Chapter 40 Ava #2
Dawn ended up moving into Troy’s house because it was bigger than her place. She was renting her house out, and I must admit, I missed having her right down the street from me.
“Do you want me to come over to help you again? I really don’t mind.”
“That would be great. I need to finish unpacking the kitchen and my closet. Troy’s been cleaning out the spare room we picked for the baby. I can’t believe I’m almost eight months already. Now it’s crunch time.”
“That’s so exciting! You sound like you’re in that nesting stage.”
“Probably so.” She laughed.
“I’m surprised you’re still working,” I said. “I don’t see how you can be on your feet all day like that.”
“I actually cut my clientele down a lot. I only do braids now, and I have this chick named Crystal that helps me out. Then I sit the whole time I braid, so it’s really not that bad.”
“Oh, I was about to say. ‘Cause that’s a lot.”
“Troy wants me to stop doing hair completely by the end of this month to get ready for the baby.”
“That makes plenty of sense. Has Monica still been on her bullshit?”
“Girl, her new thing is she calls up to the shop talking crazy. Troy snapped out on her twice already about it, but she keeps doing it. She’s lucky I’m pregnant, otherwise I’d kick her ass!”
“Don’t start, D. Please don’t be out in the streets fighting while you’re with child.”
“Girl, I’m not. I’m just saying,” Dawn responded. “How’s it been going with you and Kevin?”
“Things are amazing. I don’t have any regrets.”
“That’s good. Ouuu…shit!” Dawn cursed.
“You good?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just pulled up to the shop, and I have to pee something serious. It never fails I tell ya!”
“Too funny!” I giggled. “Just call me later.”
“What the hell?” Dawn roared. “What the fuck are you doing here, Monica!” I heard Dawn yell.
“What was that shit you was talkin’ the other day?” I heard a female’s voice that must have been Monica respond.
“I just know you didn’t bring your ass up to my place of business with this bullshit! Didn’t Troy tell you to stay in your place when it came to addressing me!” Dawn snapped.
After that, all I heard was someone yell out the word bitch a few times followed by some tussling and screaming.
“Now what, bitch! Now what!” I heard the Monica chick yell.
When Dawn didn’t respond, I started yelling her name in the phone.
“Dawn! DAWN! Dawn, answer me, sis!” I continued to scream, but she didn’t answer.
Pulling up to the school, I quickly parked my car, then ran up to Kevin. He was standing at the front entrance as he did every morning.
“Call 9-1-1 and send them to Dawn’s shop. Something’s happened to her!” I shouted before he could say anything.
I didn’t take into consideration that there were crowds of students by the door that heard me.
The adrenaline that was coursing through my body overrode the chance of me being mindful to who heard me.
I was mortified by what I had just heard.
Kevin called over one of the other security guards to man the door then pulled me to the side of building where there were less people.
The whole time I was talking in the phone hoping Dawn could hear me.
I was letting her know that I was sending help her way.
“What the hell is going on?”
“That Monica girl just did something to Dawn at the salon. I was on the phone when she attacked her!” I cried.
Kevin immediately pulled out his phone and called the police.
I had to give him the address to the salon.
Then he took me to his truck and told me to sit there and to not move.
Walking off then coming back, he told me that he let the principal know on my behalf that we had a family emergency and needed to leave immediately.
I was thankful for that because I hadn’t even thought about letting the principal know I wasn’t going to be able to come in today.
Pulling out of the parking space, we headed toward Dawn’s salon.
Dawn’s phone was still connected to the call, but I couldn’t hear anything.
A few minutes after Kevin called the police, I heard the sirens through her phone as they approached her shop.
We were less than five minutes away when I heard EMT voices on the scene.
The whole time Dawn didn’t make a sound, and that let me know that it was bad… very bad.
One of the EMTs must have accidentally hung up her phone, and by the time they were calling me back, we were pulling up on the scene. Instead of answering the phone, I jumped out of Kevin’s truck and ran up to the ambulance.
“Ma’am, you need to stand back,” one of the police officers said, rushing up to me and Kevin.
“That’s my sister! What happened? Is she okay? I was on the phone with her when it happened! Is she okay?!” I hollered, crying at the same time.
