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“Chase, you’ve broken too many rules. You know what happens.” Dawn rocked back and forth, more tears spilled down her face.
“I didn’t break them, not intentionally.”
“Will you let her go?” Dawn asked.
I froze, waiting for his reply.
“No. I won’t.” His voice sounded low. “Not even if she begs me to.”
That’s my cue to leave.
Still, the binder piqued my interest.
I decided to get a quick look and maybe take it home with me. Moving quickly, I went to the binder, picked it up, and opened it. My baby pictures and birth certificate stuck to the first page.
I twisted around and placed it on my desk, making sure I had a good view of Chase. If he left Dawn’s room, I’d figure out which way he was going and run off the other way.
“How did you even get in her apartment tonight?” Dawn asked. “I thought you told us the secret passageways were closed off when Yancy died.”
“I lied.”
“So you snuck off to see her like some bumbling adulterer.” Dawn shot up. “And instead of your perfect little black princess waiting for you, she’s being a whore with some other guy.”
“Be careful.” Chase rose. Part of his lip lifted in a sneer.
She got in front of him.
“Or what?” She slapped him across the face.
I flinched from the impact. It was so uncomfortable to witness this, both of them at their worst and me being the cause of so much pain.
I looked back down and almost turned the page. I didn’t. My name was on the birth certificate.
Jasmine Bernice Nix.
What the fuck?
I had my mom’s last name, Montgomery.
Nix was Vivian and Benny’s last name. I swallowed and traced my finger to the father’s name on the birth certificate. Benny Cedric Nix.
This can’t be right.
The birth certificate I had in my records left the father’s name blank. It was one of those embarrassing and painful reminders that my dad didn’t care enough about Troy and me to stick around.
Benny is our dad?
The room swirled around me. My mind seemed disconnected to my body. My brain scrambled into mush.
And Chase knew the whole time. Why didn’t he say anything? Why would he keep this a secret?
I thought back to that day outside the police station. Benny had talked about dealing with the girls’ death certificates. Chase had countered that Benny had dealt with other certificates.
Chase had been hinting at Benny messing with my birth certificate?
I scanned the rest of the binder, just in case more secrets lay in the pages. There were old photos of my mom and Benny in a bar on the next page. She’d been a go-go dancer at the Kitty Kat Club. It was the one thing my aunt would remind me about all the time.
“You stick to them grades, girl. Your mama dropped out of high school and used to dance naked for all them white people downtown, getting all used up.”
