Over. (This. Is. Not. Over. #2) (14 page)

“I told you that I didn’t burn that house down!” Lola yells at the top of her lungs.

“Oh Lola, let’s use our inside voices.” Eva says with
disappointment.

“Please Lola, everyone in this room knows you burned that house down!” Cadence says.

“I was in New York!” Lola screams.

“Prove it Lola! Where’s the receipt from the hotel? Who were you with? Who can prove that you were in New York and
not
in Boston trying to murder me?”

Lola says nothing. She covered her tracks so that Danielle’s stalking wouldn’t be traced back to her.
Therefore, she has no proof that she was in New York. If she did, when this meeting was summoned by Queen Angie, Lola would have come prepared with a manila folder filled with flight and hotel receipts, proving that she was in fact in New York during the fire. When she walked into The Royal Ivory Room empty handed, that let me know that she had covered her tracks so well, she has no alibi. Good plan, wrong timing.

“You know Lola, this thing with Laura is not about lust.” Cadence says. “This is about human beings sh
aring an experience of love and–”

“Give me a breeeeeak!” Lola yells at the top of her lungs as she drops her head back and shakes her hands
in the air.

In all honesty, I should be choking the hell out of Lola right now but I hav
e to admit, Cadence can drive anyone to the brink of insanity. Everything in his life begins and ends with love. Love this, love that, love her. I agree with Lola, give it damn break.

“Life is not about romance and fun. It’s about duty and getting shit done! It’s about respect and power. You need to take a lesson from Malcolm.”
Lola says.

“Ah, well, Malcolm has a whole lot of me in him.” My father says with deep satisfaction. He grins, crosses his legs, and raises his glass of scotch to me. “Power first, pussy second. Good boy.”

“What are you talking about?” Cadence says to both of them. “Malcolm sends notes and flower petals to Danielle all the time!”

“Oh, fuck a flower petal!”
Lola says.

“
Oh brother!” Cadence says as he drops his head back onto the couch.

“Where
did
you learn that language from?” Eva asks Lola.

“Malcolm,” Rossi says while looking at his cell phone, “what do you think I should tweet on Twitter today?”

“Well don’t mention Lola burning his house down.” Eva says as she looks at him checking his phone. “And who are you texting? Cynthia?”

“Good lamb of god! Eva, I’m talking about twittering and looking at my phone! What do you think I’m doing?”

“Why does romance have to be so magical to you?” Cadence asks Lola, “Why do you have to make it appear as though it’s a fantasy? Love and passion are real. It’s every day and it’s real. Laura knows that. In fact, that’s the very reason you burned her house down.”

“I did not burn down her house!” Lola says as she looks
at me, her face still beaming red. Sorry, Lola, if I tell the story, I’m telling the whole story. Either way, you come out guilty. Either way, you’re the root cause of that fire. You’re also looking at a few charges: breaking and entering, harassment, theft, stalking, financial fraud, grand theft auto, defamation of character and duress.  But regardless, I’m not bringing Red’s name into this. I’m not here to save you; I’m here to save her. So, you keep my secret, I’ll keep yours.

I look away from
her.             

“You know, Cadence and Lola,” Angie says, “you two should just take the plunge and put a hyphen and a Jo behind your names, because the both of you are simply trashy.
”

“Yeah, well, Cadence didn’t get that from me.” My father says.

“And we still have no idea where Laura is?”
Angie looks around at us all. Each one of us begins to shake our heads
no
. There’s no point of telling everyone about Laura and Cynthia; Jacob and I lost her so we’re still at square one. Plus, I don’t need my parents interfering. I’m leading this case, Red is my client, no one is privy to the detailed specifics of her case but me and the person I have assisting me. Jacob. And now that I believe Red has not only burned my house down but has also gotten Rena to freeze Laura’s accounts, this entire issue has become surreal. Who the hell knew that Red had so much power? Shit, her ass needs to be on my payroll. “Well this should be fun.” Angie smiles. “Because you do know that wherever Laura is, she’s bound to show up sooner or later. And when she does, chances are she would have been off of her meds for days.”

