After twenty minutes of trying to stay still, she eased out the bed and went into the living room. She got the DVD back out her bag and went to the TV. She grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, placing it on mute. She stuck the disk in and waited.
She saw Wayne’s bedroom. The front of the bed was in view. Next, she saw Wayne carrying her in. He removed all his clothes and then removed all of Joy’s. Joy’s eyes grew wide with shock. She had her hand over her mouth to keep from making any noise. In the video, Joy’s eyes were closed and her body was limp.
She remembered the day that she woke up and couldn’t remember what happen. She now knew why. She watched as he had her sprawled out on the bed. He held her legs apart over her head and had sex with her. She watched until the end, where he pulled out and came in his hand. He left out the room and came back on the screen with a rag and cleaned Joy off.
Joy took it out and put it back in her bag. She turned off the TV. Something sick inside of Joy was turned on by what she just saw. Most people would freak out, but Joy wanted to know more about what Wayne was into.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Joy nabbed her phone out her bag and went back into the bedroom. She put the phone on vibrate then went to Wayne’s pants and got out his phone. She fumbled the phone as she looked at Wayne to make sure he was still sleep. She watched his chest move up and down for a few seconds. She dialed her number form his phone and looked down at her phone. His number still came up block. She thought that he was blocking his number when he called her but it was listed as blocked.
She was tried to see if the number to the phone was listed somewhere in the phone when someone called. The name Tee flashed on the screen. She fumbled, trying to silence the phone before it woke Wayne up and accidentally answered it. She put the phone up to her ear and listened. Joy thought that maybe it was a girlfriend or something by the way the person shouted in the phone.
“Daron, I been calling you. Why you not calling me back? I want that done tonight,” the woman shouted. Joy didn’t need to listen anymore. She recognized Tanya’s voice and she knew that she walking about her. She hung up the phone and went into the kitchen. Joy paced back in forth and wondered what they had planned for her.
She heard Wayne call out from the bedroom. She jumped at the sound of his voice. She tried to fix her face and make sure she had a calm expression before she went back into the bedroom.
“Damn, I aint mean to fall asleep. You ready for me to take you home?” he asked as got up and walked to the bathroom. Joy used that opportunity to run in the kitchen, grab the biggest knife she saw and put it in her bag. She sat on the bed when he came back.
“You aight?” Wayne asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You got this funny look on your face.”
“No. I’m good. Just a little tired.”
“Ok. I’m sorry you didn’t even get a chance to cut your cake but you can take it with you.”
“Ok.” Joy said.
“You sure you okay. You being kind of short.”
“I’m good.”
Joy followed behind Wayne out the bedroom and watched him pick the cake up, grab the balloons and they left out. He placed everything in the back seat of the car and they got in.
She waited for him to start driving. She reached over and started rubbing his dick through his jeans.
“Girl, what you doing?” Wayne asked getting excited.
“Nothing, keep driving.” Joy undid his buckle and zipper, pulling out his rock hard dick. She stroked it with one hand as she reached in her bag for the knife. She wrapped her hand around the top of his dick and placed the knife at the bottom. When Wayne felt the coldness, he jumped. “What the fuck?” he looked down and nearly shit his self.
“Don’t stop driving.” Joy demanded when she noticed he slowed down.
“Joy what’s happening?”
“What’s happening is, if you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on I will cut this little muthafucka off.”
“Joy you tripping. Let my shit go.”
“Daron, I’m not repeating myself.”
“Shit. How did you…?”
“That don’t matter. I know more than you think I do. Start talking,” she tightened her grip.
“Aight look. Tanya’s my cousin. She wanted me to come down here and fuck with you a little bit. It was her idea about the laxative and to leave you stranded down AC.”
Tears fell out Joy’s eyes. She was more angry than hurt. “What about this?” Joy said, holding up the DVD. Daron’s eyes open in shock.
“How did you get that?”
“Call it luck. Now answer my question.”
“Yeah.”
“What are you supposed to do to me tonight?”
“I was supposed to plant a gun with a body on it in your apartment. Then make an anonymous call to the cops.”
“Why was you so willing to do all this?” Joy said, starting to get choked up with emotion.
“At first it was for money. She was going to pay me five thousand. I couldn’t go through with it. I was starting to like you. Joy, I’m sorry but you got to believe me.”
Joy wanted to believe him but she knew that she could never trust him. The feeling of worthlessness consumed her. She knew nothing would ever be different for her. She would never have the feeling of complete happiness. Daron was still driving. Neither one of them had any idea where they were.
Without further thought, Joy grabbed the wheel, causing him to lose control and run smack dead into a Dunkin Donut’s. The last thing] Joy saw was a blinding light as she felt glass tear into her face, neck and arms. There was an intense shooting pain through her body then she felt nothing as darkness engulfed her.
Two and a half years passed since that night and Joy thought about it everyday. She had no choice and it served as a huge reminder. Daron walked away with no injuries. Joy was paralyzed from the waist down and had to serve a life sentence for causing the accident that killed a father of three children. The car not only hit the side of the building but a man standing in front of it.
