Chapter10
That night when she got home from work, she packed what few things she actually wanted to take with her, and she put them into her car. Keisha and Tonia happened to be home when she did it, as they lived in the same apartment complex as Celeste, and they began to give her hell about it.
“Oh, look at this! Miss Thang thinks she’s moving up in the world, don’t she! You goin’ uptown with that hot white man of yours? You think he’s going to take care of you and put you up somewhere? He paying for your body now? Is that what this is? You know what that makes you… don’t you?” Keisha was vicious to her.
Tonia agreed, adding in cruel things here and there, but she didn’t cut as deeply as Keisha did. Celeste did her utmost best to ignore them both and get herself packed up and out of her crappy old apartment.
David had been true to his word and he had gotten her a condo that day. To her amazement, he had paid for it in full, in cash, and he had put it in her name. There was nothing about him involved with it, other than having provided the money for it, but nowhere else on it did he even exist. The place was hers and hers alone, and she was going to be where no one could bother her; especially Wendell.
When the last of her things were packed in her car, and everything that she didn’t want was left behind in her apartment, she returned her keys to the landlord and drove her car over the tracks for what she knew would be the last time, and she headed to her new home.
When she got there, David had a group of men ready to unload her car and take it in. She met him in the parking lot, and he held her tightly to him. “Thank you so much for accepting this from me. It’s the best way I can think of to take care of you. You have so much potential in you, and all you need is the tools to make it happen.”
“Thank you!” She grinned at him, feeling better about her new condo all the time. “This is something I can never repay.”
“Yes, you can. I want to be there when you walk at your graduation. That will be my payment; seeing you graduate. Do that for me, please.” He sighed happily, and she saw the relief in him, and she felt it, too.
“Oh, I forgot.” He winked at her. “Your keys.” He held up a funny-looking key on a keychain.
She shook her head. “No, you already gave me the keys to the condo.” She smiled at him, wondering how he could have forgotten.
“These aren’t the keys to the condo,” he said with a teasing smile.
She frowned slightly in confusion and tilted her head. “What are they for?”
He pressed a button on one of them, and the car beside them beeped. It was a brand-new Mercedes-Benz. Her mouth fell open and he took her hand in his and set the keys in them. “They are for your new car. I’m having this one towed away. It’s a safety hazard, and you can’t argue with me about that because you know I’m right.”
She shook her head to tell him no, but he waved his hand dismissively and began to walk toward her condo door. She screamed in excitement and rushed after him, nearly knocking him down as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
“You are amazing!! Thank you so much!” She laughed and then cried and then laughed again, and he kissed her over and over all the way through it.
When the moving men had done all of two trips carrying her belongings into her condo, they left and it was just her and David. They walked into it together, and Celeste marveled at it. It was a big place with three bedrooms on two floors, along with a basement, a huge kitchen, four bathrooms, a laundry room, a breakfast nook, an office, a library, and a big backyard with a garden.
Besides all of the rooms, it came fully furnished and professionally designed. She felt like she had just moved into a dream. David couldn’t have been more pleased for her.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to thank you for all of this!” She laughed delightedly with him.
He smiled naughtily and gave her a wink. “Well, why don’t we start in the hot tub on the back deck, and then we’ll break in every single room in the house at least once. How does that sound?”
She laughed and took his hand, leading him out to the deck on the back patio, where the Jacuzzi was, and they got to work fulfilling his request.
***
It was finally her last night at the grocery store when she looked up at her line of customers and she saw Wendell there. Her heart stopped in her chest for what felt like a full minute, and she stared at him.
He only smiled and flirted with her, buying another donut. “How’s my girl doin’?” he asked, leering at her. She wondered if he had been drinking or if he was just getting worse about her.
“I’m not your girl, Wendell, now leave before I have the security guard take you out,” she ordered him severely.
He chuckled softly, but there was no smile on his mouth nor in his dark eyes. “I’m goin’. I’ll see you soon baby.”
She was nervous and agitated the rest of her shift, wondering what it was that he was talking about, and if he was just shooting his mouth off or if there was any reason for her to truly be concerned.
Celeste found out when she walked outside and tried to get into her new car. He was waiting right beside it, leaning on the driver’s side door so that she couldn’t leave. Anger burned inside of her and she lifted her chin and yelled at him.
“Get off of my car, Wendell!”
He whistled low and shook his head. “This your car? This one? My, my. I thought you had that old crappy thing… that hunk of junk you drove around for so long. That clunker that you drove around before you started screwing that rich white guy.” He gave her a menacing look.
“But, I guess you must be pretty good in his bed, because he done bought you a jewel of a car, yes he did. Mmm MMM!! Look at this sweet thing.” He didn’t take his eyes off of Celeste, but he did run his hand over the car as he looked at her, in a seductive and sensual way. “That’s alright, I know how good you are in bed, don’t I baby. Remember when we used to be in bed together? Remember when I touched you like this? Remember all those things you did for me in bed? Oh, I remember. I think about that all the time. I dream about it. I want you back, baby. I want you now. It’s time to pay the piper.” His tone grew cold and strong.
