You're My Little Secret 3 (21 page)

“Don’t
get scared now bitch. You weren’t scared when you had my man’s dick halfway
down your throat,” Shannon yelled.

When
she grabbed my hair
again,
it was like
something in me clicked. I forgot about all the pain that I was
in,
and I started swinging on her like my life
depended on it. I didn’t care about the deep cut to my arm or the swelling in
my eye. She needed to know that she bleeds just like the next bitch. It didn’t
take long before I got the best of her and had her on the ground. I soon found
out that without her weapons to help her she really couldn’t fight. I grabbed a
handful of her braids and started banging her head into the concrete the same
way that Candace had done me a few months ago. My arm was killing me, but I
refused to let up on her. I wanted to knock her out and use that as an
opportunity to run. Unfortunately, that never
happened
.

A
few minutes into the
fight,
my hair was
pulled from the back as I was forcefully slammed to the ground. The impact was
so hard that I actually saw stars. My entire body was on
fire,
and I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.

“Get
up Shannon,” I heard a male voice say.

I
looked on in horror as Kevin helped his girlfriend up from the ground. That
bastard was in on it the whole time. He must have been sitting close by
watching her attack me. He never even made an attempt to intervene until
Shannon started losing the fight. As soon as she was up on her feet she rushed
over and started her attack again. She punched me in my face and pulled my hair
while Kevin just stood there and watched. I closed my eyes and said a silent
prayer
begging God to either let me pass out or
die. The pain was just that unbearable.

“That’s
enough
Shannon
somebody’s coming,” Kevin
whispered. I saw headlights headed in our
direction,
and I was grateful to whoever it was for possibly saving my life.

“Being
set up don’t feel too good, huh?” Shannon had
said
before they ran off.

I
couldn’t move or respond to anything that she said. I heard the screeching of
tires a few minutes before two women
discovered
my beaten and bloodied body on the sidewalk near my car.

****

I
woke up in the hospital to find my mother’s tearstained face at my bedside. Her
eyes were red and
swollen,
and I knew
that she had been crying. She was on the
phone,
so she didn’t even know that I was up.

“Ma,”
I called out weakly to get her attention. She immediately ended her call and
rushed over to me.

“Thank
God you’re up. How are you feeling baby?” She asked as she grabbed my hand.

“My
whole body is
hurting,
and my mouth is
dry,” I complained.

“You
had to get thirty
stitches
in your arm,
Nadia. Not to mention the black eye, broken nose, and bruises all over your
body. The police came to talk to you, but the medicine they have you on has
kept you sleeping so much. What happened baby?” She asked in a concerned tone.

 
I thought back to everything that led up to me
being here and tears immediately came to my eyes. I couldn’t believe what
Shannon had done to me. It’s even harder for me to believe that Kevin was right
there with her. He was right when he said that she would never leave him. She’s
his
fool,
and he knows it. But for him to
even think that I set him up has me madder than anything else. My mama sat
there staring at me waiting for me to answer her question.

Before
I could say
anything,
the door
opened,
and a nurse walked in with the machine
to check my vitals. I had a bandage on my
arm,
so she had to help me sit up. My mother excused herself to the hallway to let
her do what she needed to do. Another lady walked in soon after to change the
bedding on my hospital bed and clean my room. She looked familiar to
me,
and I tried hard to place her face. I waited
until the nurse was done before I started talking to her.

“You
look familiar, but I can’t think of where I’ve seen you before,” I said looking
up at her. My lip was swollen, so I hope she understood what I was trying to
say.

“I
don’t know. I live uptown with my boyfriend. Maybe you’ve seen me
around
that way before,” she answered.

“My
friend does hair uptown at So Xclusive, but I don’t really know too many other
people around that way.”

“Yeah,
that’s Bryce’s shop. He’s cool with my
boyfriend,
Vamp. Co-Co does my hair,” she said smiling.

That’s
where I know her from. She was in the shop a few times when I was there. That’s
not what piqued my interest though. The name Vamp rang a bell loud and clear.
According to Candace and numerous other people, Vamp has been looking high and
low for Kevin and Kyle. They supposedly robbed him and a few other
people,
and he wants them in the worse way.

“Where
is your boyfriend at now?” I asked. She looked at me
sideways,
and I had to quickly explain myself. “Oh, it’s nothing
like that. I have some info that he might be interested in.”