             
“Great.” Lola says as she rolls her eyes. “She shouldn’t have the right to walk the streets alone.”
Really, Lola?
  But my mother has a point. Unlike Red, the last thing I want is for Laura to show up on my doorstep drug free. “I mean, ever since she and Malcolm broke up she’s been diagnosed with hypomanic episodes, generalized anxiety, depressive reaction and attention deficit disorder.”

             
“Ah, well, Malcolm’s a lot like me.” My father says. “He knows how to drive a woman crazy.” He nods at me and raises his glass of scotch.

             
And once again, I’m struggling with the fact that this entire situation is probably my fault. I had my eyes on Rossi from the moment I went to law school. He was a weak link in the political chain; I sniffed him out like a rabid dog and then infiltrated his need for a clean-up guy.  He needed help, I gave him that help and to mark my territory, I took his daughter for myself. I found out later that keeping Laura happy was a full time job. But, being with her enhanced my power with Rossi and it catapulted me into the position that I’m in now: Lead Counsel to Senator Carlo Rossi, a presidential hopeful. As a thirty year old man, I’ll admit to the indiscretions of my twenty year old self. I don’t condone it, I’ll just admit it. I grew a conscience about my using Laura as time passed by; my goals turned into guilt and that guilt eventually turned into I-can’t-do-this-shit. I used Laura. I’ve been trying to atone for that sin, going on eleven years. There is no love for Laura, there are no bitter-sweet memories that I want to hold on to. There’s only duty and atonement.

             
For Red, there’s love. Lola is wrong, I do believe in love. I just don’t get all stupid about it.

“Cadence, I do hope you’ll come to your senses one day my love, before Lola and Laura end up killing each other.” My mother
says. “You, my dear, are not Laura’s Prince Charming. You are the man she’s dating in the beginning of the fairytale. You know, the one who thinks he’s the perfect lover and friend, but even the kids know he’s a dumbass? Malcolm is Laura’s Prince Charming: aloof and totally unavailable.” She smiles again. “I mean darling, the real Prince has to be unavailable in some way or another or we wouldn’t have a story. Right?” Cadence looks at my mother and then away. Lola smirks.

Silence …
think about that, Cadence.

“Now Lola, I do admire your spunk, but I think the fire was a bit much.”

“I did not start that fire.” Lola says, crossing her arms tighter against her chest.

“Sure you did, and if you didn’t light the match, you surely created the spark. So Lola and Cadence, you’ll fly to Hilton Head with the family, you’ll smile, you’ll be happy, you’ll act like nothing is going on. Jacob,
Winnie, Nat, Dena, and Malcolm will stay at Pat and Kyle’s house.” Aunt Pat and Uncle Kyle are Jacob’s parents, the Mayor and First Lady of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Cadence and Lola will stay with Wynston and me at Kingdom of Blair.” That’s the name of my parent’s summer home. “When we get there, I don’t want anyone upsetting Danielle’s family. I’m sure they’re already peeved that their daughter’s name is being sullied here in Boston. They’ll already be on edge; Lola and Cadence, we don’t need you two aggravating them with talks of adultery and arson.”

“Ugh.” Lola grunts.

“Wow mom, you want me to smile after this woman almost killed me?” Cadence says.

“
Fuck you! I haven’t tried to kill you yet!”

“And here we go again with the language.” Eva says.

“You want me to pretend to feel safe with a woman who would burn her own sister’s house down? You want me to sleep peacefully next to a woman who’s hell-bent on murdering me? You do know that I’m the type of person who likes to sleep with both of my eyes closed, don’t you? You want me to be scared to even eat my food out of fear that she’s trying to kill me with it? Is that what you’re asking? Because it sounds like that’s what you’re asking.” Cadence says.

