Charlotte walked inside the house, pulled the mysterious phone from her shoulder bag, and tossed it on the chair.
Curtina lagged in behind her, looking like a wounded animal.
“Sit down,” Charlotte told her, and then sat across from her daughter.
“What’s that?”
“You tell me. I found it in your closet.”
“Mom, you went through my stuff? Why?”
“Where did you get this from?”
“I don’t know.”
Charlotte wasn’t in the mood for games. “Look, either you tell me where you got this from, or I’m calling your dad right now to tell him what you did at school today. Then I’m telling him about this secret phone of yours.”
Charlotte was going to tell Curtis everything anyway, but she needed to make Curtina believe that she wouldn’t so she could get her to tell the truth about this phone.
“I saved most of my allowance every week until I had enough money to buy it.”
“And what about the monthly charges? And how did you get it activated? And why haven’t any statements come to the house?”
Curtina hesitated until she saw the impatient look on Charlotte’s face. “I buy prepaid debit cards from the convenience store, and I pay the bill online. The statements only come to my email address.”
“Did you buy the phone online, too?”
“Yes, and that’s also how I activated it.”
“But you have to be eighteen to have your own cell phone account.”
Curtina looked away from her and didn’t comment.
“Did you lie about your age?”
She still didn’t respond, but now fake tears flowed down her face.
“Did you?” Charlotte said, raising her voice.
“Yes.”
“Curtina? It’s almost as if I don’t even know who you are anymore. And when did you get this phone? And whose house was it delivered to?”
“Mom, why do you keep asking me all of these questions?”
“Because I want to know everything. Now answer me.”
“I had it delivered to Mark’s house last September. His older brother had the flu really bad that week, so he signed for it and gave it to Mark when Mark got home from school.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “You’ve had it for six months?”
Curtina stared at her with more fake crying.
“Well, if you’ve had it that long, then why did you always have a fit every time we took the phone that we bought for you? You would even constantly beg to have it back. And what about that Sunday in church when you told your grandpa that we took your phone? You had tears in your eyes, like you were devastated.”
Curtina shrugged her shoulders.
“You know what? I’m going to ask you again. Why did you always get so angry when we took your other phone? And kept asking for it back?”
“So you would think I really needed it.”
“I don’t get what you mean.”
“I knew that if you and Daddy thought I was desperate to get my phone back, you would never suspect that I had another phone I was using.”
Charlotte wanted to laugh out loud, because this girl was way too much. She was only twelve years old, yet she’d plotted, schemed, and deceived Charlotte and Curtis like they were children. Charlotte also hadn’t realized how much damage giving a child a fifty-dollar-a-week allowance could do. Plus, it wasn’t like they usually monitored what she did with it. Mostly they’d just assumed she spent it on junk food, lip gloss, fingernail polish, young adult books, Frappuccinos, and other normal things that girls tended to want. “So let me get this straight. You were putting on an act? Deceiving us the whole time?”
“I’m sorry, Mom, and please, please, please don’t tell Daddy.”
“And what about this boy, Mark? Did he use a condom?”
“We didn’t do anything.”
“Stop lying, Curtina. That officer saw both you and that boy with your pants and underwear down. So you either tell me the truth or else. Did he use a condom or not?”
“Yes.”
“Are you lying again?”
“No, Mom, I told him I didn’t want to get pregnant, so he always used—”
Charlotte bugged her eyes. “Always? What do you mean ‘always’? You’ve done this before?”
Curtina broke into tears yet again, but this time they seemed genuine.
Charlotte wanted to cry, too, but she couldn’t show any signs of weakness. “What’s the passcode?”
“Mom, please, don’t go through my phone.”
“Either you tell me that passcode or I’m calling your dad. Then I’m calling your sister and two brothers and your grandparents. And I’m telling them everything.”
“But, Mom—”
“But Mom, nothing! Tell me the code. I mean it, Curtina.”
Curtina still hesitated, but when she couldn’t see a way out, she rattled off the numbers.
Charlotte typed them in and opened the phone.
“Mom, we were just playing around. That’s all.”
“Who was playing around?”
“Me and Mark when we were texting.”
Charlotte opened the text messaging icon and scrolled pretty far up so that she could read the texts in chronological order. Still, the date that appeared was from yesterday, so Curtina and this Mark boy had to have been texting all evening. But when Charlotte read the first text, sent by her sneaky, lying daughter, she could barely contain herself.
Curtina: I want u 2 do 2 me wut that man just did in that video. U never go down on me, n Taylor’s man goes down on her all the time.
Mark: That’s not my thing. But I’ll think about it.
Curtina: Wut is there 2 think about? I’ve been doin it 4 u for months.
Mark: That’s different.
Curtina: How?
Mark: Just is.
Curtina: If Jeff can do it 4 Taylor so can u. He even did it Saturday nite when we snuck you guys in her house. He always does it.
