We Didn’t See it Coming (17 page)

Kenley held up her key. “In case you forgot, we share the house—that's what Father said in his will.”

Aniyah tapped Pete's shoulder. “Wait for me in the bedroom.”

Pete did as he was told and dashed to the east wing.

Aniyah made her way down the stairs. “Girl, I'm not no babysitter. You need to go back to your other two uppity sisters.”

“I see what's going on here. You want to keep me out of here. You're playing around with the help.”

“And? I'm grown. What's it to you? Go to school. Do something. Just disappear,” Aniyah said with her hands on her hips.

“I'm not! I'm going upstairs to hang out in my room.”

Face to face, Kenley tried to go around Aniyah but Aniyah blocked her. .

“Oh, no, you're not!” Aniyah shouted.

“You smell just like this nasty odor in this house,” Kenley said as she turned up her nose.

“Incense smells way better in a house. Flowers should stay outside just like you should.”

Aniyah lifted her left hand as if she was going to strike her.

“You touch me and the police will be all over this place. I'll have you arrested for abusing a minor.”

Aniyah backed off. She didn't want the police anywhere near her. She thought about the years she would get for fraud, and she changed her tune. “Heifer, go ahead upstairs. But the next time you come here, the locks on the front door will be changed.”

Aniyah stepped out of her way and Kenley ran past her up the stairs. “Miss Half whore.” Kenley yelled back at her.

“You're jealous.” Aniyah laughed. “I know, little sister, you've got the hots for Pete. I saw you looking at his cute butt. I'll share him with you when you're old enough.”

“I'll eat dirt before I ever go behind a whore.”

Kenley went into her room, happy the decor still looked the same. She ran downstairs to the kitchen. Elsa and another servant were busy cooking.

“What's that smell?” Kenley asked as she walked in. Again, she covered her nose.

Elsa turned to see her. “Is that one of the cutie Houston girls coming in here?”

“It's me.” Kenley giggled as she ran over and gave Elsa a hug. “I've never been in this kitchen and it smelled so awful.”

“I'm making chitterlings for your newfound sister. And would you believe, she wants red rice and black beans to go with it?”

“They smell like the way she acts—funky.”

“Why didn't you tell me you were coming by? I would have fixed you a pan of baked lasagna.”

“Elsa, with garlic bread?”

“Spread with butter.” Elsa licked her lips.

“I'm getting hungry. Don't tease me.”

“You're welcome to have some of this.” Elsa pointed to the pot that the chitterlings were in.

“Disgusting!” Kenley turned up her nose.

Aniyah heard Kenley as she spoke to the help, but they all became silent when she entered.

“Do you have anything else better to do than to mess with the cook? I told you to disappear.”

Aniyah waved her hand at Kenley. She looked at Elsa. “Where's the soda I asked for with plenty of ice?” she yelled.

“Sorry, I forgot.” Elsa went on to find Aniyah the soft drink.

“No yelling goes on in my parents' house. Do you have any class?” Kenley asked.

Aniyah walked up to her. She pointed her finger in Kenley's face. “Girl, you're working my last nerve.”

“Back off,” Kenley said, and then yelled, “You're a whore and your mother is a bigger whore.”

Aniyah pushed her. “You have a fresh mouth.”

When Elsa approached them with the drink in her hand, Kenley snatched the glass of soda from her. She tossed it on Aniyah. Kenley ran out of the kitchen, leaving Aniyah's nightgown drenched in soda. She called back. “Talk to you later, Elsa.”

Aniyah grabbed a dishtowel and wiped herself off. She called. “Fix me another damn drink.”

Elsa and the other servants laughed amongst themselves after Aniyah left.

• • •

A few days later when the servants were off duty in their quarters, free to do what they want, Kenley decided to come back to the Houston Estate. She tried to enter using her key, but the lock did not work. She tried several times.

“I don't believe this.”

The driver saw her struggling with the key. He tilted his hat. “Do you need my help, Miss Houston?”

