Filthy Rich-Part 2 (23 page)

As the three passed room after room, some of the doors were open, others closed. But no matter whether opened or closed, sickness and death was present in each. In a number of the few that were open, family and friends sat near or around their bedridden loved one hoping for the best, pain and even tears in their eyes.

              Reaching Piper’s room, Nessa told Joe to wait outside. With him doing as he was told and now standing outside the door keeping watch, she and Trinity walked into the room and were greeted by silence. The only sound was the beeping from medical equipment and the front desk nurse’s voice occasionally paging someone over the loud speaker.

              In bed lay Piper with tubes sticking out of her arms. Approaching her slowly, Nessa couldn’t help but be caught off guard by her appearance. It wasn’t the fact that Piper had on no make-up that made her look so different. It was the fact that the makeup and certain outfits had been so successful at disguising her mother’s disease, she was now unrecognizable. Piper’s head was now also completely shaved. Unbeknownst to everyone, the disease had taken her hair a long time ago. She’d been wearing a wig ever since.

As Piper lay in bed with her eyes closed, her frame looked so bony and frail. Her skin looked so dry. Her eyes, although closed, seemed to be sunken into her skull, tiny black mole like spots around their outer edges. She looked nothing like the mother Nessa knew.

Trinity was caught off guard as she herself approached the bed. She’d never seen a person ravaged by cancer. The woman lying in the bed looked to her almost like a skeleton. The cancer had ravaged her body just that badly and just that quickly.

              Nessa approached her mother. Standing over her body, her knees almost went weak. Now discovering from the doctor that her mother was near death, Nessa saw the past. She saw memories. She saw the fact that an entire lifetime had passed by so quickly. The realization made her sigh with regret.

              Sensing someone near her, Piper opened her eyes. A slight smile appeared on her face when she saw Nessa. Her eyes then looked passed Nessa to see Trinity. The smile immediately dissipated. With almost a sneer, she said in a weak but intense voice, “Get her out of here.”

              “Mom…

              “I said get her out of here. Make her leave.”

              Nessa turned to Trinity and shrugged her shoulders.

          “Now,” Piper struggled to shout.

          Nessa looked back at Trinity for a few seconds then said, “Wait for me outside.”

              Trinity frowned but did as she was told.

              Now alone with her mother, Nessa turned to her.

              “Watch the company you keep,” Piper said, with a fearful expression. “Remember, the apple never falls too far from the tree.” As she spoke, her body was weak. Just the simple act of saying words drained her of energy. It was a struggle.

           “Mom, just because she’s Chetti’s child doesn’t mean she’s like her. Trinity is helping me.”

            Piper gritted her teeth while seething with anger. “I told you hundreds of times, the Bishops are toxic. Everything they touch they destroy. You remember that, Nessa.”   

              “Anyway, why didn’t you tell me about the cancer, Mom?” she asked desperately wanting to know about her mother’s health.

              Piper sighed. Lying on her back, her entire skull nearly swallowed by the bed’s pillow, she looked up at the ceiling. Regret, pain and even anger registered on her face.

              “Mom, I’m talking to you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

              “B’cuz, I didn’t want a damn pity party.”

              “But I could’ve done something.”

              “There’s nothing you could do. This shit is in its final stages. It’s been like that for the past year. Nothing can be done for me, baby girl.”

              Nessa dropped her head. Her heart was hurting. Raising her eyes, now filled with tears, she said in almost a whisper, “You still should’ve told me.”

              Both women remained in silence for several moments.

              In Piper’s head, as she lay there, she saw the day she gave birth to Nessa. She saw the day she’d brought her home. She remembered seeing Nessa take her first step and speak her first words. She saw Nessa’s first day of school. Each memory made the current moment more difficult to deal with. Shaking her head, a tear made its way from the outer corner of her eye, rolled down the side of her face and evaporated into the fabric of the pillow case.

              Just like her mother, Nessa’s mind was in rewind. Saddened, she sat down in a chair beside the bed. As she did, she could remember the lullabies her mother used to sing to her when she was a kid. She could remember playing dress up with her clothes wanting to be just like her. She could remember moments when she, Piper and her father were a happy family. Now, though, all those memories were just that…

              Memories.

              “Nessa, I’ve got some things to tell you.”

              Nessa looked at her mother. She then took her hand. “What is it?”

              Sighing, Piper said, “You’re going to hate me.”

              “I can’t hate you.”

              Silence.

              The passing of moments.

              Mother and daughter looking into each other’s eyes.

Nessa took her mother's hand into her own. "It's okay," she assured her, a tear rolling down her cheek to her mouth and leaving a salty taste. “Nothing could make me hate you.”

"So many regrets, baby," Piper stated shamefully.

Nessa's knees wanted to buckle. She really wanted to know what her mother was going to say.

"Want to know what my biggest regret is, baby?"

"What is it?" Nessa asked.

"That I won't get a chance to see the happiness
your
secret is going to bring you."

Nessa didn't know what secret she was speaking of. "What secret?"

Piper didn't answer. She simply gave her daughter a smile. It was then that Nessa knew exactly what secret she was speaking of. "How did you know?"

"I know my baby. I know my daughter."

Mother and daughter stared into each other's eyes. Piper then, although extremely weak, removed her hand from Nessa's and placed it softly on Nessa's stomach. Then she went on to spill more beans.

