The Dirty Divorce (20 page)

Denie rolled her eyes. “She just makes me sick. She always has something negative to say about you and it drives me crazy. That’s why after you sell Grandma’s house, I want to go back to Cali with you for the summer. Besides, Juan is her pride and joy and he does no wrong. Do you know she blamed me for him being locked up? Did she forget what he does for a living?”

“Denie, that’s her only boy. She loves him even more because he was there for her when I was away. He stepped up and was the man of the house when I had to go up the road.”

“You going to jail had nothing to do with why she loves Juan more than me. I just don’t like to be around her. She looks down on me about everything. It could be the smallest thing that irritates her, and to top it off, she’s always saying, ‘You’re just like your father’, and it’s getting old.”

“Denie, I hurt your mother. I guess she sees a lot of me in you.”

“That’s still no excuse,” Denie said with her lips poked out.

I wanted to get off the subject. “Well, let’s try to make this dinner about us now, and the time I’ve missed wit’ you. No more talkin’ about your mother. Let’s enjoy our date.”

“I agree, but Daddy if Ma let’s you come back, would you?”

I shook my head. “I can’t answer that. For now it is what it is, so let’s try and deal wit’ things the best way we can.”

Denie agreed to try and act better toward Lisa and we enjoyed the rest of our night. She kept lookin’ at her watch as if she had somewhere to be. I knew she had little guy friends, but I didn’t think she had anything serious goin’ on.

“Baby, you got somewhere to be, you keep checkin’ your watch?”

“Umm, I kinda had plans, but I wanted to be with you Daddy, so I told my friends that I would meet up with them later.”

“So, is that why you wanted to meet me down here? You had plans on ditchin’ your dad, for some lil’ boy.”

“No, Daddy, me and my friends are going out.”

“Not that little girl Kendi or that girl Shay that your mother doesn’t like, I hope.”

“No, not at all.”

“Okay Baby Girl, don’t ever mess up our trust we have for one another.”

“I won’t Daddy, I gotta go!”

Denie got up and gave me a kiss and a hug. I sat there and thought about how I had betrayed my family’s trust for years. How could I demand trust from my daughter, but had failed at givin’ trust myself. As I looked through my phone at my pictures, I came across a picture of Lisa blowin’ a kiss. A picture she’d sent to me last summer. Lisa looked beautiful. I really missed what we had, but things had gotten so ugly that I decided to keep what we had in the past.

A few minutes later, the waitress brought me the check. She was cute, and even though I was an ass man, she was spillin’ out of her blouse, which caught my attention. I was about to ask her why a beautiful young lady such as herself looked so sad, when my phone rang. It was Jade.

“Hello, Miss.”

“I miss you, Rich. What are you doing?”

“Well, I just had dinner wit’ Denie, and now I’m about to go see my man Nelson for a minute.”

“When are we going to get nasty? This morning wasn’t enough for me. My pussy is yearning for you.”

“Damn, you’re makin’ me hard as shit. I’ll be on my way once I wrap up wit’ Nelson.”

“I’ll be here waiting.”

By the time I hung up wit’ Jade, my waitress was gone. However, after I paid the bill and started toward the door, I saw the waitress again. This time she gave me a seductive little smile and a wink. I knew what that meant, but I just smiled back and left.

Gettin’ to Nelson’s house as quick as possible was important so I could get back to Jade. I wanted to be inside of her so bad, but money over bitches would always be my motto. I called Nelson to let him know I was on the way. I knew I was probably interruptin’ his plans, but I let him know it would be quick.

I made it to Wheaton from downtown in less than twenty minutes. After typin’ in the code to get into the gate, I called Nelson to let him know I was comin’ upstairs to his apartment.

When Nelson opened the door he had candles lit throughout the apartment along wit’ clusters of red balloons everywhere. I even saw a few teddy bears.

“Damn am I interruptin’ somethin’ Lil’ Cassanova?” I just had to clown him.

He smiled. “Man, go ahead. Me and my girl were trying to get it in, but like you say money over bitches, so she gonna have to wait until we finish handling our shit.”

I laughed. I loved Nelson and thought it was cool how he looked up to me. He was more like me than my own son, which was crazy. See, he knew his place, whereas Juan always felt a need to compete in a game he had no win in.

