“Val, why don't you go? You'll only be gone for a few hours. You're always complaining about how you don't get out the house enough and Pilar was nice enough to invite you to go with her,” Julian pointed out.
Val knew he was right. She did complain about how she spent most of her time in the house. “Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone.”
“Go. I'll be fine. I'll be here when you get back.”
Persuaded, Val went, unaware that Pilar would buy so many things. Pilar managed to buy herself and her children over fifteen thousand dollars worth of clothes, and that was only in one store.
She had so many bags that store security had to help carry her bags out to her Escalade.
“Thanks for going with me. I really hate going shopping by myself, and I would never bring the children with me,” Pilar said to Val as she adjusted her seatbelt. “Every time I bring Alec he has to go to the bathroom every ten minutes. I never get anything done.”
“I enjoyed this. Maybe we can go out again sometime next week. I really need to go furniture shopping,” Val commented.
“Oh! I know the perfect place. It's called the Fine Furniture Gallery, and everything in there is one of a kind. I bought just about every piece in our home from there. Are you redecorating?”
“No, just decorating. Since we moved into the house we barely have any furniture. The house is so hollow and cold. I've tried to wait on Julian so we could go together, but he's been so busy he told me to go buy whatever I wanted. I need to buy something to give the house a warm feeling.”
“I understand. Whenever you want to go, just give me a call,” Pilar offered.
All afternoon, Val tried to think of the best way to ask Pilar about Colorado. She needed to know if Carlos had mentioned anything to her about him going. She knew that once she asked her, Pilar would know that Val didn't trust Julian as much as she said she had, but the truth was that she did believe Julian's reasoning behind the two tickets. She just wanted to reassure herself.
“Pilar, did Carlos mention anything to you about going to a rehabilitation clinic in Colorado?” Val asked.
“Oh, yes! The team goes every year,” Pilar responded. “Why? Were you worried Julian was up to something?”
“No, I just thought that since both Julian and Carlos would be out of town, that maybe we could do something,” Val responded, covering up her real suspicions.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. How about we spend the whole weekend together? We can go to the spa and to the theater.”
“Okay,” Val replied. Her heart had slowly returned to its normal pace. She had been afraid of what Pilar's answer would be, but as usual she knew she had no reason to doubt her man.
Chapter 7
“Yo, Bryant!” Danyelle yelled as she attempted to shake Bryant from his daydream. Immersed in his own thoughts, Bryant took the blunt that she was passing to him.
“So how does it feel to be a father?” Danyelle asked.
“It doesn't feel any different than before he got here, except we have a whole lot of shitty diapers lying around and midnight feedings,” he remarked.
Danyelle noticed Bryant's distant behavior toward his son. Bryant barely fed, played with, or held Bryce. He was completely withdrawn from the parenting experience. The only time she had seen him take any interest in his son was when Olivia took the baby to the doctor. He insisted on going with them. Olivia said that he grilled the doctor about the baby's progress and health. He wanted reassurance that Bryce would grow up to be a normal little boy.
Danyelle hoped the new father did not resent his son. A lot of Olivia's time was being taken up by the baby. Morning, noon, and night, she fed, washed, and cared for her son. It was hard being a first-time mother. She barely had any time for herself.
Olivia stuck her head out into the living room. “Is it safe to come out?” Olivia asked, holding the baby close in her arms.
“Yeah, Livie, it's okay,” Danyelle replied.
Danyelle got up and tried to fan away the smoke from the blunt they had just finished smoking. Olivia had hoped that once the baby was born Bryant and Danyelle would stop smoking in the apartment out of respect for the baby, but they didn't care. Bryant didn't see anything wrong with smoking around the baby, and Danyelle claimed that since she paid half the rent she was entitled to smoke anywhere she pleased.
Bryant said Olivia was uptight and she needed to relax more, but she disagreed. She didn't think she was the problem. The problem was that she didn't have enough space. It was hard being confined to her small bedroom with a baby because they refused to smoke outside. Olivia constantly nagged Bryant about getting their own place, but he argued that he didn't make enough money. Olivia knew he was right. They couldn't afford an apartment with the expense of a new baby, but she still wanted to try and find them their own affordable apartment.
Olivia sat on the couch next to Danyelle while the baby slept soundly in her arms. Danyelle could see the dark circles beneath her sister's eyes. The T-shirt she had on had the baby's vomit spattered in different places. Her hair, which was usually neatly pressed straight, was wild and uncombed.
“Pass me the baby, Livie,” Danyelle said.
“All right, but don't blow smoke in my baby's face, like you did last time.” Olivia handed Bryce over and grabbed the television remote.
