O
nce Alicia’s father had phoned his attorney, it had taken the attorney nearly an hour to arrive at the station but thankfully, through connections of his own and those of her father’s, four hours later the police department had allowed her to leave on her own recognizance. Originally, they’d been talking at least a ten-thousand-dollar bond, which meant her father would have had to pay 10 percent of that, but they’d decided against it once they’d finished questioning her. The other blessing was that they’d never locked her in a cell, and, with the exception of the ride to the police station, they hadn’t handcuffed her.
Still, though, the entire ordeal had been a nightmare and she hoped she’d be able to put this disgraceful episode behind her as soon as possible. She still hadn’t told the detectives anything that she’d thought would make any difference to them, but for some reason they did seem a lot more satisfied when she’d told them about her relationship with Levi, beginning with the day she’d first seen him at the mall and how he had approached her before she’d gone inside the store. She hadn’t wanted to tell the rest of the details in front of her father, specifically when and how many times she’d slept with Levi, but her attorney had
advised her to not leave out one iota of information. He’d told her it was best to give them all that they were asking for because if she did, they’d feel more assured about her claim of being innocent.
She’d even told them about the five thousand dollars cash and how Levi had just given it to her this afternoon but then had instructed her to take it out of her shoulder bag once they were surrounded. She’d even confessed about his giving her another thousand dollars right around the time she’d first started seeing him, as well as the heart-shaped diamond necklace. They’d then wanted to know why he’d given her the money in the first place, and while she hadn’t wanted to reveal her money problems, she’d been afraid not to tell the truth. So she’d told them that the reason he’d given her the money was so she could pay some of her bills.
Her father hung up the phone with the attorney and stopped at a red light. They were maybe ten minutes away from her subdivision, and Alicia wasn’t looking forward to seeing Phillip face-to-face. Surprisingly, he hadn’t come to the station, but she knew by now that Brad had told Phillip about their conversation.
“It sounds like you’re going to walk away from this without any charges. Randall thinks that the police already knew you were just an innocent bystander but simply had to make sure of it. He also said that when they didn’t find anything incriminating in your car or at your house, that certainly helped as well.”
“Thank God.”
“But it’s still not over, because there’s a chance the prosecution is going to call you as a witness during the trial and that’s why Randall wants to meet with us sometime next week.”
Alicia’s phone rang and while normally she’d be happy to hear from her mother, she wasn’t looking forward to it right
now because she knew her father had already called her mother and told her everything.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Alicia, what in the world were you thinking?”
“I don’t know, Mom. I made a mistake.”
“I’ll say.”
Alicia sighed in a not so cordial manner. “Mom, can I call you back?”
“No. Because aren’t you in the car with your dad?”
“Yes.”
“Well, once you get home, you don’t need to call me or anyone else. What you need to do is talk to Phillip and as far as I’m concerned, he’s the only person you need to talk to for the rest of the evening. You need to plead, beg, explain, and do whatever you have to do to keep that man from leaving you.”
“He’ll be fine. I mean, he’ll be upset and it’ll probably take a while before he gets over this, but Phillip would never leave me over one mistake.”
“Don’t be so sure. And even if he doesn’t, you should spend the rest of your life making all of this up to him.”
“Mom, please, can I call you back? I’m sorry but my head is killing me, and I just want to relax my mind before I get home.”
“I’m really disappointed in you, Alicia. I love you more than anything, but this has got to be the worst thing you’ve ever done, and you’ve hurt a lot of people in the process.”
“I realize that, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry about the crazy decisions I made, but, Mom, you have my word that I’ll never do anything like this again.”
“I truly hope not because, Alicia, this is bad.”
“I’ll call you later or tomorrow, okay?”
“You take care of yourself, and again, sweetheart, I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Curtis drove past the health club where Alicia sometimes went to work out and adjusted his rearview mirror. “Your mom is really upset.”
Alicia leaned her head back against the headrest and pretended she hadn’t heard what her father had just said. But unfortunately, that didn’t stop him.
“Can you imagine how your little brother is going to feel when he finds out about this?”
“Matthew knows that I love him, and that I’m not perfect.”
“That he does, but I don’t think he’s going to be expecting to hear that you were hanging out with some drug dealer. Plus, once this hits the paper tomorrow, all of his friends are going to know about it, and I think you remember how embarrassed he was when that Tabitha scandal broke. He was so ashamed and so worried about what his schoolmates were going to say that he even wanted to change schools.”
Alicia would have loved nothing more than to tell her dad that it wasn’t her fault that Matthew was already a victim of family scandal, it was
his
fault. Every incident had been her father’s fault and while he obviously wasn’t thinking about it at the moment, he had caused her more pain and humiliation when she was Matthew’s age than she cared to think about. Yes, it was true that she’d made the mistake of sleeping with Levi, but her father had slept with so many women over the years, he probably didn’t even remember them all. Yes, it was true that she hadn’t made the best of choices when it came to her overall spending habits, but it was her father who had taught her to buy only the top brands and the very best that money could buy. He’d taught her this from the time she was five years old, and she’d never known any other way to live.
But she didn’t dare say any of these things to him because
she didn’t want to give him even one reason to say no when she asked him for the money she needed.
Just as Alicia started to feel a bit calmer, her phone rang again. This time it was Melanie, and for some reason she didn’t care what Melanie was going to say, good or bad, she just really needed to hear her voice.
“Hey, Mel.”
“Girl, Brad called me earlier and I just don’t know what to say.”
“To be honest, neither do I. I really messed up.”
“But of all people, Levi?”
“I know.”
“Where are you now?”
“I didn’t feel like getting my car out tonight, so I’m riding with my dad. They searched it, and for some reason, they impounded it and now I have to pay to get it out. But once they released me, I just didn’t feel like doing anything except going home.”
