“No! I haven’t even spoken to Kali. And I didn’t know he was our connect or that you even knew him until he murdered Monkey.” She clarified. “I’m talking about your mother.”
I laughed. “Bitch, my mother’s dead. And I know you know that.”
“I’m talking about your real mother. She got in contact with me about six months ago because she’s dying and she wants to see you.”
“What are you talking about?” I laughed.
“Your real mother lives in L.A and she’s dying of AIDS. Her name is Irma Cruz.”
“Irma Cruz?” Immediately I had a throbbing pain in my head. “You talking about my father’s lover? The one who killed, mama?”
“No, the one who killed Estelle. Not your mama. Irma is your mama.”
“You know what the fuck I mean!” I shot back. “I need you to explain to me what you talking about.”
“There was a high stakes Poker game many years ago. A lot of money was at stake and people placed bets they couldn’t honor. At that game was Rick Sherrod, Massive, your father and a few other people.” She started. “Massive was in to your father and Rick for a lot of money that night. And in order to settle the bill, Massive offered to your father what he didn’t even bid. His beautiful girlfriend, Irma Cruz.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“Listen, Harmony. You’re finally hearing the truth.” She paused. “Anyway, Rick saw how he looked at her whenever they were around each other, and he saw how she looked at him. I guess he figured it was easier to give her up in a card game when he needed her, then to have Rick take her from him for free.
“Now your father couldn’t be with Irma publically though, because he had a life with Estelle. And although he didn’t love Estelle anymore, he knew she could be vengeful if crossed. So they had to keep their love affair a secret for a while.” I was so shocked I couldn’t blink. “Are you okay?” She asked me.
“Uh…Yeah…Please go ‘head.”
“Okay, well, Rick didn’t want a female, he wanted his money, and ended up killing Massive’s daughter to settle the debt even after Massive paid him. I think to this day Massive has been trying to get back at Rick, by trying to kill his son Jace.”
Now that was something I knew all too much about. “Go ahead.”
“Well, your father and Irma fell in love after that game. But Estelle eventually found out and threatened to tell the police about his drug operation if he didn’t leave her alone. But he had bad news for Estelle and that was that Irma was pregnant with his only child.
“Estelle had always wanted a child but couldn’t bore one herself. And against Irma’s judgment, Cornell convinced her to let them raise her baby as their own. Irma was devastated. She cried every day after he asked her to part with you. It wasn’t until he convinced her that you would still be in her life, that she agreed.”
“But why not just dump Estelle?”
“Because Cornell’s drug operation was on the line and he needed to keep Estelle happy until he could find another way to deal with her. But his heart always belonged to Irma.”
“But…I use to go with my father to see Irma all the time. I mean, why wouldn’t she tell me that she was my mother.”
“She was keeping your father’s secret, and trying to spare you from any pain. It was for your own good.”
“My own good?” I said in an evil tone. “Do you realize how much shit that bitch Estelle put me through?” I said gritting on her. “Do you know that Shirley made me lick her pussy everyday for the first five years I lived with her? And that her son raped me repeatedly? And you tell me it was for my own good?”
“I didn’t…Know…”
“How could you? You never bothered to check on me. You were my flesh and blood yet you never cared. When daddy died along with is money, you died to me, too.”
“I had my own kids, Harmony. Don’t put this blame on me.”
“Look at me. I had a fucked up life! I’m an alcoholic, I have two kids I hate and more than anything I hate myself. My family was supposed to be there to protect me and they didn’t. Just like Irma, you tried to act like I wasn’t there.”
“That’s not true!”
“When did you ever call to check on me?!” I yelled. “When, Angela?!”
“All I can say is I’m sorry now.”
“Why did she kill Estelle?” I said irritated with it all.
“Because she loved Cornell and when she heard about what she’d done to him, by calling the cops, she vowed to get revenge. You have to understand that when Estelle called the police, she went against their arrangement. She broke the deal. She gave her only child up on the strength of a promise and that promise was broken.” She paused. “When she killed her, she called me a few months later. She knew I was one of the only people she could talk to about it because I always hated Estelle. I asked her then why she left you, she said she saw in your eyes, for a brief moment, that you hated her that day. And she decided to never reach out to you again.”
“I remember that. I wasn’t looking at her like that, Estelle had just made me mad and I…I was…Everything happened so fast.”
“She thought you hated her.”
I laughed in disgust and said, “Fuck all that! Now what?”
“She wants to meet you before she dies.”
“Well I don’t want to meet her.” I said waving my hand. “Anyway, I thought you said you had good news for me. Where is it?”
“I do have good news.” She smiled. “Before Irma was diagnosed with AIDS, she was living in Concord with her two daughters.”
“In Concord? The police didn’t seize that property?”
“No…Cornell was smart enough to put it in Irma’s name. He said he was renting it from her and the police couldn’t legally hold the property. But now that she moved back to L.A, to be with her family, she wanted me to tell you that Concord Manor is all yours. If you want it.”
“I have sisters?”
“Yes. And you also have a huge family in L.A.”
The anger I was feeling was at its boiling point. I lived in a shelter, in places nobody wanted me and I didn’t have to.
“Go ahead, Angela.” I paused thinking about what she said. “I’m still not convinced I’m her child.”
“Look at yourself…Clearly,” Angela said. “Do you remember her face?”
Of course I did. I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world when my father use to take me to go visit her.
“I remember.”
“Well if you do, then I know you can see the resemblance. You are Irma’s daughter. Her first born. And outside of having light skin like Estelle’s, you two look nothing alike.”
“But…Why…Why did she allow me to go through life alone?”
