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When Nina arrived at Deja’s apartment complex, she parked in an open space in the back. She jogged toward Deja’s then stopped in her tracks. The black sedan with a huge dent in the front was parked not too far from Deja’s apartment. She couldn’t spot anyone inside because of the black-tinted windows. Nina grabbed her phone to call the police but then returned it to her bag. First, she’d have to get Deja the money. She could talk to the police more easily knowing Kevin’s body had been disposed of.
Her heart raced while she jogged to Deja’s. She banged on the door.
Deja opened moments later. “Nina? What’s wrong?”
Nina stepped past Deja into the apartment then shut the door and locked it behind her. Boxes cramped the small space, but she wasn’t planning on sitting anyway. She shoved the envelope with the cash toward Deja, who looked terrible and like she’d been crying for a while. “Here’s thirty thousand dollars. Twenty-five for the body disposal and five to pay you back. I saw the black sedan outside. I’m going to call the police. Maybe they can finally catch the stalker.”
Someone knocked on the front door. Deja looked through the peephole. “It’s Lanzo. He’s the guy we’re giving the money to.”
Deja opened the door. Nina screamed. The stalker clothed in the black trench coat and ski mask stood at the door next to another burly man. “That’s the stalker!” Nina tried to shut the door.
The stalker pushed back, knocking the door open. He shoved Deja aside then shut the door behind him, locking it.
“Oh my God!” Deja screamed. “Nina, call the police.”
The figure stepped toward Nina and snatched her purse, which held her phone, off her shoulder. His hand came up and pulled off the ski mask. It was Kevin, the man Nina had killed.
“Surprise,” he said.
“Kevin? You’re the stalker?” Deja asked, her mouth open wide. Though she seemed surprised like Nina, it seemed to be for a different reason.
“Deja, what the hell is going on? You said I killed Kevin.” A short-lived wave of relief swept over Nina.
Kevin reached his hand out to Deja. “So that’s my money, right?”
Deja glanced at Nina, like she’d been caught red-handed. She handed the money to Kevin. “You stalking Nina was never in the plan.”
It all made sense to Nina now. “Plan? I didn’t kill you. But you two wanted me to believe I did to extort fifty thousand dollars from me? That’s why you sent that text to me that night. You were baiting me to come to your place. You two set the whole thing up. The fight. Even the bottle being there.”
“The only thing you’re leaving out is what an idiot you are. You hit me so soft with that bottle, I didn’t think it would work. But you still fell for it.” Kevin chuckled. “I knew you would never be able to hurt me.”
“How could you do this, Deja? Why?” Nina asked.
Tears streamed down Deja’s cheeks. “He forced me, Nina. I owed him money, and he came up with this sick plan and said I had to do it. I was going to kill him, though. I wasn’t going to go along with it, and I had my own plan to just get rid of him once and for all. But you took the bottle and wouldn’t let me.”
“Oh, really?” Kevin pushed Deja hard, and she flew against the wall then slumped onto the floor.
Nina wouldn’t help Deja this time. She dashed to the door, but when she reached it, Kevin yanked her sweatshirt.
“You’re not going anywhere. And even if you get outside, my boy, Lanzo, will make sure you don’t get past him.”
His words were like a punch to the gut. Nina was trapped. “You’ve been following me, trying to make me think I was crazy.” Nina could barely speak the words.
Kevin laughed. “Your epiphanies are too little too late. But yes. It’s been a very entertaining month and a half.”
“What do you mean?” Nina demanded.
“The emails, the flowers, I did all that too. I’ve been scoping you out. I worried it might take a while to hack into your email account, but ‘Bree Laila.’ Really? With a password like that, I knew you were a complete idiot who would fall for anything.” Kevin let out a loud laugh. “You’d be surprised how much of a person’s life is in their email account.”
