I couldn’t take it anymore; my body hurt and I was dead-ass tired. They acted like I wasn’t the one who had just done all the fuckin’ work.
“Excuse me; Ray is still a little fuzzy from his head hittin’ the floor. He kinda passed out a few minutes ago. If the two of you would please stop yelling and just sit down, the nurse will be back in a few minutes and you can meet your grandbabies: Rasheed, Rayshon, and Rosalyn.”
Chapter 28
Momma’s Maybe, Daddy’s Baby
It was as if a game of freeze tag had ended and everyone could move again.
“Michelle, can you let my sister go please?”
“Sister?”
“Michelle, let me fuckin’ go,” she squeaked.
I tightened my grip. “So why you ain’t say anything to her at Ruby Tuesday’s when she was sitting behind us, Devon? She was right there, squakin’ at Rasheed, remember?” I asked him sarcastically.
Devon took a step toward me with his hands out and I tightened up. The orderlies were all over the place, corralling the crazies, but I kept an eye out for one just in case.
Devon sputtered nervously, “I honestly didn’t see her, didn’t recognize her voice or anything, Michelle. They were behind us, remember, You’re tripping right now.”
“You really wanna call me crazy again, boy?” I gave him that look that said when and if we got home it was goin’ down, and not the type of going down that he’d appreciate.
Shiree tapped my arm. “Chelle, he probably ain’t know it was me; my ass had laryngitis. I swear on my life. I was up in there coughing and everything. You had to have heard me.”
“I really didn’t know. I swear I ain’t know it was her, Michelle.” Devon said looking at me pitifully.
I looked down at Shiree. In her tight sundress, there was nowhere to hide a weapon except for up in her snatch.
I wouldn’t even put that past these trifling-ass heffas these days.
I let Shiree go, throwing her away from me so she’d lose her balance, and she fell into Devon. They were both scowling at me, and in turn I scowled right the hell back.
Devon looked between me and Shiree and started laughing. “She gotta be a keeper if she can whoop my sister’s mean ass.”
Reena wandered back off and was busy humming back into her rosebush.
Shiree watched Momma walk away. “Sounds like old Reena was getting it in.” She laughed and asked, “What she say all them damn babies names was?”
“Rasheed, Rayshon, and Rosalyn; damn, even I caught that and I had you in a choke hold. She was stuck on them Rs, must’ve had a Reese’s. I think they’re wrooooong. I don’t like any of ’em. But that’s just me.” I laughed.
Shiree hit the ground. Devon swayed where he stood. I was the only one laughing.
Uh oh. Whatever it is, it ain’t gonna be good.
“My first name is Rayshon. My dad raised me, Shiree, went to Grandma’s. I remember him and Melanie arguing about another little girl he had that went there too, but I never met her. I went to Great Uncle Lowell,” Devon whispered.
The orderlies helped Shiree sit up, and she looked a myriad of emotions that I could never begin or even want to understand or explain.
“First thunderstorm. I can hear it already. Y’all hear that? ‘How sweet the sound . . .’” Reena asked in a singsong voice, before bellowing out her haunting, memorable rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
We all looked up; there wasn’t a single cloud in the damn sky.
We were all sitting around the kitchen table silently, with grim, somber faces. No one really wanted to say what the others were thinking or feeling. It was as if we’d drank and partied, finally waking up hung over. Each of us in bed with someone we knew but didn’t really know, remembering what we’d done or did with and to each other. Reena was a mouse trapped in a maze of memories. She’d find her way out only to go get lost again.
“Why did she keep Rasheed and not us?” Devon wondered out loud.
Remembering the Frankie Diamonds story, I answered him. “They got chased and split up she could only carry one of you, so I think your daddy grabbed you two.”
The Cliffs Notes, minus the gruesome details. That’s what I gave them, and they still looked down at the table like I’d stepped on their favorite pet cricket. Shiree was even harder to read and I could understand why. She literally loved and lost her brother.
