Nineteen
I t took less than five minutes for Jaxson to clear out the house. Tiffany looked as though she’d seen a ghost and developed a sudden case of laryngitis. Clarence went into protective mode, ready to defend. Jaxson hadn’t come down to fight anyone, especially someone with an arsenal of guns scattered around him. The brothers had looked at each other and done that telepathic thing unique to twins. As one, without a word between them, they began walking toward the door.
“We’ll see you in court,” Clarence said to Genesis, looking Jaxson up and down before making his exit.
“Remember the injunction,” Cleo added.
Tiffany glided over to where Genesis sat, giving Jaxson a look before addressing her cousin.
“I’m not lying,” she said, her eyes drifting to Jaxson again. “Ask him why he left Paradise Valley.”
The comment sent a chill through Jaxson. WTH? He silently followed them out the door, waited until they’d pulled away before returning inside. Told himself to not react to the taunts, that there was no way Tiffany knew about...that.
He’d not intended to come in the house at all. He’d seen the van pull up, watched the cousins get out and hadn’t liked the three-to-one ratio. He’d intended to stay invisible, in the periphery, to be near just in case Genesis needed his support. Looking now at a shell-shocked Genesis with silent tears once again streaming, Jaxson surmised he’d had the right idea.
He went into the kitchen, made a cup of chamomile tea and set it in front of Genesis. He sat down beside her, close but not touching. She needed time to gather her composure and her thoughts.
He sat back, waited.
Eventually, Genesis took a sip of tea. She began talking, looking straight ahead.
“Why would my cousin say what she said?”
“I don’t know.”
“How did she find out about...what happened back then?”
“I’m sorry for that.” Jaxson reached out to rub her shoulders. Genesis pulled back, ever so slightly. Jaxson tried to not take it personally, but it was obvious that the doubt, questions, suspicions planted in Genesis’s mind had taken root.
“Maybe a high school classmate who still lives in town. Quite of few of them do. Or someone who heard the rumor from someone else. Small-town gossip has a hundred ways to get around.”
Jaxson could no longer resist touching her. He could see the insecurity completely absent yesterday creep back in, could almost feel the suspicions she’d initially had about him being reignited.
“We’ve already been down this road,” he gently reminded her, placing his hand over hers and giving a gentle squeeze. She didn’t pull back. He exhaled.
“We separated the lies from the truth. There is nothing to the rumors about me, including the supposed dare.”
“Started by an ex, right?”
“Yes. The girl I dated off and on all through high school. We were each other’s first...sexual experience, something that happened way too young. She never accepted that we were truly over, that leaving for California marked the end of our dysfunctional, yo-yo existence. She moved to Chicago years ago, but still has ties here, still comes back to visit family.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Two years ago, when her favorite aunt died. It was a cordial enough interaction where she swore the past was the past. But Deidre has always been messy, and spoiled, used to having her way. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the link.
“But again, bae—” he picked up her hand, kissed it, held it between his “—let’s not get pulled back into the illusions that lies created. What’s important is the present, the man you know now. The man who helps you. Protects you.”
Loves you.
“Okay?”
“Okay.” Genesis sat forward and turned to look him in the eye. “Tell me about Paradise Valley.”
For Jaxson, this was the moment of truth. One he’d hoped would never have to happen and definitely not this way. It was not a secret he planned to keep from Genesis forever, but one he wanted to divulge in his own way, on his own terms. Even though he didn’t know what was happening at the time it went down in Arizona, ignorance didn’t exonerate him. He looked beyond the room into the next moments and saw a crossroad. He could tell the story crafted after he left Arizona. Or he could stand ten toes down and trust this woman’s ability to hear the lies, yet know the truth beneath them.
“It’s an upscale suburb of Phoenix, where I used to live.”
“What happened there?”
“I pleaded no contest to a crime I didn’t commit.”
“A crime? That sounds serious.” Genesis turned fully toward him. “Did somebody die?”
“No, but it’s funny you ask that, because my reputation was killed. My character was assassinated.”
“Did it involve a woman?”
Jaxson sighed. Here we go. “Unfortunately.”
Genesis looked away. He could almost feel the weight of the bricks in the emotional wall she was busy rebuilding.
“Gen, listen, I’m going to tell you everything. It won’t be easy. I worked hard to put this situation behind me and wouldn’t revisit it for anyone but you.
“I’d just gotten my multimillion-dollar sign-on bonus and moved to Paradise Valley. Loads of money. Nice cars. Beautiful home. I met a young lady, Cyan, whose dad is big in real estate there. She studied interior decorating and staged his houses, including the one I bought. She was young, had just turned nineteen when I met her, and honestly, when I found that out, I was shocked. She was very mature for her age, very professional, definitely didn’t act like someone in her teens.”
“I felt the same about you when we met,” Genesis said. “When I learned you were five years younger, eighteen, still in high school...”
She heaved her shoulders, shook her head, unspoken words released in a sigh.
“Five years? I didn’t know that. I thought maybe a year or two. Wow, that’s deep.” Jaxson paused as his mind traveled to the past and back. Whoever said hindsight was twenty-twenty had been spot on the money for real.
“Cyan was a year out of high school but very poised, knowledgeable, confident, well traveled. We had a lot in common. Both liked to party. I was twenty-two, twenty-three, and, I’m not going to lie, I was living the single, rich, pro athlete life. I was wilding in those streets. I loved women. Fast cars. Good cognac. Nice weed. When she and I hooked up, I didn’t think anything about it. I’ve always respected women, no doubt about that. I felt when a woman jumped in bed at the drop of a hat, often with me not even knowing their last name, it was understood that what was going on was just about getting it on. Banging a stranger. I mean, what else could it be?
