Don’t Let Me Break by Linda Verji

 

 

CHAPTER 13

 

The conversation with Leslie left Marley scared out of her wits. Her stomach was so tied up in knots that she couldn’t even concentrate on work.

“Marley, Marley.” A voice cut into her thoughts. “Marley.”

Marley looked up to find several pairs of eyes watching her. Their team was having a meeting to discuss progress on the various projects they were working on.

“Did you even hear my question?” Xavier drew her attention to him.

Marley sat up straighter. “Huh?”

Xavier scowled. “I was asking whether you had all the footage you need for Quinn’s video?”

“Um… yeah!” she stammered while trying to get herself together. “But- but I need a few more shots of the finished cabinet.”

“I’ll get those for you,” Eugene, who was seated beside Marley, offered.

Xavier turned to Dawn to discuss the script for another project.

While everyone else was focused on that, Eugene leaned closer to whisper to Marley, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She nodded even though she wanted to scream, ‘No, I’m not okay’.

Her nod wasn’t enough to convince Eugene. Frowning, he prodded, “Are you sure?”

Forcing a smile, Marley nodded again. But on the inside, she was a bundle of jangled nerves.

For the rest of the meeting and the day, she was a distracted mess. The trembling that had started when Leslie had mentioned her father just wouldn’t go away. It felt like ice had replaced all the blood in her veins. She was nervous and nauseous, and her heart was beating so violently she could feel it in her throat.

By the time evening came, all she could think about was getting the money so she could get rid of Leslie. She stopped by an ATM to withdraw the promised two thousand dollars. She also withdrew an extra five hundred, in case the lady demanded more, then headed home.

Kenny was getting ready to head to work when Marley got home. As soon as Marley saw her older sister, tears jumped to her eyes and her throat closed up. She ached to run into Kenny’s arms and hug her. She wanted to tell Kenny about Leslie and the blackmail, but she held herself back. Even though Kenny had always been the problem-solver in their relationship, Marley wanted to be the one to protect her this time.

Marley rushed to her room to get rid of the tears before her sister could see them. When she felt calm enough, she emerged from her room and headed to Kenny’s bedroom.

Given their mismatched work schedules, the hour or so between Marley getting home and Kenny going to work was typically the only time the sisters had to talk to each other. So as usual, Marley settled on Kenny’s bed to catch up while Kenny dressed.

“You’ve still got a few leave days left, right?” Kenny asked as she prepped her hair for a wig.

Marley, who was seated on Kenny’s bed, nodded. “Yeah.”

“Prepare to redeem them.” Kenny smiled at her through the mirror. “Pat said that if I can get the Hornets to have their end-of-season party at the club, he’ll give me a big bonus. We can use it to go wherever you want. I bet he thinks I can’t do it though. But I will. You know how motivated I get when money is involved…”

Kenny went on to discuss all the things she’d do to make sure that she got that bonus, but Marley barely listened. She was too busy thinking of Leslie and wondering how Kenny would react if she knew about the other lady.

“Hey!” Kenny jarred her out of her thoughts. “Sis!”

“Huh?” Marley met her sister’s eyes through the mirror.

“Are you listening to me?” Kenny asked.

“Yeah, I am.” Marley nodded. But when her sister’s eyes narrowed, she winced. “Sorry, I was a little distracted.”

“I was asking you where you want to go with the bonus,” Kenny said as she glued on her wig.

“I don’t know.” Marley shrugged. “You choose.”

“I always choose, and that’s not fair to you.”

“I don’t mind you choosing.” Marley forced a smile. “Besides, you always know the best places to holiday.”

“No.” Kenny shook her head. “This time we’re going where you want. You have a week. Think about it.”

Kenny began to list all the places they could visit and what they could do there, but Marley’s mind soon wandered off again.

What time would Leslie call her? She wouldn’t call before Kenny headed to work, right? And she wouldn’t ask to meet in a trap-house or something, right? What if she brought a junkie-friend along? What if-

“Marley!” Kenny yanked her out of her musings again.

Startled, Marley sat up straighter. “What?”

“You’re not listening to me.” Kenny turned in her seat to face Marley. “Did something happen at work today?”

In an instant, Marley’s heart jerked in her chest. Quickly, she denied, “N- no. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” Worry glinting in her eyes, Kenny asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing happened.” panic tinged Marley’s tone. “It’s really nothing.”

“I know you, Marley. It’s not nothing.” Kenny watched her for an uncomfortably long while then asked, “You don’t want to talk about it?”

“I swear,” Marley insisted, “it’s really nothing.”

