Читать книгу The Prada Plan 2 - Ashley Antoinette - Страница 13

“Ooh, baby…yes. Give me that dick,” Natalie moaned, lying on her back while the white man atop of her had his way with her. It was her first trick in years, and Slim had sent her one of his most docile customers to make it easier for her. As she took dick like a professional, she imagined that it was Slim’s hardness drilling inside of her. Her hotbox was soaking wet as the man rode her into ecstasy. He was well endowed and had the stamina of a stallion, so she was enjoying the session just as much as he was.

It didn’t matter that her daughter was lying in the bed next to theirs. Natalie had to do what she had to do. The man on top of her hadn’t even looked her way. He stared intently at Leah, getting off on the fact that she was so close by. Natalie noticed the look of lust in her john’s eyes, and annoyance filled her as she reached up to turn his face away from her daughter.

“What you looking at, baby? I’m right here. I’m all the woman you need. This pussy good to you, baby?” she asked while meeting him thrust for thrust, grinding herself into him.

All he could do was groan as she snapped her muscles around his shaft, but it wasn’t long before his head turned toward Leah again. Irritated, she said, “Ain’t nothing over there for you.” What she didn’t know was that he had a fetish for young girls—little girls, in fact.

“There might be,” he whispered.

Natalie stopped abruptly and put her hands to his chest to lift him off of her a bit. Staring him straight in the eyes she asked, “What?”

“You heard me. I want her,” he stated.

“She’s only seven,” Natalie said.

“I’ll pay double,” he negotiated.

Terrified, Leah lay deathly still as she listened to her mother bargain with the man. The sounds that they made had stirred her from her restless sleep, but she had been too afraid to move. She didn’t want to receive another beating for doing the wrong thing, so she lay there motionless while she listened to her mother’s sexual escapade.

“She’s not ready for all that,” Natalie protested. “What type of mother do you think I am?”

“The type who fucks a nigga in the bed right next to your kid. I’ll pay triple. Just let me lick that. I’ll be careful with her. I won’t even stick it in. I just want to rub the tip on it,” the man said.

Leah’s breathing became labored as she waited to hear her mother’s reply.

“I’ma make her feel good,” the man continued as he reached onto the nightstand for his money clip. He flipped off eight crisp hundred-dollar bills and stuffed them between Natalie’s breasts. Too ashamed to hear herself agree to his conditions, but unable to resist the power of the dollar she simply nodded her head. The grin that spread across his face almost made her throw up, but she didn’t stop him as he climbed out of her bed.

Leah held her breath when she felt the weight of the man enter her bed, and her heart beat erratically, almost painfully through her chest. Every hair on her neck stood up as the man pulled back the sheet, exposing her to the cool wind of the night. His hands felt foreign on her body, and she trembled violently as he touched her. Every spot he invaded felt dirty.

“Mommy?” she called out. “Mommy!”

Natalie cringed at her daughter’s cries, but did nothing to intervene. She simply turned her back to the scene and stared out of the motel window as the man had his way with Leah. She tuned them out with thoughts of Slim. He would be pleased with her profits, and that fact alone was enough for her to allow her daughter to be victimized.

The feeling of his mouth between her legs surprised Leah. A weird sensation overcame her. Physically, it brought her pleasure, but psychologically, she knew it was wrong, and embarrassment filled her. She felt dirty, like something was wrong with her, as a river of tears cascaded down her pillow. “Mommy! Make him stop!” she shouted, but her pleas were in vain.

“Shhh. Be quiet, Leah. Don’t fight him. You’re doing this for Daddy. Make that money for Daddy, sweetie. Enjoy it. It won’t hurt for long,” Natalie said without looking her way.

The smell of her youth in his face made him rock hard, and he couldn’t contain himself. He grabbed his penis and began to rub it on her opening as she squirmed underneath him. No longer able to speak, Leah choked on her own tears. Sobbing, she prayed for God to save her.

“Hey, you bastard!” Natalie shouted.

Thinking that her prayers had been answered, Leah reached out for her mother.

“If you want to do all of that, it’s extra!” Natalie stated. “You said you wouldn’t go all the way!”

