The Ex-Wife (20 page)

He asked the cops if they could walk him around the side of the house so his mother and son wouldn’t have to witness it and
they did. He stayed calm and cool as if this were normal. He tried not to startle the guests, but everyone was already alarmed
and confused.

The entire crowd followed behind them. Morris walked closer than anyone. Morris’s wife touched his back and said, “Go ahead.
I’ll be fine. I’ll catch a ride with someone else.”

When they put Cam in the car, I lost it. I didn’t know what this was about. And it hurt. Of all the things Yasmin had done
in the past year, this was above everything else. She had set it up to embarrass us in front of all our friends and family.
I broke down on Mandy’s shoulder and she cried too. My mother hugged me from behind. “It’s OK, baby. I’m sure it will all
be taken care of. It’s just an ugly misunderstanding.”

“Why today, Mommy?”

“I don’t know, Ayana. I don’t know.”

I noticed Aaliyah crying also and I reached out for her to join our group hug. This was such a disaster on a wonderful day.
The shower was over. Guests came out from inside. They were more confused and I heard different people explaining what happened.
I just wanted to go up to my room and cry myself to sleep as if I were thirteen years old.

We walked into the house and Aaliyah asked if I wanted to open the gifts. I couldn’t have done it if I’d wanted to. I looked
at Ms. Mae and she was confused. She had gotten bits and pieces but she didn’t know that Cam was off in a police car headed
to jail. My mother sat down beside her and explained what had happened. Ms. Mae claimed she had heard someone saying that
Cam was being arrested on sexual harassment charges. My head was spinning because I honestly didn’t know if that’s what the
officer had said. I looked at Aaliyah for clarification. She said, “I thought they said criminal.”

Mandy said, “I thought they said sexual harassment.”

From person to person, everyone had a different story. Cam couldn’t have been stupid enough to have sex with her. All kinds
of things began to run through my head. What if she had set him up to have sex with someone else? I’d been too tired to have
sex and it wasn’t far-fetched to believe he’d take a piece if it were thrown at him. My neck was stiff and I felt like I could
faint. As I sat there watching our baby shower guests run out of the house like roaches, I wished I could disappear. Everyone
came over and offered their sympathy and told me they were there if I needed them. I appreciated that. No one really knew
all the details of what we had gone through with her, but they were sure that Cam and I were good people who didn’t deserve
this.

I’d never seen a house clear out so fast. Caron came upstairs unsure of why his company had left. I told him the party was
over. He said, “But we haven’t even opened the gifts yet.”

“We’ll open the gifts tomorrow,” Aaliyah told him.

I started backtracking in my mind, wondering what could have happened. My mind quickly went to the previous Friday when I
couldn’t get in contact with Cam. My stomach began to turn. Where had he been that night? Whom had he been with? I prayed
that he hadn’t done anything stupid. What if this wasn’t about Yasmin?

Ms. Mae called Caron over to her and asked, “Did you tell your mother we were having a baby shower today?”

“Yeah.”

We all looked at one another, almost sure that it had been her doing. There were so many unanswered questions. Aaliyah gave
me Cam’s cell phone and I called Morris. He didn’t answer. I held the phone tightly, hoping to send vibes to Morris to call
me and let me know what was going on. We sat there hoping to hear something soon. Hours passed before Morris called.

“Hey, Ayana, he hasn’t seen the commissioner yet. But here’s the deal. Cam told Yasmin that he would hurt her if she kept
harassing you. She told the police that he said he’d kill her. Since there was already a protection order in place, they take
that charge very serious. They have to issue a warrant to make the police department look like they’ve done their job should
Cam actually hurt Yasmin…for argument’s sake, of course.”

“I know. I know. But it’s still not right. She is lying.”

“And as a precaution, they are going to try to set his bail really high, because they don’t want anything to happen to her,
but I’ll be there to defend him and more than likely they will lower it, but there will be a bail. I need you to call my man
Keith. He’s a bail bondsman. Though Cam will have to wait to see the commissioner, we still want to get Keith on board.”

“How long will he be there?”

“It’s likely he’ll be here until Monday.”

“Monday!” I shouted.

I felt dizzy. Did they realize that I was eight months pregnant and I couldn’t take the stress?

“Unfortunately, Ayana. The weekend is the absolute worst time to get arrested.”

My father out of nowhere came and put his arm around my shoulder. “It’s OK, baby. It will be OK,” he said.

I felt as if I hadn’t seen him for the entire shower. I looked at him, wondering if he knew the whole story, but the look
in his eyes confirmed it. My dad wanted us to have stress-free lives and he had done everything he could while we were growing
up to make sure we were drama-free. He looked troubled that he was unable to make this right.

