Page 58 of Memphis

“What?!” Memphis shrieked, inching out of my arms and turning on a lamp. “How do you know this?!”

I glued my eyes to the ceiling. “It never made sense to me that someone could get the jump on him like that.”

“Same. He was a damn martial arts master. He always preached hyper vigilance. No way someone surprised him.”

“Right, and there were cameras outside and inside the dojo. If someone was outside, he knew.”

“Did anyone check the cameras?”

“Of course. They’d been disabled.”

“Oh, shit! Then it had to be an inside job.”

“Exactly. I started doing some research a couple years after I married Layla because I just couldn’t move on. I needed to figure out what the fuck happened. I ran across some other security footage in the city, even traffic cams. Hell, I got my computer guy to check out Tennessee airport footage, highway convenience store footage, Romey hotel footage. Finally found the smoking gun at a convenience store outside of Romey in the form of Layla’s father.”

“Wait, you think he did it? You think he killed your father?”

“Iknowhe did. Hetoldme he did.”

“Huh? Oh, shit, you killed him, didn’t you? You killed your damn father-in-law.”

“Crazy thing is, I didn’t. I damn sure would’ve, but I didn’t have to. I went to his place out in the country, about twenty miles west of Parkton, a huge-ass mansion. Dude was at death’s door by then, some kind of rare lung disease. He was on oxygen, could barely breathe. Of course, I knew all that, but I rarely visited him, so I didn’t realize how bad off he was, and Layla didn’t really talk to me about it. I’m not sure where Layla was that day, probably with her man, but anyway, dude told me he was broke and that that big ass house was in foreclosure. He said he made a deal with my mom because his money was drying up. He’d kill my dad, and she’d make sure Layla was taken care of and give him some money that he quickly blew through.”

“That’s why she was so adamant about you marrying her.”

“Yeah, and that’s why she still takes care of Layla, albeit with money from my fucking company, a company my father built with her help. Anyway, the motherfucker died right after heconfessed. I watched him take his last breath before I left. Layla discovered his body the next day.”

“Damn.”

“Right.”

Memphis was quiet for a moment before she asked, “How does your mother know that you know she set your father up?”

“I told her when I was ready to divorce Layla.”

“Oh, you had to getreadyto divorce her?”

“Actually, I had to get ready to bring it to my mom. Shit was hard to accept. Anyway, I reiterated the fact that I knew what she did when I found a way to get you back in my life?—”

“You mean, when you decided to blackmail me?”

“Call it what you want, but the shit worked out.”

“Whatever.”

“As I was saying, I informed her of our impending reconciliation and told her to stay the fuck out of it and the fuck away from you or I would tear her shit down.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Baby, I finance her life. I threatened to cut her ass off. I can’t seem to bring myself to kill her. Hell, I only injured Zaccai.”

“More than once.”

I shrugged.

“Well…she’s your mother. I can see killing her being hard.”

“Her being my mother don’t keep me from despising her ass, though.”

---