At that moment, instead of being her savior, her mother became the devil.

Excruciating pain ripped through her, and all she could do was scream as her virginity was snatched away from her, along with her sanity.

“Are you still mad at Mommy?” Natalie asked as she stood behind Leah and combed her long, thick hair.

Leah didn’t respond. She was despondent, almost detached from the world as she sat between her mother’s legs with tears running down her cheeks. She had washed herself a million times since being raped. She had scrubbed her skin so hard that she had begun to bleed, but still nothing made her feel clean. She felt stained, as if she would forever be branded with the stamp of disgust and shame.

“I know it hurt, baby, but I promise you it starts to feel good after a while. It was your first time. It won’t hurt like that the next time. We have to do this. We have to make this money for your daddy so that he will keep us around. Do this for him. Make him love you, Leah. You want a daddy, right?” Natalie asked.

She was manipulating Leah’s young mind, confusing her. Of course she wanted a daddy, but if this is what she had to go through to get a father of her own, she wasn’t sure it was worth it. Why did she have to work so hard for a man to love her? The tender place between her thighs ached, and instead of being a gift of womanhood, it felt more like a curse.

Natalie stood to her feet and walked over to the vanity table. She pulled out the chair and motioned for Leah to sit down.

“I know what will cheer you up, baby. Let Mommy make you feel pretty again.” Mistrust filled Leah’s eyes.

“Come here.”

Leah rose and went to her mother. “It hurt, Mommy,” she said.

“I know, baby. It won’t hurt ever again. I promise,” Natalie replied as she pulled out her makeup brush.

“Let me make your face up. This will make you feel better. You’ll feel special again.”

Leah sat with her hands in her lap, nervously wringing out each finger while her mother applied makeup to her face. As the powder brush tickled her tiny nose, it sent shivers up her spine. She giggled as Natalie pulled out her lipstick tube, and her angry resolve dissolved slightly.

Leah couldn’t help but to be excited, feeling like a grown woman as she admired the job her mother was doing in the mirror. Natalie never allowed her to play in her cosmetics, but today she was applying the makeup to Leah’s face personally. Leah felt like it was her mother’s way of apologizing, and she wanted nothing more than to make things go back to normal. She wanted to be the little girl that her mother used to protect and be proud of.

Ever since they had come to the big city, her mother had changed. What young Leah didn’t understand was that around Slim, Natalie wasn’t the same. She reverted back to the naïve seventeen-year-old whore, desperate for attention and willing to do anything to get it.

“You can even wear my satin robe tonight,” Natalie said as she wrapped the material around Leah’s shoulders, making her smile.

A few days had passed since her vicious beating and Leah’s molestation, but for the first time, Leah felt pretty again, as if the makeup and silky fabric had revamped her demolished spirit. Leah had watched her mother lay in bed crying for days. She had been unable to bring herself to look at her own daughter, but with this change in attitude, Leah was hopeful that her mother loved her again.

Her smile spread all the way across her face when Natalie finally finished. Leah hopped up from the bed and ran to the mirror.

“I’m pretty now, right, Mommy? You made me look like a princess,” Leah said as she jumped up and down while clapping her hands. She couldn’t get enough of herself. It was as if she were seeing herself for the first time as she stared intently at her reflection. She was in awe.

A knock at the door caused Leah to turn away from the mirror, but when she looked at her mother, she frowned in confusion. A pool of fresh tears had gathered in Natalie’s eyes. The look on her face sent a chill through Leah’s body, and her bottom lip began to quiver. It was as if the devil himself had come banging at their door, and an instinctive fear settled into Leah’s bones.

“Mommy?” Leah called out uncertainly.

Natalie didn’t respond as she walked to the door and opened it. A thin, dark man crept inside. The overwhelming stench of his cheap cologne wrapped its scent around Leah’s throat, choking her as her chest heaved up and down in fear. She knew what he was there for. She could tell by the look in her mother’s eyes.

“Here, let me take your jacket, baby. Make you more comfortable.” Natalie slipped her hands across his broad chest and down the sleeves of his jacket before he could respond. It was one of her first official tricks since returning to the city, and it was just like riding a bike—she could never forget how to do it. With a PhD in seduction, she knew that the slightest grazing of her fingertips against the zipper of his pants made him more eager. The more he anticipated the sex, the more money she could get out of him. The more money she made, the more pleased Slim would be.