Nina’s relief that she wasn’t going crazy was curbed by fear. Kevin was out to get her, and she didn’t know what else he was capable of. “If you wanted my money, why’d you try to kill me when you crashed into Damien’s car?”
“I didn’t try to kill your sorry ass. I was trying to figure out what the hell you were up to. You made it to the park before I could remove the comforter filled with sandbags, and when I followed his car out of the park, my car spun out of control because of the rain.”
Deja stood next to Nina, a hand on her back. “You’re beyond sick, Kevin. I can’t believe you would do all of this. Leave her alone. You have the money, so let Nina go.”
Kevin held up his palm. “So you would have let your best friend live the rest of her life thinking she’d killed someone?”
Nina’s hands shook. “I don’t care about the money. Let me go home to my family.”
“It’s not exactly that easy,” Kevin said. “I let you go, and you’ll run straight to the police.”
“No. I won’t,” Nina said. “You have what you want, and I won’t say a word.”
“She won’t go to the police,” Deja said.
Kevin pulled out his cell phone. “Nope. What actually happened is that Nina found out that you were sleeping with her husband. And she got mad. Really mad. You know, like crazy people get.”
“What?” Nina’s eyes questioned Deja. She’d already established Deja and Rodney weren’t sleeping together. Or that was what Deja had told her.
Deja tried to grab the phone from Kevin. “No. Don’t.”
Kevin knocked her back. He held the phone toward Nina then flipped from photo to photo. There were tons of them: Rodney at Deja’s door, Deja and Rodney at a coffee shop, both of them kissing.
Nina dry-heaved. “I was right?”
“I’m so sorry.” Deja covered her mouth. “It’s over between us.”
“Shut up!” Kevin screamed. “You’re not sorry.”
Nina’s knees were sure to buckle any moment. Everything she’d known to be her life the past year had been destroyed like a sandcastle washed away by a wave. “Deja, how could you have done this to me? I thought we were best friends.”
“It started before I met you. Rodney said you two were divorcing. I’m sorry,” Deja said.
Kevin held up his hand. “Shut up, Deja. You’re pathetic.” He focused on Nina. “You have no idea who she is. Ever since she got pregnant by her mom’s boyfriend, she’s been whoring around.” He glared at Deja. “What would you have done if I wouldn’t have taken you in? Does your friend know about that? How you’ve been turning tricks since then? You’re a disgusting piece of trash, Deja.”
Deja recoiled at his words, and her face lost its color.
He shook his head then focused on Nina. “But back to you, sweetheart. You got so mad when you found out about the affair that you stormed over here and wanted to kill her. Everyone knows you’ve been going off lately. Your husband, doctors, everyone. Finding this out pushed you over the edge.” Kevin pulled out a gun. “Lucky for Deja, she shot and killed you first.” Kevin pointed the gun at Nina.
Nina gasped. Her whole life flashed before her eyes: her parents, Isaiah, Damien, Rodney, and the girls. If she didn’t do something, she’d never see her daughters again. “Please, Kevin. I’ll give you more money or whatever you want. Please, don’t do this.”
Deja stood in front of Nina. “You won’t get away with it, Kevin. Put the gun away.”
Kevin shoved her aside, and she fell to the floor. “Don’t you dare tell me what to do!” Kevin refocused on Nina. The gun pointed right at her. “Now you’ll be able to join your pathetic brother.”
Deja leaped up, hitting Kevin, and the gun exploded before landing on the ground.
Someone pounded on the door. “What’s going on, Kevin?” a voice Nina took to be Lanzo’s said. “I can’t get caught up in this. I’m out of here.”
Nina dove for the gun at the same time as Kevin. She grabbed it then pointed it at him. “Don’t you dare move!”
