Mist & Fog 11

“I found out who leaked that photo of you two.”

            “Who?”

            He turned toward me. “You know a man named Leonard Wiles?”

            “Leonard Wiles? Yeah, that’s Senator Cromwell’s right hand man.”

            “He was paid a lot of money to give proof that you were having an affair with the senator. When he couldn’t get the proof he needed, he asked one of his female friends to pose. But he forgot that you don’t have any ink work.”

            “What happened?”

            Broderick smiled. “Let’s say Leonard Wiles won’t be able to find work anywhere in the US. It’s a done deal, babe. Done and sealed. I told you I would take care of it.”

            “How?”

            “I don’t share my dirty secrets.”

            I laughed and then I kissed him deeply. “Thank you.”

 

            I woke the next morning to find breakfast waiting for me and a note from Broderick saying that he’d gone off to meet with Adam Walker to seal the final deal and would be back before lunch. I stretched and swung my legs over the side of the bed. As I got up to walk, I felt the soreness between my legs and I smiled at Broderick’s threat of making me remember what we had shared last night. I pulled on one of his shirts and was heading to the bathroom when a knock came at the door. I pulled on the white hotel robe lying on the chair, tied the knot, and walked to the peephole. I saw Lincoln staring back at me and I sighed deeply.

            “What do you want?” I said through the door.

            He laughed. “Oh come on, is that any way to speak to me? Can you at least open the door?”

            “I’m not dressed yet, Lincoln. What do you want?”

            He cleared his throat. “I have a message from Broderick. He said he’s going to be longer than he expected. He asked me to take you to meet him at the restaurant downtown where he’ll be arriving with my father. He wanted us to have a casual lunch together before you guys leave.”

            I turned and stared at my cell phone lying on the table. Turning back around, I cleared my throat and replied, “I haven’t heard from him about anything. Besides, I was going to call my mother and have lunch with her today.”

            He laughed. “Oh come on, you know Broderick wants his way. Just open the door and let me in.”

            “I’m not dressed yet. If you’ll kindly wait in the lobby, I’ll be down when I’m ready.”

            “I promise I won’t peek.”

            His persistence proved he was lying. I gulped down fear at the thought of him breaking down the door. I stepped back and grabbed the phone on the table. I pressed Broderick’s number and held it in my hands. When he picked up, I started talking to Lincoln again.

            “Please, Lincoln, wait downstairs. I’ll be right down. I’m not dressed and as a woman, I take a while.”

            It sounded like he was leaning against the door now as he spoke. “I don’t mind. Just let me in. I promise I’ll play nice. But then again, I’ve heard that you are a bad girl. Perhaps I can give you a spanking?”

            I gasped and moved back, pushing a chair in front of the door. I stared at the phone in my hand and realized Broderick had hung up. He was on his way here. I sighed a breath of relief both from Broderick coming and from the silence outside my door. I walked toward the peephole and stared through it. It was empty and I sighed as I sat down on the chair in front of the door. I jumped up when my phone started ringing. It was my mother and I answered.

            “When did you want to do lunch?” she asked.

            “Hi Mom. Let’s meet today. What’s a good place?”

            “Where are you staying?”

            I recited the hotel information to her and she replied by saying she’d have her driver pick me up. I bid her good bye and hung up. I walked to the window and opened the patio door wider. Then I heard the front door open and I turned around to find Broderick walking in like he’d been hit by a train. I dropped the phone and ran to him. His eyebrow was cut and his lip was bleeding. I grabbed a tissue and began dabbing at his wounds.

            “What happened?” I asked.

            “I saw him in the lobby waiting and then I couldn’t help myself.”

            “Who? Lincoln?”

            “Who else?”

            “Is he alright?”

            “He won’t be bothering you anymore, if he wants to keep his eyes.”

            I gasped as Broderick walked to sit down. I shut the door and locked it before I grabbed the first aid kit in my bag. I opened it and began to clean his wounds. He stared at me and then he stopped me by grabbing my wrist.

            “He didn’t try anything, did he? If he did, I’ll go back and finish him,” he said.

            “He didn’t try anything, Broderick. I called you as soon as he wouldn’t leave. I’m sorry. I know you were dealing with his father.”

            “I already sealed it anyway. I was on my way back here. You just made me run a few red lights.”

