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Authors: Niobia Bryant

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BOOK: Mistress, Inc.
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For the next hour, Jessa patiently sat across the living room and watched the Halls enjoy holding, kissing, and cooing over the baby. When Delaney cried she had to force herself not to run across the room and snatch her baby from them.
Ding-dong.
The doorbell surprised her.
“Excuse me,” she told them, rushing to the door to shoo away whoever it was so that she could get back to watching them with her baby.
Jessa opened the door and was surprised to see a thin white man standing on the step. “Jessa Logan?” he asked.
“Yes?”
He handed her a folded stack of papers before he turned and walked back to the small pickup truck she now saw parked in front of her house.
She looked down the street at Jaime standing in the street waving at the process server as he drove by. She obviously let the process server in just like she did the Halls.
Jessa ignored her as she looked down at the court papers. She felt like she was just gut punched as she read them. The Halls
were
suing for custody of Delaney. She slammed the front door and stormed back into the living room. “You lying mother—”
She bit back her words, not wanting to give them any further ammunition against her. They tricked her to see the baby knowing she wouldn’t dare allow it once they served her with the papers.
Tossing the papers onto the floor, she reached for her daughter.
“Not so fast,” Mrs. Hall said calmly.
Too calmly.
She handed her tote to her husband and he pulled out a black folder, which he sat on the middle of the coffee table.
“Have a seat,” he offered with a smug expression. “Let’s discuss your past and how that affects little Delaney here ... or should I say little Georgia?”
Jessa felt like the room was spinning as she eyed the folder. Her knees nearly gave out beneath her and she felt completely nauseous as her past came hurtling at her like she was trapped in the path of a massive truck.
She shifted her eyes and the joy on their faces at her expense filled her heart with pure hatred.
Chapter 16
J
essa was afraid at the sharp, burning feel of her first labor pain. She pressed her hands to her swollen baby, and sweat covered her naked body on the thin bed. “It hurts, Nana, ” she cried out, her tears flowing freely.
“You’re having a baby. What did you think it was going to feel like?” Nana asked as she mopped the brow of her thin face with a cool cloth. “The midwife will be here soon.”
Jessa licked her lips, struggling for courage. “Can I please keep the baby, Nana? Please.”
“Don’t be silly, child, you’re thirteen years old. I’m struggling enough to take care of you after your mama ran off. What are you going to do with a baby?” Nana snapped, her eyes flashing.
Jessa closed her eyes as she cried even harder.
“Don’t you want to go back to school and have fun with your friends and enjoy your life. Huh? Don’t you want to forget what happened?” Nana wiped her brow again.
Knock-knock.
“That’s the midwife.” Nana dropped the rag in the bowl of ice water by the bed before she lifted her tall frame and walked out of Jessa’s bedroom to the front door.
Jessa cried in silence, not even letting herself cry out when another labor pain hit her. Even at such a young age, she was steeling herself to be able to take her child being born from body and then taken away from her. Forever.
A thirteen-year-old body wasn’t meant to carry or bear a child. Nothing about their minds or their bodies was ready for it. Everyone knew that. But how was she suddenly supposed to mature enough to understand never raising her child. That made no sense to her.
Biting her bottom lip, she turned and looked out through the thin lace of her window. She could hear the sounds of children outside playing. She hadn’t been to school or even outdoors since she started showing.
No one knew her secret.
No one but her grandmother, the doctor she went to in another state, the midwife, and whoever was scheduled to come and take her baby away from her.
They act like I’m just supposed to forget,
she thought, biting her bottom lip and turning her head again to face the wall as her bedroom door opened.
Many hours later, too many to count, her Nana held her slender legs as she gave one last strong push to free her baby from her body and into the world.
Even in her fatigue, she raised her head from the sweaty pillow to look up at and glance at her crying baby. But the bodies of her grandmother and the midwife shielded it from her.
“Is the baby okay?” Jessa asked, fear instead causing her heart to pound behind her small breasts. “Is she normal?”
Nothing. They said nothing.
“Please let me see the baby,” Jessa cried out.
The midwife turned back to tend to between her thighs as her grandmother carried the baby out the door.
“Where she taking the baby?”
The midwife pulled a long thread as she stitched Jessa. She stopped for a second to look at the young girl who had seen and been through too much. “It’s for the best. She will be adopted and some couple will love her real good for you. ”
Jessa’s head fell back on the pillow. They weren’t even going to let her see her baby. Not once. Ever. “Is she normal?” Jessa asked.
But she never got an answer.
 
In time, Jessa had trained herself to never think about that baby. Her Nana kept saying it was for the best. Eventually, she was back at school and caught up in schoolwork and being a teen.
She had to force herself not to think about it because whenever she did, the pain was too much to bear.
Just like now.
Jessa took her baby from Mrs. Hall’s arms, hating the tears that filled her eyes. “Get out of my house. Now!” she roared, wanting them gone.
Mr. Hall pushed the folder toward her. “But we’re not done and you know it, Jessa. See, we know the whole story. All of it, and you wouldn’t want us to contact Georgia and tell her all about her history. Would you?”
Jessa locked eyes with him and she knew in that moment that if she owned a gun she would have easily put a round dead between his eyes and saved one to pierce his wife’s heart.
Cold-hearted evil motherfuckers like these deserved to die.
“That would be a hard pill for any twenty-year-old girl to swallow.”
Yes, she would be going on twenty now. Her birthday was in June. June 17th.
Jessa stepped back from feeling like their evil would rub off. And what she hated the most was that she knew he was right. What person could stand the truth.
That
truth.
No one.
Jessa felt nauseous from the memory of it herself....
 
