Diary of A. . . (23 page)

I smiled. “I’d like that. I’d love to see
her face as I kick her out of her office.”

Cassandra hacked Lisa’s main address book on
the computer and found Earl’s home email and home fax number. We
figured out together that Erin probably had someone in Florida
working for her who was keeping Earl from information he should
have known about. Sending it to his office would most definitely be
a way for Erin to find out that we knew about Sroban.

I put my personal cell phone number on the
information and wrote for him not to call me at work about the
matter.

After that, we locked up and prepared to go
home.

Cassandra was in much better spirits. She
decided to stay at an uncle’s home to make Rick worry some more and
to also formulate her plan for revenge against him.

“I won’t kill him,” she teased before we
parted in our separate cars. “Just break him down a notch or
two.”

I looked forward to hearing the details
later.

Entry Thirty-
Nine

When I arrived home, my sister was just
pulling up. She looked as if she had been crying, but I really
didn’t want to placate her. I had too much on my mind.

But I would let Lauren know the information
Lethal Heart had found out just so she’d leave the matter alone. So
my mother was hiding a secret. I decided that it really didn’t
matter to me anymore because this “secret” had never really
affected my life and any earlier decisions I had made.

Still there was a nagging feeling in the pit
of my stomach that maybe I was or could have been violated as a
child by my father. Yet the only time I really remember being hurt
is all the hitting, pinching and pushing Lauren would do to me
because she was either mad at me or jealous when Momma or Uncle E
would give me more attention than her. These times were aplenty
because Lauren always wanted to be the star of everything and
everyone.

Another thing that irritated me was the fact
that my father had stolen from a lot of people – despite paying
them all back – and the fact that my mother had been sitting on a
wad of cash for years.

“I figured you’d care,” my sister snapped as
soon as I walked up to her. Her face looked fuller, but her
pregnancy was yet to show.

“I do care about you, Lauren. You’re my
sister. Why wouldn’t I?”

“If you cared, you’d have demanded that
Momma give us the money.”

I looked at her as if she had lost her mind,
then moved to go into my house. She followed.

“Why would I ask Momma for the money?” I
asked.

“It rightfully belongs to us! Not her!”

“Says who?”

“Stop acting like Nina is God’s gift to
motherhood, Sheryl! She kept us from the knowledge that he was our
father and that he left the money to us.”

“That was never said.”

“Of course her greedy ass wouldn’t tell us
that. So she could have more of it all to herself.”

I was starting to wonder who the hell the
greedy ass really was. “That money was stolen, Lauren. It wasn’t
even rightfully anyone’s except the people it was taken from. And I
do care very much about you, because I took a lot of time out of my
busy day to get the information you wanted. Uncle E is alive, but
there is not enough money in the world to find out where he is
because he doesn’t want to be found. Momma did help him out, but so
what. I don’t care to know why. We all have our secrets. We all
have things we are ashamed of, but sometimes we have to let the
past stay in the past and live for the future.”

“That is so fucking self-righteous, Sheryl!
Are you forgetting the fact that that man could be a child
molester? And that Momma’s just letting him get away with it. He
molested you. Momma and I know you were because of the bruises on
your thighs.”

I started to just blow her off because I
really didn’t want to discuss this anymore, but then something made
me think over what my sister just said. “How did you know about the
bruises on my thighs? Momma never said you knew.”

The room went quiet.

“I j-just assumed you had bruises, too,
because I did.”

Now why was my gut tingling like I had to
pee real bad? “What does it matter? It’s the past. Let it go.”

“Let it go?” Lauren screamed hysterically.
“How can you let it go when he hurt you? Nina is a bitch for
letting him get away with hurting you!”

“Who hurt her?” Nina asked.

We had been so consumed with our
conversation that neither of us had noticed that we had not shut
the door when we entered my house. Which meant neither of us had
heard Nina come in the house behind us.

“Nothing!” Lauren hissed.

Nina walked in the room angrily, still not
closing my front door. She came up to me as if this was all my
fault. “Is she still talking about your father?”

