Family of Lies (17 page)

W
HILE
K
ENNETH AND
S
ARAH WERE ON THE CASINO FLOOR LOSING
money at the roulette wheel, Bo and I were sharing a pitcher of margaritas at Bertha’s, an old-school Mexican restaurant a few blocks from the main strip.

“Is she on the pill?” I asked. I took a sip from my glass and plucked a couple of tortilla chips out of the bowl on the table. I loved Mexican food, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. I had too many things on my mind and one of them was to make sure I stayed on top of my plan at all times.

Bo gave me a confused look. “Is who on the pill?” he asked dumbly.

I looked at him like he had just lost his mind. Apparently my cousin was not as sharp as I thought he was. I had begun to suspect that the morning he and Sarah strolled into my bedroom and announced that they were getting married. I was surprised when Bo told me that Sarah had been the one to initiate this hasty union. But I was not surprised that he had gone along with it without question or protest. At least not in front of Kenneth and me that morning. Poor Bo. The biggest flaw in his personality was that he was like putty in a woman’s hand. That weakness had contributed to the breakup of his first marriage. What if Sarah steered him in a totally different direction from the one I had established? That would derail my plans, to say the least. I had to keep things under control no matter what.

I forced myself to smile at my clueless cousin. “Sarah, that’s who. Who else would I be asking this question about?”

Bo hunched his shoulders and replied in a dry voice, “I don’t know if she’s on the pill or not.”

“Do you mean to tell me that you started fucking that girl not knowing if she was taking care of business or not?”

“It happened so fast and unexpectedly that I didn’t have time to think about anything like that. But she always had a fistful of condoms anyway and so did I. I’ve used one every time we made love.”

“Humph! Well, I’m glad to hear that. With all the action she was getting from those other bums, it was just a matter of time before she caught some disease that no doctor can cure.”

“If you mean AIDS, she and I talked about that,” Bo said. “She told me two people in her old neighborhood died of it, so when she became sexually active, she protected herself from day one.”

“Hmmm. I guess she’s smarter than she looks. I’m glad to hear she’s got enough sense in that regard. But we need to find out about her birth control.”

“Well, the condoms are good to prevent her from getting pregnant too. I’m sure that’s the main reason most people use them.” Bo shifted in his seat and took a drink. “Why are you asking me about birth control anyway? This subject is kind of personal, you know.”

“If she has your baby, that’ll lock you into her life for good. Kenneth will treat the child like royalty, just like he treats her.”

“From what I’ve observed, he treats you like royalty too.” Bo snickered and gave me a cheeky look.

He knew that I didn’t like to be teased. And I reminded him of that by speaking in an angry tone of voice. “Well, he should! Being married to him is no picnic!”

Bo flinched. “Well, excuse me for asking you that. But I have to ask you something else you probably won’t like. Why do you stay married to a man you talk about like he’s some creature that escaped from a horror movie?”

I pursed my lips and cocked my head to the side. “Honey, you might be crazy, but I’m not. I would never leave a man with the kind of money Kenneth’s got. And he’s a fool when it comes to money, thank God. A grandchild would send him into a whole new level of fool. I want to be front and center when that happens.”

“I see. Well, if you think that, how come you never had his baby?”

I looked at the ground and sniffed. When I looked back up at Bo, there was a look of concern on his face. “Did I hit a nerve? You look like you want to cry.”

“I’m all right. It’s just that . . . well, there is a reason Kenneth and I never had a child. He caught an infection in one of his testicles several years ago that left him practically sterile. Not having a child is my biggest regret.” I choked on a fake sob as I dabbed at my eyes with a napkin.

“Oh. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Bo gave me an apologetic look and squeezed my hand.

“I desperately wanted a child, even more so than Kenneth. We had just started to talk about adopting one when Sarah came into our lives. By that time, my baby-producing days were over.” I sniffed and blew my nose into the napkin. “Sarah is enough for me.”

“Yeah, but she was already almost grown when you got her. Wouldn’t you have adopted a much younger child or an infant so it would seem more like a child you gave birth to?”

“There were other reasons. I was happy to settle for a child Sarah’s age and not consider adoption anymore. It made more sense under the circumstances. You see, Kenneth’s not a young man anymore and he’s dying of a bad heart. He was concerned about not being around to help me raise an infant or a very young child.”