But the worry in her sister’s eyes said she didn’t believe her. Kenny’s gaze softened. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Immediate tears jumped to Marley’s eyes. “I know.”

“Don’t keep stuff to yourself.” Kenny offered, “No matter how bad it is, I’m always here to talk or help you out, okay?”

A tear sliding down her cheek, Marley nodded.

Thankfully, Kenny stopped pushing. Instead, she tried to distract Marley by talking about her itinerary for the night and the VIPs she expected to show up at Jack’s, the club she worked for. About an hour later, she left for work.

It was almost as if Leslie had CCTV on them because she called just a few minutes after Kenny left.

“You got my money?” Leslie drawled.

“Y- yeah!”

“Okay.” Leslie went on to give Marley an address. It was a park in a seedy part of the city.

Marley didn’t want to go, but she knew that she had to… for Kenny. She stashed the stun-gun she’d bought after the parking lot incident into her purse along with the money then headed downstairs. The cab she’d called was already waiting for her. After she gave the driver the address, they headed out.

The closer they got to the park the more nervous Marley got. Her pulse and breath sped up until it almost felt like she was running a marathon. The tightness in her chest increased and the ringing in her ears became louder. She felt unbearably hot yet her hands were icily cold. Her nausea became so bad that it took everything in her not to retch in the backseat.

Soon, it became hard to even breathe and her head became heavier as dizziness overwhelmed her. Lolling back in her seat, she closed her eyes.

And her world went black.

 

* * * * *

 

“MISS! MISS! WE’RE here.” A man’s voice roughly yanked Hazel out of the dreamless sleep she was trapped in and shoved her back to earth. She opened her eyes to find herself seated in the back of a cab with the driver watching her with obvious frustration.

I’m back again? She blinked several times and stretched to get rid of the kinks from being locked up for so long. Why am I back again? What happened this time?

“What-” She cleared her throat. “What date is it?”

“The date?” The driver made a sour face. “You’re asking for the date?”

“Yeah.” Hazel always wanted to know how long she’d been out. “What’s the date?”

With barely disguised irritation, he pointed to the car’s dashboard. Hazel leaned forward to see what date it said. After some quick calculations, she realized that she’d been out for close to two months. Well, that was better than being gone for two years.

“Miss, we’re here,” the driver prodded again.

Here? Hazel sat up and looked out the window to see where ‘here’ was. It was a park. Marley being at a park shouldn’t have been a big deal except for the fact that it was nighttime… eight forty-five p.m. to be precise. Also, the Carters had lived in this city for so long that even Hazel knew that this was a bad part of town. This park was particularly notorious for being the perfect site for drug-drops, rapes and all sorts of criminal activities.

What the hell was Marley doing here at this hour of the night?

“Aren’t you paying?” the driver demanded.

“Give me a sec.” Hazel needed to find out what Marley was doing here so she could decide if she was paying and staying or leaving. She rifled through Marley’s purse and took out her phone. When she found it, she keyed in the code Kenny had given her. It didn’t work.

This bitch! Hazel kissed her teeth. Give it to Marley to make helping her out tougher than it needed to be. Hazel rummaged through the purse again hoping to find anything that could help her figure out what was going on. The first thing she found was a stun-gun, which was understandable given that Marley had just recently been attacked. Less understandable, however, was the envelope envelop stacked with hundred-dollar bills… twenty-five bills to be exact.

Two point five grand? Hazel’s jaw dropped. Why was Marley in this unsafe park with this much money? Was it a ransom drop? A drug buy? What the hell was the lady into now? Obviously, it had to be something bad given that Marley was so scared that she’d forced Hazel out.

“Miss, I have places to be and people to pick up,” the driver bit out. “Pay up.”

“Sorry.” Hazel thought over her next course of action for a few second then decided, “I’m not getting out. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Suspicion in his eyes, the driver asked, “Somewhere where?”

Hazel gave him the address of a restaurant.

Instead of driving off, the guy asked, “You don’t have any money, do you?”

“No, I have money.” Hazel pulled a hundred from the stack in Marley’s purse and shook it at him. “I just changed my mind.”

The relief that filled the driver’s face was laughable in its intensity. He quickly backed out of the parking lot and headed towards the restaurant. On her way to the restaurant, Hazel thought of calling Kenny and letting her know she was around, but decided against it. Kenny was probably at work which meant that Hazel had a few hours to do whatever she wanted before the warden (a.k.a. Kenny) even realized that Marley was missing.

Hazel had just paid her fare and got out of the cab when Marley’s phone rang. She rifled through the purse and pulled out the phone only to see that it was an unsaved number.

