The Million Dollar Deception Read online

  She was not certain, but she believed Nate still loved her and would take her back if she even hinted that she was interested. Against her will, she allowed her mind to take her there, to the days in that possible future, where they would be a family. She would raise this boy, love him, as she would love Nate again.

  She suddenly felt a pain, the loss of what she’d had with Nate, and a longing for what she knew she could never have with Nathaniel.

  Monica reached out, smoothed her hand against the boy’s curly hair. She touched his fat little cheek, then leaned over and kissed him lightly. When she leaned back, she felt Nate’s presence. Not at the door looking in, but behind her, right behind her. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck. Then she heard a whisper that sounded like his voice, saying, “I miss you so much.”

  Monica stood frozen, feeling the slightest kiss on the curve of her skin, between her shoulder and her neck. It sent a warm chill across the entire surface of her body, but still she did not move. When she finally turned around, not a half a minute later, there was no one there.

  After Monica descended the last stair, she saw Nate in the living room, pulling his tie from around his neck, laying it on the table. He turned around as though he had not been upstairs at all. “So, you have a good visit with Nathaniel?”

  Monica just gazed at Nate, not knowing what to feel. “Yes,” she said, her voice soft.

  “He’s gonna throw a tantrum finding out that he missed you.”

  “Tell him I’ll see him again,” Monica said, walking up to Nate, looking at him as if expecting him to clarify all the uncertainty in her head.

  “So you ready to go?”

  “Yes,” Monica said, the dreamy quality still in her voice.

  “Then I’ll take you to your car.”

  Half an hour later, Monica stood outside of Tabatha’s door, waiting for the woman to answer.

  When her friend finally opened up, she said, “Girl, what are you doing here? I thought the gala was tonight.”

  “It was. It’s over,” Monica said, sounding as though she were in a mild trance. “But I have a problem.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’m think I’m falling in love with Nate again.”

  61

  The next day after work, Lewis pulled up into the parking lot beside Kenwood Academy High school. He was alone in his truck, even though he had told Salonica and Salesha he would bring Layla to see them.

  Over the last four days, the two evil women had been ringing Lewis’s phone day and night, several times in a single hour. Most times he tried to ignore their calls. Sometimes he would answer them.

  “Hello!” he answered a day ago, his hand gripping the phone so hard he thought he would crumble it in his palm.

  “We’re not going to leave you alone till we get Layla back.”

  “FUCK YOU!”

  That was the tone of their conversations lately.

  Lewis told himself not to worry. They had his phone number because he had given it to them during Selena’s funeral. He had thought about changing it but knew he would have to deal with questions from Monica. Besides that, he told himself he would not be forced into changing his life around because two crackhead lookin’ women were trying to cause him stress.

  “Talk all you want,” Lewis said, during another short, angry call. “You don’t know where I live or where I work, so to hell with you!”

  But yesterday, while driving into work, Lewis noticed a burgundy Ford 500 in his rearview mirror that wouldn’t move from behind him.

  Lewis took turns he normally wouldn’t have, sped up, slowed down, and then, irate, finally stopped in the middle of the street. The car pulled up beside Lewis’s truck, the window powering down.

  Salonica was behind the wheel, silver tooth shining when she opened her mouth. “We don’t know where you live, but we can find you. Give me back my niece, and you won’t have to go through this no more.”

  “Just do what the girl says,” Salesha screamed from the passenger side.

  Lewis thought about jumping out of the truck and pummeling the both of them, but he sped off instead. And then, this morning, while hugging Layla before handing her off to Ms. Becker at day care, Lewis looked up and saw the same burgundy Ford parked at the curb, just behind his truck.

  “I love you, baby,” Lewis said to Layla. “Monica will pick her up this evening,” Lewis said to Ms. Becker.

  He waited as the woman escorted Layla into the building, watching as Salesha and Salonica watched him from their car. After Layla was out of sight, Lewis took off running toward the Ford. Salonica put the car in gear and raced away.

  After that incident, Lewis felt as though he had only one option. Days ago, Freddy had mentioned the idea of paying off the women. Lewis objected to the idea then but ended up going to the bank anyway to see if he could withdraw a sizable amount from Monica’s account. As he had known, his name was on her account. He had all the documentation that was needed, and he was informed by the banker that he could withdraw whatever he needed from the account whenever he wanted.

  Lewis assumed ten thousand dollars would make them forget about their desire to have Layla back. Something told him that was the only reason they were after him in the first place.

  He had to take care of this matter and soon, because things had been crap for him and Monica for almost a week now. At first they had been arguing, but now they didn’t even do that, which was worse. They barely said two words to each other. They came and went without alerting the other, neither seeming to care.

  The only thing that kept them talking was the plans they had to negotiate regarding Layla’s pickup and drop-off, and the other issues relating to her care. Lewis wanted to get all of this off his chest, just tell Monica everything about Salesha and Salonica, even though Freddy advised him not to.

  “And what happens when Monica thinks there’s a chance you might lose Layla?” Freddy said.

  “What do you mean, what happens?”

  “She can’t have children of her own. I know she loves you, but don’t you think Layla is one of the reasons she keeps you around?”

