Diary of A. . . (25 page)

He sighed. “Unfortunately I can’t, but the
offices will still be there in Florida. So when you come down to
work, you can always come down to visit, too.”

For the first time in my life, I wanted to
really cry, but I didn’t. I promised myself I would do it later
though because I really would miss him. “There’s always good
behavior and getting out early,” I said thoughtfully as I moved to
leaned on the front of my desk.

“Yeah, and I’ll do my best to be good. I was
almost thinking ‘bout marrying your mother for congenial visits,”
Earl said.

I laughed, now knowing where I got my freaky
side from.

Suddenly, the door to my office burst open.
In walks Lenecia, Peter’s wife, looking ready to go into labor at
any second. I noticed her belly before I noticed her, which was my
downfall because she hauled off and slapped me hard across the
face.

Cassandra came in behind her and I think I
heard her gasp. The slap had knocked my hearing off a bit and I
couldn’t see straight for a second.

“You fucking bitch!” Lenecia screamed. Tears
were running down her cheek and she looked like she wanted to slap
me again.

“For all intents and purposes I probably
deserved that,” I said as I focused on her. I knew I deserved
whatever Lenecia wanted to do to me for making her husband do what
he did.

Cassandra looked liked she had no idea what
to do.

“You deserve a lot more for what you did,”
Lenecia retorted.

Earl cleared his throat, causing her to look
over at him briefly. Although Lenecia probably didn’t know who he
was, he was large and important looking enough for her to compose
herself immediately and remember that she was in a business
environment.

“I want to hit you again, but…” Lenecia took
a deep breath and held her stomach. “I also want to thank you.”

I was shocked as well as Cassandra.

Lenecia smiled shyly. “Since your punishment
to my husband, he has been … voraciously responsive in that
particular department.” She rolled her eyes up in her head as if
Peter was eating her snatch as we spoke. “And if you hadn’t forced
it, I think I wouldn’t be back in love with him all over
again.”

“I don’t know if I should be thanked,” I
said. “It was a horrible thing for me to do and for that I
apologize. I swear it won’t happen again.”

“Good,” she said satisfied. Then Lenecia
actually hugged me. Although I was almost knocked down by her large
belly, it was definitely a hug.

Before I could think if I should hug her
back, she released me, kissed my cheek and left.

“Should I ask what that was about?” Earl
asked sourly.

“No,” I said.

“Is that matter resolved?”

“Oh most definitely.” I breathed a sigh of
relief.

It looked as if Earl wanted to ask more
questions, but the bell saved me as his pager went off to indicate
that Erin was coming up. He checked the screen of the pager. “She’s
on her way up and she has a guest with her.”

To keep the subject off of what had happened
between Lenecia and me, I said, “Earl Howard, I’d like you to meet
my assistant, Cassandra, while we are waiting.”

Earl turned to Cassandra, who looked in awe
at him. “Sheryl has told me about all the help you’ve been to her
and I want to personally thank you for everything you’ve done for
this company.”

“Thank you, Mr. Howard,” Cassandra replied
nervously. “It’s an honor to work for a man who’s worked so hard.
And Ms. Banks has been a wonderful inspiration to me.”

“What the fuck is going on?!” a woman
suddenly screamed out in the hall.

Entry Forty-Four

I braced myself as I coolly rested against
the front of my desk and folded my arms. Earl had chosen to stand
more or less out the way, so when anyone entered, they would not
see him at first.

When my door was thrown open once again,
Erin came charging up to me screaming, “Have you lost your
motherfucking mind, locking my door?!”

Theo was right behind her. Our eyes met. He
looked embarrassed, but I only looked at him briefly and was only a
little disturbed by the fact that he had been with her all this
time.

“I didn’t lock your door,” I said
calmly.

Erin was so mad her eyes had actually
started to turn red. She looked as if at any moment smoke was going
to pop from her ears.

“I locked your door,” Earl said, just as
calmly.

Erin whirled around discombobulated out of
her anger. “E-Earl? I thought you were in Florida just last
night.”

“Why? Were you worried? Or is that what your
spies were telling you?” he asked cruelly.

