Vexed 3, page 3
“I’m telling y’all, some thugged-out knucklehead done popped her li’l cherry, and now she thinks she’s in love. Nahima is sprung on the ding-dong. I wonder who the little punk is. And I hope like hell he’s got enough sense to strap up before he goes deep. Otherwise, Venus and Charles better get ready for a grandbaby, or worse, Nahima is going to contract HIV or some other sexually transmitted disease.”
“No! The devil is a liar!” Aunt Jackie locked eyes with Zach from across the kitchen table. “I need you to talk to her. I’ll fast and pray, but I need you to go over to Venus and Charles’s house and talk to your niece to—”
“Nope.” Zach folded his arms and shook his head. “I ain’t going over there to talk to that child. I’ll end up shooting her.”
“I ain’t asking you, boy. I am telling you to go and talk to your niece.”
“I’m not going near Nahima, because she’s too disrespectful. And if she says something out of her neck to me, I’ll kill her. Then I’ll end up in the pen like my crazy sister, her demonic mama, and my children will be fatherless. Sorry, Auntie, I will not sacrifice my children’s stability to save Jay’s child. I have cleaned up my sister’s messy mistakes over and over again all my adult life. Hell, I even gave her vindictive ass a kidney after she paid a man to kill me and kidnapped my wife and planned to kill her. And y’all know I didn’t want to adopt her son. But didn’t I do it? Did I not adopt Jalen as my own?”
Jill reached over and grabbed her husband’s hand and squeezed it as she nodded her head.
“Yes, you did, Zach. We all know you’ve sacrificed a lot for Jay.” Aunt Jackie was in tears at this point.
“Yeah, I have. So I think I’ve done enough for my sister and her children. That’s why I’m done. I ain’t doing nothing else unless God breaks me down and tells me different.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Nahima and pray for her,” Aunt Jackie uttered just above a whisper. “She’s my flesh and blood, and I love her. I won’t give up on my precious great-niece just like I would never give up on you.”
* * *
“Daddy, I want my big, big sister to come to our house and help me make cookies again. Will you call her for me?”
Zach closed the EllRay Jakes book he’d just finished reading to Jalen and placed it on the nightstand. He looked down at his sweet baby boy and got lost in his big ol’ steel gray eyes. They always turned his heart to ice cream at the wrong damn time. Two days ago, Zach had sworn off Nahima, fearing that any contact with her would cost him his freedom. That was just how much her foul behavior and stank-ass attitude got under his skin. He simply didn’t want her in his presence right now. It was too risky. But Nahima was his niece, whom he loved dearly in spite of her flaws, and she was Jalen’s biological sister. The love in Zach’s heart for both of them wouldn’t allow him to keep them apart.
“Please, Daddy?”
“Okay, buddy, I’ll call Nahima and ask her to come over and bake cookies with you.”
Jalen instantly started giggling. Then he balled up his little hand into a fist, tapped his heart three times, offered it to his daddy for a pound, and said, “You my dawg.”
“You’re Daddy’s dawg too, my man.” Zach mimicked his son’s gesture and bumped his little fist with his. “Good night, Jalen. I love you.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
* * *
“He told me before he’ll let me end up like you, he would kill my ass!”
Zach’s threat to Nahima was messing with Jay’s head. The little speck of peace that she had finally found in the middle of the lowest point in her life had been slipping away from her ever since she’d learned about him choking her child and screaming hateful bullshit to her. Venus was wrong as hell to have allowed a grown-ass man—uncle or not—to cuss out her 15-year-old daughter and assault her without reporting the incident to the authorities. And what kind of father was Charles? He should’ve kicked Zach’s ass for what he did to Nahima. That was what any real father would have done.
Jay flipped over on her newly approved air mattress to lie on her back. It wasn’t hurting as much tonight as it had been earlier in the week. Sheftall had finally received permission from the powers-that-be to allow Dr. Dalrymple to prescribe her the pain medication she’d needed for her back. It was about damn time. Being in prison with poor health was punishment enough. Living in excruciating pain every damn day had made it inhumane.
