“Tell me I didn’t hear what I think I just heard,” I said, turning to LC. “Please tell me she didn’t just admit to killing that boy.”
“I’m sorry, son, but you heard right. We both heard right,” he growled. “I spent almost half a million dollars sending her to special schools in France and Asia so that they could refine her, teach her discipline, so she would act like a lady, and all they did was send me home a cold-blooded murderer. Little girl, I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you. I’m about ready to give up.”
“Wait a minute! Hold on! What the hell are y’all talking about? I didn’t murder him or anything like that.”
“You didn’t?” LC and I said in unison, turning toward the backseat.
“No, but I might as well have pulled the trigger myself by bringing him to that club. He didn’t deserve this, Daddy. He didn’t even wanna go to the club, but I insisted. If it wasn’t for me, he’d be alive right now.” I almost thought I saw a tear in her eye. This night just kept getting more and more bizarre.
Her sudden sentimental attitude was not something we were used to seeing, but I, for one, was willing to brush it off as shock from the incident. I took my foot off the brakes and started driving again. I would need to know more details before she went back to answer questions at the precinct, but for now, I was happy to accept her words at face value and head home.
As we crossed the Brooklyn-Queens line, I glanced back at her as she looked out the passenger-side window with misty eyes. Her mind was probably still somewhere back in Brooklyn, rewinding Trevor’s death over and over again. I have to admit I felt sorry for her, and I think LC did too.
“Honey, these types of things happen in life. That’s why Harris, your brothers, and me are so hard on you. You can’t do everything you want to just because you know we’re going to bail you out of it. There’s an order of things in this family. You are going to have to start taking responsibility for your actions.”
“I am. I will ... I’m gonna do better, Daddy. I promise.”
He turned around fully in his seat to face Paris. “I hope so, because I won’t be up here to help bail you out much longer. Once Orlando’s in charge, he’s not going to be putting up with this like I do.” LC straightened in the seat, looking through the windshield again, and announced, “You are staying home the rest of the week. I don’t want you bumping into any reporters or cops by accident. Then, Monday, you’re coming in to work, and I don’t want to hear a negative, trifling word out of you.”
My eyes met Paris’s in the rearview mirror. She knew silence was best on her part. It was no time to test her father. Besides, now that she was safe, his mind had probably already moved on to Orlando.
London
14
Thanks to Paris, there would not be a late-night romp with my husband or much sleep, for that matter. Not with Harris running out in the middle of the night with Daddy for yet another emergency involving Paris—which, of course, they didn’t have time to discuss with me. Shutting me out was becoming more and more of a habit for them ever since I stopped working.
The only reason I even had the little bit of information I did was because I ran downstairs and confronted Junior as soon as I heard his loud-behind car pulling in the driveway. He looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He obviously wasn’t in the mood to talk about it, but when I asked him where Daddy and Harris were, he mentioned something about Paris and the police. That little wench couldn’t stand the idea of Orlando having the spotlight. I guess she had to go and do something stupid to get Daddy’s attention.