“And he’s certain Charles Sinatra is the man that’s with her?” Quince asked.
“Of course he’s certain!” Arianna snapped. “He’s a professional. He knows what he’s doing. You just worry about your daughters. They had better not mess this up.”
“They won’t,” Quince assured her. “They know I’ll beat the crap out of them if they so much as lift an eyebrow suspiciously when they’re around Jenay. She left them high and dry before. They know she can just as easily do it again. They can’t depend on her. They know I’m all they’ve got. But they also know they’ve got to put on a show today. They’re ready.”
“They’d better be,” Arianna warned. “Because if they show any animosity toward her this could go wrong really quickly.”
Quince smiled. “Nothing’s going wrong. I have total control over my daughters, don’t you worry about that. The girls are going to beg Jenay to come back to us, and I’m going to play the perfect gentleman. So don’t you worry. I’m a professional too. But . . .”
“But what?”
“I just don’t understand how any of this is going to work with Sinatra by her side.”
Arianna exhaled. “Don’t concern yourself with him. He’ll give Jenay room with those girls. He’ll be too busy trying to figure you out.”
“So you knew he was coming all along?” Quince asked.
“No, I didn’t know,” Arianna snapped. “How would I know? But it doesn’t matter is what I’m saying. If you play your cards right, and get Jenay so interested in helping those girls that she gets distracted by that interest, then I’ll go to Jericho and get Charles’s attention. When he sees me again, when he remembers how much he used to care for me, then she’ll be nothing to him I assure you.”
But Quince was shaking his head. “I don’t see it,” he said. “I don’t see Jenay ever becoming irrelevant in that man’s eyes. I saw how he was looking at her and treating her yesterday. That man is in love with Jenay.”
“Utter rubbish!” Arianna shot back. “Charles loves himself and he loves his boys, but that’s it. He doesn’t give a damn about that new wife of his, and he doesn’t give a damn about that new baby. It’s him and his boys and nobody else. It has always been that way. And since I’m the mother of his boys, he will always care for me.”
“Care for you?” Quince asked. “So he doesn’t love you either?”
“No,” Arianna admitted. “But he will. Once I get back in, he’ll learn to love me again. But I’ve got to get back in.”
“I don’t see how,” Quince said, “with Charles showing up too. Jenay’s vulnerable. She has a major soft spot for my girls, I could see it when I first mentioned their names. But she changed yesterday when he came around. It was as if his powerful personality overtook hers and they were one in the same. And he was in charge of both of them. I would have given my right arm once upon a time to have her under my thumb like that. But I could never bend her to my will that completely. Charles Sinatra already has.”
“Then you’ll have to work harder to bend her back,” Arianna said. “Because if you blow this, what happened to the mother of your daughters may very well happen to you.”
Quince still couldn’t believe it. She said she’d handle it, and she did. She had that Ed flunky of hers kidnap the mother of his children, put her behind the wheel of her car, and then let it sail over a ravine, killing her instantly. The cops quickly ruled it an accident and moved on. It worked perfectly.
But he didn’t like her coming at him that way. “You’re threatening me?” he asked her.
“I’m telling you,” Arianna said, “that I did not go through all of this trouble for my good health. You and I have a secret. And that secret is that car accident involving the mother of your children that we both know wasn’t an accident at all. We are intricately bound by that truth. We will take that secret to our graves because if you attempt to rat me out, you should have enough good sense to know that I have better lawyers than you will ever have. Which means you, barely getting by lawyer that you are, will be the one accused of her murder. Not me. Not respectable me. So don’t confuse who has the power here. You had better produce results today. You had better have those girls put on the performance of their lives today. Jenay has to be willing to leave Charles for them. That’s how gut-wrenching their reunion has got to be.”
“But it’s going to take time, Arianna,” Quince pointed out. “That’s what I’m saying. Jenay is not going to leave that man that easily.”
