Alisha heard the doorman call, telling her that a Mrs Ava Warner was there with her daughter Julia. It had been this way for a couple weeks, once word got out that her dad's company was going public. Relatives that Dave had never heard of before were showing up. The doorman usually got their information and passed it along to the family, letting Dave and Tierra sort through what was actually family coming by to wish him the best and those showing up with their hand out. For George to actually call up to the apartment meant...something, but the 15 year old wasn't sure what that something was.
Alisha told her mother who George was calling about, and watched as Tierra's mouth tightened into a grimace. "Tell George to send them up," her voice tense. Alisha nodded, slightly and hesitantly, then passed the message to George.
Minutes later, the doorbell rang to their apartment. Tierra took a second to breath, looked at her daughter -- wishing that she had time to prepare her, to tell her everything -- then opened the door.
In the hallway were two exceptionally beautiful women. Ava, looking half her 46 years, short blond hair, porcelain skin, thin but not skinny, and ice blue eyes. Jasmine, her 26 year old daughter was almost a twin of her mother's with the exception of green eyes.
"Hello, I'm..." the older woman started.
"I know who you are," Tierra interrupted. "Please, come in."
The two women came in and looked around at the open floor plan. The living room was overly large and flowed into the eating area, which had a table capable of seating 10. The wall was glass, making the room seem even larger, with a stunning park view and the city's skyscrapers looming behind the greenery. "This is beautiful," Ava said, her eyes taking in every inch. Her gaze seemed to be measuring the room, redecorating it.
"Would you like something to drink," Alisha offered, confused at her mother's reaction. She obviously didn't like this woman, either of them to be honest. Why would she invite them in, not even bothering to hide her distaste?
"No, thank you," the younger woman replied, the courtesy in her voice not quite making it to her face.
"So, now that the niceties are through, why are you here," Tierra asked, getting to the point in a rather rapid fashion.
Looking at Alisha, Ava said "You know, I actually wouldn't mind a glass of water, filtered if you have it." Ava's eyes flicked back to Tierra, dismissing Alisha. She sat on the long sofa, her daughter sitting next to her. Ava's voice lowered, "Maybe this is a discussion best left to the adults."
Alisha paused for a second, turned back around. "Excuse me?"
"My water, please. And I'm certain that Jasmine would appreciate some also."
"Why. Are. You. Here," a growl rolling through the words.
Ava sighed. "Fine, let's do this." Alisha had returned, without the water, and sat in the upright chair, across from the sofa, a few feet to the right of her mother. It was deliberate, the choice of seating. Feeling that there was some sort of confrontation brewing -- occurring -- Alisha could have sat on the arm of the recliner her mother had chosen. But this seat was where her father sat. He had read to her from this chair when she was younger, teaching her the words in the books. She had sat in his lap and looked at the pictures he had showed her. As she grew up, and the reading was no longer necessary, she found herself sitting on the foot stool, talking to her daddy, telling him about her day, asking questions about...well, anything. The chair was one of the few things from her early childhood that had been brought to the new apartment. Pictures, toys, clothes. And the chair. This chair was, to her, the seat of wisdom. It was a place of safety, of love, of knowledge. She could face anything, sitting here.
"My husband..."
"Your EX husband," Tierra said.
"Wait," Alisha yelled, "this is them?!?" Alisha's eyes were wide, her chest suddenly hurt. These were some of the people who hurt her father. Actually, these two were the main culprits behind all his pain.
"Alisha, baby, sit down, please," her mother said. Alisha blinked once, twice, before realizing she was standing, fists tight, nails digging into the palm of her hand. "I'm going to ask you one more time, why are you here?"
"When we divorced, my EX husband," Ava snarled, "left us a company that fell to shit. He obviously knew it was going to fail, and that's why..."
"No. You don't get to re-write history." Tierra looked at her daughter. She hadn't told her the whole story, hadn't wanted to open up that particular wound, but apparently what she wanted no longer mattered. She took a shuddering breath, her entire body tense. Alisha knew that this, whatever "this" is, was going to hurt her mother, was going to hurt her. "13 years ago..."
"Really? Are we going to have story hour now," Ava sighed.
"Bitch, you disrespect my mother again, and I will beat the fuck out of you using that beanpole daughter of yours." Alisha looked square at the blonde woman, who at least had the decency to shut up and, using her right hand, signaled Tierra to continue.
"13 years ago, your father was married to...well, this," waving her hand towards the Ava, "who had decided to marry up. And by marry up, I mean 'spread her legs for whoever could steal Dave's company'. About the same time, baby, your biological father...he had issues. And he took those issues out on me. Usually with his fists, sometimes with his feet." Alisha could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She knew her mother left her biological dad, but never knew why. "One night, I couldn't take it any more. I knew he would eventually start hitting you, and I couldn't let that happen. So, I grabbed what I could carry, picked you up, and ran. It wasn't the smartest plan -- I had little money, it was late fall, so it was getting colder, I had no relatives I could call..."