After we got started, I felt bad because our initial fifteen minute meetin’ turned into an hour. Right before we wrapped everything up, the bedroom door opened and a familiar voice called out.

“Baby, how long are you gonna be?” his girl asked.

“We almost done, babe. Don’t come out here like that, you see my man in here. Go put some clothes on,” Nelson ordered. When I took my attention off the package, I turned around to see my daughter half naked in a red negligee.

“Oh my God, Daddy!” Denie said, tryin’ to cover herself up.

“What the fuck?” I turned to Nelson. “Are you fuckin’ my daughter?”

“Your daughter, your daughter. This can’t be..”

Before Nelson could finish his sentence I went off and tried to knock his fuckin’ head off his shoulders. There was nothing Denie could do to stop me from tryin’ to kill him.

“Daddy stop, get off of him, I love him, Daddy. I love him!” Denie screamed.

“Denie, get the fuck off me. I’ma kill ‘em! How long were you gonna fake and play me close so you could fuck my daughter behind my back?” I asked Nelson.

“Daddy, nooo!” Denie continued to scream.

“Unc, I didn’t know…I didn’t know man,” Nelson said as he tried to block my blows. “She never told me.”

After several more body shots, I finally stopped and looked at Denie. “Get your shit on and let’s go.” I then looked at Nelson. “You better not ever touch my fuckin’ daughter again.”

“I’m not leaving. Look at what you’ve done. He needs to go to the hospital,” Denie said.

Nelson held up his hand. “Denie, I’m fine. Just go with your father, please.”

“No, I’m not leaving you. Daddy, you need to be worrying about your wife instead of me. I saw a strange car in front of the house not to long ago, and I’m sure it belonged to another man. She’s the one cheating on you. Stay out of my personal life and worry about your own. You can’t tell me who to love,” Denie said in a bold tone.

“Denie, get dressed and let’s go now! You lied to me. You said you were goin’ out wit’ your friends!” I belted. “We just talked about trust.”

“Look at his eye, oh my God, Nelson, are you okay?”

My daughter was gonna have to hate me because there was no way she would ever see Nelson again. Not only was he too old, but he was in the streets, and I didn’t want that for her. The last thing she needed in her life was another nigga like me.

When Denie saw how serious I was, she finally ran back in the room and got herself together. After havin’ to break up an emotional goodbye, we left. At that point, I decided it would be best for Denie to go back wit’ her mother. Wit’ Juan bein’ locked up and me cuttin’ Nelson off, I couldn’t risk fuckin’ up my money. When we got in the car Denie cried the entire time. Tired of hearin’ her sob, I called Carlos to let him know what happened.

“What’s up, Rich?” Carlos answered.

“Can you believe Denie’s fuckin’ Nelson,” I blurted out. I didn’t even care that she could hear my entire conversation.

“What?” Carlos replied.

“Yeah, and she sittin’ in the car cryin’ over the nigga and shit. I’m takin’ her ass back to Lisa.” I looked at Denie. “Is Nelson the nigga you were arguin’ wit’ outside the club that night?” When Denie didn’t answer, I directed my conversation back to Carlos.

“We’re gonna have more shit to deal wit’ now. Man, Juan bein’ locked up is really fuckin’ up my bread!”

“See, I knew it was a reason why I didn’t trust that lil’ nigga.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even see this shit comin’,” I admitted. “That’s okay because I’m cuttin’ that muthafucka off.”

Carlos paused. “But then again, you sure you wanna let Nelson go. Maybe he didn’t know Denie was your daughter. I mean I never trusted him, but so far he’s been a loyal worker. He’s even been holding shit down better than Juan.”

“Los, he fucked my daughter. I can’t be around him anymore.”

“Man, just think about what you’re doing to the business. You were just saying how you fuck with slim. I think you’re letting your emotions get the best of you. Anyway, he knows too much to let him go like that.”

“I can’t, Los.” Then again, I was beginnin’ to feel bad about the way I reacted to Nelson and then somethin’ else dawned on me when I thought about what Denie said. Whose car was in front of my damn house, I thought. At that moment, I turned up the music then began whisperin’ to Carlos so Denie couldn’t hear me.

“Hey, I’ma need you to start keepin’ an eye on Lisa. I think she fuckin’ somebody, and I don’t have time to be a target to no niggas. She doesn’t realize that it’s not about me not wanting her to move on. It’s about niggas in the street always plottin’.”

