Aaliyah Jasminda
I looked at Omar and let out a deep breath. I didn't even realize that I had stopped
breathing. I grabbed Omar's arm and
said, "No, no, no. This can't be
happening. Omar what are we going to
do?"
Omar looked at me and said calmly, "Nothing."
I stared at Omar for a moment. I never understood how he remained so calm
all of the time. I knew that I needed to
trust him and go with whatever direction he sent me in, but I hated the feeling
of troubled waters. I just wanted this
to be done and over with. I jumped out
of the bed and began pacing back and forth.
I think I was getting on Omar's nerves because after about five minutes,
he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the bed and made me sit down. The silence was killing me.
"Okay, you said we do nothing. What if she says something to the police
about us?" I asked.
Omar looked at me and said, "She won't."
At this point I couldn't help it. "Seriously, how do you know that she
won't say anything?" I learned not
to ask questions when it came to certain things with Omar but I was feeling
like a nervous Nelly.
"If I tell you, it will make you an accessory. She won't say anything about us. She can't, so don't worry about it."
I didn't like his response but I let it go. I knew that the less I was privy to the
better off I was. Omar was so damn
mysterious sometimes that it drove me nuts but at the same time it was what I
found most intriguing about him.
Omar then pulled out his cell phone and left the room. I tried to creep as close to him as possible
without him noticing me to try to hear what he was saying but did not have any
success so I crawled back into my bed.
My mind started to wander back to how this all started. I just wanted to teach Geoffrey a
lesson. I didn't want him dead. Yes, there were times where I felt like he
deserved to die but you can't control your thoughts, you can only contain them. But then again, if it wasn't for Omar, I
probably would be six feet under right now.
I am figuratively speaking of course.
Omar walked back into the room and interrupted my train of
thought.
"I spoke to a contact of mine at the Atlanta Police
Department. It seems that Cassandra has
snapped. She keeps rocking back and
forth saying that she didn't mean to do it.
She basically admitted that she did kill ol' boy but she won't say why." It didn't matter to me, I still was worried
and it showed on my face. " AJ, you have to understand, we did not
kill ol' boy. Even if they were to
connect us to the house or to ol' boy, they can't connect us to the murder
because we didn't do it. You just have
to trust me on this."
I looked at Omar and then took his hand. I didn't say anything; I just held it in
silence. From that day on, I never asked
Omar anymore questions. I couldn't help
but feel guilty at the time. For a long time, I felt that I had played some
part in Geoffrey's death. I would often
feel the need to confess but the problem was that there wasn't anything to
confess to. I mean, what could I have done? Call up the cops and say hey, I know that I didn't
pull the trigger, but I am guilty of telling this woman the truth? But as the days went by, I felt less and less
guilty. Perhaps this was Geoffrey's karma. Who was to say that he wouldn't have died that
way if I did not seek the path of revenge?
The way he was going to die was going to happen with or without my
involvement, right? I have asked myself
these questions time and time again and the answer was still the same. Yes, Omar and I were the cause for Cassandra
finding out about Geoffrey and his scheme in the first place, but, we did not
put the gun in her hand. Besides, she
was cookoo for cocoa puffs from the get go.
Over time, I no longer felt like Geoffrey's blood was on my hands. I didn't even bother to contact Terry after
that horrible night. I left that to
Omar. I was moving forward with my life
and I slowly began to let things go.
Omar
The day that I found out that ol' boy was dead, I was just
glad that I was not the one who killed him.
I have enough blood on my hands as it is. Truth be told, he would have just disappeared
without a trace if I did kill him. His
body would never have been found. To me,
he wasn't worth killing. I went along
with this because of my love for AJ. I
don't know how much better she felt in the end but she got her revenge. More than what she bargained for actually. She never had to worry about ol' boy coming
after her ever again.
I did feel sorry for Cassandra though. At the end of the day she was just collateral
damage. I didn't see the need to vet her
as I was only trying to help her. I had
no idea that she was crazy. She snapped
in the midst of the crossfire, something that was out of my control. In my field of work, that is not my problem. However, I worked with a contact of mine from the
Division of Family and Children Services to ensure the children would remain
together and with blood relatives. I
didn't think that they should have to suffer more than they already had. In the end, Cassandra took a bargain plea deal
in order to get less time on a lesser charge.
One of my contacts did tell me that she did tell the authorities how she
met ol' boy and what he did to her. At
that point, I knew that it was only a matter of time before they contacted
Terry about this scam. But the way their
operation was set-up, on the surface, Terry appeared to be innocent and had no
knowledge of it, so there was nothing they could charge her with. This of course worked out in my favor as I
had the proof needed to have her arrested if necessary. So as long as Terry kept her mouth shut, she
would be just fine.