“Wow Cadence, you finally got something right. Now, I want us all to keep our eyes and ears open for Laura. Malcolm said that she isn’t using her bank accounts,
which means one thing: someone has taken her in. Find out who, shut that person up, bring Laura back, dope her up and then we’ll decide what to do with her later. She won’t change our plans; life does not revolve around her
condition
.” My mother rolls her eyes; it always bothered her that Laura was possibly born with an uncontrollable genetic condition that isn’t subject to Queen Angie’s rule. “Malcolm, if Jacob or Nat have to fly out to Boston to get her, make sure it’s done at night and with Jim. Carlo will hold an interview this week so that this fire story will die down; neither one of our families need the negative press, especially over Laura and her
condition
.” She rolls her eyes again. “Malcolm, call Jacob and Nat because you three have to come up with Carlo’s speech, do not leave this up to his speech writer. Also, I don’t want to keep Danielle’s parents waiting for us in Hilton Head so I want this done by seven p.m. tonight because at eight, we head to Hilton Head to have a lovely vacation.” She takes a breath, claps her hands together and smiles. “So let’s hop to it!” We all slowly get up to follow Queen Angie’s edict. “Now, now … Don’t forget Rule Three!”

And then we all force out a smile.

“… We are now learning that Danielle Rouge may have been married at the time she met Attorney Malcolm Blair. Jon St. James is Ms. Rouge’s former husband and father to their only child. Blair and Rouge are said to have met through Lola Blair, wife of Attorney Cadence Blair. Cadence Blair works at Rouge and Associates, law firm of Attorney Jackson Rouge. Consequently, Jackson Rouge is the father of Danielle Rouge … there will be more as this story progresses.”

Oh. Shit.

Danielle

12:15 p.m.

              “Rena!” I hear Matt screaming through the phone. “Alright now! What in the hell’s going on? You told my black ass to fly to Baton Rouge and now that I’m here, you’re telling me that you’re in Hilton Head?”

             
“Matt, shut your ass up and just come to Hilton Head! Things change! You’ve got to learn how to go with the flow.” Rena says as Jim’s about to land the jet at Hilton Head Airport.

             
“Where the hell is my son while you and Danny are gallivanting around the damn country?”

             
“Oh hush. Jacob’s holding him.” I look to Jacob who’s sitting by a window, holding Georgie and pointing to the tarmac below. Georgie’s excitedly bamming his hand on the window. Georgie’s a good person; anyone who can ride for twenty-four hours strapped down to a chair with two women on the run, just to get on a plane and go back seven hundred and seventy miles to a state we just rode past and does this all with a smile, is a saint in my book.

             
“Rena, I’m trying to be real patient with your ass. But if I find out that Jacob Blair has my son, I’m liable to
run
my ass to Hilton Head and kill that muthafucka, right on the spot.”

             
Jim lands the plane smoothly on the tarmac and I give a long exhale. I’ve been watching Rena drive and getting flown around for almost thirty hours now and I’m exhausted.

             
Earlier this morning, after Jacob hopped into the backseat of our car, he fed Georgie the rest of his baby ravioli and asked us to drive to Baton Rouge’s airport:

             
“Make a left, right there Rena … there you go.”

             
The only happy people in the car was Jacob and Georgie who were both talking with each other; Jacob was trying to teach Georgie how to say Uncle Jake which made Georgie laugh and clap his hands. Jacob then mentioned Georgie’s new hairstyle and said he’d have to try that on his son, Ralphie. He took a picture of Georgie’s head and emailed it to Winnie. Winnie emailed him back five minutes later with Georgie’s hairstyle on Ralphie.

             
“Look.” Jacob said as he held his phone between Rena and me. Rena and I didn’t say a word.

             
I guess one would wonder why Rena and I drove to the Baton Rouge airport without a fight. After all, there’s two of us and only one of him. I suppose the only reason we drove to the airport in silence, returned our rental back to Hertz, watched Jacob grab both our bags and Georgie and followed him to the jet was because we both had this feeling of an invisible gun being held to our heads. It’s the same age old question of why slaves, who clearly outnumbered their master, didn’t fight back. I now have the answer. It’s all about uncertainty and the fact that your opponent may outsmart you. It’s the fact that your adversary will have a trick up his sleeve. It’s the fact that he may have more weapons in his arsenal than you. In short, slaves didn’t fight back because of one stabbing fear: Consequences.