Page 18 of A Trial of the Heart

Chapter

Eighteen

Rashad:

Taking long steps, I exited the restaurant quickly.

Shiloh had me more pissed than I’d cared to admit.

She caused me to speak to her in a way I normally wouldn’t.

I didn’t regret my words, though. Outside, I climbed into my car.

I hit the start button, and the engine purred effortlessly.

Without selecting my choice of music as usual, I placed the car in drive and sped from the parking lot.

It was sad how a lot of people spoke about uplifting black men, yet the moment someone rendered them incapable with no proof, witnesses, bad rep, or anything…

if they said you did it, you were prosecuted without a trial.

Always seeming to be the calm during my storm, my pops phoned in as I headed home. I pressed the button on the touchscreen in my car, and the call instantly connected to CarPlay.

“What up, Pops?”

I talked to my pops multiple times a day. Besides my brother, he was my best friend, and it seemed like he always knew when I needed him no matter how old I was.

“What’s up, Rashad?”

“Headed home. What you got going on?”

“Same ol’ thing. Just a different day.”

“I hear that.”

It got eerily quiet between us.

“What’s up, son? I know you didn’t answer my call just to breathe, so tell me what’s on your mind.” It was just like my pops to notice things whether big or small. “Yeah, you can, but you and I both know you’re not speaking because it’s something on your mind. So, what’s up?” Pops added.

I chuckled, coming to a stop at the red light. “Kind of got myself into some trouble. Before now, I hadn’t mentioned what was happening because I wanted to keep things low key. It only became a topic due to the nature of my relationship with Shiloh, and I needed someone to tell.

“Kind of trouble?”

I was innocent. I knew that, but with my charges, it would be hard for people to believe I wasn’t the guy I was painted to be.

“Legal.” I paused a second before giving the run down on my charges. I even mentioned being arrested in front of my youth.

“Those are some heavy charges, Rashad.”

“I know.” I shook my head.

“I gotta ask. D—”

“Nah, Pops. I didn’t do it.” I didn’t allow him to finish because I already knew what he’d say.

The line fell silent “Then how are such charges a thing for you?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, I have a feeling of who it could be, but it’s not a definite thing. I mean, I didn’t do shit, but somewhere and somehow, someone was convincing enough for me to be charged.”

“You have enemies in the streets?”

I chuckled. “Pops, you know I don’t even move that way.”

In school, I was popular, and it followed me through my adulthood. I was just likeable I suppose.

“You don’t move that way, but it’s clear this is personal, and someone has a vendetta against you. So, you can’t think of someone who would want to do this?”

“Nah… I mean, the only person might be Lauryn. Remember her?”

It was my pops turn to chuckle. “Can’t forget her crazy ass if I tried.” My pops rarely cursed, so when he did, it was shocking. “What about her?”

“She would be the only one since she didn’t take the breakup well. Honestly, though, I don’t see her doing that or even having the connections to do so.” Lauryn was bat shit crazy and would go to great lengths to get her way, but this didn’t feel like her.

“You know her better than I do, but I wanna say this. Remember when you and your brother were growing up? I always told you never give a female all the inches you had because you’d only create a monster. That should be reserved for your wife.”

I laughed to myself. I remembered the many talks, and up until Lauryn, there hadn’t been a reason to follow that advice. Lauryn hadn’t gotten all of me, yet she acted as though she had.

“I hear ya, Pops.”

The silence had returned. “Something else on your mind, son?”

I exhaled deeply. I was a grown man that handled things on my own, but I was never too old for my father’s listening ears and wise responses.

“Remember the woman I had mentioned meeting on the cruise?”

In one of our phone calls, I had mentioned Shiloh, never really giving her name, but I told him how she affected me in such a short time.

“Is she pregnant, son?” He sounded exhausted already. My parents wanted to be grandparents, but they always hoped we got married first.

My chuckle couldn’t be contained as I could imagine his expression when he asked the question. “Nah, Pops. She not pregnant.”

“That’s surely a relief.” I imagined him wiping the nonexistent sweat from his face. “Wait. She gave you something?”

I howled in laughter with my eyes closed, forgetting I was driving for a second.

“Nah.” I barely could get it out. “You on a roll today, Pops.”

“Son, you never know in this day and age. I’m going to stop guessing and let you tell me.”

For a few, I was still laughing, so I couldn’t say why I had mentioned her. Finally, I had gotten myself together.

“She’s with the prosecuting team.”

“She’s your lawyer? Wouldn’t that be bad for business?”

“She’s a lawyer… just not mine. In fact, she is on the team of the ones trying to lock me up.”

“What the hell?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought her being your lawyer was conflict of interest, but her being on the opposing side surely has to be one. Wait. She know you’re on the other side?”

Again, I chuckled. “Yeah, Pops. She knows.”

“She still wants to go through with it? She has to know your character to know that’s not something you’d do. You think maybe she had something to do with the charges being brought about? Did she know you when the charges came about?” My pops asked his questions rapidly before I could answer one.

I had asked myself that same question, and while it would seem as such, that day in court, Shiloh seemed just as stunned as I was when she found out who she was up against. Not only that, but her also not knowing my real name and assuming we lived in different states, there was no way for her to know it was me.

“Honestly, I don’t think so.”

“Son, I promise you have to watch where you stick ya stuff the Lord gave you because it seems to be attached to a lot of bad things.”

Yeah, he was for sure on a roll today.

“Noted.”

“All I can tell you is I truly hope whoever your lawyer is, is a beast because with charges like the ones you mentioned, I don’t think they’re just for fun. It may not be your truth, but it’s someone’s.”

“Barret and his team will get the job done.”

“Good.”

My Pops and I talked longer before we disconnected.

It didn’t matter what anything looked like on paper, I knew I was innocent, and I trusted Barret with my life to prove my innocence. So, nothing bothered me about the situation.