“You would never do it.” Kevin stepped toward her. “You’re nothing but a weak and crazy b—”
Nina squeezed the trigger, and another shot rang out, piercing her ears. Kevin fell to the ground, clutching his knee where she’d shot him. Deja lay on the ground, her shirt soaked in blood where Kevin had shot her. Nina got her phone out of her purse and called the police. “There’s been a burglary, and two people were shot. Please come now.” Gun still pointed at Kevin, Nina called out to Deja. “Hang in there, Deja. An ambulance is on the way.”
Deja groaned. “I’m so... sorry... Nina.”
Soon, sirens wailed in the distance. Within minutes, police had swarmed the apartment.
“What happened?” a police officer asked.
Nina handed him the gun and gestured toward Kevin. “He shot her then tried to kill me too.” Though Nina was furious with her, Deja had just saved Nina’s life. Nina couldn’t justify implicating Deja in Kevin’s plot.
“She’s crazy!” Kevin yelled. “She shot us both.”
Paramedics placed Deja on a gurney.
“It was him. All him,” Deja whispered.
The paramedics rushed Deja out while the police handcuffed Kevin to a separate gurney.
A policeman instructed Nina to sit on the couch. “Ma’am, are you okay? Is there anyone I can call?”
Nina’s heart pounded in her chest. “Yes. His name is Damien. I can give you his number.”
EPILOGUE
Miles shot the basketball, and it swished through the hoop. He ran to the ball then passed it to his grandma. “Your turn.”
His grandma shot, and the ball hit the rim. “That’s an E. I’m going to go inside and start dinner.” She tossed the ball to Deja, who shot the ball unsuccessfully then headed toward the house.
Miles rebounded the ball then stepped on the three-point line they’d measured and drawn on the concrete with chalk. He shot the ball high up in the air, and it swished through the net. “Yes!”
A raindrop landed on Deja’s arm. “Good shot, buddy.” She jogged to Miles’s spot then shot the ball and missed again. “That’s game. Let’s head inside before it pours.”
“It always rains in Washington.” Miles dribbled the ball while they walked to their house. “Why’d we come here again?”
Deja smirked. “Because I love the rain.”
Miles sighed.
Deja wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “I know you still miss our old friends sometimes.” Though she hung out with a couple of her coworkers, Deja missed the Taylors too. A few months after moving, Deja got a job working as a peer counselor at a local non-profit that helped girls and women out of prostitution. For the first time in her life, she was doing work that meant something to her, and she could hold her head high at the end of the day.
“As long as I have you and Grandma, it’s cool,” Miles said. “But can I ask you a question?”
“Anything.”
“Remember when we left, you had the envelope with all that money? Where’d you get that from?”
Tears sprinkled Deja’s eyes. Nina had gone to visit her at the hospital. She could still hear her voice.
“Deja, everyone deserves a second chance to start over. I finally have mine. And you deserve that opportunity too. But if you ever come near me, Rodney, or my family again, you’ll pay.” Before she left, Nina had given her the envelope filled with forty thousand dollars in cash.
Miles tugged her arm. “So?”
“Auntie Nina,” Deja said. “Auntie Nina gave us the money.”
“Okay. That’s what I always thought. Some kids in my old class used to tease Bree and say Auntie Nina was crazy. But I think she’s the nicest person I’ve ever known.”
Deja squeezed Miles. “She’s the nicest person I’ve ever known too. The most important thing to know is never to judge someone. You’ll underestimate them every time.”
Miles gave Deja a puzzled look. “What’s underestimate mean, Mom?”
“It means thinking someone isn’t able to do something or acting like they are less than you just because of what’s happened to them in the past. You know, Miles, a lot of people thought I’d never amount to anything.” Deja beamed with pride and opened the back door to their house. “I’m glad I’m able to prove them wrong.”
***
“I THINK I’M...” NINA eyed Dr. Austin, hesitant to say the word. “Okay. I think I’m okay.”
Dr. Austin nodded and wrote on the notepad. “Tell me how that feels. What’s okay for you?”
