Consequences (20 page)

31

Nikki

I must have fallen asleep in the chair, because I opened my eyes and the second I saw Donovan lying in bed I knew it hadn't been a dream. He was still lying there in a coma. All I had tried to do was take the gun from him. We had wrestled to the ground; then it had accidently gone off and a bullet hit Donovan square in the chest.

I don't think I will ever forget that sight of my husband lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Not knowing if he was alive or dead, I was screaming and shaking so hard I couldn't even think straight. Thank goodness my nosy neighbor on the left sent her husband over to see what was going on. As soon as he spotted Donovan lying on the floor with the gun in his hand, he hurried back to his house and called the police. I was sitting on the floor shaking and pleading to God to let my husband live.

No matter how I looked at it, all this was my fault. Sure, my husband had pointed a gun at me and had even tried to shoot me, and if the circumstances were different I might have been ready to walk away from him and our marriage. Instead, that wasn't the case. Everything that had happened was a domino effect from my affair. I had brought the incident on myself. I never should have gotten involved in Kenyon. Donovan and I were still married. Sure, he had written me during his deployment and had asked for a divorce, but I should have waited until he returned from Iraq and told me it was over to my face. But instead, I had an affair. And you see where that shit got me. While staring over at his lifeless body, I released a shaky breath. I would do anything to go back four years and tell him the truth, but like I said, it's always easy to say what you shoulda, coulda, woulda done when it's too late to do anything about it.

I heard a knock at the door and looked up to see my mother stick her head inside the door.

“Come on in, Mama,” I whispered, and cleared the frog from my throat.

Mama walked into the room. The second she looked over at Donovan lying helplessly in the bed, she gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh, my God!”

I rose and immediately walked over to her. Neither of us had been in a hospital since Big Mama had passed away, so I knew it would be hard for her to see him lying in a hospital bed like that. I wrapped my arms around her, glad she had finally made it. “Mama, thanks for coming.”

“You know Don is like a son to me.”

Yes, she always did love him like one of her own.

“I'm always here if you need me.” She eased back slightly and met my watery eyes. “Have you found out where Aiden is yet?”

I was seconds away from crying again at the mention of my baby. I had been so worried about Donovan that for a while there I forgot that I had no idea where he was. “I have no idea.”

After Donovan was rushed to the hospital and carted off into surgery, I called to see if Aiden was with her. And when she told me no, I started calling everybody I could think of, but no one had him or knew where he could be. I had no idea who else to call.

I didn't miss the pain-stricken look on her face. “I tried calling everyone I know as well, but no one seems to know where my grandbaby is.”

Another sob rose to my throat. I couldn't remember when I had felt so scared in my life. My husband was fighting for his life and my baby was missing. It took everything I had to hold it together.

“Mama, I need to go down the hall and check my phone messages. Maybe somebody has been calling the house looking for me.”

Mama squeezed my shoulder, then nodded. “You're right. You better go and check. Although I'm sure whoever has him can keep him until the morning. My little munchkin should be sound asleep by now.”

It was almost ten o'clock when I hurried out of the room and down the hall to the lobby searching for a good phone signal. I was practically out in the middle of the parking lot checking my voice mail. As soon as I discovered I had two messages, I got all excited. My fingers were shaking as I was pressing the keypad so I could listen to the recordings. The first was from Trinette. I ended up deleting it before it had even gotten started. The last thing I wanted to hear about was her and her suspect baby's daddy when I had far worse problems of my own. Right now I needed to find my son. The second message was an unavailable number and there was nothing on the recording for three long minutes. I stood there the whole damn time waiting for someone to say something before the message finally ended. By then I was crying my ass off. The last time I'd seen Aiden was when I had left for the bookstore this morning. I had no idea what time Donovan dropped him off or where he could have taken him.

I walked across the lot to my car, climbed in, and drove to the police station to report my son missing.

32

Trinette

This couldn't be happening to me.

I went to work on Monday, ready to make Jrue's life miserable because nobody treated Ms. Netta that way.

