The Joneses (24 page)

“Ms. Jones, how are you doing?” Officer Underwood asked Hope.

“Still a little shook up, but fine.”

“How well did you know Tyler?”

“Apparently, not well enough. He kidnapped my sister, and tried to kill my daddy,” I responded.

“Calm down, Ms. Jones. These are just routine questions.”

“I understand that, Officer Underwood, but I think my family has been interrogated enough these last few days.”

“I'm sorry you feel like I'm interrogating you. We're just trying to understand the motive behind his doing what he did.”

Hope responded, “He was crazy.”

“Exactly. Simple as that.” I frowned.

“I didn't mean to upset either one of you. If there's anything else you want to share, please do so.”

I looked at Hope. Hope looked at me. Neither of us had anything to add. Officer Underwood stood up. “Ladies, you have my card. If you need me, you know how to reach me.”

“Omar, is that you?” Lisa walked in the room and said.

“Lisa, it's been a long time,” Officer Underwood responded.

“It sure has.” Lisa hugged him. “Charity, this is my cousin's ex-boyfriend.”

“Ladies, have a good day.” Officer Underwood looked in my direction when he talked.

“I'll walk you out so we can get caught up,” Lisa said. “I'll call you later, Charity.”

“Dang, who doesn't she know?” Hope asked.

“Tyler. That should have been my sign to ignore him,” I responded.

Lisa knew quite a few people around town, and it should have been a red flag when she couldn't find out anything on Tyler, good or bad.

“Well, I'm about to go to my doctor's appointment. Do you want to tag along?” Hope asked.

“Sure.” I grabbed my purse and iPad and jumped in the passenger seat of Hope's car.

I couldn't get Officer Underwood out of my mind. I loved his tenacity. Too bad we didn't meet under better circumstances.

Never thought I would be this young having a child and raising one by myself, but life happens. Many had done it before me.

The doctor walked in the waiting room with his clipboard.

I squeezed Charity's hand.

“Ms. Jones, I regret to tell you—.”

“Wait. I don't know if I'm ready for this,” I interrupted him.

“Let the doctor finish. He has other patients to see. And stop squeezing my hand.” Charity removed my fingers from her hand and shook it.

“As I was saying, Ms. Jones, you're not pregnant, but you are anemic, so I'm going to put you on some iron pills.”

Charity looked up at me. “Hope. He said you weren't pregnant.”

That's what I thought he said.” I sighed with relief. “I'm not pregnant.”

“No, ma'am, you're not.” He handed me a prescription. “Take these once a day. Try to take them with food, or it may cause some nausea.”

“Thank you, Doctor Mack.”

The doctor left the room. “I'm not pregnant,” I repeated over and over.

“This should be a wake-up call to you. I've warned you about sleeping with guys without condoms. You're lucky being anemic is your only problem.”

Any other time, I wouldn't want to hear Charity lecturing me, but today, I didn't care. I wasn't carrying Tyler's baby.

“We need to go celebrate,” I said to Charity as soon as we got in the car.

“Go by the house. Lovie said Mom needs us.”

“Mama always has drama going on.”

“You are one to talk,” Charity responded.

“Fine. We'll go by there, but I'm going out to celebrate later.”

I pulled up behind Lovie's SUV. He had the door open before we could reach it.

“She's upstairs, and she's not doing too good,” Lovie said.

“What's wrong with her?” I asked.

“She found out about Dad's other woman.”

“He shouldn't have told her,” I said.

“He didn't. She found the photo album.”

“Y'all losing me,” Charity said.

“I'll tell you about it later,” I responded, as we followed Lovie up the stairs.

Lovie opened up our parent's bedroom door. My mom was in bed with puffy, red eyes. I don't recall seeing her look this bad before. Her eyes looked sad. She wasn't wearing designer anything. She still had her robe on.

She sat up. “Lovie called in the cavalry I see. Well, you kids didn't have to come check on me. I'll be all right.”