“When she killed Estelle, she was sure she’d get caught. But as time went on, it became apparent that no one was saying anything, especially you. And Shirley didn’t see the murder to testify. So Irma realized she didn’t have to be on the run anymore and came out of hiding.”
I was pissed and I didn’t give a fuck about Irma, Shirley or Estelle! All three of them bitches could kiss my ass. All I cared about now was that mansion.
“Do you have the person I can call, to get the property?”
“Yes. I have the number of the person you need to contact, Harmony.”
“And it’s really all mine?”
“The property was always yours, and was supposed to be given to you when you turned eighteen, but you got lost in the system. Since then Irma has signed over everything to you. And now that I found you, I can let you know that you can finally go home.”
“What’s in it for you?” I asked her. “Because I’ve found that through life, everybody wants something. So what’s your thing?”
“I did my brother’s only daughter wrong and I’m trying to make good. People do change, Harmony.”
People don’t change. Over time they become clearer on their stances in life. And my stance was that I hated the world, and everybody in it.
Harmony
Home Sweet Home
It had been a month since I found out I inherited Concord Manor. And the days leading up to this day were crazy. When I went to my apartment, someone from the office of Child Protective Services was questioning me about the girls. Telling me that it was wrong to convince my children that they were something that they weren’t. By the end of the day, I had managed to convince everyone that both of them were lying and that Madjesty was exhibiting lesbian behaviors. They never bothered me again.
When the cab driver pulled up to the mansion many good memories flooded back to mind. I had everything when I was here and for the first time in a long time, it seemed that I was finally getting some of the things I lost back.
Angela ended up not being too bad after all. She bought me and my sons…I mean…Daughters, flight tickets and gave us cab fare to Concord Manor. Although good memories were waiting for me here, I also had a lot of bad enemies in DC who didn’t want to see my face at all. And I didn’t want to see theirs.
“That will be thirty five dollars, mam.” The cab driver said.
I handed him forty, waited for my change and left the cab. I guess he wanted me to give him a tip but that wasn’t happening. I needed all my money until I could find a way to get some more.
Me and my kids, with three suitcases between us, entered the manor’s doors and it was as beautiful as I remembered. The same crystal chandelier hung about the foyer and the spiral staircase was as pretty as ever. Irma purchased new furniture and it was more lavish than I remembered.
“Alright, boys, this is the place I grew up in,” I said to them. We put our suitcases down and walked deeper into the foyer. “And as you can see, I didn’t come up in the ghetto like you think. I came up in royalty.”
“Girls,” Madjesty corrected me. This bitch got on my fucking nerves.
“You know what I mean.”
She took her hat off her head and put it on sideways. Bruises covered her face and body and she looked older than her age.
“Naw, I don’t. You had us thinking we was boys and then we find out we girls. Maybe you should do a little better job at keepin’ up with your lies.” Madjesty said, loving to challenge me.
“If you believed you were boys all that time then that’s your dumbness not mine.” I laughed. “I mean, didn’t you bother looking at other boys when you were in the locker room at school? You don’t know what a pussy versus a dick look like?” I paused. “I knew what a dick looked like at six years old.”
“You didn’t allow us to go to the gym remember?” Madjesty continued.
“What about the bathroom?”
“I knew something was different.” Jayden said in a low voice with her head hung low. “I always knew. Something just didn’t feel right to me.” She said as if she wanted to cry.
“Well it is what it is! I had to lie to you to protect you from Kali. He was trying to kill you remember?” I said lifting up my shirt exposing my stomach that was ripped to shreds by Nut and Cherry’s handiwork.
“You lied to us for so long that you really are starting to believe you were protecting us.” Madjesty laughed. “You delusional, Harmony.”
“So you calling me Harmony now? I’m not your mother anymore?”
“That’s better than what I want to call you.”
I was done with Madjesty and she didn’t even know it. I found a few brochures on insurance policies for kids, and I decided to take Renee up on her advice by killing that little bitch slowly. She had her day coming.
“If I’m still calling you a boy now Madjesty, it’s because you look and act like one. Even with knowing you a girl now look at how you dress.” I said.
“What else are we going to wear? All the stuff you ever bought us is dirty and for boys.”
“You do know I don’t answer to you right?” I paused. “If you think you can do so much better, the door is right behind you.”
Madjesty rolled her eyes and sat on the bottom of the step. She was frustrated and mad at me but I was that little bitch’s mother, not the other way around. Unlike Madjesty, Jayden tried her best to dress like a girl using the clothes that she had. She would tie her T-shirts in the back and roll the tops of her jeans a few times so that they appeared a little snug. Jayden was very pretty like me when I was younger and always feminine, even when she thought she was a boy. I’m glad I went with my instincts by giving them names that could be for a boy or girl. Now I wouldn’t have to change much.
“Why would you lie to us, ma?” Madjesty continued. “Why would you fucking lie to us about something like that? What would have happened if we would’ve stayed at the school? I couldn’t face my friends being a boy one minute and a girl the next.”
“You think just because you got a period you grown now?” I asked walking over to her. I wish there was something I could grab nearby because I would have went over her head with it. “Bitch, you not grown.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Madjesty said. “When do we eat?”
“We have to go to the grocery store first.” I said digging in my bag. They both gave me looks because they knew what had to be done. “Do you remember how to run the plan?” Jayden nodded. “Madjesty, do you hear me talking to you?”
“Yes, ma. I remember how to steal. You taught us too well.”
“Tell me how?”
She sighed. “We look for people who are shopping by themselves. When we find someone, we wait until they bring their carts out in front of the store and go get their cars.”
“Good…And what else, Jayden?” I said, wanting to make sure she understood, too. She could be too fucking naive at times.