“I thought AnnieMarie was the quiet one.” Monica took a sip of her tea as Daisy put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Winnie.
Daisy laughed as she walked back to the stove.
Winnie glared at her. “Would you please take that away?”
Daisy raised an eyebrow. “You love eggs Winnie.”
“Not this morning, Daisy,” she moaned.
Daisy came over with a few slices of plain toast and placed them on the table then removed the eggs. “Should teach you how to act out in public,” she mumbled.
“What?” Winnie laid her head on the table.
Daisy leaned over and yelled in her ear. “I said it should teach you to get drunk in the middle of the week!”
Monica laughed as Winnie jerked up from the noise.
“Winnieford you were telling me about AnnieMarie’s temper. I cannot believe it can be as fierce as Jonathan’s.”
“Oh, AnnieMarie,” Winnie bit off her toast, then sipped her tea. “She has a tendency to be on the shy side…”
“Ha.” Daisy shouted.
“Will you stop shouting?” Winnie frowned at Daisy. “She is a very reserved young woman.” Winnie emphasized as she then turned back to Monica. “AnnieMarie is graceful with an inner beauty that is only surpassed by her intelligence and caring nature.” She glanced quickly at Daisy as if daring her to contradict the statement, then continued. “There has been a time or two when her temper has sparked in unusual ways. But that was when she was a child.” Winnie sipped her tea.
“Yeah,” Daisy said with a chuckle, “you swallow that tea to keep that lie from choking you on the way down.”
“Daisy…” Winnie scolded.
“Daisy, my ass. You know that girl can carry a grudge like no other. And when she comes back for you….watch out. Her revenge has no limits.”
“Ahh…” Monica nodded in understanding. “She is what I refer to as a simmering temper.”
“Simmering temper?” Winnie questioned.
“Yes. You take what people give, all the while planning your revenge.” Monica smirked. “My Jonathan has a simmering temper.” She glanced at Winnie, then sat forward placing her tea cup down. “What he did last night was so out of character for him. Only his father brings that violent temper out of him.”
“I don’t remember all of what happened last night,” Winnie chuckled. “All I saw was old boy flying through the air,” she laughed, then paused from the pain in her head. “However, I did witness Jonathan’s temper the night he brought you to the States.”
“What happened that night?” Monica asked.
“Jonathan knocked the crap out of Agent Roark,” Daisy laughed.
“Who is Agent Roark?”
“An FBI agent who thought he was in love with Grace, until Jonathan convinced him otherwise.” Winnie laughed.
“Oh no, he hit an FBI agent?”
“Knocked him out,” Daisy laughed.
“I cannot believe someone other than his father could bring that kind of anger out of him.”
“Oh, there is,” Winnie nodded. “How did he handle the snake Brentwood?”
“Hmm…. That’s a story for you,” Monica smiled. “Jonathan’s father left us on his eighth birthday. His reason was his marriage to me was holding him back from reaching his full potential. He left me to marry a woman of considerable means. Jonathan did not understand all of what was happening but he was very angry at his father. Each birthday he would tell me, Father will pay for leaving us.” She shrugged. “As a mother you learn to smooth over childish thoughts. As he grew older, I would tell him to let it go. Don’t allow his father’s actions to corrupt his heart. Without fail every year, on his birthday, Jonathan would repeat his claim that his father would pay for leaving us. On his twenty-ninth birthday his statement changed.” She glanced from one lady to the other. “It took him twenty-one years to deliver his revenge, but he did it.”
“What did he do?” Daisy asked as she pulled out a seat at the table with her coffee.