“I didn’t say it was going to be easy. I’m saying you are going to have to do your part. This is the most important day of our entire scheme. You must play to Jenay’s sensibilities and make her feel as if she’s the worse human being alive if she walks out on those girls again. They have to make her feel that way. And just in case Charles’s money is one good reason that she will not want to leave him, you mention the fact that he did not sign a prenuptial agreement. If she’s stupid, explain what that means. Explain that she’s a rich bitch and don’t even know it. She can get a major child support check for the rest of her life and, with a good attorney, a nice, fat spousal-support check to boot. You have got to be convincing.”
Quince nodded. “I will be. The girls will be. I told them my happiness was at stake. They understand.”
“And once she divorces Charles, then I will pay you handsomely. But I’ll pay you half when she leaves him. Because the Charles I know will never take back a woman who leaves him. Once she leaves, divorce or no divorce, it’ll be over for all intents and purposes. And I’ll be right there to pick up the pieces, and to reestablish my family and my life.”
Quince ran his hand across his close-cropped hair. He wasn’t nearly as convinced as Arianna that this could work on any level. But he had no choice. If this woman pulled her support, and her money, he’d be living from hand-to-mouth again. His ex-wife Vernita had money, but she also had a pre-nup. Before they married, he didn’t care. He figured he wouldn’t need her money, but her connections. He figured she’d get him connected to the big wigs in corporate law, and he’d make his own money.
But that was before his downfall. That was before he was caught embezzling corporate funds and they quietly eased him out the door. They didn’t want the publicity of an arrest, but word got around. No corporation would hire him now. He now had to chase ambulances and find clients on his own. That was why he was struggling.
He saw a Toyota turn onto the driveway. “They’re arriving now,” he said.
“Good,” Arianna said, gathering up her purse and gloves. “Ed will double back and pick me up. I’ll leave out through the garage once they enter the house. You get the girls.”
As Arianna disappeared through the adjacent garage door, Quince headed for the patio out back. He walked through the kitchen, opened the French door, and told his daughters, Ashley and Carly, who were seated on the patio waiting his instructions, to come inside.
He grabbed Ash, the oldest one, as they passed him through the doorway. He was squeezing her slender arm. “Do it exactly the way I taught you,” he warned her. “You hear me?”
Ash was a lovely girl, a gorgeous girl. But she was also terrified of her father. “Yes, sir,” she said.
“Jenay doesn’t care about you, so don’t think she does. She’ll put on an act because she can. But you had better act as if you still care deeply about her. Because if you and Carly blows this, Jenay will go right back where she came from, and nobody will care. But if you convince her to stay, then our struggling days will be over. We’ll be sitting pretty again. I’ll be happy again, and you and Carly will too. But if you try to get cute and smarter than you are, you’ll blow everything for me, Ash. You’ll ruin my life, and yours right along with it. I’m the only constant you and Carly have ever had. Your mother all but abandoned you, and Vernita and Jenay did too. But I was there for you and your sister. I’ll always be there to take care of you. But now it’s time for you to take care of me and put on the performance of your life. You hear me?”
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She heard him. Her younger sister did too. “Don’t worry Dad,” the more out-spoken Carly said. “You’ve looked out for us our entire lives. We’ll take care of you.”
Quince smiled. And his two daughters hugged him. He was all they had. He was all they had ever been able to count on to stay with them and take care of them. Nobody was messing that up.
The threesome stopped embracing and they headed into the living room.
Out front, Charles walked around to the passenger door of his rental car and opened it for Jenay. He still had misgivings about coming here at all, especially if those girls rejected Jenay’s outreach and broke her heart, but he knew she was not going to be deterred.
He placed his hand around her waist and held her closely against him as they made their way to Quince’s front door. She was dressed in a blue dress so simple that it made her look regal. He was dressed in a black Versace suit that Jenay had said made him look elegant, but this trip had him too edgy to appreciate any compliment. He didn’t trust Quince, and he didn’t want him to try any bullshit with his wife.
He looked at her as they walked. He could feel her small body trembling. “We can always turn around,” he said.
