Madly #2
TRUCK STOP | 11:53 P.M.
It was late, but what Nisha had to say to her chief couldn’t wait. So, she called just before midnight as if he wasn’t a married man.
“How is it that you harass me more on suspension than you did when you were a detective,” he muttered into the phone, half sleep.
“Because I can’t do shit for myself anymore. I’ll be quick. Cassidy’s family needs the body. They’re shaking the city up trying to find her. Let’s let them know that she’s gone. It won’t do shit for their spirits but at least they’ll no longer be aggressively searching for her.”
“And how do you know they’re asking about her? You know what, never fucking mind. Good night, Nisha.” He ended the call. It was for the best because her attention was needed elsewhere.
Onisha sat in a parked car, nervously waiting for her estranged husband to show.
He wanted to talk and she was willing but only on her terms. They agreed on the weekend, but she stopped responding when he asked for a time.
She couldn’t trust him. All the more reason she was regretting her decision.
She told herself that if he didn’t show by 12:00 am, she would leave. It was already 12:13.
She had no idea if he was working the weekend, but when they were happily married, it’s when he worked the most. He said, “even married people need time apart.” Nisha agreed to the awkward work schedule believing that it would make them miss each other. It didn’t.
Her phone buzzed in the cup holder. Tina was calling just as Darnell was pulling up. She couldn’t miss him, but she couldn’t miss Tina’s call either. She answered the phone hoping she could rush her off.
“Hello?”
“Nene, is everything ard? Where are you?”
“I woke up a little nauseated. Went for a walk and then drove myself to the hospital. They just released me. Apparently, I was dehydrated. I’m going to grab a case of waters from the gas station then come back to the house.”
“And what’s wrong with the water here? I have a pantry full of water.”
“I didn’t know. Still, trying to get adjusted. Well, I’m heading that way now.”
“Yeah, get your ass on in this house, please and thank you.” Tina ended the call.
She was knocked out sleep when Nisha left. Nisha had been learning a lot about Tina’s moves and routines. What she didn’t catch was Tina’s middle of the night house checks. With three bad ass kids that liked to sneak out, she didn’t have a choice.
Over the years, it became a habit. Anytime she woke up in the middle of the night she did a quick check that windows and doors were locked and everyone that lived there was where they were supposed to be.
Nisha wasn’t there and Tina would never forget it.
She had better enjoy her time out because Tina would never take her eyes off of Nisha again.
Nisha rushed out of the car to get to Darnell’s truck.
The lights were on and the engine was roaring as he geared up to hit the road.
Music grew louder as she got closer. She tried the handle and it opened.
As she climbed up the steps, she could hear Darnell moaning lightly behind the loud rap music and the gray curtain that separated the driving cab from the sleeping area.
For years she wanted proof that he was going to his truck to beat his dick and she finally had it.
“Need some help,” she tugged the curtain open.
She was horrified when she saw a woman on all fours, sucking his dick while he laid back with his arms behind his head.
“Onisha, what the fuck!”
“I knew your ass was married.” The woman pointed her finger in Darnell’s face.”
“I’m not,” he argued, tugging at her arms for her to stay.
“And we are.” Nisha dangled an empty ring finger, forgetting that she’d moved it to a different finger on the opposite hand because a wedding ring didn’t match the role she was playing in the Turner household.
“See. She’s fucking lying. She’s always lying. That’s why we’re getting a fucking divorce now!” Darnell was standing in between his wife and the pretty woman he met a few weeks backs at a bar.
“We’re not divorced, yet.” Nisha quickly moved the ring to the correct finger. “You said you wanted to talk.”
“And you didn’t fucking respond.”
“I couldn’t. I have a lot going on.”
“You hear her?” Darnell turned to the other woman. “She got a lot going on.”
“I do! You seem to be occupying yourself just fine.”
“What else am I supposed to do when my wife is carrying another nigga’s baby!”
“You know what. This ain’t none of my business. I’m going to call me a Lyft.” She stood from the bed.
“No. no. no. I’ll take you home. Just wait in my car.” Darnell moved to the driver’s cab, to get his other set of keys. Opening the door, he watched the woman slip down the steps. “I promise I won’t be long.”
