For weeks, Luke and Sasha had reclaimed the peace they’d had before Stephanie came into their lives. When Luke was at practice, Sasha was hanging out with his family. As it turned out, Luke was right. None of them held what Stephanie had done against her. Every day they were in Richmond, they had dinner at a different house. Sasha was in awe of Timothy and Denise’s new home. In addition, she got to meet, Denise’s family, her father Thomas and stepmother Isadore, her stepsister Kiki and her husband Ty. And she freaked out when she met singer Eric ‘Silk’ Davies, and his wife Siri. When they were at Zack and Diamond’s house, she met his brother Xavier and his wife Nicole. Her biggest thrill was the lunch date she had with Sally.
There was something about Sally that made her feel loved. Sally’s touch soothed her. It eased her misgivings about her mother, but not in the way Sasha expected.
“There are some people who are meant to have children. They are natural nurturers. Your mother is not one of them.”
Sasha laughed at the words and the irony of who it was coming from.
“I don’t mean any disrespect to your mother. From what I witnessed, there isn’t an ounce of care for you in her. But that is not her fault. I did not know your grandmother, but I bet you money she was worse than your mother.”
“She was,” Sasha nodded in agreement. “Looking back, I can now be honest with myself. My grandmother instilled her hatred for me in my mother. Unfortunately, my mother was not strong enough to develop her own feelings about me. She adopted what my grandmother had ingrained in her and was never able to break the hold. Even once she died.”
Sasha exhaled as a tear streamed down her face. “I’m afraid I’m the same way.”
Sally laughed. “Honey you are too passionate to be like them. You may not want to admit it to yourself, but you love deep. So deep it scares you. I worried about Luke for a long time. There were so many hoochies around him, I was afraid he would marry one of them before he found his one. Then I met you and I knew my Luke had found the one.”
Sasha choked when she spoke. “I’m in love with him.”
“I know,” Sally replied. “He’s in love with you too.”
Sasha inhaled. “What do I do now? I know my mother is trying to come between us. Something happened before we left the house that Luke is not telling me. He rushed me away from my mother. I’m sure she did something that he thinks will hurt me. He doesn’t realize nothing my mother does will surprise me.”
“She is going to force you to make a decision between her and Luke.”
“I know,” Sasha let the tears flow.
Sally reached over and covered her hand.
“It’s hard.”
“I know.”
“I’ve wanted my mother’s love all my life. And now that I have her attention, even though my mind is telling me it’s not healthy, I still want it.”
“She’s your mother. You will always love her. At some point, you have to love yourself more.” Sally squeezed her hand. The touch eased her fears of letting her mother go.
Stephanie had made herself at home in Sasha’s condo. It had been a week and Sasha had not called or returned any of her calls. Did he tell her what happened? No, she thought. He wouldn’t tell her. She would have put her own spin on the story if those two amazon heifers hadn’t kept her away. By the time they brought her to the condo, Sasha had packed and left a note. For the first few days, she called Sasha every hour on the hour to tell her not to believe anything Luke told her. Now she was pretty sure he had not said anything. That was good, she could hold it over him if need be. She knew Sasha well enough to know she would eventually come home. Once she did, Stephanie knew she could work her over and anything that Luke said or did would not matter. Yeah, she would get Sasha to connect her with the First Family, then find her a Senator or someone in politics to marry and be set. Hell, she had the beauty and the looks to catch any man’s eye. She had even done a little research on the members of Congress who were single, or even one looking for a side piece. Of course he had to look like someone she would fit with and have power.
“Yes, I need someone with power,” she said as she turned over in bed. She sat straight up.
“Who in the hell are you?”
A woman dressed in all black, with long curly hair stared back at her.
“I thought about killing you in your sleep, but that would have been too easy for you and would upset Sasha.”
Stephanie jumped out of the bed as if ready to fight. Next thing she knew a black rope flicked around her legs and she was jerked to the floor.
“Dumb ass. I just told you I want to kill you. Taking a fighting stance only gives me more of a reason to do that.”
“Get this shit off of me,” Stephanie screamed out.
The woman stood and wrapped the other end of the rope around Stephanie’s hands.
Stephanie screamed. Before the sound hit the air a plastic seal was on her mouth. The woman put her booted foot on Stephanie’s throat.
Oh my god, oh my god, I’m gonna die, Stephanie thought. What the hell?
“First you kept Sasha away from her father. You treated her like shit, then ignored her most of her life. Now that she has found a family that gives a damn about her and a man who loves her, you want to interfere with her life. That’s what my father thinks. I think you are jealous of Sasha. I think you want her to be as miserable as you.”
Stephanie was moaning under the seal. Tears were streaming down her face.
“The fact that you are still breathing is a testament to me finding a man who loves and understands me. He even knows I came here to eliminate you from Sasha’s life. And he was okay with it. He understood. Now I need you to understand me.”
The woman bent down to kneel next to her. Stephanie tried to move under the bed, but the woman blocked her.
“You tried to interfere in Sasha’s love life with that stunt you pulled with Luke. Try anything like that again, Al, Luke and I will have to fight over which one of us will eliminate you.”
