Behold the Dreamers(82)
Cindy held the phone, looking at it as if punching 911 required a strength she couldn’t muster.
“Call them,” Neni said.
“Shut up!”
“What are you going to tell them, madam? That I have a picture of you doing drugs and drinking? I’m not afraid. You’re the one who should be afraid, because if the police takes me away everyone is going to know why.”
Cindy remained standing, clutching the phone and breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling like that of a woman sprinting up Mount Cameroon.
“Call them, madam,” Neni said again. “Please call them.”
If a glare could kill, dismember, and chop a body into fine bits, Neni’s body would have ended up a trillion little pieces because that was what Cindy’s eyes would have done to her. But a glare could do no such thing, and Neni could see she was halfway to victory.
Cindy threw the phone on the sofa and sat down trembling. “What do you want?” she said to Neni. Even her cheeks were trembling.
“Help, madam. Any kind of help.”
“And you think this is how to get it? This is what you had planned all along when I hired you? To blackmail me? To find a way to hurt my family?”
Neni shook her head. “I never took the picture for this reason, madam. I was afraid that day and I took the picture so that if something bad had happened to you, I will show the police what you were looking like when I entered the room and my hands will be clean. I didn’t even remember I had the picture till a few days ago when—”
“You must think I’m stupid if you expect me to believe that.”
“Believe it or not, it’s the truth, Mrs. Edwards.”
“Blackmailing … blackmailing …,” Cindy said, shaking her head and wagging her finger at Neni. “It’s a crime … you’ll pay for this … I’ll make you pay for this …”
For what seemed like a thousand seconds the women stared at each other: brown eyes next to hazel eyes, round cheeks next to hollow cheeks, face of determination next to face of defeat.
Cindy turned her face away first. “What are you going to do with the picture?” she asked, looking at the skyline outside, panic fully taking over her speech for the first time that afternoon.
Neni shrugged. “I don’t yet know, madam,” she said, smirking again. “But a person I met, he works for a website that writes news about people in the Hamptons. He told me they are always looking for good pictures of women like you.”
“You filthy bitch!”
Neni grinned. The lie had worked. This was precisely where she wanted Cindy. “I wish you, too, a good day, madam,” she said, picking up her purse. She stood up and straightened her red turtleneck.
“Sit down,” Cindy ordered.
“I’m sorry, madam. I need to go cook dinner for my family.”
“I said sit down!”
Neni sat down.
“How much do you want?”
Neni looked Cindy straight in her eyes, let out a short laugh, and said nothing.
“I said name your price.”
“You should know better than me, madam, how much this kind of thing should cost.”
“Wow,” Cindy said, shaking her head again. “Wow. I’m very disappointed in you, Neni. I’m appalled, and so, so disappointed.”
Neni Jonga would not be fooled again. A courage she never knew she possessed had fully taken root. She shrugged and pulled her purse closer to her chest.
“After all Clark and I have done for you and Jende? This is how you repay us?”
Neni turned her face away and fidgeted as if getting ready to stand up again. Cindy stood up, hurried out of the room, and returned a minute later with a check.
Without looking at the sum on the check, Neni shook her head. “Cash, madam,” she said.
“I don’t keep large amounts of cash at home.”
“That’s not what I heard, madam. I heard rich people keep a lot of cash in their houses, in case something bad happens to the banks.”
“Don’t make assumptions about me based on what you’ve read.”
Neni scoffed and smiled. She was enjoying this more than she’d thought she would. “Then I’ll wait for you to go to the bank. Or we can go together.”
She saw Cindy’s fist clench and for a second thought the woman was going to break her jawbone, or ask Anna to call 911 again. Instead, Cindy turned around and returned minutes later with a paper bag.
“I’m only giving you this,” Cindy said as she handed over the bag, “because of the goodness of my heart. Because I know how badly you need it, and I wouldn’t want your children to suffer because of you and your husband’s stupidity. But if I ever see you again, I promise you, you will end up in jail. You can choose to believe it or not, but I’ll make sure you go to jail, and I won’t give a shit. Now hand me the picture and get the hell out of my house.”
Neni took out the SIM card from her cell phone, handed the phone to Cindy, and walked out of the Edwardses’ apartment.
Forty-two
AFTER SHE’D PUT THE CHILDREN TO BED, SHE COUNTED THE MONEY IN the bathroom, looked at herself in the mirror, and smiled: Nothing like starting the day agonizing over money and ending it triumphant beyond her imagination. She opened the medicine cabinet, took out her red lipstick and applied it, puckered her lips, smiled again, sprayed perfume on her neck, and walked out to the living room, where Jende was watching a Nets game.