“Pfft!” There was an amused look on Bo’s face as he waved his hand in the air. “Kenneth’s been dying of a bad heart for over twenty years! You told me that right after you introduced him to me, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Well, he’s still alive and kicking, but you wouldn’t believe all the pills he takes and all the visits he makes to his doctor. He’s had several mild heart attacks and it’s happening much more frequently now. He
could
drop dead any day now. . . .”

“Well, we all have to go sometime. But I’m sorry to hear that the two of you didn’t have a child together, and long before now. Maybe you’d feel different about Sarah.” Bo rubbed his neck and glanced slowly around the room, as if trying to hide the melancholy look that was on his face now.

“Why is that look on your face?”

He looked embarrassed now. “I just had a thought.” He snorted. “Since we’re talking about babies, I would love to have at least one of my own. I just hope it happens before I get too old. Most of my Houston male friends my age are already grandfathers; some have been for years.” An angry look suddenly covered his face like a shroud. “Gladys didn’t tell me until after we got married that she had no desire to have children. That was our biggest problem. Not only was she on the pill, but she also made me use condoms every time we made love just to be extra safe.”

We remained silent for a few moments.

“Where does Sarah keep those condoms?” I asked.

“In her purse I guess. Isn’t that where all women keep items like that?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I muttered. I didn’t know where other women kept their condoms, but I was not stupid enough to keep mine in a place where somebody could find them. I always left my stash with my lover.

“Anyway, every time she came into my room looking for some action, she already had a few in her hand. And when we hooked up in hotels, she pulled a pack out of her purse. Why?”

“First find out if she’s ready to make a baby. If she is, we don’t have to worry about that. But if she gives you the runaround about wanting to wait and shit, we have a lot of work to do.”

“What work would we have to do if she’s not ready to be a mother?”

“Condoms don’t always work. Some come from the manufacturer with defects. Holes. I knew a girl back in Houston who wanted to trap some dude by getting pregnant. She went behind his back and pricked holes in the condoms with a straight pin before he put them on.”

Bo gasped. “Come on now! You don’t think I’m going to stoop that low, do you?”

“Ha! If you stooped down any more, you’d be lower than a snake’s belly!” I said in a loud voice. A sharp-nosed woman at a nearby table looked at me and laughed, so I lowered my voice. “It’s too late for you to be getting all holier-than-thou.”

“Vera, I was not joking when I said I really do love Sarah,” Bo said in a small voice.

“And what the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

“What the fuck are you trying to say? Hurt her how? As long as you don’t beat her or let her catch you fucking another woman, how would you hurt her?”

“You know what I’m trying to say. I would never want her to know you wooed me to come out here mainly to marry her just so you could gain control of Kenneth’s money. Now here you are telling me I need to get her pregnant so she can have a baby so that you—and me, too, now—can gain even more control of that money. Sarah’s a sweet woman. I realize that now. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”

“Humph! If you don’t want that money, that’s fine with me. That’s more for me. But if you don’t keep her happy and she divorces you, you’ll be out in the cold. All you’ll get is whatever she agreed to give you if the marriage fails.” A large lump suddenly formed in my throat. “Shit! I didn’t talk to you about the prenup! See, that’s the problem when people rush into things!”

“Speaking of prenup, when Kenneth brought it up, Sarah got crazy and boo-hooed so hard, he dropped the subject.”

“Do you mean to tell me you don’t have any kind of financial arrangement at all?” It was bad enough that Kenneth made me sign a prenuptial agreement before he would marry me. According to that damn thing, if our marriage ends in divorce, no matter which one of us files, I will walk away with only the car in my possession at the time, my jewelry and clothing, and a modest allowance for just
a year
. I wouldn’t even inherit any shares in his business, the mansion and its contents, the other cars, or any of his other assets. There were only three ways for me to benefit. I had to stay married to Kenneth or become his widow. The third way was for me to have some serious control over Sarah after Kenneth’s demise. As her husband, Bo would automatically move up to the top of the food chain. A child would secure his position even more. And as long as Bo remained my puppet, I was in good shape.

“I don’t have any type of financial arrangement with Sarah because I am going to do everything I can to make this marriage work. I know you and I originally planned a sham marriage between her and me. But I don’t look at it that way now. Besides, if she ever found out that’s what we had planned from day one, she’d be pissed! I don’t want to experience another divorce—I wouldn’t survive another traumatic experience like that. And, like I said, I really do love the girl. I can’t tell you that enough.” I couldn’t stand the dreamy-eyed look on Bo’s face whenever he told me how much he loved Sarah. Like now. He looked like he was so love-struck he’d be willing to eat a bowl of her shit.

