Skeletons (13 page)

28

Jovanna

B
OOM!

The loud sound rang throughout our house waking Justin and I from our sleep.

BOOM!

The sound rang again, it sounded as if someone were trying to kick our door in. Justin jumped out of bed, ran to the closet and grabbed his .45 out of the case.

“Go hide in the closet and dial 9-1-1!” He ordered as I looked at him walk slowly into the living room pointing the gun towards whomever or whatever that was trying to enter our home.

Grabbing my cellphone I ran into the closet and dialed the police, as I was talking to the operator I heard three loud shots ring out.

KAP!

KAP!

KAP!

Running out of the closet, I watched in horror as Justin fought with a much larger man over the gun. The man punched Justin in the face sending my future husband slamming into the wall knocking pictures onto the floor shattering them at his bare feet. Justin lunged towards the dark figure throwing his own brand of fury at the agitator’s face, landing each punch with precision. People thought that Justin was just a rich white boy, but before Justin’s parents came into their money he lived in a bad neighborhood in the Bronx and he didn’t mind taking or dishing out an ass whooping and from the sounds of his punches landing he was not playing.

“Jovanna, grab the gun!” he yelled.

I searched around on the floor for the gun as Justin and the perpetrator fought, I found the large weapon underneath the couch and pointed it at the criminal who just landed a punch in Justin’s stomach and took one in return.

“STOP OR I WILL SHOOT!” I yelled as I pointed the heavy gun, but the criminal pulled away from Justin and ran back out of our shattered door with Justin following behind, but stumbled down the ten ice-covered stairs that lead to our house. The criminal ran down the street finally getting into a waiting red Cadillac.

“You should have shot him.” Justin breathed as he tried to take the gun from my hands, but I gripped the gun tightly. “Babe, let go.” He said as he forced the gun from my grasp.

Coming out of my trance I looked at Justin’s bruised and swollen face throwing my arms around him, “Baby are you okay?”

“Yeah, I know it looks bad, but I bet that he feels even worse.” He said as he wiped the bright red blood that ran down the side of his mouth.

The police arrived five minutes later to take a report, pictures of the damage to the house and to Justin’s face. Justin called his brother to take me to a hotel for the night while he and his father fixed the damage to the front door. Still in shock I threw a pair of tattered grey sweatpants and a pink hoodie on. As Sam drove me to the Moonrise Hotel I kept looking behind us to make sure the red Cadillac wasn’t trailing us.

“Are you alright Jovanna?” Sam asked.

I knew that Justin’s family didn’t care about me, but Sam has always treated me fairly, “I’m just in shock.” I answered.

“I am too; I can’t believe that someone tried breaking into your house while you were there! That is crazy.”

Looking in the side mirror I answered, “People these days are crazy Sam. I told Justin that I wanted to get out of St. Louis after we get married. I can’t imagine raising children here.”

“It isn’t all that bad, Mandy and I have been living here for fifteen years and our children are fine. You guys live in a pretty safe neighborhood so maybe this was just some random asshole looking for something to steal so that he can pawn it and get his fix. I bet that he wasn’t prepared for what Justin had for him though.” He laughed, “The one thing that living in the Bronx has taught us was how to defend ourselves.”

Smiling when I thought of how Justin gave it to the criminal I said, “Yeah, I’ve never seen that side of Justin before and I have to admit I was kind of turned on.”

Sam stayed with me while I checked into the hotel room and I got settled.

“Thanks Sam.” I forced a smile as I hugged him.

“No problem Jovanna; I know that my family hasn’t been the most receptive to you and Justin getting married, but I know my brother and if he loves you then I love you and I don’t care what my family thinks. All that I care about is that you treat my brother right.”

“Thank you Sam, that means so much.” I gushed trying to fight with the tears that were forming in my eyes. It felt good knowing that Sam accepted me and trusted me with Justin’s heart, but Sam only knew Jovanna and not who I truly was. If Sam or anyone knew what I was hiding in my closet my life would be over and Justin would never talk to me again.

This had to stop and I had to settle this with Chad once and forever before he got to me first.

29

Santana

A
fter pulling Mya’s curly hair into a ponytail and wiping the oil off of her forehead I wrapped my daughter in my arms and kissed her soft cheeks.

“I love you.”

“I love you too mommy, I love daddy and I love Malik.”

“That is so sweet.”

“Mommy, do you and daddy still love each other?”

Taken aback by the question I swallowed hard and asked, “Why would you ask that question honey?”

“Because you never kiss anymore and you always fight.”

“Honey, married people fight and still love each other.”

“Why don’t you kiss him anymore?”

“We do kiss Mya.”

“No you don’t. When I go over to Tanisha’s house, her parents always kiss and hug each other and that is because they are still in love, but you and daddy aren’t. Are you getting a divorce?”

“Well sometimes grown ups get busy and forget to kiss one another, but that doesn’t mean that we are getting a divorce.”

“That is what happened to Janelle’s parents,” she explained, “When her parents stopped kissing they got a divorce because they didn’t love each other anymore.”

“That is not going to happen Mya.” I said and kissed her on the cheek again.

“But mommy, you didn’t answer the question.” She looked me in my eyes with innocence.

“What question?”

“Do you still love daddy?”

Trying to swallow the lie that was in my throat I answered, “Your daddy and I will always love each other and we will always love you.”

