A Scandalous Philly Love Story (Part 1) (6 page)

Chapter 11

Eric

This damn case had gotten me stressed the hell out. I’d been working late hours here at the office, trying to put together this appeal. Carter Barnes really thought his money was that long. He’d been serving time for drug trafficking, possession of drugs, possession of an illegal firearm, attempted murder, corruption of a minor, and several other charges. To think this was the motherfucker, who violated Dawn when she was a young girl. Jerry Kindred, one of the partners here, had passed his cases onto me when he took ill. After reading over Mr. Barnes’s file, I learned that his crime sprees began when he was just eleven. As a juvenile, he stayed in trouble, from stealing cars to assault. He’d been locked down for over fifteen years now, and every time he filed an appeal, it was denied. He was ordered to serve twenty-five to life. At the time of his arrest, the gun found on him had two bodies on it. I was set to pay him a visit in a couple of days. Jerry warned me that he could be an arrogant son of a bitch. Even though he claimed his innocence from the beginning during his murder trial, he was still guilty of something. It was said that he was a big time drug dealer who ran the whole tri-state area. Plus, he never got his hands dirty unless he needed to. He knew to have other people handle his dirty work. He was one ruthless motherfucker.

It had been over three weeks since I heard from Marcy. I had tried contacting her, but she changed her number. I knew what I had done was wrong, but she needed to be taught a lesson. Dre hadn’t been blowing up my phone, and Cyn moved. Somehow, I was losing control of my personal life. I started drinking heavily, and it was showing in my work and in my appearance. My boss was threatening to take me off of this case. He said, “Greyson, either get your shit together, or you’ll be unemployed. Do you think you need some time off? Is this workload too much for you? Whatever it could be, I advise you to fix it, and quick.” I figured once I filed this appeal and the jury came back with their vote, I was going to take some time off. I needed a vacation.

I received a text from Dre, asking me to come by this evening. I was up to my eyeballs with work, and I wasn’t sure when I could get there. Let’s just say, he wasn’t too happy with my response. I asked him if he could give me until the weekend, but he never responded.

Chapter 12

Three Months Later…

Dawn

Business had been flourishing. I was getting big as a house, and just last week, I found out we were expecting a baby boy. Ant couldn’t have been even happier. At this point, it was just a question of what we were naming him. Anthony Lamar Hunter Junior. Once I learned the sex of the baby, I contacted my mother, so she could start decorating. She had been quite busy, getting prepared for her wedding. She came by the house to take measurements of the nursery and to check on me as well. I fixed some lunch and we talked. She informed me that she received a notice in the mail from the DA, stating that Carter had filed for another appeal. She was telling me how his last two appeals were denied.

“Baby, I’m praying his ass never gets out. He was a sick bastard for preying on little girls, and I’m ashamed that I even let him near you. No telling how many other young girls fell victim to him.” My mother could see the pain in my eyes. She reached over, rubbing my hands and she changed the subject. We started talking about the venues and flowers that I ordered for the wedding. Just talking about the wedding, you could see a glow in my mother. I could tell my mom was truly happy and she was so blessed to have another chance at happiness. The last few months we were been getting better acquainted with one another and making up for lost time. I appreciated the fact I had my mother around now. I had longed for the affection of my mother for so long—too long. I thought all hope was lost and that the drugs had overpowered her life. As for the rest of my family, my sister, Deja, had given birth to beautiful baby girl, Aniyah Patrice Cooper. Everybody was so excited when Deja gave birth. Grannie told me, “You’re next, baby girl.” At that moment, I felt as if the spotlight was now on me, and I couldn’t wait to see my little man.

Ant had just walked into the kitchen, bending down to kiss me.

“Hey, babe, you’re home early,” he called out. He walked over, hugging my mom.

“No, I’m just picking up some files out of the back office.” He came back towards me to rub my stomach. “Hey, lil man. It’s me your dad,” and the baby responded by stretching his arms and his legs. Ant had been in euphoric bliss since he learned of the baby.

“See, babe, he knows my voice.” Me and my mom laughed, getting a kick out of Ant. He was a proud poppa, and I knew the baby was going to be spoiled rotten. The nly thing he hadn’t done yet was buy out the whole mall in preparation for the baby’s arrival, but some of his clients had given him plenty of gifts already. In his line of work, his clients were extremely rich. He received a couple of jerseys and and some money. This baby was raking in the dough, and he wasn’t even born yet! Ant walked to the back to retrieve his files and was headed towards the door. He yelled over his shoulder, “Love you, baby! See you later, Ms. Julia!” as he closed the door behind him.

“Well, baby, I need to get going, so I can get started on my grandson’s room.” I walked her to the door, where we exchanged hugs and she left.

I was on my way to the back office to do some work when my doorbell rang. I wobbled my way to door, even though I wasn’t expecting anyone. When I opened the door, there stood Marcy.