Jessa bopped her head and shoulders to the music playing in her earphones as she sat on the couch in her nightgown. She looked up when the front door opened and he walked in carrying a bag of McDonald’s.
“I’m not really hungry yet,” she said, taking her earphones off to use the remote to flip through the channels.
“I’ll leave it on the stove and you can eat when you’re ready, ” he said.
“Okay. ”
He came to sit on the sofa beside her.
Jessa frowned at the smell of alcohol. He left an hour ago to get food. She looked over at him and his eyes were slightly glassy. She smiled when he turned his head to look at her.
“You enjoyed the weekend?” he asked.
Jessa nodded.
“Yeah, me too,” he said, licking his already wet lips. “I should have searched for you sooner, baby girl. ”
Jessa smiled again and turned to watch the television.
“You’re such a pretty girl,” he said.
She visibly jumped when he reached out to stroke the back of her head.
“Don’t be scared,” he said in a low voice, his eyes dipping down to her small breasts.
Jessa tried to move away from him, but his grip on her head tightened as he jerked her head forward and came up to touch her thigh.
“Such a pretty girl.
Jessa’s eyes filled with alarm as she pushed his hand away. “No. Please stop!”
He pressed his hand between her thighs.
Tears fell from Jessa’s eyes as she started to fight his hands off her. “Please, no, Daddy. NO!”
Jessa shook her head to free herself of the memory, the images, the nightmare of her own father raping her. She covered her hand with her mouth to keep her nausea from quickly turning into a vomiting spell.
Please, no, Daddy. No!
Her father had reappeared in her life when she was twelve. He began to visit once a week, and then one day he asked her if she wanted to spend the weekend with him. Her Nana had gladly sent her on her way with an overnight bag, but who would have ever suspected ...
Please, no, Daddy. No!
“Having a baby by your own father,” Mrs. Hall said in disgust. “That poor girl is probably severely retarded.”
Jessa’s eyes locked on them even as she grappled with the memories. “Get the hell out now!” she screamed, pointing toward her front door. “Get out!”
Delaney started to cry.
Mrs. Hall jumped to her feet and rushed toward Jessa. “You’re upsetting the baby.”
Jessa sidestepped her and picked up her cordless phone with her free hand. “I’m calling the police,” she said coldly. “Get out of my house.”
Mr. Hall rose to his feet. “Inside the folder are also legal forms giving us custody of the baby. You have twenty-four hours to sign them or we will reveal your dirty little secret and contact your daughter/sister to tell her the truth of her parentage.”
Jessa shook her head in disbelief at their cruelty.
“Let’s go, Kittie,” he said.
They left the room and Jessa moved to stand in the doorway of the living room and pierce them with hate-filled eyes until her front door closed behind them. Holding a still-crying Delaney tightly, she ran to the door and locked it securely before she turned, pressing her back to the wood before her body gave out and she slid to the floor on her ass.
Her world felt so unsure. All of her chickens were home to roost. All of her sins were being thrown back at her. Karma was winning.
“Ssshhh, Delaney. It’s okay,” she said softly, pressing kisses salty from her tears to Delaney’s cheeks. “I swear Mama will fix this. I swear.”
 
Darkness had set and Jessa was a woman with a plan. A desperate plan that was the only solution she could think of. What other choice did she have? The Halls had pushed her to the ledge and left her there to decide just how to save herself.
With a calm that was unnerving even to herself, she walked down the block to Renee’s house dressed in all black and slipped into the backyard where she slowly took the steps and tried the lock on the patio doors.
Richmond Hills was safe. The first show of major violence was Eric’s attempt on her life. Just as she thought as she sat and plotted, the door was unlocked. Renee had no alarm. Never did.
The house was dark and quiet. There was nothing but the odds creaks of a house settling as she made her way to the office. It took her just a few seconds to find the drawer where the gun sat and she took it, holding it up to the stream of moonlight coming through the window to see the metal gleam in her hand.
Holding the gun at her side, she boldly and uncaringly left the office and walked out the front door with the gun at her side, making her way back to her home.
Cloaked by darkness, she climbed the stairs back to her bedroom and slid the gun under her pillow before making her way out to the balcony. She sat there with her knees pulled to her chest. Waiting.
They have given me no choice.
She had nothing but murder on her mind.
These people wanted to destroy her by attacking the most vital things to any mother. Her children. They wanted to snatch the baby from her and then ruin the life of her eldest daughter with a past that was far too disturbing. Her children were victims in all of this.
Just as she was a victim of her own father.
Even he knew what he did was vile and despicable. Once he awakened from his drunken stupor and found his daughter bloody and crying in a corner because of his incestuous actions, he cut his own throat.
Jessa flinched.
She had almost forgotten it all. Pushed it away. The Halls brought it all rushing back. All of it.
People like that deserve to die.
Sighing, she thought of the daughter she never laid eyes on. She hadn’t even known her name until today. Georgia. The folder the Halls left for her still sat in the same spot. She couldn’t bring herself to open it. To know more. To face her guilt and her shame.
Who knew her affair with Eric would lead her right down the road to a past she fought so hard to forget?
Jessa sat there on the balcony, knowing the nanny was taking care of Delaney, as she struggled with every possible emotion she felt. She was so lost in her thoughts and her memories and her regrets that she didn’t even realize how many hours had slipped by until the sun broke in the sky.
Nothing in her life would ever be the same again.
Wiping away fresh tears, she made her way to the nursery. She picked up Delaney and held her close as she eased down into the chair by the crib. She was still sitting there humming softly to her baby when Yari walked in. The woman stopped in surprise to see Jessa sitting there.
BOOK: Mistress, Inc.
13.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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