Thank God for Aunt Jackie, who had signed paperwork agreeing to pay for 20 percent of her medications every month. Otherwise, Jay would’ve been in deep shit. Zach wouldn’t even fart on her if she needed to stink in order to live, and it had been so long since she had reached out to her father that he had probably written her off too. So her aunt was the only person on God’s green earth besides Nahima who gave a damn about her. And they were the only two people plus her baby boy who she truly cared about.
As the pain meds tugged on Jay’s eyelids, she started her nightly routine of imagining what her life would look like today if she hadn’t made certain decisions. She wondered every day if she and Venus would still be together if she had tried to love Nahima and given parenthood a fighting chance. Would she and Jill have lasted if they had stayed in Jamaica? Maybe if they hadn’t moved in with Zach when they got to the States, they would’ve made it. Jill damn sure wouldn’t have found out that Nahima was Jay’s biological daughter, and she never would’ve been seduced by her disloyal brother. Then there would’ve been no need for her to steal from her job to pay for the hit she’d taken out on Zach. So in retrospect, leaving Jamaica to stop Venus from marrying Charles was the biggest mistake of Jay’s life. That one decision was the beginning of her darkest days.
Jay allowed that thought to sink in deep as sleep began to swaddle her like a warm blanket. No matter how much she wanted to blame others for her downfall, it was her fault that she was in prison. There were no two ways about it. Of course, she would never say it out loud to another living soul, but it was the gospel truth. And looking back on it, Jay’s plan to throw a monkey wrench in Venus’s plan to marry Charles had been stupid as hell. How in the world was she supposed to have won her ex back when she’d brought her current bitch to Atlanta with her? Jay had acted on impulse back then without a plan. And because of that, she would live the remainder of her pathetic life in Leesworth. Or would she?
Medical science and the federal justice system said she would, but . . .
Jay’s eyes popped wide open against the force of gravity on her heavy eyelids. Maybe Gracie’s idea wasn’t nonsense after all. If a dumb bitch could be sprung from the pen because of her low IQ, why couldn’t Jay’s sentence be cut short because of her failing health?
Chapter Five
Nahima trotted down the stairs wearing a light blue denim miniskirt, an orange halter top, and a pair of gold strappy sandals with a medium wedge heel. The designer backpack she had begged Charles to buy for her was hanging from both wing straps on her left shoulder. Recently, she’d begun to experiment with makeup, and the YouTube tutorials she constantly watched seemed to be paying off. Nahima’s thick eyebrows had been arched to perfection above her flawlessly applied eye shadow in three brilliant earth tones. The bronze, nutmeg, and rust complemented her light brown eyes while the gold lipstick gave her mouth that shiny, pouty appeal that white girls had been paying plastic surgeons a grip to create for them for decades. Those high King cheekbones were accented with golden bronze blush like a pro makeup artist had worked his or her magic. The child looked gorgeous.
Venus cleared her throat as little Miss MAC Counter headed for the front door. “Remember if you aren’t back in this house by nine o’clock sharp, your daddy and I will take your phone, laptop, iPad, and both of your game consoles. And instead of going to Orlando for a week in July with Yashia and her family, you’ll be in Raleigh with your grandfather while Charles and I enjoy the trip without you. I’m not playing, Nahima. You got it?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Venus walked over to her daughter and pulled her into her arms for a hug. “No matter what you’re going through, please know that your daddy and I love you very much. Nothing will ever change that.”
Nahima’s petite body stiffened in her mother’s embrace, but Venus didn’t care. She held on to her only child anyway because she truly did love her. Although Nahima’s behavior and the venomous words she had starting spewing from her mouth lately were making it more difficult by the day for her mother to express her love, she was hopeful that it was just a teenage phase that would soon pass. If that weren’t the case, Venus didn’t know what the hell she and Charles were going to do.
