The Million Dollar Deception Read online

  “I don’t have to answer those questions for you. All I’ll say is that he’s a good man, and he has a beautiful daughter whom he’s entrusted me with.”

  “I see,” Nate said, nodding his head. “It’s the little girl. You can’t have any children, so you’ve taken her as your own. You love the child, don’t you?”

  “With everything in me,” Monica said, honestly.

  “So it really isn’t because you love him,” Nate said, coming even closer to her.

  “I do,” Monica said, not taking a single step back.

  “Not the way you loved me. You can’t.”

  Nate stared deeply into Monica’s eyes, felt he was making some sort of connection. “We were together four years, not like you and Lewis. We married each other because we loved each other, not because you were frustrated and I was needy.” Nate placed himself right in front of his ex-wife, their bodies practically touching. “Your marriage will be based on last resort, ours was on love.”

  “If you loved me, why did you—”

  Suddenly, Nate slipped a hand behind Monica’s neck, pulled her into him, and pressed his mouth to hers. For the slightest moment, he felt no resistance at all. Her lips parted, his tongue touched hers, and then she pulled away, stepped back, and slapped him hard across the face.

  Nate stumbled backward, tripped and almost fell to the grass in the middle of the darkened park. He recovered, rubbing the side of his face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Monica stood there, breathing heavily, anguished, near tears. She didn’t speak.

  “What are you thinking?” Nate said, concerned.

  Monica wiped at her eyes, and then said, “I never want you to come near me again. Do you hear me?”

  “But Monica—”

  “Do you hear me?” she yelled.

  “Yes.”

  She turned and stormed off toward her car.

  After Monica peeked into Layla’s room to check on her, she slipped quietly into her own bedroom without turning on any of the lights. Lewis was there in bed, sleeping.

  Monica walked cautiously across the carpet, over to the chair in the corner, and quickly disrobed. As she reached around to unclasp her bra, a quick image of Nate kissing her in the park flashed through her head. She shut her eyes, removed and dropped her bra to the chair, pushed down her panties, and slid into a nightgown. Monica climbed into bed with Lewis, hating the fact that the image had skirted through her mind at least a dozen times on the drive back home. Monica settled in, turning on her side, away from Lewis. She closed her eyes, then jumped as she felt a hand on her hip.

  “You okay?” Lewis said, nuzzling up behind her.

  “Yeah. Just tired is all.” Monica inched just the slightest bit away from her fiancé and pulled the blankets over her shoulder, preparing to deal with the thoughts she knew she’d be wrestling with all night.

  “How is Tabatha?” Lewis asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Tabatha. Her car stopped. You went to pick her up, right?”

  “Oh!” Monica said, completely forgetting about the lie. “She’s…she’s fine. She should get her car back in the morning.”

  Lewis paused, and then finally said, “That’s good.”

  31

  Nate lay in bed, the lights off, the blankets kicked halfway off the bed. The cordless phone was pressed to his ear, held in place by his shoulder, as he slid his fist quickly up and down his erection.

  “Do you feel it, baby?” Daphanie said, her voice throaty, sensual. “I’m riding you, riding that dick!”

  “I feel it!” Nate said, stroking himself harder, on the verge of exploding.

  “I’m about to come for you, baby,” Daphanie said, panting. “You wanna come for me? Please come for me, baby.”

  “I’m going to…I’m going to,” Nate said, feeling his body tightening, the orgasm tunneling through him, about to spill out of him. “I’m coming!” he yelled, trying to contain the explosion within his fist.

  “Me too! I’m coming, too!” Nate heard Daphanie cry on the other end of the phone, thousands of miles away. “Oh, baby. Oh, baby,” she purred. “I miss you so much.”

  “I miss you, too,” Nate said, feeling the fluid trying to seep out of his closed hand. He glanced at his alarm clock. It was 1:42 A.M. “Hold on a second,” Nate said. “It’s not long after midnight here. You aren’t at work, are you?”

  He heard Daphanie chuckle into the phone. “I needed it now, baby, and my office door is locked. Besides, my meeting isn’t for another five minutes.”

  “Woman, are you crazy?”

  “Only for you, baby. I was thinking, maybe next weekend I could fly back. It would cost an arm and a leg, and with flight time I would only be there about eighteen hours, but it would be—”

  “No!” Nate said, a little too quickly. “I mean, I might have to head to the West Coast for this buyout thing next weekend, and I would hate for you to travel all that distance and me not be here.”

  “You don’t miss me?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. But two weeks will pass before you know it.”

  “Okay. You’re right,” Daphanie said, still sounding disappointed. “Let me get cleaned up before someone comes banging on my door. Love you, sweetie. And give Nathaniel a kiss for me.”

  “Sure thing, baby. Love you, too,” Nate said, pulling the phone from his ear and ending the call.

  In the bathroom, standing before the sink, washing himself off, the smile that had been on his face after hanging up from Daphanie quickly disappeared. Although he had loved hearing from her, was crazy about what a sexual being she was, Nate was angry. He tried to deny it, but he knew he was thinking about his ex-wife more than he should, considering that the woman he had fantasized about while pleasuring himself wasn’t Daphanie, but Monica.