She wanted to run, but her feet were planted to the ground. “What do you want, Wendell?”
He leaned closer to her. “I want half a million dollars, or I’m going to arrest you.”
Her heart nearly beat itself right out of her body. “I can’t. You can’t… I don’t have money like that! There’s no way that I can pay you that!”
Wendell shook his head. “Well, maybe you can’t, but that rich boyfriend you been screwing sure can.”
“I’m not doing that, Wendell! I’m not going to him for money to buy you off!” She wanted to scream it at him, but she couldn’t take the chance that anyone might hear her.
Wendell stepped toward her, leaving her car. He grabbed her face with both of his hands and drew it close to his. “Half a million, baby, or I’m arresting you, and you know what for. You’re never going to see that boyfriend of yours again.”
She thought he was going to kiss her again, and she did her best to pull away from him, but he only stared hard into her eyes, perhaps trying to drive his message home to her, and then he let her go.
“Meet me at the bridge. Tomorrow. Midnight… isn’t that about right? Bring the money, or you’re going to prison.” Wendell stared at her for another long moment and then let her go and walked away.
Celeste felt as if her entire world had just crumbled around her. Everything had been so perfect, or right on the verge of it. She was so close… and then Wendell destroyed it all in mere moments.
She rushed to the car, desperate for a safe place and a fast getaway. She drove it to her new home, all the while looking everywhere for headlights, for Wendell’s headlights in her rearview mirror, but they weren’t there.
On the way to her home, she called David and he answered right away.
“Hey! There she is! I have a surprise for you! I thought I’d come and stay the night with you on your first night in the new house, and we could finish breaking in every single room. I also thought it would be fun to have a brief celebration of your last day at the grocery store, so I brought a dinner from the Atlanta Grill. I know you’ll love this.” He sounded so happy, and she wished that she could stay that way in that exact same moment for the rest of their lives, but it just wasn’t possible. The goodness about them was going to be gone, probably for good.
“David…” she began, choking on tears. He heard it in her voice immediately.
“Oh no, what’s wrong? Are you alright? Where are you? What happened?” He sounded as desperate as she was miserable.
“I’m… I’m driving home. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I just wanted to make sure that you’re there. I have to talk with you.” She was weeping then, and it couldn’t be helped or stopped.
“I’ll be here, just drive safe and get here as soon as you can.” His tone was suddenly as serious as hers was.
She ended the call and finished the drive, and she found that he was waiting in the doorway for her the moment she got to it.
“What is it?” he asked, taking her into his arms and holding her closely. He kissed her forehead and then took her face gently in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
She went with him to the sofa and sat down with him, terrified beyond reason to have to ask him what she was going to ask him, but she had no choice.
“I realize that what I’m about to tell you will probably destroy our relationship, but I have to do this. I don’t have a choice,” she began.
His eyes went wide and he listened silently.
“I need to ask you for a huge favor. I need to ask you for half a million dollars,” she said quietly.
David blinked. “What?” he asked, looking certain that he couldn’t possibly have heard her right.
She hated having to ask him a second time. “I need to ask you for half a million dollars, and I won’t be able to pay it back.”
His face suddenly grew very serious. “What is it for?” he asked, his tone all business, his eyes shifting from sympathy to sharpness.
“Please don’t make me tell you,” she pleaded quietly. She could not possibly have felt more shame or misery than at that moment, at least until the next moment.
“Tell me. I insist.” He wasn’t going to let it go.
Speaking it to him would be one of the hardest things she had ever done. “Something happened a while back, something bad. It’s kind of been a monkey on my back ever since, but now… now it’s a real danger to me, and there’s no way out of it for me.”
“What is it?” he pressed further.
She drew in a long, deep breath. “I was at a bar one night, and there was a guy there who wouldn’t leave me alone. I wasn’t with anyone else. I had just stopped in for one drink on the way home that day. I left, and when I left it was late. Almost midnight.”
He listened hard to her, taking in every word, every emotion, every single nuance about it.
Celeste continued. “I was walking that night. I left the bar and walked over the bridge, over the Chattahoochee River, and I was partway across when I heard him. The man… he was following me. He came after me and I tried to run, but he caught me, and he started to attack me.”
Her eyes flooded with tears and her voice grew tight. David reached for her hand and held it in both of his. “Go on,” he said encouragingly.
She wiped at her face with her free hand and continued. “When he attacked me, I got so scared, and I tried to fight back, but he just wasn’t going to let me go. We were kind of… wrestling a lot; him trying to grab me, me pushing him away and trying to kick him and push him…” She trailed off and looked away from David, unable to meet his eyes.
“What happened?” he asked, a note of trepidation in his voice.