“On his twenty-ninth birthday, Jonathan said his father’s financial and emotional banks had been drained. It caused me to pause and ask, what he was talking about. As it turned out Jonathan had been tracking his father’s movements for years.” She paused to laugh, then continued. “It seems Brentwood, was up to his old tricks of carrying on with multiple women, each one more financially fit than the last. He always married up you see. The last wife was very well off and established in the financial world. As with the other wives, Brentwood had a mistress on the side. Don’t ask me how, but Jonathan was able to get into some correspondence between his father and his latest mistress. Just when Brentwood was about to close a major deal that needed the financial support of his wife, Jonathan sent a birthday present to his father in the form of a video. The video was played during a celebration at his home. It showed pictures of his father and his mistress at different times and from what I understand in some rather provocative positions.”
“Oh no,” Winnie shook her head.
“Oh yes,” Monica continued.
“What happened?” Daisy asked.
“His wife, shut down his current deal and cut off funding to several others. The action literally ruined not only Brentwood’s business, but his reputation as a financial wiz. He went from living in Kensington to a flat in the neighborhood we lived in when we were together. Not a penny to his name, or a woman of wealth to take care of his expensive taste.”
“Karma is a bitch,” Daisy nodded with a smirk.
“Sounds like it went full circle to me,” Winnie added as she sipped her tea. “Deservedly so.”
“I think people forget that hurt and anger can lie dormant right beneath the surface for a long time.”
“AnnieMarie doesn’t have it in her to go that far,” Winnie shook her head.
“I bet Mike would differ with you on that statement,” Daisy huffed.
“Why would you say that? AnnieMarie would never carry a grudge that long.”
“Ha, lies you tell.” Daisy laughed. “Have you forgotten the time Mike messed with AnnieMarie’s dolls.”
“Oh,” Winnie waved her off. “They were children and there was nothing life changing in what she did.” A smile crossed her face.
“Even hungover, you can’t even keep a straight face sitting there telling that lie,” Daisy replied.
“What happened?” Monica asked.
Winnie smirked at Daisy, then began to laugh. “It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny when it was happening.”
The women began laughing so hard Monica joined in. “One of you spill the beans.”
Winnie wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked up at her. “Back in the day, I would do my children’s hair myself.”
“That stopped on the day AnnieMarie tried to perm Mike’s hair.” Daisy laughed.
Winnie burst into laughter again, then took a deep breath to continue the story. “Let me tell this story without your commentary.”
Daisy threw her hands up then sat back. “Do you.”
“Okay,” Winnie took a deep breath. “As I was saying, when the children were younger I would do my daughters’ hair. It was a Saturday morning. The house was quiet for a change. The children’s rooms were across from each other with a bathroom between each. The boys’ rooms were on one side of the hallway and the girls were on the other. I was in the girls’ bathroom touching up the roots of Grace’s hair.”
“Touching up roots?” Monica asked.
“This was before we all went natural and I used the home perm kits to straighten out the girls’ hair. Well, AnnieMarie was standing in the doorway watching as she always did,” Winnie shrugged, chuckled then went on. “There was a stick that came with the perm kits to mix the chemicals together. Well,…” she started laughing again, “AnnieMarie took the stick out of the container then walked out of the room. I did not see what happened, but a few minutes later I heard Mike yelling at AnnieMarie. I had just finished applying the last section of Grace’s hair when I hear Mike breathing hard.”
Daisy began laughing again. “I’m downstairs in the kitchen when I hear all this screaming and stomping coming from upstairs.”
“I ran out of the bathroom to see Mike in the hallway naked as a jaybird, holding his little thing in his hand with a pillow fanning.” Winnie continued while laughing. “AnnieMarie ran past me into the bathroom with Grace. Mike was on tiptoes hopping around in a circle yelling, ‘it’s burning…it’s burning.’ I couldn’t see what was burning because he had the pillow in front fanning. So I grabbed the pillow and his little weeny was covered in the perm cream.”
“I came upstairs just as Grace grabbed a spray bottle from the bathroom and began spraying him down,” Daisy added. “The cream started running down his legs.”