She picked up. “Hello?”

“Where are you?” A shrill female voice screeched in her ear. “You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”

Hazel curtly demanded, “Who the hell are you?”

“Stop acting like you don’t know me.” The woman’s voice rose. “It’s Leslie. Leslie Turner.”

“Well, Leslie Turner,” Hazel bit out between gritted teeth, “pipe down and stop ruining my hearing with your yelling or I’ll hang up on you.”

Leslie screamed, “You can’t hang up on me.”

“Watch me.” Hazel hung up on her.

So that’s who Marley was on her way to meet? Just from that short conversation, Hazel could tell that Leslie was a disrespectful heifer with anger problems. No wonder Marley was so terrified of meeting her. Well, Hazel was an expert in shutting down disrespect. You’re welcome, Marley.

Hazel had just entered the restaurant when the phone rang again. It was Leslie so she ignored the call. The phone rang again while she was finding a place to sit. She ignored it. It rang when she was ordering her food. She ignored it again. It was only after the server left to get her food that she picked up the phone.

“What?” Hazel rudely answered the phone.

“Are you kidding me?” Leslie shrieked.

Her voice low, Hazel threatened, “Yell again and see if I don’t hang up again.”

“Fine, fine, fine!” Leslie’s voice lowered with each successive ‘fine’. It was practically a whisper when she added, “Damn!”

“That’s much better.” Hazel smiled. “Now what were you saying, Leslie Turner?”

Sounding sulky, Leslie said, “You were supposed to meet me.”

Why? Hazel wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to let that Leslie woman know that she wasn’t Marley so instead she said, “I came. You weren’t there. I left”

“You should’ve waited,” Leslie returned, her voice rising again.

Hazel snorted. “I don’t wait for anybody.”

“Where are you?” Leslie ordered. “Come back now.”

Hazel wasn’t one to be ordered around. She sniped back, “That doesn’t work for me. I came once. I’m not coming again. If you still want to see me, then you’ll have to come to me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Leslie huffed. “Where are you?” But before Hazel could answer, she asked, “You got my money, right?”

She had to be talking about the two point five grand. Hazel wasn’t sure whether giving so much money to this rude woman was a good idea so she hedged, “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” the other woman shrilled. “What does that mean?”

“It means maybe I have it, maybe I don’t.”

“The hell!” Leslie sighed in obvious frustration. “Where are you?”

Hazel gave her the address. It probably wasn’t wise to meet the woman, but Hazel was curious about what dodgy stuff Marley had going on and why the two women were exchanging money.

Less than twenty minutes later, Hazel attention was drawn to the restaurant’s entrance. Almost everyone in the restaurant was looking at the woman who’d just walked through the door. The woman was already odd-looking; painfully thin, badly cut hair and pockmarked face. But what drew attention was her attire. She was wearing a tiara, a dirty-looking prom-dress and slides. Even a child could tell that the woman was on meth or something close.

Marley wasn’t the type of girl who associated with junkies, so Hazel didn’t even think that the prom-dress-wearing meth-head was here to see her. Imagine her shock when the woman’s glassy gaze landed on her table and recognition lit her eyes. Even when the woman made a beeline for Hazel’s table, Hazel still refused to believe that this was Leslie, the woman who Marley was meeting.

The woman stopped right by Hazel’s table. With her arrival came an intensely pungent smell. If Hazel had to describe the smell, it would be a cross between rotten fish, cat urine and rusty metal. It turned her stomach and immediately erased all her appetite.

There was no way this was Leslie.

The woman quickly dispelled Hazel’s doubts by biting out, “Marley! Seriously? You made me come all the way out here?”

Hazel still couldn’t believe it. In goggle-eyed amazement, she stared at the lady. “You’re Leslie?”

“Who else would I be?” Leslie yanked out the seat directly opposite Hazel and plopped into it. “I put on a little make up before I came but I’m still the same person you saw this morning.”

Pressing a finger to the bottom of her nostrils to defend against the unpleasant concoction of smells that were attacking her, Hazel asked, “We met this morning?”

“Of course we met-” Leslie stopped talking and frowned. “Hey, you seem a little different.”

Her voice croaky because she was now pinching her nose, Hazel asked, “Do I?”

“When we met, you weren’t so…” Leslie’s words faded into silence as she studied Hazel. It was as if she was looking for the words to describe the difference in demeanor. But seconds later, she gave up and instead asked, “Where’s my money?”

“Your money?” Hazel had never regretted letting her curiosity get the better of her as much as she did now. She should’ve never met this woman. All she wanted to do now was to get away from the woman… far far away. So she grabbed her purse from the floor. “I changed my mind.”

