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“I found it where you kept it, inside the dented floorboard that you covered with the makeup table in your closet.” I gaped when I realized to what length she went to hide the book. Why didn’t she just burn it then?
“Because of your bad habit of never throwing old stuff away, I found this. Because of your bad habit of keeping things until they destroy themselves, this got into my hands.” She took a seat in front of her mother who was still standing beside me, stiff as a board.
I could see how scared she was and I wouldn’t blame her because even though Jordan and I came here together, I was scared of who she was at that moment.
“I will only ask you this once, Mother. What happened between you and Cedric Antonio?” She demanded, her voice dangerously low. Her hands were on the table, one drummed quietly on the wood while the other played with the edge of the journal that was still with her. Her left leg shook and she shifted on the chair with impatience.
“Jor-Jordan,” Aunty Laura stuttered and Jordan snickered.
“I asked you a question.”
Aunty Laura whimpered quietly, too low for Jordan to hear, but almost the right amount of volume for my ears. “Jordan, I’m sorry.”
Jordan hit her fist on the table in anger and Aunty Laura flinched. “Incase you also forgot…” She straightened herself on the chair, brought out her knife and dropped it on the table. “I’m Alex,” she finished and everything suddenly went silent.
Three syllables, two words and one meaning.
Everyone knew who Alex was, she had never needed to introduce herself twice. ‘I am Alex’ was enough for people to start confessing to what they did, and sometimes even what they didn’t do.
I looked at her again, desperate to make her look at me, but she didn’t. I was convinced that she was intentionally avoiding my gaze.
“Deflect from my question one more time and I swear to God…”
From the look in Aunty Laura’s eyes, I knew she wasn’t going to lie anymore. She was going to tell the whole truth, including the part where my dad killed my mom because he wanted to be with her.
“He… he… we once dated,” she rambled and Jordan snorted.
“You know what I want to know, so tell me what I want to know.” Jordan suddenly stood up, held her knife and walked toward her mother who visibly sucked in her breath.
I had never seen a mother so scared of her daughter, and even though it made me uncomfortable, I knew she deserved it.
“Tell me why you didn’t tell anyone, not even your husband, that youoncedated Cedric. Tell me why you cheated on dad, tell me why you told Cedric you didn’t like the PDA between him and his wife, and tell me why Jayden’s mom had to die because you were still not satisfied with just Cedric’s dick,” she said in one smooth flow and my eyes darted back to Aunty Laura who glanced at me.
She broke eye contact immediately our eyes met, and I guessed she was in shame as she realized that I already knew she was the reason my mother had to die. “I didn’t tell… I didn’t tell Cedric to kill Marie, he only told me he killed her after he did.” She suddenly held Jordan’s hand, but the latter yanked her hand away as disgust contorted her face.
“I swear Jordan, I didn’t tell him to kill her.”
“Do you even realize that Cedric didn’t make his sons rape me because my dad stole his money? He made them rape me because you refused to kill your husband.”
“Jordan, I…”
“He told my dad to take a DNA test, and after he did, he connived with the doctor to print it out as negative. Dad stole the money and left me because he thought I wasn’t his child. He left us because he found out you cheated with his BEST FRIEND.”
Aunty Laura gasped and I was just about to question why she looked so shocked as if she was just hearing for the first time that she cheated on Uncle Chris with my dad, until she said something that completely ruined the remaining ounce of respect I had for her.
“What?” She whispered, and Jordan and I shared eye contact in confusion. “Chris knew? I swear I didn’t know he knew.” That was her concern? She wasn’t sorry she cheated, she was sorry he knew? As if reading my mind, Jordan snickered darkly before clenching her jaw.
“You didn’t know he knew? You planned to hide it forever?”
“I didn’t know he knew, I swear.” She sobbed out.
How was she not getting it? She was older, how did she not understand what she did? Why was she more sorry that her husband found out instead of being sorry that she cheated?
“THAT’S NOT THE POINT,” Jordan barked, and both Aunty Laura and I recoiled. “The point is you cheated. You haven’t apologized for cheating yet. You haven’t said anything about cheating, you are only surprised he knew. Why are you surprised he knew when secrets never last.” Jordan’s whole body began to shake and I started to get worried for her. Tears were falling from her eyes as she rambled on and on about her mother’s sins.
“I killed my dad because he cheated on you, that was the only reason I killed him. The only thing he did wrong was leaving me there when he stole his friend’s money, but that was because he thought I was Cedric’s daughter. He only wanted revenge by getting his best friend on the bad side of the mafias in the club, which would have never happened if you didn’t cheat on him. You even wrote it down for God’s sake, who wants to read that your husband’s best friendfucked the headacheout of you.”
“He… we were still in love when we met again, but I swear after I had you, I…”