I wasn’t even trying to wrap my head around my relationship with Devon or Rayshon or whatever. Ugh, I shuddered whenever I said or thought of that name. I’d decided to call it a night after the pizza came for Trey. I put on my house sweats, did the movie and pizza thing with my little man, and then we were out.
I woke up in the middle of the night, sweating and out of breath. I was having a nightmare that Devon was Rasheed and he was trying to kill me. Out of habit I turned to Devon and realized I’d fallen asleep with Trey. I quietly climbed out of Trey’s little bed and stretched my stiff, sore back.
“I can rub that for you.”
I turned around slowly. “How did you get in here, Towanna?” I asked her quietly.
“You didn’t answer my calls, didn’t return any of my texts. I had to make sure you were good.” She shrugged and picked at her fingernails.
“Towanna, where’s Devon?”
“On the couch, exactly where he was when I came in,” she replied calmly, too calmly.
“Stop playing with me; you know what the hell I’m asking you. Is he alive?”
“For now. I’m not the one who’s going to determine how long he lives. You are. So come along; we don’t need to get cliché about this shit, either.”
“What about Trey? What am I—”
“He’ll be safer here. So give him a kiss and let’s go.”
We walked right out the front door. Past Devon, who was passed out drunk on the couch and everything. The only good thing was I still slept in full preparation mode sometimes. My phone was in my pants pocket, and I looked for any chance to call or text for help.
So much for my macho-man super protection; and what’s the point of the damn house alarm if he’s not going to use it? Worse than Key’s ass.
We drove for about an hour until she finally stopped at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The water was pitch black beneath us and the night wind whistled in cold sheets against the side of her SUV. I was too scared to ask why we were there or what she was about to do with me. I just stared at the stars; every now and again a stark white seagull would appear and dive below.
“Get out of the car, Michelle. It’s time to get this shit over with.”
She got out, walked around, and opened my door.
“Whatever this is, I don’t want to do it. I’m serious. I really don’t want to. You’re right, I’m wrong.”
“I’m not the one trying to prove anything. It’s your ass. Get the fuck down here and stop acting like a little punk-ass bitch. You done let that nigga twist your mind all the fuck up like that? The dick can’t be that damn good.”
I climbed out the truck, slamming the door and I walked up to her, yelling the entire way. “Are we really standing in the middle of this fucking bridge having a damn argument over . . . over I don’t even know what it’s over? So leave my man and his dick up out ya mouth, Towanna.”
“Okay now we’re getting somewhere. So he’s your man now?”
“Yes, he’s my man, Towanna. You mad or somethin’? Is that why we here?”
She ignored me and kept going with the questions, her nostrils flaring and eyes raging. “Does he love you?”
She would ask me that after the day we just had.
“What happened? We ain’t so quick when it counts anymore. Does he love you as much as I love you?”
I actually laughed and loud, too. “Towanna, you might need to go get checked out your damn self. The hell are you talking about? No one came to the house that night, there were no cars, you were sleep on the couch. It was just you wasn’t it? You tortured me for Rah’s money.”
“Right, you right.” She pulled out her pistol.
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
* * *
We have what we need. Get down.
* * *
That text turned me into a human panic, button and I was suddenly the one pressed for information.
“Towanna, did you kill your partner that night?
She curled her lip in a smirk. “Fuck no. The hell would you—”
“Towanna, shut up and just answer the damn questions. Is your mom’s name Lacy?”
“Da fuck? Huh?”
I clenched my fist and literally groaned out loud. “Tell me, hurry up. What is it?”
She started looking at me sideways; she obviously didn’t understand but I didn’t need her to understand. We didn’t have time for the theatrics right now. My eyes were all over the place, scared a helicopter was going to rise up beside us at any minute spraying saltwater everywhere. Lightning lit the sky up and I almost came up out my skin.
“My mom’s name is Royce,” Towanna finally called out, suspiciously narrowing her eyes.