“Thanks,” she responded, “but I’ve got to do this.” She looked at him, more for encouragement than acceptance. “You understand, don’t you?”
Charles nodded reassuringly. “Yes,” he said. “I fully understand.”
Jenay felt better as they made it to the front door, and Charles rang the bell.
She looked at the house in front of them. It was certainly nothing remarkable as houses go, especially considering that she now called Charles’s mansion home. But compared to that tiny apartment she, Quince, and the girls used to share, this place was a definite step-up. They both had come a long way from their days in California on Baxter Street.
The door was finally opened by Quince. But instead of letting them in, he stepped outside and closed the door. “I really appreciate the fact that you took the time out and came, Jenay,” he said. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
Charles stared at Quince. If he was expecting to bait him into some kind of rise, then he didn’t know Charles. Even Jenay didn’t respond to such vacant flattery.
When Quince realized her coming didn’t automatically mean that she could be easily wooed, or that her husband was going to be coaxed out of his button-down sternness because of some lame comment, he moved on. “I don’t want any drama,” he said. “My girls have been through enough. I haven’t told them you were coming, Jenay, after you called and said you would be here, because I didn’t want to hurt them in case you didn’t show. That’s how serious I am about my girls.”
“And what do you think Jenay is?” Charles asked, a little perturbed with Quince already. “You think she’s unserious? You think she came all this way for laughs?”
“I just don’t want any drama,” Quince reiterated.
“You don’t give any, there won’t be none,” Jenay said. “Are the girls here?”
Quince was taken aback by how confident she now was. She was not that same girl he used to know, whose sweetness sometimes irritated him and whose devotion he missed. This was not going to be nearly as easy as he had hoped. “They’re here,” he said. Then he opened the door.
Jenay placed her hand in Charles’s hand, exhaled, and then she and Charles walked into the home. Quince walked in behind them, and closed the door.
“Girls!” he yelled. “Somebody’s here to see you!”
Jenay braced herself as Ashley and Carly entered the living room. But as soon as she saw them, and as soon as they saw her, it seemed as if time had stood still.
“Ash! Carly!” Jenay cried, and broke free from Charles and ran to them.
“Jenay!” both girls cried and ran to her. Their father told them to put on the show of their lives when they saw her, but now that she was here, in the flash, they didn’t have to pretend at all. They were overwhelmed with joy!
Jenay fell onto the sofa with them in her arms. Charles was amazed at how big the girls were. Both were almost as big as Jenay. And they were such beautiful girls. He was touched by the genuine affection and love they still had for Jenay.
“It’s been so long,” Ashley said through her tears.
“It’s been too long,” Jenay responded. Both girls were hugging Jenay and crying, and Jenay was hugging them and crying too.
Even Quince was pleased with their reaction. He could not have scripted it better. Although, he suspected, given his daughters’ very emotional outburst, they weren’t completely on script.
“I’m so happy to see you again,” Jenay said, wiping tears. “I never thought it would happen!”
Charles pulled out a handkerchief from his coat pocket, walked over, and handed it to his wife. He was thankful that the girls still cared for her. He knew how much she cared for them.
“Who’s that?” Carly asked Jenay. Charles could already see that she was the younger of the two girls, but she was definitely the more outspoken.
“That’s Charles,” Jenay responded. “He’s my husband.”
Ash and Carly looked at each other. Then they glanced at their father. His stern look reminded them that this was not reality, but a game. And if they expected to make him proud, they had better play it well.
“Charles, this is Ashley,” Jenay said, introducing him to them. “And that’s Carly.”
“Nice to meet you,” Charles said. He was not a man easy to smile it up, and he didn’t bother here.
“Hey,” Ash said.
“Hi,” Carly said. “You’re white.”
Charles couldn’t help but smile at that. “So I’ve heard,” he said
“Oh, Jenay,” Ash said, “it’s so wonderful to have you back!”