“I pushed him and all of a sudden, he went right over the side of the little railing on the bridge. He fell into the river. He drowned. Then out of nowhere, a cop showed up. He ran up the bridge to me, and he saw the whole thing. I didn’t know… I didn’t know who it was and I called out to him for help, but then I saw that it was a man I knew, a man I used to date. His name is Wendell.” She began to cry in earnest then. David held her closer to him and listened.
“Tell me the rest,” he urged, watching her.
“I asked him what he was doing there and he said that he was following me like he always does, because I’m his. See, we were a couple but he got possessive and controlling and I broke up with him. I guess in his head he never broke up with me. He still follows me and tries to be in my life. He stalks me. Well, he was stalking me that night and he saw the whole thing. He knew the truth. He told me that what I did was murder.
He told me that I would have to do everything he says or he would arrest me for murder and turn me in. He said I’d go to prison. He told me that if I did what he told me to, that he would report it as a suicide, not a murder. I was terrified. He told me to go home and he’d be watching me, and he does. He’s always watching me. Always coming after me. He tells me that I’m still his, that I’ll always be his.”
She began to weep in earnest then. “Now I’m afraid that you know the truth… you know I’m really a murderess, you’ll be gone! You wouldn’t ever stay with anyone who killed someone!”
David pulled her even closer and held her tighter, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, and her mouth, softly. “I’m not leaving, and you’re not a murderess,” he said firmly.
Celeste looked up at him through soaked eyelashes. “Did you just hear what I told you? I pushed a man off of a bridge into the river and he drowned! I’m a murderess! That’s just all that there is to it!”
He shook his head and looked her directly in the eyes. “I don’t think you are. You were acting in self-defense. I think that’s not murder, that’s self-defense. Now, I want you to calm down and dry your eyes. I’m going to call my attorney. We’ll get this straightened out.”
David rose from the sofa and got his phone, and a few minutes later he was in deep conversation with his attorney. When he got off the phone, he had a small smile for Celeste.
“This isn’t a clear case of murder. We’re both very sure that it’s self-defense. He’s going to check on a few things and call me back, and we’re going to see about making this right. Don’t you worry, I’m not going anywhere, I’m here for you.” David went back to her and held her for a while before taking her to bed.
She finally slept on his shoulder, and didn’t wake until the morning. It was the most peaceful sleep that she could remember having since the night on the bridge, and she was grateful for it.
David’s attorney called early in the morning, and after David spoke to him, he was delighted. “He said that the bridge where it happened has a surveillance system. There are cameras there. He’s requested the videos from that night and he’s going to review them.”
Celeste felt her heart drop right out of her body and go through the floor. “No! Oh god no! That’s just going to prove my guilt! That will prove that I’m a murderess!! I’m going to prison for sure now!” She began to weep again, but David calmed her down after a long while and talked with her again.
Later that morning, David’s attorney came to the condo to see them. Celeste was beside herself with fear, but David’s attorney was kind and comforting to her, and after he began to talk with her about what was really going on, her fears began to subside.
He put the tape in for them and all three of them watched it. He pointed out everything that was happening, exactly as Celeste had said that it had happened.
“That is a clear-cut case of self-defense, Celeste. There’s no way that that’s murder. What’s more, and I am sure that your police friend did not bother to mention this to you, but the attacker wasn’t dead because you pushed him into the river. He was dead because he had a blood alcohol content of four times the legal limit when they did the autopsy, and he drowned because he was drunk. He was wasted. He couldn’t swim or figure out how to breathe or get to the banks. That’s why he died.” The attorney was adamant about his position.
“There’s one more thing, Celeste. This video picked up everything that Wendell was saying to you. All of it. His threats to you and his blackmail and coercion will land him in prison. He reported this as a suicide when he knew otherwise, and he was using it to control you. I’ve already showed this to the chief of police and he’s arresting Wendell as we speak. You are never going to have to worry about him again. It’s over, Miss. Everett. You’re safe and innocent, and in the clear, and Wendell is gone.” The attorney was practically beaming.
Celeste wept again, and David held her, both of them delighted to hear it. When she was herself again, they thanked the attorney and bid him farewell, and he told them that she would probably have to appear in court to testify against Wendell, which she was more than ready to do.
When the attorney was gone, David took Celeste’s face in his hands and gazed into her eyes with something that she recognized because she felt it just as much as he did.
“Never think that I might leave you,” he told her in a sweet and comforting voice. “I couldn’t. Despite my best efforts, I’ve fallen in love with you. I can’t ever let you go, and I wouldn’t want to. If you let me, I intend to keep you always.”
Celeste’s heart swelled with bliss, and she laughed through her happy tears. “I love you, too, and I’m never going to let you go either. Thank you so much, David, for being a dream come true for me.”
“We are a dream come true for each other. Always,” he answered, with a deep and lingering kiss.
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Lena & The Simply BWWM Team