Page 87 of His Four Leaf Clover

There were times that Trent just wanted to be left alone, but the voices wouldn’t let him be. They were getting louder and very hard to ignore. They guided his movements and made all the decisions. He’d been hearing them since he was a child but he couldn’t remember them ever being so noisy. When he was younger, he remembered his mother telling him that if he took his meds, the voices would go away. He was a kid, so he believed her. Even when the meds made him sick with abdominal cramps and nausea, he still took her word for it. Then, when he got a little older, he overheard his grandmother say that the medicine made his uncle crazy. After that, he stopped taking it and he felt much better when he did.

“Move around, nigga!” someone yelled and blew their horn.

Trent had zoned out at a green light that was now yellow. Cars drove around him and flipped him off as they did. When he looked up, Dash and Clover were no longer there, but that was okay. He knew exactly where to find them.

“Shit.”

Trent hurriedly drove away in the direction of their home. He pulled up to the gates right as they drove through. He had been trying to get Clover alone but he hadn’t had any luck. Every time she left the house, she was with Dash, and he acted as her personal chauffer. Going to the nursey wasn’t a good idea because too many people were in there.

In the beginning, Trent thought that Amina was the one. Unlike the girls in his past, she actually reciprocated the love that he gave her. Around that time, his mother had convinced him to start taking his meds again. She told him that he would be a better boyfriend and, eventually, a great husband. He was happy for a while because she was actually right. Trent was in an actual relationship for a while and he was happy. He and Amina spent a lot of time together and their families loved each other.

But, just like always, his happiness didn’t last very long. Trent couldn’t take the side effects of the meds so he got off of them again. Not long after, his relationship started to go downhill. Amina seemed like she was afraid of him, and he didn’t understand why. All he wanted to do was spend time with her like they used to, but she accused him of stalking. She told him that he was crazy, a word that he’d heard too many times to count and one that he despised. He never wanted to hurt her, but the voices in his head just wanted her to shut up. He hit her, and that was a mistake that he lived to regret. Amina broke off the relationship and broke his heart in the process.

His heart was broken but he loved her too much to give up on what they had. He tried talking to her multiple times but she acted like he was a monster whenever he saw her. After a while, she was over him showing up everywhere she went. Amina got an order of protection, and he was ordered to stay away from her. Not even a piece of paper could make him give up on the love of his life, so he continued to pursue her. That was another mistake that landed him in jail after a while.

Being incarcerated caused even more problems. His mother decided to be a hoe and started messing with one of the inmates. His father and sisters were furious with her and him too. They foolishly thought that him going to prison caused her to stray. Trudy was a sneaky seductress and she was probably gonna cheat on Melvin anyway. They were just embarrassed that it was an inmate who she did it with.

Once he was out of that legal dilemma, Trent came home and did okay for a while. His mother got him a job in the filing department at the courthouse and that was how he met Clover. He had just finished eating lunch in Trudy’s office with her when Clover showed up for her appointment.

To him, it was love at first sight. Clover’s chocolate skin glowed like it was wet. She was short and sexy with a smile that could light up the night. He waited by the exit for her to come out and made his move soon after. He was excited when he learned that she had a young daughter and was going through a divorce. He immediately envisioned himself stepping up to be a father to her daughter and a good man to her.

Unfortunately, she was nothing like Amina. She only tolerated him when she was in the mood, and it didn’t take long before she reconciled with her husband. She told him that, more than likely, she would but he wasn’t trying to hear it. He was in love and not giving up on what he wanted.

Sadly, he now hated her just as much as he once loved her. She not only broke his heart, she tried to get her ex-husband to kill him too. Trent figured that if he couldn’t have her, then Dash couldn’t either.

After driving around for a while, Trent parked a few streets over from his house. It was scorching hot that night, but he pulled his black hoodie up over his head to conceal his identity. He was tired of riding around in his mother’s car because it was too hot. There were a lot of people looking for it and he didn’t want to get caught. He remembered his mother having a box of spare keys that she kept in her home office and he needed to get to them. He used her house key to let himself in through the kitchen door. He paused when he saw all the blood smeared all over the floor.

“What the hell happened here?” Trent asked out loud as if he didn’t know.

Images of the attack replayed in his head, but it seemed surreal. He took the steps two at a time and walked down the hall. The door to Trudy’s home office was locked, but two hard kicks fixed that issue. Trent tore her office up until he found just what he was looking for. He smiled triumphantly as he opened the box and spotted his spare key. He quickly grabbed it and rushed out of the house, not bothering to lock up after he left.

“This place is a fucking joke that I can’t wait to get away from! How is that even possible?” Trudy yelled angrily. She was over New Orleans and everything about it.

“Calm down, Trudy.” Her mother rubbed her hand lovingly.

Trudy had been staying in an Airbnb with her mother since she was released from the hospital a few weeks ago. She refused to go back home and she had been buying everything that she needed so that she didn’t have to. Melvin had been there a few times with the police, but that was about it.

Now, she was just learning that Trent had obviously been there because his car was gone. Not only that but they’d found her car torched a few streets over from their home. Her office door had been kicked in and she was furious when they told her.

“Did you just hear what they said, Mom? How can they be protecting us when the perpetrator is returning to the scene of the crime?” Trudy sounded like she was in a court room but she was heated. She was happy that she used her first mind and stayed away from her house. If it were up to them, Trent would have finished the job and she’d be dead.

Apparently, Trent had not only been in the main house, he had been to his apartment out back as well. He was making a fool out of them, but that was easy to do. For years, the New Orleans Police Department had been understaffed and underpaid. They did the bare minimum because their pay didn’t match their job description. The rookie cop that they had watching her slept more than she did.

“Lord, I just pray that they find him before something bad happens.” Trudy’s mother shook her head sadly.

“Something bad already happened. He tried to kill me or did everybody forget?” Trudy was enraged and afraid at the same time. At one time, she would have sworn that Trenton would never do anything to hurt her. She obviously had too much faith in him and he proved her wrong.

She never thought that she’d actually grow to hate one of her own children but she regretted the day she ever had Trent. Had she known that mental illness ran rampant in Melvin’s family, she wouldn’t have even given him the time of day. Trudy had made some decisions and moving back to her hometown to be near her family was one of them. New Orleans was once a blessing to her but, now, she felt like it was a curse. Admittedly, she was to blame for everything that happened and she took accountability. She was the one who chose to ignore the seriousness of her son’s mental state. It was also her decision to have an extramarital affair on her husband.

Even though her daughters and grandkids were there, she no longer had a relationship with them. She tried reaching out to at least maintain a relationship with her grandkids but she was denied that request. Her daughters didn’t feel like she deserved that privilege. They had shown her so much grace and mercy over the years, it had finally run out.

It all started when Trent was younger. They would tell her how he would terrorize them, and she always brushed it off. They couldn’t even have a family pet because of him, and it was miserable. Both her girls went away for college and she knew that it was because of their little brother. They never even came home for holidays and opted to spend time with their friends instead.

Even when they became adults, they hated to visit. When Trenton started terrorizing their kids, they stopped altogether. They told her that they refused to put their kids through what they went through. She was supposed to advocate for them the same way but she never did.

“I’m sorry about all of this, Mrs. Latimer. We’re doing our very best,” the sergeant spoke up, bringing Trudy back to the present.

“I wish I could say that was good enough. Thanks anyway.” Trudy sighed as she walked him to the door.