“Sure you love her. Who wouldn’t? If I had a dick, I’d love her too.”

“Vera! You stop that! A classy woman like you should never even think such a raunchy thing, let alone say it!”

“Just don’t forget I’m the only other person who knows why you moved to Frisco. I’m sure you don’t want Sarah or Kenneth to know.”

“You’re not threatening me, are you?”

“No, I’m not threatening you. I just want you to remember that no matter what happens, you owe me. If Kenneth divorces me for some reason, and you’re still with Sarah, I expect you to take care of me. Understand?”

Bo nodded and finished his drink.

T
HE FIRST FEW WEEKS OF MARRIED LIFE WERE SO WONDERFUL,
I
FELT
like the luckiest girl in the world. No, I felt like Cinderella in living color. My story was an urban fairy tale. I had been a broke little girl living in the hood with my bitter, elderly grandmother who had raised me to be “realistic” about life: “Baby, don’t expect nothing because this is as good as it gets for black females. We get the jobs nobody else wants and the black men that the white women don’t want,” my grandmother had told me, and on a regular basis at that.

Back then I had assumed I’d marry one of the shady boys next door, have a bunch of doomed babies, collect welfare, or get a low-paying dead-end job. Then I’d spend the rest of my life trying to keep my kids out of trouble and my man out of jail and away from other women.

One of my former female friends had joined the army and fallen in love with a high-ranking officer. He had married her and adopted her two-year-old son, so she was doing all right. But most of the other girls I had grown up with were living the bleak life that I had once envisioned for myself.
Look at me now!
I often said to myself. I had it all. My new husband was the icing on the cake.

On our wedding night, Bo had promised me that he was going to pamper me like a baby and treat me like a queen. He took showers with me just so he could wash my back. He gave me foot massages. He cut my toenails. And some mornings he brought me breakfast in bed. He gave me large bouquets of fresh roses when I least expected it. We made love as often and as vigorously as porn stars.

I loved waking up in bed next to Bo. He had wanted me to move into his bedroom at the end of the hall, but since mine was larger and had a better view, I convinced him to move into mine.

Daddy was happy because I was happy. He didn’t look so tired now. And his health seemed to be much better. His eyes were brighter and he didn’t even complain about his frequent chest pains. His arthritis didn’t bother him that much anymore, so he didn’t stumble around like a drunken sailor the way he used to from time to time.

The way Vera pranced around the house grinning and joking with me and Bo, you would have thought that she was a newlywed too. “You and Bo sure do spend a lot of time in the bedroom,” she commented with a wink one Sunday morning. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you two haven’t already put a bun in the oven.”

A baby? Me? I wasn’t exactly ready to become anybody’s “baby mama.” I wanted to enjoy more of my young years first. But I had decided to keep my thoughts on motherhood to myself for the time being. “Not yet. My period just came on this morning,” I told Vera, kind of embarrassed.

I didn’t like talking about my sex life or anything related to sex with my parents. Things had improved considerably between Vera and me, so I really did think of her as my mother now. However, I still didn’t trust her completely. When it came to her, I was never going to let my guard down. That was the main reason I wanted to remain in the bedroom that was directly above the kitchen, so I could continue to hear when people were down there talking about me. I wasn’t worried about Bo or the housekeeper hearing the conversations through the air duct. For one thing, you had to squat down close to it and the vent had to be open. I always made sure it was closed before Delia cleaned my room and I’d instructed her to never open it without my knowledge or permission. The room rarely got cold enough to require heat. And when it did, I cracked the vent open just far enough to allow the minimum amount of heat to flow up. Now that Bo shared the room with me, I only opened the vent all the way when I was alone and wanted to eavesdrop.

It had been a couple of weeks since I had eavesdropped on the conversations in the kitchen. Most of the yip-yapping that I’d heard lately had been either something I’d already heard or something too petty to upset me. But since my status had changed, I suspected that Vera and her backstabbing crew had a lot to say about that.

Bo and I had been married a little over a year when I decided to resume my position at the air duct vent on a daily basis instead of a few times a week. And it was a good thing I did.

One Monday morning, when I got out of bed, Bo and Daddy had already left for work. They had to attend a breakfast meeting with a vendor. Since Vera was the ringleader, she was the one I had expected to initiate the latest bash aimed at me. But it was Cash and Collette who began to talk about me like a dog as they ate breakfast that morning. Harsh voices floated up to my room along with the heat and the pleasant smell of bacon.

