"Oh my goodness!" a woman gushed while passing Althea in Atlantic Mall. "What a gorgeous baby!" Althea nodded politely and pushed her daughter Medina Monaé in her new top of the line Inglesia stroller. Most new mothers would have been delighted about all of the attention that her baby was garnering, but Althea wasn't. She could barely stand to look at her.
Fourteen months ago, she split her child's father head open with a beer bottle and left him to die just a half a mile from the mall they now shopped in. There was a small portion of her that regretted her actions. A part of her that could not empty out the memory of the look in Benny's eyes. It was a look of betrayal, love, hate...hurt.
He didn't beg he just took his fate, knowing that Althea wasn't one to resend her orders or change her mind. They'd been on that parked train, for a total of four hours when Benny finally expired, his eyes wide open and fixed on Althea. She heard him take his last breath and watched the blood trickle down and mix with the tears Benny wished he could retract. He didn't want her to see his vulnerability. She'd seen it though, she saw (late as usual) the man she loved.
After she put Larry out, she held Benny's picture to her breast & cried herself to sleep. That was 14 months ago. Four hundred twenty-six days had eclipsed. Medina was 5 months old and the spitting image of her father, even down to those piercing eyes. She had no idea she was with child when this all went down. All she knew is that she could not abort it. She was obsessed with the pregnancy; the idea that she'd still "have" Benny consumed her...until Medina arrived.
When Althea looked at her daughter for the first time, it was beneath the blood and afterbirth. She instantly saw Benny and her "love" turned. She wouldn't see or touch the baby for weeks. Hyacinth had to move into Althea's duplex to assist with the care of her granddaughter while Althea went almost instantly back on her grind running Brooklyn. Cats had gotten lazy and she, warrior princess that she is, got vicious. In the first 5 weeks after her pregnancy, she locked down the entire stretch of Atlantic Ave, from 4th Ave straight down to Sutter Avenue. She had high priced call girls in Park Slope, a weed operation in Ebbetts Field, gambling in Red Hook and a chain of legitimate clubs in Williamsburg. Financially, having a baby did her well.
Hyacinth was worried though; she knew this was more than post-partum depression. But Althea was truly Zaire's daughter. Hyacinth hired a nanny for her granddaughter and returned home. Medina was a beautifully breathtaking baby, and she stopped everyone in their tracks, including Althea. Their reasons were different though. They saw her beauty...Althea saw Benny.
∞
Medina had grown into quite the vixen by the age of sixteen. She was pursued by everyone; men, woman boys and girls alike. Everyone wanted a piece of the walking doll. She stood at 5'11, with exceedingly long legs, and chocolate skin. She was thick, a gorgeous full-figured beauty with locs that reached to the middle of her back and her father's startling emerald green eyes. Althea was notorious by this time, even earning the respect of Zaire as a go-to when there was a problem. She was now a live-in lover named Victor who was an old business partner of Zaire's. He was older, determined...shockingly beautiful. He had just as much power as Althea in Europe and was also known in the states. They considered one another a strategic move.
Althea knew of her daughter's popularity because of her extreme beauty. What she didn't know was she'd gained an admirer in Victor. Every chance he got, Victor pursued Medina relentlessly. She made it her business to stay out of his way. But Victor always got what he wanted. And now, he wanted Medina.
He sent the unsuspecting Medina a text from her mother's phone luring her home. He'd stolen her cell from her bag. Althea was handling a deal in Stone Mountain, Georgia and effectively, out of town. Medina never had a chance. Ill minded from the start, his fantasy was to bed the beauty in the bed he shared with her mother.
Meanwhile, not wanting to miss a more lucrative deal in New York to start a clothing line, and missing her cell phone, Althea returned home. Once there she found her daughter, screaming, crying, kicking and squealing beneath her man. Althea was FILLED with rage. Not against the man that was raping her teenage daughter, but against the daughter who seemed to take everything with her beauty. Victor noticed Althea there and got up...casually. He knew of Althea's jealousy. It poured out whenever Medina entered the room.
"I got business to attend to." he said casually leaving the mother and daughter alone.
Medina lay in the bed, bleeding from her stolen womanhood and crushed spirit.
"Mama!" she cried hoping her distant and despondent mother would comfort her. Reaching up in the closet, Althea pulled down a mason jar filled with a clear liquid.
"Your face has been the cause of all your trouble. We're gonna change that." Seething, the deranged mother threw acid in her daughter's face, melting away all visions of Benny, forever...
TO BE CONTINUED
Next Up...Dana & Phoebe (Demeter & Persephone)