After Jrue ruined my baby shower, I had returned to the condo in total disbelief that my man could treat me that way. Yet the rest of the weekend he didn't come by to apologize for being insensitive; instead, he ignored all of my numerous phone calls. Well, guess what? There was no way in hell he could ignore me at work. Today, whoever didn't already know we had been fucking—thanks to Zakiya's nosy ass—they were about to find out, because I planned to announce to the world I was carrying Jrue's baby.

I pulled my car into the parking lot and was pleased to find parking right in front of the building. Grinning, I figured with this kind of luck it was going to be a fabulous day. I made my way toward my building and noticed that my favorite security guard was standing right outside the double doors.

“Hey, Herschel,” I said with a big grin. I was determined to show the world that even though my life was fucked up, I was going to be all right.

I watched the way he tried to suck in his gut before moving to meet me. “Excuse, Trinette. Can you follow me, please?”

I put the brakes on my four-inch purple pumps and rolled my eyes in his direction. “What? Follow you where?”

“To the security office. We were notified this morning about your termination and I have been asked to collect your badge and keys.”

“Terminated?” I parroted with outrage. “Terminated for what?”

He looked like a middle-school kid with a big secret. “Stealing funds.”

“What? Stealing? Trinette doesn't have to steal a damn thang. You know what . . . I'm going to get to the bottom of this.” I tried to get past him so that I could go inside, find Jrue, and see what the hell was going on, but Herschel wouldn't let me through the double doors.

He held his hands up, palms forward. “I'm sorry, Trinette. I can't let you in.”

I couldn't believe the balls he had. Hell, he needed to act like that with those students who insisted on parking in staff spaces, maybe then I wouldn't have to complain so much.

“Herschel, look . . . I need to speak to Mr. Jarmon. He'll tell you this is all one big misunderstanding.”

He scratched his head and suddenly looked nervous as hell. “I'm afraid he's the one who told me you were no longer allowed on the campus.”

“What the fu—?” I couldn't even get the last word out as I reached for my phone and called Jrue at his desk. After two tries there was still no answer. I even tried reaching Zakiya and Josie, but neither of them appeared to be at their desk either. I wondered if they were all in a staff meeting. So I started dialing numbers and got so angry that I left several nasty messages.

“Listen, you bitch . . . quit playing games and come and tell security it's been one big misunderstanding!” Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have called Jrue a bitch, but any man who runs and hides instead of facing the issue was a bitch as far as I was concerned.

“Please, Mrs. Montgomery, if you leave now, the campus won't press charges. Otherwise, I'll be forced to call the police and have you removed.”

I looked up at Herschel. His eyes were shifting side to side, and I noticed two other security officers had arrived and were standing a few feet away waiting for instruction. There was no way this was happening.

“I have a box with all of your personal belongings from your office. If you come with me and turn in your badge and keys I can help you get the items in your car.” Herschel was practically pleading with me to listen to him. Hell, what choice did I have but to follow him?

After I gathered all my things, I drove around for a while, then went to my nine o'clock OB appointment. I was disappointed that neither Leon nor Jrue showed up to hear my daughter's heartbeat. Afterward, I went back to my condo.

I was eight months pregnant and jobless. There was no way in hell this could be happening to me. Of course I didn't believe Jrue would throw the mother of his unborn child out in the street. But just as he promised, I pulled up and a moving truck was in the visitors' parking spaces. Even then I was still in denial until I noticed them coming out of my condo carrying my Italian leather couch.

I jumped out of the car as fast as my pregnant belly would allow, then waddled up the sidewalk. “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.

The men looked like they had both been recently released from prison with tattoos all over their arms and necks.

“I asked you a question,” I repeated.

They stopped and the tall one focused his attention on me. “Ma'am, we were asked by management to move all the furniture out of this place.” He tilted his head toward my condo.