  32

  I hate him,” Monica said, pacing back and forth across the alley in back of her store.

  Tabatha stood casually against the brick wall behind Monica, puffing on a cigarette. “You don’t hate him.”

  “I do,” Monica said, stopping in front of her friend, looking her square in the eyes. “I fucking do.”

  “Because he kissed you.”

  “As if he hadn’t already disrespected my relationship by calling me like that, saying he didn’t care that I was engaged to Lewis—he goes and kisses me.”

  “Did you like it?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Did you like it?”

  “I won’t dignify that question with a response. To think that I was trying to help him with his company, he goes and does something like that.”

  “It’s not that big a deal, Monica. The man kissed you. You guys did that all the time when you were married.”

  “When we were married,” Monica clarified. “I’m pissed! Give me one of those cigarettes.”

  “No. I will not allow a young innocent to start this disgusting, life-threatening habit,” Tabatha said, coolly blowing smoke out of her mouth and nose. “Could it be you’re pissed because you have questions about Lewis, now that Nate is trying to stake his claim?”

  “Fuck Nate’s claim. He has no claim!”

  “But what if he’s really trying to get you back. You don’t want to think about it? You had a great marriage before the baby thing came up. Now that that’s over, you don’t think you all could recapture what you had?”

  “What the fuck is it with you and Nate?” Monica said, turning to Tabatha. “I’m with Lewis now. I’m going to marry Lewis.”

  “And once you’re married, you’ll still have all the problems that you two have been having. You’ll still have the arguments, the differences you have, the fact that you question if he’s enough, if he does enough, will he ever amount to anything? I’m just saying, with Nate, you won’t have those questions.”

  “I know I won’t. Because, like I said, I’m with Lewis.”

  “Fine,” Tabatha said, waving the conversation off and cha
nging the subject. “You think Lewis suspected something last night?”

  “I don’t think so. What do you think?” Monica said.

  “Well, he called my cell phone just like you said he would—to see if what you had told him was legit. It’s a good thing you called me and let me know not to answer. How did he respond when you got back?”

  “He was pretty much asleep. He asked me were you okay. I told him yeah, and that was it.”

  “Good,” Tabatha said, flicking her butt across the alley. “Then you have nothing to worry about.”

  33

  Lewis sat in front of the reception-area computer screen at Freddy’s uncle’s management company. He typed in a Web site address and waited for the screen to display.

  “Yes, I’ll let him know,” Freddy said, then hung up the office phone. He walked over to Lewis, stood behind him. “What are you doing?”

  From the counter, Lewis picked up last month’s Sprint cell phone statement he had taken from Monica’s home office that morning. He typed in her account number. “What does it look like I’m doing?” Lewis said.

  “Paying a bill. But you don’t pay bills. Where would you get the money?”

  “From your girlfriend,” Lewis said. “I ain’t paying no bills.”

  Lewis clicked on a tab and a call history list appeared.

  “Aw, dude,” Freddy said, seeing the list. “You checking Monica’s cell phone records. She said she went to get Tabatha last night. Why can’t you just believe that?”

  “’Cause I know it ain’t true. I could tell by the funny way she was talking on the phone that something was up. I ain’t crazy,” Lewis said, looking at the long list of ten-digit numbers.

  “Nobody saying you are. Just trust the woman, ’cause I bet she’s being up-front with you.”

  Lewis looked over his shoulder at Freddy, a serious expression on his face. “Then you’d lose.” Lewis clicked on a number, highlighted it. “That’s last night’s date, 9:56 P.M. You see that incoming number? Look at this piece of paper.”

  Freddy looked at the paper on which Lewis had earlier jotted down a number from his outgoing cell phone call list.

  “That’s that motherfucker Nate’s cell number. And again,” Lewis said, pointing at the screen, “Twenty minutes later. She called his ass again. I told you, Freddy. What did I say? She’s cheating on me!”

  “She’s not cheating on you. She was gone for an hour. What could she have done in an hour?”

  “You said it only takes you five minutes to bust a nut.”

  “Well…,” Freddy said, hunching his shoulders. “That still don’t mean nothing. He could’ve called without her even expecting it. Maybe she lied to you because she didn’t want to have you thinking it was something more than it was. Maybe she just went to tell that fool to never call her again.”

  “If that happened, she could’ve just told me,” Lewis said, standing from his chair.

  “But she didn’t. And it’s probably all over now. Just leave it alone.”

  “I told that motherfucker some shit would go down if he pursued this,” Lewis said, walking through the office, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.

  “Relax, dude. I’m sure there ain’t nothing to it.”

  “Naw. He forcing my hand. I gotta do something.”

  “Leave it be, man. Leave it be!”

  Lewis walked quickly back over to Freddy, stood in his face. “Who’s the most important person in the world to you?”

  “My moms. You know that.”

  “For me, after my daughter, it’s Monica. Your moms got jumped the other day? I know you gonna look for the fool who did that.”

  “Yeah. I guess I probably will.”

  “And I know you gonna teach him a lesson when you find him.”

  Freddy didn’t answer, just looked away for a moment.