  Lewis wasn’t a fool. This wasn’t new information to him. He didn’t think Freddy was totally right, but, God forbid, if those foul skanks were able to steal Layla from him, he didn’t want to wonder if Monica would let him stay around. So Lewis had arranged to meet the women and lied to them, telling them he would bring his daughter.

  He drove slowly around the high school, to the back, and saw the Ford and the two women standing outside it. They stood next to one of the school walls, smoking cigarettes.

  Lewis parked close to them and exited the truck.

  Salesha took her last pull from her cigarette, threw it down, and ground it out with the tip of her high-heeled shoe. She looked past Lewis toward the truck, as if trying to look into it.

  “Where’s my grandbaby?”

  Lewis heard what the woman said, but he was not listening. He just continued toward them, taking hard steps, jaw locked, fury burning within him. Then when he was right upon Salesha, he reached out, clamped a hand around her shirt, and forced her hard into the wall behind her. He heard the air push out of her mouth with the impact.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Salonica screamed, throwing wild open-hand slaps at Lewis. He quickly grabbed her and, as though she were a doll, threw her up against the wall beside her mother. There he held them both, struggling, kicking, trying to free themselves.

  “Now you listen to me,” Lewis said. “If you don’t leave my child—”

  One of Salesha’s wild kicks caught Lewis in the groin, sending a pain through his body like he’d never imagined. He yelled out in agony and crumpled to the ground. His eyes shut, on his knees, his arms wrapped tight around his middle, he heard both women coughing, heard them moving around him.

  One of them kicked him, tumbling him over on his side.

  “Now you listen to me, motherfucker!”

  Le
wis opened his tearing eyes to see Salesha screaming.

  “I said I want my grandbaby, and I’m going to get her. Or I swear, me and my daughter will make your life shit. Do you hear me?”

  “Why?” Lewis coughed.

  “What?” Salonica said, her hand around her throat.

  “Why do you want her?”

  “Because she’s all we got,” Salesha said. “She’s all that’s left after you killed Selena.”

  Lewis climbed back to his knees, the pain starting to subside the slightest bit. “I didn’t kill her. She overdosed. You know that.”

  “Fuck you!” Salonica spat. “Fuck you!”

  “She was with you and now she dead,” Salesha said. “You the one we blame. Now we want what’s left of her. We want Layla.”

  Lewis slowly rose to his feet, both hands on his stomach. The women took two cautious steps away from him.

  “Is there any other way we can do this, because I ain’t giving up my little girl. You ain’t getting her.”

  “What other way you talking about?” Salesha said.

  “I have money. I can give you money. Ten thousand dollars,” Lewis said, defeated.

  Salesha turned to her daughter Salonica as if for her input, then turned back to Lewis and said, “Make it thirty thousand and you got yourself a deal.”

  62

  The next day at noon, Lewis walked into a Hyde Park McDonald’s, carrying a fat brown envelope. He looked around, saw Salesha and Salonica sitting at a table.

  Lewis took steps toward them, and then saw the man a few tables away stand up. He was shaved bald and wore a suit and sunglasses. He looked official, not like he’d know the likes of the two streetwalkers before him, but Lewis assumed he was there for them all the same.

  “Have a seat, Lewis,” Salonica said, nodding toward the chair. “I’m thinkin’ that be a gift for us?”

  Lewis was so troubled by all this nonsense that it seemed to be affecting all aspects of his life. He noticed he had been short with his daughter lately, impatient with all of the other things that would never have bothered him before. And he didn’t even want to think about Monica. He’d torn her head off more times than he wanted to think about lately, ignored her, walked out on her. Last night, when Monica rolled over and said, “We don’t have to discuss anything, we don’t have to try to resolve any of our issues tonight, but I need some sex. Can you give that to me?” Lewis had rolled on top of her, tried to give her what she wanted, but he was so stressed by this business with Salesha and Salonica that he couldn’t even get it up. Monica looked at him as though he was pathetic, then simply rolled over and went to sleep.

  It was in that moment Lewis knew he had to get the women the money they had asked for. He just didn’t know how he would get the thirty grand back into Monica’s account before she realized it was missing. That was until this morning, when Freddy walked in the office much later than usual. He wore a cheek-to-cheek grin as he walked past the receptionist toward Lewis’s desk and said, “Follow me.”

  Lewis pulled his heavy body from the chair, and met Freddy in the locker room.

  Freddy was still smiling. “You’re gonna pay those girls their money and let them take their asses back to St. Louis?”

  “I told you, I ain’t asking Monica for that. And I know I wouldn’t be able to replace it without her knowing if I withdraw it.”

  “Yeah you will.” Freddy took Lewis by his shoulders. “The house sold!” he said, faking excitement.

  “The house sold?”

  “It sold. A little while ago.”

  Lewis threw himself into Freddy, wrapped his arms around him, and squeezed. “Who bought it?”

  Freddy hesitated a moment. “Does it matter? The house sold!”

  “How much did it go for?”

  “A hundred and twenty-five thousand.”

  Lewis did a quick calculation in his head, then all of a sudden became sullen. “My part only comes to half what they asking.”

