Page 52 of The Devoted Husband
After the Hearing
“I don’t think it’s going to matter.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged, looking out of the window. “I don’t think he’s going to stop. He has to die.”
Her statement caught Dante so off guard he didn’t respond immediately. Shifting slightly in his seat, he took her hand in his and used it to pull her attention to him.
“Talk to me. Tell me what happened.”
Sade used her free hand to get her phone out of her purse. She handed it to him after pulling up a video. Dante’s calm was replaced with anger as he watched it.
“When did he send this?”
“The day we came back.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, baby?”
“I didn’t want to even think about it. I just...had to shut down to keep from being consumed by anger and sadness. I wanted to go to Jones’s house and put a bullet between his eyes.” She scoffed and wiped a tear that had slipped down her cheek.
“He hasn’t been back home since he broke into our home.”
Finally, Sade looked at him. “How do you know he hasn’t been back?”
Dante hadn’t told her everything he’d done the day Jones violated their home.
He also didn’t tell her about his visit to see Imani the next day before returning home.
Imani gave him the information about a man who took anyone’s life for the right price.
As much as he wanted to kill Jones himself, what Captain Bennit said was true—if anything happened to Jones, Dante and Sade would be the prime suspects.
On the off chance the emergency temporary restraining order wasn’t granted, Dante had a backup plan in place to have Jones killed.
“He’s been watching the house,” Dante continued to share, “waiting for Jones to arrive. I was supposed to call him after the hearing today and tell him what to do. He texted me before court and told me that Jones still hadn’t arrived.”
“If he doesn’t go home, how will they serve him? The no-contact clause won’t matter if he doesn’t get the papers. He can still send us texts and emails if he wants to.”
“Well, they are aware that he was a detective in Vanzette. I won’t be surprised if they try to utilize their services.
The judge did tell us to work with them directly to receive confirmation from the sheriff that he was served.
Hopefully, they will have other contact information for him and will know where he could be hiding.
If not, we’ll handle this our own way as soon as he pops back up. ”
“I’m just ready for this to be over,” she grumbled, putting on her seat belt.
Dante was too.
A Few Days Later
Dante wasn’t sure what Eric wanted to discuss when he asked him to join him for an early afternoon round of golf, but it certainly wasn’t an invitation to go into business together.
Though Dante appreciated the offer and the fact that he and Jessica trusted that he had nothing to do with Imani’s schemes, he didn’t plan on saying yes.
It seemed Jessica and Eric were doing well for themselves, and after what happened at Ian’s firm, Dante didn’t want to risk anyone else getting caught up in his mess.
As they rode to the next hole, Dante expressed just that.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to decline. After what happened with Ian, I want to go into business alone. I don’t want my name to be synonymous with drama in our industry.”
“I feel you. Do you think that would be the case, though? How much more can he do?”
Dante chuckled. “I’m not trying to find out. That’s why I’m not opening the business until he’s out of the picture. Plus, I want to be there as much as possible for Day. I can’t imagine how hard this has been for her. This is her first baby, and she’s having to deal with all this bullshit.”
“Man, I’ve been praying for her. Both of y’all. She seems to be handling it well, though.”
“By grace,” Dante said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “I want to give her whatever she wants and needs for all that she’s gone through. Now and when the baby gets here. After that, I’ll get back to my business.” He accepted the call from Lathan with, “Lathan, wassup, man?”
“Hey, uh...I’m going to send you a Facebook link to watch a video Jones posted. It’s gone viral.”
“A’ight, thanks.”
“You good?” Eric asked.
“I’m not sure. Give me a sec.” Dante hopped off the golf cart and clicked the link to the video.
“I hate it has come to this,” Jones said, “but I have no other choice. Earlier this morning, I was served a restraining order at the request of Dante Williams and Sade Griffin. This happened while I was temporarily staying with my old captain, who advised me not to make this video, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Dante steeled himself, unsure what Jones would say next.
“I’ve been staying with Captain Bennit of the Vanzette Police Department because I didn’t want to return home.
I did something illegal in Memphis and knew the police would be after me.
They want to arrest me for breaking into Dante and Sade’s home. ”
Jones chuckled. “Why did I do it? Well...I’ve been trying to make their lives as miserable as I possibly can.
See, before they went back to Memphis, they stayed in Vanzette.
There, two murders were committed, and a woman went missing.
While I don’t think Dante was involved in the murders, Sade committed them because of him.
The charges brought against her were dropped because of a bad choice by me, but I am 100 percent certain Sade Griffin killed Patrice Baker, Trina Roe, and maybe even Willow Frank.
“Since the police are unwilling to make Sade pay, I tried to. Unfortunately, I’ve reached the end of my rope.
With the restraining order, it’s out of my hands.
I’ll probably be arrested soon and will be unable to get justice for her victims. If you want to pick up where I left off, their address is. ..”
“Are you fucking kidding me!” Dante roared, exiting out of the video to call Sade.
As he hopped back onto the golf cart, he told Eric to take him back toward the entrance so he could head home because not only had Jones told thousands of people he believed Sade was a murderer, but he’d also given them their address too.