His face brightens as he lays out the plot they’ve cooked up. “You like it?” he asks when he’s done.
My cheeks burn as I stare back at him. “If you really want to know, I think it’s completely unethical since you’re only doing it for financial reasons, not the best interests of your daughter.”
“You’re such a goody two-shoes.”
“No, I just think right is right and wrong is wrong.”
“Sweetheart, when there’s as much money at stake as I have on the line, anything I do to protect myself is right.”
“The saddest part about what you just said is that you actually believe it. You think anything goes.”
“Yes, I do. Especially when all other options have been exhausted. I need to teach Bliss a lesson. Our little plan will flip the script, as the youngsters say.”
He reaches for his cell phone.
“In fact, I’m going to have my new legal eagle get the ball rolling right about now.”
CHAPTER 50
Bliss stared into her own smiling face in the bathroom mirror.
“Girl, you are absolutely fabulous!”
She had Fletcher McClain on the ropes and victory was within her reach. Now that the stupid fraud case was history, she’d have her eighty-three grand a month in no time. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so euphoric.
It also felt great to have a kid-free townhouse. Anamaria had taken all three of them to the park, allowing Bliss to schedule a lunch date with Jessica.
It was becoming pretty annoying having to listen to Jessica whine about Paul screwing around. The man was showing all the signs, but unless Jessica was willing to do something about it, Bliss didn’t want to keep rehashing the subject.
The doorbell rang and she called out to Jessica from the bathroom where she was putting on a second coat of mascara. “It’s open. Come on in.”
To celebrate the dismissal of Fletcher’s fraud case, Bliss was treating Jessica to lunch at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.
When she didn’t hear the door open, Bliss called out again.
“I said, come in. The door’s unlocked.”
The door finally opened and Bliss heard a voice that was not Jessica’s.
“I have a delivery for Ms. Fenton,” someone called out in a tentative male voice.
Bliss hurried into the living room, her face plagued with worry. She wouldn’t put it past Fletcher to serve her with yet another bogus lawsuit. When she eased the door all the way open and saw a deliveryman holding a gold box of red roses, she relaxed. She knew right away who they were from. Marty Zinzer. He’d come to his senses.
The man handed her the box. “These are for you.”
“Oh my God, they’re beautiful.”
As the man was turning to leave, Jessica walked through the door. “Who sent you flowers?”
“A secret admirer,” Bliss cooed.
She opened the box, but there was no card, just a large manila envelope. She tore it open, frowning as she tried to make sense of what she was reading. With every sentence, her pulse shot up a notch.
“What’s the matter?” Jessica asked. “You’re turning white.”
“I don’t believe this!” Bliss hurled the papers and the flowers across the room.
Jessica placed a hand on Bliss’ forearm. “Calm down. What is it?”
“That asshole’s filing for sole custody of Harmony. Fletcher has the nerve to call me an unfit parent.”
Jessica retrieved the document from the floor and started reading it for herself, while Bliss flopped down on the living room couch.
“I don’t believe it. He’s such a jerk. He’ll do anything to get out of paying child support for Harmony.
He doesn’t want her. He wouldn’t even take her picture when I tried to give him one.”
Jessica finished reading the document and set it on the coffee table. “ I’m sure Fletcher doesn’t really want custody of Harmony. He’s probably just trying to force you to lower your child support demand.”
“Well, I’m not doing it. It’s not like he can’t afford it.”
“Bliss, you can put a stop to all of this right now. Why don’t you sit down with Fletcher, without attorneys present, and see what you can work out?”
“I’m not working out a thing. Girlie Cortez is going to get me everything I deserve.”
“And what if you lose custody of Harmony?”
“I won’t.” Bliss walked into the kitchen and returned with her cell phone.
“Who’re you calling?”
“Girlie Cortez. My shark of an attorney is going to nip this in the bud in no time.”
CHAPTER 51
Finally, Special was ready to concede that her fears about Darius cheating on her were all in her head. He was lucky to have a woman like her. There was no way a guy as smart as Darius would mess up the good thing he had with her.
Picking up her phone from the dashboard, she checked for an incoming text. She’d just finished getting her nails done at the Howard Hughes Promenade and was hoping that Darius had responded to her earlier message saying she was in the neighborhood. He had not. She made a right onto Sepulveda and headed home.
Special still didn’t like the fact that Darius insisted that she call before coming over. If he was truly her man, she should be able to drop by any time she wanted.
That little voice of insecurity that seemed to be lodged in her psyche caused her to swerve into the Mobile gas station. She exited the opposite driveway and headed back up Sepulveda toward Darius’ place. She planned to do a quick drive-by to see if his car was in the driveway.
When Special’s car crawled past Darius’ house, she was surprised to see two cars parked in the driveway. The baby Benz parked behind Darius’ Lexus looked like a woman’s car. The license plate—MISSMAC—confirmed that it was.
“Oh, hell naw!”
