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“What this ‘bout Tali?” Willearl asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” When Law helped Gema sit down on the couch, I stood in front of the TV with the bank envelopes tucked under my arms. “When I left here, I thought we had an understanding on how things were supposed to work. My Mama rented this house out and to her without my knowledge and hasn’t sent a dime of it to Gema. Going forward Patrice, whatever you pay her a month needs to be sent via money gram to me or you can deposit in Gema account.”
“I use that money to keep up the house,” my mama blurted.
“Shouldn’t be no upkeep. And if it is, that’s the tenants responsibility unless something breaks. And if that’s the case, Patrice got my number and know how to reach out to me.”
“This my mama house, Tali. You can’t tell me what to do with it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Grabbing the envelope, I pulled the deed out and handed it to her. “This ismyhouse. Not only do I own this property, but I own y’alls as well.”
“Wait a minute… what you mean you own ours?” Willearl asked.
“Papa Joe signed over every property that he owned to me.”
“You don’t own my house,” my mama popped.
“Actually, I do.” Pulling out her deed and the paperwork from the quick sale, I passed it to her. “Your husband fell behind on the property taxes. I bought it before the bank foreclosed on it. Ask Joe Lee, he will tell you.”
“This some bullshit. Mama, you let Daddy do this?” Louise asked in that shaky ass voice that pissed me off.
“I ain’t let Joe do nothing. He did that all on his own.”
“Correct. Gema had no idea. I don’t have no issues with none of y’all… my only issue is with that one.” I pointed at my mama.“I don’t want y’all house and y’all don’t owe me shit. I’m willing to sign all of them over to y’allify’all sister drop this bullshit ass abuse claim against Mrs. Jessie and bring Gema back home.”
“Litha!”
“Willearl don’t call my name. Y’all ain’t see that purple bruise on Mama. Ain’t no way a fall in the shower caused that.”
“Gema is clumsy. She has to be watched at all times. You ain’t never seen me just let her walk around freely. The few times I do, I’m always close by. She don’t get around like she used to so a slip and fall is common. Why the fuck you think she wears that necklace around her neck.”
“What necklace?” she asked and looked over at Gema.
“You mean to tell me you ain’t paid no attention to the necklace around Gema neck.”
“We thought it was a regular necklace,” Betty Jo countered.
“It’s a fucking dog tag for crying out loud. Ugh! That’s neither here nor there. I gave y’all my terms and since I know how pigheaded y’all sister is, I’ll let her think on it. I’m going home tonight. You have a week from today to make your final decision.
Drop the claims and I’ll sign everything over. If not, then I’ll keep my name on the deeds. Everybody understand?” Everyone with the exception of my mama nodded their head. She didn’t have to agree, I knew they would be on her ass until she gave in. “Patrice, do I need to give you Gema account number or….”
“I’ll send it through MoneyGram so we can have a paper trail.”
“That’s fair. Gema, you call me if you need me. If anything happens, I’ll be on my way back down here.”
“I’m okay, Tali. You and Law be careful going back up that road.”
“We will.” Leaning down I kissed her on the cheek and whispered in her ear, “If she starts that shit with you, call me. I’m not opposed to whooping that ass.”
“Gon’ now.” Gema laughed and patted me on the arm.
I looked around the room one more time waiting for somebody to say something. When I realized they wasn’t gon’ say nothing, I grabbed Law by the hand and walked out of the house.
It was never my intentions to do this, I was going to sit back and let the people do their investigations. But spending today with Gema had me eager to get her back to the house. If this was what it was going to take to make it happen, then so be it.
“Tali, you have a delivery,” Rossi called before barging into my office with a Pappadeaux’s bag.
“You can sit it down over there.” Training my eyes on the email in front of me, I read over the first paragraph a few times before picking up my phone to shoot Law a text message.