Chapter 12
Nori
The kitchen of my childhood home was quiet, minus the sound of my spoon scraping the last of the smothered chicken and rice off my plate. Everyone was partial to their parents’ cooking, but my mom could really throw down. In high school, my friends all but begged to come home with me for dinner almost every night. As filling as the smothered chicken was in my stomach, it didn’t heal the soreness in my heart.
What I’d witnessed at the school campus still played like a movie in my head. It would be almost unbelievable if down-low men weren’t so common in society. The crazy thing to me was that I had experienced it personally. I probably would have never found out if I had not seen it with my own two eyes. Although the professor and I weren’t publicly in a relationship, we’d often gone on dates. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the men he was dealing with were in any of the places we were . . . If any of them were laughing at me not knowing the truth about him. It was sick that any man would put a woman through that. Even sicker that he took away my choice.
“What’s got you in such deep thought?”
The sweet sound of my mom’s voice brought me back to the current moment. She was standing over me, giving me a motherly eye. No matter how long she had lived in California, she still had that North Carolina accent. I realized I’d been gripping my spoon tight and staring at my plate. I didn’t know if I’d even blinked. Dropping my spoon, I pushed my plate from in front of me so I could rest my arms on the table. I opened my mouth to tell her, “Nothing,” but I hated lying to her. So instead, I just shrugged my shoulders.
“Mm-hmm,” she said, taking my plate to the sink.
The cute dress she wore clung to the hourglass shape she’d maintained since I was a child. In fact, my mom had barely aged in my eyes since then. She was in her mid forties, but looked much younger than that. Many assumed her black would crack when my dad was found dead. They thought she couldn’t keep going, but she had a reason to keep going. Her girls. She couldn’t lose herself in grief because then, we would have lost two parents. So she mourned her lost love in our faces and out. But that sadness turned into acceptance. Life must always go on. She had made one change, though. She cut her hair into a pixie cut and wore it like that ever since. It brought out her high cheekbones and doe eyes. I always wondered why she had never dated again. She was such a stunning woman who also always seemed to know more than she let on.
“Okay, I let you eat in peace. I thought a full stomach would make you more forthcoming, but I guess I must take extreme measures to pull the truth out of you,” she told me with her hands on her hips. “No peach cobbler until you talk.”
“Mommy,” I protested.
“Talk.”
“That’s not fair. You’re playing dirty. You know peach cobbler is my favorite.”
“I know, which is why I knew I could use it against you. So?”
She sat down at the table across from me and interlocked her fingers. She wasn’t going to let it go. Once her antennas picked up something, she saw it all the way through.
“I caught the person I thought I really liked with someone else,” I finally said.
“Oh, baby, is that all? And here, I thought you would say something crazy happened.”
“The person I caught him with was a man.”
“Oh . . . Well, that’ll do it. I’ll go get you some cobbler now. And a shot. You want some tequila?”
“Mommy,” I whined again, that time with a hint of a smile.
“What? Girl, I’ve never been through anything like that. So, if you don’t take a shot, I will.”
And that she did. She poured both of us a shot of tequila and brought them back to the table. It was still morning, but it had to be happy hour somewhere. So we tossed them back, and I was happy it went down smoothly.
“All right, now, where were we? Oh yes, you were telling me how you found out that your boyfriend is gay.”
“He’s not my boyfriend, just someone I was dating.”
“Whew, well, that’s good. You won’t have to explain it to anyone. Make sure you go to the clinic and get checked out. If he’s doing that in secret, ain’t no telling what other scandalous mess he’s into.”
“I will, I promise. I guess I’m still caught in the shock of it all. And it’s not like I can just ignore him. I still need to attend his class.”
“Wait, Nori. Were you messing with one of your professors?” she asked, disappointed.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Um, nothing except the fact that you both can get into a world of trouble—especially since you’re doing so well in all your classes. They could attribute it to bribery.”
“Mommy, I swear I’ve earned all my grades the right way. Plus, word of us seeing each other won’t even make it anywhere. Especially now that he knows I know his dirty little secret.”
“Good. I’m sorry you had to go through that, baby. I can tell by how distraught you looked that you must have liked him. But look at it as a silver lining. Imagine actually getting deep in a relationship and finding that skeleton lying in his closet.”
“I think I would feel the same,” I told her. “But I get what you mean. Better sooner than later.”