“I have a little surprise for you, baby,” she whispered. “I hear you like ’em young.”

Leah’s eyes bucked in fear as she saw the man turn her way. All dolled up, she was every pervert’s fantasy, and when she saw the man hand money to Natalie, she knew that she had just been sold—again.

“Where the fuck is he?” Natalie asked as her eyes scanned the digital clock on the nightstand. Slim had called her hours ago, saying that he was coming to pick up his money. She had an entire week’s profit waiting for him, $5,500 to be exact, and she was confident that he would be pleased.

After discovering how much more men would pay to sleep with Leah, she sold her daughter’s innocence repeatedly. The guilt she felt eventually subsided when the money began to pile up, and whenever her conscience crept up on her, she simply drowned it out with her favorite Five O’Clock gin.

“Not even that bitch Dynasty is bringing in this much dough. He’ll see that he needs me,” Natalie told herself as she lit a cigarette to calm her nerves.

When day turned to night and the clock struck midnight, Natalie’s patience had run out. Slim hadn’t shown, and he wasn’t responding to her pages. Anticipation turned to anxiety, which turned into anger.

“That mu’fucka promised he would stop by! He knows I have this money here waiting for him. I’m always last on his list of things to fucking do!” Natalie screamed to herself as she paced back and forth. She was a wreck. Slim was the only man who had ever held power over her emotions. He had a strong hold over her; one that she couldn’t shake, one that she didn’t want to shake, but the unhealthy fixation was causing her to become unstable. She was coming apart at the seams as she nursed her bruised ego with a bottle of cheap gin. Slim’s adoration was worth more than gold to her, and she proved it every time she sacrificed her daughter for the sake of making him a quick dollar.

Leah watched, but remained silent as she witnessed her mother grow more and more agitated. She had learned that it was better to be seen and not heard. Exhaustion plagued her as the hours of the night passed them by, but Leah was too afraid to close her eyes. Too many men had visited her bed in the wee hours for her to ever rest peacefully. She was always on guard, always paranoid, and she no longer trusted her mother to keep her safe. So, as Natalie desperately looked out of the blinds for Slim every few minutes, Leah nervously looked at the door, praying that no one came to hurt her.

This routine lasted for hours, until the sun came up and Leah was too tired to keep her eyes open. With her back against the wall, her head drooped down onto her chest as her mother’s weary red eyes pooled with emotion. She was chasing a man who didn’t want to be caught, and the way he handled her made her feel so unimportant, so dispensable—so unworthy.

“Fuck this,” Natalie whispered. “He doesn’t want to come to me, then I’ma go find his ass.”

She shook Leah out of her sleep. “Get up. We’re going to find your daddy!” she shouted. Leah wiped her eyes and slowly got out of bed. Her mother didn’t even give her time to put on her shoes before she pulled her out the door.

Natalie raced all the way to Slim’s blocks outside of Jimmy’s Bar. She knew that night or day, Slim always watched his money. He had women working all shifts. Rain, sleet, or snow, his ladies worked 24/7, 365. There was money to be made around the clock, and Slim didn’t want to miss a single dollar.

“There that mu’fucka go right there,” Natalie seethed as she parked illegally on the curb and watched Slim walk out of the bar. She was about to call out to him, but when she saw the smile of endearment on his face, she froze. Natalie’s eyes connected the dots between Slim and the target of his affection—Dynasty. Her heart fell out of her chest when she saw him wrap his arm around her shoulders and saw their little girl, Disaya, jump into his arms.

“She’s not even his real daughter! That fucking bastard!” Natalie shouted as she hit her steering wheel furiously.

Leah peered over the steering wheel, and the sight of Slim hugging the girl proudly made her bottom lip tremble. She was working so hard to get the same attention from him. Natalie had promised her that once Slim realized what a good moneymaker she was, he would love her, but he still hadn’t come around. She had done everything that her mother had asked. She had entertained the likes of old dirty men, and still Slim never came. She needed him to look at her the way that he looked at Disaya.