I couldn't believe it. Jrue had kicked me, his baby, and all my shit to the curb. I watched two more step out carrying a priceless painting and my Tiffany lamps. I was on the verge of crying, but there was no way I was letting them see me break down.

While they loaded the truck, I shuffled back to my car and went to work finding a storage facility. Thank goodness there was one only a couple of blocks away. I drove over, paid three months in advance, and collected the keys. While the movers transferred everything I owned in the world from one location to the next, I just sat back in my car in a daze. There was no way this was my life.

I had lost my husband, the love of my life, and my job all in less than a month. I was Trinette Meyers-Montgomery, dammit, a little girl from the project with big dreams to live a life that so many could only have dreamed up. I drove a Mercedes. Had every credit card one could name and was so beautiful Be-yoncé had nothing on me. I had loved my life and had always been in total control, and that was the mistake I had made. I had lost control when I made the mistake of falling in love. The one emotion I vowed to never feel for a man. Why? Because without love, I felt safe, secure, and invincible. Love made me careless, nervous, and stupid. Now I was pregnant with a baby I didn't want, fat as a damn cow, and with nobody around to rub my swollen ankles.

I'm not going to lie. My heart ached for Jrue. I wanted him to talk to me and tell me to my face he no longer loved me, yet no matter how many calls I made, no matter how many messages I left on his phone, he had yet to get back with me.

It took forever before I realized my cell phone was ringing. Frantically, I dug around in my purse, grabbed it, hoping it was Jrue calling. My heart sank when I realized it was only my mother.

“Mama, I would love to talk to you, but now is really not a good time,” I said as I watched the men remove the last of my stuff off the truck.

“I don't wanna hold you. I figured you're probably on the phone with Nikki. It's all over the news about Donovan.”

She now had my full attention. “Donovan who?” I asked, even though I knew good and damn well whom she was talking about.

“Nikki's husband,” she replied. “Didn't you hear? He tried to kill himself.”

“What?” I screamed. You mean to tell me someone was having a far worse day than I? One of the movers was standing in front of my car, waving his hand, trying to get my attention, but I blew him off as I listened to Mama tell me what she had heard on the news.

“. . . and that's not all. Not only is he in a coma, but Nikki can't find Aiden.”

33

Nikki

“Gabby . . . I need to know what Donovan was talking about when he was last here.”

Sometimes I hate that chick. One minute she's telling me something is wrong with my husband and the next she is acting like she had fallen on her head.

“He didn't say much,” she said while popping her gum.

I brought an impatient hand to my hip. “Okay . . . what is not much?”

She shrugged. “Just that he'd be out the rest of the day.” Gabby went back to styling some chick's head like I was no longer standing there.

“Man, that's messed up what happened to him,” said the chick in the chair. “Don was good people.”

“What the hell you mean, was? Was? My husband isn't dead! He's in a fucking coma and my son is missing! Do any of you understand what that means?” I was standing at the center of the barbershop floor screaming at all four employees. I didn't give a damn that there were customers sitting in each of their chairs. I didn't care how far down the street my voice carried. “I don't know what planet y'all are from, but while Don is in the hospital, I'm the fucking boss! So when I ask a question, I expect a got-damn answer!”

Darrius, a short, stocky barber was the first to acknowledge me. “Yo, Nikki, chill. We know you're tryna find yo little man and we really want to help you, but really, we don't know nothing.”

Lyndell, a gold-tooth, mack daddy wannabe waved a pair of trimmers in the air and agreed. “He's right, Nikki. My man Don had been bugging out for weeks. He rarely cut hair anymore.”

Everyone got quiet and for a split second I almost felt guilty for taking my frustrations out on all of them. “Look . . . I just want my son back. If anyone has seen anything, even the smallest thing, please tell me.” It had been three days since I'd last seen Aiden. Saturday after I had filed a missing person's report with the police, the Missouri Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert. So far there had been no real leads and I was starting to lose my mind. Somebody had to know something.

I noticed the way Gabby looked at Darrius out of the corner of her eyes as if she was asking him something. “Gabby, if you got something to say, then just say it.” I said it with attitude, but deep down I was pleading with that chick to tell me what the hell was going on.