“I’m sure. Do you want me to come over?”
“Actually, I do, but I really need to talk to Phillip tonight, so I’ll just call you when I get some time alone.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You’re like a sister to me, Alicia, so of course I’m hurt and disappointed, but I still love you and I’m here for you.”
“Thanks, Mel. I love you, too, and I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Alicia dropped her phone inside her purse as her father drove into her subdivision, curved around a couple of streets, and pulled into their driveway.
“You want me to go in with you?”
“Maybe just for a few minutes. Because maybe if Phillip sees you, he won’t be so angry.”
“Let’s go.”
They left the vehicle and went up to the front door; Alicia unlocked it and they went inside. She could already feel her nerves racing, so she took a couple of deep breaths.
But before she could gather her composure completely, Phillip walked down the stairs.
“So, is it true? I mean, with the police coming in here, turning our house upside down, I guess I already know, but I just want to hear you say it.”
He seemed awfully calm but maybe it was like she’d thought, he’d see her mistake as nothing more than human error and after a while they’d be able to move on like this never happened.
Alicia started toward the kitchen. “Phillip, let’s just go sit at the island, and I’ll answer any questions that you have.”
“Phillip,” Curtis said, “if you don’t want me to stay, then I totally understand.”
Phillip turned to him. “No, Curtis, actually, I do want you to stay. I want you to stay so you can hear everything.”
Alicia sat down. “Daddy has already heard everything, Phillip.”
“Nonetheless, I still want him here.”
Her father took a seat next to Alicia, but Phillip stood in front of them, leaning against the sink. “So, like I said, is it true? Was Brad telling me the truth when he said you’ve been sleeping with Levi Cunningham?”
“I never told Brad anything like that. What I told him was that we were friends.”
Phillip folded his arms and squinted his eyes. “Really?”
Alicia didn’t know why she was lying to him, what with the blow-by-blow statement she’d given to the police, but she just couldn’t bring herself to admit the obvious to her husband.
“Can I at least try to explain some of this to you?”
“No, because I don’t think there’s much more you can tell me than I already know. For example, one of Brad’s sources told him that the narcotics division has been following you for weeks, that they have a record of you leaving your car at some strip mall parking lot, as well as a record of Levi picking you up and taking you to his house. They even have a record of you being there the night I was shot, Alicia, and I think that hurt me the most. I mean, the fact that you were low enough and rotten enough to sleep with another man behind my back is painful enough, but to know you were doing it the night I could have been killed, well, it doesn’t get any lower than that.”
Alicia was stunned. She’d told the police all that Phillip had just spoken about, but now she knew she hadn’t told them anything they hadn’t already known.
“They were watching your every move, and the reason they started following you was so they’d have some sort of idea about when Levi was going to leave his house. They knew that every time he picked you up from that parking lot, he’d be bringing you back there for a few hours, so they finally chose today as the day they wanted to take Levi down. They followed you the same as always and then waited for the two of you to leave his driveway.”
“Baby, I’m so, so sorry.”
Alicia had said she was sorry so many times to so many people that her own words were beginning to sicken her. They didn’t even sound genuine anymore, so she could only imagine how Phillip was taking them.
“You know, even with all the money you’ve blown and all the problems we’ve had, I still never thought you would turn out to be this dirty and underhanded. Selfish, yeah, because that’s what you’ve always been since the day I met you, but sneaky, devious, and dishonest—I wasn’t counting on that.”
“Baby, I know this is the worst and that what I did was beyond stupid, but I really am sorry and I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I’ll do anything you ask.”
“Okay, then why don’t you answer one question for me?”
“Of course.”
“Why is it that when I applied for a credit line at one of the electronic stores this afternoon, I was denied?”
Alicia’s body went numb. She felt paralyzed, and now she knew why Phillip had wanted her father to stay there with them.
“Can you tell me that?”
Alicia wanted to say something but she couldn’t think of anything.
“I mean, here I was in the store, thinking how excited you were going to be when you came home and saw the notebook computer that you’d talked about this morning. I was so looking forward to surprising you, but when they processed my application for no-interest financing, they told me I wasn’t approved. So, silly me, I just figured it was some sort of a mistake, that is, until I found out that the reason they’d denied me was that I had opened too many new accounts in the last six months. Now, imagine my amazement and the shame I felt. Imagine how dumb I felt when I knew full well I hadn’t opened any new accounts since you and I were married, yet my credit report was showing something far different.”
Alicia knew her whole world was collapsing and that there was no way to stop it from happening. She even glanced over at her father with pleading eyes, hoping he would say something on her behalf, but the look he tossed back at her declared that he was just as livid as Phillip.
“So, tell me, Alicia. How can that be?”
“Phillip, if you’ll just give me a chance, we can fix this.”
“Fix this how?” he yelled. “Because I’d love to know how we can possibly fix my credit status when you’ve forged my name with three different companies and haven’t made one payment over the last three months. How do we simply fix twenty thousand dollars of debt, not to mention all of your department store cards that are maxed solid? And if you’re wondering how I know, I guess I can’t deny that I was a little sneaky just like you were because I went into every one of your accounts online. And I also know that you’ve been having everything sent to some P.O. box.”
Curtis turned to his daughter. “Alicia, is all of this true? You actually signed Phillip’s name on credit applications without him knowing about it? And you’re thousands of dollars in debt?”
“Daddy, I was going to tell you, but I didn’t know how.”
Her father shook his head. “Alicia, you’ve got a problem. You need some serious help, and I’m just sorry I didn’t pay more attention to your spending habits while you were in college. I knew they were bad, but nothing like this. And then all of these lies.”
That was it. Alicia had finally had enough of her father and the way he was condemning her, and it was time she set him straight.