“This is him?” Theo asked. “The boss you
cheated with?”

Erin turned to Theo to purr, “I’m sorry,
honey. We’ll be out of here in just a few minutes and then we can
finish enjoying our day.”

I wanted to pop this bitch in the nose and
kick Theo in the nuts. But I suppressed my jealous rage because
maybe Theo did have a perfectly good excuse to be with her.

“Cut the sugar talk, Erin, and quit trying
to pacify that man when you could care less about him,” Earl
sneered.

Erin whirled on him. “What sick joke are you
playing, Earl Howard?”

“It won’t be a joke when security escorts
your ass out to the sidewalk,” Earl replied.

“What the hell is going on? What did this
bitch tell you?” Erin pointed to me accusingly.

“You want to know what I told him,” I said
disgustedly.

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

“Just one word, Erin. Sroban. Does that ring
any bells?” I said.

Erin was quiet for a second and shifted her
weight uncomfortably. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really?” I asked, not believing her load
of crap. “Well, then I’m sure your husband can explain why his name
is on Sroban’s company papers, right?”

“He has nothing to do with this!” she
sneered.

“What is going on here, Erin?” Theo
asked.

I continued, “And you’ve tried to ruin
Earl’s business.”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch,” Erin sneered.

“Come over here and make me,” I challenged,
ready to throw off my heels and smack her around. “You were trying
to destroy this entire company. You thought you could use Mackeroy
to keep me busy, so I wouldn’t know. Was that the plan?”

Erin drew up like a proud peacock. “And by
tomorrow, I’ll be better than this piece of trash Earl built. I
don’t need this shit.”

“I wouldn’t count my chickens before they
hatched,” Earl said in a deceptively calm tone.

Turning to him, Erin said, “You think you
can fuck me and not give me something for it in return? Ha! I made
this company! I made you rich.”

“And you think you can fucking screw me
because I wouldn’t make your silly ass president?” Earl hissed, his
true anger coming out. I thought for sure he was about to jump
across the room and choke her.

I think Theo thought so, too, because he
looked prepared to protect Erin from Earl’s mighty strength.

“You said you were retiring and you didn’t
even consider me!” Erin said angrily.

“That position was never even designed for
me,” Earl responded, still very angry. “It was for Sheryl this
whole time.”

“Her?!” Erin asked incredulously, pointing
at me again as if there were another Sheryl in the room. “You’re
making her stupid ass the president?”

“Stupid ass?” I asked insulted. “Look,
bitch, you better watch your mouth.”

“All the hard work! All the time I gave! All
the sacrifices I made for this company and you’re going to let her
run it?” Erin said incensed.

“And you know I’ll do a damn good job at it,
too,” I said triumphantly, loving how she looked so mad that she
was trembling. “A better job than you ever could!”

“If you think your company’s going in the
ground now, when I leave, it’ll really be shit,” Erin said
arrogantly.

“The only place you’re going, Erin,” Earl
said – back to calm, “Is to jail.”

“Ha! Jail? You don’t have shit on me,” Erin
said.

“Oh really?” Earl asked, raising a brow of
deceit.

Erin looked guilty for a moment, but
gathered her composure and started to leave the room.

“Erin, you’re forgetting something,” I said,
walking up to her.

“What?!” she snapped.

“Since you’re confessing your sins, why
don’t you tell your husband you’re not really pregnant?”

Really upset that I knew that information,
Erin stuttered. “H-How…I-I am!”

I looked up at Theo. “She hired a doctor to
give her false test results Friday!”

“She’s lying!”

I kept talking, because Theo had not broken
eye contact with me. “When I came to the office on Sunday, I heard
her talking about that with Mackeroy and about how she had been
trying to contact you several times Friday and Saturday, but she
couldn’t reach you.”

Theo knew I was telling the truth. There was
no way I could have known all that if I had not overheard a
conversation. Especially since at no point had I ever seen a cell
phone lying around the cabin when we were there to see that Erin
had called him several times.

“She’s lying!” Erin said again. “Lowe, I
would never lie to you about the baby! I swear.”

Theo still didn’t stop looking at me. “How’d
she know you got results from a doctor Friday?” he questioned.

