The Best of Everything

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

  “Daddy, Brad is here, but please hurry.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Alicia hung up the phone and then hugged Brad like he was her blood brother. She was so happy and relieved to see him. Happy because she knew he was the one person who would be able to help her.

  Brad embraced her as well. “I thought that was you, but what are you here for?”

  “They arrested me.”

  “For what?”

  Alicia saw the detective who’d escorted her to the phone talking to one of his colleagues, and she was glad to have this moment alone with Brad. “It’s a long story but I really need you to represent me.”

  “Very rarely do I even come to the police station but it just so happens that, today, one of my business clients got picked up for something bogus. Anyway, let’s find somewhere to talk.”

  The good cop came toward them. “Brad, long time, no see.”

  “John. Hey, man, how are you?”

  The detective shook Brad’s hand. “Good. And you?”

  “Well, I was fine until I just learned that you’re holding a close friend of mine.”

  “Man, we’ve been trying to get Levi Cunningham for a very long time, and everybody around here knows it.”

  Brad frowned. “Levi Cunningham? The drug dealer Levi?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “Now I’m completely lost, but if you don’t mind, can I talk with my client alone?”

  “Of course.” The officer led them back to the interrogation room and closed the door. Alicia was glad the mean cop had gone elsewhere.

  Alicia and Brad sat down and Brad laid his black leather Tumi briefcase on the table. Alicia could spot Tumi anywhere, but right now name brands of any kind were the least of her worries.

  “What does them busting Levi have to do with you?”

  Alicia’s hands shook, so she removed them from the table. “I was in the car with him when they picked him up.”

  “Why?”

  “Brad, this is all just a really big mistake, and I really need you to help me out of it.”

  “That’s fine, Alicia, but what I need to know is the absolute truth. I need to know everything or otherwise I can’t help you to the best of my ability.”

  “We’re friends.”

  “Who? You and Levi?”

  The high pitch in his voice told her that the idea of her being anything to Levi was basically ridiculous and impossible.

  “Yes. We’re friends.”

  “Okay, wait. Either you’re not telling me something or I’m not understanding, but either way, I don’t get what you’re saying.”

  “I told you, this is just a huge mistake. I’m friends with him and that’s all.”

  “What kind of friends?”

  “Just friends.”

  “Well if that’s true, does Phillip know about this so-called friendship?”

  At that very moment, Alicia knew Brad was turning on her. It was as if he’d had a revelation and was no longer buying her story.

  “No, he doesn’t. But I’ve known Levi for a long time, so that’s why he’s a friend of mine.”

  “Wait a minute. Were you cheating on my boy, Phillip, with that criminal?”

  “Brad, please. I really, really need your help.”

  “Unbelievable,” he said, standing. “Un-freakin’-believable. You’ve been sleeping behind my best friend’s back and now you have the audacity to think I’m going to help you?”

  Alicia swallowed the lump in her throat.

  Brad snatched his briefcase from the table and went over to the door. “You’re a real piece of work, Alicia, and if Phillip knows what’s good for him, he’ll dump your little skank behind before the sun goes down.”

  Alicia sniffled and covered her forehead, and the younger officer came back in again. This time he didn’t stand over her but instead took a seat.

  “Look, the sooner you tell us something about Levi, the sooner we can work on getting you out of here.”

  She debated whether she should respond, but for some reason she no longer saw any harm in telling the officer the truth—or at least most of it, because she wasn’t about to reveal how, just recently, Levi had said that he was thinking about leaving Mitchell for good and that it was best he didn’t tell her why.

  “I don’t know anything. I never heard anything or saw anything that had to do with drugs. Never.”

  “Well, if that’s so, it’s really too bad that you got yourself mixed up with the likes of Levi. And it’s even worse, considering how prominent your family is in this city.”

  Alicia closed her eyes and prayed that they weren’t going to release her name to the media. Until now, she hadn’t even thought about any of that, and she couldn’t believe how careless she’d been over the last few months.

  “I’ll leave you to yourself until your father gets here. But remember what I said. The sooner you talk, the sooner you’ll be out of here.”

  When he closed the door behind him, Alicia anchored her elbows on the table and then rested her face inside the palms of her hands. This was one of the worst days of her life, and she had no clue as to how she was going to get out of it. She couldn’t tell if they were trying to figure out some way to pin something on her or if all they really wanted was the statement they kept asking for. But it wasn’t like it mattered, one way or the other, because the only thing she knew about Levi was that he had a lot of money, he had a fabulous house, and he treated her like a queen. She did know about all the rumors, the same ones everyone else in the area knew about, but she’d never seen him do anything illegal. Of course, with him giving her a large sum of cash on two different occasions—cash that he hadn’t had to withdraw from a bank—she couldn’t deny that this was usually a sign that something unlawful was going on, but again, she’d never witnessed anything with her own eyes.

