Page 31 of Make Me Forget

She chuckled. “My sister is about your size, and I’ve witnessed her knocking a woman out. But that was a woman, not a man.”

I looked around and closed my eyes. “Let me take it,” I said softly. “It wasn’t me, but they were there to help me get my things out of the house. When we got there, Mesani had destroyed all my clothes, and my makeup was floating in water. All of my personal shit was damaged… except my pictures.”

She made notes as I talked, telling her how he disrespected me verbally and how the men that were with me came to my rescue. “Jacob hit him twice. I kicked him in his balls. Anger was flowing through me so damn strong, because how dare he. After trying to work through what I’d seen, I realized I couldn’t do it. He was angry that I was leaving him. That’s why he filed those charges. And not only did I leave him, but I left with Kendrall Henderson, the man I cheated with after he cheated.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled hard. “Basically, he’s a scorned lover. Men can never take the shit they dish out. You’re supposed to get over them cheating, but when the tables turn, you’re everything but a child of God. This ain’t no attempted murder charge. Not in the least bit.”

I took a deep breath. Thank God. Although I knew that, I was glad she was seeing it too. She asked me questions about Jacob, but I didn’t want him to take the heat for this. It was because of me that he was even there… all of them. Kendrall and Uncle Storm could get in trouble for witnessing it and doing nothing about it. I was surprised Mesani didn’t say a man was there. Hopefully, his memory had glitched about that shit.

Mrs. Taylor continued looking over the paperwork. As she did, her eyebrows lifted again. Great. “You won’t be able to take it. It says here there was a man there and that he assaulted him.”

“Well, at least it isn’t attempted murder,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

“So, I am going to have to get with Jacob. Is he a Henderson?”

“He is, but I’m not sure if Henderson is his last name. But he is definitely Kendrall’s cousin. He hit him so Kendrall wouldn’t. He said KJ had too much going for himself to be getting in trouble.”

I brought my hands to my face. This shit was all my fault. The way it escalated was my fault too. I should have left Mesani’s ass when I caught him cheating, but I was too in love and worried about his fucking future. I felt guilty for disabling him the way I did by hitting him with that vase. Finally, the tears came. Jacob was going to have a charge because of me.

My life was one thing, but it was never my intent to fuck up nobody else’s. I was so glad Daddy couldn’t come with us. He was out of town at a meeting for his trucking business. He would have been in trouble, too, because he wouldn’t have let Jacob have all the ‘fun.’ Mesani would have had a reason to file attempted murder, because Daddy would have beat him within an inch of his life had he heard the way he talked to me.

“Lift your head up, baby. Everything will be fine. There won’t be an attempted murder charge. I promise. I can’t promise that you and Jacob won’t get assault charges though. You don’t have a record, so I’m sure you will be able to go home. We see the judge in thirty minutes, so let’s head that way.”

Thank God. I stood as we waited for a guard to escort us to the courtroom. Mrs. Taylor lightly rubbed my back. “I’ve seen worse, baby. No one’s future is destroyed. Okay? This bump in the road was all caused by Mesani. After I tell the judge everything you told me, I’m pretty sure he’ll let you go home.”

I nodded. I felt so bad for Jacob. They were going to arrest him, and he’d have to go through this too. I wished I could avoid telling them altogether. I stopped in the hallway to create a little distance between us and the guard, then said in a soft voice, “Missus Taylor? Maybe I can make it seem like his memory is off. He has documented memory loss.”

“You sure you want to do that? You will get two assault charges, and the one with the vase could be a felony assault charge.”

“Yes, I know. This is all my fault. Jacob was only trying to protect me and Kendrall. I’m going to get in trouble regardless, but he doesn’t have to. I was moving. So there were a lot of men there. He won’t be credible when I finish.”

She rubbed my back again. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

I took a deep breath and continued following the guard to the courtroom. When we walked in, I saw my baby sitting there. As I walked to my seat, I gave him a soft smile to ease his worry. His forehead had wrinkle lines and his lips were tucked into his mouth. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that me being here was eating him alive.

We sat in the chairs, and I turned to him and mouthed, I love you. He did the same and blew me a kiss. I looked over to his left and saw my parents, Ebony, and Evan, along with Mr. Kenny, Uncle Storm, and Jacob. All these people were here to support me, but I felt horrible because I’d created a mess. I didn’t handle things well at all.

Mrs. Taylor was ready to tear into this case. I could tell by the way her leg was bouncing. The DA stood and painted me out to be a menace to society, a woman who couldn’t control her temper and had anger issues. He even went on to talk about my family issues and how I didn’t have a relationship with my biological mother or father, and that was why I, basically, had no home training.

Mrs. Taylor was livid. Her lips were tightly pursed. It looked like she was going to spit venom at any moment. When the judge finally gave her the floor, she stood like she was off to the races.

“First of all, let’s set the record straight. Miss Daniels grew up in a loving home with two parents. Their biological relationship makes no difference. She’s a professor at Lamar University, where police officers cuffed and paraded her around campus at the word of someone else, when she was willing to go with them. Seems like they were already assessing her as guilty before a trial.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned to the DA with a scowl on her face. “She has just as much education as you do, so don’t berate her like she’s a second-class citizen.” Turning back to the judge, she continued. “Miss Daniels had worked a long week of overtime while attending classes to obtain her PhD. When she got home, she found her fiancé, Mister Spain, having sex with another woman.”

She glanced at me, and I swore I saw a smirk on her lips. “Yeah, I’m sure he didn’t tell that part. My client was enraged and overcome with emotion. If she wanted to kill him in that moment, Mister Spain would be dead. His back was to my client and, clearly, he was engrossed in his activities, because he didn’t even realize she was standing there, watching him destroy what they’d built together.”

She slowly shook her head as if she was placing herself in my shoes. “What can be more hurtful? And to actually walk in on the betrayal? That’s a beast in itself. Thankfully, all he got was a concussion. The reason things escalated to his current issues is because he didn’t follow the doctor’s orders. That is why he had to get on disability. Did Miss Daniels actions have something to do with it? Yes. But so did his.”

She walked toward me and stared at me for a moment. I assumed she was thinking about how she would word what we’d discussed. She turned back to the judge. “As far as the second charge, he claims there was a man there. There were plenty of men there, because Miss Daniels was moving her things out of the home they shared. Mister Spain tore all of her clothing and destroyed a lot of her personal belongings. Again, he probably didn’t share that information either.”

She shook her head again, and I could tell she was doing her best to restrain herself. “None of this happened to me, Your Honor, but I’m having a hard time controlling my anger. Imagine how Cassie felt. Do we even know that Mister Spain is thinking clearly? He has a problem with his short-term memory. Cassie is not denying that she ‘assaulted’ Mister Spain,” she said, putting emphasis on the word assaulted.

“She was not trying to kill him. Again, if she wanted to kill him, she had every opportunity to do so while he was… occupied and exposed.”

She walked away and came and sat with me while the judge looked to be reading notes and writing a few. The DA looked pissed. Mrs. Taylor was amazing. She grabbed my trembling hand, gave it a squeeze, and smiled at me. I glanced back at Kendrall, and he smiled too.

Finally, the judge spoke. “There are no police reports to back this claim. Had Miss Daniels not accepted guilt and told the truth, we wouldn’t know if she did anything or not. While we know someone assaulted him, the only proof we have is that she was there moving her things that day. This is not an attempted murder case. If Mister Spain wanted better results, he should have called the police and filed a report.”

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