Prologue #2
“Call them you stupid ass bitch. Odeal, why haven’t you told the bitch about your wife of six years?”
I was so curious as to who deserved to be smacked first. Both were definitely getting touched.
“Liana, we can talk about this, but you can’t keep attacking Evelyn or me.”
“Odeal you are not serious right now. You should’ve been talking before you decided to cheat on your wife. I don’t want to fuckin talk now,” I said, grabbing the lamp on the entryway table and swinging it upside his head.
Clink.
The sound made me grin.
He stumbled back with a look of bewilderment before looking back and forth between his hands and me.
Through clenched teeth, Odeal instructed Evelyn to call the police on his wife.
The fuckin nerve. He stood in his entryway and looked at me while he did it, his expression pure disappointment, which stopped me cold.
The audacity of a man being disappointed in me in that particular moment short-circuited my brain entirely.
“Noeva,” I said softly.
“Larry is already on the way, baby.” Her voice was different now.
“Noeva, I, plea?—”
“Shh, I love you. And don’t say anything else to Odeal. Don’t say anything to the police that isn’t yes, sir, or no, sir. Hang up and turn your camera on, you know the drill.”
I hung up and stepped out into the hallway with the broken lamp still clenched in my hand, my palm burning around the handle.
My work badge was on the ground, and that made me sigh.
I was going to lose my damn job behind this shit.
The urge to do more damage was pushing on me, but I fought it. I’d done enough. I’d seen enough.
I stared at Odeal across the hallway and thought about what we had been to each other. Six years of cardigans, flat- ironed hair, and smaller portions. And let’s not forget swallowed opinions at dinner parties. But this was… this was the last straw.
Not only had you tried very hard to wipe away the very things that made me, me, but you got another woman pregnant.
I sat down on the floor of that hallway and waited for the police to come. Nothing but sheer will helped me hold myself together. I did not give Odeal Jordan the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I’d shoot him between the eyes before I ever allowed it.
“Jordan, you made bond.”
I was so thankful for Noeva calling my daddy.
The holding cell smelled like drunken mistakes and funky-ass Marlboro Reds.
I was disgusted at the piss in the corner and the dirty walls.
It took me forever to be processed, and Treece, the nice lady I met, told me that was the norm.
She was also arrested for domestic assault, but her first call was to her husband, who’d put her here.
My intuition told me this wasn’t a rare occurrence. But she was sweet.
During my twelve-hour hold, I thought about my caseload. I thought about how it probably wouldn’t matter. My job was a wash, and that was a truth I’d have to live with. A tear escaped my eyes, but I wiped it away quickly.
“Jordan, hello. I guess you don’t want to get out of here.”
The round cop laughed, and I snapped my head up.
“My bad.”
I exhaled when I stepped outside of the jail to find my father standing by his truck with a bag of greasy food.
“They say you got ‘em good.”
I grinned before running full speed to him, smothering him when I made it to his arms.
“With a lamp too.”
He laughed. He squeezed me tight and didn’t let go right away. I let him hold me because I needed it and because my daddy had never once in my life made me feel like needing him was an inconvenience.
“You eat?” he asked into my hair.
“No sir.”
“I figured. Let’s go.”
He handed me the bag before I even had my seatbelt on. Waffle House to-go, still warm. Scattered, smothered, covered. It was exactly how he had been ordering it for me since I was nine years old. I ate half of it before we even hit the interstate.
Here and there, he looked over, but he drove and let me eat without a word about Odeal or the lamp or the twelve hours or any of it.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m your father, and truthfully, I told you about Odeal. I don’t think you want to hear that.”
“I don’t but…”
“What’s next? The past is the past. Are you staying or are you coming home?”
“Come home to what, Daddy? What’s in Bloomington for me?”
“Well, your family for one.”
“I know, I’m sorry, Daddy. I just…I fucked up. I can’t run, but I damn sure can’t stay.”
“Alright, alright, let’s just decide for now. Hotel or home, Lee?”
I thought about it, but was too tired to figure it out.
“Home,” I said, settling against the window.
Within an hour, he nudged me, letting me know we’d made it home. Not my house I shared with Odeal. Home. I smiled as it came into view. I couldn’t wait to be wrapped in the warmth of it. I jumped out of the truck and rushed inside to hug my mama who was standing in the door.
“What have I told you about keeping your hands to yourself?”
“Don’t start none, won’t be none.”
“Exactly.” She stepped back and let her eyes roam my face. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, and she pulled me in for a hug.
“I missed you, Mama.”
“I missed you, too, baby. Come on, let’s get you settled.”
They put me in my old room with clean sheets, a BC powder, and a glass of water on the nightstand.
“The bar is yours,” he said, stopping my moving around. “Always was going to be. I was waiting for the right time.”
“Daddy, I literally just got out of jail. And I don’t know how to run the bar.”
“I know where you got out of.” He said it without any particular judgment. “And I know what put you there. That man has been making up his mind about you since he met you. I kept my mouth shut because it was your life. But I never taught you to lie down.”
“Yes sir I hear you. Can I think about it?”
“Yeah, take all the time you want. I love you, and I’m sorry.”
I hugged him again and kissed his cheek. “Don’t be. Good night, well morning.”
He kissed the top of my head. “Get some rest.”
I quickly undressed and jumped in the shower. It was imperative that I wash the day away before crawling into bed. I’d spent twelve hours in jail. I fought back the cry threatening to escape and said a prayer.
Sleep came to me like I had been unplugged. And maybe I had.