Marriage Mayhem (5 page)

“I missed you guys so much,” Jermaine said, looking at them as if they were already a family.

“I miss you too, Daddy,” Stevie said, smiling.

Alexus blurted something in baby talk that only she under stood, but more than likely she was repeating what Stevie had said.

At that moment Karen walked over to Denise and gave her a hug.

“Is he going to be all right?”

“The doctors said he'll be okay, but—”

“Then he'll be okay, baby,” Jermaine said, interrupting, and then continued. “He's a very blessed man, baby. The bullet came very close to hitting his heart, but thank God, he's gonna make it.”

Jermaine said that he was going to take the kids to the cafeteria then go outside to get a breath of fresh air.

Karen walked over and held Maurice's hand.

“You're going to be fine, Maurice. You're gonna be just fine,” she said to him, rubbing his arm and forehead. Then she began crying, thinking.
Why did Tyrone do this? He was really trying to kill Jermaine. Fuck! Why in the hell did I give a gangbanger some head and pussy? I got myself sprung on a piece of dick and this is what it resulted in.

While staring at Maurice, Karen then realized just how dangerous Tyrone really was. She walked off with tears still trailing from her eyes.

Even though Maurice's eyes were barely opened and his condition was slowly improving, his mind still was not 100 percent sound. He recognized the people surrounding him and understood what was being talked about, but following the doctor's orders, he didn't respond to anything.

Two detectives had come to question him about the incident the day before, but doctors had advised them to delay their questioning for a few days, hoping that Maurice would be coherent and strong enough to respond sharply.

As Karen was exiting the room the same two detectives entered.

“I'm Detective Cross and this is Detective Baker. We need to ask Mr. Banner a couple of questions to get this investigation going.” After the introduction, the detectives attempted to approach Maurice's bed.

“I'm sure you do have many questions, Detective, but my husband isn't in any condition to answer them at this time.” Denise said, with an attitude. She was blocking their way from getting near her husband.

“Show some respect, Officer,” Denise's mother said. “My son-in-law is in no condition to talk to you guys right now. Give him a few days or so, and if it's the Lord's will, he'll be better by then and can answer your questions.” Denise's mother was very fond of Maurice and loved him like he was her own son. She was grateful that her daughter had married such a man.

Understanding what was being said, Maurice weakly spoke. “Gangbangers. They were gangbangers,” he managed to say in a low voice.

Taking advantage of this opportunity. Detective Cross, who was the aggressive one, began asking questions while Detective Baker took notes.

“Why are you guys so fucking hardheaded? I told you that—” Denise spat before being cut off.

“If something happens to my son-in-law while being questioned by you guys, I'm gonna have a lawsuit so big on you personally and on the police department that both of you will regret ever being born,” said Denise's mother, angrily.

“Mama, the doctors have already told these officers to wait until Maurice is better, but they just insist on being disrespectful assholes who don't give a damn about—”

“Mrs. Banner, we're only trying to get enough information to get started on finding out who did this. If you don't want the people punished that did this to your husband then basically I don't give a rat's ass. Now, if you will please allow us to ask only a few questions,” said Detective Cross.

“Gangbangers,” Maurice repeated in the same weak voice.

“Did you get a good look at them? What race were they? What were they wearing? Do you have any enemies? Are you affiliated with gang members?” All of those questions were asked at one time, which frustrated the hell out of Denise.

Karen reappeared in the room to hear the detectives, but fortunately Denise had put a stop to it before Maurice had responded to either of them.

“That's enough for now! Let my husband rest! How can you guys expect him to answer a series of questions when he's too damn weak to talk?” Denise fired.

“Okay, Mrs. Banner, we'll delay this for now, but in a couple days we'll be back. There are still lots of unanswered questions,” said Detective Baker.

The detectives handed Denise business cards and then exited the room.

“The nerve of those idiots!” Karen said, angrily. “Can't they see that he's in no condition to answer questions?”

“I know damn well they can see that, but the thing about it is they don't give a damn,” said Denise's mother.

Karen and Denise then went outside to have a cigarette. In the elevator they ran across Jermaine and the kids, who walked them back to the smoking area.

Once on the patio they began discussing what Maurice had said to the detectives.

“My husband is a working man who wouldn't harm a flea,” Denise said. “I just can't figure out why any gangsters would want to shoot him. But I do know one thing; my brothers are coming out here and somebody's going to get fucked-up.” The thought of what happened caused her to instantly want vengeance.

Denise's brothers had been locked up for murder since they were teenagers and had been recently released from prison. This kind of drama was right up their alley.

“This had to be a mistake,” Karen said.

“A mistake?” Jermaine replied. “How in the hell can some gangbangers shoot someone twice in the chest and it be a mistake? Hell, they tried to kill him.”

Jermaine then diverted his attention to Denise.

“Is Maurice into any illegal activities, Denise?”

“No, Daddy, no! Maurice isn't like that. The only thing Maurice does is work six days a week and tries to get all the overtime he can get. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even have any friends, nor does he hang out in the streets. Besides, Daddy, if he were into illegal stuff I wouldn't have ever married him. He's a good husband and father and everything he does he does it with me and Cordell.” Denise had never known about Maurice's past.

“Maybe they thought he was someone else,” Karen said, knowing that was the truth.

“Sooner or later the truth will come out. When it does, someone is going to have hell to pay whether or not they didn't kill him,” Denise said.

They sat talking for a few more minutes and then made their way back to Maurice's room.

Maurice was released from the hospital three days later. His condition was a lot better, but he still was not considered to be 100 percent well.