Charity sat on the corner of the bed. “We're here. We're not going to let you go through this alone.”

Lovie said, “That's what I've been trying to tell her. She's not in this by herself.”

“I'm not trying to get you kids involved in Royce's and my mess. It's something we need to deal with.”

“But what happens with y'all affects us. You've been together too long to end up in divorce court,” I blurted.

“Dear, Royce couldn't get rid of me that easy. In fact, I would
stay married to him just to give him hell. Ain't no other woman going to enjoy my hard work.”

There it was. The fire I was used to seeing in her eyes. There was hope for their relationship.

“Lovie, I need to talk to the girls alone, if you don't mind.”

“Sure. I'll call and check on you later.” Lovie kissed my mom on the cheek and left.

I sat on the other side of her.

She looked back and forth between me and Charity. “I'm not sure what either one of you knows, but the reason why Royce and I are in this situation is because I found out he cheated on me. Although it happened years ago, it still hurts.”

“It would hurt me, too.” I recalled how I felt when I found out Tyler cheated on me with Charity.

“Mom, we love the both of you. We're not taking up for Dad, but it was a long time ago,” Charity said.

“I'm going to eventually make up with your dad, but for right now, I need my space. He needs to give it to me.”

“Everybody's been calling and asking about what happened,” Charity said.

“I'm sure they all pretended to be the concerned friend. I hope you didn't tell them anything.”

“Of course not.”

“Good. Let them keep wondering. One thing I learned from your grandfather is that whatever happened in the Jones household needed—”

Charity and I joined in, “To remain in the Jones household.”

We'd learned that mantra growing up. We weren't to gossip about our business. It was okay to gossip about others, but never about what went on in our household.

M
y dad was in the same spot I left him. He could have stayed at home, since he wasn't working. He was staring out into open space.

“Is your mom okay?” he asked, acknowledging he knew I was in the room.

“She's going to be all right. Just give her a little time.”

“Thank God. I thought she was going to leave me,” he admitted.

“She might not leave you, but you might leave her. She's definitely not going to make life easy for you.”

“I'm not expecting anything less. If it takes two lifetimes, I plan on making it up to her.”

“Dad, just chill out. Seriously.”

“I've sent her flowers. Did she get them?”

“Yes. She threw them in the trash.”

“I guess I need to swing by the jewelers.”

“Negative. You're not listening to a thing I'm telling you. Do nothing. Let this ride out.”

Shannon rushed in. “There's a reporter in the lobby who wants to talk to you, Royce. He claims he's learned some new information about Tyler and wanted to get your response.”

“Dad, I got this. Shannon, tell him someone will be out in a minute.”

My dad stood up. “I can do this.”

“Sit, I got this.”

I checked my appearance in the hallway mirror. I greeted the female reporter and the cameraman in the lobby.

“My dad's busy working, but I understand you had a few questions. I'll be happy to answer them for you.”

I recognized the local reporter. “I'm Debra Curtin, and it'll only take a few minutes.”

I looked at the cameraman. “Let's do this,” I responded.

“This is Debra Curtin reporting live from RJ Jones Funeral Home. As you know, two days ago, Tyler Williams attempted to kill the owner, Royce Jones. I'm here with his son, Lovie Jones. Can you tell us how your family is doing after this tragedy?”

I looked into the camera. “Debra, my family is grateful that my dad is still alive. It could have easily been him dead. We want to thank you, and other members of the media, for respecting our privacy. We'd also like to thank your audience for the outpouring of well wishes and support.”

“Lovie, a source informed us that Tyler came to town with the sole purpose of harming your family. Do you know if that's true?”

“Yes, that's true; but by the grace of God, he was unable to pull off his plan.”

“Does anyone know why he targeted your family?” Debra asked me.

“The only person who knew the answer to that question is dead.”

“Thank you, Lovie. We hope that this tragic event will be a distant memory for you all. Debra Curtin, reporting live. Now back to the studio.”