When I got off the phone, I told my family that it would be Monday before everything was resolved. I suggested they go home
and I would keep them posted. My mother offered to stay. I knew Aaliyah had to go. She’d been away from her home for two days.
The caterers offered to package some of the food up and store it in my freezer. We agreed since we’d already paid for it.
Cori and Mandy took the decorations down and began popping balloons. I hoped the photographer had been able to get some good
shots before he was unofficially forced out with everyone else.

It was after nine before the house was back to normal and the caterer had packed up everything. When Mandy, my dad, and Aaliyah
and her kids left, I was feeling a little better. I was there with Cam’s mom and mine and they were extremely comforting.
They made me feel that it would be OK. Each of them shared stories about how things hadn’t always been perfect in their marriages.
My mother summed it up, saying, “There will always be bitter women in the world who want to spread their evil.”

I agreed, but at the same time that really didn’t make my situation better. I needed to know how to stop this bitter woman
from haunting me. My mother suggested we open the gifts to take our minds off of what had happened. We moved into the living
room, where the presents covered half of the twenty-by-twenty area. Cam and I had received some really nice gifts. In addition
to most of the things on our registry, we got thoughtful keepsakes, like an engraved platinum comb and brush set and a silver
football piggy bank. We got tons of clothes. My mother’s hand cramped as she attempted to write down the names of the guests
and their gifts. I was laughing and talking about the baby and I felt better. That is, until I took the wrapping off a box
with no card. The box was filled with  white foam balls. I reached in and felt what I assumed to be crumpled newspaper. I
pulled out a torched dollhouse cradle with a miniature doll baby inside. A sticky note was attached to the cradle with the
following message:
ROCK-A-BYE BABY
. I tossed the crispy thing across the room. Ms. Mae asked, “What was that, sweetie?”

My sadness turned to anger. I was pissed. What type of person would do that? I looked at my mother and said, “Did you see
who brought that gift here?”

She shook her head. “There were so many people here, Ayana, I don’t know who brought what.”

I took a deep breath and lay my head back on the couch. I was irritated. I wanted to go put a bullet in this chick myself.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cam had actually threatened to kill her. She had relaunched with a vengeance. I had tried to psychoanalyze
this woman but she was so inconsistent and I was too emotionally involved to make sense of her. Her motive seemed to change
every week.

I
woke up in the middle of the night wondering if I should have called the cops about the gift. Maybe they could dust it for
fingerprints. I sat up in bed and looked around the room. I felt lonely. I wanted to talk to Cam. Where was he? What was he
sleeping on? What was he thinking?

I wanted to talk to him so bad. I wanted us to revisit moving out of state. I’d had a few interviews for a television show
that would send us to New York. That would mean he’d have to abandon some of the projects he was working on in Atlanta and
I didn’t get the impression that he really wanted to move. Plus, he liked being the breadwinner and I thought he’d feel some
kind of way if I were in that role, even temporarily until he could launch his business. But he had enough contacts in the
entertainment industry to get up and going in New York in no time. Our peace was worth it.

I tried to force myself back to sleep but I just couldn’t do it, especially knowing that Cam was in jail. I wanted him in
bed with me to hold me and to make this situation seem worth it. Without him there, all I could think was why I was even in
this relationship. I stared at an oversize picture of us on the wall, hoping that would make me feel closer to him. We’d taken
that picture right after our nuptials. The sun was shining and we were so happy. My entire body ached and I wanted the pain
to go away. I started to cry. Speaking to the empty room, I shouted, “Cameron. Why? Cam, I don’t understand. Somebody help
my husband. Anybody.”

I wasn’t stronger than these forces against me. When I met Cam, I’d imagined this would end at some point, and though there
had been some lows during which nothing occurred, all in all, it had lasted too long and caused too much damage. My bedroom
door opened and I jumped.

“Ma?” I called out.

“Ayana,” Caron said.

He walked in and looked slightly concerned, but more confused.

Quickly wiping my tears, I said, “Yes.”

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“But you were crying and calling Dad’s name.”

I didn’t say whether that was true or not. I just looked at him. “I thought he was hurting you.”

“Why would you think he would hurt me?”

“He hurt my mommy.”

“Yes, honey, he hurt your mommy emotionally, but he’s never hit her.”

“He did the last time I was at my mother’s house.”

My heart plunged and crashed into my belly. The baby jumped instantly and began to kick erratically, as if he were begging
for us to get out of this situation. I wanted to know all the details, but then again I wasn’t sure if I should allow a nine-year-old
to give me the information. What if his facts were sketchy? I was unsure what to think, especially since Caron often refused
to talk to me. Most times he treated me as if I weren’t there. I didn’t know if this was something his mother had put him
up to or not.

