Nina's Got a Secret (13 page)

“Yeah, it's time for everyone to leave. Please tell everyone I said thank you for coming. Let them know I'll be reaching out to all of them soon.”

“You should try to take a nap. I'll get you some sleeping pills. Don't worry about the guests; I'll get rid of them and clean up.”

Nina helped Larry take off his shoes and then kissed him on the forehead. It was the most affection she'd ever shown Larry and he noticed. Larry received Nina's compassionate gestures with grace as he fought back the tears that spilled from his bloodshot eyes.

Meanwhile, Barbara was upstairs sitting on Precious' bed next to the confused child. Regardless of her feelings about Nina, Barbara realized that Precious was an innocent child in search of answers.

“Do you want to talk?” Precious declined Barbara's offer with a modest shake of her head. “I understand that you're probably confused about what has happened, but I want you to know you can talk to your daddy, mommy, and me if you have any questions.”

“I miss my sister, Chrissy.”

“I know you do, sweetheart,” Barbara replied as tears streamed down her face. “We all miss Chrissy. She's not here, but you can talk to her whenever you want to. She can hear you, even though she's living with God now.”

“Are you sure she can hear me when I talk to her?”

“Yes, baby, I'm sure she can hear you.”

As Barbara sat on the bed with her arms wrapped around Precious, Nina stood on the other side of the partially opened door, listening. She cried silently and wished that none of this had happened.

Nina couldn't see her daughter and Barbara, but as she peered through the door she could see Precious' bed. Staring back at her was the large teddy bear that she'd slept next to every night. The bear was propped up by the pillow with her name stitched into the pillowcase.

Suddenly, Nina felt terrible about her unwillingness to bond with the now deceased child. She regretted the harsh words she'd used during the audition. She felt ashamed when she thought about her lack of compassion toward Chrissy. Nina could feel her guilt beginning to surface, and realized that she would have to summon every bit of self-control within her to keep her feelings from erupting like a volcano.

“I
WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT
I
SAW
N
INA DO
,” Val said as she sipped on her steamy hot cappuccino.

“Yeah, that was foul. She shoulda at least tried to grab that child's hand.”

“Knowing Nina, the way I do, she's probably already moved on. All she can think about is her precious daughter and her new lifestyle. The entire time I was out there, all she did was brag. The shit started to get on my nerves.”

“So, is she obsessed with the idea of being rich?”

“Tyrone, Chrissy's body hasn't been buried a week, and I'll bet Nina has already talked Larry into buying her a new Range Rover.”

“That dude doesn't have a clue about his wife's heinous ways.”

“Not a clue.”

“What do you think he'd do if he knew Nina let Chrissy drown without even attempting to save her?”

“I don't know what he'd do. Based on the relationship he had with that child, he'd probably divorce Nina faster than she could say her own name. He'd probably ship her ass right back here to the 'hood. I'll bet she wouldn't be taking Precious on any auditions here.”

“Doesn't she get half of his money if they get a divorce?”

“He made her sign a prenuptial agreement. She'll get something, but it won't be enough for her to retire on. She won't get any child support because Precious isn't his child. Besides, the man is a lawyer.”

“I thought you said he was an agent?”

“He is an agent. But, he's a lawyer by trade. And from what I hear, a damn good one. I'm sure he will make a case against Nina that's so convincing she'd be lucky if the judge didn't make her pay
him
some money.”

“You think it would go down like that?”

“I really do. Larry loved that child more than anything. He would make Nina's life a living hell if he knew what really happened during that crash.”

“Hmmm,” Tyrone responded.

“What are you thinkin'?”

“Well, I'm wondering what Nina would do to keep Larry from finding out.”

“If it meant she didn't have to give up that house, car, and bank account, she'd probably sell her soul to the devil.”

Tyrone leaned back in his chair and stared at his coffee. The steam that hovered at the surface crept into his nostrils as he raised the cup and took a sip.

“I don't know about you, but I could use a little financial assistance. It's been hard tryin' to get back on my feet; ain't many jobs out there for a convicted felon. I'm tryin' not to return to that dope game, but I'm runnin' outta patience.”

Val sat there quietly. She understood where the conversation was leading. Although she didn't feel comfortable openly endorsing blackmail, she made no attempts to denounce Tyrone's devious intentions.

“I know you are gettin' tired of strippin'. To be honest, I'm tired of you goin' to that club five nights a week to shake your ass in front of a bunch of desperate men.”

“I don't hear you expressing concern about me being a stripper when I bring that money in here,” Val replied flippantly. Truth be told, Val was extremely tired of working at the strip club. But unless Tyrone had come up with a way to take over the financial load, she didn't care to hear his thoughts on her stripping career. “Tyrone, stop beatin' around the bush and say what's on your mind.”

“Okay, I will. I believe we should get some money from Nina. We could move out of this rattrap and get something nice. Maybe we could think about havin' some babies. You know how much I want a little boy.”

Val nodded her head favorably. Surprisingly, she agreed with Tyrone's idea . . . up until the part about the two of them making babies.