I grew quiet again, allowing myself to enter the deepest part of my mind. I was still in the moment, so the feelings were still present. However, my unpleasant feelings toward the professor would fade. And then he too would fade from my memory. He was but a blip in my life. But there was one person that would be around much longer than that.
“Is that ailing your mind?” my all-knowing mother asked.
I again looked into her brown eyes and wondered if I should tell her what her other daughter had been up to. But how could I betray Nadi’s trust? Especially with what she was already dealing with. Still, a big part of me felt that my mom should know—especially since the journal was from her lineage.
“It’s—”
“Nadi!” My mom yelled out, staring at something behind me with wide eyes.
I turned in my chair and saw Nadi standing there, looking like life had just collapsed on her. She wasn’t crying, but I could tell she had been. Her red, puffy eyes were a dead giveaway. She seemed surprised to see me there but also relieved. From her appearance, I assumed the confrontation with Kelz hadn’t gone well.
“I . . . I came here for Mommy. But I’m . . . I’m . . .” Nadi blinked feverishly to keep her tears away.
I jumped up from my seat and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, holding her tight. She held me back, and I felt her heated tears on my neck.
“I’m glad you’re here too,” I said lightly.
“What’s going on with you two?” Mom asked when we released each other. “First, Nori finds out her boyfriend is gay, and now you show up here looking like someone took everything you have.”
“Wait, what?” Nadi asked, looking at me.
“Professor Berkley. I was kind of dating him. I saw him getting his dick sucked by a man. There. Now, you’re all caught up. So, tell me what happened with Kelz.”
“That was a lot to swallow, but you can catch me up later,” Nadi said, plopping down in an empty seat at the table. “But Kelz and I broke up.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” Our mom grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“So he admitted to double-crossing you and stealing the artifacts back?” I blurted out.
Nadi cut her eyes at me, and I realized I’d said too much. Slowly, we looked at our mother, who was staring at us with her mouth slightly agape. Her eyes went from me and then to Nadi and stayed there.
“The what back?” she asked.
“Mommy—”
“I know you don’t mean what I think you mean.”
“It’s just . . . I . . . We . . . Help me, big mouth!” Nadi’s eyes pled with me.
“What do you want me to say?” I asked, holding my palms up.
“Nadi and Norielle, I’m so . . . You two . . . This . . . I need more liquor.”
She left us at the table and went to pour herself another shot. After she tossed it back, I watched her take a few deep breaths before turning back to us. She didn’t look angry. More like disappointed when she started to speak.
“Here I thought you were working some great job at a firm, and that’s how you afford all these luxuries. I should have known you were lying; you dropped out of college. It’s who you know, not what you know, my ass! When you say ‘artifacts,’ I can only assume you mean treasures. Correct?”
“Yes,” Nadi answered truthfully.
“And these are treasures you learned about . . . where exactly?”
“In . . . Giovanni’s journal,” Nadi answered truthfully again.
“You found them?”
“Not all of them. Nowhere near half, truthfully. But a lot of them, yes. Collectors hire me to find things. A lot of them have been in the journal. So I find them, and they buy them from me.”
“And Kelz helped her,” I said, ignoring the evil look Nadi was giving me. “She found out today that when they would sell an item to a buyer, he would double back and rob them to sell it again.”
“Oh my. My, my, my. Nadi, what are you doing? And to involve other people in it is ludicrous. Especially letting them know about the journal’s existence.”
“Mommy, I’m sorry. It’s just . . . the money—”
“Ha!” she scoffed at Nadi’s poor excuse. “Trading money for things so priceless. It goes against everything I ever taught you girls. You must stop immediately.”
“I’m done. You won’t have to worry about it anymore. I refuse to be used.”
“It’s not just that. I thought the journal would be safe in your hands. I thought you would want to protect the treasures—not exploit them.”
“I didn’t,” I spoke up in defense.
“You might as well have. You didn’t stop her, and you fed off the fat of the land. You’re no better than she is,” our mom exclaimed. “The things that journal contains would take the most uncurious and boring minds not to want to find, but that doesn’t mean you should.”
“Why?” Nadi asked.
“It’s not just our family’s most precious family heirloom, but it’s also why, even when you don’t realize it, we’re constantly in danger. For example, did you know my great-great-grandfather, Giovanni, secretly changed his last name?”
“Why?” It was my turn to ask.
“To keep his legacy safe. To keep his family safe. People would kill to possess something so lucrative. What you’re doing is dangerous, Nadi. It won’t be long until someone realizes exactly how you’re locating all these lost artifacts—if they haven’t already.”