“Humph! I’m sure Miss Thing really thinks she’s hot shit now. I wouldn’t be surprised if she started throwing her weight around even more. Next thing we know, she’ll be treating me like I’m her ugly stepsister and you like her ugly stepbrother. The bitch,” Collette fumed.

“I feel you! She’s on her way to becoming a straight-up fishwife all right. She rolls her eyes more than a gambler rolls his dice. Just last night when I borrowed a few bucks from Kenneth, she had the nerve to roll her eyes at me like it was her money he was giving me!” Cash complained.

“Well, I hate to keep reminding you, but in a way it is her money too.”

“No! Kenneth was the one who reached into his wallet and gave me that money. She didn’t!” Cash boomed.

Collette hawked and let out a disgusted sigh. She did that a lot, especially during her conversations with Cash about me. “Cash, you jackass! Don’t you realize that what’s Kenneth’s is hers? Do you think that when Kenneth dies things are going to be the same for us? She’ll probably evict us before they even put him in the ground! And where would we go? Back to that hole we were living in on Joost Street before Vera made Kenneth let us move up in this highfalutin motherfucker? Not me. Between the two of us, we don’t make enough money to continue living the way we live now.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that right now.”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, we’re family!”

“We’re
Vera’s
family. We don’t mean a damn thing to Kenneth. I wouldn’t be surprised if he only left us a few thousand dollars in his will.”

“Collette, we don’t even know if he’s leaving us anything in his will.”

“Before that little witch came here, we were. Vera told me just last month that Kenneth had provided for all of us in his will. Even his housekeeper and his chauffeur.”

“Well, then, what are you worried about? Did she tell you how much he’s leaving us?”

“She didn’t tell me that and I didn’t ask. For one thing, I doubt if she knows. She didn’t know all the other times we asked her. All she said the last time I discussed the will with her was that Kenneth still had us in the will. But the thing is, he keeps changing it!”

“Well, let’s just be patient. Even if he doesn’t leave us anything, we’ve had it good so far, living rent-free, getting that new SUV, and so on. But I don’t see any reason for Kenneth to cut us out just because he put his daughter in the will. There is more than enough money to go around.” Cash sounded really worried.

Before he or Collette could speak again, Vera joined them. She greeted them by saying, “I guess Her Highness is still stretched out in that twenty-thousand-dollar brass bed her daddy bought her for a wedding present,” she snarled. “I do not trust that girl. Who knows what scheme she’s got up her sleeve!”

“There’s just no telling! She’s full of surprises! I knew she was a pig in a poke the first time I met her,” Collette said with a piercing laugh.

“Cuz, Collette just told me that Kenneth has changed his will a few times. Did he leave me and Collette in good shape?” Cash asked Vera.

“I hope he did. But we won’t find out until he dies. He won’t let me near that damn will. Pass the bacon, please.” Vera paused and muttered profanity under her breath for a few seconds. Then she yelled, “All this greasy-ass pork bacon! Two times a fucking week! I thought I told Delia to buy only beef bacon now! There goes her next bonus.” She paused again, a little longer this time. Then she spoke in her normal tone of voice. “Kenneth is a very generous man,” she declared, chomping like a cow on the same greasy-ass pork bacon she found so offensive. “Now, we all know what a good man Kenneth is too. But he’s unpredictable. He might be good to everybody in his will and he might not. He has a flesh-and-blood daughter in his life now. She’s the only one I know he’ll be real generous to. He’ll leave her a pretty penny.”

“I’m glad Sarah’s his only child,” Cash said.

“Well, the only thing he wants before he bites the dust is a grandchild. That’s all he talks about these days. It’s become an obsession with him. I hope Sarah and Bo don’t wait too long to have a baby. If they do, Kenneth might not be around to enjoy it. He even dreams about being a grandfather. He said that it’s the only thing left on his bucket list.”

“You sound like you want her to have a baby,” Collette threw in.

“Oh yes. Kenneth will treat that baby like royalty. And it’ll have my blood, so that’ll be some points in my favor.”

I stumbled as I rose up off the floor. The moment that Vera had begun to speak, I had pressed my ear to the vent so close, it was aching like mad now. But what she had just said about Daddy’s desire to have a grandchild made me smile.

I had to make his dream come true if I could. But it saddened me to hear that Vera thought a baby would benefit her financially. Well, it was Daddy’s money. What he did with it was his business.