God Don't Make No Mistakes Read Free Page B

hang up yet!”
    I didn’t care what it was Lizzie had to say now. I was not going to let her verbally assault me any longer. I was going to hang up on her again, but when she cut me off, I decided to continue listening. I didn’t think our conversation could get any worse.
    But it did.
    â€œThis is not about money, Annette. Well, not directly.” She paused and cleared her throat. “It will eventually involve money ...”
    â€œI can’t imagine how.” As far as I knew, when Lizzie quit working for Pee Wee, she got everything that she had coming and then some. Not just two weeks’ severance pay; he had also paid her for vacation time that she had not even earned. What more could this miserable beast want?
    â€œWhen you see your husband, you tell him that I said we need to discuss my future.”
    Her attorney and now her future? Something told me that this was a lot more serious than I thought.
    â€œYour what ?” I guffawed. “What in the hell does my husband have to do with your future, woman? You’ve got some goddamn nerve! First you con me into helping you get a job at my husband’s barbershop and you wasted no time hopping into bed with him. Then you went behind his back and screwed his rival’s uncle, and moved in with that man! I’ve known some skanks in my life, but you give the ordinary skanks a bad name!”
    â€œAre you finished?”
    â€œHell yeah, I’m finished. Are you?”
    â€œAll right, bitch. I didn’t want to drop this bombshell on you before I told Pee Wee, but now I’ll be happy to tell you why I need to talk to your husband. I just wish I could see your face when you hear it.”
    â€œYou’ve got exactly one minute to tell me and then I’m hanging up this telephone whether you’ve said it all or not,” I warned.
    â€œI don’t need a minute.” Lizzie sniffed. Then she immediately announced in a mocking tone that made my blood boil: “I’m pregnant and your husband is the father of my child.”
    She hung up before I could respond, but the telephone suddenly got so hot in my hand I dropped it to the floor.

CHAPTER 4
    M Y HOUSE WAS LOCATED ON REED STREET IN ONE OF THE most exclusive neighborhoods in town. It was the only place in the world where I could get as comfortable as I wanted—most of the time. The mortgage had been paid off years ago, so it was mine free and clear. I was in complete control. I could even lounge around naked like I was doing now. I had come a long way from the shabby, one-room shacks with no plumbing that I’d lived in as a child in Miami, Florida.
    Next to my living room, my bedroom was the biggest room in the house, and it was in the best location. I could see most of the houses on my block from the large front window facing my king-sized bed. From the same window, I could reach out and pluck fruit from the apple tree and the cherry tree in my front yard when it was in season. The apple tree was bigger than the cherry tree. The apple tree provided a lot of shade in the summertime, and it was one of my favorite spots to relax in a lawn chair and enjoy a glass of iced tea. This residence had been my home since I was thirteen. Judge Lawson, who had employed my mother as a housekeeper for several years, had left the property to her when he died.
    I had moved from the smaller bedroom at the end of the hall to this one after my mother remarried and moved out. I didn’t even like to go into my old room anymore. It held so many painful memories—everything from loneliness to rape. Even though there was not a single spot in my house where I allowed anybody to abuse or disrespect me now, my bedroom was especially sacred. I was not about to let a woman like Lizzie upset me too much on my turf. But that was exactly what she had done.
    Friday was the least favorite day in the week for me. Just about everything unpleasant that had ever happened to me