Unique II: Betrayal

Chapter 10 - Spilling Her Guts

Two days after Unique became coherent, the doctor released her from the hospital. He told her to take it easy for a while and that time would heal the wounds and that everything would be just fine. It was easy for him to say; he hadn’t lost a baby or had a secret to get off of his chest, Unique thought as she sat up in the king-sized bed of the New Jersey home she shared with Kennard.
     Kennard walked in just as she was trying to get up. “Where do you think you’re going?”
     “I was going to try to make me some soup.”
     “I’m warming up the soup my mom made for you. It’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
     “Thanks, babe.” she said.
     “Just get back in the bed and remember that the doctor said you gotta take it easy,” he reminded her.
     “That’s easy for him to say, he didn’t lose his baby.”
     Though Kennard had taken it hard, he tried to act like it was all good. “We will make another one. The fun part is making another one.” He kissed her on the forehead, trying to assure her that everything would be okay.
     After she finished her soup, she was still sitting up in the bed. He noticed that she had a strange look on her face. “What’s wrong, baby?”
    “Just a lot on my mind that’s all.”
    “Well, don’t let anything worry your pretty little heart. None of this was your fault and everything will be okay.”
    She took a deep breath. “All of this is my fault.”
     Kennard immediately tried to shut her down.
    “Babe, listen, it’s something I have to tell you.”
    He covered her lips. “Don’t worry,” he said as he kissed her.
    She spoke up, “Listen, babe, I need to tell you something.”
    “Tell me how much you love me.”
    “And without a doubt, I do with all my heart.” The words came out of her mouth but she allowed her eyes to convey the love she had before she inhaled and continue to speak, “I don’t know how to say this.”
    He finally was getting the message and could see that she had something heavy on her mind. So he just held her hand and listened as she continued, “Baby, I want to say first of all, I love you and I’ve never loved and trusted anyone more. But the truth of the matter is, there are some things in my past that I’m not proud of.”
     “And there are some things in my past . . . everybody has skeletons in their closets,” he said.
    “Yes, but it seems like I have a cemetery.” She took in more air and a sip of her juice on the night table. “I know I shouldn’t tell you this but I can’t hide it from you anymore.”
    “Hide what?”
    “My checkered past. Let me just get it off my chest.” She was quiet for a second and then she kept going. “On the bus ride here to New York, I prayed and I prayed, asking God to allow me opportunity to turn over a new leaf. And funny how he works—because about a week after I arrived, I literally ran into you.”
      “Yes, I’ve been known to be a godsend.”
     “Literally, you were. You brought out the absolutely best in me and every day I was with you, I wanted to bury the old me deeper and deeper. And I had done a great job until”—Kennard was looking at her and could see the pain and frustration written all over her face—“until a couple of months ago. It’s like one day I walked into the kitchen and my skeletons were all over the kitchen table.”
    “Okay, I’m a smart guy and am usually quick on my feet, but I’m not following.”
     By now she was shaking, but holding it all in wasn’t an option anymore. A secret got heavier and heavier the longer it was in tow.
    Kennard grabbed her and hugged her. Once he embraced her, her tears came uncontrollable. “Baby, it’s okay. Whatever it is, you gonna be okay.”
     She wiped her tears because she believed him. “I know,” she said, “that’s the thing. You make me feel so safe, safe to cry and emotionally and physically safe.”
     Kennard was a bit puzzled. “Who do you fear? Baby, you don’t have to be afraid of anyone.”
    “I’m not really, but know I’m not safe or wasn’t ever safe with certain individuals.”
    “Like who?” Kennard wanted to hear this because anybody who thought they could fuck with anyone he loved had another thing coming for them.
    “Baby, I’ve had a hard life. The only other person I loved or real boyfriend I had besides you was this guy Took, who I cared for deeply. In a nutshell, when he went to jail, I spent his money, then was put in a situation to fend for myself. Everything went to hell, and he never forgave me.”
    “Is this the motherfucker that did this shit to you?” She could see fire in his eyes.
   “No, babe. On another note though, I was set up for some wild shit I didn’t even do and sent to prison. Once Took came home from jail, he got me out that bind. He told me that he used all of his money to get me out and needed to get back on his feet. Now, the old Unique would have never told you this next part, but I’m not her anymore. And besides, if I’m going to have a life with you, I have to be straight with you.”
     “Agreed,” he said, nodding.
    “I felt guilty that he spent his last money on me, in spite of the way I was living when he was in. And all I wanted to do was to show him my love, appreciation, and dedication to him and to make our relationship work.” She sighed and then said, “I only wanted to prove my love to him.”
    “So what did you do?”
    She was quiet for a beat, wishing that she had not even started pouring her heart and past out to him, but she did and there was only one way to go: forward. “To help him get his money up, he had me line up guys to get robbed.”
    He was quiet, “So you were a real ride-or die-chick, huh?,” he asked in a sarcastic way. “And whatever happened to this Took guy? Are you still in touch with him?”
    “I haven’t seen him since right after our biggest and last score, when he drugged me, took my passport, and when I woke up, I discovered he sold me to a whorehouse in Mexico.”
    “What the fuc—” Now that caught him off guard.
     “Our getting back together was all an act for him, and that was his plan the whole time.”
     “So how did you get out of the whorehouse?” he asked.
     “This guy name Lootchee bought me out. I will fill you in on that later. But one of the guys we had robbed was named Fat Tee.”
      Kennard was listening attentively to everything Unique said.
    “Well, he showed and was trying to extort me for money. And to get him the money, I had to rob your jeweler to get the diamonds to pay him.”
    “You did that?”
    Shamefully, she nodded. “Me and Tyeedah did it with the help of her brother.”
    “Damn.”
    “I apologize for robbing Shummi and most of all for not telling you these things. I feel bad. I truly do.”
     “Why didn’t you come to me?” He didn’t understand.
    “I didn’t know what to say. What was I going to say? ‘Hey, honey, I’m being extorted by someone I set up a long time ago to get robbed and they want a million dollars’?”
     “And so where are the diamonds?”
    “Fat Tee has them but then he came back, wanting me to set you up to be robbed. Instead, I pulled a gun out on him, and now I know better—I should’ve shot him. I was taught that if you pull out a gun on somebody you use it.”
    Kennard had a confused look on his face before he asked, “When did you pull a gun out on him and where was I when all this was going on?”
     “Well, it was during the press conference, in the ladies bathroom in the hotel lobby.”
     “Damn, I can’t believe my security didn’t see it happening.”
     “They did. They caught the tail end of it.”
     Unique could see the disappointment all over his face and she started to beat herself up inside. If she had only confided in him from the beginning things may have been turned out differently. Hell, Fat Tee may have run away and never been heard from again.
     There was a minute of silence between the two of them, and after she told him everything, of how Fat Tee had first broken into their home and then how he later assaulted her in the suite, he said one thing, “Trust me. I will take care of everything.”
     And if she hadn’t learned any lesson at all from everything that had happened, she knew that the best thing she could do was trust him.