When Mya ran off to play I went into the office to pay bills online, when I viewed my Visa bill I was shocked at the three-thousand and eleven dollar balance that stared at me from the screen. At first I thought we had been a victim of credit card fraud until I started going over the charges on the account. The dinners, gifts and nights out that Tabitha and I were enjoying were all paid for with my Visa card not to mention the loan that I’d given her to help pay for her past due car payment. I’d never run the credit card bill up to this amount and if Mike found out about it he was going to flip. Quickly I transferred fifteen-hundred from my personal checking into the Visa account bringing the total down slightly, but I still had to make sure that Mike didn’t find out about the charges and I had to get the money that I loaned Tabitha back as soon as possible.

“Hey.” Mike said when he walked into the office, startling me.

“You scared me.” I breathed as I closed the page. “What’s up?”

He walked over and sat on the edge of the large wooden desk given to us by his father after we moved into the house, “What are you doing?”

“Paying some bills.”

“Would you like to go out tonight after Bible study?”

“That sounds nice, where would you like to go?”

“Mya wants Fritz’s Rootbeer and Malik wants Olive Garden again.” He sighed.

Disappointed that he wanted to go to dinner with the kids I said, “Not tonight, but you guys go ahead and have fun without me.”

“That is what we have been doing.” He fumed as he walked out of the room.

I didn’t feel like arguing with Mike tonight so I just let him and the kids leave and I called Tabitha when they were in the car.

“Hey sugar!” she yelled over the loud music playing in the background.

“Hey, where are you?” I asked.

Laughing she said, “Out and about, what’s going on?”

“I need to talk to you about that loan.”

“What; I’m sorry I can barely hear you the music is too loud.”

“I said that I need to talk to you about the money that I loaned you for your car payment!” I yelled into the phone.

“I still can’t hear you!” she yelled, “Send me a text message because the music is so loud in here.”

Then she hung up.

Even though I thought that she heard me, I sent her a text message:

Hey Tabitha I really need to talk to you about that money that I loaned you. Call me as soon as you can.

Fifteen minutes passed when I got the return text:

Let’s talk about it tomorrow TTFN!

As soon as I put my cellphone down it rang; it was Asteria and she was frantic.

“Asteria, calm down what is going on?”

“Jovanna and Justin’s house was broken into and she is staying at a hotel!”

“Do you know which hotel?”

“The Moonrise.”

“How did you find out?” I asked as I slipped on a pair of tennis shoes.

“Keith told me.” She answered, “Are you on your way?”

“Yes, I’ll meet you there.”

I rushed out of the door forgetting all about Tabitha for now because one of my best friends needed me.

When we got to the hotel, Jovanna was hesitant about opening the door until she saw that we weren’t going anywhere.

“What is going on?” Asteria exclaimed as she burst through the room, “Keith told me that your house was broken into and Justin was attacked.”

Jovanna and I both looked at Asteria funny when she said that Keith told her about the crime, but since he was married to her sister we didn’t think much about it.

“I don’t know what happened, one minute we were asleep in bed and the next Justin was fighting for his life and I was pointing a gun.” She answered as she lowered her small frame onto the bed.

“Did they catch the guy?” I asked with concern.

Jovanna shook her head, “No, but Justin kicked his ass.”

“Were you hurt?” Asteria asked rubbing our sobbing friend’s back.

Jovanna shook her head, “Justin’s face is bruised and battered though.”

“Why didn’t you call us when this happened?” I asked.

“I didn’t want to bother you with my problems.”

“We are your friends, closer than sisters and there is no problem that you have that we cannot come together and handle.” Asteria fussed, “There are no secrets between friends.”

“Thanks for being here for me.” She smiled with a worried look on her face.

“Where is Justin?” I asked.

“He went back to the house last night, but I wanted one more day to myself.”

“Are you afraid to go home?” Asteria asked.

“No I just needed some time to think.” Jovanna rose from the bed, walked to the mini bar and grabbed a small can of Pepsi.

Asteria and I looked at one another disturbed by her odd behavior.

“You know that you can always stay with Mike and I, we have the guest suite in the basement.” I offered.

“And you can always stay at my place, Latif can sleep with me, I just hope that you like The Backyardigans.”

Nervous laughter filled the room.

“Thanks guys, but honestly I am going to be fine; Justin is driving me crazy because he is worried about me, so I decided to stay here another night. It has been awhile since I’ve slept in bed alone and I hate to say it, but it feels good.” She laughed.

“Girl tell me about it!” I joined, “I love when Mike’s company sends him away for weekend conferences, and I finally get the T.V. the bed and the bathroom all to myself.”

“Well I don’t have that problem.” Asteria said.

“That is because you are wasting your time with Mr. Anonymous.” I said.

Asteria rolled her eyes.

My text alert chimed it was Mike:

Where are you?

I text back:

At the Moonrise with Jo and Asteria, I will be home in a few.

Mike text back:

Always an excuse.

I ignored his last text message.

“My house was a wreck the last time I was there. Justin said that he and Sam cleaned it up and replaced the front door with security locks and he even went the extra mile and installed a security camera above the front and back doors. I told him that it was unnecessary, but he insisted.”

“A real man protects his home.” I said.

“I’m just glad that you are alright, hopefully Justin gave that punk a good Bronx-style ass whooping so he will think twice about breaking into someone’s house again.” Asteria added, “Since you are alright I’m going to let you get some rest.”

“Yeah, I have to get home to Mike and the kids, but if you need anything you better call. No more secrets Jovanna.” I said as we embraced.

“Okay, thanks guys.” Jovanna said as she escorted us to the door.

I couldn’t help the feeling that my friend was hiding something from me, but that thought quickly left when my phone rang…it was Tabitha.