I ran toward her, waving my arms before throwing myself at her, knocking her to the ground. The sky split open in a crack of lightning and a roar of thunder and down came the rain.
Towanna looked at me like I’d sprouted a nose in the middle of my forehead. “Woman, have you lost your damn mind? What in the world?” she asked me.
“Why does everybody keep asking me that shit?” I smiled down at her.
And then I passed out.
Chapter 29
Orders Are Meant to Be Followed
Iodine, ultraviolet lights, and ointment: I could smell it everywhere and feel it on the backs of my eyelids, prying them open. People were walking and talking around me in hushed whispers. The last thing I could remember was looking down at Towanna in the rain, and then this. I had no idea where I was, where she was or where . . .
I sat up and pain ran through the entire left side of my body. There was no pinpointing where it began or ended. It felt like the skin was tearing and pulling from the front of my stomach to the back of my ribcage.
“She’s awake,” I heard someone say on the other side of a white curtain.
“How are you feeling, Michelle?” A nurse approached me and checked my vitals.
“I don’t know, tell me what happened and I’ll figure out how I feel as opposed to that.”
“Well, you were brought in with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The police report says you tried to kill yourself. Did you know you were pregnant when you attempted this, Michelle?”
I sat there with my head cocked to the side as if I’d gotten water in my ear and I were waiting on that one drop to drip its way out. I didn’t move, I didn’t blink, and I didn’t make a sound.
I was what? I was what? I did what?
Even after I told them not to shoot, throwing myself on this woman like she was a fucking live grenade, they did anyway. And when I got hit, they called it self-inflicted and on top of that I was . . .
Not ready to think about that part of the equation yet. Let’s stick with A and B: did the FBI or whoever just shoot me and make it look like I shot myself, and where is Towanna?
“Do you have anything to say, Ms. Roberts?” the nurse asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What hospital is this? Where are Devon and my son?”
“Excuse me, I—”
“It’s a simple question. What hospital am I in?” I shouted.
The chatter stopped. The makeshift curtain flew open. A bear of a man appeared holding a soiled Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup. I tried to focus and not to stare at the graying box-fade shaped thing growing off his head.
He spoke in a brusque voice. “Okay, Michelle, calm down. I’m Special Agent—”
“About to get fucked up if you don’t tell me that what this nurse just told me is a bunch of bullshit.”
He drew in a long breath. “You were given an order, a directive. You failed and this is your fault, your punishment, your fuckup. I’m Agent Harper.”
“Have you told anyone that I’m here?”
“Not yet, we need you to corroborate the story before we set you out in the world with it. You’re stuck here until you cooperate.”
“And Towanna?”
“She’s being questioned.”
“What if I told you that you have the wrong person? Do you think I’d throw myself in front of a bullet for no damn reason?”
Agents I didn’t even know were out there poked their heads in at that moment. Looking, listening, ready to hear what I had to say. But, not until I knew Towanna was okay.
They brought Towanna in and she nodded, assuring me that she was okay.
“Okay, Michelle. We can’t just have people sitting around without an explanation. This is your show; all eyes are on you right now.”
“Melanie Malia took out five genteel wealthy men, one of whom was none other than Momma White’s baby daddy Ray, and, on top of that, she somehow got Devon and Shiree in the process. When Momma White told me the story, she said it happened twice. I had to do some research into Lacy’s cases.”
“What are the names of all the husbands, Agent Harper?”
“Renner, Clark, Kellam, Latharium, Ponce, and Harrington.” Agent Harper rattled them off one by one.
“There’s a man in the area by the name of Marcus Latharium Bello; he was good friends with Rasheed, goes by Big Baby. He’s the only Bello I know and Rah told me they grew up together, how Big just showed up one day, no parents, he just appeared. I never thought about the story until now. Mr. Latharium’s son. Momma helped Lacy get rid of him by giving that little boy to the African lady at the shop, kind of a repayment thing. When Lacy picked Ray, Momma refused to do it again.”
