The Deal, the Dance, and the Devil (21 page)

There it was. Adam’s decision had been made. It was over.

“One thing I want you to know,” Adam said, kneeling in front of me, “is that this will never affect us. The reason our intimacy is so special is because it’s way beyond the physical. You’re in my head, in my heart, in my soul. Shay-Shaunté will never have that. She’ll never be close to any part of me.”

I wanted to correct him on that last part, because there was going to be a part of him that she would be very close to. But I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I needed to stop trying to delay and deny the inevitable.

“Shine … are you
really
—”

“Don’t ask me that again, Adam,” I snapped. “Don’t put whether or not we do this all on me.”

He nodded.

I said, “Maybe I should be asking you … are
you
sure?”

It didn’t even take him a moment to say, “There’s no other way.”

“Well, it’s decided, isn’t it?” I pulled away from him. “I’m going to check on the twins and Ethan.”

As I climbed the stairs, I realized this was really going to happen. I might not have had an answer from God, but I had one from Adam.

The deal was done.

Chapter 33

I
T WAS THE FIGHTER IN ME
that had to give it just one more try. The fighter in me that really wanted to blow this deal up.

I’d devised this plan during the middle of the night. Once again, I’d lain awake through most of the midnight hours, tossing in our bed as I’d turned this idea over in my mind.

Now, as I sat in front of Shay-Shaunté, I was waiting for the right moment. The toe of my stiletto boot bounced as my leg trembled with a bit of fear and excitement—fear that this wouldn’t work, but excitement that it just might.

I tried to keep myself straight and steady as I watched Shay-Shaunté read over the addendum that Adam had prepared—that said that I wasn’t going to be here six months after … not if Adam and I could help it. The addendum made it clear that if we found someone to replace me before the six months were up, I would walk out of Ferossity that day.

Finally, Shay-Shaunté looked up. From her throne, she said, “This was Adam’s idea, wasn’t it?”

It seemed like she was just looking for reasons to say his name.

“No,” I said. “It was mine.”

“Really?” She tossed the addendum onto her desk and shook her head. “Why didn’t you ask for this yesterday?”

“I didn’t think about it until last night.”

“I see,” she smirked. “Well”—she checked the page for our signatures—“I’m fine with this. So, all that’s left is for me to sign and—”

Before she could move, I leaned over and pressed my hand onto the paper, blocking her from signing anything. “There’s one more thing. Something else that I thought about last night.”

She looked down at my hand, then back up at me. Raised one eyebrow and pursed her lips.

I didn’t care about her attitude. From this point on, I was running this show, and if she was salty now, wait until she heard what I had to say. “We want half the money up front.”

It took her a second to respond. “‘We’?”

“You’re right. Not we, me. I want half the money.”

“So, you want me to give you two point five million?”

I didn’t respond. She knew that’s what I wanted.

My blood pumped faster as I watched her expression. Excitement had kicked in full-throttle. What I’d been conjuring up all night was going to work!

Her eyes became thin slits, her brows furrowed together. “But suppose you and Adam change your minds?” She sucked in her lips as if she was in deep thought. “We’re still two weeks away, and that’s a lot of time. So much can happen.”

“True,” I said nonchalantly, wanting to encourage those doubts.

“If you change your minds, it’ll be hard to get that money back. Two point five”—she shook her head—“that’s a lot of money to lose. Even for me.”

I needed to protest, just a little. So that she wouldn’t see that she was slinking right into my plan—which was to get
her
to call this deal off. “We’d never keep the money if we changed our minds.”

“Never?” Shay-Shaunté smirked. “A couple of weeks ago, you said you’d never do this. And now, here you sit.”

Okay, now see, she was trying to turn this into a fight.

She said, “That’s why I told you before, that’s why I’ll tell you again; never say never.”

I had no idea why Shay-Shaunté was doing all of this talking. Why didn’t she just tell me, ‘No, it isn’t going to happen,’ and then I could tear up the contract, go home, and tell Adam that she’d reneged.

