52. Corinthians
Corinthians
It was one thing knowing that the parents of my cousins' friends knew my parents. Being in the same room with them was a totally different experience. I sat next to Uri, watching everyone, looking for that one tell that they were just as fucked up as my parents were. I never found anything. There were a few faces that I’d never seen here too.
Tulane Forrester; his daughter was Yale and she’s Amethyst’s best friend.
Carmen Carter, her niece, played basketball with Mercy as kids and now plays in the WNBA as well.
After I dropped off Uri at the airport this morning, I called Bradon and told him I wanted to meet with everyone. As much as I wanted Uri around, I needed answers, and I wasn’t going to wait.
“Corinthians?”
I looked up from my hands to see Bradon and the rest of them staring at me. “Yes?”
“We didn’t know,” he said.
“About?” I’d zoned out. I didn’t know what they were talking about.
“The abuse,” he said and nodded. He’d already told me he didn’t know. “None of us knew.”
“And it wasn’t our responsibility,” Tulane interrupted. I cut my eyes at him and lifted my brow.
“Tulane!” Xayne glared at him. “You’re pushing your luck right now.”
“My luck?” he laughed. “Xayne, let’s stop the bullshit for a second. She wants the truth, right? Then, let's give it to her.” Tulane turned back to me. “We didn’t know. Not in the beginning. We found out in the end.”
“Why does that sound like bullshit?” I asked, looking around the room. “The signs were all there. The bruises, anger, tears, the way they cut us off from everyone. Did y’all not know, or was the money good enough for y’all to turn a blind eye?”
“We didn’t know,” Xayne said. “I will be the first to admit I had my own shit going on with my sister that I wasn’t paying attention to shit else around me. My focus was getting her better.”
“Yet your kids weren’t fighting for their fucking lives,” I told him. “Just us. We were fighting. And my sister?” I laughed humorlessly to keep from crying. “She was being groomed to be a fucking sex slave to Jonathan.”
“There’s nothing we can say to make any of it right,” Tulane said, shaking his head. “We fucked up. We know that. And I swear we tried to make it right.”
“Why the hell are you the spokesperson for this meeting?” I asked, annoyed.
“Because I’m the only one who doesn’t care about your feelings being hurt,” he answered with a shrug. “You called us here despite Four asking us to meet after he got back. You wanted the truth, no holds barred. I’m going to give it to you. It’s the fatherly truth in me.”
“Fatherly truth? Aren’t you a deadbeat?” I asked him.
My brow went up, and I leaned forward. “I may not talk to your daughter a lot, but I know I remember her saying that she didn’t grow up with a father.
That you got her mama pregnant and disappeared.
Yet somehow, she wasn’t touched either, Tulane. How is that?”
“Robert doesn’t know about my daughters.”
“You’re out of your mind if you believe that,” I said.
Uri mentioned that his therapist was Tulane’s daughter.
I’d been confused at first, then he explained that dynamic and how his uncle set it up.
“He knows about Berkeley, Spelman, Yale, and Clarke just like everyone else in this room does. A four-time deadbeat?” I laughed and clapped. “Father of the fucking year.”
“Five,” Carmen Cater said. I remembered her from being at Mercy and Vine’s games.
She always made sure her niece had someone in the stands to cheer her on.
Now, looking back, I could see the hesitation she had when I was around.
It wasn’t fear, more so curiosity and a little sadness in her eyes.
I always wondered why; now I got it. She knew what I’d been through.
“He has another daughter, but she’s MIA. ”
“The only one who’s truly at peace,” I said, watching Tulane. His nostrils flared, and he ran his tongue over his teeth. He didn’t like that we were discussing his children. Good. Now he was on alert. Nothing was a damn secret anymore.
“Don’t speak on my daughter.”
“Or what?” I asked him. My hand went to my purse, and I pulled out the blade that I kept there.
I leaned back, resting my elbow on the arm of the chair and twirling my blade through my fingers.
“Huh, Tulane?” I gave him a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.
“Because I can tell you right now you don’t scare me.
I’ve been through hell and survived it.”
“This isn’t how I thought this meeting would go,” Bradon said, shaking his head.
“How did you think it would go, Bradon?” I slowly turned my attention to him.
There was something about Tulane that rubbed me the wrong way.
His eyes were shifty. He knew more than what he was letting on.