The cameraman turned off the light. Debra shook my hand. “Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.” She slipped a business card in my hand. “If you want to share anything else, please feel free to call me.”

“I will.”

“And I do mean anything.” Debra winked her eye at me and followed her cameraman outside.

“Was she flirting with you?” Shannon startled me.

I cleared my throat. “Mind your business.”

“Uh-huh. She probably had this all planned. She ain't sneaky.”

“Don't hate.” I popped my collar. “I do look good, if I do say so myself.”

“Boy, please. Just because you in a suit, don't mean you look good.”

My dad came out interrupting our playful banter. “You did good, Son.”

“Thanks, Dad. See, told you, I got this.”

“That reporter did seem to lean in a little too much. Guess she was trying to show you her cleavage,” my dad said.

“I just have that effect on women. You know every woman wants to be with a Jones man.”

“Let's hope your mama still wants to be with this Jones man.”

Shannon looked back and forth at us. “What's going on?”

“Nothing, Nosy. Get back to work,” I said.

“You're not the boss of me,” she said, as she walked away.

S
ome people would probably say I'm a hypocrite since my slate wasn't completely clean. No, I haven't forgotten about my one indiscretion. What Royce did and what I did were two different things. One night does not compare to a full-blown affair. Royce lied to me to be with that woman.

Royce threw the pictures in the trash, but I took them out and looked at each one of them. The woman in the photo wasn't prettier than me. She sure as hell wasn't finer than me. Back in the day, I was a brick house. Still am. The woman in the picture didn't hold a candle to me, so I couldn't figure out the attraction. I was puzzled. Why did Royce feel the need to creep?

Yes, we had our share of problems back then, but what triggered him to betray me? Over the years, I'd had plenty of sleepless nights due to the guilt I carried from sleeping with Jason.

It's probably best that I'm just finding out about this affair. If I would have found out back then, I would have divorced him. I could still divorce him. Who was I kidding? I loved that man too much to leave him and again, I'm not completely innocent myself.

I sat at the kitchen table eating my dinner.

Royce walked in. “Hi, baby,” he said. He attempted to kiss me. I turned my head.

“Something smells good,” he said.

I continued to remain quiet.

“Hmm. Nothing for me, I see,” he responded.

“There's plenty of leftovers in the fridge. You know where the microwave is,” I responded.

Royce left out of the room. I'm sure he was disappointed I'd cooked something for myself, and not him. I actually timed it so he could see me eat a fresh meal.

“What in the world is going on here?” he walked back in the room.

He must have seen the clothes I'd piled on top of the bed in the guest room.

“I decided to bring some of your things downstairs. You can put them in the closet yourself.”

“Lexi, come on now.”

I looked up at Royce. “Right now, you have no say-so. Either sleep in the guest room, or I'll go to a hotel.”

“Fine,” he responded, as he stormed out of the room.

I hated to do him like this, but he needed to learn there were consequences for cheating on me. I didn't want to make it easy just in case he was tempted to cheat on me again.

I heard him moving stuff around. I finished eating, stood in the hallway, and watched. He complained the entire time.

“You could help me,” he said.

“I could, but this is more fun.” I took a sip of my soda.

“This isn't fair,” Royce said.

“Life isn't fair. We have to roll with the punches,” I responded.

I went to the living room and sat in Royce's favorite chair. I leaned the recliner back and turned on the news.

I yelled, “Why didn't you tell me you were going to be on the news?” I yelled.

“You're not talking to me, remember,” he yelled back.

“Oh, yeah. You're right. Carry on.”

The clip from the funeral home played directly after the commercial played. The picture of one big, happy family displayed, and then the reporter interviewed Lovie.

I reached in my pocket for my cell phone. It wasn't there. I didn't feel like looking for it. I picked up the cordless phone and called Lovie. I got his voicemail, so I left him a message. “You did good in your interview. Call me.”