“Whatever, Shay-Shaunté, we’re not going to do this unless we get two point five million.” Then boldly, I added, “Now, today,” just to push her over the edge.

It was my turn to smirk even though her wide eyes and open mouth made me want to laugh. Finally! I had the upper hand.

I wanted to jump up, go old-school and do the cabbage-patch or even get down with the running man; but before I could get my dance on, Shay-Shaunté pushed back her royal chair. Slowly, she slipped open the same drawer she’d pulled the contract from yesterday, then, just as slowly, slid a rectangular piece of paper across her glasstop desk. As the paper inched toward me, I leaned forward to see it more clearly.

My mouth flew open.

A certified check. In my complete name: Evia
Early
Langston. For two … point … five … million. I blinked twice, then three times. The check was still there, the numbers were still the same.

What the …

I looked up and, for a moment, stared into eyes that were so piercing, so full of fire and fury—and hate—that I was pushed back in my chair. But then, in the next moment, it was all gone and Shay-Shaunté’s eyes were now filled with concern.

“Are you all right, Evia?”

I swallowed. I nodded. I couldn’t speak; I could barely breathe.

She smiled. “Okay. Then I guess we have a deal.” She signed and handed me the now fully executed contract. “I’m assuming that you don’t want Rachel to make a copy of this.”

I shook my head, still without words.

She continued, “Then you make the copy and bring the original back to me.”

Taking the papers from her, I stood and moved to do what I was told. Before I got to the door, Shay-Shaunté said, “Evia, you forgot something.” When I turned, she said, “This is yours.”

I’m sure I was moving like a zombie when I went back for the check. My mind was still swirling, twirling.

Outside Shay-Shaunté’s office, Rachel greeted me. “Hey, girl, what’s up?” Then, with a closer look, Rachel added, “Girl, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

There was too much going on inside my head to speak. No, I hadn’t just seen a ghost. Shay-Shaunté was alive and I remembered that look in her eyes. Made me want to grab a pair of Nikes and run straight out of that building. But surely, I hadn’t seen what I thought.

This deal was taking over my mind, playing tricks. I needed to get it together.

When I glanced down at the check, though, I wasn’t so sure that the problem was with me. Staring at all of the numerals, I just had to wonder, who in the hell was Shay-Shaunté?

Chapter 34

I
T HAD TAKEN ONLY HOURS
, but in that time, our lives had completely changed. As I stood at the door, watching Adam put the Kia in reverse, I thought back to all that had happened since this morning. …

I was still functioning like a zombie when I came home from work just an hour after Shay-Shaunté gave me that check.

“What’s wrong, Shine?” Adam asked the moment I lugged through the door.

“Shay-Shaunté sent me home.” The cadence of my words, the tenor of my tone made me sound like a robot.

My husband’s face filled with fear. His assumption: My coming home was a sign of bad news.

I explained, “She gave me this and told me to take the rest of the day off.”

I handed the check to Adam and watched him do exactly what I’d done. Big eyes, open mouth, hyperventilation came next.

“What the …” He stopped before he actually cursed, just like I’d done. “Shine,” he began again slowly, “what is this?”

“It’s a check. Half. For … you know.”

He staggered backward to the couch, and then, when his legs were too weak to hold him upright any longer, he lost his balance and plopped down.

But he held on to the check. With both hands.

I gave him another minute to digest this truth, and then I sat next to him. Together, we stared.

“What do you think we should do?” I asked.

Slowly, Adam lifted his eyes, as if he was coming out of a trance. He focused on me and gave me one of those looks that he sometimes gave to our children when he thought their questions weren’t too smart.

“What should we do? We should go to the bank!” he said, then he jumped up. “We need to get to the bank … now!”

I swear, not even a minute passed before we were inside the car and swerving out of the driveway. I’d expected Adam to push the pedal to the metal, but instead he drove conservatively, staying right on the speed limit. No policeman, no speeding ticket was going to slow us down.