No wonder Darius hadn’t responded to her text. He was too busy hanging out with MISSMAC. With a name like that, the heffa was probably a stripper. Special parked across the driveway, blocking the woman’s car and charged up the walkway. She reached the porch in seconds and was about to bang on the door but thought better of it. She leaned in close, listening for voices, but only heard the mellow crooning of John Legend.
After glancing around to make sure no one was watching her, Special tip-toed across the grass and scampered down the driveway toward the back of the house.
Darius’ bedroom looked out onto the backyard and he always kept his curtains open. If he was in there cheating on her, she was about to catch his ass in the act, up close and personal.
As she rounded the corner leading into the backyard, she paused, as Eli’s words came back to her. Stop chasing love and let it find you.
Eli was right. So what if Darius was seeing someone? They’d only been dating for a few weeks. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to commit to him in the first place. This was crazy. She should turn around right now and go home.
Special was about to do just that, when she heard what sounded like moaning. Pleasurable moaning.
She picked up her pace, ran up to the window of Darius’ master bedroom and peered inside. Even though the porch light was on, she couldn’t see a thing. The room was completely dark.
Her mind was playing tricks on her. She had better get a grip. She was about to go home, when once again, she heard something. And this time she was certain. It was indeed moaning, a woman’s moaning. She moved to the right and peered into the window of the adjacent room, which Darius used as a guest bedroom and makeshift den.
This time, she had a clear view, thanks to a small lamp sitting on an end table. A naked woman was sitting on the couch propped up high on pillows, her legs spread wide. Darius’ head was buried between her thighs.
What the—
Rage took
over before common sense could take hold. Special banged on the window with both fists.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing? You lying asshole!”
She could see Darius turn around and glance over his shoulder, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“Who is that?” the woman asked as she hopped off the pillows and started scrambling for her clothes.
“It’s his girlfriend,” Special shouted. “Let me in!”
“I’ll be damned!” Darius backed up his wheelchair and charged over to the window. “You need to leave!”
“And you need to let me in so you can tell me to my face why you lied to me.”
“You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend!” The woman snatched her bra from the floor.
“If you don’t leave now, I’m calling the police,” Darius yelled. “You’re trespassing.”
Special was so mad, she feared her head might explode. She looked around for something to hurl through the window and snatched up a rake lying near a fire pit. It took four swings before the glass shattered.
Darius rolled his chair away from the window just as Special snatched off one of her red-soled Christian Louboutin pumps and hurled it through the broken glass. She was aiming for Darius’ head, but the shoe hit the side of his wheelchair and fell to the floor.
The woman had run out of the room and Darius was now at the window, trying to draw the curtains.
“Are you crazy!” he yelled at her.
“No, you’re the crazy one!” Special shouted back. She stuck her hand through the window and snatched the curtains so hard, the entire curtain rod fell to the floor.
“You’re going to tell me to my face why you cheated on me. You asshole!”
At the sound of a car starting, Special ran toward the driveway, which wasn’t easy to do in one shoe. MISSMAC was already in her car, but Special had her blocked in, or at least she thought she did. The woman edged the car forward, then backed up and swerved to the right. She sped across Darius’ grass, onto the sidewalk and off the curb. The car was out of sight in seconds.
Special limped up to the front door, banging on it with both fists. She was yelling and sobbing now.
“Open this door!”
A woman in the house across the street turned on the porch light and stepped outside. “Is everything okay over there?”
The neighbor’s inquiry was like a hard slap that instantly brought Special back to her senses.
I must be losing my mind.
If someone called the police and she was arrested for assault and breaking and entering, her foolishness would end her budding investigative career before it could officially get started.
She waved across the street in a loud, cheerful voice. “No, everything’s just fine.”
Special bent down, slipped off her lone shoe and scurried barefoot to her car. She took off down the street even faster than MISSMAC.
CHAPTER 52
“Please. Just calm down.” Girlie patted Bliss on the shoulder. “There’s no way Fletcher’s going to get custody of Harmony.”
The morning after receiving Fletcher’s surprise package, Bliss rushed down to Girlie’s office waving the custody petition like it was a sword. Bliss had tried to get an appointment the same day, but Girlie refused to answer her hysterical calls.
Now Bliss was sitting in Girlie’s office in sweats and a T-shirt with no makeup. Her appearance alone signaled that she was ready to go off the deep end.
“That paper says I’m an unfit parent,” Bliss whined, wringing her hands. “Fletcher knows about Marty Zinzer. He’s calling me a prostitute!”
“He’s just trying to intimidate you,” Girlie explained. “He wants to avoid paying you your fair share of child support. But that’s not going to happen. You have to trust me.”
“I really need that money.” Tears pooled in Bliss’ eyes. “You can’t let him get custody of Harmony.”
Girlie was trying her darnedest to like her devious client, but that was a tall task. Losing out on Fletcher McClain’s cash was far more important to Bliss than losing custody of her daughter.