“Myles came out of his room,” Winnie picked the story back up. “Of course by now it was time to rinse the perm from Grace’s hair or she would be crying soon. I yell, to him to take his brother to the shower to clean him up. Myles, with his silly self is shaking his head. ‘I’m not going to wash him down there.’ I grabbed Mike and then shoved him in the shower in the boys’ bathroom. I gave Myles some of the neutralizing shampoo to wash Mike off. Then I went to finish Grace’s hair. As soon as I finished, I took Mike to the emergency room to make sure there was no permanent damage. Poor Mike was so embarrassed to show the nurse where he was burning.” Winnie laughed. “They gave him some burn cream to apply and sent us home. When we got home, Hep and I went to AnnieMarie’s room with Mike in tow. She was in her room playing with her dolls. Hep picked her up and placed her on his lap with one of her dolls as I stood near the door with Mike. Hep asked what happened? Mike said he was lying on his bed reading magazines when AnnieMarie came in and put the cream on him. Hep asked how did she get it on his privates. Mike turned two shades darker trying to explain what he was doing when his sister came in the room. Hep took pity on him, understanding then turned to AnnieMarie and asked her why did she put the cream on her brother. She looked up with the most adorable eyes as she explained, ‘I only did to Mike what he did to my dolls.’ Mike yelled back, ‘I was ten years old when that happened AnnieMarie.’ AnnieMarie replied. ‘I just turned ten years old, so now we are even.”
Daisy began to chuckle again. “The boy couldn’t wear real pants for a week. He had to wear sweat pants with no drawers.”
“He never touched one of AnnieMarie’s dolls after that, did he?” Monica asked.
“Nothing…” Winnie laughed. “To this day you can’t pay Mike to touch anything that belongs to AnnieMarie without her permission.”
“And he still don’t wear any drawers,” Daisy laughed.
“My my, she may have Jonathan beat,” Monica smiled, “Let’s hope that Mike doesn’t come back at her as payback in the future.”
Winnie and Daisy glanced at each other. “I’m sure he would not,” Winnie replied. “Mike isn’t a revengeful type of person.”
“Brentwood is,”Monica stated.
“Ole Brenty,” Winnie moaned. “Daisy would you find me some aspirin or something.”
“Daisy if you have a shot gun or two bring that back with you,” Monica requested.
Winnie laughed, then regretted the act. “Monica, don’t make me laugh. My head still isn’t on straight. Now tell me. What happened after I left?”
“It was not a pretty scene. My mild-mannered son went bonkers on his father. Not that he did not deserve it.”
“Wait, from the look of things you two were great friends, I would even have said lovers on the dance floor.”
“My ex-husband is a manipulator of monumental proportions. If you allow him to think he is getting under your skin he sinks those fangs of his deeper until he draws blood. I have learned to play his game. I act as if nothing he does gets to me.”
“You put on a good act,” Winnie sipped her tea. “What brings him to Virginia?”
“Revenge,” Monica replied.
“On Jonathan?”
Monica nodded. “Please accept my apology for whatever he is about to do. You see, Brentwood is too much of a coward to come direct. He is going to come after the people Jonathan loves. I happen to be first on his list. Which means your daughter will also be in his sights.”
“Grace?” Winnie laughed, but this time she couldn’t stop herself. She held her head between her hands. “Oh my, he is in for a very rude awakening.” She settled down, took a deep breath then placed her hand on top of Monica’s. “You do not have to worry about him coming for Grace. Believe me when I tell you that daughter of mine…well for that matter, either daughter of mine will sweep the floor with old Brenty and throw him into the garbage.”
“Jonathan told his father he was going to dump him into the incinerator, that would be a perfect combination.”
“The question is how are we going to protect you?”
“Leave me a picture of this Brentwood,” Daisy said as she returned with the aspirin. “I’ll pass it on to Jerome. He’ll take care of him.”
Winnie took the aspirin. “Bless you Daisy.”
“Serves you right for being out there drinking like a fish out of water. I bet you won’t do that again.”
“Oh it was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Monica smiled. “We must do it again tonight.”
Daisy burst into laughter at the look on Winnie’s face.