You Reap What You Sow
Famke and Royal were sitting in the dining room of Black Magic after their visit to the lawyer’s office, facing Jubi and Cliff. Royal gripped his ever-present refillable tumbler, filled full of his favorite coffee Keshaun poured for him and he was clutching it like a lifeline.
Famke’s heart ached for the three people at this table. They were flipping through the scrapbook after Royal pointed out what the lawyer noticed when she was looking through the photographs in the book. Neither Jubilee nor Cliff spoke for quite some time and Famke knew they were trying to process their emotions.
Cliff’s phone rang and he looked at it and then declined the call.
“Mom?” Jubi asked softly.
“Yes. She hid this from me.” He said his voice cracking. “She knew all this time. It meant she even lied when we talked to her the other day, and she said she knew at Thanksgiving. She knew long before then.”
“I believed her when she said it was when Prince told her he wanted to leave Mindy at Thanksgiving.” Royal contradicted him. “She may have known all along they used a surrogate, but I think it was the first time he voiced to Mom he wasn’t in love with his wife any longer.”
“I agree with you, Royal,” Jubi nodded and took a deep breath. “It makes more sense to me now though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Royal. Mom would never have wanted any of us to suffer through a relationship with someone we fell out of love with. She would have certainly told us to try harder, but she wouldn’t have forced us to stay.”
“Yet she did.”
Famke watched his fingers tighten angrily around his mug and she rubbed his thigh comfortingly. “What are you thinking Jubi?”
“I think she knew the minute Mindy was cut loose from her marriage, Mindy was spilling secrets, and she was going to take Mom down with her. Mom made him stay for her self-preservation. If it came out Mom was the one who told Prince to take the baby and run, then she would want it kept quiet.”
“Wait, you think the kidnapping was Mom’s idea?”
“Yes.” Jubi stared at her brother without backing down. “Royal, think about it. Prince was writing Famke letters from a couple of months after he left Pittsburgh. He was already in love with Famke, or his version of love.” She made a disgusted expression at the thought. “I mean I did see him punch his wife in the face, knock her out cold, kiss her and call himself Daddy so it’s not a healthy love the man was capable of but whatever emotion he called love, he felt it when he was with Famke. He wouldn’t have wanted to hurt her, not willingly. Especially if he was entertaining getting her back.”
Cliff cleared his throat and rubbed his temples, “they were already in too deep. They lied about everything. Your mother probably told him one more lie wasn’t going to make an ounce of difference. I feel as if I can hear her in my head. Your mother was on the phone all night the day Precious was born. At one point it was two or three in the morning, and she was still sitting up in bed texting Prince. He was sending her pictures of the baby in her bassinet in the hospital. She probably told him to grab her and bring her home.”
Royal pursed his lips, “there’s more Dad.”
“What could be worse than my wife plotting the kidnapping of Precious from her own mother? What is worse than my son and my daughter-in-law swindling a woman and stealing her child right out from under her?”
“The lawyer thinks the best thing for us to do, the way Famke should proceed is to press charges.”
“How? Prince and Mindy are dead,” Jubi cocked an eyebrow.
“Sue the estate but the lawyer really wants time with Mom, and she wants criminal charges pressed if she could get enough information to present to the DA.”
“Royal, you can’t be serious.” Jubilee was wide-eyed. “You’re entertaining this? She could do prison time for kidnapping.”
“She deserves it.”
The quiet comment coming from the older man at their table rendered them all speechless.
“Cliff, this is not the route I want to go,” Famke whispered.
“They stole her from you,” he wiped a tear off his cheek. “I am looking at these photos and the elaborate lie they perpetrated. You said your doctor can attest to the fact you were looking for them?”
“Yes.” She let him take her hands in between his larger ones. “There’s also a couple of nurses who worked with Bram at the hospital who knew I was trying to find out what happened to her. One of them had a husband who was a cop. He tried to find some information for me as well. After I saw the doctor, I asked them to simply let it all go because I needed to focus on Bram. He was released from hospital, and I couldn’t divide my time any longer. I never forgot her, and I never gave up hope one day I would see her again but after a while I convinced myself if she was healthy and happy with Prince and Mindy then I did exactly what I was supposed to do. I’ve convinced myself Mindy was meant to be her mom. I wasn’t.”
“How? How could you let it go?” Jubi asked. “I don’t know if I could have.”
“I realized one day looking at the bank balance left for Bram’s medical treatments, despite all the lies, Prince was wealthy. I also knew, there were some things he couldn’t have faked. One of them was how much he wanted this child. They both did. They would lay in bed with me and sing to her and read her stories while she was in my belly. I knew deep down, despite all my panic and rage at their behaviour and their lies, they loved her.”