“What
kind of info?” She asked with her hand on her hip. I could tell that she was
ready to check me, but she didn’t have a
reason
to.

 
“I really don’t want to tell his business like
that,” I replied.

“Baby,
there’s nothing you can say that I’m not aware of. I know everything about his
business,” she clarified.

“Well,
I heard that he’s been looking for Kyle and Kevin.”

“Yeah,
they robbed him and his brother,” she responded. I guess she really does know
everything.

“Well,
I know where they live,” I replied.

I
still wasn’t buying that story that Shannon gave me about them moving. That was
probably her way of throwing me off because she knew that she was going to
attack me. Even if they did
move,
they aren’t
that hard to find. I don’t want the police to get involved. Jail is too good
for them. If everything goes like I hope it does, Shannon will get hers too.

“Okay,
but what’s in it for you? Why would you give them up to somebody that you
barely know?” She asked skeptically.

“Aside
from Kyle crossing me and stealing my money, Kevin is the reason why I’m in
here. He and his girlfriend jumped me,” I said trying to fight back tears.

She
looked at me with pity in her eyes, but I could tell that she was still unsure.
After a few
minutes,
she pulled out her
phone and dialed a number. She talked to the person on the phone in code, but I
knew that it had to be Vamp. She talked for a little while longer before
handing me her phone.

“He already knows who you’re talking about
so don’t say names,” she instructed. I took the phone from her and did
something that I never thought I’d do. I snitched on Kevin and Kyle, telling
Vamp everything that I knew. He thanked me for the info, but it was my
pleasure. I couldn’t wait until they were met with the same fate that Kevin and
Shannon tried to deliver to me.

CANDACE

“Girl
my nerves are bad as hell,” I complained to Brooklyn as Co-Co and I rode around
with her and her kids. Dominic is going crazy about her changing her last name
on all of her
documents,
so we went with
her to handle her business. She was able to use their temporary marriage
license to get everything done. We’d just left from meeting Dominic at the
bank. He added Brookly
n’s
name to the
bank account and the house that they’d just purchased. He wasn’t divorced when
they first got
it,
so he waited until it
was finalized. We’re now on our way to Mrs. Liz’s house for
lunch,
and I’m a nervous wreck.

“I
don’t know what you’re scared of. You’ve been around Mrs. Liz a million times,”
Brooklyn said.

“I
know, but that was before I was in a relationship with her son,” I replied.
Mrs. Liz was so happy when she found out that David and I were in a
relationship. She said she thought that she would be dead and gone before he
ever settled down. She invited us to lunch and begged us to bring my brother
along. She loves Co-Co’s outspoken attitude. She also loves the fact that he
keeps her laughing.

“Can
your mother-in-law even cook Brooklyn? I don’t want to throw good food away, but
I will if it’s nasty,” Co-Co said.
 

“Yes,
she cooks very well. And don’t you go in there acting a fool Co-Co,” Brooklyn
warned.

“Oh
no ma’am, you can take me back home if
there’s
going to be rules. I have to be myself no matter where I am. You need to be
telling that to baby Chucky back here with his bad ass,” Co-Co replied.

“Don’t
talk about my baby. He is not bad, he’s just active.”

“Girl,
you can miss me with that active shit. Dennis the menace looks like a saint
compared to him,” Co-Co said making me laugh.

As
soon as we pulled up in the driveway, David and Dominic’s brother and sister
ran out of the house to grab the kids. I looked down at my ringing phone and
declined another call from an unknown number. I’ve been receiving them for two
days, but I never answer. I would have thought that the caller would have given
up, but they never did.

“Hey
y’all
,” Nyla said as she grabbed Dominque’s
car seat. Ivan took
DJ,
and we all went
into the house together. Brooklyn was very familiar with Dominic’s
family,
so she went off to the kitchen while I
nervously took a seat on the sofa. Co-Co’s ignorant ass grabbed the remote and
started flipping through channels on the TV.

“Boy,
put these people stuff down. How you come
in
somebody’s house and just start touching shit?” I asked him.

“Girl
please, I’m not about to sit in here and look stupid. This is your
mother-in-law’s house. You need to make yourself comfortable too. You see
Brooklyn walking through this bitch like she owns it,” he said.

“Brooklyn
is Dominic’s wife so she can do that.”
 

