Page 89 of Fierce Love
“Get your fucking hands off me,” she screams. “I wasn’t washing anyone’s money! I’m innocent. Someone else did this.”
“Let my wife go,” my father yells from behind. “You can’t manhandle a pregnant woman like that. It’s not right.”
Pregnant?
A chill runs through me at his words, and as the two of them round the corner, in handcuffs, bracketed by police, the bump in my mother’s midriff is outlined—small but distinct.
“No,” I whisper. My father would be the type to lie about her condition to get sympathy or better treatment, but the last time I saw my mom, she was rail thin.
The two officers at the front desk shake their heads in my mom’s direction. “You just know,” the one says, “that Mickie will sell Verna out for whatever has happened. Shame, really.”
“True,” the other officer says with a laugh. “Mickie’s Teflon. Shit slides off her. It would take an act of God to make something stick.”
Fear has me gripped so hard I can’t move.
“How sure are you that your aunt’s innocent?” the guy beside me asks.
I’m not. Not really. She’s done so many things for my mother that I can’t be certain she wouldn’t cross a few more lines if she thought it would keep Mickie safe, even if it put my aunt’s life in danger. And if Mickie’s pregnant… I close my eyes, overwhelmed by the implications.
“Can women have babies in prison?”
“Sure,” the guy beside me says.
“But they wouldn’t be able to keep them if they get out?”
“I don’t see why not, as long as their crime wasn’t tied to children. But I’m not a lawyer or a cop—yet.”
I shake my head, and I can’t stop shaking it. The idea of my mother and father being in charge of another human being is enough to make me want to scream. They cannot have that baby, and they cannot drag my aunt to jail with them. Iwon’tlet them.
“If I was you,” the guy beside me says, “I’d be thinking of how I could get that money for the lawyer. I can’t see Mickie Davis taking the fall if there’s anyone else to pin it on.”
“I don’t have any money.” The answer is a dazed reflex. I have some—a little. I’d intended to use it to help me at school until I could find a job on or off campus to keep myself completely afloat. There’s no way it’s enough for a decent lawyer.
“There’s always a way to get money. A loan, maybe?”
I can’t ask Nate. Besides, his mom keeps him on a tight financial leash. She holds him accountable for every dollar he spends, which Nate says she didn’t used to do. He never adds, “before we got together,” but it lies between us, unspoken. Asserting her control over Nate is the point.
Celia.
My brain has just clicked on a solution that’s so terrible, I almost can’t stomach it. The conversation we had on the back porch the first night I met her rises to the surface.
The Davis family have always had a price. When you’ve got yours, you know where to find me.
My chest is tight with the implications, and I can barely breathe. Rising from my chair, I go to the counter. Someone. Anyone. There must be another option.
“Excuse me,” I call out.
“What can I do for you?” An officer ambles over.
“I need to see Verna Davis.”
“No can do. Lawyers only.”
“There’s free ones, right?”
“Legal aid?” He raises his eyebrows. “If I can give you one piece of advice, sweetheart, it’s this. Those charges against your aunt are serious. Real serious. If you’ve got the money for a better lawyer, I’d spend it. Mickie will have a good one, which’ll make it even harder for Verna to get out from underneath this without legal aid.”
Money. I need it, and I need it now. Nate would help me if he could, but I know there’s really only one option.