 

            My mother, Sheila was sitting next to Stuart, wearing a long red dress that made her the center of attention. She had a large five carat diamond ring on her left hand and Stuart was wearing a blue vest over a white shirt with black slacks. He had silvering hair but looked handsome at his age with broad shoulders and bright blue eyes. My mother’s hair was sleek and shiny as she stood and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I introduced Broderick to them and my mother’s eye s twinkled at the sight of him.

            “When are you leaving?” she asked after we had settled down.

            “Tomorrow morning,” I replied.

            “So soon,” my mother whined. “I miss you! This girl never visits me.”

            Broderick smiled and draped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. “Well, I aim to change that.”

            My mother beamed. “You’re a keeper!”

            “I aim to please.”

            I laughed as I thought of when I had heard that before. I excused myself to use the ladies’ room and my mother went with me. Men were looking at her as she walked passed them, but she walked on without even blinking. When we entered the ladies’ room, she smiled at me and gave me a hug.

            “I’m so happy that you found yourself a good man. He’s so handsome! He’s very rich too. He’ll be able to take care of you,” she said.

            The thought reminded me of my father and I ached. “It’s not about the money, Mom. It’s more about how I feel.”

            “Oh, well, that part is important too, but money is a good department to have.”

            I turned and walked away from her. I felt as if my heart was bleeding and when I turned around to face her, my tears were falling down my cheeks. She was shocked when she saw me and she walked toward me, her hands reaching out to me. When she touched me, I flinched and turned away from her. The pain, the anger, and the betrayal poured out of my eyes as I stood there in the bathroom wondering how I should address my anger with my mother. I knew she was happy, but others had paid a price for it.

            “Dear, what’s wrong?” she asked.

            I brought my eyes to her and wiped my cheeks. “How can you do that?”

            Confused, she shook her head. “Do what?”

            “Stand there and ask me what is wrong when you trampled over everything!”

            She backed up and brought up a hand to her chest, hurt. “Natasha, are we still dwelling over this pothole? I thought you were over it.”

            “I’ll never get over it. I have to face my father’s soulless eyes every time I visit him. I have to face his ache each time I am near him. You decided you were unhappy because my father was poor and couldn’t give you a five carat ring.”

            She slapped me across the face. “Is that all you think Stuart is to me? A five carat ring?”

            I turned to look at her. “Isn’t he? You just now mentioned that the man I am seeing is good because he’s rich.”

            She gulped and sighed as she threw up her hands. “You don’t understand, Natasha. You never grew up the way I did. I was given everything and when I married your father, he couldn’t give me anything. I had to sit on the sidelines and watch as other women sparkled with their luxury and I barely had enough to eat. I was…you don’t understand. I wanted more and he couldn’t give it to me.”

            “But you knew that before you married him. You knew all that and yet you married him. If you wanted more, why did you accept him?” I asked.

            Her lower lip began to shiver and she turned away from me. She reached out and held on to the kitchen sink. I watched her for a moment and then when she turned around, I realized that she’d aged in those few seconds. She wasn’t the flawless woman my stepfather wanted so much. She was my mother, the woman who had left my father in pieces.

            “You can’t judge me. I won’t allow it,” she whispered.

            I walked to her. “Mom, I’m tired of living in your shadow. Every day when I wake, I find that I can’t allow any man to love me because I fear him leaving me like you left Dad. I am frightened and now that there’s this wonderful man in my life, I have discovered things that I never knew existed. But in the back of my mind, even though I’ve tried to forgive you, I live in fear that I will one day become my father. I am scared that I will shrivel when he leaves me and finds someone else. In fact, just the thought of it has me running scared. Don’t you realize that you’re the one to blame for it? You left my father and now you’re living this carefree life while my father still has yet to recover. How can you be so heartless? How can you be so unloving?”

            “Don’t blame me!” she yelled. “If only he did his job as a husband, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. I was drowning, Natasha. I was literally drowning and without air, you can’t live. How can you not understand?”

            I walked to her as the knot in the base of my throat tightened. “Because unlike you, I know what a ring on a finger means.”

            She shriveled and let out a sob. Then she tore out of the bathroom and left me standing there. I knew it hurt her and I had aimed to do that just that. I was hurting myself and in order to successfully make her understand what she’d done to my father, I had to give her a taste of her own medicine. I sighed and turned to stare at my own reflection. She wasn’t anywhere near the beautiful creature Broderick saw. So what was in me that he loved so much?