“He liked his first hit of weed from Auntie Danyelle. Didn't you?” Danyelle asked the baby.
Olivia ignored her and pointed the remote at the television. She noticed a large brick of marijuana sitting on the floor to the left of the television.
“How many times do I have to ask you two to be more careful where you leave that stuff?” Olivia pointed to the weed. “I do have a baby now,” Olivia said huffily. “In a few more months the baby will be crawling and getting into stuff. I don't want my baby eating or playing with marijuana at the age of six months,” she complained.
“Sorry, baby, that's my fault,” Bryant responded. “A guy I know wanted to buy it from me, but when I took it over to his house, he wasn't there. So I brought it here.”
“Oh, so now you're a drug dealer,” Olivia said mockingly.
“No, it's not like that.”
Olivia could not believe that Bryant was selling drugs. Not wanting to argue in front of Danyelle, she asked Bryant if they could speak in their bedroom.
“Bryant, if you're selling drugs out of this house then I have to ask you to go. I will not have you endangering our son's life.”
“I'm not selling drugs.” He defended himself. “I just thought that if I sold a few bundles of weed I could make a few extra hundred dollars. Things are kind of tight around here with the baby and you wanting to move into our own place.”
Olivia sympathized with what he was trying to do, and realized that he was only trying to provide for his family and keep her happy, but selling drugs was not the answer.
“Bryant, I want us to be a family.” She reached out for his hand. “You don't have to sell drugs to take care of us. We'll make it as long as we have each other.”
Realizing he was wrong, he replied, “All right, let me go see if this guy is home so I can drop this stuff off to him.” He moved over to kiss her on the lips and left. A few seconds later Olivia heard the front door slam shut.
Thirty minutes had passed. Olivia, Danyelle, and the baby sat in the living room watching a movie.
“I wish Mommy and Daddy were here to see how beautiful Bryce is,” Olivia said.
“Daddy always wanted a boy. He would have spoiled Bryce rotten,” Danyelle replied.
Suddenly, a loud crashing sound came through the front door. Olivia looked up to witness a squad of police run into her living room with guns drawn and pointed directly at them. One officer came over, pulled the baby from Olivia's arms, and handed him to another officer. The same officer then grabbed her aggressively and forced her up against the wall.
Olivia was paralyzed with fear. She didn't know what to do.
“Officer, what is going on?” Olivia asked. She could hear her baby's cries in the distance. “That's my baby. Can I please get my son? He's scared.”
“Sorry ma'am, I can't allow you to do that. We'll have someone take care of him until we're done here,” the officer replied.
Olivia could see several officers scouring her house. They appeared to be looking for something. They searched the closets, kitchen cabinets, and drawers.
“What is going on?” Danyelle screamed.
Detective Collins walked up behind the girls as they were being body searched by female officers. “Can I ask who lives here?” the detective asked.
“I do,” Olivia replied. “Me, my sister, my baby, and my boyfriend.”
“Is that your sister?” the detective asked.
“Yes.”
“Where is your boyfriend?”
“He was just here. He ran out for a second.”
“I can question him later. Ladies, please have a seat on the couch,” the detective instructed. He knelt in front of them. “Do you know Darnell âDrake' Duncan?”
Olivia shook her head no.
“We got an anonymous tip that Drake Duncan was selling drugs out of this apartment. Drake is a very dangerous man and is a fugitive who's been on the run for months.”
“Officer . . .” Olivia started.
“Detective. My name is Detective Collins.”
“I'm sorry. Detective Collins, we don't know any Drake Duncan.”
“What is your boyfriend's name?”
“Bryant Winters.”
The detective scribbled Bryant's name on a note pad. “Ladies, so far we have confiscated four bundles of marijuana and a few ounces of cocaine. He pointed to the drugs sitting on the table. Olivia didn't realize that those drugs were in the apartment. She had made sure that Bryant took the marijuana sitting next to the television with him.
“Who does the marijuana belong to?” the detective asked.
“I plead the fifth,” Danyelle said.
“Detective, I don't know who those drugs belong to. I didn't even know they were in the apartment. Where did you find that?” Olivia began to cry.
“I found it in a closet in the back bedroom underneath the baby's things.”
Olivia knew he was referring to her room.
“Ladies, you two could be looking at jail time. We already have the evidence. A year or more of jail time would mean your son would be placed in a foster home until you were released.”
The detective looked at Olivia. “If you tell me everything you know I'll let the judge know how cooperative you were with us and he may just give you probation.”
