Chapter 15
Words Will Never Hurt Me . . .
Things between Marlo and I had been picture perfect. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn it was a dream. The club was still booming, and I had hired someone to run it since I wanted to have more quality time with Marlo. Sugar Walls was the talk of the town—even women would drop by occasionally to see what all of the hype was about.
You know the saying ‘too good to be true?’ Well, I knew that with my track record a happily ever after was definitely not in the plans. I began receiving weird phone calls, someone breathing then someone laughing. One call was the sounds of someone having sex. I didn’t think much of it when they started, but after about a month I begin to grow a little tired of them. Of course the first thing that came to mind was that Marlo was fooling around on me, but he promised me that he hadn’t and he was just as clueless as me as to who it was.
The calls would usually come at night, and once I got my number changed, they still managed to get the new one. Letters began pouring in as well. They would always say the same thing, which was basically that I needed to watch my back because they were coming for me. I was afraid, and with the beating I received from Meeka, I knew the pain that could be inflicted if someone was trying to hurt me. I knew that it couldn’t have anything to do with Meeka since I had left Dyna alone a long time ago. I knew that it couldn’t be Shay because Domino and I were through. The only other person I came up with was Mya, but we were blood, and it was bad for me to believe that she would physically hurt me.
Marlo assured me that I had nothing to worry about, and he even bought me a gun to have for protection. I didn’t carry the gun around much because I was afraid that if someone did try to attack me I would end up hurting myself with it instead of them. The phone calls and letters soon turned into broken windows and flat tires, and I became even more afraid. Marlo had one of his workers escort me to the club at night and anywhere else that I didn’t feel comfortable going.
Once I had a constant bodyguard, the threats began to slow down, and it took a load off of me. I now felt a little less afraid to go outside. On my time away from Marlo, I began to hang out with Marissa a lot. Marissa was in her senior year of college where nursing was her major. She was smart and used the money from the club to further her education, unlike me who had all of my funds collecting dust. I must admit that I was a little jealous of the way things worked out for her, but then I reminded myself that I now had enough money to go to school. With some of my free time I decided that I could sign up for a class or two. Compared to Marissa, we were both smart and we had both shared the same dreams, but mine had gotten so distorted along the way.
On a shopping outing I filled Marissa in on what had been going on with me.
“So you know the threats have slowed down now?”
“What happened?”
“I guess once they noticed the bodyguard they knew it would be hard to get close to me.”
“You know that’s some real creepy shit. I wouldn’t know what to do if I had someone terrorizing me.”
“I was scared at first, but after a while I got so used to it that it didn’t even bother me much anymore.”
“So you still don’t have any idea who it is?”
“Nope, but Marlo swears that it’s Mya.”
“Mya! Why the hell would she do that? You are still her sister even if y’all don’t get along.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s her, but I don’t know who else would dislike me that much.”
“Well whoever it is, they definitely have a problem. Hopefully they’ll leave you alone soon so you don’t have to be looking over your shoulder all the time.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, how’s things with you and Marlo?”
“Good, girl. Things are even better than before. Since I’m not at the club as much we have more time for each other.”
After eating lunch I dropped Marissa off and was on my way home when a car bumped me from behind. I thought it was an accident until I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that the driver wasn’t getting out of the car. I loosened my seat belt and was about to get out when the driver began backing up. Soon they rammed the back of my car again, causing me to hit my head on the steering wheel. My vision was a little blurry from the hit, so I couldn’t really see who it was in the car. I could tell that it was a woman, and from my past experience I didn’t want to wait around for someone to jump out and hurt me. I sped off to get away, and as I continued to look in the rearview mirror I noticed that they were no longer following me. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking as I tried to keep it together enough to make it home. I called Marlo on his cell as I pulled up in the driveway. Tears begin to flow as soon as I heard his voice.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked.
“Someone just hit my car!”
“OK, well why are you crying if it was just an accident?”
“It wasn’t an accident! They rammed my car again when they noticed me about to get out of the car.”
“What? Where was this?” he yelled with concern.
“I was on my way home after dropping Marissa off.” I continued to cry.
“Where are you now?”
“Sitting in the car in front of the house. Baby, I’m so scared I’m shaking right now.”
“Go in the house and I’ll be there in ten minutes, OK? Lock up all the doors.”
“OK, please hurry up.”
“I will, just go in the house.”
I hung up the phone and went into the house like he had instructed. My head was hurting from the hit on the steering wheel. I sat in the living room crying until Marlo came in. Instead of talking he held me in his arms until I broke the silence.
“Why is this happening to me?” I cried.
“I don’t know, baby, but I do know that when I find out who’d doing this they are going to pay.”
“Do you still think it’s Mya?”
“I know that she has something to do with it, and if it is her, she’s not going to get away with it.”
“I just want to lay down. My head is killing me. Do you think we should call the police?”
“No, I’ll handle it. Just go head upstairs. I’m not leaving, I promise.”
“OK,” I said before heading upstairs to the bedroom.
This event was enough to bring back all of the old memories that I had tried my best to put behind me. I thought that things had settled, but I was wrong. Whoever it was, was not going to give up until they hurt me. In my mind I wished that they would just get it over with already, but in my heart I wanted them to just leave me alone. After I had taken a nap I felt a little better, especially after noticing Marlo by my side. I remembered that I’d left my purse in the car since I had rushed out of it earlier. I went downstairs to go out and get it. My balance was a little unsteady since my head was still hurting from the bump.
Once outside I walked to the car and the night was so cold. I felt that there was something wrong, and before I had chance to figure out what it was, it was over . . .