer asked.
She pulled her hands from his. “No. Nope. Hell no,” she stressed.
He reached behind himself to pull a rolled-up file from his back pocket. “Yes,” he said, handing the file to her. “I’ve been looking into her all morning, Jessa, Lacey Adams is Georgia.”
Sharp pain radiated across her chest as she eyed the folder. My Georgia.
She hoped it wasn’t true.
“So not only did you cheat, you fucked my daughter,” she said, her eyes glazing over with her tears. “And you really think we can come back from that?”
He reached for her again and she held up a hand to stop him as she shook her head and gave him a sad smile. “I had the most glorious sex just now,” she told him, moaning a bit as she bit her bottom lip and gave him an exaggerated shiver.
His face crumpled before it hardened. His jaw clenched. His hands balled into tight fists at his sides.
“It wasn’t the same passion we had when I thought I loved you, but it was good,” she gloated. “I came twice. Once in his mouth and then again when I was riding him.”
“Who?” Hammer ground out.
“Who?” she mocked before laughing. “Someone who wouldn’t have gotten this pussy in a million years if you didn’t fuck up what I thought was a happy home. You gave him the pussy.”
Hammer reached out and gripped her throat, his thumb pressing against her windpipe.
“He loved it,” she whispered to him with a smile.
The pressure increased against her throat.
“And so did I,” she continued, wanting to hurt him the way that he hurt her. “It was so hard. Like a steel bat. He was younger than you, so it was harder than your dick will ever be again—even with a pill.”
It was a struggle to swallow as his grip tightened.
“I hate you,” he said, his lips curled with the emotion.
She brought her hands up to grip his wrist. “You’re late to that party,” she told him with effort, her voice strained.
They stared at each other. Hated each other. The chemistry that once was love and passion now fueled hatred and disgust.
The moment was miserable.
She thought of how Eric had once choked her, and for a second fear filled her eyes.
Hammer released her, as if he too remembered that she had almost lost her life in the same fashion. “Jessa, I’m sorry,” he begged, his eyes filled with his hurt and regret.
Jessa gasped for breath and smoothed her fingers against her sore neck. She knew marks would come. She unlocked and opened the front door. Her mother sat on the steps, no doubt listening in. Her eyes were glassy.
Jessa ignored her as she began to move the suitcases and plastic containers holding his belongings onto the porch.
“Jessa, we can fix this,” Hammer said. “We’re even. We can forgive each other and move on.”
She shook her head. “Last night I met my daughter for the first time, and she hates me. And I saw you for who you really are, and I hate you,” she said, bending to pick up a container to set atop another. “So I am not the person you knew anymore. She’s dead. You killed her. And that is not a good thing, because what rose from her ashes will ensure that I will never get hurt like she did.”
Hammer stepped forward.
She recoiled from him.
His shoulders slumped.
“Good-bye, Hammer,” she said, setting the last bag on the porch before she entered the house and closed the door, locking it.
She slumped against it, still gripping the knob, as she fought back the tears that welled up. How long before it doesn’t hurt anymore?
“A lot of shit going down around here.”
Jessa looked over at her mother still in her spot on the step.
Another damn disappointment.
“Yes, like the liquor down your throat,” she said, turning to look out the peephole at Hammer loading his things into the back of his SUV.
“Bullshit,” Darla said, clapping her hands together between her open knees. “What’s this about your daughter?”
Jessa pressed her forehead to the door and closed her eyes, ignoring her mother. At the sound of Hammer’s truck cranking, she again looked out at him. His image increased in size as he walked toward the door.
“I see you looking at me,” he said, tapping the peephole on his side of the door with the folder before he bent and pushed it through the black wrought iron mail slot. “Call me when you ready to talk.”
Darla sucked her teeth. “Shit. The nerve of that Negro. Give a black man a big dick and a job and he think he invincible. Negro, puh-leeze.”
As soon as he drove away, Jessa opened the door and claimed the folder, keeping it rolled up in her hand. She turned to point it in her mother’s direction. “I promised myself twenty-four hours to deal with my ain’t shit husband. My marriage of less than a month is over. And the child I had by my own father, that was taken from me, has returned and she hates me. I mean, she fucking hates me,” Jessa wailed, her shoulders slumping as the very thought of that overwhelmed her. Her hands trembled and her tears were unstoppable. “My twenty-four hours to be selfish and worry about nothing or nobody is not up. So you got lucky that your bipolar ass is sitting here in my house drunk when you know you can’t mix alcohol with your meds. Now try me tomorrow. That’s what you do. Try this shit again tomorrow. It’s not gonna work out well.”
She rushed across the foyer and up the stairs past her mother, ignoring the words she mumbled under her breath.
No. I can’t. Not today.
She entered her bedroom suite and locked the door. She felt like crawling under the bed and sleeping away her troubles, but she needed to wash away her tryst with Mr. Halston. A stranger to me no more.