Leslie’s mouth fell open. “You what?”

“I changed my mind.” Hazel stood up. “Goodbye, Leslie.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” the other woman called out as Hazel made her way towards the counter to pay for her meal. The screeching of wood against linoleum and the sound of a chair meeting the floor echoed behind Hazel. Soon, she heard a rush of footsteps behind her. Leslie was following her.

When Hazel got to the counter, Leslie sidled right next to her. “Are you kidding me?”

“Ma’am, can you stay six feet away from me?” Hazel skirted a distance away from the woman. “You’re assaulting my nose and my eyes and my… my everything. Just talk from over there. Please!”

But Leslie edged closer to her again. “Are you seriously not giving me my money? Seriously?”

Somehow, Hazel managed to pay her bill even while holding her breath and being assaulted by Leslie’s increasingly shrill repetitions of the word, ‘seriously’.

“Seriously?” Leslie followed on Hazel’s heels as she headed out of the restaurant. “You really want to do this with me.”

“Leave me alone, lady!” Hazel said, as she searched the streets for a cab.

“Hey!” Leslie grabbed Hazel’s elbow and yanked her backwards until she was forced to turn and meet her eyes. Glaring, Leslie threatened, “Keep playing with me and I’ll tell everyone.”

Immediately, Hazel’s curiosity reared its ugly head again, and before she knew it she was asking, “Tell everyone what?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.” Looking around as if to make sure no one was listening, Leslie lowered her voice. “If you don’t give me my money, I’ll tell everyone that you’re the one who killed Gary… your father.”

Immediate shock shuttled through Hazel. This woman knew Gary? Wait… had she just said that Marley was the one who killed Gary?

Hazel looked at Leslie in baffled confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Leslie guffawed. “Don’t deny it.”

Uh… yeah! Hazel was definitely denying it. Marley hadn’t killed their father. To be a killer, one needed guts, and Marley had given all of hers to Hazel. If Marley’s body had pulled that trigger, it would be because Hazel did it. And she hadn’t.

Oh, make no mistake, Hazel had thought about killing their father multiple times. But Kenny had always talked her down. Neither she nor Marley had killed Gary.

Gary’s murder was all Cynthia. Their mother had finally come to her senses and realized that her job was to protect her young. That night after Gary had attacked Marley and Kenny, Cynthia had snapped and snuffed him out of their lives forever. After the deed was done, she’d willingly accepted the punishment for it. The end.

So what was this deluded junkie talking about?

“Me? I killed Gary?” Hazel burst into raucous laughter. “You must be out of your mind or high. I didn’t kill that lunatic.”

Leslie was taken aback by Hazel’s laugh. “Your mother told me herself.”

“Bitch, please!” Hazel snorted. “I know my mother. She didn’t tell you anything.”

Even if one of her daughters was the real culprit, which they weren’t, Cynthia wasn’t the type of person who’d share a secret like that unless it was with someone she trusted unequivocally. Leslie just wasn’t the kind of woman their mother would trust. Leslie had probably just heard about the murder on the grapevine then concocted a story to get money out of gullible Marley.

The immediate nervousness that flashed in Leslie’s eyes left Hazel with the impression that she was right. But Leslie insisted, “She told me.”

Hazel snorted. “Maybe in your dreams.”

“It’s you. You’re the one who killed your father,” Leslie insisted, but doubt shrouded her voice and expression. “I’m sure of it.”

“Whatever!” Hazel jerked her elbow from the woman’s claw-like grip. “I’m leaving.”

She started to walk away, but Leslie stopped her with. “Then why did you agree to give me money if it wasn’t you?”

Hazel turned to the lady and said, “I felt sorry for you.”

Actually, if Hazel had to guess why Marley had agreed to Leslie’s blackmail, then she’d say it was because Marley thought that Hazel was the one who’d killed their father. Obviously, the clueless girl had been trying to save both of them from a sin that wasn’t even theirs. Silly girl!

“No, that’s not right,” Leslie said almost to herself. “It has to be you.”

“Have a great life, Leslie.” Hazel smiled and waved at her. “And remember, don’t do drugs.”

With that parting shot, Hazel headed down the street, leaving Leslie still reeling in disbelief. As she walked away, Hazel scoffed. Marley, Marley, Marley! Had she really disappeared because of that amateur terrorist? She couldn’t even handle a little blackmail by herself? Wow! She was just lucky that Hazel was a part of her otherwise she’d be dead, imprisoned or bankrupt.