“Bet. We gonna find out one way or another. I got you, bro.”

“I know you got me, Los. You’re the only one who has ever had my back totally. I love you bro.”

“You know you my nigga,” Carlos responded as if he had a little bit of guilt in his voice.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lisa

Now more than ever, I was ready to pay Rich back for what he’d done. I called Carlos and told him about Rich forcing himself on me after he’d caught me having phone sex with him. Trying to avoid other one of those episodes, Carlos decided to have me come to his house in Potomac since Marisol had gone back to L.A. Apparently, their daughter was sick so she had to put her mommy hat on, which was something she rarely did. After getting off the phone, I walked into the bathroom and started my bubble bath. As the water filled the Jacuzzi, I put my I-pod on shuffle and then placed it on the Bose docking station.

Yearning for my bubble sanctuary, I immersed my body into my hot bath and thought about Carlos. My conversations and thoughts of him made me feel better whenever I started to feel depressed about what my life had turned into. The rape was always in the back of my mind no matter how many pills I popped to try and forget it. Now, the incident with Rich was making shit even worse. Carlos and I had spent countless hours on the phone discussing how I felt and he’d become a safe haven for me. This side of Carlos I’d never seen and it made me fall for him even more. No matter how much he said we could never be serious, his actions showed otherwise. I used to hate him, but it was funny how hate turned to love so fast. Sometimes I wondered if I was just vulnerable, but I hadn’t felt this way in years and I loved it.

I was ready for a drama free night. I wanted to look sexy, but not over done. After my bath, I entered my closet in my pink Juicy Couture terry robe and decided on what to wear. My old housekeeper, Anna had done a great job with the organization of my closet. My boots were all organized by color and length. My handbags were organized by designer. Winter, fall, spring, and summer were all within their own sections. I decided since we were now in March I would go to the spring section of my wardrobe and picked out a sexy gold Dolce & Gabbana bustier and my leopard Dolce & Gabbana jacket I’d ordered from a Miami boutique in Bal Harbour. Next, I pulled out a pair of dark denim True Religion skinny jeans with jeweled buttons. They fit my curves just right and made me feel sexy. Since there wasn’t any snow left on the ground, I decided to wear a pair of my black quilted Chanel shoes, then finished my look with some gold bangles.

When I walked in the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I couldn’t wait to call Jermaine, so he could do something with my hair. I wanted any trail of Trixie gone from my life, even the weave she’d put in. When I thought back on how she was the one pressing me to get this shit, it pissed me off. She knew Rich hated weave, so more than likely, that was her motive.

“Simple bitch,” I said out loud.

Ready for my date, I grabbed my black Chanel bag, and my Gucci duffle bag out of the closet. I then went to my lingerie drawer and pulled together a sexy red nighty for the nights festivities even though I knew my night would consist of as little clothes as possible. After we were interrupted by Rich in the middle of our phone sex session, it made me want to make love to Carlos even more. Somehow I had become tainted and it was scary that I liked the new me. I really wished that who I’d fallen for wasn’t my husband’s cousin, but the rush made it exciting in a crazy way.

After I dolled my face up, I sent Carlos a text to let him know I was leaving. As soon as I was heading out of the door Rich and Denie were coming in.

“Where the fuck you about to go wit’ an overnight bag?” Rich asked, looking my attire up and down.

“Why!” I yelled, irritated at the fact that I knew their arrival was going to make me late. After what he’d done to me I didn’t have shit to say to him. I even knew it was his birthday, but I refused to wish that nigga any happiness. “Get out of here, Rich.”

“Oh, I’m leavin’ but you’re not. Whatever plans you had, you’re gonna have to cancel them because I just found Denie at my man’s house half-naked.”

I threw up one of my hands. “So, what does that have to do with me?”

“You’re her mother. It has a lot to do with you. Do you not care that your seventeen year old daughter is fuckin’ an older man?” Rich asked.

“He’s only twenty-one!” Denie yelled with an attitude. She then ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door.

Her eyes were so puffy, I guess from crying. I’d never seen her act out this way toward Rich, so I was taken back. She never got upset with him.

“Rich, who is this guy?” I asked like I really cared.