Mark: I’m not Jeff. I like the real thing. We still doin it 2morow at school tho right?
Curtina: Are you gonna go down on me?
Mark: I already told you. I’ll think about it.
Curtina: Maybe I should find me another man. lol
Mark: Maybe u should. lol
Curtina: That’s not funny.
Mark: U know ur my woman. And only u.
Curtina: Then u betta start actin like it. We been doin’ it ever since last year and I’m tired of doin it the same ole way. Maybe I shoulda never gave it up to u.
Mark: Yea, and u wouldn’t be my woman either. I told u. I don’t date women who think their stuff is too good to give up.
Mark: R u still there?
Curtina: My dad is callin me. Yellin his head off. I’ll text u later.
Mark: I can’t wait til after 6th hr 2morow. Ur goin 2 get it good.
Curtina: lol. I gotta go boy
Charlotte set the phone down and was too distraught to comment. But when she gathered her thoughts together, she looked at Curtina. “So you girls snuck boys into Taylor’s home last weekend?”
“I told you, Mom, Mark and I were just playing around. Those messages aren’t real.”
Charlotte got up and grabbed Curtina by her arm. “Don’t you lie to me…not even a little. You hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Now answer me. Did you sneak those boys in or not?”
“Yes.”
“And what video did you and this Mark boy watch? And where?”
“Online.”
“You watched it together?”
“No, we watched it and then started texting again.”
“And you’ve been having sex with this boy all this time and giving him oral sex, too, Curtina?”
This was the part that Charlotte couldn’t get over. Her daughter was having both oral sex and sexual intercourse—at twelve years old.
“I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again.”
“You got that right,” Charlotte said, scrolling through the phone to an earlier date.
Curtina hopped out of her chair. “Mom, give me my phone…or I’m telling Daddy that you’ve been drinking. And then I’m telling him that you’ve been drinking and driving me around, putting my life in danger. Because I know you’ve been drinking today. I can smell it.”
After Mr. Norton had called Charlotte, she had left the house so quickly that she hadn’t thought about drinking coffee, and apparently the gum she’d chewed hadn’t worked very well.
“Give me my phone, Mom.”
“Look, Curtina, I’m still your mother, so don’t you ever try to threaten me like that again.”
Curtina locked eyes with Charlotte. “You’re only my stepmother. My real mother is dead…and I hate you.”
Charlotte’s mind must have been playing tricks on her. Or maybe she was hearing things. She had to be, because there was no way the girl she’d loved and raised as her own for the last ten years would ever speak to her this way. “What did you say?”
Curtina never as much as flinched and boldly stood her ground. “You’re not my real mother, and I hate you.”
Charlotte was furious, but she was also hurt beyond words. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Because you never wanted me to come live with you and Daddy in the first place. You hated everything about me, and you were cruel to me when I first moved in here.”
“Who told you that?”
“One of the girls at church. Her mother told her everything. And her mother can’t stand you.”
Charlotte felt dazed and out of sorts. Like she was losing her mind.
But Curtina couldn’t have cared less. “And she also told me how you slept around on Daddy and got pregnant with another man’s baby. Some man named Aaron. So now I know the truth about your daughter, Marissa. The one who died. She wasn’t even Daddy’s real daughter, which means she wasn’t my real sister. So I wish you guys would stop pretending like she was.”
Charlotte’s hands shook the way they sometimes did when she’d had too much caffeine, and all she could do was set the phone down and look at Curtina. She couldn’t deny any of what she’d just said, and she was so sorry that Curtina had found out all of this from someone else—and at the church, no less.
“Curtina, I’m so sorry, honey. I’m really, really sorry.”
“Well, don’t be, because I don’t need you. All you do is lie to Daddy all the time, anyway. And I hate that you’re a drunk. You’re drunk right now, and I’m so ashamed to call you my mom. I was so embarrassed when you came to pick me up, because I’ll bet Mr. Norton smelled liquor on you, too.”
Charlotte covered her face with both hands, but then grabbed her purse and Curtina’s phone.
“Mom, give me my phone back,” she said.
But there was no way Charlotte was leaving that phone in Curtina’s possession, when all she would do was delete every single message. So she dropped it in her purse and left out the door. She seriously needed to get away and clear her head. And Father, forgive her, she needed a drink. She needed something now, so she got in her car and drove down the long driveway and into the street.
She drove for a couple of blocks, sniffling and wiping her face, and then it dawned on her that before she’d left home to go pick up Curtina from school, she’d taken another quick drink of vodka and dropped it in her handbag. She’d completely forgotten about it, so she pulled it out, drank a large gulp of it, and kept driving. She drove for miles until she turned a corner much too fast and lost control of her vehicle. She slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. She couldn’t stop in time and plowed her car into a tall brick wall that surrounded a huge cemetery.