  “But with my part, it takes care of all of it.”

  “Naw,” Lewis said, shaking his head. “I can’t—”

  “Lewis,” Freddy said, “I’m your friend. Your best friend. And no matter what happens, I got your back. Take my half of the money and pay them fools.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You know you don’t even got to ask me that.”

  “Man, thank you, but you know you don’t—”

  “Lewis, I got your back,” Freddy said, staring him in the eyes. “You hear me? No matter what goes down, I got your back.”

  Lewis paused for a moment. “Okay.”

  Freddy released Lewis, smiled some, and then said, “Go to the bank and take care of your business.”

  “You my boy. You know that? You my boy,” Lewis said, gratefully.

  Now, sitting down at the McDonald’s before the two women, Lewis slid the envelope across the table. Salesha grabbed it, shoved it in her oversized purse, and smiled. “I don’t even got to count this, because I know you learned your lesson about me and my girl, right?”

  Lewis nodded. “Right.”

  “Then I guess we’ll never see you again,” Salesha said, standing, throwing her purse over her shoulder.

  She walked from behind the table. Salonica smiled and did the same.

  “Bye, Lewis,” Salesha said.

  Lewis turned his head away, saw the big man in the suit follow behind them. He watched as the two women got in the rented car and drove off.

  The man seemed to disappear after he had walked out the door. Where he went, Lewis did not care. Lewis smiled to himself, because all of a sudden, life had just gotten a lot better.

  63

  Monica rolled over on her back after making love, her body still tingling from the three orgasms she’d just had.

  She smiled, reached out with arms that felt too weak to hold her up. “That was wonderful,” she said. “It’s been so long, I almost forgot how good you were.”

  Nate leaned over her, kissed Monica softly on the lips, and said, “I was starting to believe it would never happen again.”

  Monica gave him an odd look, leaned away from him, and pulled the sheet up over her bare breasts. “It wasn’t supposed to. It’s wrong for me to be doing this right now, and I know that. I just couldn’t stop thinking about you, so I came over.”

  Nate lay next to her. “I’m glad you did. It’s what I’ve been wanting since the first day you came by. I missed you so much,” he said, kissing her on the shoulder.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I know it’s been longer than a year, but I still ask myself, how could you have just given me away to another man like that? Let him make love to me while we were still married?”

  “I never wanted that to happen. He was supposed to tell me, get my permission before he had sex with you, but he didn’t. If he would have told me, I would have stopped him, because by then I had changed my mind about all of that. When I found out, it was too late. Can you ever forgive me for that?”

  Monica turned to Nate, slid her body closer to his. “You weren’t the only one who was wrong. Just because you set me up to sleep with another man doesn’t mean I had to. I could have told him no. I could have resisted, waited till you realized you really didn’t want to divorce me. We would still be married. Can you forgive me for that?”

  “I already have,” Nate said.

  There was a long, awkward moment of silence, which prompted Nate to ask, “So what’s next?”

  Monica waited a long moment before saying, “I know he’s been put to bed already, but I really would like to see Nathaniel before I go.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they had both showered. Monica put her clothes back on, Nate slid on his robe and pajama bottoms, and the two stepped into Nathaniel’s room to watch him sleep.

  Monica stood, shaking her head, smiling. “I still can’t believe you did it. Nate the father.”

  “I know. I’m a dad now.
I can’t believe it myself sometimes.”

  “He is so beautiful. Just look at him. I wish I could hold him.”

  “You can,” Nate said.

  “No, no. I shouldn’t. I’ll wake him.”

  “My son sleeps like a rock,” Nate said, scooping Nathaniel up from the bed and gently placing him in Monica’s arms. The child shifted a little and wrapped his arms around Monica’s neck but never woke up.

  “He’s so adorable. I just want to take him home with me and never let him go.”

  “Come back to me and you won’t have to.”

  Monica looked at Nate as though she was upset by the comment.

  “Don’t act shocked by what I just said. You know what I want, and I’ve hinted around enough. Obviously the thought has crossed your mind. We’ve become close as friends again. We’ve made love, and you’re here, holding my child as if he were your own. So why not?”

  “Because Lewis—”

  “I don’t want to hear about Lewis,” Nate said, loud enough to almost wake the child. “You know you have no future with him. Just leave him.”

  “I can’t!” Monica said, carefully handing Nathaniel over to Nate. “I agree, we have become close again. I like it. And I’ll even admit, if I weren’t involved with Lewis right now, I would probably be running home to pack my things so I could come back tonight. But I am with Lewis. And even though I know we aren’t all that compatible, I can’t just forget the fact that he’s been there for me. I can’t just discount that all of a sudden because now you want me back.”

  Still holding his son, Nate lowered his head.

  Monica drew near, kissed the child on the cheek, then Nate softly on the lips. “I have to go before it gets too late.”

  After Monica parked her car in front of her house and got out, she stopped. The old Ford was across the street again, the aging woman was sitting there behind the wheel as always, just staring at her. This was getting creepy. Before, Monica had only seen the car during the day. It was after nine at night, and there she was again. Monica decided she would finally have to find out what this woman was up to.