Zach, who had been a major player in Nahima’s village since the day she was born, had decided to take a break from his uncle/godfather duties. Venus couldn’t blame him though, because he had his own children to raise and a wife. No man in his right mind would put up with a bunch of ratchetness from his teenage niece when he didn’t have to. So his decision to step away from Nahima for a while was completely understandable.
The sound of a car horn pulled Venus out of her thoughts. She took a backward step with her arms still encircling her daughter. She smiled at Nahima when she looked into her eyes despite the scowl on the child’s face. More than ever before, she was determined that whatever was causing her baby girl to act out would not win. Venus would fight for the soul of her child by any means necessary. She would not give up and let drugs, sex, bad grades, and a nasty attitude destroy Nahima. With God’s help, she and Charles would do everything they could to help her make the turnaround she so desperately needed.
“That’s Yashia,” Nahima said softly.
“Okay. Go on. I’ll see you at nine o’clock. I love you, baby.”
“Bye.”
Nahima opened the door and rushed outside with Venus right behind her. She even started running up the walkway and waving her hand like a maniac at her BFF, Yashia Taylor. Nahima was acting like she hadn’t seen the girl in ten years even though school had been dismissed only two hours ago. Surely, they had spent plenty of time together throughout the day. After all, the two girls took advanced fashion design and creation together, which was their third-period class that led into lunch. That was their downtime when they always shared a table with the other members of their small clique.
Once Nahima was in the passenger’s seat of the black late-model Toyota Corolla, Venus smiled and waved at the girls. Yashia honked the horn before she pulled off. The BFFs were on their way to the studio owned by their sewing mentor, Mrs. Marsha Stephens, to work on their big project, which was due in a little less than a month. Nahima had come up with the great idea to design and create a jumpsuit that could be worn interchangeably. One side was going to have silver sequins, and the flip side would be black faux leather. Nahima had bragged that this original garment would allow a woman to have a casual and formal outfit in one piece.
Venus sighed as she made her way back inside the house. How could such a beautiful, smart, and talented girl have turned into a rebellious gangster in a matter of months? It was like someone had cast a wicked spell on her precious little girl, turning her into an alien or a beast from hell. Venus couldn’t wrap her mind around the sudden changes in Nahima. But a faint yet powerful voice deep down inside her soul had often reminded her over the years of one simple truth that could not be ignored. It was a fact that Venus had never spoken to anyone, not even Charles and especially not to Zach. The connotation was much too heavy to even think about, painful even. But it had constantly nagged at her from the first moment she’d held Nahima in her arms nearly sixteen years ago.
Venus shivered and gasped out loud against the mysterious chill that crept up her spine as she headed toward the kitchen to finish preparing dinner for Charles. She tried to block out the words that persistently haunted her regardless of how great a life God had blessed her with. Some things were simply inevitable and could not be avoided. Genetics was real and superseded acquired characteristics and learned behavior. The realization hit Venus like she had just run headfirst at full speed into a mountain, causing tears to spill like a waterfall from her eyes.
Nahima is Jay’s biological daughter!
* * *
“Make a right at the next traffic light.”
Yashia took her eyes off the road for a hot second to peep at Nahima. “For what? That ain’t the way to Mrs. Stephens’s studio.”
“I know,” Nahima agreed with a sheepish grin on her face. “I told Santana I would swing by his boy’s spot to holla at him for a minute on our way.”
“Oops, you lied about that.”
Nahima jerked her head in her bestie’s direction. “Are you for real right now?”
“Dead-ass,” Yashia snapped and drove straight through the traffic light instead of turning right.
“I would’ve done it for you, but I guess you forgot about all those times I covered for you so you could lie up with Dondrae.”
“No, I haven’t. I remember and I appreciated it, but you can’t compare Dondrae to Santana.”
“So you think Dondrae is better than Santana? Is your man some kind of angel or superhero? Girl, bye!”
“First of all, Dondrae is a senior in high school who is only a year older than me. He makes good grades and plays baseball like a pro, which landed him a scholarship to Georgia Southern. Santana is a twenty-two-year-old thug with a record and warrants who sells weed, steals cars, and trains pit bulls for a living. Did he even finish middle school?”