Tierra took a steadying breath, her eyes focused somewhere else, somewhen else. "I was hungry, I was cold, I was tired. I couldn't take care of myself, let alone you. We had been on the streets for months. I just couldn't do it any more. I went to St Francis, they were open all night, for people to come in and get warm. I walked up to the front, looked up at the cross, and wondered why I had been forsaken. I put you down on the pew, you were finally sleeping, and I started walking out of the cathedral. I didn't have a plan, per se, just that I was going to end it all, that night, that hour if I was able. My hope was the church would find a home for you, and I would find an end to my pain."
"As I was heading to the vestibule, a hand grabbed my wrist. I was so tired, body and soul, that I just stopped. The only thought running through my head was 'What now? What more has to happen to me?' I looked at the hand on my wrist, then at the man. And he said 'No.'"
"All I could do is look at him for a second. 'You don't know what I've been through, you don't know me. You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do.' And he looked at me, and I swear, the sadness in his eyes made me ashamed. He said to me 'At least, at the very least, you have her. You have someone in your life, and they have you in theirs. Not everyone is that lucky.' And I saw one, single, solitary, tear slowly roll down his face. 'Don't do this to them. Don't leave her alone in this world.' When he said alone, his voice broke, and he barely got the rest of it out. I turned and ran to the front, snatched you up off the pew, and knew that I had to keep trying.
I looked at the pew he had been sitting in, and it was empty. I remembered his words, and went out the door. I knew where he was in the world, how badly he had been hurt. So I forced myself to think -- if I were him, where would I be going? And I knew. I took off running, holding you in arms, which is very difficult, holding a baby and running. But he had walked slowly to his destination, the 5th Street bridge. It was the closest bridge, that, were you to jump from it, would be the end of you."
Alisha was openly crying at this point. She had no idea that her mother's life had ever been so bad that she had contemplated killing herself. "I found him there, staring over the railing. I looked at him and said 'No.' He just looked at me with confusion in his eyes. 'If I can't, you can't. I'm still alive because of you. You are responsible for me. My life is now tied to yours. And honestly, my life is pretty much shit. It's your responsibility to make it better.' We both stared at each other, then he started chuckling, then laughing, then I was laughing, and I swear, we sounded for all the world like a couple of lunatics, laughing so hard I swore we would puke."
Tierra turned in her seat, now looking at Ava. "The man I met that night was Dave. Over the next couple of nights, he told me how he had started this company, how he busted his ass seven days a week, while his wife started an affair with his partner. How the partner and Dave's wife confronted him one night, told him that they had been sleeping together for months by that time, how he had two choices: to allow them to continue their affair, accepting that he would be in a loveless marriage and they would be blatantly, if not openly, disrespecting him; or divorce and lose the company, as the two of them had a majority of shares, his house, and custody.
Dave was too honorable to stay married in that situation, so he filed for divorce. And sure enough, the two of them took control of the company, and then forced him out. And then, because they had to buy him out, Ava here went into the account -- after all, they weren't divorced yet, so the joint account was still in her name -- and took out all the money, putting it into an overseas account. Dave had nothing to hire a lawyer with, not a cent to his name, and got screwed in the divorce. So, he got a job stocking shelves while he tried to figure out a new plan. At least he still had access to his daughter."
Tierra's gaze shifted to Jasmine. Alisha also focused on the younger blonde. "But he didn't, did he? Shortly after you turned 15, maybe 18 months later, you told him that he should stop visitations, didn't you? You made it clear that he was an embarrassment and that you'd rather spend your time with your new friends and your rich parents."
Still looking at her daughter, Tierra continued. "They had taken everything from him, his family, his self esteem, his life's work. He had nothing -- and he still was the kind of man to spot someone in trouble and help them however he could. He told me all of this that night, and we decided that we were going to help each other up. We had no one else to lean on, no one else we could get help from, so we did it together. He worked a graveyard shift, and then stayed up when he got home so I could go to work. When I got off and came home, he went to bed. We did this so you would always have someone there watching you."
"The thing is, these two" her hand indicating the two women sitting with increasingly bored looks on their faces, "took everything except his brain. He built that company from scratch. He knew everything about it -- processes, personnel, customer base, trends. So we scraped up every penny we had, and he started all over again. He contacted old customers, he got in touch with former lenders, and he recreated his old company. It took years, but thankfully, the groundwork laid before, in his old company, shortened the amount of time it could have taken."