“Hey, girl, where your ass been?” I questioned, as she walked in rubbing my stomach.

“Hey, big momma, I see pregnancy is agreeing with you.”

“Don’t go changing the subject, heffa. Where you been? We been trying to get in touch with your ass. Had it not been for texting, we wouldn’t have known if your ass was dead or alive.”

“Oh, hush! Been hanging with my babies and searching for a job.”

“Well, girl, you know that offer still stands to be my assistant. I’m going to need someone I can trust to take over while I’m out.”

“Girl, that news in music to my ears! I was in numerous interviews. I was underqualified for the positions I was interviewing for. Thank you so much, Dawn, I’ve been a total wreck with this job search. Plus, I’ve doing some soul searching and had come to some serious conclusions. Dawn, I’ve been thinking of getting my babies back. It’s time I made some changes and become the mother that they need. Not the part-time parent that I’ve been for the past six years.”

“Marcy, I’m truly proud of you. I know the girls will be so excited.”

“They will be; I just haven’t said anything to them yet. I have some unfinished business  need to attend to before I can bring them home.”

“You know, Cyn has been worried about you, too.” I couldn’t help but notice Marcy’s expression when I bought up Cyn’s name. She said it’s been hard to reach you over the phone.”

“Yeah, I know, I’ve just been real busy that’s all.”

“Well, she just recently moved and opened her own real estate company.”

“Oh, wow! She’s been talking about opening her own business for quite some time.”

“Can I ask what happen between you two?”

“Nothing happened, I just told you, I’ve been extremely busy.” Her voice had gotten an octave higher, and I tilted my head some, looking at her ass sideways. “You may wanna use your damn inside voice with me. Are you okay? Because you seem to be agitated.” She stood up, grabbing her keys and her purse with tears in her eyes. I stopped her before she could walk off. “Marcy, what is wrong with you?

“Nothing, Dawn. Just let it go, damn it. I’ll call you later, so we can discuss the job details. That’s if the offer still remains.”

“Yes, it does! Why wouldn’t it? I don’t know what you’re going through, but I’m here for you.”

Chapter 13

Cynthia

Thank God, I was finally home home. It had been a long day with holding interviews, and the contractor was still working. I couldn’t wait for the grand opening. I was so anxious to get this business off of the ground.  Suddenly, my phone rang, and it was Dawn on the other end.

“What’s up, girl? How are doing?”

“I’m doing fine, just had quite a strange visit from Marcy today.”

“What you mean, ‘strange’?”

“You know how her ass is. You never know what’s going to come out her mouth. Well, I offered her that assistant position that opened up, and she accepted.”

“Now, that’s is strange. Whatever happen to, ‘I don’t need to work, I can just lay on my back while men throw money at me’?”

“She claims she’s been doing some soul searching and she wants her girls back, so that’s why she was job searching.”

“That must of been some serious soul searching she was doing!”

“But wait, there’s more to it. So, I bought up the fact that you were worried about her, and she began rolling her eyes, like hearing your name made her sick. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but she been acting funny towards me for a minute, too. I tried to get her to open up, but she left out of here like satan himself was on her ass. I kep saying I was gonna stop pass her house, but I always got sidetracked, but after talking with you, I’m not sure what to do.”

“Well, let’s just pray for her.

“Enough about Marcy’s psychotic ass, how’s my godson coming along?”

“Girl, he doing all kinds of flips and stretching up in here. I can’t wait for him to get here!”

“Just a few more months, honey, you better enjoy the peace and quiet while you can.”

“Yeah, Deja said Aniyah is up every four hours like clock work. Something my ass isn’t looking forward to. So, what you got planned for the rest of the night, girl?”

“Jonathan decided to prepare dinner for us tonight at his place. So, I’m going to try to get some rest until it’s time to leave. Damn!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I forgot to get the mail out of the mailbox. Plus, I got this damn box of knickknacks sitting by the door. I’ve been neglecting to unpack it.”

“Well, you go ahead and get yourself together, I’m about to take a nap. Just give me a call tomorrow maybe we can do lunch.

“That sounds good to me. Love you, Dawn.”

“Right back at you, girl.”