There was a soft knock at the door. “Come in,” she called out.
Winifrid entered, carrying Delaney’s video monitor and wearing a comforting smile.
“How is she?” Jessa asked, taking the monitor from her.
“She’s playing. She’s good,” the nanny assured her.
“Winifrid, I’m sure you picked up that I’m dealing with some stuff—personal stuff—right now,” she began, running her free hand through her disheveled hair. “I’m a mess and I don’t want this energy around my daughter. I don’t want her to see me like this. Just not today.”
Winifrid reached out to lightly squeeze her wrist. “Yes, ma’am, I can understand that,” she said. “I can stay over in the guest room and keep her if you like.”
The kind gesture in the midst of her turmoil and betrayal touched her. “Yes, please, thank you,” Jessa said emphatically.
“No worries,” she said, turning to walk back into the bedroom and softly close the door behind her.
Jessa knew she had to get it together for the sake of her daughter. She smiled as she watched Winifrid swing her up into her arms and circle the room as she sang a lullaby in her native tongue of German.
Just the rest of this day. That’s all I need.
She drew a bath and was anxious to remove her trench and teddy to slide into the steamy depths of the scented bubble bath. She tried her best not to think of any of it. Georgia. Hammer. Her mother.
Mr. Halston. The Rev.
She tried, but she was an emotional wreck, and soon her head was tilted back over the side of the tub as she covered her face with her hands. She was so sick of being near the brink of tears nearly every moment of the day. Her despair pumped through her blood. It all had turned so bad so very quickly, and her head was still spinning from it all.
The memory of Hammer and Georgia mating like dogs in heat came back in a rush.
She winced.
Followed by the hate in her daughter’s eyes that was burned in her memory.
Do you finally see me? I’m Georgia, Mother. Don’t you see me?
Jessa shook her head.
I stopped being yours the moment you gave me away . . .
“I didn’t give you away,” she whispered, sinking lower in the water until her chin touched it.
Mama, save me.
That thread from the sweater was slowly unraveling again.
All chickens come home to roost.
* * *
Jessa slept through the night. Pure depression, and she knew it. But that was yesterday. Today was another day.
The wounds to her soul were there on the inside. Buried. Hoped one day to be forgotten. But her façade? Cool and unshaken.
She studied her reflection in the full-length mirror inside her walk-in closet. The brilliantly red tailored suit, shoes, and lipstick she wore only hinted that she was out for blood. Her mission was simple: Destroy those who tried to destroy her.
She clung to her old ways. They once saved her from the pain. They would save her again.
It was time to go to war, and she would be the victor... by any means necessary.
Chapter 12
Jessa purposefully avoided a chance meeting in the elevator with Mr. Halston by arriving at work long after her usual start time. She took a chance on his punctuality and was right. Not that she didn’t want to partake of him again. She would. Her focus was currently elsewhere. More to life than a good nut right now.
As she came up on the door to the Mistress, Inc., offices, Jessa paused, wondering if the business meant anything to her anymore. Her passion for helping save people from being duped by the affairs of their spouse had lost its shine.
Why am I even here? And who am I to help people discover what I missed in my very own marriage?
She walked into the office, glad to find the reception area free of her agents or clients.
Felisha immediately picked up the phone and whispered into it. Seconds later Keegan flew out of her office. “Jessa, where in the great hog heaven have you been?”
Jessa ignored her and eyed Felisha with a stare meant to make her toes quiver in her boots. “You’re fired. Gather your shit and get out,” she said as she made a circular motion with her finger in the air and then pointed toward the door.
“What!” Keegan exclaimed.
Felisha looked aghast. “But, Mrs. Young—”
Jessa walked past her to her office. She paused in the doorway. “Matter of fact, just to be clear, read the contract you signed that gives me the explicit right to fire you at will with no cause,” she said, before entering her office and setting her bright red crocodile Louis Vuitton city steamer tote atop her desk as she took her seat.
“Wait here, Felisha, don’t you move,” she heard Keegan say.
Jessa cut her eyes up from removing the file Hammer gave her on Georgia from her bag.
Strike one.
She turned her attention to also retrieving her iPhone as Keegan stormed into her office. It vibrated in her hand and she flipped it over. Another of Hammer’s series of text messages either pleading for her forgiveness or demanding to know the name of her lover. She ignored it just as she had all the rest.
“Jessa, what’s going on?” Keegan asked, her hands on her hips as she looked down at Jessa from where she stood in front of the desk. “First you’re no show, no call to work yesterday. Late today. And now you fire Felisha for absolutely nothing?”
Strike two, bitch.
Jessa set her phone face down on the desk and leaned back in her chair to eye Keegan. “When the fuck did you become the boss?” she asked, her voice cold.
Keegan was taken aback and her stance stiffened. “I never said I was,” she countered.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Jessa said, stroking the tender spots on her neck from when Hammer had gripped her there the day before.
