A Damsel in Diamonds

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A DAMSEL IN DIAMONDS

Prologue

“You wanna do what?” Ken grills me.

I take a sip of my drink.

“You heard exactly what I said. I want him to suffer, I want him to suffer because he met me at my lowest and took advantage of me.”

“You ever shot a gun before?” he asks.

“No. why?” I answer somberly.

“Curious.”

“Aight, so how much you think he’ll have laying around out there?”

“About a couple hundred thousand, close to a million, plus jewelry.”

He stares at me in deep thought.

“So, you in?” I ask.

“For sure, we gon’ fly in and throw him a surprise party.”

“I like the sound of that.”

He orders us another round of shots and we go over the plan.

Jamaica

I tour my beautiful Portland, Jamaica villa, for what will be the last time. When I met my husband, building this villa was just an idea of his. I pushed him to execute his vision, helped him get a good contracting company and I did the interior décor.

“Damn this shit is fly.”

“Tell me about it. I actually helped build it.”

“I’m not even surprised. Looks like you got great taste.”

I blush. “Thanks Ken”

“Aight shorty, so you know we got to be in and out. I’m a big deal out here and I can’t afford to be seen. The jet is already fueled.”

“Ok, ok we got about thirty minutes before they arrive. I’ll start upstairs.”

“Copy, I’ll be in the cut.”

“Don’t go far please.”

“I’m not I’ll be closer than you think.”

“Thank you.”

“Aight go do your thing.”

I go upstairs to our master bedroom and into the walk-in closet where the Safe is. Without a doubt I know he has about 1.5 million in cash, his pistol, and drugs in there. After trying every passcode, I can think of, from our birthdays to our parents. Come on! I stand here thinking myself into a headache.

“Fuck!”

I look around and stumble upon his lucky 7 jersey his favorite Mlb player signed. No, that’s too easy. On second thought, I’ll try it anyway. He always opened it in front me but never spoke on sharing the code with me. I didn’t bother to ask either because I wanted him to know he can trust me. No good deed goes unpunished huh.

I push ‘7-7-7-7’ in the number pad on the safe, the green light comes on and the safe automatically opens. There’s stacks of money, a gun, bullets, all kind of pills, even gold! I knew his ass was a junkie. I immediate grab his duffle bag off the shelf and stuff everything from the safe in it. A picture slips out....

I stare at it trying to figure out if my mind is playing tricks on me or if this is who I think it is.

“I can’t believe this bastard!” I yell, trying to hold back my tears. All these fucking double dates and trips, acting like one big happy family! This poor excuse of a husband been creeping with someone I considered my sister! I look at the back of the picture and according to the date this picture is from two months ago. This is the last time I let another man, play with my heart, and get away scot-free.

“Shit!” I break down in tears.

Text message from Ken

‘Let’s go shorty. No time to snoop.’

I put the picture in the duffle and sit it under the bed. I go in the bathroom with his gun and run the hot bath water. He landed already so he should be on his way to the villa now. I run downstairs and quickly pour me a glass of Merlot to add some dramatics to the scene. I come back into the dark bathroom with my wine, sit my phone on the side of the tub and get in.

“You’re my forever crush.”

“Oh hush.” I blush.

“I’m serious. I think even when we get married, I’ll always be crushing on you.”

“Married?” I flush at the thought.

“Christian we’re not even dating, you’re crazy.”

“About you.”

“Cornyyyy” I laugh.

He chuckles “Seriously, let’s just get married. Skip the whole awkward dating stage. How that saying go? when you know, you know.”

I lean my back against the wall in the pool and kick my legs up as if I’m swimming. He swims up between my legs. The water dripping from his caramel skin and beard has me mesmerized. His gold chain, bracelet and Rolex watch dancing in the sun is giving him that extra rich clean look.

“So, what you say?”

“I’m not rushing into anything. I need to see some effort.”

“Resilient. It’s what I love most about you.” He cups my chin.

I push his hands off me.

“Please, you don’t know me well enough to love me. That’s weird.”

“How long does it take to know you love someone Dr. Bradley?” he presses me sarcastically.

I turn my head away from this beautiful man in front of me.

I sigh. Just thinking of how innocent we were. The bang from the house door closing and distant voices makes stomach turn. I don’t know how this about to play out but god I hope you can forgive me for I’m about to do, just to restore my peace.

“Amen” I say under my breath.

The sound of laugher and flirting gets louder and closer, sending chills through my body. I freeze at the thought of him being happy with another woman. I can’t believe this son of a bitch.

“Babe wait.” She gushes at his loud kisses.

He throws her on the bed and lays on top of her planting gentle kisses while staring deeply into her eyes. I remember when he used to look at me like that. I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world, or even the only woman in the world. I watch them from the tub, in the pitch-black bathroom, fighting back my tears. I could be emotional right now or I could get what I came for. I take a deep breath and spill a little bit of wine on the floor to get their attention and continue to lay back in the water.

He quickly turns his head towards the bathroom.

“You heard that?”

“Heard what?” She looks over to see if she heard what he heard.

“Sounds like something spilled.”

“That’s probably the pipes babe.” She says grabbing his face back to her.

I take another sip, then spill the rest of the wine and drop the glass on the floor causing it to break. I pick the gun up and rest my arm on the edge of the deep jet tub.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” He jumps off the bed and run into the bathroom. She follows behind him.

I laugh to myself when he turns the light on.

He stops abruptly staring at the gun and then back at me.

“Hey honey! It took you long enough to get here.” I smile sarcastically at him.

Tilting my head back to look at her.

“and with your concubine... does lance know you’re here Mrs. Robinson?”

Both of their mouths are wide open, their bodies frozen.

“Aw come on yall, don’t kill the vibe now.” I laugh.

Christian doesn’t take his eyes off me.

“What’s wrong baby? You look.... confused, sorry and angry. Let me guess, you’re confused as to how I got here without you tracking my every move, you’re sorry that you got caught but you’re not that sorry, so more than anything you’re angry that you’ve been caught because honestly you don’t care, you just don’t want to deal with this.”

“Say something Christian.”

He says nothing.

“With this ring, I promise you that you’ll never have to face the world alone. I promise to catch you if you should stumble, carry you over every threshold, and fall in love with you every day. I pledge today to have all the patience and passion that love demands. In the laughter and in the silence, I’ll be forever by your side.” I choke on my words towards the end trying to fight my tears.

“You remember you said your vows to me before god? … Oh yeah, you’re rich right? That’s what you said? Rich men can do what they want right? and for the fucking life of me Christian I’m trying to figure out who the fuck put you above marriage? that you feel you can commit adultery and face no consequences. Oh baby, I’ve been through enough you think I’m going to let you—”

“Go in the room Ana!” He yells at her, still staring at me.

“No…Stay in here Ana.” Not taking my eyes off of him.

“GO -IN -THE -ROOM!”

She starts backing out of our huge his and her bathroom. I cock back the trigger on my gun.

“BITCH I SAID STAY IN HERE!”

She immediately stop in her tracks.

I pick up my phone and start recording.

“Hey yall... so I’m here at my husband and I, villa where I caught him creeping with my—”

He walks towards me slowly and leaps over to grab my phone, causing him to fall into the tub. He turns and bites my face.

“Aaahhhhhhhhhhh”

Pow! The gun goes off.