“Where
is this shyness coming from all of a sudden? You’ve never been scared of
anything before in your life so don’t start now. Just be you and fuck whoever
doesn’t like it,” my brother said.

I
smiled and nodded my head in agreement. Co-Co is very blunt, but he always
knows what to say to make me feel better. I don’t have a problem with being
myself, but all of this is new to me. I’ve never been in a real
relationship,
so I’ve never had to meet a man’s
parents. Mrs. Liz is
cool,
so I know that
we’ll get along just fine.

“Why
are
y’all
sitting in here looking all
uncomfortable? I’m not a stranger, so please don’t act like it,” Mrs. Liz said
when she walked into the living room.

“Candace
is scared that’s why,” Brooklyn said with a mouthful of food. I wanted to curse
her out, but I held my tongue.

“I
know she better not be scared. I’ve seen you in action a million
times,
and I know you’re not shy,” Mrs. Liz
said looking at me.

“I’m
good, but this is a first for me. I’ve never been in the company of a man’s
parents before,” I admitted.

“This
is a first for me too. David has never had a girlfriend before. I’ve never
allowed him to bring any of his
hoes
to
my house even though he probably wouldn’t have anyway. He really wants us to
get to know each
other,
and I’m all for
that. I can tell that you’re just what he needs. You don’t take any shit from
him just like me. Maybe
y’all
can give me
some more grandbabies. Don’t let Brooklyn and Dominic beat
y’all
. They’re already up on
y’all
by two,” she said laughing.

“I
don’t know about all of that. We’re not ready for babies yet,” I replied.

“They
might not be ready, but they have a lot of fun trying. I hear them all the time,”
Co-Co said.

“Alright,
don’t be putting everybody in my business,” I said feeling slightly
embarrassed.

“Whatever,”
he said brushing me off. “I don’t mean to be rude Mrs. Liz, but is the food
done? That’s really the only reason why I came.”

“Co-Co,”
I yelled looking at my brother like he was crazy. His ass is just too
embarrassing.

“What?”
He asked feigning ignorance.

“Leave
him alone. I love his honesty. And yes Co-Co, the food is done. You can help
yourself,” Mrs. Liz said with a smile. She didn’t have to tell him twice. He
damn near ran to the kitchen with Brooklyn hot on his
trail
.

“Come
on and get you something to eat Candace. And you are welcomed to come here
anytime
you want to. Don’t feel like you have
to be with Brooklyn to come and visit,” Mrs. Liz said as she stood up from the
sofa.

“Ok,
thanks,” I said as I followed behind her. Before I got to the
kitchen,
my phone rang again displaying Ms. Cheryl’s
number. I started not to answer, but curiosity got the best of me. I hope she doesn’t
ask me about Nadia because I can’t tell her anything. I not only unfriended her
on Facebook, I unfriended her from my life.

“Hey
Ms. Cheryl,” I said when I answered the phone.

“Hey
Candace, Nadia said she’s been trying to call you, but you didn’t answer. She
said
it was
maybe because she’s calling
from the hospital’s
phone,
and you don’t
recognize the number.”

“Yeah,
I keep seeing an unfamiliar number calling my phone. Who’s in the hospital?” I
asked.

“She
is, somebody attacked her, but
she does
n’t
know who. She’s got a broken nose and a black eye, not to mention the cut that
required thirty
stitches
. She asked me to
call you. She wants to see you,” she said.

Nadia
and I are no longer friends, but my heart goes out to her. I can almost
guarantee that all of this has something to do with Kyle or Kevin’s trifling
asses. It’s bad enough that she dealt with Kyle, but she turned around and
started dealing with his brother too. I’m sure Ms. Cheryl doesn’t know about us
falling
out,
and I’m not going to tell
her. I’ll leave that up to her daughter.

“I’m at my mother-in-law’s
house right now, but tell her that I’ll come later. Text me the information,” I
said right before disconnecting the call. I’m not sure why my presence is being
requested, but I’m going just to see what she has to say. I joined Ms. Liz and
everybody else in the kitchen for a very eventful lunch thanks to my brother.

****

Later
on that night I stepped off of the elevator and headed down the hall to Nadia’s
hospital room. I saw her mother standing in the hall talking on her cell phone.
When she saw me coming, she ended her call and held her arms open for me.

“How
is she?” I asked as I gave her a hug.