  “So what you expect me to do when I know this punk ain’t doing nothing but trying to pull my damn card? When I told him to expect consequences if he acts a fool. Just what do you expect me to do, Freddy?”

  Freddy shook his head, dragged a hand down his face, then reluctantly said, “Handle your business.”

  “You damn right! And I’m gonna want your help on that, you know.”

  “So what you talking about?”

  “You know what I’m talking about. Beatin’ that motherfucker down.”

  Freddy shook his head. “Man, I don’t know if all that’s required. Maybe you should just give him another warning.”

  “Hell with a warning. I did that. It’s time to deliver. You down or what?”

  “All right,” Freddy said. “But what are you gonna do about Monica?”

  Lewis lowered his head, sighed sadly. “I don’t even feel like looking at her, knowing what I found out. It’s best I just stay away from her till we handle this business with Nate.”

  34

  Mr. Ford,” the youthful-looking secretary said from behind her desk, “Dr. James will see you now.”

  Freddy lifted himself from the chair in the reception area and walked toward the hallway leading to the attorneys’ offices. He wore a white shirt, a blue tie, and black slacks and shoes, all bought from Target yesterday and packed and carried with him today to work. For the past two days he had been calling Kia’s father at work, unable to get him. He decided there would be no other way but to go down there and see him face to face.

  Freddy stopped at the office door, read what was before him: Alexander James, J.D., Ph.D., Attorney-at-Law. “Whatever,” Freddy said to himself, and then knocked.

  “Come in,” a voice instructed from behind the dark, wooden door.

  Freddy entered the huge office, paneled in the same dark wood as the door. In the center of the room was a desk. A large man was standing behind it, wearing a pin-striped suit and glasses.

  “Have a seat,” Dr. James said. “I have five minutes for you. Next time you’ll call and make an appointment.”

  Freddy took the seat before the desk. “I tried to make an—”

  “What is it you want?” Dr. James said, sitting, pulling his glasses off, and devoting all of his attention to Freddy.

  “You can’t stop paying Kia’s tuition.”

  “I can do whatever I want. And as long as she’s seeing you, I will.”

  “You’d stop her from getting her education just because you don’t like me?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “She’s having my baby.”

  “She hasn’t given birth to it yet.”

  Freddy looked intently at the man, understanding that he had not given up on the hope of Kia aborting Freddy’s child. Freddy clenched his teeth, trying to stop himself from voicing just what he thought of the man before him. “Mr. James, I love your daughter.”

  “It’s Dr. James, and I don’t care how you feel about her.”

  “I’m doing right by Kia, Dr. James,” Freddy said, trying to appeal to the man. “I’m working every day. I’ve taken classes. I plan on opening up my own real-estate company. I’m going to be a success. I’m going to make your daughter proud of me. I don’t know why you won’t just give me a chance. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Dr. James put his glasses back on, reached into a bottom desk drawer, pulled out some papers, and set them on his desk. “I’ll tell you what you’ve done. Close to twenty years ago, you killed your own father. You were sent to a mental institution for the next six years, and after that term, you were wrongly proclaimed cured. You went to high school, graduated with straight D’s, then started and either left, or was fired from—” Dr. James silently went down the list, counting to himself “—sixteen jobs, before working for your uncle. Now let me tell you what you haven’t done,” Dr. James said, looking Freddy squarely in the face. “You have not gotten an education. You have not worked a job requiring intelligence beyond the eighth-grade level. You have not secured your own housing. You have not distinguished yourself as being anything other than the average, do-nothing
, learn nothing, hand-out nigga on the street that plagues not only the black community, but the black race. And you definitely have not earned the right even to stand in the same neighborhood as my little girl, let alone impregnate her, fool her into believing there is a future with you, which will ultimately ruin her life. Now you have the nerve to come down here, sit before me, and tell me who you are, what you’re going to do, when I’ve known since I first laid eyes on you, you aren’t capable of accomplishing anything,” Dr. James said, removing his glasses and standing again. “Get out of my sight before I’m forced to do something I may regret.”

  Freddy did not move from his seat, did not flinch, and just stared up at the big man. Dr. James had just made a threat. Freddy did not have his gun, but upon walking in, he had noticed the huge, brick-like paperweight that sat on Dr. James’s desk.

  A split-second image of himself, straddling the big man behind his desk, bashing his head in with the blood-covered paperweight, flashed through Freddy’s mind.

  “Are you getting up, or do I need to help you?” Dr. James said, starting to move from around the desk.

  Freddy slowly rose from the chair, turned, and headed quietly for the door. He opened it, but did not leave before saying, “I came here trying to earn your respect. You don’t want to give it to me. That’s cool. Everything I need, Kia gives to me. But I’m just telling you, things gonna be kind of crazy at the family reunions, cause I’m gonna ask Kia to marry me one day, and something tells me she’s gonna say yes.”

  Freddy smiled at the look of shock on Dr. James’s face, then gently closed the door.

  35

  The next morning, Monica opened her eyes but did not feel Lewis’s body beside her. Yesterday evening, she had called him for the fifth time at Layla’s request, before Monica and the little girl had sat down to eat dinner.