The Devil Is a Lie Read online

  Todd thought Pam was out of his league when he first saw her sitting at the bar of this nightclub where a new artist had just finished a listening party. Her smooth chocolate skin, long sexy legs, and enchanting gray eyes made him want to get to know her better. At first he convinced himself that flirting with her was harmless. She’d broken down and given him her phone number, but whenever he called, she was always too busy to talk. But the more she blew him off, the more he wanted her. Lincoln tried to tell him he just liked the chase, but Todd didn’t listen. He liked the excitement of going after her. He wanted her and wouldn’t rest until he got her, which took him about two months.

  Pam wasn’t the least bit fazed by the fact that he was married, and before he knew it, they were deep in a relationship. Soon she tired of being “the other woman” and demanded that he leave Nina, which he didn’t have the heart to do. If he had only known then what he knew now.

  Todd shook himself out of his trip down memory lane. He looked down at the newspaper laid out in front of him.

  “Unbelievable,” he muttered as he read for the tenth time the article about Nina’s win.

  “What’s unbelievable?”

  Todd jumped at the sound of Pam’s voice. She was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He merely glared at her before he went back to reading his paper.

  “So how long are you gonna stay mad at me?” Pam asked.

  Todd had dodged her calls all day. When he came home from the bar last night, he slept on the sofa. This morning he left for work before Pam even stirred. Now, after another twelve-hour shift, he just wanted some peace and quiet. Thankfully, the electricity was back on, but he was still upset.

  “I’ve been calling you all day long,” Pam continued when he didn’t respond to her question. “I would’ve come up to your job, but the gas card isn’t working and I don’t have any money.”

  “But your hair looks good,” Todd muttered without looking at her.

  She ignored his dig. “Can we talk?”

  The lights, the gas card, his car note—all these bills were overdue. The mounting debt was making his head hurt. The last person he wanted to talk to was the source of his troubles. It seemed like the only time his head wasn’t hurting was when he was on the road. And Pam wondered why he was always volunteering for the long-distance jobs.

  Todd lowered his head and stared more intently at the newspaper, hoping she would get the message and go away.

  “Look, I told you I would get the lights back on. They’re on now, so what’s the big deal?” Pam said when he still didn’t respond.

  He glared at her, not believing she had the audacity to ask him that.

  “You always gotta be getting mad at something.” She walked into the kitchen, eyeing the newspaper. “What has you looking all intense?” She stopped short. “And since when do you read the paper?”

  He folded the newspaper. He’d picked it up looking for the article on Nina. Sure enough, it was blazoned across the front page of the People section.

  While Todd walked over to the refrigerator, Pam casually picked up the paper and flipped it open. “What were you reading that was unbeliev—?” She gasped. “Is this Nina?”

  Todd kept his head in the refrigerator, searching for a beer or wine cooler. Sometimes, he needed a drink just to tolerate Pam, and this was one of those times. It hadn’t always been that way. They used to have fun. But then he lost his job, and his life had been spiraling downhill ever since.

  “Oh, my God,” Pam said, skimming the article. “Nina won the lottery?”

  Todd grabbed a beer, then turned around to see Pam’s eyes wide with shock.

  “She won sixteen million dollars?” Pam looked to Todd for confirmation.

  “She only took home eight point six million,” he casually said, walking over and snatching the paper from her.

  “Oh, my God,” Pam repeated. She paused like she was deep in thought. “That’s great,” she said almost in a whisper, like she was talking to herself. Her voice grew louder, reaching a crescendo. “That’s better than great. That’s fantastic!”

  Todd knew Pam hated Nina, so he couldn’t understand why Pam would think her win was great. “I don’t know what you’re all happy for,” Todd said. “You’re acting like you won the lottery.”

  A sinister expression slowly crept over her face.

  “What is that look for?” he asked, knowing she was up to no good.

  “I didn’t win the lottery.” Pam eased over to him like a cat. “But you did.”

  Todd popped the top on his beer. It was amazing how every little thing she did got under his skin now. “What are you talking about? Nina won the lottery. I assure you she isn’t going to share with me.”