“You gon’ be as long as it fucking takes,” Nisha said, sitting on the bed that Darnell was laid out on.
“It ain’t gon’ take but two seconds. When I hit you up, I was having a moment of weakness.
I was up all night talking to that good ass woman out there waiting in my car for me.
She was telling me how her husband had neglected her in the smallest of ways.
I started thinking like is that what I did to Nisha?
Is that why it was so easy for her to open her legs for a nigga so far away from the goals she told me she wanted. ”
“I still want all of those things.”
“Yeah, but not with me. Looking over our entire marriage, you’ve been selfish. From the beginning to the end. Even here today, you’ve been selfish.”
“I’m not selfish. I’m a woman trying to fight for her marriage!”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m not done. I thought maybe since that nigga is dead now, you could go back to who you were before you met him. Watching how you not only popped up on me but just tried to ruin a potential new relationship for me, nothing’s changed.”
“I tried to tell you the truth and you abandoned me! You filed for divorce and gave me up to my partner. You ruined my entire career. Yet here I am. Here to talk because you said we had a chance!”
“Nisha it’s 12 in the fucking morning? Why are you popping up this time of night anyway?”
“It was the only time I could come,” she admitted. “And I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure if this was a set up.”
“Set up how?”
“You told on me once,” she mumbled. “I had to catch you off guard so I wouldn’t be caught off guard. You made this shit this way.”
Nisha watched Darnell put the pieces together. She should’ve left well enough alone. Showing up at all was a mistake. Now, he knew something was off, something was wrong.
“Nisha, whose house are you sneaking out of? And don’t you fucking lie, because I’m tired of that shit. Half-truths, and full-blown made-up stories for almost a year. Another lie might make me whip your ass in here.”
“Tina’s,” she said lowly.
Darnell’s shoulders tightened. He made several attempts to speak but nothing came out. He held the bridge of his nose to stop himself from rapidly blinking. Fear forced him to put his anger on a back burner.
“What the fuck are you thinking? If that lady catches you—”
“She’ll kill me. I know.” Nisha rolled her eyes tired of the warnings. “That’s exactly why I have to get this bitch off the streets.”
Nisha had broken his heart, but he still loved her. You could only be heartbroken when you loved something to begin with. The guilt would bury him if he didn’t protect her like he vowed.
“Come home with me.”
“Ain’t that where you’re about to take that bitch?”
“I don’t take any women there, that’s why she was coming to the truck. Besides, I don’t have to look out of the window to know she took off already. She’s not the kind of woman to wait around on a man.” Darnell sighed.
“You sound disappointed,” Nisha said softly.
“I am. After what you’ve done to me, I would’ve gone and done the same shit to her anyway.
I’m not ready to start something new. Not anything that’s going to last. But if we can heal what’s damaged with us, maybe it can be better than the last time.
The undercover work is done; your child’s father is dead.
I can raise her like my own. We could have a fighting chance.
Come home with me. Put all this shit with the Turners behind us. ”
“You just said out your own mouth that it’s not safe. I have to take care of that bitch first. Then, I can come home. Maybe we can finally move to Potomac. You’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”
“Potomac sounds good,” Darnell didn’t sound convinced, though he was nodding his head.
“You don’t sound like a woman that’s in fear for her life or the safety of her baby.
” He pursed his lips together at the realization that their happily ever after, was gone.
He was clinging on to what was left of it on his own.
“I agree that I don’t sound like my usual self. I need this woman in the dirt or behind bars for the rest of her life.”
“You sound like a woman looking for revenge.” Darnell searched her eyes. The woman he married wasn’t in there. He was looking at the woman that stepped out on him. He couldn’t do shit for that one. “Tell me this is not about making sure that nigga doesn’t die in vain and I’ll give you Potomac.”
Nisha couldn’t answer him. She wasn’t scared of Tina.
She was starting to believe that she was the only one that wasn’t.
Her every move was about revenge. She didn’t put the bullet in Boom’s head, but she put the insecurities there.
She created the environment that molded him into the man she had to fix. Tina had to pay for that.
“That’s exactly what I thought.” Darnell rolled his tongue around his jaw. “You do what you gotta do out there.” He held the curtain for Nisha to leave.