  To be honest, he’d only actually given her money one time because the police had now confiscated the five thousand dollars Levi had demanded that she take from her purse and toss away. She’d sort of been upset about him making her do that because that same five thousand dollars was going to take care of a lot of her money problems. But now that she’d had time to think about it, she knew he’d only done it to protect her, and she would always be thankful to him.

  Alicia was so tired and couldn’t wait to get out of there, but she smiled when she heard the door open and saw her dad walking in.

  “Daddy,” she said, rushing toward him.

  “Hi, baby girl.”

  “Daddy, I’m so glad to see you.”

  “Let’s sit down. And where is Brad?”

  “He left.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s really mad at me, Daddy.”

  “Okay, it’s time you tell me what this is all about so I can get my attorney over here. And tell me the truth, Alicia.”

  He was calling her by her first name again, and she knew he wasn’t playing games with her. “I was arrested with Levi Cunningham and…he’s the man I’ve been having an affair with.”

  “Levi Cunningham?! Have you lost your mind?”

  Tears streamed all over again. “I know, Daddy. I’m sorry.”

  “I can’t believe you would do something like this. It was bad enough that you were sleeping around on Phillip but with a known drug dealer? The same drug dealer I cut ties with and told you not to even talk to when you were younger?”

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

  “Dear God. This is a mess. And it’s going to kill your mother, Alicia. It’s going to hurt a whole lot of people, and if the police release your name it’s going to mean yet another scandal for our family and for the church.”

  “I know” was all she could think to say.

  “Why couldn’t you just leave him alone when I had that talk with you at the hospital? You promised me that you were going to end whatever relationship you’d gotten yourself caught up in and that was over a month ago. So, what happened?”

  “I
made a mistake, Daddy. A really big mistake.”

  “This is bad. And I hate even seeing the look on Phillip’s face once he finds out about it.”

  “But you’re not going to tell him anything, are you?”

  “He wasn’t in the office when you called me, but I left him a voice message telling him that you’d been arrested and that I wanted him to meet me here.”

  “Daddy, why did you do that?”

  “Why? Because he’s your husband. That’s why.”

  “But you could have at least given me a chance to figure out how I’m going to explain this to him.”

  “What is there to figure out? Except the truth?”

  Alicia knew it wasn’t worth debating this with him, because the damage was already done. She’d slept with Levi, her father had told Phillip about her being arrested, and it was only a matter of time before he stormed in there, saying only God knew what.

  But at least Phillip still didn’t know about the credit card and loan payments she was behind on, so not all was completely lost. She had to do something and do it fast, and while she’d vowed not to ask her father to help her with her debt issues, he was now her only hope. But she wouldn’t ask him today, not with him being so furious with her about this Levi fiasco. However, she would ask him before the weekend was over.

  She’d have to do it because if she could keep the debt situation undercover, she had a feeling she’d be able to smooth over this problem with Levi. She and Phillip had been having so many marital problems over the last few months, she was sure he’d understand how easy it had been for her to slip into the arms of another man. She was sure he’d think about the commitment he’d made to her on their wedding day and how God really did expect him to stay with her for better or worse. He’d think about all of this, and in the end, she knew Phillip would do the right thing. He was a good man and that made her feel better already.

  Chapter 30

  Once Alicia’s father had phoned his attorney, it had taken the attorney nearly an hour to arrive at the station but thankfully, through connections of his own and those of her father’s, four hours later the police department had allowed her to leave on her own recognizance. Originally, they’d been talking at least a ten-thousand-dollar bond, which meant her father would have had to pay 10 percent of that, but they’d decided against it once they’d finished questioning her. The other blessing was that they’d never locked her in a cell, and, with the exception of the ride to the police station, they hadn’t handcuffed her.

  Still, though, the entire ordeal had been a nightmare and she hoped she’d be able to put this disgraceful episode behind her as soon as possible. She still hadn’t told the detectives anything that she’d thought would make any difference to them, but for some reason they did seem a lot more satisfied when she’d told them about her relationship with Levi, beginning with the day she’d first seen him at the mall and how he had approached her before she’d gone inside the store. She hadn’t wanted to tell the rest of the details in front of her father, specifically when and how many times she’d slept with Levi, but her attorney had advised her to not leave out one iota of information. He’d told her it was best to give them all that they were asking for because if she did, they’d feel more assured about her claim of being innocent.

  She’d even told them about the five thousand dollars cash and how Levi had just given it to her this afternoon but then had instructed her to take it out of her shoulder bag once they were surrounded. She’d even confessed about his giving her another thousand dollars right around the time she’d first started seeing him, as well as the heart-shaped diamond necklace. They’d then wanted to know why he’d given her the money in the first place, and while she hadn’t wanted to reveal her money problems, she’d been afraid not to tell the truth. So she’d told them that the reason he’d given her the money was so she could pay some of her bills.

