“I’m not afraid of Karl, not anymore. The last time I saw him was right after our last court date when he came to the house for the rest of his belongings. By the time our divorce was finalized, I’d been in intensive therapy for almost a year. It truly saved my life and helped me remap my thinking.
“Karl tried his old tactics when he showed up to the house. I was nervous at first, but then I realized I’d done the hardest part in walking away. His visit was like that scene at the end ofWhat’s Love Got to Do with Itwhen Ike sneaks into Tina’s dressing room and she ends up reading him to filth and dismissing him. Karl looked just as pitiful once he realized he couldn’t control me anymore. That’s when I knew for certain I was beyond his control and I wasn’t afraid anymore.”
She nodded, the same resolve stiffening her spine now as it did then. “Don’t get me wrong, I still had a long way to go in my healing journey. But I knew no matter what, I would never again mistake manipulation and fear as love. And as long as that was true, I could keep myself safe.”
Discovering she’d finally broken free of him mentally—that had been the moment she had truly reclaimed her power.
Cree’s face blossomed with a full-on smile. “Exactly,” she agreed. “Now, just like Janae said, get that motherfucker.”
Janae and Cree both nodded with a flash of sinister glee in their eyes that empowered Vanessa, washing away any remnants of the fear she’d had that her friends wouldn’t understand.
“You know you’ve got to stay with me,” Cree offered. “I want front-row seats to this drama.”
“She can’t,” Janae answered for Vanessa. “She can’t stay with either of us. She’s allergic to fur babies.”
Never before had she been so grateful for her allergy to pet dander. As much as she wanted her friends’ support, this was something she wanted to handle quickly and efficiently.
“It’s not an issue. It’s gonna be a quick overnight visit. I’ll stay at a hotel, it’ll be fine.”
Both women shared a knowing look that put Vanessa slightly on edge.
“Monroe Hills isn’t Manhattan or any of the fancy places in New Jersey,” Janae said. “It’s a small town. You won’t find the Ritz-Carlton there. The Main Street Inn has nice cottages, but they fill up quick on the weekends, though. You’d better make a reservation immediately.”
“It’s the Poconos,” Vanessa responded. “I thought it was a tourist attraction with lots of places to stay.”
“In Shawnee or Marshall’s Creek, maybe,” Cree answered. “Not so much in Monroe Hills. It’s a tiny speck right off of I-80. When those major hotels in the touristy spots fill up, the Main Street Inn gets the overflow. Janae’s right. You better make that reservation as soon as you can. Otherwise, you’ll be sleeping in the forest with Bambi and Yogi.”
Vanessa tried to picture herself sleeping under the stars and almost burst into laughter. A fully loaded RV still wouldn’t be enoughfor her to step her designer shoes into the woods. She was a city mouse deep down to the bottom of her urbane heart.
“I’ll make a note to handle it first thing in the morning.”
“Morning, Sheriff.”
Michael looked up from his phone to see who was calling his name and huffed when he saw his best friends, Adam and Derrick, waiting in front of the sheriff’s department.
He caught a glint of mischief sparking in Adam’s hazel eyes, and he knew instantly these two were up to no good.
He tilted his head and squinted as hard as he could before he said, “What do you want?”
Michael took in the sight of his two oldest friends leaning against the railings in front of the entryway and shook his head at the sight the three of them must make together. Michael was Korean American, while Adam Henderson and Derrick Lattimore were both Black. The three of them couldn’t have looked more different if they’d tried, but together, their friendship had always carried all three of them through some of the roughest struggles in their lives.
They all stood six feet or taller, and all three kept in good shape through weekly meetups at the gym and on the basketball court. Adam’s skin was a honeyed sandstone; Derrick’s was a deep spiced rum. Where Adam’s hair was twisted artfully in long, sandy-brown locs, Derrick’s dark curls were short and tight, with a naked fade tapered on the sides and back. Each man finished off his polished looks with a neat goatee.
Michael rounded out their crew with his fair complexion, a clean-shaven face, and ink-black wavy hair cut into a tapered style to keep in line with regulations for his job as sheriff. Unlike the two men standing in front of him, individuality in appearance wasn’t allowed where he worked. Sure, he was the boss, and no one wouldsay anything to him if he bent the rules. Yet to him, that meant he needed to follow the rules more than anyone under his command.
Adam pushed off the railing he was leaning against to slap a friendly hand on Derrick’s shoulder.
“What I tell you, D? We come all the way over here to meet our boy on a Sunday morning and take him to breakfast, and he can’t even muster up a pleasant ‘good morning’ to greet us. Just ungrateful.”
Derrick’s smile was wide, and he was barely containing the laughter Michael could see tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“I can tell by your smile he’s up to something, D.” Michael looked directly at Derrick to get to the bottom of things. “You know you want to tell me. Spill it.”
Derrick’s smile widened to show off his perfect orthodontic work. “He wants to take you to breakfast so he can find out how your meeting went with the not-so-dead wife of your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”
He shook his head before pointing a finger at Derrick. “Don’t even play like that. That man will marry my sister over my dead body.”
Adam stepped off the stairs and walked until he was in front of Michael. “Well, according to Ms. Judy at the catering hall, Cindy’s already called about availability.” Adam threw a brief glance over his shoulder to glimpse Derrick. “D, I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like Cindy’s pretty serious about her pending nuptials. What do you think?”