“Because I honestly can’t see this meeting going well by any means.
You all turned a blind eye to the shit that your friends were doing. ”
“We didn’t know shit,” Tulane spat. “We thought Robert and Logan were running SP to the ground, not running a fucking fighting and sex ring. We were focused on that. Carmen was focused on her niece and nephew after her brother was killed. I was helping Bradon with SP. Xayne was worried about his sister. Xia kept Robert and Logan out of jail because they were always in TR like they were hood niggas. We had shit going on.”
“And we were being fought like fucking dogs!” I yelled and slammed my hand on the table. “My sister and Gentle were being groomed! And you’re trying to tell me none of y’all knew anything? You didn’t see shit?” I laughed. “Come the fuck on.”
“And where were your grandparents during all this?” Tulane asked with a triumphant smile. “Huh? You keep pointing your finger at us, but where the hell were your grandparents when all this shit was happening?”
“They didn’t know,” I said, shaking my head.
“You sure?” he asked with a smirk. “Because you are so quick to give them the benefit of the doubt but not us, why is that? They saw y’all all the time. How come you aren’t questioning them?”
“Tulane,” Bradon voice was low and dangerous.
“Nah, let’s ask the real fucking questions around here.
I hate to be that person, but she needs to ask the people around her the same questions she’s asking us.
” Tulane sat forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“You are angry; I’m not taking that from you.
What happened to y’all was fucked up. Like I said earlier, ain’t no apology gonna ever be enough but y’all wasn’t our responsibility.
At least not mine. Four and Trey were Bradon’s; he looked out for them.
But you and your sister? That’s on your grandparents.
Not us. I did what I could to take care of my daughters.
You ain’t gotta agree, but everybody in this room did what they thought was the best for their family. ”
“My grandparents didn’t know,” I said, shaking my head.
“You sure?” he asked. “Because all this ain’t our fault.”
“My grandparents didn’t know!” I stood and yelled. “They didn’t know!”
“They killed your parents!” Tulane jumped from his chair and yelled. And there it was. What he was holding back, what no one else wanted to admit out loud.
He slammed his hand on the table so hard I instinctively reached across the table and stabbed him in the hand. He screamed in pain, but I didn’t move.
“Say it again,” I said, locking eyes with him. “Say it again!”
“Your grandparents killed your parents,” he said. His jaw flexed, and the vein in his forehead throbbed. His face was flush from the pain, but he was trying to hold strong. “They are responsible for your parents’ death.”
“Why?”
“Because they knew what they were doing.”
I looked around the table. No one would look at me, which told me that Tulane wasn’t lying. My grandparents knew what was going on. I’d been protecting them from a truth they already knew.
“Corinthians,” Bradon said from beside me.
I don’t know when he moved, but his standing next to me was Tulane’s only saving grace.
I wanted to climb across the table and wrap my hands around his throat.
I didn’t plan to let go until I was sure his soul left his body.
I looked at Bradon’s hand on my arm and then into his eyes.
“They knew?” I asked even though I could tell from the look in his eyes that he didn’t want to lie to me.
“Let’s talk,” he replied.
I shook my head, let out a small laugh, then pulled my knife from Tulane’s hand. He quickly took off his jacket and wrapped his hand.
“We didn’t want you to find out like that,” Micah Stone said. He cut his eyes to Tulane. “We agreed they would be the ones to tell you.”
“I don’t want to hear anything else,” I said, stepping away from the table.
“I keep to myself. I don’t bother anyone.
I’m never around y’all. I want to keep it that way.
” I dropped my blade into my purse, then picked it up.
“Nothing changes.” I looked at Bradon. Uri wasn’t here; I needed him.
Doing this meeting without him was a mistake.
“Corinthians”
“I need to go see my grandparents,” I told him. “I need to hear them say they knew.”
***
I sat in my grandparents' driveway, wanting my heart to slow down.
My mouth was dry, and my stomach kept twisting.
I was scared but angry. Once Tulane dropped the bomb that my grandparents killed my parents, I was done.
I needed to talk to them. Look them in their eyes and hear them say they knew and let us suffer.
I loved them more than I loved my parents, but right now I hated them just as much.
Psalms texted me earlier and said that she was at Cross’s house with Judah, hanging out with a few of the cousins. So, I knew my grandparents were alone.