Since things had somewhat gotten back to normal, Jermaine went back to work the following day, headed for the East Coast. The wedding date was set for Valentine's Day. When Denise suggested that the wedding be held in Las Vegas, she and Karen wasted no time going online searching for reasonable hotels on the strip, but found that during that time of the year the majority of the major hotels and wedding chapels were already booked for Valentine's Day. Apparently, hundreds of other people had already made the same plans for that same day. After hours of searching for a decent room on the strip, the only thing available was a motel room that was located in Downtown Las Vegas. Realizing that her options were running out, Denise used her credit card and booked it right away. The only family member Karen thought would probably attend her wedding was her daughter Jasmine. After phoning several family members informing them about the wedding, her instinct was right. Out of the numerous relatives she asked to come to her wedding, Jasmine was the only one willing. Denise thought it was sort of strange for Karen's relatives not to even consider being present at her wedding, but little did she know, Karen had a bad rapport with 99 percent of them. She had stabbed a few of them, cursed out just about all of them at one time or another, fought the majority of them, and had stolen from practically all of them during her addiction. None of them were fond of her, and it had been that way for many years. Her sister Jewell only tolerated her because of her kids; other than that she fed Karen with a long-handle spoon.

Denise booked three rooms on her credit card and also paid the fee for the wedding chapel. City Hall in Las Vegas was open 24-7, so getting a marriage license would not be a problem.

Denise felt happy and content knowing that Karen would soon be her stepmother and since she liked her so much and had a little juice at her job, she arranged for Karen to be placed in the next training class to drive city buses. Looking out for the best interest of her father, Denise figured two incomes were better than one. Hopefully, by the time Jermaine made it back home they could surprise him by telling him about her new job.

Karen completed the one-week classroom course and also the driver training course successfully, but once she found out that she had to pass a background investigation, she immediately backed out. She knew the company would not hire her for two reasons: She was currently on probation for child endangerment and assault with a deadly weapon, and she had been to prison twice and served time in the county jail on numerous occasions for prostitution, drug paraphernalia, and possession of cocaine. Instead of revealing her criminal history to her job, Jermaine, Denise, and Maurice, instead she told them she was on medication and was ordered by her doctor not to accept any job pertaining to driving.

Before Karen backed out of the job, Denise had introduced her to several of her coworkers as being her stepmother-to-be. Unluckily for Karen, three of them knew Karen from the past and had much to say.

“Your daddy is going to marry
her
? She was one of the biggest crackheads in Pasadena. Do you know that she stabbed two of her brothers and her sister too? It was all in the newspapers, girl,” one of the employees had said.

“She whipped her kids with plastic pipes whenever she got mad at them for interfering with her crack smoking. She beat those kids something horrible, girl! Do you like her? How in the world did your father get involved with a woman like that? She's bad news, Denise,” said another employee.

“She lived with me for a couple days,” said an employee named Michael. “But the bitch was crazy as fuck. She thought just because she gave me head that I was going to let her and her kids permanently move in with me and live rent free. I ain't gonna lie, her sex was the bomb, but she just wasn't the type you could take home to Mama. After I told her to leave she pulled a knife on me and I had to call the police on her to get her out of my house.”

That was when Denise's suspicions began. She wasted no time calling Jermaine and bringing this to his attention. She could tell by his voice tone and then by his silence that he was hurt and disappointed. He was so confused that he didn't know whether or not to confront Karen about the accusations. After the connection was broken, Jermaine turned off his radio and rode in complete silence while driving through Pennsylvania. After an hour of contemplating what Denise had shared with him, he decided to make that call.

Jermaine confronted Karen with the things that were brought to his attention and she denied it all. She began crying and saying that people only spoke bad things about her because no one wanted to see her with anyone worthwhile or happy. She said that they'd rather see her on crack, selling her body, and living on the streets, and then they'd have something to talk about. She went on to say that lots of people hated her because she had successfully completed rehab.

Jermaine was highly sympathetic to her.

“Whatever you did in the past doesn't matter to me, baby. As long as you're doing the right thing today is all that counts to me. Regardless of what people say or what they think, we're still going to be together and we're still going to get married.” He did his best to calm her, simply because he loved her without question.

Afterward, he called Denise.

“Whoever gave you that false, bullshit information, they just hating on Karen,” explained Jermaine. “This world is filled with jealous people who try to stain your character by saying bad things about you. People have been talking about me since the third grade without me even giving them a reason to. People will say bad things about you before they say anything good about you. Keep that in mind, Denise.”

“But Daddy, do you actually think that everyone's lying on her?” These people were reliable sources to Denise and she figured they had no reason to lie on Karen. She wished her father would quit being so goddamn naive.

“I said what I said, Denise, and I don't want to hear anymore about it.” It appeared to him that his daughter's attitude toward Karen had suddenly changed.

“Well, I'm going to say this, Daddy, and then I'm finished with it: If I find out that she has something to do with what happened to Maurice, I swear on a stack of Bibles, Daddy, that I'll kill her or have her killed.” Denise was serious as a heart attack.

Jermaine hung up in her face and began thinking.
Why are they hating on my baby? They've got my daughter believing all those damn lies! And besides, if God forgives people for their sins, then people should forgive and forget her and leave what's in the past buried. Some people just don't want to see you making it and happy, that's all it is.

Karen continued her daily rituals, which was sleep until noon, and then wake up and watch talk shows, Court TV, and then squeeze in a few porn movies while the kids were asleep. With Maurice being on sick leave, he spent his days exercising for a couple hours, then on the computer playing Las Vegas casino games, and for the remainder of the day he'd watch television.