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A Mother’s Tale

~Chapter Twenty- Dirty Little Secret

He lazily gazes up at the spinning ceiling fan, the morning light striking the mahogany blades exquisitely, sending out a faint glow off the edges of the fan. Sighing, he shifts and rolls over on his side on the bed feeling his wife besides him buried under the covers. Roger lightly traces his hands over his wife’s waist gazing at her buried form.

“Honey you awake?” He whispers out, lightly shaking her. When he got no response, he smiles and slips out of bed heading down the hallway to check on his daughter. Reaching the white painted door, he slides himself into his daughter’s room and quietly heads to her bed, kneeling down besides the bed to gaze at her.

Eliez opens her eyes and smiles, sitting up yawning.

“Aw sorry, did I wake you up?” Roger whispers out, gently running a hand through her hair.

Eliez shakes her head, watching him curiously. “Daddy I see Nick .”

“You saw him?”

She nods, grabbing her cabbage patch doll, pulling it up against her chest.

“Where? Outside the other day?” He smirks watching her.

She smiles, simply nodding. “But I shhhh…no tell mommy. Mommy no know.”

“That’s a good girl and it’s going to stay that way for now.” He sits on the edge of her bed, running a hand through her baby soft golden locks.

“Daddy how long?” She bubbles out tugging on the dark hair of the doll.

Exhaling, he gulps looking around: “Soon baby girl. We’ll tell mommy soon and everything will be ok.”

Eliez frowns, shifting in her bed as she slides out, dragging her doll behind her on the floor, clutching an arm of the doll.

“What is it sweetie?” Roger whispers out, watching his daughter reach the window pointing to it.

“Is someone out there?” He asks again, heading to her direction.

She nods her head, “Nick, outside.”

Roger blinks, creeping over to the small oval window, slowly sliding open the window. He sticks his head out, seeing sure enough the hooded man waving back at him from his backyard. Smirking, he waves to the man and looks back at Eliez.

“Well sweetie you’re right. You stay here and be quiet. Make sure mommy don’t know ok? I’m gonna talk with our friend.” Roger smiles, kissing the center Eliez’s forehead before rushing off outside to the back yard.

Eliez crawls up on the window porch, clutching her doll against her chest, her eyes trained on Nick who smile and waves at her as Roger arrives pulling him aside away from her view. She tilts her head and crawls off the window ledge. “Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick…” She taunts out, repeating the name as if it was a new game, a rather odd fascination with the formation of how the word forms on her lips.

Skipping over to the tv, she turns it on murmuring out the name against her lips as her room door is slowly opened. Turning around she smiles to see the tall blonde man slip in along with her father as they approach her. She watches curiously, happy that finally she gets to talk to the man after so long.

Nick kneels down on both knees smiling as he eyes her: “Hey Eliez good morning. How you doing today?” He quietly whispers out, sticking his hand out to her.

Giggling, she takes his hand shaking it as she looks over to her father with a quizzical expression.

Roger kneels down besides him smiling: “See honey you were right. He wanted to come meet you finally since I’m always talking about you.”

Eliez giggles, eyeing the stranger before her. “Hell…O.” She bubbles out, fascinated with the man seeing him so close up. Many times she saw him from a distant but this morning was the first time she saw him so up close. His bright sapphire orbs gleam brightly under the morning light.

Nick nods, smiling looking around the room: “You have a nice room here.”

“Tank you.” She smiles, turning back to her tv as Sesame Street begins.

Nick smirks, standing up. “Roger I need to speak to you for a moment. The reason why I came here at this time. She’s not awake is she?” He whispers out, nervously eyeing the child bedroom.

“No, she’s knocked out. I gave her some sleeping meds before she went to bed cause she was having problems sleeping again.”

“Oh ok…good then. She’ll be out for a while then.” Nick quietly states, ruffling Eliez’s hair playfully waving bye to her.

Eliez so focused on her program simply lifts a hand waving bye, her eyes remained glued on the tv smiling as Grover a little blue monster appears with a bucket on screen. Nick laughs softly, shaking his head as he steps out of the room along with Roger. Both quietly exit to the back door, standing in the backyard.

“So what’s with the early visit?” Roger asks, running a hand through his messy salt and pepper hair.