Erin stuttered some more.

Theo finally looked away from me and back to
Erin angrily. “And what the hell does this man have on you that
you’re scared he’s going to send you to jail?” Theo demanded to
know from her.

“Give it up because you’re the lying bitch,”
I said triumphantly, taking out the divorce papers I had picked up.
I handed them to her, but I looked at Theo. “Do you still want that
divorce?” I asked him.

Theo looked surprised and grateful at the
same time. “Yes!”

“How’d you get those?!” Erin seethed at me,
but then looked at Theo. “You know her?”

“She’s the one I told you about,” Theo
said.

“Theo!” Erin cried. “No! You can’t leave me
and the baby.”

“Sign the papers,” Theo ordered.

Angrily, Erin said, “NO! If I can’t be happy
with you, then you’ll never be happy at all and you’ll never get
what you really want.”

Earl walked up to me. “Is this what you
want? You want him?”

Finally breaking eye contact with Theo to
look at my father, I said with a lot of pleasure, “Yes.”

Earl took a pen out his jacket and handed it
to Erin. “Sign the damn thing or I’ll place a call to the FBI to
let them know things I’m sure you don’t want me to tell them
about.”

Erin looked terrified and snatched the pen
and paper. Using the door of the office, she reluctantly signed the
divorce decree, but instead of handing them to anyone, she just let
the papers fall and walked out the door a defeated woman.

I nodded at Cassandra to follow her.

Taking his phone out, Earl made a call to
someone. “She’s coming back down right now, Agent Farris.”

“I thought you weren’t calling the FBI,” I
said.

“I didn’t,” Earl replied. “That was the
DEA,” he explained.

“What does the DEA want with Erin?” Theo
asked.

Entry Forty-Five

I had been about to ask the same question as
Theo because any dealings with the DEA sounded very serious.

Earl took a deep disappointing breath. “Your
ex-wife cajoled you into setting up the company because she didn’t
want it to link to her on purpose. She used money from a drug
dealer for start up and was laundering the money through her
company. That’s the reason she became successful so fast. She was
able to use the money to market her company better and do large
scale projects for companies that would have drowned a start up
company in debt. I’m sure when it’s all said and done; they’ll be
contacting you, as well. But for now they feel you had no idea from
all the surveillance they’ve done.”

I really wanted to ask Earl how he knew all
this and how he’d gotten involved, but I had a feeling some of this
DEA business also had to do with him going to jail and serving
time. Maybe he turned Erin in to get an early release? It wouldn’t
be so bad because that would really get Erin out of my hair. But I
still wished Earl could have worked it out – if he had done that –
for no time served at all.

“I didn’t know anything,” Theo said
innocently appalled. “Where did she get these friends?”

“Shit eventually floats to the top of the
water and I’m sure in a month’s time all of Erin’s dealings will
start to stink to high heaven.” Earl winked at me, but then turned
a serious look upon Theo. “You like Sheryl?” he asked
suspiciously.

“No,” Theo said firmly.

My heart wanted to sink to my toes.

Theo smiled proudly and added, “I love
Sheryl.”

I wanted to jump in his arms and kiss him a
trillion times, but I had to remember that my dad was standing
there.

Walking up real close to Theo, Earl looked
menacingly up and down at him. Despite their age difference, which
barely looked ten years apart, I really thought that Earl could
give Theo a run for his money if he was angry enough.

“You hurt my little girl and I’ll hurt every
bone in your body. Do I make myself clear?” Earl said in that same
serious tone.

Theo finally understood who this man really
was to me and didn’t challenge him. “Yes, sir.”

Earl picked up the divorce papers and handed
them to Theo. “You’d better get those to the lawyer before the ink
dries, son.” Then he left Theo and me alone, closing the door
behind him.

Slowly walking up to me, as if I was going
to run away, Theo cupped my face and said, “I’m sorry. I should
have explained everything when I spoke with you last night.”

“Even if you did, there would be no way you
could have believed me about Erin’s lying,” I said understanding.
“No, this worked out fine although I was pretty damn miserable
knowing you were going to break up with me.”