“Loved her so much, the bitch put her in a box,” Jubi hissed furiously.
“I bet though, prior to the drugs Prince started giving her and when she was well, Jubi, she was probably good to Precious.” Famke prayed it was the truth.
“I guess. I’m so consumed with all the recent activity over the last year or so, I can’t really remember the stuff before.”
“The last year is what caused my granddaughter to be in therapy for a stress disorder.” Cliff grunted. “I think we’re fine to forget the years before that. It sure as hell cancels it all out for me.” He squeezed Famke’s hands, “sue her.”
“Cliff, she’s your wife.”
“Not for much longer. She’ll be served her divorce papers today. I also have let my entire family know what she’s doing and they’re all supporting you and Royal. My side of the family, as much as they are a bunch of bullying assholes, are all on your side and all have said they will attest to the fact of how incredible the pair of you are as parents.”
“Thanks Dad,” Royal sighed. “We haven’t decided what we’re doing yet. We need to think more. Throwing the book at Mom is a tough one. I’m all for Famke suing the estate and reclaiming her daughter but putting Mom in prison is hard for both of us.”
“If it was anyone other than your mother?” Cliff asked.
“Dad why are you pushing this?” Jubi asked him incredulously. “Do you want her to go to jail?”
“I don’t think she will.” He shrugged. “She has no prior criminal record. She has no history. At best, she aided and abetted a kidnapping. I don’t disagree she probably told Prince to take his daughter and leave but ultimately it was Mindy and Prince who took her and ran. I think though, this will open the eyes of all of our family. No longer are we going to put up with this kind of shit from the people who claim to love us. If they disagree, they can all stay in New York and live their miserable lives.” His phone buzzed again, and he looked at the text message, “that was my lawyer’s office in New York. She’s been served her divorce papers.”
No sooner did he speak did Royal’s phone begin chiming. He answered it on speaker. “What do you want? I told you not to call me.”
“Your father served me divorce papers!”
“He told you he would.”
“I need to talk to him. Can you please ask him to call me?”
“No. I won’t. See, unlike you, I’m not going to meddle in someone else’s relationship.”
“This is not the same thing.”
“No? Tell me Mom? I’m looking at a scrapbook Prince and Mindy made with Famke. There’s a great photo of you in it. You knew they used a surrogate all along, didn’t you? You knew Prince had a baby with someone else and stole it.” Imani’s silence spoke volumes. “Mom, we’re done. I suggest you hire a really good lawyer.”
Jubi spoke up as she looked at her phone, “Mom, parental kidnapping of a child is a third-degree felony in Pennsylvania. At the very least you’re looking at a misdemeanor and you can be put in prison.”
“Jubilee, you are not funny.”
“You know what’s not funny, Mom?” Royal cut in, “you started this shit with a lawsuit, so we went and spoke to a lawyer who is an expert in custody law. She has encouraged us to file charges with the DA. It’s not funny for us to find out you were part of a kidnapping plot. If you’d minded your own business, we wouldn’t even be here.”
“I’m your mother.”
“You reap what you sow, Mom.” Jubilee shot back. “You tried to take your son to court and in doing so, a heap of evidence is now coming to light.”
“You had the chance to make this right,” Cliff spoke suddenly, and Imani’s gasp let them know she hadn’t realized he was there. “You were given the opportunity to return Precious to her mother. You could have taken the information of your complicity to the grave and simply made it right. Imani, you’re trying to justify your own actions. You’re not trying to clear Prince’s name, you’re trying to clear your own, because if he is vindicated, it somehow means you’re also innocent of wrongdoing.” He clicked his tongue. “It doesn’t work like this. A good person would have realized the depths of how much they screwed up and would have done everything to make it right. You would have done everything you could to make it right with Famke if you were a decent human being. I don’t know when the woman I married became the monster you are, but this is not anything I will ever forgive you for.”
“Cliff, please. We need to talk this out.”
“There is nothing to talk about. I’m staying in Pittsburgh. I’ll be staying with Royal and Famke until I get my own apartment but I’m not coming back to New York. The bank account has enough money in it for your legal fees, I’m sure. Good luck.” He motioned for Royal to hang up.
“Jesus Dad. That was cold.”
“You know what is cold?” he looked around the table, “the fact not once in all the conversations we’ve exchanged have the words ‘I’m sorry’ left her lips. Not once.”
They sat quietly as they watched Royal lift his phone to his ear after dialing out. He uttered two words and the table all sighed sadly.
“Do it.”