Nick smirks, “A cop came by last night…he was scoping out D’s place. Just thought if you were trying to set things up or something to send him over.”

Roger eyes him strangely: “Why would I send a cop over there?”

“Not sure…reason why I’m asking.” Nick eyes him serious.

“Look I have nothing to do with why a cop was there. I was here last night with my daughter and I was dead tired. I don’t see why a cop would be there unless…”

“Unless what?” Nick tenses up, frowning as he grabs Roger by the plain t-shirt collar shoving him against the wall. “What the fuck do you know?”

“I don’t!” Roger shoves the young man away. “Don’t you use that language here, my daughter can hear that.”

“Not my fault you dragged that little kid in this.” Nick huffs, frowning.

“I didn’t send a cop over ok, so don’t go down my throat on this.”

“Did you check out the stuff she stole?” Nick rolls his eyes, shoving his hands into his faded loose jean pockets.

“Not yet. You said it was clothes that was missing right?”

Nick nods, stepping down the porch: “Yeah look for some baseball caps, jerseys and some jewelry that you think looks suspicious.”

Roger raises his eyebrows, “Fine, I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Just saying she could be taking stuff, that ain’t nice.” Nick eyes him as he steps off the back porch steps.

“I’ll see what I can do, she tends to be around all the time so its hard to check in the closet with her around.”

“You could always ask her. I’m sure she’ll tell you.” Nick smirks quickly disappearing from his sight rushing off behind the trees and back down the other side of the road.

Roger sighs, running a hand down his face as he goes back inside the house, slamming the door closed.
~*~

Howie sits up in the chair, his left leg on his right thigh as the news flash before him on the tv. He watches the recorded tape of the first news on the death of Nick to see if perhaps he could stop something that was different. Sighing, he leans back cupping a hand under his chin as he watches the scenery behind the reporter. Blinking, he rubs his eyes and sits up pausing the tape as he leans closer to the television spotting something odd.

“What is that?” He murmurs, seeing a strange shadow figure in the back as if it was trying to leave the scene of the crime.

Pulling out a magnifying glass, he places it on the screen to get a better glimpse of the shadow. Smirking, he quickly identified the familiar person and goes to his cell phone, dialing the number. Turning off the tv, he sits back lounging wondering what the man would tell him this time.

Damien blinks sleepily over at the phone in the hallway ringing, leaning against the wall.

“You just gonna look at it? Its not gonna answer itself you know.” Arianna smiles: wearing a short lingerie lilac gown as she stands besides the phone.

“You answer it.” Damien grunts, passing by her entering his bedroom, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Rolling her eyes she yanks the phone off the cradle: “Hello?”

“Morning…this is officer Dorough from precinct fifteen working on your friend’s case…I have a few questions…is Damien around?”

“No he’s not.” She blurts out, nervously passing a hand through her long golden locks. “Why? Is it something important?”

“Sort of, I spotted him in the background the day of the crime during the news being recorded…I know he was there that night so if you can pass the word for him to speak to me as soon as possible that would be great.”

Arianna gasps silently, covering her mouth: “I’ll make sure he gets the info…Thanks you.” She gulps hanging up padding down the hallway silently.

The door creaks open as she steps in gasping: “Oh shit…Oh shit!”

Damien blinks, eyeing her from his desk and smirks: “What?”

“That was the cop. Baby he said he spotted you out from the news the day we did the whole ‘death’ thing. Oh my God, what are we gonna?! He wants to talk to you.” Arianna gulps, nervously sitting down as her hands rake through her hair.

Damien exhales, going over to her cupping her face: “Its fine. He doesn’t have anything on me. Don’t freak out. I’ll just go and say that I was around the area and saw something strange and I came to the conclusion it had to do with Nick’s death.”

“But you already said you got a call from him and that you found from his call not from being there.” Arianna gulps. “This is what happens when we make up all these lies. Its coming back and kicking our ass. You should just tell him about Roger’s plan already. I thought you were going to.”

“I…I don’t know now. Once I say it I’m sure Roger will list all of us as well. And baby I can’t do time right now, that’s not gonna look good for my job you know.” He smiles softly, trying to joke off the matter at hand.

“Its not funny.” She frowns, sniffing, sliding back in the chair. “And did you see that girl Alex is with? I mean she’s nice and all but its like she wants to know and I saw the way she was looking at all of us last night especially Nick and I.”