“Not every girl wants a lame-ass virgin mama’s boy for their man.” Nahima busted out laughing. “You were Dondrae’s first fuck, and he was yours! That is some pitiful shit right there.”
Yashia pulled into a parking space in front of the studio and killed the engine. Then she looked at her friend and wrinkled her nose as if somebody had just shit in her car. “Nah, what’s some pitiful shit is that you lost your virginity to a street nigga in a stolen car in an alley over in Ridgewood and was bleeding so bad because he rode you like you were an animal that you had to lie and tell your sweet old auntie that your period was on so she could buy you some sanitary napkins because that nigga said he didn’t have time to take you to the store!”
“You didn’t have to go there, Yashia. That’s real fucked up. I trusted you with my business.”
“And I haven’t told anybody, either. But you ain’t gonna sit up in my car and talk shit about my man without me coming for your ass. And anyway, I care about you, Nahima. You’re my girl. I just think you are making a big mistake by sneaking around with that Santana dude. You’re way too pretty and smart for him. Do you know how many fine-ass guys at our school wanna get with you? Rashawn Gibson is feeling you deep, and every dude at Westwood Park knows it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like him or any other little silly boy at our school.”
“Look, bestie, you need to let that fool Santana go, because he ain’t been nothing but trouble for you since y’all hooked up. Where did you meet him anyway?”
Nahima smiled with a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes. “I saw him showing off a dog he had trained on the Gram. He posted videos of the dog before he trained him and afterward. Bae got skills, girl. He turned that dog from a wild animal into a family pet. The owner paid him seven hundred dollars, too.”
“Whatever. You still didn’t tell me how y’all met. You saw him on the Gram and then what?”
“I shot him DMs with some pictures from my birthday photo shoot when I saw he was from Ridgewood. Then we started messaging each other back and forth until he asked for my number. That’s when we started calling and FaceTiming every day. We finally met face-to-face at Dave & Buster’s when we met Kela and her crew there for Cole’s birthday party. I sat outside with him in a fire-ass Escalade the whole time except for the first ten minutes after my daddy dropped me off.”
“And it was love at first sight, huh?”
“Kinda,” Nahima said with a big smile on her face. “We kissed and I let him suck my nipples and eat my pussy. It felt so—”
“Ewww, so this nigga just runs around licking random bitches’ pussies? That shit is nasty as hell! Yuck!”
“No, he doesn’t do that. He ate my pussy because he knew I was a virgin. Bae said I was special and he wanted to be my first everything. Santana really loves me, Yashia. I know you don’t believe it, but he does.”
“No, I don’t believe that buster loves you. And if you believe it, you’re a damn fool. Come on, let’s go inside and work on our project.”
Chapter Six
“Aw, thanks so much, Zach.” Venus swiped at her tears with her fingertips. “I understand. You were already exhausted and pissed when you got here because Nahima hadn’t come home. And when you heard her call me a bitch, you just snapped. I get it. So you shook her up a bit, but you didn’t kill her. To tell you the truth, I think you put the fear of God in her, and I appreciate it. So there ain’t no need for you to apologize to me, because Charles and I understand.”
“Yeah, but I still needed to clear the air. And I definitely owe Nahima an apology for choking her. No grown man should ever put his hands on a little girl, period. That’s the only reason why I want to take her to breakfast before school tomorrow. I want to tell her I’m sorry.”
“I appreciate your concern and the gesture, and so will Charles. Now I don’t know how Nahima is going to feel about your invitation for her to spend the weekend with you, Jill, and the kids. She usually likes to hang out at Yashia’s house so they can meet up with their friends at the mall or the movie theater. Are you sure you and Jill can handle her for a whole weekend?”
“Yeah, we can handle her. We’ve got plenty of movies, all the game consoles, and I’ll cook or order her favorite foods like I used to do. Uncle Z will show Nahima a good time.”
“All that stuff was cool for the old Nahima. It’s hard to please the new version of my child no matter how hard you try. That girl is something else.”