Olivia was confused and didn't know what to do. If she confessed that the drugs belonged to Bryant, he could go to jail and her son would lose his father. If she didn't say anything, then she would go to jail and her son would lose his mother. She knew it was better for Bryce to lose his father rather than his mother. Prepared to tell the officer everything she knew, Danyelle interrupted before she could say a word. “Detective, can my sister and I speak privately for a moment?”
“Sure.” He got up to leave them alone.
“Livie,” she whispered. “Drug possession is not a big thing. This is our first offense. They can't send us to jail over drugs that don't belong to us.”
“But what about everything he said?”
“That cop was just playing with your head. Trust me, I know people who were caught with ten times as much as us and all they got was probation. Look, let's go down to the station. Let them arrest us. They'll set our bail. We can call Bryant, have him bail us out, and then we can get a lawyer.”
“Danyelle, are you sure?”
“Trust me.”
“What about the baby?”
“He'll be put in temporary custody of the state, but when we get in touch with Bryant, we'll tell him to go get the baby first. He's the father. He has rights.”
Olivia agreed to go along with Danyelle's decision to remain silent.
Danyelle called the detective back over. “Detective, we're going to ask to speak to a lawyer before we say anything,” she said confidently.
The detective shook his head as if they were making a big mistake. “Stiles, read them their rights,” he barked.
The officer came over, put the handcuffs on the two sisters, and led them out of the apartment. Once they got to the station, they each made one phone call. Olivia called Bryant on his cell phone, but his voice mail picked up. She left him an urgent message telling him what happened and where she was. She also told him where to get the baby from.
Afterwards, they put Danyelle and Olivia in a holding cell where they sat and stared at the clock, waiting on Bryant to come and bail them out.
The next morning Olivia and Danyelle were taken down to the courthouse and escorted into a small, cold room. Inside was a white guy who looked no older than twenty-five. The officer who escorted them in took the handcuffs off and ordered them to sit down on the hard wooden chairs.
“Good morning, ladies.” He smiled at them while looking through their file. “My name is Wilson York and I'm your public defender.”
“We don't need any public defender,” Danyelle informed him. “We're going to get a lawyer.”
“Yes. Well, until you're able to obtain suitable legal counsel the state has assigned your case to me. I'm here to advise you of your rights, make sure you're aware of the charges being brought against you and answer any questions you may have.”
“Mr. York” Olivia interrupted. “Did my boyfriend ever come down to the station? He was supposed to come and bail us out last night.”
“Oh yes,” York said. He opened the file and read off a sheet of paper. “A Mr. Winters. He did come down to the station. He was questioned and released. He gave a statement to the police. He claimed that the drugs belonged to the two of you. He denied any ownership of them.”
“There must be a mistake. He wouldn't have said that,” Olivia said. She looked at Danyelle, who shrugged her shoulders unknowingly.
“He also stated that he didn't live with the two of you.”
“All his stuff is at my house.”
“That may be true, but his name is not on the lease, is it?” the young lawyer asked.
“No,” Olivia responded softly.
“And because his name is not on the lease, he is not responsible for the drugs found inside the unit.”
“Shit!” Danyelle screamed.
“So now what?” Olivia asked.
“Well, we're going to ask the judge to grant you O.R.”
“What is that?” Olivia asked.
“O.R. is when the judge releases people who have been accused of crimes on their own recognizance. Basically, he's giving them a free pass to go home, trusting that they will appear back in court on their assigned court date. If you don't show up, a warrant will be issued for your arrest. If he doesn't grant you O.R. today, he will. It may take a few days.”
“A few days? I can't sit in jail for a few days. I have a son to care for,” Olivia said, tears welling in her eyes.
“Well, you may not have any other choice. I will make a plea to the court on your behalf that you have a child to attend to, but I can't guarantee anything.” The lawyer got up and grabbed his briefcase. “So let's go see what the judge has to say.”
Several days later Danyelle and Olivia were released on their own recognizance. They immediately went down to the Department of Family Services. Olivia was in a hurry to get Bryce back. She approached the receptionist and explained the reason she was there. After Olivia finished her story, the receptionist picked up the phone and made a call. She turned to Olivia. “You can have a seat in the waiting area and someone will be out to speak with you shortly.”
The two women waited approximately ten minutes before a woman came out to greet them. She was a black woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties.
“Hello, I'm Mrs. Johnson. I was told that you were looking for your baby,” the woman said.
“Yes, I was arrested a few days ago and the public defender told me that I would have to put in a petition to get my son back.”
“Yes, that is usually how it works, but your son is no longer under our care. The baby's father came down here the same night he was brought to us. He had the baby's birth certificate stating that he was the father, so we had no choice but to release him.”