Forgiven (21 page)

Serena brightened as she said, “Oh, no,
Pastor Thomas. We intend to come back. Your message today hit us
right where we live. I can tell you are anointed of God.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes as she said,
“Pastor Thomas has a wife to tell him how wonderfully he preaches,
but thank you for visiting with us.” She turned and walked away
from them without saying another word.

“Did I say something wrong?” Serena asked as
she watched Cassandra walk away.

Jarrod pulled his wife a little closer to
him, and protectively planted a kiss on her forehead.

“No, Sister Serena, you didn’t do anything
wrong at all. If the two of you keep visiting with us, I just might
tell you our story. Then you’ll understand why my wife seems a
little standoffish at times.”

Jarrod shook JT’s hand again as he told him,
“If you don’t mind me saying so, Pastor, we’ve heard your story. It
was the reason Serena and I decided to attend church here.”

Serena smiled, but JT now recognized the
lingering pain in her eyes.

“I understand what your wife is going
through, and I will keep her lifted in prayer. You can count on
that, Pastor Thomas.” And then with a small giggle Serena added,
“But just so you know, I won’t be praising your sermons
anymore.”

JT laughed with her. “Fair enough. But thank
you for praying for my wife. I appreciate that.”

“Keep your head up, Pastor, a brighter day is
coming,” Jarrod assured him as the three parted company.

JT kept shaking hands and passing along
friendly greetings until Lamont strolled up to him and said,
“Cassandra’s leaving.”

He turned to see his wife struggling with the
three children. He excused himself from the man he was holding a
conversation with and ran over to Cassandra. “Let me help you put
the kids in the car.”

“Did I ask you to help me with the kids?”
Cassandra snapped

Cassandra had Lily on one hip and Aaron on
the other, while trying to hold Jerome’s hand. JT took Lily and
grabbed Jerome’s hand. “It looked like you needed me,” he said as
he walked toward her car.

“The thing I need you to do, you’ve refused.
So why should I keep asking you to do stuff for me?”

JT opened the car door and let Jerome climb
into his seat while he put Lily in her car seat. When Cassandra
leaned into the back seat to put Aaron in his car seat, JT said,
“Why do you keep arguing with me over something that I have no
control over?”

“You have control over this. The money is
sitting right in our account.”

“Here we go with this again,” JT said as he
shut the rear passenger door and walked over to Cassandra’s side of
the car. “That money belongs to Lamont, and even if I borrowed it
to give to Diane; she’d just keep coming back for more. We need to
let this play out in the court system and put our faith in
God.”

The look of anger on Cassandra’s face and the
way she got in the car and slammed the door without saying a
mumbling word to him, made JT wish for that brighter day Jarrod had
just told him about.

***

Cassandra had had enough. She hated that she
was upset with JT, because she really did believe he was a changed
man. But this lawsuit hanging over their heads and the thought of
losing Lily was too much for her. She wasn’t just thinking about
herself right now. Her children would be hurt if knowledge of this
lawsuit got out. And if they lost the custody case, she and JT
would lose Lily. She just couldn’t sit back and let that
happen.

She was supposed to turn right at the stop
light to go home, but at the last minute Cassandra changed her mind
and turned left. She knew where Diane and Joe lived and she
intended to drive over there and confront that horrible woman once
and for all. JT could wait on God if he wanted, but she was going
to resolve this whole mess today.

She pulled into Diane’s driveway, got out of
the car and rang the doorbell. She then went back to her car and
reached her hand into the car and honked the horn three times. She
looked in the back and saw that the kids were sleep, so she took
her hand off the horn, leaned against the car and waited for
someone to open the front door.

“Have you lost your mind?” Diane said as she
stormed down the stairs.

Joe came out behind her and tried to pull
Diane back in the house. “Go back in the house, Diane. I’ll talk to
Cassandra.”

Diane laughed in his face. “Do you think she
came over here to see you?”

“No, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for
you two to talk. Just let me handle this,” Joe said.