Enviously, she looked on as he kissed the girl’s cheek. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as her stomach turned in turmoil. Slim was the only father she knew. Her mother had put it in her head since the day that she was born that the smooth-talking player from New York City was who she belonged to, and seeing him so fond of another child broke Leah in two. Anyone with the sense of sight could see that Slim’s adoration for the little girl in his arms was immeasurable, and as Leah’s heart filled with sorrow, she looked up at her mother for answers.

“Who is that girl, Mommy?” she asked, her voice breaking from emotion. At such a young age, Leah was experiencing heartbreak for the very first time, and the collapsing feeling of her chest made it hard for her to breathe.

“Is that my sister?” Leah asked, searching for answers.

Natalie gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “No, that’s not your sister, baby. That’s not even his blood! That bitch Dynasty is up to the same old tricks, and he is just going along with it. He knows that little girl isn’t his! He can see that she ain’t his!” Natalie yelled. Unable to contain her anger, she grabbed her clutch purse and scrambled out of the car. “Come on, Leah!”

Obediently, Leah climbed across the seat and out of the car. Her mother grabbed her hand roughly before snatching her down the street. Natalie’s high heels stabbed the pavement as she waved Slim down, just as he was opening the passenger door for Dynasty.

“Slim! Slim!” she shouted, losing all dignity as Leah ran full speed just to keep up with her. Her voice cut through the air in a high, furious shrill, causing everyone who was out on the block to turn toward the scene she would inevitably cause.

The hair on the back of Slim’s neck stood up when he heard her calling his name.

“Who is that lady, Daddy?” Disaya asked as her father put her down on the ground.

“Yeah, who is she?” Dynasty repeated with an attitude.

“Nobody. Get in the car,” Slim instructed. He tucked Dynasty and Disaya safely inside, then attempted to walk around to the driver’s side.

This bitch has lost her damn marbles, Slim thought angrily. I told her to keep a low profile. Now her crazy ass is parading down the street, putting on a fucking show.

“Slim! I know you hear me, mu’fucka! Don’t you get your ass in that car!”

The disrespectful tone of her voice caused him to cringe in regret. She was asking to be made an example of. Half of the other players in town were out on the block that day, and if he let one ho disrespect him, they would snatch his entire stable as soon as he pulled off. His business was sloppy, and Natalie was trying his patience.

“You better handle that bitch. She’s a problem,” Dynasty commented slyly as she put on a fresh coat of lipstick, arrogantly looking at herself in the mirror. She tried to appear uninterested, although she was trying her best to ear hustle.

Slim stepped away from the car and approached Natalie aggressively, grabbing her firmly by the elbow.

“Fuck you come here for, Nat? Didn’t I tell you I would come to you?” he asked her, whispering harshly as he jerked her, chastising her as if she were a child.

“You said you were coming last night, baby. I waited for you. Why didn’t you come by?” she asked sweetly as she reached up to stroke Slim’s face. Slim dodged her advances and looked her squarely in the eyes.

“Go back to the motel. I’ll be by there later on. Look at you. You’re fucked up! You need to leave that liquor alone. You’re embarrassing yourself. Don’t come around here again,” Slim stated, his voice unforgiving, and his clenched teeth giving away his shitty disposition.

Leah clung to her mother’s sleeve as she watched the tense interaction between the two.

“What? Don’t come around here? Embarrassing myself?” Natalie shouted, loud enough for the entire block to hear. “You son of a bitch!” Natalie removed the money she had earned and threw it at him, causing the bills to rain over him. “What, Slim? I’m not good enough because I’m not that bitch?” Natalie screamed as she pointed toward the car where Dynasty sat.

Dynasty’s eyebrows rose in aggravation. “I got your bitch! Keep talking,” she said without asserting too much energy. She was arrogant and knew her position. There wasn’t another woman in town who could threaten her, but she wasn’t above putting a bitch in her place if need be either. She rolled her eyes as she waved her hand in dismissal, leaving it to Slim to handle.

Slim’s reaction was instinctive. He wrapped his hand around Natalie’s neck and pushed her against the brick wall outside of Jimmy’s Bar.