  “What’s hers is yours,” Pam sang.

  “Once upon a time,” he coolly replied, taking a swig of beer.

  Pam bit down on her bottom lip like she had a secret she was bursting to tell. Todd eyed that beautiful face with suspicion. Pam had that mischievous look in her eyes—the one she got whenever she was doing something that she didn’t have any business doing.

  “Pam, I’m going to ask you again. What are you talking about?” Todd asked, exasperated.

  “Sit down.” She was so giddy, he was starting to feel more nervous than irritated.

  Todd didn’t budge. “Why would you think I’d be entitled to any of Nina’s money? I haven’t talked to her in months.” The last time they’d spoken was around four months ago, when he and Pam went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Out of all the people to be seated next to, they’d been placed at a table next to Nina and her best friend, Michelle. Todd had wanted to wait for another table to become available, but the restaurant was crowded, Pam was starving, and when Pam figured out the real reason he wanted to wait, she’d gone ballistic. Todd never understood why, but Pam always felt threatened by Nina. When she’d caught Nina glaring at them, she’d gone completely off—to the point where Todd and Pam were asked to leave the restaurant. Todd had never been so embarrassed in his life.

  Pam sat down, pulling him into the chair next to her. “Okay, you remember you gave me that five hundred dollars to get a cashier’s check and mail in your paperwork to finalize the divorce?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Yes, I remember. And you told me you did. We even went out to dinner to celebrate.”

  “Yeah, that’s when we went to the Hyatt Spindletop restaurant. Ooooh, that place was so nice. We should go there again because—”

  “Pam! Would you get back on track?” he snapped. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  She fidgeted nervously before stammering, “W-well, I kinda lied about mailing the papers.”

  “What?” he asked, surprised.

  Pam stood up and began pacing and talking real fast. “Well, on my way to the post office that day, LaDonna called and asked me to go to the outlet mall with her. We were gonna go by the post office on the way back. Well, at the outlet mall I saw this Fendi purse I had been wanting. And can you believe it was seventy percent off? And I mean, seriously, I could not pass up a deal like that. And…” She paused.

  “And what?”

  “And so I bought it,” she said quietly.

  Todd had heard this type of story before. “So what does that have to do with my divorce? That’s not the first time you went overboard and bought something you didn’t need. It’s your…” He stopped as the realization of what she was saying began to sink in. “Wait a minute. You used the money I gave you for my divorce to buy a purse?”

  She looked momentarily apologetic, but then her eyes filled with excitement. “I had every intention of getting the money back. But time got away from me. Then you got laid off and money was always tight and I just never got around to it.”

  “So let me get this straight.” Todd scratched his head, trying to process what she was saying. “You never sent off the final paperwork for my divorce? So I’m not divorced?”

  “No and no.”

 
; “Where is it? The paperwork?”

  She shrugged. “In a box somewhere.”

  Todd sat in stunned silence. “So all this time I was thinking I’m divorced and I’m not?” He couldn’t believe he had been dumb enough not to follow up and make sure she had taken care of the processing. But he had been headed out of town when he got the paperwork, so he’d just signed it and given Pam the money to officially file it. Pam had assured him everything was finalized and he had no reason to doubt her word. Plus, he had never heard anything from Nina.

  “I do not believe this,” he said, shaking his head.

  “But, babe, do you know what that means?” she asked.

  Suddenly, all her whining about them getting married flashed into his head. “How were we going to get married when my divorce wasn’t even finalized? Would I have been a bigamist?”

  She waved him off. “Of course not. I was gonna make sure it was taken care of before we actually got married, but since you haven’t made a move to even buy me a ring, I didn’t worry about it.” Todd couldn’t believe she had the nerve to be getting an attitude. “I told myself that if and when you ever decided to do right and marry me, I’d make sure it was taken care of.”

  He slammed his palms on the table. She was acting like this bombshell she’d just dropped on him was no big deal. “Pam, are you listening to yourself?”

  She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by his outburst. “Baby, do you know what this means?” She tried to take his hands.