“No.” She sighed. “The locks have been changed.”

Kenley thought for a second. She recalled the secret passage to the house. When she turned ten, her father had told her about the passage. “Wait here,” she said, “I'm going down to another entrance.”

The driver got out of the limo and watched her walk in the heat. He wiped sweat from around his neck. “It's some kind of hot out here, Miss Houston. Come back and let me drive you to the entrance.”

Kenley stopped and yelled back, “I'm good. Go on and wait for me near the help's residences.”

The driver watched for a moment as she took her time walking down the front of the house. After a few steps, Kenley looked back to see if he had followed her orders.

Just that fast, the driver had driven away to the servants' quarters. He reared his seat back to take a nap. He figured this was going to be a long evening.

Kenley dashed through a walking path attached to the house. She made her way behind a palmetto tree. Under a fake patch of grass hid a trap door. She twisted the lock and pulled the door open.

Making her way into the wine cellar, she reached out into the darkness for a string hanging from a light to turn it on.

She could see the rows of wine bottles labeled by dates on the wine shelves. It had been a long time since she had come down to the wine cellar. Her father had forbidden her from going in there. He told her it was not a place for a young girl to be.

Kenley walked down a narrow hallway to get to the stairs that led to the ground floor of the house. She stopped at a bookshelf that stood against the wall. It was filled with books.

Browsing the collection of romance books, she saw that there was a journal in the midst of the books. She took it out and opened the first page. Her mother's name, Alana Houston, was written in script on the page.

The young Houston realized that this was her mother's personal journal. Alana dated each page of her thoughts. Kenley read the first note in her mother's handwriting.

I know Rupert loves me but he can't be true to me. He has a love for other women. He doesn't think I know it, but I do. It hurts. But he's such a good man that I forgive him for his unfaithful ways. I know the baby Tessa is carrying is his. I'm appalled because I'm with child while his whore is, too. I could never tell Rupert I know the truth. Maybe he loves
her and if I uttered a word to him he would disown me and put her in my place. I'll just keep it to myself. He's good to me, and I don't want to show I don't appreciate him. I will continue being the sweet and loving wife he married. Let him have his fun. I can live with it for the sake of my family.

Kenley was annoyed. “Mother, it's not all right. You knew, and yet you let Father run wild. I can't wait to tell Milandra and Noelle that you knew about Father's other women.”

Kenley read many of her notes. But the note that touched her most was one of the most recent:
I know my heart is weak. Any little upsetting thing can shut it down. But what keeps my precious heart beating are my loving daughters. My girls and my home have been my strength to overlook the evildoing that I've allowed Rupert to get away with.

Kenley wiped a tear from her eye. She was more determined to get Aniyah out of the house.
The estate had been nurtured by Mother's hand, not Father's mistresses.

Kenley left the journal on a table. She left it in sight for her to take with her when she was ready to leave.

Tiptoeing quietly up the staircase, Kenley heard voices when she reached the top step. She opened the door and saw Aniyah and Baron in the midst of an argument. She realized that he must have driven up while she was in the wine cellar.

Aniyah was dressed in a white baby doll gown. Baron was still suited from work. Kenley listened to their conversation.

“I think you know, as well as I do, we're not a match. Your father has left you a nice home. You seem to like Pete, so move on,” Baron said.

Aniyah yelled, pointing her finger at him, “I'm training that young thang. And don't tell me what I should or shouldn't do. It's not your call. I call the shots when it comes down to what I want. You'll
come whenever I call you because I have the picture of you and my sister.”

Kenley watched as Aniyah stepped out of her lingerie and flung her arms around Baron's neck.

Aniyah smothered his lips.

Baron thought of Tessa being at his home. “I'm not having this,” he said as he took her arms away.

Aniyah grabbed his crotch. “This is payback for the way you rich men treat us common women.”

Baron held her tightly by her right wrist. “I said I'm not having this anymore.”