Still, we were at the bank in less than ten minutes. I would’ve expected a little more of a challenge depositing so much money. But I guessed that because we already had a personal banker with the Bank of DC, and because we’d moved lots of money through our accounts over the years (though most of our accounts were busted before we walked in with this check), it only took about thirty minutes before Darren Grey, our banker, had our funds deposited and cleared. It helped that the check Shay-Shaunté had given me was written on a Bank of DC account, though I didn’t notice that until we got to the bank. Really, that surprised me. It was a Ferossity
check, and I handled all of the company’s banking. Never before had we used Bank of DC.

By the time Adam and I were back in our car with the money deposited and a few hundred dollars in Adam’s pocket, I’d forgotten all about the check and where the funds had been drawn from. It didn’t matter—all of that money now belonged to Adam and Evia Langston.

For the rest of the afternoon, it was Christmas two weeks early … at least for Adam. We’d come so close to going over the cliff that I didn’t want to spend any more than the cost of two chai tea lattes from Starbucks. But Adam assured me that we were only going to spend a little.

“Imagine how the girls will feel when they come home and we have their cell phones waiting.”

That was not my idea of the first thing we should do with the money. I was thinking that we needed to go home and plan, but when the girls arrived home, I had to admit that Adam was right.

We were waiting in the living room, and the suspicion in the twins’ eyes crushed my heart. They were dealing with adult issues, the same way Adam and I had had to when we were growing up. For all of our planning, our children were in the same exact place we’d been.

“Did you go to work?” Alexa was the one who asked today.

Though the question was directed to both of us, I left it to Adam to answer. But he didn’t say a word. Just handed the twins matching boxes.

When Alexa and Alana realized that they were holding the Droids they’d been talking about, they looked as stupefied as Adam and I had when we’d first seen that check. Their mouths were open, but not a word came out—which was a feat for Alexa.

“OMG!” Alexa finally exclaimed. I guessed it no longer mattered if Adam or I had gone to work.

A hug-fest broke out in that living room. Alexa hugged her sister, then her father, then me before she began the round of hugs all over again. “If I don’t get another thing, it will be all right,” Alexa cried. “It will still be the best Christmas ever!”

It was a little sad that this single gift was enough. But I guessed something good had come out of the last few weeks. Now the girls were filled with gratitude instead of entitlement.

It did my heart good to see glee instead of gloom on their faces, and by the time the two dashed up the stairs to turn on their phones, call all their friends, and get on the Internet (since the cable was back on), I was smiling, too.

But the moment they were out of our sight, I said, “Adam, I don’t want to blow this money.”

“That would be impossible. I mean, we’re talking millions here.”

“But if we don’t sit down and plan this …”

“Okay.” He glanced at his watch. I still have a little over an hour before I have to pick up Ethan.”

We walked into our home office, where the first thing I wanted to talk about was the house.

“What’s the payoff? Let’s buy it outright.”

“I don’t think we should do that, Shine. I’m going to find another job; trust that. We’re going to need the write-off.”

It felt like a lifetime ago, but just three days had passed since our children had come home to find that foreclosure notice taped to the door. The looks on their faces, the combination of fear and confusion and helplessness—I never wanted to see that again. I told Adam that.

“I guess we can do it,” he said, giving in. “But with all of the foreclosure costs and legal fees, we’re probably talking the
original price for this house, plus some, since the little bit of equity we had is long gone.”

“That’s okay. Even if we have to pay eight hundred thousand, I don’t care.”

“It may be closer to nine.”

“I don’t care,” I repeated.

He shook his head. He’d given in, but he hadn’t given up. “Buying this outright isn’t the smartest thing to do financially.”

“It is when we have this kind of money. Let’s do this, please? Everything else … I’ll leave up to you.”

He gave in for real this time. “All right.”

It was because I wanted Adam to remember the upside that I said, “It’ll be okay, because we still have the other two and a half million coming to us after …”

With those words, I sucked all the joy from the air. For the last hours we hadn’t really thought about what this money meant. We’d both pretended that this was some kind of wonderful, benevolent gift.

With the pleasure now gone, Adam and I got down to the business of planning. After we made the decision to definitely pay off the house, we decided to pay the children’s tuition through next June, and pay for Ruby’s care for the next year.