“Me and you, we’re done, bitch. That’s why I cut you loose all those years ago. You’re fucking nuts, and you don’t know how to follow my lead,” Slim stated, shoving her one last time for good measure before walking away.

Leah looked on in horror as she watched her mother charge Slim, hitting him in the back of the head. Natalie was making a spectacle of him in front of the entire block, and the embarrassment caused him to see red.

“Mommy! Ma! Stop it!” Leah screamed as she ran up to her and tried to pull her away. Her small arms tugged at her mother’s body in an attempt to stop the madness.

In a drunken state, Natalie pushed her daughter to the ground with such force that little Leah’s knees split wide open. Blood gushed instantly, but the sting of her mother’s blatant lack of love burned more than the wound itself.

Slim turned on his heels, and before he could control himself, he punched Natalie with all his might. Her head snapped back so violently that it felt as if her neck had broken, and her legs gave out beneath her.

“Mommy!” Leah screamed as she began to cry hysterically. She scrambled to her feet and ran to her mother’s side.

Leah held her mother’s bloody face in her hands as she tried to help her up. Natalie shamelessly staggered to her feet, drunk from the knuckle cocktail Slim had just served her.

“You’re a dirty mu’fucka, Slim! I’ll never be good enough, will I? Fuck you, Slim! Fuck you! This is your daughter!” Natalie yelled as her face began to swell.

“Bitch, I told you she’s not my fucking daughter! She’s not my kid! She’s not mine! Get that through your skull!” he hollered, looking at her in disgust before storming away.

Natalie cried tears from the root of her soul as she watched the love of her life walk away from her. What she didn’t know was that love didn’t hurt, and what she was experiencing…what she was feeling…what she was consumed by was control. He had captured her mind so long ago that his hold over her caused her to do unthinkable things. All she wanted was him—his attention, his affection.

Shooing Leah off of her, she called after Slim as she ran behind him. She chased his car all the way down the street, while Leah ran behind her, both in tears, until his tail lights disappeared from their view.

The other working girls on the block laughed at the desperate mess that Natalie had become, but they were all in the same boat. Slim held court over their emotions as well. He had sold them all a dream. It was all a fantasy, a street marriage between a pimp and prostitute that only required one side to remain loyal. Natalie could have easily been any of the young women on the block. They all shared the same circumstance. They were caught up in a man that could never love them back.

Their taunting comments haunted Natalie as she grabbed Leah’s wrist tightly and spun around wildly. “What the fuck are you bitches laughing at? What are you looking at?” she yelled as blood dripped from her busted lip.

Leah didn’t know what to say or do as she was forced back into the car. Hearing Slim deny her so vehemently was wrenching to her soul. She didn’t understand why he didn’t want her. Natalie had filled her head with false hope, and now that the truth had come to light, she was crushed beyond comprehension.

As Natalie drove away from the strip, she battled with her own demons. In need of someone to blame, she turned on Leah. “This is all your fault. You see that little girl Slim had? Why would he want a little wench like you when he has her? She’s perfect! She’s pretty! Why can’t you be more like her?”

Natalie selfishly blamed Leah when inside, she knew that the real comparison she was making was between herself and Dynasty. It wasn’t Leah who Slim didn’t want; it was Natalie. She had never been woman enough for him, but admitting that to herself would be like holding a mirror to her tarnished face.

What she did not know was that she was filling her daughter with insecurity and jealousy. The irrevocable damage she was doing would scar Leah for years to come. For the first time in her life, Leah knew what it felt like to hate another human being. She despised the little girl that she had seen Slim with. The green-eyed monster had his sights set on her. Envy consumed her, and her heart burned so badly that she felt as if she were choking. She couldn’t understand what the little girl, Disaya, possessed that she herself did not. Why wasn’t she worthy of a father’s love?

As her mother belittled her and compared her to the green-eyed beauty queen that Slim claimed as his daughter, Leah hardened herself on the inside. She turned her face toward the window so that her mother would not see the tears that cascaded from her eyes. Her insides were in so much turmoil that her stomach felt hollow.