  “It means you took my money for my divorce and bought a freakin’ purse!” he said, jerking his hand away.

  “No. It means Nina’s money is our money.” She pointed at the newspaper. “That eight point six million dollars, half of it is yours, baby.”

  Todd’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. If I’m not officially divorced…”

  She finished his sentence. “Then you’re still her husband and you’re still entitled to half.”

  Todd fell back into his chair.

  “And, baby, I say we get to collecting.”

  Todd’s mouth hung open. Pam was beaming with glee, but he couldn’t fathom what she was saying. Take half of Nina’s money? No way, he told himself. As much as he needed it, he couldn’t ever see himself being that dirty.

  7

  They had to move. That’s what Nina was thinking as she pulled up into her driveway and saw the long, blue, beat-up Cadillac. Besides the phone calls, they’d been receiving emails from long-lost relatives, friends, and even strangers, who all were “going to die a slow and painful death” if she didn’t give them some money. In the past two days Nina had heard from more people than she had in the last ten years.

  “Hey, Aunt Frances,” Nina said, heading up the walkway to her front door.

  Her father’s sister was standing near her door, nervously twisting a handkerchief.

  “Hey, baby,” Frances said.

  Nina hadn’t talked to her aunt in two months, and the woman had never, ever come to her house. But then, she knew exactly what her aunt wanted.

  “What’s going on?” Nina asked after her aunt didn’t go on. Frances’s eyes were red, her gray hair was pulled back into a bun, and with her yellow floral dress stretched across her heavy frame, she looked like a big picnic blanket.

  “Nothing, baby. I was just in the area and wanted to say hello and, um, come check on you.”

  You’ve never bothered to check on me before, Nina wanted to say. But Nina wasn’t going to be rude.

  Nina painted on a smile as she unlocked her front door. “So you’re just checking on me, huh?”

  “Yes, you know I worry about you,” Frances said. “I told your daddy on his deathbed that I was gonna watch over you, and I just realized that I hadn’t been doing too good a job of that.”

  “You just realized that, huh?” Nina chuckled and debated whether she should point out that her aunt had definitely reneged on that promise. Nina decided to humor her aunt instead, so she stepped aside. “Come on in, Aunt Frances.”

  Her pale-skinned aunt wobbled into the foyer. Frances bore the look of a woman who had been through some hard times. Given all the problems with her daughters, Janai and Janay, and their brother, Amos, she had been through a whole lot.

  Nina closed the door behind her aunt. She was really tired after meeting with financial planners all day. She’d fired Mr. Abernathy and hired another attorney, as well as a financial planner from Briggs & Veselka, one of the top accounting firms in Houston.

  Nina decided to cut to the chase. “So how much do you need?” She and the financial planner had just worked out the details on what she planned to give her family, but Nina decided to see how her aunt’s numbers matched up.

  Frances gave the phoniest quizzical expression Nina had ever seen. “What are you talkin’ about, baby? What makes you think I want some money?”

  Nina folded her arms. “Let’s see, I win the lottery and my aunt, who has never visited me before, suddenly shows up at my house.”

  “Chile, you won the lottery? Well, glory be to God.” She started fanning herself while she flashed a wide, cheesy smile.

  “Hmmph,” Nina muttered. “The twins didn’t tell you?”

  “I haven’t talked to those girls all week. I must’ve been livin’ under a rock because I just had no idea.”

  Nina narrowed her eyes. Could her aunt possibly be telling the truth? She did spend all her time at church and playing bingo. Maybe she hadn’t heard.

  Frances twisted the handkerchief again. “But seeing as how you are rich now…”

  Nina couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

  Frances looked down at the floor as she continued. “I mean, I just feel so awful about asking you this, but you know your cousin Amos is in jail, and he’s just a sweet boy who got in with the wrong crowd and, well, he wouldn’t have gone to jail if he’d had a good lawyer. And I was just hoping that maybe you could help him out.”

  Nina stared at her aunt in disbelief. “Amos went to jail for rape, didn’t he?”