“Yes,” I said, wondering why Lauren was now
acting like she didn’t want Nina to know what we were talking
about. Matter of fact, she looked a little sullen in Nina’s
presence.

Nina turned to Lauren. “You have always been
a spoiled shallow child, Lauren. When you haven’t gotten your way,
you have always run to Sheryl and manipulated her to come to me to
get what you wanted. Did you tell Sheryl that for the last five
months you’ve been demanding money from me? Money I don’t
have.”

“That’s a lie!” Lauren hissed.

“Which one?” I asked. “Her having the money
or you asking for it?”

Angrily, but with a lot of pouting, Lauren
said, “She does have the money, Sheryl. Like I said, she’s being
selfish and greedy.”

I looked at Nina. “Momma, do you have the
money?”

“You know about everything?” Nina said,
answering my question with a question.

“I know you faked his death and that you
took a large amount of money to do it.”

“Yes, I did, but like I told you before, I
only received enough to live off and help with the bills. I was a
single mother. Earl paid me the money to help him fake his death
and to help you girls out with daily expenses and college. It
wasn’t a lot because I felt real bad about where the money had come
from and so only took what we needed. But it’s all gone now. I
really don’t have any more money.”

I could care less about this whole matter
and just wanted to put it to rest, but Lauren was adamant.

“Don’t you dare just leave it alone, Sheryl!
Get the answers you want from her now. Why is she hiding a sexual
predator? Why is she just accepting the fact that our father raped
us? Why is she letting him just live his life without repercussions
for what he did to us?”

Lauren did have a point and it would quell
the disturbance in my gut. I looked at my mother to ask this, but
then a voice cleared at the front door and we all looked towards
it.

“I did not rape anyone!” the angry deep
voice of Uncle E said.

I’m positive Lauren passed out. I was too
mesmerized by the man who filled the doorway to do anything. And I
was positive that although he did have the voice of Uncle E, he
certainly looked like someone else I thought I knew!

Entry Forty

Unfortunately my sister, Lauren, didn’t
faint, but she did do some weird leg shaking thing. Fortunately, my
mother caught her before she fell. I only saw this in my peripheral
because as the man entered the room with us, I still couldn’t take
my eyes off of him.

Uncle E had changed. Seriously changed. This
wasn’t the same face of the man I remembered, but his voice was the
same. Real deep and smooth like Russ Parr doing his sexy imitation,
except Uncle E did it naturally.

“Hello, Nina,” he said, coming up to my
mother.

“E?” she asked, not sure and looking up into
his eyes deeply.

He smiled and nodded.

Touching his face, Momma looked like a woman
who honestly couldn’t believe her eyes. But then after a moment,
she hugged him like a long lost friend.

I backed up. I wanted to collapse on my own
as I realized what the hell had happened and how this man really
had impacted my entire life.

My sister looked frightened. Really
frightened. Uncle E saw this also as he released my mother and
faced Lauren.

“Yeah, Laurie, you should look scared,” he
said. “Because of you, I had to pay a large sum of money to keep my
secret when I was very close to revealing myself to certain people.
I’m pissed as fuck at you.”

“You changed your face!” Lauren said, as if
no one knew but her.

“You expected me to keep my face after I did
so much to make sure I died?” he asked, as if she had lost her
senses.

I was sure she had.

“I’m calling the police on you!” Lauren
sneered and headed for the phone.

Nina grabbed her and swung her around to
face us. “You won’t do anything, you lying little heifer.”

“I’m not lying!” Lauren screamed.

“Yes, you are,” Uncle E said.

“Wait!” I said, suddenly over everyone’s
voice.

He looked at me guiltily. “I know, Sheryl. I
should have said something before now.”

I couldn’t believe this. “You’re Earl
Howard. My boss. You can’t be Uncle E,” I said, speaking slowly as
if at any moment he would deny it and make me know that I was going
crazy.

“What is she talking about?” Nina asked,
looking at him.