“Williams, you have a visit.”
Surprised, Joy rolled herself towards the visiting room. No one ever came to visit her. She didn’t even have anyone listed, so she knew that it was probably a mistake. She would get down there and they would tell her to go back.
When she rolled through the door she thought she was hallucinating. On the other side of the glass stood Kevin, holding a little girl’s hand. She was a spit image of herself and Joy knew right away that the girl was her daughter. Kevin had a long scar from the top of his head all the way down under his chin.
Joy was speechless. She couldn’t stop staring as the correctional officer moved the chair closer.
“Kevin? I thought you were dead,” she cried. She looked from him to the little girl and back at him.
“Almost. I was shot twice in the head. I was in a coma for six months. When I came out of it, I had to learn how to do everything again.”
“Oh my God. Was that you who kept calling me?”
“That was me,” he wiped the tears running down his face with the back of his hand.
“Is this…?” Joy stopped; she realized that she didn’t know her own daughter’s name.
He nodded his head, ‘Her name is Aminah.”
“Aminah,” Joy repeated, looking down at her daughter. The little girl hid behind Kevin, sneaking peeks at Joy, “How did you find her?”
“It was hard. When I got better. I tried to find you. I hired a private investigator. He couldn’t locate you at first but did found out that you had a baby that you abandoned at the hospital. After hearing that, I hired a lawyer to get custody of Aminah. I had to take a DNA test and once it showed that I was her father, custody was awarded to me.”
Joy was stunned.
“When the PI told me that he found you and where you were, I debated for months whether I should come up here. I almost didn’t come but I wanted you to see what you
will miss out on. You see this beautiful child you threw away?” Anger creped into his voice.
“But Kevin I thought you were dead,” Joy screamed in anguish.
“You can continue to think that because from this day forward, you will never see or speak to me or her again.” Kevin got up, picked up their daughter and walked out the room.
Joy watched them leave and the thought hit her that the real reason for her unhappiness was her selfishness.
Alternate Ending
An intense feeling of regret overcame Joy. She couldn’t believe what she walked away from. She should have loved her child enough, not abandoned her. Joy never wanted to be like her mother but realized that she was just like her.
The longer she sat, the more the pain pierced her heart began to overwhelm her. What would her daughter think? Would she feel the same as Joy felt for her mother?
After Joy woke up in the hospital and found out she was going to jail and would never walk again. She thought jail was the lowest moment in her life but this was far worst. Joy chalked up her situation as being karma from all the bad things she’d done. She didn’t feel like she wanted to die. Seeing Kevin with their daughter was too much for her to deal with. It was like she was being smacked in the face with all the regrets and disappointments that happened throughout her life.
When she closed her eyes, the moment Kevin and Aminah walked in the visiting room replayed through her head, she couldn’t help herself. She felt the pain grow inside.
Joy knew she couldn’t face her time after seeing what she could have had on the outside. So many ideas ran through her mind. She thought to escape but forgot her current crippled condition.
Hours passed and she still couldn’t come up with anything that would help her. That night she couldn’t sleep. She sat in the dark and thought about her little girl. She imagined that she was there with her. That she was in her life from the beginning. Joy realized that she had to change and she could make that happen.
The next morning, after breakfast, she used the phone to call her father’s lawyer, Mr. Greco. She knew that he would sympathize because of how she lost her mother and father and her being paralyzed.
She told him about the accident that landed her in wheel chair and in jail. She explained how a man was killed when hit by the car. Leaving out the part that she was responsible for all of it, she made herself come off as a victim. He was silent. Joy wasn’t sure he even listened but she continued.
“When I found out I would never walk again I didn’t try to fight the charges against me. I wasn’t driving the car,” she pleaded.
“Wow. I don’t know what to say,” he said when Joy was done.
“Do you think you can help me get out of here?”
“I have to call around and get someone on your case. I’m only an estate lawyer. It may take a while but I’ll get back to you.”
Joy hung up the phone feeling a more hope than before the meeting. She wanted to change and become a better person, but she had to commit this one last act of her former self to get out of jail.
A few weeks passed and Joy had not heard anything from Mr. Greco. Then one day she was called down for a visit with her lawyer. She was surprised to see Mr. Greco sitting at the table along with a light skinned black woman. She was thin, pretty and she sat straight up in the chair. She looked very uncomfortable like she didn’t want to be there.
She pushed her glasses closer to her face and spoke first. “Hi Joy. My name is Karen Brister. I’ll be your lawyer through your appeal. Do you have any questions so far?”
She waited for Joy response; Joy shook her head no.
She continued, “I need to know everything that happened the night of the accident.”
Joy looked at Mr. Greco. He slouched in his chair silent. He nodded at Joy to begin talking.
“Well, I don’t remember much of what happened.”
“It’s okay. Just try to tell me what you do remember.”