Why does my daddy love that other little girl more? Why won’t he love me? Nothing in the world had ever felt so bad. After everything she had been through in search of his acceptance, she felt scorned. Scorned by life, burnt by the mother who was supposed to love her, and thrown away by the father she never knew. It was on that day that she became a bad seed, and everyone who had ever hurt her became her enemy. She never wanted to be so vulnerable again. She was closing off her heart, and she promised herself that she would never allow anyone to trample on her feelings ever again.

Leah looked down at the puddle of blood that pooled around her bare feet. A sickening calm spread over her as she looked into her mother’s eyes. As they stared at one another, hatred filled the space between them. Unspoken apologies were overdue, but unfortunately, it was too late. Whatever needed to be said would be forever lost in translation. Death had silenced Natalie forever as her dead eyes questioned why.

Leah had snapped, and something inside of her felt that her actions were justified. Tired of the nightly abuse that her mother was inflicting upon her, Leah told herself that she had endured enough. Natalie never saw it coming.

After being betrayed by her own mother, Leah felt no remorse for the sinister things she planned in her head. The woman she had loved the most had allowed her to be defiled, had used Leah for her own selfish motives, had brought Leah’s world crashing down around her. She was no longer an innocent child. Detached from right and wrong, Leah acted instinctively, defensively.

She was tired of her private parts being touched by different men, and tired of being compared to the little green-eyed girl that had Slim’s heart. She would never live up to the unrealistic expectations that Natalie had set for her, and she was constantly terrified of what man may walk through their motel room door next to have his way with her. She did what she had to do. So far detached from what was right and wrong, Leah resorted to her only method of escape—murder.

The many men who had climbed atop of her small body had driven her to her breaking point, and Natalie was the one to blame.

The stench in the room was overwhelming as the summer heat baked her mother’s dead body, but still she couldn’t move. She was stuck, staring into the lost eyes of the woman who had failed to nurture her. Psychologically, Leah was unstable. Her mental and emotional state had been compromised to the point where she felt nothing. Even the horrid stench of the corpse or the sight of her mother’s drying blood didn’t disturb her. She was disconnected from all emotion, out of touch with the good little girl that she used to be, unplugged from reality. All she knew was that everything that had happened to her had brought her to this point.

She was so full of hate that it poured out of her eyes, giving her rotten intentions away to anyone who cared to stare into her soul. What could have been a beautiful girl with so much potential had been transformed into a troubled one with too many demons to count.

A knock at the door caused Leah to look up, but she made no effort to move.

“Housekeeping,” the voice announced just before she saw a young woman enter. “Oh my God!” the woman shrieked as soon as she laid eyes on the gruesome scene before her. She hesitated, unsure of what to do or what she had just walked in on. She looked around the room in fear, figuring that someone else had committed the crime. When she was sure no one else was in the room, she motioned for Leah.

“Come on, sweetheart. Come to me,” she urged.

Leah stood up with a blank stare in her eyes and slowly walked over to the housekeeper. It wasn’t until the woman saw the bloody knife in Leah’s hand that she realized what had actually occurred.

“Did you do this, honey?” she asked with wide, doubt-filled eyes. No little girl could possibly cause such carnage.

Leah nodded her head as she dropped the knife to the floor. Her bottom lip began to tremble as she stared at the lady who was kneeling before her. The woman grasped her shoulders.

“Why, sweetie? What happened? Why did you do this?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

The tears that rained down her face didn’t match the ice-cold look in her gaze. “Because she hurt me,” Leah responded, her voice monotone and unflinching, unapologetic.

The woman was taken aback by the satisfied leer that Leah wore, and she stood to her feet as she backed away from the little girl. She could feel the devil in the room, and she instantly knew that something evil lived inside of Leah. She was no ordinary child. She was unremorseful, and had far bypassed the realm of sanity….

The blaring shrill of the car horn behind her caused Leah to snap out of her daydream. Thoughts of the past plagued her, and she gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned crimson, the same color of the blood she had spilled over the years. Sticking up her middle finger at the impatient driver behind her, she sped off, running from her troubled past and chasing her own destiny—one that fulfilled her need for acceptance and her obsession for revenge.