After hanging up with Dawn, I went outside to retrieve my mail. I should have  known it was nothing but bills and junk mails. I laid the mail on the table in the foyer and started towards the box I still needed to unpack, but I stopped in my tracks when I noticed a big manila envelope that had fallen behind the table. My instincts were telling me to open it, but I had a gut feeling something was wrong. I tried to shake the feeling I had. When I opened the envelope, out fell some pictures. I instantly became sick and started crying. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.  It was Eric having sex with some guy. No wonder Eric didn’t have interest in me. He was too busy sticking his dick inside of another man! I didn’t even make it to the bathroom before my lunch was all over the floor. There were more pictures, and when I got to this one particular picture, I grew angry. It felt as if someone had snatched my breath away. It was Marcy’s trifling ass sucking on the same guy’s dick while Eric was fucking her from behind. I slid down the wall in total shock. How could this bitch who called herself my best friend do this? My mind was racing so fast, I got an instant headache. I picked up the lamp and threw it across the room. I wished like hell it was that back-stabbing, man-stealing whore. No wonder her ass was acting all standoffish. Her stank ass was fucking my man! From what I could see, they were enjoying themselves. This bitch, I was so ready to whoop her ass. I practically cried on this bitch’ shoulders, telling her how I thought his ass was cheating and all of this time it was with her fucking ass!

Chapter 14

Dawn

I couldn’t believe the phone call I just gotten from Cyn. She called me, all hysterical and crying. Marcy crossed the line; she knew our cardinal rule was not to date one another’s men—whether they were ex-boyfriends or just somebody we screwed once. They were off limits no matter what. We always knew that she was with sleeping around with other people’s men, but Eric? That shit was foul.  was on my way to Cyn’s now because I knew her temper. She was about to fuck Marcy up. I hoped that I reached Cyn before she attempted to leave the house. I told her I was on my way, but I wasn’t even sure if she heard me. She lived about twenty-five miles from my house, and I drove as fast as I could without getting pulled over. At first, I didn’t see Cyn’s car, and I prayed it was in the garage. After parking, I rang the bell and knocked on the door at the same time. I stood there, praying hard that Cyn hadn’t left because she had no chill button. Marcy wasn’t a match for her, either. Cyn was meek and mild on the outside, but once she was rubbed the wrong way, it was hard to bring her in. I witnessed her whip a many asses and I was right there with her, kicking ass and taking names. She finally came to the door with her kick-ass clothes on. I tried calming her down, but that wasn’t working. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around Marcy being that deceitful.

“Dawn, I’m not trying to hear what you’re saying. Both Eric and Marcy got it coming!” she told me straight up. I wasn’t in a position to hold her back, so I just rode with her.

The ride over to Marcy’s was very quiet. I could see the steam coming from Cyn’s head. She looked as though she were about to blow a damn gasket. When we got to Marcy’s, it was as if Cyn went from zero to one-hundred in two seconds. She was banging on the door, screaming for Marcy to open the door. Neighbors started coming outside their homes, looking to see what all of the commotion was. Marcy finally came to the door, and Cyn was on her ass. She barely opened the damn door before Cyn started in on her. It didn’t even look like Marcy was putting up a fight, either. It was as if she were admitting her guilt without even saying one single word. On my way over, I texted Ant and told him what was going down, and I asked him to meet me at Marcy’s house. He must have called Jonathan for reinforcement because he, too, was hopping out of his car. It took both of them to get Cyn off of Marcy. When I looked at Marcy, she was curled up in a fetal position and she was crying. She was a bloody mess, and I just knew she had a couple of broken bones. Her eyes were damn near shut, and her nose and lip were both bloody. I tried to help her up, but she just whispered that she was fine.

Someone must  have called the police and an ambulance because I could hear faint sirens. Jonathan pushed Cyn into the car and took off. I just waited there with Marcy until the ambulance arrived. I asked Marcy if she wanted me to contact her parents, but she just shook her head no. I felt sorry for her with the way Cyn whooped her ass, but she asked for it. All of those times Cyn looked out for her, especially in school, and this what she did? There were girls who wanted to beat Marcy’s ass, from the time she arrived until we graduated from high school. Let’s just say, Cyn and I were her knights-in-shining armour. I had love for Marcy, but she was dead wrong for what she did. I knew once Cyn got a hold of Eric, it was going to be a lot of slow singing, flower bringing, and furniture moving in the city of Wilmington. After the police and ambulance arrived, me and Anthony left. I climbed in Cyn’s car and took off. I wasn’t sticking around to answer any questions.

When I arrived at Cyn’s, she was walking back and forth, just talking and mumbling to herself. We just sat there, listening to her vent and blow off steam. She had the pictures all strewn on the floor in the dining room, and I could see exactly why she snapped. There was a letter attached that said that Eric and Marcy had been creeping since last year. The other guy in the picture I knew as a customer of mine. He always used my catering company for his events. The pictures showed them in some very compromising positions. Reality must have started kicking in because Cyn broke down and started crying. She just kept saying, “This motherfucker is gay! He was fucking me without protection!” And from the pictures, Eric looked like he was enjoying himself. I didn’t want to believe it, but pictures don’t lie. I just walked over to console my friend the best I knew how. It wasn’t easy seeing her this way. How do you console your best friend, who just found out that the guy she was in a relationship with for years was not only fucking her best friend, but a dude, too?