He hurried out of the house to keep from revealing that he knew the truth about her. Instead, he would leave Tessa to handle her niece.

Aniyah slipped her clothes back on. She hollered out the door at him as he drove away. “We'll see about that.”

Miss Half definitely has serious mental problems, Kenley thought as she watched and listened.

Aniyah came back into the house and made a call for a driver. She stood at the door until the driver appeared. “Come in here.” She waved at him.

The driver removed his hat as he entered. Aniyah thought that he was gorgeous. The spice of silver mixed with black in his hair turned her on. She dropped her lingerie to the floor.

“How about it, driver, would you like to drive in my car?” She giggled.

The driver trembled; his eyes were glued to the curves of her body. His eyes popped opened when he saw the plumpness of her breasts. Over the years, his wife's breasts had found their way going in the same direction of the region he lived in—south.

“I can't, Miss Sanchez, I'm a married man. My wife also works for the estate,” he said nervously as he dashed out of the door.

Aniyah ran outside bare bodied. “You and your damn old wife are both fired.” She slammed the door.

“Pete,” Aniyah screamed, “where are you, darling? I need your services. Mama is hot!”

Kenley stayed put until she watched Pete and Aniyah go down the hall in the direction of the staircase toward the mediation room on the lower level. She knew they would be busy taking care of Aniyah's sexual needs.

Kenley decided to snoop around. The photo on her father's computer of her sister and Baron had to come from Aniyah, and she intended to search for it. She thought that this had to make her father angry when he had received it, especially since he wanted to be the one to find the perfect man for his daughter.

She dashed upstairs to Aniyah's bedroom. She checked her computer for the image. She found it in her picture file and deleted it.

It did not take long before Kenley found a box in the closet with plenty of lingerie in it. She dug to the bottom of the box. There was a manila envelope. Inside the envelope was the photo Aniyah had altered. Kenley needed her email and password to log onto her Internet account. She scrambled through the box until she found a small, white envelope labeled
PERSONAL
. She looked inside the envelope and found a slip with Aniyah's email address and password. “Dummy,” she said, running back to the computer and logged on to the Internet. She searched her email. There she found the email to her father. She deleted it.

Kenley made her way out of the room with the manila envelope in her hand.

About the time she got to the staircase that led downstairs, she
heard Aniyah's voice. She ran to the west wing of the house to her room and peeked out.

Aniyah and Pete played lovebirds up the stairs all the way to the east wing. Once they vanished into the room, Kenley made her way to the wine cellar. She picked up the journal and left through the secret passage.

Running all the way to the servants' quarters, Kenley was out of breath. Her hair became drenched as it sweated from the heat. She tapped on the window of the limo and startled the driver as he was asleep. He jumped up and saw her face leaning against the window.

“Open up,” Kenley called.

The driver unlocked the door, then got out to open the door for her, but Kenley had already gotten into the limo.

He looked into his rearview mirror at her in the back seat. He asked, “Miss Houston, is everything okay?”

“Get me to the Houston Villa as fast as you can,” she said as she fumbled in a cooler to wet the dryness in her mouth with an ice-cold bottle of water.

Kenley tiptoed into the villa but Milandra caught her. “Where have you been, young lady?”

“I went to the estate.”

“It's appalling that you like being around that common trash.”

“Actually, I hate her,” Kenley said angrily.

Noelle came into the room with rollers in her hair and overheard her. “You can't go around hating people.”

“You're going to hate her, too. I'm a great detective,” Kenley said.

“What have you been investigating?” Milandra asked.

“See this?” She held out the journal. “This is Mother's diary. In her own words she said she loved us. That's what she says in it.”

“Hand it here,” Milandra, snatching it out of her hand.

“What's in the envelope?” Noelle inquired as she helped herself to it.

Kenley tried to take it back, but Noelle had already taken the photo out of the envelope.

Noelle stared at the photo of her kissing Baron in their birthday suits.

She leaned against the wall. “Where did you get this?”