  “Well, yes, but he said it was consensual.”

  “But weren’t the girl’s clothes torn, and wasn’t she, like, fifteen?”

  Frances turned up her nose. “She was a fast-tailed little thang.”

  “Aunt Frances,” Nina began, trying to find the right words to let her aunt know she was out of her mind. Cousin or no cousin, she wasn’t about to help Amos get out of jail for having sex with a child.

  Frances began to cry. “I just can’t stand seeing my baby in jail. And then”—she swallowed hard—“and then Clevon, Lord have mercy, ever since he been laid off, he been depressed and his foot is just getting worse and worse.”

  Nina hadn’t heard this story. “What’s wrong with his foot, Auntie?”

  “He got gangrene. The thing is crusty black and ’bout to fall off. But we ain’t got no money for him to even go to the doctor. If my man loses his foot, he’s gonna be like Kunta Kinte and lose his will to live.” She took another deep breath, her whole body shaking, like she was trying to keep from collapsing.

  “I’m sorry,” she continued. “I don’t mean to burden you with our troubles, especially in light of your good news. God done showered you with such a big blessing. You don’t need to be worried about your family and their troubles.”

  Nina sighed heavily. “Aunt Frances, I haven’t gotten the money yet. We’re supposed to pick up the check tomorrow. I will help Uncle Clevon out.”

  Frances looked hopeful. “And Amos?”

  “I’m gonna have to pray on that one,” Nina said, pushing her aunt toward the door. “But let me go. I have some studying to do for my real estate exam. I’m trying to get a specialty license.”

  Frances looked at her like she was crazy. “Study? For what? With sixteen million dollars, baby, you can buy all the real estate you want. You ain’t got to worry ’bout selling nobody nothing.”

  Nina couldn’t help laughing. “How’d you know how much money it was if you didn’t know I�
�d won?”

  Frances looked confused for a minute. “’Cause you said it.”

  Nina nodded, too tired to argue. “Okay, Auntie.” She opened the front door. “I’ll call you this weekend.”

  “Ooooh, bless you, baby,” Frances said, patting her face. “You always were my favorite niece.”

  “Mmm-hmmm. Talk to you later.” Nina eased the door closed, then leaned against it. Her family wouldn’t even give her time to collect her winnings, let alone wait on the check to clear.

  “Why did I ever go on TV?” she muttered before heading upstairs to her bedroom.

  Nina had just pulled out some lounging clothes when Rick walked into the bedroom.

  “Hey, who was that pulling off when I drove up?” he asked.

  “My aunt Frances.”

  “What did she want?” But he knew even before he finished the question. “As if I need to ask,” he added, scowling.

  Nina pulled off her top and pants. “Can we not start with the ‘I told you so’s’? What’s done is done.”

  Rick sighed in frustration. “So did you give her some money?”

  “I don’t have the money to give yet.” Nina slipped on her lounging pants and a tank top, then walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Can we not talk about begging family members right now, please? How did the meeting with the developer go?”

  That brought a smile to Rick’s face. He’d met with a developer about purchasing some land to build his new gym on, and he was extremely excited.

  “Wow,” he said, “it was great. He is so ready to sell. I think he’s having some IRS troubles, but that’s not my problem.” A flicker of doubt passed over his face. “He was trying to hardball me, but when I told him I’d be paying cash, oh, his attitude quickly changed. He started talking about all the stuff he’d throw in. So I told him I’d bring a check tomorrow after we leave the lotto office. He’ll hold the check a week because you know our bank is gonna put a hold on an eight-million-dollar check, even if it does come from the state. But after that I can pick up the deed.”

  Nina loved seeing Rick so excited. He had been devastated when he used the money he’d been saving for his gym to pay for his brother’s funeral. He’d been trying hustle after hustle to make money. He even asked her to flip houses. As he explained, she would get someone to sell their house for more than it was worth, then have the homeowner take the equity out, before sending the house into foreclosure. Since Nina wasn’t trying to go to jail for scamming mortgage companies, she quickly nixed that idea.