  Her father hung up the phone with the attorney and stopped at a red light. They were maybe ten minutes away from her subdivision, and Alicia wasn’t looking forward to seeing Phillip face-to-face. Surprisingly, he hadn’t come to the station, but she knew by now that Brad had told Phillip about their conversation.

  “It sounds like you’re going to walk away from this without any charges. Randall thinks that the police already knew you were just an innocent bystander but simply had to make sure of it. He also said that when they didn’t find anything incriminating in your car or at your house, that certainly helped as well.”

  “Thank God.”

  “But it’s still not over, because there’s a chance the prosecution is going to call you as a witness during the trial and that’s why Randall wants to meet with us sometime next week.”

  Alicia’s phone rang and while normally she’d be happy to hear from her mother, she wasn’t looking forward to it right now because she knew her father had already called her mother and told her everything.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Alicia, what in the world were you thinking?”

  “I don’t know, Mom. I made a mistake.”

  “I’ll say.”

  Alicia sighed in a not so cordial manner. “Mom, can I call you back?”

  “No. Because aren’t you in the car with your dad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, once you get home, you don’t need to call me or anyone else. What you need to do is talk to Phillip and as far as I’m concerned, he’s the only person you need to talk to for the rest of the evening. You need to plead, beg, explain, and do whatever you have to do to keep that man from leaving you.”

  “He’ll be fine. I mean, he’ll be upset and it’ll probably take a while before he gets over this, but Phillip would never leave me over one mistake.”

  “Don’t be so sure. And even if he doesn’t, you should spend the rest of your life making all of this up to him.”

  “Mom, please, can I call you back? I’m sorry but my head is killing me, and I just want to relax my mind before I get home.”

  “I’m really disappointed in you, Alicia. I love you more than anything, but this has got to be the worst thing you’ve ever done, and you’ve hurt a lot of people in the process.”

  “I realize that, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry about the crazy decisions I made, but, Mom, you have my word that I’ll never do anything like this again.”

  “I truly hope not because, Alicia, this is bad.”

  “I’ll call you later or tomorrow, okay?”

  “You take care of yourself, and again, sweetheart, I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Mom.”

  Curtis drove past the health club where Alicia sometimes went to work out and adjusted his rearview mirror. “Your mom is really upset.”

  Alicia leaned her head back against the headrest and pretended she hadn’t heard what her father had just said. But unfortunately, that didn’t stop him.

  “Can you imagine how your little brother is going to feel when he finds out about this?”

  “Matthew knows that I love him, and that I’m not perfect.”

  “That he does, but I don’t think he’s going to be expecting to hear that you were hanging out with some drug dealer. Plus, once this hits the paper tomorrow, all of his friends are going to know about it, and I think you remember how embarrassed he was when that Tabitha scandal broke. He was so ashamed and so worried about what his schoolmates were going to say that he even wanted to change schools.”

  Alicia would have loved nothing more than to tell her dad that it wasn’t her fault that Matthew was already a victim of family scandal, it was his fault. Every incident had been her father’s fault and while he obviously wasn’t thinking about it at the moment, he had caused her more pain and humiliation when she was Matthew’s age than she cared to think about. Yes, it was true that she’d made the mistake of sleeping with Levi, but her father had slept with so many women over the years, he probably didn’t even remember them all. Yes, it was true that she hadn’t made the best of choices when it came to
her overall spending habits, but it was her father who had taught her to buy only the top brands and the very best that money could buy. He’d taught her this from the time she was five years old, and she’d never known any other way to live.

  But she didn’t dare say any of these things to him because she didn’t want to give him even one reason to say no when she asked him for the money she needed.

  Just as Alicia started to feel a bit calmer, her phone rang again. This time it was Melanie, and for some reason she didn’t care what Melanie was going to say, good or bad, she just really needed to hear her voice.

  “Hey, Mel.”

  “Girl, Brad called me earlier and I just don’t know what to say.”

  “To be honest, neither do I. I really messed up.”

  “But of all people, Levi?”

  “I know.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “I didn’t feel like getting my car out tonight, so I’m riding with my dad. They searched it, and for some reason, they impounded it and now I have to pay to get it out. But once they released me, I just didn’t feel like doing anything except going home.”

  “I’m sure. Do you want me to come over?”

  “Actually, I do, but I really need to talk to Phillip tonight, so I’ll just call you when I get some time alone.”

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re like a sister to me, Alicia, so of course I’m hurt and disappointed, but I still love you and I’m here for you.”

  “Thanks, Mel. I love you, too, and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  Alicia dropped her phone inside her purse as her father drove into her subdivision, curved around a couple of streets, and pulled into their driveway.

  “You want me to go in with you?”

  “Maybe just for a few minutes. Because maybe if Phillip sees you, he won’t be so angry.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They left the vehicle and went up to the front door; Alicia unlocked it and they went inside. She could already feel her nerves racing, so she took a couple of deep breaths.

  But before she could gather her composure completely, Phillip walked down the stairs.