Earl Howard took a deep breath and let it
out slowly. “You’re one smart cookie, Sheryl. From the day you were
born, I knew you’d have the sense to do the right thing with my
talents and you did. You were amazing to watch as you grew.” He
walked up to me and firmly, yet gently held my shoulders. “I made
sure I gave you an offer you couldn’t refuse to come work at my
company. I also made sure all the managers knew I wanted to do
whatever I could to keep you.”

“But we spoke on the phone before,” I
pointed out. “Why didn’t I recognize your voice then?”

“Most times I disguised it or I wouldn’t
speak in conference with you.” He said this as if it was easy
enough to figure out. “I couldn’t break the promise I made to
Nina.”

“What promise?” I asked.

“She thought I did hurt you, so I promised
never to see you again. But that didn’t stop me from making sure
you were taken care of. You were my daughter. I had to do what I
could for you.”

“What about me?!” Lauren asked hurt.

He cut her an evil look. “I ought to
barnyard whoop your ass, Lauren.” Turning fully to her, he
demanded, “Tell the truth about those bruises and lies, now.”

“There’s nothing-” she started to deny.

“NOW!” he bellowed.

Lauren shook like she was going to pee on
herself and started to cry.

“What is he talking about?!” I demanded to
know.

“She made up lies about being raped,” Earl
said. “Didn’t you, Lauren?”

I walked up to her and shook her. “Tell me
now, Lauren.”

Reluctantly, she nodded. “When we were
young, I was so upset that he showed so much love for you and not
me that I decided to make sure we never saw him again. So I hurt
you on purpose one night while you slept at his house. And then
when I found out about the money, I decided to weed it all out of
Momma until I got what I felt was mine.”

“You little bitch-” My mother started toward
her, but Earl stopped Nina by blocking her way.

“Let her finish,” he ordered.

“It wasn’t fair!” Lauren screamed. “Sheryl
got everything and I got nothing!”

“You had every chance to do something with
your life as much as Sheryl did!” Nina screamed back. “You were
lazy, shallow, and stupid and wanted someone to take care of you
instead of you taking care of yourself! You’ve manipulated and lied
to get what you wanted and you still think you’re the victim! I
won’t take another moment of your guilt trips, Lauren! Not
anymore.”

Lauren sobbed hysterically. I stepped away
from her because I wanted to slap her, too, but I had to keep her
condition in mind.

“Get the fuck out my face!” Nina screamed.
“And if you breathe one damn word about all this, I’ll cut your
tongue out and make sure you never speak another word again!”

I was even scared of the way my mother said
that threat. Lauren ran out the house.

“She might still tell,” Earl said.

“That bitch is not going to tell,” Nina
said. “She takes my threats very seriously and now that she can’t
manipulate Sheryl anymore, she knows she’s going to have to shut
her mouth if she wants any financial help from me at all.”

He looked remorseful. “How much does she
need, Nina?”

“She’s in debt over one hundred
thousand.”

Taking out a checkbook, he wrote out a check
and then handed it to Nina. “There’s a little extra for you,
too.”

Nina looked hesitant about taking the
check.

“Please, Nina. It’s legit. My company is
worth over five million. That’s pocket change for me.”

Taking the check, Nina gasped at the amount
and then smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

“Could you excuse us, Nina, for a moment? I
have to speak with Sheryl alone.”

I wanted to tell my mother to stay, but I
was too scared to speak.

Nina looked at me unsure, but after looking
back down at the check, she said, “All right.”

He whispered something in her ear and she
blushed. “I promise,” he said out loud to her and kissed her
cheek.

In a quickness, my mother left me alone with
Earl Howard, my father and the man who had been my boss – which I
had not even known until now!

I was pissed, angry, frustrated and very,
very confused.

Entry Forty-One

Earl looked around my place in satisfaction.
I noticed that I had his eyes. Something I guess a plastic surgeon
couldn’t change. Other than that he was a different man from the
one I remembered when I was little.

Whenever I saw pictures of Earl in company
newsletters, I always thought he looked so handsome for a man his
age and he kept in peak physical condition. His skin color was the
same as I remembered and he had a baldhead, but it didn’t look as
if he was balding. I was reminded of a brawny version of Blair
Underwood, dressed in a tailored suit