The Last Great Seduction

Chapter Twenty Six

Beyonce's POV

I knew that I was being rude to Shawn, but I was still pissed off with him. I hated when people acted like that. The way he came in my house was like he didn't trust me, and I couldn't handle someone not trusting me. It was especially more puzzling because of what happened to transpire the night, but I was the one catching the attitude? I sat my laptop down in the passenger seat and began driving off. I was trying to get to Ms. Brenda's house and do everything that I needed to do and go back home. I had never planned a funeral before, but I couldn't see how it was going to be hard. I would help pick out the casket, building, and flower arrangements. I would also have a small gathering with food for family and friends afterwards. I honestly don't think that I will attend this funeral, though.

As I was driving, I couldn't help but notice that there was a truck following me. When I had broken up with Jermaine after her supposed wedding ceremony, I had gotten a bit used to him following me. It wasn't hard for me to notice Shawn behind me the entire way. He was trying to be slick by being a few cars away, but I wasn't dumb. At this point, I was furious. I pulled into a gas station and watched as he did the same, but a few pumps away.

I pulled my phone out and called his phone.

"Yes?" He answered.

"Where are you?"

"Why? You good?" Shawn asked me.

"No, the truck feels like it's going to stop and I need to be somewhere," I lied.

"Where you at? I'm leaving the house now," Shawn said blatantly lying to me.

"Are you serious right now, Shawn?" I asked.

"Yes...where are you?"

I simply hung up and pulled off. Shawn had lost his fucking mind lying to me like that. It took him a while to catch up and continue following me, but he surely made it happen. If it's one thing that I couldn't stand, it was lack of trust. There couldn't be a relationship if the trust wasn't there.

"Okay, when we get in here, y'all behave, okay?" I told the children when I neared Ms. Brenda's.

"Okay," the both said in unison as I got pulled into her driveway. I saw that Shawn was parking on the other side of the street as I grabbed my laptop. I made sure to look dead at him before going to the front door with the child. I rang the doorbell and waited. This small little precious girl opened the door, and I immediately knew who her parents were. She looked like the perfect mix of Jermaine and Ashley.

"Hi, precious," I said as I looked at her.

"Hi," she said happily. "Ma!" she yelled for Ms. Brenda.

Ms. Brenda came to the door and invited us in. "I'm so glad you could come, Beyoncé."

"No problem, Ms. Brenda. How have you been?" I asked as I sat down on the couch. The kids, especially Daniel, stayed close to me.

"I've been living. I recently retired, so now I'm just taking care of her," she said motioning to the little girl.

I looked over to the little girl with a smile. "What's your name?"

"Melody," she replied.

I nodded my head with a faint smile on my face. Ashley always had a way of getting to me. Naming her daughter similar to my real name was a big gesture on her part.

"Who's these two babies?" Ms. Brenda asked.

"This is my son, Julian, and this is my nephew, Daniel."

"Milena's?" She asked me in a shocked tone.

I giggled at that. "Yes, ma'am."

"Giiirll!" Ms. Brenda laughed a bit. "I remember that day she walked in here and gave that long speech on how she wasn't having no babies!"

Laughter flew out of my mouth as I remembered that day. It was the day that Ashley and I had brought home those little babies from our Child Development class, and my baby was crying the whole way to Ms. Brenda's house. Since I was in the front, Milena had to make sure the baby was okay. Boy was she pissed.

"How is she, though?"

I think the look on my face was enough to make Ms. Brenda take the hint and change the subject. "Well, we can start on this?"

"How did she die?" I bluntly asked her.

She looked at the children. "Can they go to the back and play?"

I nodded my head and she escorted all the children to Melody's room. When she came back, she sat across from me.

"I simply got the call from the police that she had died and that I could come collect the body, since they had everything they needed. But then a relative of the family called and told me that for months, she'd been warning Ashley. She'd been telling Ashley that someone had put some hit out for her, and wanted her dead. The girl, I guess, found the perfect opportunity and went ahead with it."

My eyes narrowed in confusion. Who would want to kill Ashley? The people that she went down with certainly couldn't be behind this? Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't put it past people like Dana and Jermaine. Her ex was simply easily influenced, but those two? They were scum at this point.

"Do you have an idea who?"

Ms. Brenda gave me that "you know damn well who" look. "Jermaine. She'd been writing me about how he's been sending someone to the jail to scare her, but she wasn't afraid of death."

The words flowed right of Ms. Brenda's mouth. You could say that I was feeling bad right now. I had practiced the human mind, and I knew certain things about how people thought. It was evident that Ashley stopped caring about her death as soon as she was sentenced to life.

"What did she say about Jermaine?"

"She's been writing you and he didn't like that," she told me.

Writing me?

"She hasn't been writing me," I told her.

"Yes she has. She's been talking to me about it. Every time she sent you a letter, she'd call and tell me all about it. She had hope that one day you'd forgive or even write her back. She didn't care what it said; she just wanted you to write something. You know, I got a little upset with you when she'd keep calling and telling me you ain't replied. But then a turned on the television and there you were. I never paid attention to no Beyoncé, now. But I told her. I told her you go by Beyoncé and you're this big celebrity."

"What did she say?"

Ms. Brenda stood up and went to the back. I was utterly confused and sat there looking stupid. She took a while, so I took that opportunity to look out the front window and just like I suspected – Shawn was still sitting his dumbass outside in his car. Every time I thought about this man actually following me, the angrier I got.

Ms. B came back with a box and sat back down on the couch. "Here's all the letters she wrote me. I want you to have and read them," she told me as she held out the box for me to take.

I smiled at her and took the box. I opened it and saw that there were many of them.

We soon began talking about the funeral and some of the wishes that Ms. B had. Of course, I had my own wishes, because of how close Ashley and I were. I still remembered a lot about her. I knew her favorite flowers and colors. I knew what she'd want on her tombstone.

"Oh and Beyonce, sweetie, could you find me some work?" Ms. B asked me as I was about to leave.

"I thought you said you retired?"

"It was either retire with dignity or be laid off for my age," she told me.

A smile crept on my face, because Ms. Brenda hadn't changed. She always said that dignity was a lot for a person, and to never sacrifice it. "I'll look into it." I told her.

We all piled back in the truck, and the songs about being ready for dinner had begun.