She pursed her lips for a fraction of a second before Darrius stepped in. “The only time Don ever seemed like himself was when that chick dropped by.”

I turned my head and looked up at him, brow bunched. “What chick?”

“That bright-skinned chick,” Gabby blurted out. “She drops by the barbershop from time to time. She was in here last week.”

“Sanders?” I asked, although I already knew she was the chick they were talking about.

Gabby shrugged, then started to look annoyed that I was still asking questions. “I don't know her name. She just comes in and they go back in his office to talk.”

Soldier, my ass! I should have followed my female intuition and asked fucking questions. I knew there had been more going on between the two of them than Donovan had hinted. I just didn't want to ask questions and rock the boat, especially since he had been doing so much better since his release. Had Donovan been having an affair? If he had, talk about being a hypocrite. The bastard. There I was feeling guilty about my affair with Kenyon that had happened years ago while my husband had been having an affair right under my nose.

I stormed out of the shop feeing like a damn fool. Here I was a woman who had been married to her husband since graduating high school, yet I had no idea what he had been doing the last few weeks of his life. Had he been having an affair? It was just too hard for me to believe. Our marriage had been good. Damn good until he had returned from that last deployment.

Sergeant Clarke's words had come back to haunt me. While being deployed, had Donovan and Sanders been having an affair? Part of me still refused to believe it.

“There's only one way to find out,” I mumbled under my breath and stormed out to my car.

I drove like a crazy woman over to the battalion, then went inside and headed toward the headquarters office. I wasn't sure what I was going to say to Malinda Sanders except just get right to it and ask her point-blank if she was having an affair with my husband. I mean, I wasn't a complete idiot. I saw the way she looked at the mention of his name. I remembered the way they were leaning close that time I had stepped into his office. Even then I had known something was going on between them, and still I had chosen to ignore it. Well, now, more importantly, I needed to know if she had any idea where Aiden was.

When I stepped into the headquarters office Malinda wasn't at the desk. My eyes traveled over to the clock on the wall. 12:30 p.m. It was lunchtime. Damn. Maybe if I had called instead of storming down to the office like I was about to set it off up in here, I would have known. I stood there for a few seconds longer, then stepped back behind the desk and headed to see Sergeant Clarke. Ever since Donovan had rammed his Escalade through the neighbor's house, he had been calling me every other day checking to see how we were doing. I guess he wasn't as much of a prick as I had originally thought. Or maybe he'd just been kissing my ass because someone had told him to. Either way, I was glad he had finally gotten with the program.

I reached Clarke's door and paused when I saw it closed. It appeared that the entire office had shut down for lunch. I noticed the dry-erase board hanging on his door and decided to leave a note. When I reached for the marker and pushed against the door it opened slightly, just enough for me to hear voices inside. Being the nosy woman that I am, I pushed it all the way and found Sergeant Clarke sitting in his chair, eyes rolled at the back of his head with a female bouncing up and down on his lap. I don't know how long I stood there watching him. It was like my feet had a mind of their own.

“I'm coming . . . oh, Clarke . . . yes!” she cried.

By this time, he also came and looked over and spotted me standing there. I realized the woman straddling his lap was Malinda.

“What the—?” he said, startled.

Malinda's head whipped around and noticed me at the door. She jumped up from his lap and reached for her uniform pants that were on the floor in a heap beside the desk and quickly got dressed. Nasty ass. She didn't even bother to clean herself up first.

“Don't you know how to knock?” Clarke barked while he struggled to adjust his clothes.

“Don't you know how to lock your door?” I retorted. Today was not the day to be getting smart with me. “I came by to ask Malinda if she was having an affair with my husband, but I can see the husband she's fucking does not belong to me.”

She had the nerve to look offended. “An affair? With Donovan? Puh-leeze. That man is too in love to mess around.”

I tried to keep a blank face, although her words were exactly what I needed to hear.