Taking a closer look, I saw Tate step off the back of the ambulance truck. It would be just our luck that he’d be on-call and the EMT at my sister’s aid.
“Ava!” Tate said walking up to me. “It’s okay, she’s with us,” Tate told the officer so that he would allow for me and Kevin to come closer to where he was standing behind the ambulance.
“What happened? Is my sister okay?” I cried.
I could tell that Tate was a little uncomfortable by the way he kept looking at me, but once he saw that I could care less about anything other than my sister, he seemed to loosen up.
“It’s not good. How far along is your sister in her pregnancy?”
“Almost eight months… why, what happened?” I asked again. Looking past him in front of the shop, I happened to look down and saw a puddle of blood. “I keep asking, and you ain’t tellin’ me what happened to my sister!” I screamed.
“Ava, baby, you gotta calm down,” Kevin soothed.
“She was stabbed in the stomach and chest cavity,” Tate said with a very solemn look on his face. By the way he was looking at me, I could tell that it wasn’t good. Instantly, I got weak in the knees.
Kevin had to catch me as I stumbled almost falling to my face. “I wanna see her! Can I see my sister?”
“We really need to get going and get her to the hospital A.S.A.P.,” Tate responded.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, breaking down crying again. “That crazy bitch Monica did this shit! I can’t believe she stabbed my pregnant sister!” I continued to cry.
“I’ll let the police cruiser that’s going to escort us to the hospital let you follow us.”
“Come on, Ava, let’s go get in the truck so they can leave. They need to get Dawn to the hospital right away. Come on so we can follow them,” Kevin said, taking me by the hand, leading me to his truck.
One of the police officers wanted me to stay behind to answer questions because he overheard me say that I was on the phone when it happened, accusing Monica of doing the stabbing.
But I refused. As much as I wanted to help them get that bitch, I needed to get to the hospital.
I told them that I would answer all questions after I got to the hospital.
Opening the passenger’s side door for me then shutting it after I got in, Kevin jumped in the driver’s seat then quickly pulled behind the ambulance.
As we followed them to the hospital, he called Troy on his Bluetooth.
I zoned out as I heard Kevin tell Troy that Monica stabbed Dawn.
While he was on the phone with Troy, they both wanted me to tell them what I heard while I was on the phone with Dawn.
I told them I heard Monica confront Dawn when she got out of her car then tussling and screaming before Monica said, “Now what, bitch! Now what!”
Her voice kept repeating itself, over and over again in my head. “Now what, bitch! Now what!” I knew at that point my sister was seriously injured because she wasn’t even responding, and that wasn’t like her.
As we pulled up to the hospital, I prayed to God that she and the baby were both going to make it and be okay.
My heart couldn’t take losing either one of them.
Dawn was all I had family wise. There was no way I could picture my life without her in it.
After parking, we ran into the emergency room and announced who we were.
Not even five minutes later, Troy came barging through the door looking like the Tasmanian devil.
“Where is she!” he roared.
Kevin tried to calm him down, but it was to no avail.
But when Troy noticed me, he gave me a hug then started to calm down a little.
Kevin explained to him what we knew so far, and he asked me to repeat to him what I heard over the phone again.
As we were talking, two police officers pulled us into a private family room inside the waiting area.
They let the nurse know where we were in case the doctors that were working on Dawn came looking for us with an update.
While we were in the room, I went over everything I heard including the part when Dawn yelled out Monica’s name more than once, and Monica responded to it.
What was also going to help confirm my story was Dawn had CCTV cameras that actually worked at her shop.
There was a camera that was pointing directly at her and Monica during the attack.
Thank God for that! Without the security footage, it would have been my word against Monica’s. The video matched my story to a tee.
Once Troy provided the office with a couple more pictures of Monica, he told them that they had better find her before he did.
I could tell by the look on his face and tone of his voice that he was serious.
The officers left with the promise of having more than enough evidence to arrest her while the three of us impatiently waited for an update on Dawn.
As we sat inside the room in silence there was a small knock on the door. I felt like my heart stopped, skipping a few beats before starting back up again. When Kevin opened the door, it was Tate.