“I’ve been thinking about the best way to deal with Fletcher’s custody petition,” Girlie told her. “He doesn’t want full custody of Harmony. He just wants you to run scared and lower your child support demand. Then he’ll drop the custody petition. But that’s not what you’re going to do. I have another plan and I think you’re going to like it.”
Bliss dabbed her eyes with a tissue and looked curiously at her attorney.
“I want you to listen to everything I have to say before you respond.”
Bliss nodded.
“Since your ex-boyfriend wants to play dirty, we have to play even dirtier. What I’m about to propose is only temporary. After we do this, I suspect he’ll drop his custody petition in a New York minute.”
“Exactly what do you have in mind?”
Girlie smiled. “Actually, I think what I came up with is rather brilliant and I think you’ll agree. But I need you to hear me out before you react.”
Girlie laid out her plan to paint Fletcher into a corner, pointing out the pros as well as the few cons.
“And think about how Mia is going to react? She’ll be beside herself.”
At first, Bliss appeared shocked. But in a matter of seconds, her eyes brightened and Girlie could tell she was on board.
“You know what? I don’t just like it. I love it.” Bliss practically squealed with excitement.
Girlie wiggled her perfectly arched brows. “I thought you would.”
Bliss pulled out a small mirror and started applying lipstick to her bare lips. “So when do we do it?”
“There’s no time like the present,” Girlie said. “I recommend that you do it tonight. You’ll want to catch them completely off guard.”
“God, I can’t wait to see Mia’s face.”
Girlie laughed. “I wish I could be there to see both of their faces.”
“Maybe I’ll snap a picture for you.”
Girlie leaned back in her chair, as exhilarated as her client. “That would be priceless.”
The two women bumped fists.
“Girlfriend,” Bliss said with sisterly admiration, “we’re quite the little team. When this case is over, we need to check out our family trees because you might just be my sister from another mother.”
CHAPTER 53
“How can you do this?” Jessica cried. “It’s crazy.”
“Can you please stop being so melodramatic for just two seconds?” Bliss complained. “I told you, it’s only temporary. This is like a chess match. Fletcher made a move, now I’m making a countermove.”
Jessica rolled to a stop at a traffic light and looked over at her friend. She’d only agreed to accompany Bliss on this crazy excursion so she’d have time to talk her out of it. But her pleas weren’t having any effect.
“I can’t believe you’re actually going through with this. Neither you nor your attorney has Harmony’s best interests in mind. This is going to be very traumatic for her.”
“She’ll be fine. She’s a baby. She won’t remember a thing.”
Jessica glanced in the rearview mirror at Harmony who was asleep in her car carrier. She had to find a way to talk some sense into Bliss. She made a left onto Loma Vista Drive. They were just a few houses away now. Jessica couldn’t believe that Bliss’ attorney had actually come up with this stunt. She had to talk some sense into her friend.
“You can’t possibly think this is right. How could you use your child as a pawn like this?”
“Stop making it a bigger deal than it is. I’m doing this for Harmony. To help her get what she deserves.”
“No, Bliss, you’re doing it for yourself. To get what you think you deserve.”
“Why don’t we just stop talking about it? We�
�re almost there. Make a left at the next corner.”
Jessica wanted to throw Bliss out of the car and take off with Harmony. Here she was dying to be a mother and Bliss was treating her daughter like an unwanted pet. It wasn’t right.
Bliss pointed up the street. “The house is right over there. Thank God the gate’s open.”
Pulling into the driveway, Jessica held her breath as Bliss jumped out and opened the back car door. After unbuckling Harmony from her car carrier, Bliss marched up to the front door. Bliss jabbed the doorbell and waited.
Jessica got out of the car but didn’t approach. She prayed no one would be home. What she wanted to do was snatch Harmony from Bliss’ arms and take off. Before she could gather her nerves, the front door opened.
Bliss stood face-to-face with Mia.
“I’m here to see Fletcher,” Bliss demanded.
“He’s busy.”
“I’ll wait.”
Mia sneered at her. “He’ll be busy all night.”
“Then I’ll just have to wait here all night.”
As Mia started to close the door, Bliss stuck her foot across the threshold.
“Move your foot or I’ll break it,” Mia threatened.
“Go ahead and try.”
Jessica walked up behind Bliss. “Please, Bliss. Don’t do this. Let’s just leave.”
Harmony started to whimper just as they heard Fletcher charging down the hallway.
“What’s going on?” He saw Bliss and his jaws tightened.
The second he stepped in front of Mia, Bliss shoved Harmony into his arms.
“You want full custody?” Bliss spat. “You’ve got it. C’mon, Jessica, let’s go.”
“What the hell!” Fletcher awkwardly held Harmony away from his body as if she were contagious. The child began to wail at the top of her lungs.
“You can’t leave her here!” Mia yelled. “Come get your child!”
But Bliss had already climbed back into Jessica’s car and was clicking her seatbelt into place.
“Hurry up!” she called out to Jessica. “Let’s go!”
Lawful Deception Page 20