Assariyah (12 page)

I couldn’t tell Ma all of that without upsetting her further so I told her what she could handle. “I was wrong but I was scared of being poor Ma. I was so determined to get rich that I got caught up in the size of people’s bank accounts rather than who they were as a person and, at first, I didn’t care who got hurt.”

She shook her head, “Well as you found out, marrying for money only ends in tears. Love is the only reason to ever get married Assariyah.”

“I did love him Ma but by the time I realised that, the damage was already done.”

She kissed my forehead, “I’m feeling a little tired so I’m going to take a nap. I hope you’ll still be here when I wake up.”

While Ma was sleeping I took the opportunity to look through our old family pictures. I experienced every type of emotion you could think of. At first there was joy at seeing all four of us together but I felt sorrowful that Daddy was no longer with us. Then I cringed at the horrific sight of me in those matching floral dresses and ribbons that Mama used to make me wear to church. I missed the way we were though.

After I exhausted our family albums, I picked up the copy of Pride Magazine that was laying on the solid mahogany coffee table in the living room. I used to be a regular subscriber to the magazine but hadn’t read one for ages and was excited to see what was new. As I flicked through I spotted a few items that I liked and made a note of where I could purchase them from. The magazine featured an article on the top twenty black power couples in the UK and focused on how they managed to balance work and married life. I remember thinking how great it was to see so many black people doing their thing and I was filled with a sense of pride.

However, when I came across couple number five, my eyes popped out my head in horror. The headline stated, ‘With a staggering £50 million between them, it is no surprise that Politician Stephen Richards and his beautiful wife, Doctor Jasmina Richards, are #5 on our list!’ No fucking way, I said out loud as I stared at the images of Stephen and Jasmina together. Power couple my ass, they were more like the poisonous devil couple.

The two people I hated the most were living under the same roof. They had fucked me over and it was pay-back time. It infuriated me to think that, in the space of a year, Jasmina had got married after destroying my fairytale wedding. She had gotten away from me one too many times but this time I was determined that there would be no escape. They would both pay for hurting me.

I left Ma a note telling her something came up so I had to leave. I left ten thousand pounds in cash for her and jotted down my number for her to contact me. I ripped out the article of the Richards and stuffed it inside my Birkin bag and left the family house. The madness was about to begin.

Chapter
1
5

Revenge was all I could think about. It was so close, I could smell it and I couldn’t wait to
taste its sweet aroma. Yes, they would pay for everything that they had done to me. The look on Jasmina’s face would be absolutely priceless when it came to light that her husband had tasted my pussy juices and had planted his seed inside me. It was her turn to experience what it felt like to have your whole world turned upside down in the blink of an eye. I had to think of a plan and execute it perfectly. There was no room for error, God knows that I had waited too long for this moment to fuck it all up now.

I searched through my camera and prayed that it still had the footage of Stephen and I having sex with each other back in Miami. I pressed play and hoped for the best. Bingo! It was still there. Thank God I hadn’t deleted it as planned. It was time to get things moving. I uploaded the content onto my laptop and made a few hard copies for safe measure.

Once that was done I attached a note with the DVD.

Dear Mr & Mrs Richard
s,

Please find enclosed a DVD for your viewing pleasure. I want £5 million by Friday. If you fail to deliver I’m sure that the News of the World will have a field day watching MP Stephen Richards in action. I trust that you would both like to avoid the public embarrassment so make sure you have £5 million in cash ready for me by Friday. Call me on 07794921129 to finalise the details.

Assariyah

aka

Rose Monet

I didn’t have their home address so I had no other choice but to send it by recorded delivery to the hospital where Jasmina worked. I felt satisfied knowing that in a couple of days Jasmina would finally get what she deserved. The best part about it all was the fact that she wouldn’t even know what had hit her. As for Stephen, he wanted me to kill my baby and he was sleeping with the enemy, therefore he was going to pay too.

The icing on the cake was that I would be five million pounds richer. Wow, five mill to my name. Life would be a dream. The first thing I planned to do with the money was to give one million to my mum. That way she would be more than comfortable for retirement and my mind would be at ease even if I was halfway across the world.

I couldn’t stay in London, there was nothing but bad memories left for me here. I needed a fresh start and Miami was calling my name. Moving abroad would allow me to raise my baby in peace and, once I picked up this money, my baby would be set for life. There was no way in hell that my child would ever want for anything or go through the things I went through. All I had to do was wait for either Jasmina or Stephen to call. The suspense was playing heavily on my mind and made me restless.

The next day I received a call from Jasmina. She approached me in a very short and direct manner. “Assariyah I received your package. Meet me at 103 Ridgway Road in Wimbledon at 8pm on Friday.” The phone went down before I could even say a word. There was no emotion in Jasmina’s voice which threw me off slightly. I was prepared for her to be angry or upset but she was emotionless and that worried me. I couldn’t tap into her thoughts and that made me feel uneasy. There was a time we were best friends who finished each other’s sentences off and now we were complete strangers. She had taken everything away from me and I hated her with every bone in my body. It’s funny how thin the line between love and hate really is. As far as I was concerned, Friday could not come any sooner.

Chapter
1
6

My heart was racing as I approached the Richards’ door. With sweaty palms I rang
the doorbell and waited nervously. Jasmina opened the door wearing a white jumpsuit, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

“Going somewhere?” I asked. She stared me down for a minute or so before stepping aside to let me in. I followed her into the kitchen.

“Assariyah Jones ends up as nothing more than a common prostitute, who would ever have thought it?” she said in a sardonic tone.