Keegan eyed her suspiciously. “What’s up with you, Jessa?” she asked.
Bzzzzzz . . .
“Lacey Adams is fired as well,” she said, turning over her phone. “That’s not her real name and she got a job here just to retaliate against me, which she did by sleeping with Hammer.”
Another text from hubby.
She opened it.
ALL I CAN SEE IS ANOTHER MAN FUCKING MY WIFE. HOW COULD YOU? PLEASE SAY YOU’RE LYING. PLEASE JESSA. PLEASE.
She sighed and turned the phone back face down.
I really need to make that appointment with my lawyer.
“I didn’t know. I’m so sorry about Hammer, sweetie,” Keegan said.
Jessa remained quiet.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
She arched a brow. “As a friend in need of compassion or to explain an absence?” she asked.
Keegan opened her hands. “Both,” she said. “We had a couple of small fires to put out yesterday, and you wouldn’t answer our calls.”
This bitch.
“Like what?” Jessa asked.
“Mrs. Montgomery wanted to speak to you yesterday, and it sounded urgent.”
That reminds me, I need to do something about her, too.
Jessa nodded. “And?”
“We usually have our monthly dinner with the staff, but I canceled it,” Keegan said.
“I am so sorry. I just had my entire world as I knew it destroyed, but boo-hoo for you and a couple of small fires that obviously didn’t burn the business down,” she drawled sarcastically, giving her an unblinking stare as she crossed her legs. “I haven’t heard a damn thing that absolutely needed my attention. You had to take a message and the staff missed a free fucking dinner. Are you serious?”
Keegan bit her bottom lip as she glanced down at the floor and released a heavy breath.
Jessa rolled her eyes. All reflective and shit.
“I hate that you are in such pain,” Keegan began. “It’s clear that you’re lashing out—”
Jessa applauded. “Wow. Interior decorator. Top-grade deliverer of one-liners. Business manager. And a therapist. Whoa.”
“You’re being a bitch, Jessa.”
“Good,” she said, drumming her fiery red fingernails against the desk. “Trying so hard not to be one left me wide open. It’s a mistake I won’t repeat.”
Keegan frowned. “How can you just fire Felisha like that? What is she supposed to do for money?”
Jessa eyed her. “I’m done with the matter,” she said.
Keegan squinted as she eyed her. “So, to hell with everyone else’s life and livelihood because your hubby did you dirty?” she asked. “You don’t think that’s just a little crass, Jessa. Good Lord, you’re better than that.”
Strike three.
She gave her a slow smile. “Anything else you want to get off your chest?” she asked pleasantly.
She can’t be that gullible to walk into that trap.
“I think learning one of the employees was here under false pretenses so easily has exposed another flaw in the company,” Keegan added.
So she is.
I really could do without the headache.
“I think it’s time we part ways,” Jessa said. “Over the years you have more than made back the money you invested—”
“You have to buy me out,” Keegan spouted.
Jessa arched her brow. “No, I don’t. I was just obligated to ensure you recouped your initial investment, and you’ve done that plus some.”
“You can’t be serious,” Keegan snapped.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Felisha, read your paperwork,” she said, reaching for the phone.
“I was warned about you and your bullshit,” Keegan said.
Jessa waved her hand at her dismissively. “Hello, Security? Yes. Could you send up a guard? I have two employees that need to be escorted from the premises,” she said. “Thanks so much.”
“There’s no way you can be this heartless.”
Jessa nodded. “Call it what you want, and please do not remove any electronics on your way out. They belong to the business—my business,” she stressed.
Keegan slammed her hand on the desk. “I will sue you before I let you screw me like you have screwed so many others.”
Jessa leaned forward to lock eyes with her friend. “Your balls ain’t big enough,” she said in a whisper that still carried the chill of her voice. “I will end this business, liquidate everything for little to nothing, and start fresh with a new a tax ID and LLC. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”
Keegan stepped back from her, her anger softening into pity as she shook her head. “I feel for you, sugar,” she said. “You must really be hurting to have become this pathetic in so little time. Or was it there hidden beneath your bravado and false pretenses of being saved?”
“You can have Hammer now,” Jessa said spitefully. “I’m done with him.”
The front door to the office opened and then closed. Two security guards stood in the foyer.
“No, honey, thank you for getting fucked over by him before I could,” Keegan said with a sarcastic chuckle before she turned and walked out of the office.
Jessa came over to lean in her doorway as she watched Keegan and Felicia gather their personal items into containers and take their leave, flanked by the security guards.
Fuck ’em.
Back in her office, she took her seat behind the desk and opened the file of Georgia Coletti. There wasn’t a lot about her adoption. The files were sealed, but there was enough to know she led a good life in Connecticut. Private school. Good grades. College graduation. Good income. No arrests. Decent credit score. A trendy apartment on the Upper West Side.
Mistress for Hire Page 17