“Look . . . I'm just trying to find my son.” I had lost some of the attitude from my voice. After all, I needed them; they didn't need me.

Malinda looked confused. “Your son? What about your son?”

I stepped farther into the room. “He's missing.” I quickly gave them the
Reader's Digest
version of what had happened the day before. “Don got shot before I had a chance to find out where he had taken Aiden. Now I don't know where else to turn.”

She buttoned her pants and looked over at Clarke, who looked just as puzzled.

“Fuck! I had no idea. But as soon as everyone gets back from lunch I'll call a meeting and ask if anyone knows anything,” Clarke offered as he fixed his pants.

“Thank you.” I started to turn away, but then added,“Sorry for barging in.”

“No problem,” he called after me. “That's if . . . we can keep this just between us.” He pointed to him and Malinda.

Like I said before, men ain't shit. “Sure, it will be our little secret.” I gave him a sick smile, then turned and left the building.

I drove away thinking about my husband being deployed, watching members of his unit having affairs, and the ones who weren't able to come home at all. I just didn't get it. Was life that bad that my husband had been willing to end his life and mine? And if so, whom would he have left Aiden with? He didn't have any family. His father had recently died of kidney failure, although the two had been estranged for years. He distanced himself from the rest of the clan of misfits that he stopped claiming as family years ago.

I drove around for a while, not sure where the hell I went. All I knew was that I had used a fourth of a tank of gas trying to sort out my thoughts and come up with answers. I wasn't sure what else to do. The police were out there looking for Aiden, yet there was no way I could just sit back on my ass and wait.

So what now?

Tired and hungry I pulled up to my house and raised the garage and the second I looked at Donovan's wrecked SUV, I just lost it. I put my car in Park and started bawling for my family.

I cried until I didn't have anything left in me; then I got out of the car and was getting ready to lower the garage door when I noticed a white Mercedes pull into my driveway.

Trinette.

By the time she had managed to wiggle out from behind the wheel, I was already hurrying down the driveway to meet her.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, and wrapped my arms around her the best way I could. I was so glad to see her.

“Dang, girl, I can't breathe,” she said with a laugh, then hugged me back. “Mama told me what happened, so I gassed up my baby and drove home.”

It's amazing how she can be a bitch one day and then be so caring the next.

“Have they found Aiden yet?” she asked, clearly worried.

I shook my head and didn't even bother trying to wipe away the tears that rolled down my cheek. Hell, this was my girl, I didn't need to.

She shook her head and gave me that determined look of hers. “They're going to find him. Watch and see.”

God, I hoped she was right. “You know . . . even though he is missing. I feel it in my heart that wherever Aiden is he's okay.”

Trinette nodded. “So do I.” I helped her carry her bags inside and she flopped down in a chair in the kitchen.

“You are big as a house,” I said with a sad smile. I remembered when I was carrying Aiden. Just thinking about my baby made me feel sad all over again.

“I can't wait for this baby to be born.” She rubbed her stomach, then must have seen the look on my face. “How's Don doing?”

I shook my head. “He's still in a coma. But he's stable.”

“That's a good sign.”

I released a long, shaky breath. “I just wish he'd wake up long enough to tell me where my baby is.”

“What all happened? Why did he try to kill himself?”

I took a deep breath and said, “Actually . . . he was trying to shoot me.”

“What?” she exclaimed.

I poured us both a glass of lemonade, then took a seat across from her at the table as I told her about his behavior since Lorenzo's death, the drunk driving incident, and my fears that my husband suffered from PTSD. By the time I was telling her about him pointing the gun at me, I was reaching for a napkin to dry my tears.

Trinette squeezed my hand. “He's going to pull through and you're going to find Aiden.”

“I-I hope so. I just want my family b-back and everything to be the way it should be. Is that asking too much?” I stammered between tears.

“For you . . . absolutely not. Me, on the other hand, it's asking a whole helluva lot. Wait until I tell you what happened to me. . . .”