Damien kneeling before, places his hands on her knees: “Look at me. She won’t know. We have bigger things to worry about than her curiosity. Trust me on this ok.”

“Its just…” She begins saying as Damien places a finger over her lips.

“Nothing bad is gonna happen. Roger will be the one getting in trouble and we’ll walk away from this clean. Once I got the insurance on the place we’re gonna get, we’ll get the hell out of here and screw everyone. You’re the only thing that matters to me.” Damien smirks.

Smiling sadly, she sits up cupping his face: “Really?”

“No.” Damien jokes, standing up passing her: “Let’s get something to eat, we gonna meet up with Orlando and Brian, you call A.J. and we’ll find out what to do now.”

“What about Nick?” She shifts over, to look at him.

“What about him? He’ll get the word and meet us. Stop stressing damn.” He smirks, stepping out of the room alone frowning. He reaches the kitchen and looks around standing there alone, tugging on the edge of his shirt softly cursing. “What the fuck am I gonna do? That wasn’t suppose to be on the tape…damn…” He frowns, lost in thought.
~*~

“And turn around and turn around until you make a stop. Turn to the east, turn to the west. Turn to the one that you like the best.” Jasmine smiles, watching Eliez giggle blindfolded in between her and her husband.

“Haha, come Eli point to daddy.” Roger calls out to her as he kneels down on the left of her.

“No go to mommy sweetie.” Jasmine giggles, standing to her daughter’s right, sitting on the sofa.

Smiling, Eliez tugs on the blindfold and points straight ahead: “I like Nick.” She bubbles out, pulling the blindfold off.

Jasmine’s smile fades instantly looking around the living room confused and in shock.

Frowning, Roger eyes Eliez shaking his head: “Care bear…you know Nick isn’t here. Why did you say that?”

Eliez simply smiles, skipping out of the room humming a song she learned off a cartoon earlier today.

Jasmine eyes Roger before breaking into tears, softly sobbing: “It hurts her too, to deal with this pain. I know some days will be harder than others and I just don’t know what else to do. She was doing good at the therapist. I mean Dr. Richardson has a level of understanding and can reach her but at times it just seems like she has so much to say but just closes up.”

Roger sits besides her cuddling her, whispering in her ear: “We’re going to make it through this. It hurts a lot but honey I don’t think Nick would want you to be sad all the time. You know he was a happy person and the last he wants to see if his mother so upset.”

“How you be so heartless at times?!” She chokes out, the thick tears run down her quivering cheeks. “Am I suppose to work around this place with a smile on my face when inside I’m already broken. It doesn’t work that way Roger.” She frowns, pushing away from him. “I’m going to see my baby.” She whispers out, exiting the room as he glares at her direction

“Nick the things I do for your ass.” He hisses out under his breath as he heads to his bedroom, opening the thick mahogany closet door. Pushing aside clothes hung on the multiple racks, he blindly reaches around the cluttered bottom of the closet, finding a box of clothes in it. Flipping the switch on, he blinks at the sudden harsh brightness, his eyes scanning over the clothes thrown in every direction. Kneeling down, he crawls to the box, tossing aside shirts and jeans as he pulls the taped up box to him. Grumbling to see the thick black masking tape on it, he fumbles in his pockets to find a small switchblade. Quickly jamming the blade into the top of the box, he pierces the tape, slicing it open to open the top of the cardboard box. Blinking, he looks into the box feeling his mouth go dry at the items in it. “I can’t believe this…” He whispers out, shaking his head as he continues to stare into the box in shock.
~*~

Jasmine watches Eliez skip around in the back yard with her doll clutched close to her. “Sweetie can you come here please.”

Eliez stops in the middle of her skip smiling at her mother as she quickly rushes over to her crawling onto her lap. Jasmine cuddles her kissing the top of her head: “Are you sad when you think of your brother?” She whispers out to her feeling Eliez shift and look up at her.

“Mommy no sad. Nick O-K.” She smiles gently tracing a finger over her mother’s lips.

“Alright honey just asking. I love you.” Jasmine smiles: kissing the tips of her daughter’s little finger on her lip.

Giggling, Eliez rest her head on her mother’s chest knowing she can’t wait till her mother knows what she knows.
~**~


**~To Be Continued…~**