A few agents had some light bulbs go off and began writing down what I was saying. Good, because I was starting to get tired.
“He has some massage something or another’s popping up all over the place. Check into him and his stuff, he’s probably hiding whatever it is that Lacy used in plain sight.”
There was a rush of excited voices and they exchanged glances.
“I asked to redecorate Devon’s hospital after he checked me in, no thanks to you morons. A nurse had mentioned stuff happening on the 5th wing. Devon checks out. I couldn’t find anything on him. The only thing you’ll find there is that area, his lab, which also houses the electroshock therapy units. Every now and again he has elite and VIPs come and go without check-in or special clearances, but that’s expected when they’re high-profile celebrities and don’t want the press finding out about it.
“And, Towanna. I didn’t forget about you. Your momma married three times I think? But remind these good people who she is and who her second husband was.”
“They already know. My mom’s name is Royce; she didn’t know she was pregnant when she did what she did to my dad. Don Cerzulo is my stepfather. May he rest in peace, even though me and him weren’t that close.”
And then a light bulb went off in my head. “So that’s why you’re helping them, because you just tie the whole family together, huh? Then when I came in the picture they were all like, find out what I know, so that when a time like right the fuck now came they’d have whatever they needed to get me to help fit everybody the hell together.”
“But, Michelle, that’s why nothing really happened, and I didn’t even have anybody up in the house to hurt you. Angelo didn’t even come to the house. I’d asked one of the agents to swab Lataya, and for whatever reason he did them both. When these dudes killed Ennis . . .”
“He drew a weapon on an armed agent and refused to stand down, ma’am.”
I didn’t see who said it, but that explained poor Ennis.
Towanna sneered at one of the men and went on, “I just wanted to know if you knew anything ASAP so I could be done with the shit. So I staged that whole thing to try to make you talk. That’s all, and then you ran all the way out here.”
; I was starting to feel weak and nauseated. Connecting all these dots to all these different people was really starting to wear me out. The FBI and CIA had tracked down and traced everyone connected to Lacy in some way, shape, or form. I guess the world really does revolve around money. I still had to know something.
“One last question and then I’m done. The agreement I signed said that I killed Rasheed. What did yours say?”
“That’s classified, Roberts,” several agents blurted out at once.
“It’s okay, Towanna, I already know. It said you killed Lania and Keyshawn, didn’t it?” I asked her anyway, despite their warnings.
Towanna looked down at the floor quickly, but not before I could see the tears in her eyes, confirming my suspicion.
“That’s enough, Roberts. Conditions of your agreements are confidential and need-to-know only. You are relieved and needed no further.”
“Well, we might as well show our hands then.” I addressed everyone in the room, taking turns looking at them one by one. Some of them looked away, some met my stare with indifference or defiance as I continued, “It doesn’t make any sense acting all shy now. Not when we all know who’s using who. Tell me again, my options were to sign or what? Sink, right?”
Done with my tirade, I was finally feeling winded and my side was aching. I had to get a point across even if they didn’t give a fuck about me making it. They scowled, and Towanna stood there clammed up, looking pensive and hurt. Drained, I lay my head back, empathizing with the pain I knew she was feeling.
“And for the damn record, my last name is Laurel. I’ve changed it since you don’t seem to get up-to-date information. And, you’re welcome.”
Chapter 30
I Am Relieved
“You sure you wanna do this, Michelle?” Devon whined, looking at me with the stank face.
We were lying in bed enjoying the peace and quiet. Trey wouldn’t be home until Sunday and me and my man had ourselves a date. Devon rolled on his stomach, sticking his head under the pillow, ostrich style. I quit fiddling with the button of his pajama top I was wearing and rolled my eyes. Trey might as well have been in the bed with me; the man was acting just like him when he ain’t wanna get up in the morning.
Baby Momma Saga, Part 2 Page 21