“Caron, don’t tell anyone else about that, OK,” I said.

“But he did and I had to help her.”

“OK.”

“Did Dad come back yet?”

“No, he’s not back.”

“When is he coming back?”

“I’m not sure, but he’ll be back. Go back to sleep.”

He left the room and I curled up with my body pillow. I cried until the sun peeped in through the windows. My eyes were swollen
shut and that was the only reason I was able to close them. I slowly drifted off to sleep.

Monday morning took an eternity to arrive. I dropped Caron off at school and met Morris at the jail so we could get Cam out.
I sat outside in the parking lot as Morris had instructed. He’d told me that Cam would come out when they released him and
Morris would show him exactly where I was parked. I reclined my chair and relaxed in the parking lot. An hour or so passed
and Cam knocked on the driver’s-side window. I was so happy to see him, I leaped out of the car and hugged him. He held me
tightly, or as tightly as he could with the watermelon separating us.

I hadn’t expected to cry, considering I had been crying for two days, but I couldn’t stop the tears from falling down my face.
It felt good knowing he was OK. I’d had nightmares that he’d been abused or hurt in there. I touched his face and chest, making
sure he hadn’t been harmed. I said, “I missed you so much.” I kissed him again. “I was so scared.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t think you deserved to be in there.”

“Yeah, but they have to do that. It’s the system.”

I hopped in the passenger’s side and said, “Why hasn’t she been arrested yet?”

“We have to prove she’s doing these things. The sad part about it is that you can’t arrest a stalker unless you can prove
they are actually doing what we think they are doing.”

I snapped, “Why do we have to prove that ourselves? Isn’t that what the police are for?”

“Yeah, that’s the crazy part about it. Even with her saying that I said I would kill her, they really can’t do anything to
me. The system is messed up.”

I took a deep breath. This was just ugly. Cam had to deal with an unfair arrest and we couldn’t get that lunatic arrested
even if we wanted to. I couldn’t believe she was literally the devil.

Cam said, “But it’s all good. Morris got me.”

I figured it was too early to bring up moving so I let that pass. He said, “And guess what? We go to court on June sixteenth.”

“That’s my due date.”

“I know.”

“I asked Morris to see if we can get it postponed.”

“Does he think he’ll be able to get a postponement?”

“He’s going to try. That’s all he told me. Where’s Caron?”

“He’s in school.” I paused. I wasn’t sure if I should bring this up, but I did. “He told me something disturbing. He said
you hurt his mother the last time he spent the weekend over there.”

He looked at me without an inkling of a smile. “What if I did?”

I completely understood his anger but it didn’t make sense to hurt her and mess up our lives. “Did you really threaten to
kill her?”

“I told her to stop playing with my life.”

Anger trembled in his voice. He didn’t waver or hesitate in his statement. His eyes pierced through me, demanding that I understand
him. I said, “Baby, even after all she’s taken us through, I don’t want to see her hurt.”

“Why?” he snapped. “After she basically tried to kill you. The legal system ain’t going to help us. I may have to take this
into my own hands.”

“And miss out on your children’s lives. You don’t want to do that.”

“That’s the only reason I haven’t done anything yet. I’m so sick of her crazy ass.”

“Have you given any consideration to New York?”

“Not at all.”

I knew that he wasn’t sold on New York and I knew this wasn’t the right time to talk about it. He had spent the weekend in
a jail cell with a bunch of angry men and was fired up. I figured I should probably wait until he simmered down before broaching
that topic.

When we got home, Cam went in to talk to his mother. She said, “Are you OK, baby?”

He said, “I’m cool, Mom.”

“I love you, Son.”

“I know. I love you too.”

“Sometimes you need to make sacrifices and I think you need to give up the battle for Caron. Let him go back with his mama
and stay as far away from that woman as you possibly can.”

“Listen, I’m not going to have my seed in the same town and don’t deal with him.”

Ms. Mae shook her head. “That is the best thing for everyone involved. At least until it all calms down.”

“Ma, I’m not that dude. I’m not going to do that to my son.”

She said, “See, you New Age men put up with more than the men in my day. They would act like she don’t exist.”

“Ma, you’re talking crazy.”

She curled her lips. “If you want to continue dealing with this, keep on fighting that girl for custody. Give the boy back
and let that girl be.”

His eyebrows wrinkled. “Ma, it’s not about Caron. She wants me back.”

I stood there speechless at Ms. Mae’s suggestion that Cam give up his firstborn. Even I didn’t think that was a good idea.
I could tell that Cam was irritated by her suggestion, but maybe she was right. It seems that women give a harder time to
men who are trying to do the right thing, as opposed to if he would just leave her and Caron alone. I didn’t love the whole
stepmother thing but I was dealing with it just fine.