Charles sat in one of the flanking chairs, and Quince sat in the other one, and they watched Jenay and the girls have a love fest. For long minutes on end she and the girls talked and reminisced and laughed and cried.
But as Charles sat there and watched the love fest, something felt fake and phony to him. He couldn’t say what it was, since the girls affection for Jenay seemed real, and he knew her affection for them was. But something was off.
He looked at Quince. He was staring at his daughters as if he was inwardly coaching them, and the biggest girl would occasionally take peeps at him. Maybe she was just seeking his approval, or maybe he was coaching what was not as real as it seemed and was actually a performance. But Charles couldn’t be sure. But he was certain something was off. He was certain something wasn’t quite right.
But Jenay was so thrilled to be around the girls again, girls she once raised and thought of as her own daughters, that she could barely see anything else. That was why Charles knew he couldn’t get caught up in the hype. He had to be her eyes.
“It’s been so awful after you left, Jenay,” Ash said. “Everybody left us. Then Mom just passed away.”
“I know,” Jenay said. “Your father told me. I am so sorry.”
“She never came around anyway,” Carly said, and Ash looked at her as if she had just spilled some great secret. Even Jenay, despite her emotions, noticed that look. Charles certainly did.
“It still hurts,” Ash said. “She was our mother.”
“Yes, of course,” Jenay agreed.
“We don’t know what to do,” Ash went on. “We don’t know who to turn to.”
“What do you mean?” Jenay asked. Charles was staring at Ash.
Quince knew this was a big moment. He looked at Charles sitting there in his high-dollar suit and shiny dress shoes. And they were some big-ass dress shoes, Quince noted. Which meant he had a big-ass dick. And on top of that, if Quince were to be objective, Charles Sinatra was a very attractive man. The idea that Jenay would give all of that up just to be with his girls didn’t feel possible to him. She would try to get the girls, but keep Sinatra too. But Arianna said she would dump him if the girls played their cards right. Arianna was so c
onvinced. Quince was feeling less convinced the longer he stared at Charles.
“What I mean is,” Ash said, and then she glanced at her father. Quince looked at her and eyes encouraged her. She looked back at Jenay. “We need to talk to you in private.”
“In private?” Jenay asked.
“Yes,” Carly echoed. “We need to talk to you away from everybody.”
“Sorry, but I don’t keep any secrets from my husband,” Jenay made clear.
“It’s not a secret,” Ash said. “It’s just that it’s . . . private. We can go in the backroom and talk, or your husband can wait outside.”
“No, her husband cannot,” Charles said pointedly to Ash. “I go where my wife goes. Nobody will be taking her into any backrooms, and I will not be excusing myself. Jenay came here because she cares about you girls. I came here because I care about Jenay. We didn’t come all this way to separate. So whatever you need to say to her, you need to say it. If you don’t want to say it in front of your father, then that’s between you and him. He can leave. But I stay with Jenay.”
The girls seemed upset by Charles’s lack of cooperation. Jenay found it odd that they would be more interested in getting her husband out of the room than telling her what was really going on. “What is it?” she asked them. “What do you need to tell me?”
There was a hesitation, but then Carly decided to say it. “Dad told us to tell you,” she started, and quickly caught herself. “I mean, we wanted to tell you how much we missed you.”
Jenay smiled and pinched Carly’s cheek. “Oh, baby, I miss you too!”
“And we want you to know how much we need you now,” Ash said. “How much we need you to come back to us.”
Charles and Jenay exchanged a glance. Then Jenay looked at Ash. “Come back? I can’t . . . I’m not. . . I’m here to help, and I’ll be happy to do what I can, but I have a husband now, girls. I have children.”
“His children?” Ash asked.
“And my own child, yes.”
“But what about us?” Carly asked. “And what about Dad?”
The doorbell rang just as Jenay was answering that. “I’m here to see you girls because your father gave me permission to see you. I would have been here for you years ago,” she made clear, “but your father wouldn’t allow it.”
BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2 Page 14