Stephanie could see the seriousness in the woman’s eyes.
“Nod your head if you understand me.”
Stephanie nodded her head and kept nodding until the woman stood. She pulled her up by her nightshirt with one hand. That let Stephanie know the woman was strong enough to kill her. She stood Stephanie on her feet then caught her when she almost fell.
“Thank Sasha that you are still alive.”
The woman removed the seal from her mouth.
Stephanie swallowed then asked. “Who are you?”
The woman pushed a button on her belt and the ropes peeled from Stephanie’s hands and feet.
“You don’t want to know. Just understand if you see me again you will probably die.”
After camp ended, Luke and Sasha returned home. The regular season started and Luke’s first game was away. He asked her to go with him, but Sasha declined so she could deal with her mother.
“Maybe she will be gone by the time we return.” Sasha said on the drive home.
“No. She’ll be there. She wants something,” Luke replied. “She will be waiting for you and pissed as hell.”
“I know.” Sasha exhaled.
“The team is flying out early tomorrow. I hate leaving you to deal with her alone. If you need or just want someone to step in, go to Slay. She will handle her for you.”
“Slay or Tank might kill her. Do you think Al might step in if I ask him?”
“Al will kill her too,” Luke laughed.
The minute Sasha walked into her condo Stephanie was livid.
“You’ve been gone for three weeks. No calls, nothing. You knew I was here alone. You were gone with that man thinking he is going to make you his wife or some dumb shit like that. Men like him don’t do that. All he is doing is using you until he gets tired. And what about your future. What about your job at the UN? There’s talk that he is going to stop playing ball. What are you going to do then? His lifestyle is not going to be the same. What about all this social media crap about him? Are you prepared to deal with that? I know this whole time you were with him he wasn’t doing nothing but bad mouthing me. You need to walk away from any man who don’t respect your mother. You’re getting up in life. You need to find a man who can set you up for life before it’s too late.”
Sasha had put her bag in her room with Stephanie following her around yelling as if she was a child. Finally she was just tired of the tirade.
She sat on the sofa and looked up at her mother then calmly spoke. “Isn’t that what you have been doing for who knows how many years? I don’t want the life you have. It’s taken me thirty something years to finally feel like I belong somewhere. I would like for my life to be with Luke. If not, that’s okay.” She exhaled. “What I am not going to do is spend another day with you yelling at me as if I’m a child. I’m a grown woman who, thanks to you, has lived my life independently. You don’t have to stay here, you have a home. Stay here as long as you like while I stay at Luke’s place. It is totally up to you.” She got up then walked out of the room.
Stephanie stood in the center of the floor staring at the space Sasha had vacated with a look of confusion on her face. Then she thought about the woman who had paid her a visit. For a few nights, Stephanie had laid in bed wide awake, afraid to close her eyes for fear the woman would return. She even considered going home. But she wanted what Sasha had. Hell she deserved it and wasn’t leaving without something or someone.
A month later, Sasha was surprised at the change in her mother. It was as if she was trying to become a friend. She did not interfere with her time when Luke was playing at home and did not complain about the time she spent with him on the road.
When Sasha wasn’t working or with Luke, they went shopping, ate out together and even began to spend time with family. Since Kaylan was the most receptive of everyone, Sasha invited her over to get to know her mother. To Sasha’s surprise, her mother seemed genuinely interested in her family.
During dinner at her house, Stephanie asked a lot of questions about Kaylan’s parents and her Aunt Tracy.
“This is different,” Kaylan smiled. “I usually get a lot of questions about Uncle JD. What people don’t really know is Aunt Tracy is the force behind him.”
“Really?” Stephanie raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Well, Aunt Tracy was a millionaire before Uncle JD even got into politics.”
“Did her brother set her up in business?”
“No,” Sasha replied. “She started her business in college, right Kaylan.”
Kaylan nodded. “Exactly. She and Aunt Ashley started their business Next Level when they were roommates in college. By the time she and Uncle JD got married both of them were millionaires. Then Aunt Ashley married Uncle James whose entire family is from what they call old-school money.”
“The generational kind,” Stephanie asked. “So do you go to a lot of functions at the White House?”
“No,” Kaylan replied. “I run Next Level. My time is usually filled with business meetings and some traveling.”
“What about you Sasha? Have you been to the White House?” Stephanie asked.
“A couple of times to the residence. We spent a part of Christmas there last year.”
“Did you meet anyone interesting?”
Sasha shrugged. “A few people.”
“Any interesting men?”
“The Lassiters.”
Kaylan laughed. “You can’t get much more interesting than Joshua and Adam. Or Uncle Brian.”
“Uncle Brian?” Stephanie raised an eyebrow.
“He’s married,” Sasha said as she tilted her head towards her mother.
As she listened to the conversation it hit Sasha what her mother was up to. The thought made her smile. It was the perfect way to get rid of her mother. Inside she exhaled. Her life was balanced and she liked that. Then as her story goes, in the flash of a minute, it wasn’t.