Tank’s words replayed in my head, where he told me that all I was to her was an easy lick. Her lips would tell me one thing, which was that she loved me, and often confiding in me that she wanted me to leave my wife, so that we could be together, but all I could think about was the fact that I didn’t remember her ever looking at me in the same manner that she was looking at Tank. She was in love with him. That was evident.
She buried her head into the crook of his neck, as she was holding onto him, and in that moment, that’s when she saw that I was looking at her. I watched the way she jumped in his arms, looking at me as if she’d seen a ghost. She didn’t look scared of me or anything though. It was more so her shocked that I was here, standing a few feet away from her.
Even with Tank’s back to me, it’s almost like he could sense that there was something causing Dionne discomfort, so he turned his head around, and he looked at me. He didn’t have to say anything though. He hit me with a smile, and he tended back to his woman.
That smile spoke volumes though. He would for sure kill my ass.
Chapter 12
Dionne Henry
What Hope Sounds Like
“Idon’t miss coming down here and making this ride. This ride used to be so dreadful for me back then. Plus, the time would go by so slow because I would spend half the time angry at Dionte for going out there, and doing something stupid, leaving me to raise you on my own. I’m getting upset just thinking about it,” my mom said to me from the passenger seat, as I was pulling my car into the parking lot.
I was meeting with my dad’s lawyer today at the prison, along with my dad, so that we could talk about his parole hearing that was coming up in just a few weeks. I wanted to start the process now, so that we had plenty of time to sort everything out, and for things to work out in my dad’s favor. To work out in my favor as well because I don’t think that there was anyone else in the world that wanted my daddy home as badly as I wanted him home.
Today, the prison was offering us an attorney visit. This was an approved family visit, and I was able to bring my mom along. In fact, I damn near begged her to come along with me because I knew that I was going to mentally need all the support that I could, as we met with the attorney today, and discussed what was going to take place with my dad’s parole hearing.
There was a point when my mom was fully involved because her and my dad were together when he’d gotten locked up, so I wanted her to come, and help finish it off. I didn’t bother going through my dad’s family on any of these things because they weren’t much support to him while he was locked up. Some of my dad’s friends that he’s had along the way helped by putting money on his books, but it was mainly me that was doing majority of everything, making sure that my dad was taken care of while he was locked up.
“I pray that this ride will come to an end soon, and that my daddy can come home. I can’t wait. I have so many things that I want to do with him. He wants me to teach him how to play tennis,” I said with a smile on my face, as if the thought of having my dad home, and playing something as simple as tennis would make me the happiest girl in the world.
“I would pay top dollar to watch your hood ass daddy play tennis,” she replied, and I laughed because that would definitely be a sight to see.
“In all seriousness though Dionne, I have to let you know that you are truly one hell of a daughter. I know often times when little girls have to grow up, losing their fathers to the system, they tend to build up a lot of anger towards their father. I can honestly say that you were never like that. Your daddy can do no wrong in your eyes. You’ve been that way since you were a baby. Every little thing that you would do with school, you would make sure he was involved, even if he wasn’t physically there. You made sure that I kept him up to date with all your school pictures, or anything else that you were involved in. You never counted him out. Back then, I used to go to God crying, asking Him for some kind of miracle to happen, so that you could get the chance to experience a life with your father without him being behind these walls. God, I hope that moment happens for you with this parole hearing coming up,” she voiced.
I got a little emotional upon hearing the things that she was saying to me because it made me think about my life events, and all the things that my dad missed out on. I wanted nothing more than to have a dad that was present. Even though I was a grown woman now, I still craved to have him out here with me. That would break me down to my core if his parole was denied. I really didn’t know how I would move on from that. Having to accept that my father might spend the rest of his life in prison was going to be such a hard pill for me to swallow.
A couple of tears fell from my eyes as I put the car in park. I was able to lift my hands, wipe away the tears, and I turned my head, so that I could look at my mom.
“Don’t tell him that we’re going to Gatlinburg next weekend. You know that I don’t like to boast about the big things that we’re doing because I hate that he won’t get to experience it,” I had to let her know.
The family trip was in full effect, and it would be happening next weekend. The trip consisted of my mom, a couple of her home girls, Free, June, and Liberty. Tommie was coming too, along with her girls, Tailynn, and Tru. My grandma was coming, which I was surprised about because her ass acted like she hated getting on planes. Blake was going to fly in too, but she wasn’t coming until day 2. My man was coming as well, but he wasn’t coming until the second night as well. He had to fly to the west coast because one of his locations had inspections that he wanted to be there for. Once that was finished, then he would meet us in Gatlinburg.
“I won’t. Girl, me and your daddy probably won’t say two words to each other. I’m going to sit back, and let you do all the talking,” she shot, and then I watched her as she dug in her purse, so that she could pull out her Fenty Beauty lip gloss.
Mind you, her lips already were coated with a good amount of lip gloss, so why she was adding more was beyond me.
I sat back in my chair, with my body turned a little bit, propping my back against the door, as I looked at her with a smirk on my face. Once she was done applying a new coat of lip gloss, she then went back into her purse, where she pulled out her travel sized Baccarat Rouge 540. She sprayed a couple of dabs on her neck, some on her wrist, and a couple on the top that she was wearing. After that, she pulled out a toothpick comb from her purse, so that she could fix up her pixie cut. That’s when she left me with no choice but to laugh.
“Yeahhhh, your ass is never beating those allegations about still wanting my daddy. Why you doing all of this?” I asked her, as she looked at herself in the visor mirror that she’d pulled down, just making sure that she still looked good.
“Girl please! I look in the mirror and fix myself up any time that I get out the car. I would have done this, no matter where we were going,” she said, lying through her teeth.
She might have touched up her hair, especially since we had been in the car for hours, but that was it. I doubt she would have added more coats of lip gloss and sprayed more perfume on her. I allowed her to feel like she had one up on me, and then I pulled the visor down as well, so that I could fluff up my hair, and I eventually shut the car off, so that we could get out.
Just like any other time, I left my valuables in the car, not wanting to go inside of the prison with them. All I had were my keys, which I would put inside of a locker once we were inside. My mom got out of the car as well, and we walked over, going to the line, so that we could stand, and wait for the bus to pick us up.
The bus didn’t arrive until about five minutes later, and we got on. It wasn’t too crowded, so we were able to get a spot right in the middle. My nerves were getting the best of me, so as we were sitting down in the chair, I found myself bouncing my leg up and down. My mom knew that I was doing that out ofnervousness, so she picked her hand up, placed it on my knee, basically to get me to stop with the bouncing.
We eventually pulled up, and we all got off the bus together. We walked inside the prison, so that we could go through security, and once we were in, my eyes darted to a male figure that had just made it out of the security checkpoint, and he was putting his belt back on through the loops of the slacks that he was wearing.
I squinted my eyes a little, just really wanting to make sure that it was him, and it was. I’d never seen him in person before. Just his billboards throughout Miami that would advertise his firm, his commercials that I would see, the pictures and things that were posted of him in the media from a year ago because him and his wife had so much drama, along with the stuff that I’ve seen of him in the courtroom.
Seeing his courtroom videos, and how he could demolish a case was one of the reasons why I decided to reach out to him. His retainer fee was hefty, but I paid it because I knew that my dad was worth it. Once the retainer fee was paid, he got the ball moving, and it was him that was able to set up this approved family visit, where we could all get a private room with my father, and discuss how we planned to moved forward with my dad’s parole hearing coming up.
It was none other than Sevyn ‘Law’ Crawford. I would have been a fool to reach out to anyone else.