I did contact Terry the day her husband was killed and
reminded her of the consequences of her mentioning AJ or myself to the
authorities. It sounds heartless, I
know. She did just lose her husband but
I really didn't give a shit. Terry and
her husband made their bed and they had to lie in it. Karma is a bitch, they should have known
that. They also should have known Karma
rarely ever comes back in the same form.
Either way it didn't matter. I
had all kinds of protocols set up should she ever make mention of AJ and myself
to the authorities, so she wouldn't get very far. Besides, when you lead a life of fraud, you
will make mistakes. It was only a matter
of time before Terry and ol' boy got caught.
If it wasn't me and AJ it would have been someone else.
As for me, unlike AJ, I went right back to my everyday life
and kept it moving. This act of revenge
was a walk in the park for me, so no sweat off of my back. All I know is if, there is anything that AJ
has learned from this is to vet a dude before she gets too close to him. Sheeeyit, I feel bad for anyone who tries to
talk to her now, that dude is going to be under a microscope until she learns
to trust people again. I'll continue to
keep my eye on her though because life is a funny thing and like I always say,
don't sleep on anyone because anyone is capable of doing anything. Because of that, I will always keep AJ safe.
Terry
The day my husband was killed was the day my world came
crashing down. I was angry at him for
putting me in this crazy situation in the first place and I wasn't sure how he
and I were going to move forward. Well
his death took care of that. I was in a
daze for some time, just going through the motions and trying to remain strong for
the sake of my son. The stress of having
to start a new life was getting to me.
My mama was asking me all sorts of questions that I simply could not
answer. I had already felt like she was
disappointed in me for marrying Geoffrey in the first place and now this.
I had the police asking me all sorts of questions. That crazy bitch Cassandra told them about
the scam that Geoffrey and I had. Thank
goodness that none of the evidence pointed in my direction. I told them the story that Geoffrey and I had
rehearsed so many times in case we got caught.
I played the victim. I was the
woman who had a husband who led a secret life.
I then followed with the scripted story that Aaliyah's friend told me to
use. He instructed me on the day my
husband was killed to tell the police that Geoffrey and I had gotten into a
terrible argument to account for why the house was a mess and that I fled to my
mother's house to take some time to think about our marriage. I couldn't risk
going to jail for the sake of my son so I went along with it. I never strayed from my story. I felt like my life depended on it.
My life was ripped apart in the news. Fortunately, my background was clean. Unfortunately, Geoffrey's past was all over
the news and on the internet. Reading
the responses to the articles on-line was painful. People were saying he had it coming to him
and that Geoffrey deserved to die. I
knew that the world was full of cruel people but why do they have to be so
hurtful? Reading these comments only
fueled my fire for revenge. Aaliyah and
her friend had me where they wanted me, or so they thought. You see, they may have planned this whole
thing out to get her money back and to make Geoffrey pay for what he did, but
what they didn't see coming was an angry scorned widow who was going to stop at
nothing to make them pay for my ultimate loss.
Yes, Geoffrey cheated on me but he was still my
husband. Yes, he was a scam artist but
as far as I was concerned he was providing for his family. Either way you slice it, that bitch Aaliyah
is cause of all of my hurt and my pain.
She is the reason why my son no longer has a father. She is the one who led Cassandra to my house
in the first place. If it wasn't for
her, I wouldn't be in the position I am in right now. One thing is for sure, I am going to make
sure that the bitch pays for what she has done to my life.
The first thing that I had to do was get my son
situated. Mama offered to take care of
him for awhile so that I could have some time to get my life back on track. I didn't want to leave my son but I had no
choice. Some time had gone by and I was
informed by the owners of the house that I lived in with my family that I would
need to move out since I no longer could afford the rent. My only saving grace was that my house was a
crime scene for some time and that kept the owner at bay. I knew that I was
supposed to wait for the green light to go back to the house but to hell with
Aaliyah. The moment my husband was
killed, all bets were off.
In order for me to carry out my plan of revenge, I needed
money. Once I got back to Atlanta, I
contacted my former supervisor who had a soft spot for me and asked if they
were hiring at the hotel. Fortunately,
they did and I was back cleaning hotel rooms again. Of course I never wanted to have to work for
somebody ever again in life but in due time I would find another way to make
ends meet on my own terms.
Fortunately, the house was fully furnished when we rented it
so I only had to remove my personal belongings.
I sold the big ticket items like the TV and stereo on Craig's List to make
enough money to pay for two months rent on a room so I would have a place to
live within my price range. I knew that
I was only going to be in town for a certain period of time but until that day
came, I decided that this would be the beginning of Aaliyah's end.
©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2014