“I went with Wayne to his house. We had dinner and then we both became sleepy. I remember we went into his room and before I knew it, I was asleep.”
“At what point did you leave the residence?”
“I woke up first and went into the living room. I looked through the DVD’s for something to watch. I came across some homemade videos. I looked through them and noticed they all had the names of different women written on them.” Joy paused and lowered her head. They both were looking at her with extreme intensity. Joy had to take a minute because she had to be believable. When she lifted her head, she had tears in her eyes.
“Take your time Joy.” Mr. Greco said.
“I found one with my name on it. So I put it in. I watched as he laid me down in the bed. I was passed out. He raped me,” she said, breaking down.
Mr. Greco came over to Joy and rubbed her back. “Joy then what happened?” he asked, his voice just above a whisper.
“I took the tape and woke him up. I demanded he take me home. I didn’t tell him I knew about the tape until we were in the car. That’s when he flipped out and crashed the car. He blamed everything on me. I plead not guilty but I barely paid attention to what was going on. I gave up.”
“Joy do you still have the disk? Ms. Brister asked.
“It should be with my clothes and the other stuff I brought in here with me.”
“First I want to do some more research into what happened in the case, then I see where to go from there. I’m going to see if I can locate the disk. When I know something I’ll get back to you within the next couple days,” she gathered her stuff and walked out the room.
Mr. Greco patted Joy’s shoulder, giving her a feeling of hope before following Ms. Brister out the door.
Two months passed by. Ms. Brister kept contact with Joy letting her know the what she was doing and the progress she’d made; which wasn’t much. Joy was beginning to get discourage. She decided to give up, and go with plan B.
She waited for lights out. She took out the razor she kept for protection. The plan was to slit her wrist; giving her enough time for her to bleed out before anyone can come and find her. By morning, she still hadn’t find the courage to slit her wrist.
Another plan formed in her head as she watched the guards walk the block. She was focused on one in particular. CO. Pierce. He was short and stocky. He was light skinned, with a baldhead. He had beady eyes and a wide face that made him resemble a snake.
Joy decided to skip breakfast and stay on the block to talk to the CO. When she seen him walk back by her, she called out to him.
“Is there a problem Williams?”
“No. I was wondering if you could do something for me.”
“It depends on what I get in return,” he said, a goofy smile on his face.
“I need some sleeping pills. What will that cost me?”
“It’ll cost you some head.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, but I want to watch you swallow my nut.”
Joy was disgusted by the thought but she agreed.
“Put in a request to go to the hospital tomorrow. I will be the one to take you. We can do everything then,” he said and disappeared.
Joy spent the rest of the morning in deep thought. Late in the afternoon, she got called down to meet with her lawyer. Her heart pounded harder and harder in her chest as she made her way down there.
When she saw Ms. Brister sitting at the table alone. Joy couldn’t read her expression and thought it was bad news because Mr. Greco wasn’t with her. Ms. Brister told her that she would receive a new trial and be released to a half way house.
Tears of joy ran down her face. She learned that she would leave tomorrow morning. She didn’t know how she was going to make in the real world again, especially in a wheel chair.
Chapter One
The van picked her up outside the jail and dropped her at the halfway house. It wasn’t as bad as Joy thought it would be. The lady that ran the house was nice, she explained the rules. It was easy for Joy
to get around and she had a room on the first floor, the bathroom down the hall. Joy could do everything herself. She could lift into bed or into her chair. There was a shower chair for her to shower. She felt better knowing she still could do things for herself. Joy was one of many in a wheelchair that lived at the house, a ramp built off the side of the porch.
For the first couple of days, Joy got used to living on the outside. When she figured how to get around on the bus, she went out. Curfew was at 7pm. Joy got up early the next morning. The bus picked her up down the block and she was off.
The bus took little time to drop her at the destination. Everything was still the same, but Joy hadn’t thought through a plan, she couldn’t get up the stairs in her wheelchair. She didn’t see Kevin in the shop.
She climbed out her chair onto the first step. She pulled herself up the stairs until she was at the top. Her arms were tired and she could barely lift them to knock on the door. After giving herself some time to rest, she knocked.
A tall white man answered the door. “Yes how can I help you?” he asked, looking down at Joy with a look of confusion. He looked down at the wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs, “Are you okay? Do you need help?”
“No. Someone I used to know lived here. I thought he still lived here.”
“I started renting the store and apartment. Nobody lived here for a while before I moved in.” He continued to stare at Joy.
“Do you need help getting back down?”
“No. I’m sorry to bother you. I can get back down.” Tears streamed down her face. She wasn’t sure she could make it back down; she’d never done it before.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” Joy said, in a low whisper.
The man stood there a few seconds longer before he went back inside. Grabbing the rail, Joy pulled her body to the edge and dropped down to the next step. She continued until she was four-steps from the top. As she dropped down to the next step, her hand slipped and she slid down the steps. She grabbed the rail but fell forward and tumbled down the remaining stairs.
Nookie's Secret (Nookie 2) (Nookie Series) Page 9