“I hate to say it and am definitely not proud about it, but anywhere money or power flows in abundance, casual sex is rampant—pro sports, entertainment, politics, all of that. Most women who hang out in those environments know the code.
“Anyway, Cyan and I, we’re hooking up fairly often. Hitting the party scene. She’s flying to some of my out-of-town games, borderline stalking. At the same time, I’m dating Abby, right? And a few others. I’m practicing safe sex with all the women I’m dealing with. I’m telling them all I don’t want a child. I’m not ready to get married. I’m not looking to be exclusive, make commitments or settle down.”
“If you’re practicing safe sex, what happened with Abby?”
“I have my theories.” Jaxson shrugged. “Let’s just say she was determined to get pregnant and leave it at that.”
Fortunately, Genesis didn’t press the issue on what for Jaxson was a touchy subject.
“Meanwhile, Cyan’s dad and I are becoming friends as well. He’s giving me the game on real estate, investments, the whole nine. He pitches this particular real estate investment venture, a way for people with limited funds to invest in real estate as part of a collective and eventually, if desired, own their own home. The concept sounded good. I had no reason not to trust it. He’s one of the top Realtors in the country. His client list is mad crazy. He asked me to be the spokesperson, a celebrity endorser, the recognizable, friendly face of the venture. A common marketing tactic and why so many celebrities are seen pushing product on TV.
“Saying yes is a no-brainer. I’m a star pro baller. The city’s darling. Not bad-looking. I attracted a lot of people with very little effort. Especially women. Everyone’s excited. The money is rolling in. What I didn’t know, and wouldn’t find out until it was too late, was that the investment group was a scam, a Ponzi scheme, defrauding thousands of people out of millions of dollars. Again, I don’t know this yet. I’m still counting the cash like Monopoly money, living the dream, thinking everybody’s getting paid. Only those of us at the top were raking it in like that, but I’m off playing football, none the wiser. I’m not in the business meetings, have no idea about the day-to-day. I think he counted on that. I’d fly in, learn whatever script, shoot the videos, attend a few parties. I was ignorant. And naive. But I wasn’t a thief.”
He looked beyond the living room at the dining room table. “Mind if I get some of that juice?”
“Help yourself. The doughnuts, too.”
Jaxson poured a glass and sat down, this time across from Genesis.
“Around this same time, Abby gets pregnant. Cyan finds out and goes all the way off. Sets out to destroy me or break us up or whatever. What did I need with that kind of madness? I’m young, popular, successful. Juggling women from coast to coast. So I stopped seeing her. Decided to do the right thing by Abby. Bought the ring. Proposed. The whole nine.
“Little did I know that when I broke it off with Cyan, she’d run and tell her dad. All of a sudden, I’m not as cool as I used to be. I’ve hurt his little girl. At the same time and for the next several months, I hear murmurings of what is really going on with the business. People losing money, not getting new homes as promised. It was crazy. The timing sucked because it turned out her dad was already being investigated. He had his hand in a bunch of illegal shit. Long story short, the Ponzi scheme got uncovered, and I got thrown under the bus. Cyan and her dad made it look as though I personally encouraged homeowners to borrow off their equity so they could invest. I never personally talked to anyone or signed people up. I just made it look like the right thing to do.”
“You talked me into doing that very thing.”
Jaxson looked over and was devastated to see the accusation in her eyes. “I made that suggestion from what I learned from the banker and attorneys who helped me survive that mess. Taught me how to use home equity the right way, and leverage it correctly, the way people who know how banks and finance work do all the time.”
“Why didn’t you marry Abby?”
Jaxson stood and paced the room. “Believe it or not, as bad as all of what I just told you was, it got worse. Abby had been sleeping with a good friend of mine, a teammate. We all ran in the same wild circles and weren’t exclusive, so it wasn’t a total shock. But I’d asked this girl to marry me. I started questioning whether or not the child was mine and demanded a DNA test. The fighting started.”
“Did you get the test?”
“Yes. But I’d been betrayed. The trust was gone. The final nail in my Paradise Valley coffin came when the Ponzi scheme was publicly exposed, around the same time I busted my knee. I got cut from the team and moved back here. Needless to say, I was done with the baller life. The trial came a year after that. Because of Cyan’s father and both his political and shady connections, he was able to float above the indictments. Those went mostly to the second-tier guys. I got charged with fraud, a felony, for something I had no idea about. But I didn’t want all the publicity that would come with me fighting the charge and I damn sure didn’t want a criminal record. It’s hard enough for a Black man in America, but throw in a felony and it’s a wrap. I paid out a lot of money to several people to keep my name out of the papers and have the charge expunged, but to this day feel bad for the people who were affected, people who were as innocent and trusting as myself.”
He stopped, drained, much as Genesis had sounded earlier when she poured her heart out to Tiffany.
He observed Genesis sitting as still as a statue. “Say something.”
A second passed. Then another. Her shoulders heaved. “What is there to say?”
“I’d never run a game on you, Genesis. You believe me, right?”
“We had so many conversations. Why didn’t you ever share this?”
“It’s a chapter of my life I’ve tried to bury. I never wanted anyone here to know what happened.”
“I’m exhausted, Jaxson. My cousin’s visit, your story...”
“I get it, baby. And I’m sorry. Do you want company later?”
“No. I’m going to need time alone to digest all of this.”
He hugged her but, given the tension in her body, didn’t attempt a kiss.
“Call me tomorrow?”
“I’m not making any promises. Can you lock the front door on the way out?”
Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Jaxson had been clearly dismissed.