“Well, the girls and I have gotten used to the new routine, the new normal, as you like to call it. It’s a change for them, not having Rodney in the house. But it’s been surprisingly nice for me. And now that I’m back at work, there’s a lot of juggling, but we still have Candace, and she’s a big help.”
“I’m glad you decided to return to work. How do you feel being back?” Dr. Austin asked.
“I had to do it.” Nina tucked a few curls behind her ear. “It got to the point where I was healthy enough, and I couldn’t sit around the house, thinking about everything that happened. I was sad to part ways with my old company, but they didn’t want me back, and I needed to move on.”
“How was Rodney’s visit with the girls this past weekend?”
“They enjoyed it. Thank God for technology because I don’t think I would be able to actually hold a conversation with him if it weren’t through text or email. He hurt me, you know. He lied to me, and he cheated on me with the person who was supposed to be my friend.”
“Just breathe.” Dr. Austin exaggeratedly inhaled and exhaled to demonstrate. “It is a lot, but you’re doing the right thing by trying to co-parent with Rodney.”
Nina copied Dr. Austin’s breath. The oxygen in her lungs calmed her. She was glad for the reminder. “Regardless of being a terrible husband, he’s still a good dad. I would never take that away from him.”
Dr. Austin wrote on her pad. “That’s a positive way to look at it. And mentally, how are you feeling this week?”
“Good. Regardless of the weight gain, the medication has really helped me stabilize and return to being productive. I think giving up alcohol also helped the medication work better. I’m doing my part to be healthy. After my breakdown, I lived with this heavy cloak of fear that I’d have continual relapses and never stabilize. But that hasn’t happened. Even if I do have some trouble, I feel in control of my health. I’m managing my condition, not letting it get the better of me.”
Dr. Austin placed her pen down and leaned forward. “You’ve grown so much this past year. I’m proud of you.”
Nina allowed herself a moment to let that sink in. She was proud of herself too. “I became hard and bitter after Isaiah’s death. But his death was not my fault, and Isaiah wouldn’t have wanted me to live my life punishing myself for it. If anything, Isaiah would have wanted me to live.”
“That sounds like something Damien would say.”
“It is something Damien says... often. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I feel as though I love him even more than I did before we broke up. We’ve both been busy with planning since the wedding is a month away, but it’s been a fun and exciting time.”
“That’s great. Everything’s checking out well. I’m glad you’re okay. And I’d say you’re probably even good. Same time next week?”
Nina smiled. “Same time next week.”
Nina left the office and walked to the reception area.
Damien rose from his chair. “Everything okay?”
“All good,” Nina said triumphantly. It had taken a long time for her to accept that, mental illness and all, she would be all right. It’d taken a lot of therapy and love from Damien and her parents, but she was finally able to move on from the trauma she’d experienced after Isaiah’s death and the past year. “You know you don’t have to take time off work to come with me to my appointments.”
Damien hugged her then kissed her lips. “I had eight years without you. I’m going to make sure you’re healthy for the rest of our lives together.”
“You’re sweet.”
“And you’re the love of my life,” Damien said.
The words sounded like a melody, and to be reunited with Damien was better than anything she could have ever expected. Though he’d come to the police station and they’d reestablished a friendship on that day, they didn’t start a relationship or introduce him to the girls until seven months later, when Nina and Rodney were officially divorced. Two months later, Damien had proposed again.
“Let’s pick up the girls. Your parents are expecting us for dinner at five thirty,” Damien said.
“Right. The girls are looking forward to that.” Nina laced her fingers through Damien’s. After a year on her new medication, her mom had been the healthiest she’d been in decades and even found a part-time job. Though the void Isaiah had left would never be filled, having Damien back in all their lives seemed to ease the pain. The holidays were around the corner, and the anniversary of Isaiah’s death approached. Nina was not only prepared but also ready. This year, she’d start a new tradition and celebrate her brother’s life instead of mourning his death. From this year on, she’d make sure she lived her life full enough for the both of them.
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