“I
know she’ll feel better since you’re here. I don’t know what happened with
y’all
, but I know it’s probably something that
she did. And for you to not know that she was even in here lets me know that it’s
something serious. I’m so tired of trying to figure out what’s going on with
her. My sisters came down with me to pack up her stuff. I told her that
she was
going back to Virginia with me even if
I have to drag her ass back,” Ms. Cheryl said.

I
nodded my head in understanding, but I didn’t reply. I left her standing in the
hall and made my way into Nadia’s room. As soon as the door opened our eyes
met. I wanted to cry when I saw the shape that she was in. Her face was so
swollen that she was barely recognizable. One of her arms was wrapped up and
put into a
sling,
and the other was black
and blue with bruises. Her nose looked
crooked,
and her lips were swollen to twice their normal size.

“What
happened to you Nadia?” I asked as I walked closer to her bed. As angry as I
was with her before I couldn’t resist the urge to hug her. She looked like she’s
been to the pits of hell and back. She used her one free arm to hug me back as
she burst into tears. I pulled away and grabbed some Kleenex from the table and
handed them to her.

“I’m
so happy that you came to see me Candace. I just wanted to see you one more
time before I left to go to Virginia. I can’t stay here anymore. I did so much
wrong to so many people. It’s best if I just leave and start fresh somewhere
else. I just had to apologize to you for everything that I’ve done. You’ve
always been a good friend to
me,
and you
didn’t deserve what I did to you. I was jealous, but I know in my heart that
you didn’t have anything to do with Dominic getting with Brooklyn,” she cried.

“I
forgive you Nadia, but you really need to get yourself together. Dominic moved
on a long time ago, but you never did. I know that you can’t help who you love,
but you can’t make somebody love you back,” I said.

“You’re
right and I know that now. I also know that Dominic is really happy with
Brooklyn. I saw it in his eyes the very first time I saw them together. I’m not
surprised that he divorced Kennedi to be with her. That’s where his heart is.”

“Who
did this to you Nadia? Your mama said that you
did
n’t
know, but I know that’s a lie.” She looked away because she knew I was right.
She’s gotten herself into something that she doesn’t want her mother to know
about.

“I
don’t want to get the police involved. I just want to put all of this behind me
and get out of New Orleans.”

“Telling
me is not getting the police involved. I won’t tell anybody whatever you tell
me. I know that Kevin and Kyle had something to do with it. I just need you to
confirm my suspicions.”

“I’m
so stupid Candace,” she cried. “I started messing with Kevin and Shannon found
out. He thought that I set it up for Dominic to fight him, but I swear I didn’t.
He sat there and watched while she beat me with a
padlock
and sliced my arm open.”

“What
do you mean he watched?” I asked.

“He
had to be watching because when I got the best of her he came and pulled me
off. He slammed me to the ground so hard that my entire body went numb,” she
replied.

Listening
to her made me happy that things between him and Brooklyn never went any
further than two sexual encounters. Her brothers would have killed him if he
ever did some shit like that to her.

“
His punk ass is
wrong for that shit. David should have let Dominic finish him off at the bar.”

“I
have something else to tell you. It’s been weighing on my mind for
months,
and I have to clear my conscience,” she
said.

“What?”
I asked as I pulled a chair up next to her bed.

“I
overheard Kevin telling Kyle that he’s the one who caused the accident with
Taylor and Brooklyn a while ago. I swear I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t
want you to know that I was dealing with Kyle. He was saying that he thought it
was Bryce at first. He felt bad because the kids were in the car, but he wanted
to get back at Brooklyn for breaking things off with him. I even saw the damage
to his truck to prove it.”

I
sat there in stunned silence. We racked our brains for weeks trying to figure
out who could have done something like that. Kyle and Kevin crossed our minds,
but we couldn’t be too sure. Bryce even thought that it could have been
Tiffany, but none of us had any proof.

“Wow,
so what else have you been keeping from me?” I asked my
ex best
friend.

“That’s
all that I know. I promise I would tell you if there was anything else. That’s
the least I could do considering all the drama that I’ve caused you,” she
replied.

“Well,
I appreciate all that you’ve told me and I’m sorry about what happened to you.
But honestly, you shouldn’t let Kevin and Shannon get away with what they did. I
know you don’t want to get the police involved, but I think you should. They
could have killed you out
there,
and
nobody would have ever known,” I told her.