“Go back in the house, Joe. I thought you
were going to fix the kids something to eat,” Diane said as she
brushed his hand off her arm and strutted over to Cassandra. “Why
would you come to my house making all this racket?”

“At least I waited until the afternoon. I
remember a morning when you came to my house leaning on the
doorbell and then left us with a package.”

Diane bent down and looked into the car. She
then stood straight again and asked, “What? Are you bringing her
back?”

“Not on your life. You don’t deserve my
daughter.”

“How dare you stand in my face and claim to
be the mother of a child I birthed.”

“It takes more to be a mother than simply
giving birth. I’m the one who holds Lily when she cries. I make
sure that she’s fed when she’s hungry, and above all that, I love
her like a mother.”

Diane looked at Cassandra scornfully. “You’re
pathetic. What kind of woman wants to take care of another woman’s
brat?”

Cassandra didn’t care what Diane thought of
her. She had one objective in driving over there and she was going
to handle her business. She put her finger in Diane’s face and
said, “Leave my family alone.”

Diane folded her arms around her chest. “Your
husband started with me. And you’re probably the one who encouraged
him to take me to court for custody of my child.”

“You don’t want Lily. You left her with us
and never even called to check on her.”

“That doesn’t mean I want you to have custody
of my child.”

The look on Cassandra’s face was that of
disgust. “Look at you,” she said to Diane. “You’re standing within
inches of Lily and you haven’t tried to hold her. You’ve done
little more than glance at her.”

Diane looked in the back seat of the car
again. She rolled her eyes. “She’s sleep. What do you want me to
do, wake her up so she can see her real mommy?”

“No, I want you to leave us alone. And I’m
willing to offer you a hundred thousand dollars to do it.”

Diane laughed. “Why would I take a hundred
thousand dollars from you? We’re seeking five times that much in my
lawsuit.”

“Who do you think you’re kidding, Diane. I
know that Margie has dropped her name from the lawsuit. You’re the
only one left. And we both know that JT didn’t manipulate you.”

“You weren’t there… you don’t know what
happened. But why doesn’t it surprise me that you believe what JT
said?”

Cassandra raised her hands, halting Diane’s
protests. “You know what, Diane? Save the theatrics for the
courtroom. I’m only offering this money once. If you lose, don’t
think I’m going to give you the money anyway. So, think carefully
before refusing.”

Diane tapped her front tooth with her
fingernail as she pondered Cassandra’s offer. When she stopped
tapping she asked, “What do I have to do to get this money?”

“Drop your lawsuit against JT and give us
sole custody of Lily,” Cassandra answered matter-of-factly.

“You don’t ask for much, do you?”

“Take it or leave it,” Cassandra said as she
opened the car door and got back in the driver’s seat. “We both
know that you don’t have a case against JT without Margie. So give
it up; take the money and run.”

Diane didn’t respond. She stood there tapping
her finger against her tooth again.

Cassandra started the ignition and then said,
“What’s it going to be? Once I leave here today, I won’t offer you
this money again.”

Diane bent down and looked into the backseat
at Lily again. “I might want to see her sometime. Will you allow
that?”

“I don’t know. I need to talk to JT about
that.”

Diane stood back up, shaking her head. “I
can’t just let my baby go like that. I mean, I might not want to be
a full time mother right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t ever
want to see her.”

Cassandra put the car in reverse. “I’m
leaving. Get your money the best way you can.”

Diane grabbed hold of the driver door. “Wait.
Wait a minute. She looked at Lily again and then asked, “When can I
get the money?”

“I’ll have the money tomorrow afternoon. You
call me and let me know where you want to meet to pick it up.”
After saying that, Cassandra didn’t wait for a response, she pulled
out of the driveway and headed home. JT would forgive her. She was
sure of it. She would leave Lamont with twenty-five thousand. That
was enough for him to begin a new life. And the hundred thousand
would help her and JT move on with their lives.

On Monday morning, JT woke Lamont up and took
him to the bank. The money he owed Lamont was causing a wedge
between him and his wife, and he wanted it gone. Lamont opened a
bank account and then JT transferred the hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars into his account without batting an eye.