“Well your husband sure loves common, he had no complaints,” I fired back at her.

“Aaah yes my husband, how could I forget…”

I cut her off before she could finish her sentence, “Let’s skip the small talk Jasmina, I really haven’t got time for this shit. Just give me the money and I’m out of here.”

“What’s the rush Assariyah? Relax you’ll get the money. Sit down and have a drink with me first.”

She poured a glass of red wine. I waved my hand, “No not for me thanks.”

“Oh silly me, I almost forgot. We’ve got some juice fruit punch, I’ll get you that instead.”

“You really don’t have to worry.”

“It’s no bother, I insist,” she said, walking over to the double door refrigerator. She poured me some juice.

“Let’s make a toast,” she raised her glass. “Here is to you being five million pounds richer.” Jasmina sipped her wine and I followed suit, taking a sip of the fruit punch.

Jasmina smirked, “I’ll be right back.”

A few minutes went by before she came back into the kitchen holding two big black holdall bags. She handed them over to me. I opened the bags and they were both filled to the brim with bank notes. I smiled internally, knowing that all my dreams were just a stone throw away.

“It’s all in there,” Jasmina said. She picked up her glass before downing it in one go, “Drink up.”

I finished my fruit punch and grabbed the bags. The bags were extremely heavy but I was determined not to put them down until I got home. Money always gave me strength.

“I trust that we no longer have to worry about the matter at hand becoming public now that you have your money,” Jasmina said. I reassured her that they had kept their side of the deal and so would I.

“Good, now take the money and get your miscarriaging self out of my house.”

I was horrified and instinctively reached for my belly, dropping everything I was holding except from my handbag.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked her in a state of panic.

“See Assariyah, your problem is that you always underestimated me. You may be more beautiful than I am but you’ll never be smarter than me. I thought you would have learnt that I’m always ten steps ahead of you after what happened on your wedding day with Cameron.”

“Leave Cam out of this,” I warned her.

“Did you really think that I was going to sit back and let you live happily ever after, raising my husband’s first child?”

“What are you talking about?”

She ignored me and carried on with her speech. “Hahahaha clearly you’ve read far too much fucking fairytales, watched too many Hollywood movies. Look at you, even now you thought you could just barge into my home with your bull and what everything would go your way. You expected me to hand you five million of our hard earned money just like that.”

“Quit talking in riddles, what the fuck are you going on about Jasmina?”

“I haven’t even carried a child for my husband and I’ll be damned if another woman, especially a tramp whore like you, carries my husband’s first born.”

“As you know I’m already pregnant and there is nothing you or anyone can do to stop me from having this baby.”

I gathered my things and was about to leave when she shouted out at me. “Wrong, tonight you will be in extreme pain. That baby in your womb will fall out in blood clots.”

“God forbid,” I yelled out.

“Save your useless prayers, that drink you just drank was laced with Mifeprex,” she sneered.

“Mife…mif…mife what?” I stuttered, unable to get my words out.

“Mifeprex, I wouldn’t expect your dumb ass to understand but the process has already started. Your uterine lining is probably shedding as we speak.”

“Oh my God, nooooooooooo, my baby, I need to get to the hospital now.”

“It’s too late, trust me I’m a doctor,” Jasmina said, throwing me a bottle. “There are four tablets of Misoprostol in there. You have between the next 24-72 hours to take them.”

Everything she was saying to me sounded so foreign. All I could think about was my unborn child. I could not lose this baby, I just couldn’t.

“I would have given it to you all at once but I thought it was only fair that you had the final control over the timing your pregnancy expels.”

“Nooooooooooo,” I cried out in agony with tears flooding down my cheeks. “You are one evil bitch. How could you do this?” I asked clasping my belly.

Jasmina just stood there laughing like nothing mattered.

“How could you kill an innocent baby?”

Her laughter grew even louder. The witch had taken this shit one step too far. Not my baby, that was the one good thing I had left to look forward to. The baby was my second chance at life and she had stolen another piece of my happiness from me. I only wanted the money to start afresh and build a new life. I didn’t want my baby to ever go through the shit I went through. I was so hungry for money that I was willing to get it by any means necessary, but this is not what I wanted. My pursuit for money had cost me everything. I had nothing left to live for.

Everything went black. I was shaking and trembling involuntarily, I remember reaching inside my bag and pulling out the Snubnose .38 special I always carried with me. Aiming right in between her eyes I pulled the trigger. The bitch had killed my baby so she had to die. I emptied five rounds into her head before turning the gun on myself. I pulled the trigger, the gun clicked. Nothing happened, I was out of bullets. It was over in about five seconds or less, it all happened so quickly.

I was in a state of shock, I didn’t even notice when Stephen entered the kitchen. Rocking Jasmina’s lifeless body in his arms, he wailed, “What have you done?” There was blood everywhere. The white shirt Stephen was wearing had turned red. I couldn’t believe that I had actually killed her.

I heard the police sirens and knew they were coming to take me away. I wanted them to kill me. My baby was gone, I had nothing to live for.

Chapter
1
7

Within minutes sirens and flashing lights flooded the streets. The police,
paramedics and news-reporting crews surrounded the Richards’ home, along with several of their horrified neighbours. Two of the police officers read me my rights and cuffed me.

As they lead me into their vehicle, the reporters shouted out, “Why did you do it?” “What made you kill her?” To my relief, the blue tape the police had put up stopped them from getting any closer to me.

Back at the police station I was asked if I wanted a duty solicitor and I accepted the offer. The severity of the case was more than I could handle, I was in deep and needed help. When the duty solicitor arrived I was taken into a small room.