              “Nessa, I knew Brandon,” she blurted out.

              “What do you mean?”

              “I mean I knew him.”

              Nessa didn’t quite know what her mother meant.

              “I knew him intimately.”

              Nessa looked at her mother peculiarly.

              “Nessa, the two of us had been in a situation for a while now.”

              “What do you mean
situation
?”

              Piper paused. She then finally said, “He and I were sleeping together.”

              Nessa’s bottom jaw dropped.

          “You fucked Brandon?” she asked loudly.

              “I’m sorry, baby.’

              Nessa wanted to throw up. The thought of her and her mother fucking the same man nauseated her terribly. Anger built inside her at the news also. Snatching her hand away from Piper, she asked, “What the Hell do you mean?” Nessa’s eyes squinted with disbelief.

              “Nessa, I’m sorry.”

              Nessa shook her head and dropped her eyes to her lap.

              “That’s not all,” Piper added. “He and I were working together during the entire time you were setting up the Bishops.”

              Raising her head, Nessa asked, “Why Mom? Why? And why didn’t you tell me?”

              Piper paused again.

              “Damn it!” Nessa yelled. “Why the Hell didn’t you tell me?”

              “Because I didn’t trust you.”

              “What?”

              “I’m sorry, but I didn’t trust you. I had to have Brandon keep an eye on you. I had to be sure you weren’t going to betray me. You were too attached to Luke, fuckin’ dick whipped, so I had to keep an eye on you.”

              Nessa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Glaring evilly at her mother, she stood. Shaking her head, she walked across the room to the window and looked outside, her back to Piper. She stared down at the parking lot but blankly.

              “Nessa, I’m sorry.”

              “You didn’t trust
me
, huh?” Nessa said with her back still turned. “Ain’t that a bitch? You get me involved in this set up, which I myself didn’t want any parts of. You lie to me about it. But
I’m
the one who can’t be trusted.”

              Piper felt terrible.

              Silence filled the room again.

          “If he were alive I would gut his ass,” Nessa fired. She was preparing to tell her mother about the news of Brandon being found murdered until Piper spoke.

              “I killed Brandon’s trick ass, Nessa.”

              Nessa turned around in shock. Her jaw dropped.

              “I killed him. I knew I had to,” she reiterated. “I knew if I didn’t, he was going to mess everything up. I couldn’t let that happen. I killed him and the Mexicans. He came clean about killing your dad, too, Nessa. I could not let him live just off that news. I may not have loved your father but he was still your father.” Piper had a feeling that Nessa already knew about her father’s murder by Brandon but she would never come clean about it.

            Nessa placed her hand over her mouth then rushed to the door. She peeked out to make sure no one was listening. Quickly, she rushed over to her mother’s bed. “How’d you do it?”

           “I fired down on him and that muthafucka, Londo. They was playing you, baby!” She began coughing hysterically and motioning for Nessa to hand her some water.

            Nessa handed her the water gently and watched her mother take small sips.

           “Brandon had them damn Mexicans rob you. It was all a set-up.”

           Nessa just shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid. “I have a question, Ma.”

              “What is it?”

              “If you weren’t lying on your deathbed, would you be coming clean about you and Brandon?”

              Piper didn’t answer.

              “Would you now trust me?”

              Piper still didn’t answer.

              Both women just stared at each other across the room.

              The answer to Nessa’s question was obvious to them both.

              A tear rolled down Nessa’s face. Her heart was broken. Another tear fell. More fell. Through their veil, she said, “I did this all for you, mama. I did all of this because
you
asked me to. I did it because it was the only thing that seemed to make you proud of me.”

              “Baby, I was always proud of you.”

              “Stop fucking lying!” Nessa screamed. “You were never proud of me. The only time you were was when you were getting me involved in your damn bullshit!”

A tear rolled down Piper’s face.

“I didn’t want to be there when you killed Charles. I didn’t want any parts of it. This was all you!”

More tears streamed down Piper’s face.

“You selfish bitch!” Nessa yelled.

“Damn it, I made you rich, Nessa!” Piper yelled back. “I made you powerful!”

Piper began to cough. She coughed so hard their force reverberated throughout her entire body shaking the bed. She had no energy left in her, no fight. The cancer was taking it all away.

Looking at her mother and seeing her in such a weak state, Nessa thought about what she’d just told her. She then said, “Yes, mother, you made me rich and powerful.” She then headed for the door. Reaching it, she turned to her mother and said, “But look at what it cost us.”

With that said, she exited the room leaving Piper alone. Now by herself and with a heart filled with so much regret, Piper cried harder than she’d ever done before in her entire life. Exhausted from the argument, she was able to whisper one thing, one thing she wished she had whispered to Nessa before she left…

“Don’t trust Trinity at all. She’ll be the death of you.”

Nessa stormed out of the room, only to look down at her phone to see an anonymous call coming through. She’d been getting them frequently over the past few days with the caller simply breathing.  “ What do you want, Luke?” Nessa screamed loudly.

“Pump your brakes, it’s me, Cedrick. We still on for the meeting?”

                      * * *

Nessa was silent the entire ride home. She couldn’t get her conversation with her mother out of her head and now she had Cedrick to deal with. It just kept playing over and over and over again. It had her stressed and saddened terribly. She was still in a state of disbelief at it all.