When they walked out of the bank, Lamont
said, “I thought you weren’t going to give me my money until I got
my GED.”

“Why didn’t you remind me about that GED
before we transferred the money?” JT said with a playful grin on
his face. They got in the car, but before they took off, JT turned
to Lamont and said, “Look, you’re a grown man. You don’t need me
watching over your money anymore. I will say this though, a hundred
and twenty-five thousand dollars may seem like a lot of money, but
if you spend it unwisely, it’ll be gone before you know it.”

“Man, you don’t have to worry about me. That
near death experience helped me to see how I’ve just been wasting
my life.” He leaned back in the passenger seat and said, “I’ve got
goals, and now I’ve got enough money to make it happen.”

Smiling, JT said, “You can’t just drop news
like a brother having goals and not spill the beans. What’s
up?”

He stretched his legs out. “I don’t know if I
want to put my business in the street.”

“Spill it.”

Lamont looked hesitant, but then he leaned
over and pulled his backpack from the back seat of JT’s car. He
unzipped it and said, “I listened to what you said about changing
my environment and changing my life.” He pulled a camera out of his
backpack and continued, “All my friends thought this was stupid, so
I kind of gave it up. But as I lay in the hospital bed thinking
about what I wanted out of life, a picture of this camera kept
flashing in my head.”

“That’s a pretty professional looking
camera,” JT said.

Lamont lifted and twisted the lens cap off.
“It’s the best. I spent twelve hundred dollars on this beauty. And
she’s worth every penny.”

JT noticed how Lamont’s eyes lit up as he
held that camera in his hand. He hadn’t seen the boy this
passionate about anything since they met.

“It’s got high resolution, scene recognition,
one-button live view-”

JT lifted a hand as he laughed, “Okay, you
sold me. You know a little something about cameras. Are you telling
me that you want to be a photographer or the person who makes those
things?”

Lamont gave JT a duh-are-you-stupid look.
“Now we both know I don’t have the skills to make this camera. I
don’t even have my GED.” He lifted the camera and took a few shots
of JT while driving. “But I can take pictures like nobody’s
business. I paint too.”

“How come I’m just finding this out?”

Lamont put the camera down. He stared out the
window as they drove. “People don’t understand. They think you’re
soft if you want to do stuff like this.”

“So you’re willing to let go of your dreams,
worrying about what people think?”

“I had been willing. But a near death
experience helps to put things in perspective. I’m going to get my
GED and then I’m going to college; majoring in art.”

JT smiled. He might not have helped Lamont
find his place in life as much as his motorcycle accident did, but
he’d provided the money to fund his dreams, and that was good
enough for him. “I think you should write to your father and let
him know how you plan to use the money.”

Lamont waved that suggestion off. “Naw, he
won’t think it’s hard enough.”

“Look, I’m not trying to put your dad down,
but robbing people and going to prison on the regular; that ain’t
hard. Matter-of-fact, Jimmy picked the easy way out. Trying to live
right and fighting for your dreams, now that’s hard.”

“That’s not the kind of hard I’m talking
about.”

“I know that, but do you understand what I’m
trying to tell you?”

“Yeah,” Lamont said. He then leaned back in
his seat and smiled contentedly. “I think I just might write the
old man a letter after all. He needs to know that his ill-gotten
gain is being put to good use.”

“Where else would you like to go? I’ll take
you anywhere you want today. Tomorrow you’ll be using the bus to
get where you need to be.”

“Oh, well if that’s the case, take me to a
car dealership. I got enough money to get my own wheels now.”

“Okay, but you don’t need to spend your money
on a brand new car when you’ve got to stretch that money to get you
through four years of college. So, I’m taking you to a used car
dealership.”

Lamont frowned. “Why you gotta always act
like somebody’s daddy?”

“I am three bodies’ daddy. And you need a
father figure to help you understand life. I’ve seen people lose
way more money than you have and end up living on the streets.”