Val grew up dirt poor. As the oldest of five children in a single parent household, Val had found herself playing mother for most of her young adult life. She wanted to have a few kids of her own, but she could never envision a day when she'd allow herself to be impregnated by a man with as little ambition and potential as Tyrone.

Val had met Tyrone when they were teenagers. Tyrone was a rising drug dealer in their Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. As a matter of fact, he'd started hustling back in the day alongside Nina's first love, Flip. His budding drug dealing career was cut short when he was caught with nearly a kilo of cocaine.

He was able to impress Val with his fancy lifestyle, but as in many cases, when the dope money stopped coming in, Tyrone had little to fall back on. He became a great lover out of necessity, but even that was beginning to lose its luster. At one point in their relationship, Val would've been prepared to do a commercial to endorse Tyrone's sex game. The brotha was that good. However, after her leg stopped shaking and she awakened from the coma-like sleep induced by her multiple orgasms, Val usually found that the only thing she had to show for giving her body to Tyrone was a wet ass.

Tyrone sat around the house all day playing PlayStation. God had blessed him with thirty years of life, and the only thing he had to show for it were two felony convictions, washboard abs, a mammoth-size penis, five children scattered throughout the city, five different baby mamas, and a one-pack-a-day smoking habit.

Val didn't want Nina's money as much as she wanted Nina's lifestyle. The moment she'd cast her eyes on the handsome Sharrard Hogan, she immediately knew that she'd found her winning ticket to a better life.

As far as she was concerned, Tyrone could work day and night trying to figure out ways to swindle chump change from Nina.
But Val had much loftier ambitions. Sharrard was worth more money than she could ever get from Nina. Val wanted a millionaire football player, and she was going to get Nina to hook her up whether she wanted to or not.

“I already hinted to her that we would be in touch,” said Tyrone.

“Oh yeah, what did she say?”

“She just stood there looking scared.”

“So what do you have in mind?”

Tyrone could look at Val's facial expression and see that she was beginning to embrace his plan. “I'm thinkin' we could hit her up for some money,” he said with a grin.

“How much money?”

“A few thousand dollars each month; ya know, nuthin' too much. If we ask her for a lump sum of money, she may have a hard time hiding the withdrawal from Larry. She might hesitate. But if we get a few thousand each month, it'll be easier for her to hide the withdrawals. We could get all of our bills paid and still have a little bit to play with. How much do you think Larry is worth?”

“Nina said he's worth a few million.”

“Good. He won't miss a few thousand each month.”

“What if Nina refuses to cooperate?” asked Val.

“She'll cooperate if she wants to keep livin' large. If she refuses, I won't hesitate to tell Larry what really happened. All you have to do is handle this exactly like I tell you. I'm gonna make the call tomorrow night.”

Val wasn't sure how Tyrone would pull this off, but she decided to follow his lead. After all, besides sexing her brains out, hustling was the only thing Tyrone was decent at.

N
ORMALLY
, L
ARRY
'
S SNORING WOULD AWAKEN THE DEAD
, but he fell asleep while lying on his stomach; therefore, his pillow muffled the sound.

Nina sat with her back against the headboard and her night lamp on as she finished reading the book,
Mama's Lies—Daddy's Pain
, written by her favorite male author, Brian W. Smith.

Precious was asleep in her bedroom. With Chrissy and Barbara gone and Val back in New Orleans, the house was unusually quiet at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday.

Nina removed her reading glasses and repositioned her pillow so that it was nice and plump like she liked it. As she used her index finger to wipe the moisture from her eyelids, she heard her cell phone ring.

With her body yearning to shut down for the evening and her yawns coming at a nonstop rate, Nina let the phone ring. A few seconds passed and then the phone started buzzing, signaling that there was a voice message.

Nina stared at the ceiling for a moment, and then crawled out of bed and retrieved the cell phone from her purse. When she checked her voicemail she heard a sinister male voice singing a very disturbing tune.

“Nina's got a seeeecreeet. What would she do to keeeeep it? Nina's got a seeeeecreeeet. What would she do to keeeeep it?”

N
INA CLOSED HER PHONE AND THEN LOOKED
over her shoulder to see if Larry was still sleeping. He was still asleep. In fact, his snoring was getting louder. She looked at the call log on her cell phone, and noticed that the disturbing phone call came from Val's cell phone.

To avoid being heard, Nina exited the room and stood in the
hallway. She dialed Val's cell phone number to find out why and who had left the message. Much to Nina's surprise, Val didn't answer the phone; Tyrone did.

“Damn, Nina, you called back quicker than I thought you would. You must like my singing.”

“Tyrone, why'd you leave that message?”

“Come on, Nina; you ain't stupid. You know what's happenin'.”

“What do you want?”

“For starters, I want five thousand dollars so I can get my car fixed. I'm gonna need that before Friday.”

“Are you tryin' to blackmail me?” Nina asked as she tried to keep her voice low so that Larry wouldn't hear. “Where is Val?”

“I'm right here,” Val said after she took the phone from Tyrone.

“Val, what's goin' on? Do you know that Tyrone is tryin' to extort money from me?”

“What's the problem, Nina? You're married to a millionaire who gives you a monthly shopping allowance. A few thousand dollars ain't shit to y'all.”