Lies of a Real Housewife Read Free Page B

and she paid me pretty good too. My mother taught me office management, how to create files, make copies, fax papers, and read good
    faith estimates. She spoke to me a lot less, and I could tell that something was
    bothering her. I just didn’t know what it was.
    One day, after having a quiet mother and daughter lunch, we re-
    turned to her office. A tall man with a thin build, accompanied by a petite woman with red hair, who I later learned was his wife, showed up at the office. The man was loud and adamant about needing to speak with my mother right away. She directed the couple down the hall to her office, and closed
    the door.
    Like any inquisitive child, I made sure I got close enough where I
    could hear every single word. I overheard the ranting of the irate man. He was threatening my mother. He told her that if she did not have his money in thirty days, he would have her arrested. Then he grabbed his wife by the hand, and
    together they stormed out.
    My heart raced erratically. The thought of my mother going to jail
    was extremely terrifying to me. I heard her on the phone arguing with someone from her bank. Thousands of dollars were missing from her business escrow account. No money had been removed from her personal account, but the money earmarked for her real estate clients was gone.
    The next few weeks were like something out of a nightmare. My
    mother was avoiding telephone calls, telling people she wasn’t there while being in her office. Then she began eyeing everyone around her as if they were suspects in a plot against her. She had even put me—her only daughter, the one she gave birth to, at a distance. After a couple of weeks passed, a friend of mine handed me a newspaper, and told me to read it. Right there on the newspaper’s front page was a picture of my mother, her home, and her business. She had been charged with fraud, and the federal agents had seized
    everything she ow ned.
    Her whole escrow account, amounting to eighty-thousand dollars
    had been wiped out. Curtis had gotten my mother real good. My entire childhood I watched her work hard, and made innumerable sacrifices in order to build a successful business. Then Curtis came along, and stole it all away from right under her nose. So packing up everything and moving to Greensboro, North Carolina, was a welcomed change. Both me and my mother were
    overdue a fresh start.

    Living in Greensboro initially proved to be a great idea. My mother
    went back to working hard in an attempt to rebuild her life. I was working part time as a waitress, and going to school in the evenings for my G.E.D. I loved my new life. Nobody knew me or my mother in North Carolina, and nobody pointe d a finger at us or gave us any type of suspicious looks. The people were warm and treated us with respect. We got along with them and blended in just fine.
    The bittersweet parody of my new situation was confounding to me. There was a rebellion going on i nside my head, and it turned me into the type of person who couldn’t stand being told what to do. Working as a waitress proved to be both challenging and stressful. I detested taking orders from anyone, including my own parents. I hated manual labor. I was young and in great shape, but the only place I wanted to stand on my feet for eight hours or better was at the nightclub. After work, I walked three and a half miles each day to get home.  Once I made it home the first thing on my list was to fix a cold drink. I would kick off my shoes, and check on my mother. Then see
    how my baby girl, Aleea, was doing.
    After my usual rough day at work, this was one of my favorite times
    of the day. This day, however would prove to be different. I saw my mother’s purse on the kitchen counter, but a quick glance made me realize that she wasn’t around. I went into my bedroom and noticed Aleea alone on my bed. She was asleep. This was very un usual. My mother was in love with Aleea,
    and the only time she left Aleea’s side was when