Truth & Consequences: A Miss Independent Novel Read online

  OFFICIAL COPY

  Copyright © 2015 Kiki Leach

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.

  First Edition: October 2015

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Note to the reader:

  Before you dive into this, I just want to say, for the diehards. For the fans. For the people who loved the first three books. For those who only liked them. For those who maybe hated the second book. For those who questioned the first one and probably even wanted to throw the third one across the room:

  Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I more than likely would’ve halted this series after Decision Makers was in the can. Especially if I knew that it wouldn’t get easier the more I delved into the lives of these ‘people’ and their problems.

  Truth & Consequences was the hardest book for me to write thus far, to the point that I had to actually sit back and reevaluate the entire series as a whole. And once I was done, I questioned if I even wanted to put this particular book out there for you all to read. But the story needed to continue. I don’t rule these characters anymore, they rule me. And believe me when I say that as much as I wanted them to, they would not shut the hell up and just let me live in peace without them. Each one said their journey isn’t over, good or bad, heartbreaking or upsetting, they were not finished with each other yet, or me.

  As hard as it was, getting through it was so worth it in the end. I shed tears. I got angry. I shook my damn head and pulled hair. But I also smiled and laughed and learned more about the characters in ways that helped to flesh them out just a little bit more for me, and I hope that in reading this book it will flesh them out for you too.

  So enjoy. Get mad. Get angry. Get frustrated. Be annoyed. Put the kindle down and come back to it if you have to. Keep reading. Get through to the end and ask yourself if the journey thus far has been as worth it for you as it continues to be for them.

  And me.

  (A very special shout out and HUMONGOUS thank you to those of you who chose to keep the book in your library while waiting ever so patiently for the draft to be corrected!)

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  Various Spanish Translations

  El Pito ~ Dick

  Fantastico ~ Fantastic

  Puta ~ Whore

  Pendeja ~ Idiot

  Mejora amiga ~ Best Friend

  Y ella me llama una puta ~ And she calls me a slut

  La forma de que tus payasadas espejo mutuamente es francamente aterrador ~ The way your antics mirror each other is downright scary

  Esa es la pregunta del millón de dólares ~ That’s the million dollar question

  Chica ~ Girl

  Perra ~ Female dog/Bitch

  Abeja Reina ~ Queen Bee

  Mierda ~ Shit

  muchas gracias por el aliento ~ thanks a lot for the encouragement

  Fácilmente podría decir lo mismo ~ I could easily say the same

  Todos es simplemente tan complicada ~ It’s just all so complicated

  Hija ~ daughter

  Dios Mio ~ My God

  Idiota ~ Idiot

  darlo todo en dos segundos ~ Give it all up in two seconds

  Dejar ir de mi brazo, ahora ~ Let go of my arm, now

  Vergonzoso ~ disgusting

  Lo siento ~ sorry

  Usted puede hacer esto ~ You can do this

  Green ~ Verde

  Gracias, mi familia ~ Thank you, my family

  De nada ~ you’re welcome

  (also please note that when Sheila mentions the name “Elbert Einstein” it is not a typo)

  ******

  In TRUTH & CONSEQUENCES, the fourth book in the Miss Independent series, Sheila and Nathan come to terms with the current status of their relationship. Vanessa and Maurice attempt to make plans for the future despite outside interference. And as Nikki gets drawn back into her past life with Oscar, Melanie threatens to reveal the smoking gun that may keep them apart forever.

  ******

  Other books within this series:

  Miss Independent

  Decision Makers

  Live & Learn

  Table of Contents:

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Part Five

  Part Six

  Part Seven

  Part Eight

  Part Nine

  ONE MONTH LATER

  Part Ten

  Part Eleven

  Part Twelve

  Part Thirteen

  Part Fourteen

  Part Fifteen

  Part Sixteen

  Part Seventeen

  Part Eighteen

  Part Nineteen

  Part Twenty

  Part Twenty-One

  Part Twenty-Two

  Part Twenty-Three

  Part Twenty-Four

  Part Twenty-Five

  Part Twenty-Six

  Part Twenty-Seven

  Part Twenty-Eight

  Part Twenty-Nine

  Part Thirty

  Part Thirty-One

  Part Thirty-Two

  Part Thirty-Three

  Part Thirty-Four

  Part Thirty-Five

  Part Thirty-Six

  Part Thirty-Seven

  Part Thirty-Eight

  Part Thirty-Nine

  The truth will set you free.

  But first, it will piss you off.

  Gloria Steinem

  Part One

  It was a mess to be had by everyone involved.

  Barely a few hours had passed since the Hampton’s fiasco, which meant that no one had any real time to fully recover from what had taken place at Nathan’s ‘Dinner from Hell’ the night before. It also meant that Vanessa and Maurice had yet to discuss the impending problems that were sure to arise in their growing relationship, due to each of them keeping the other in the dark about things they knew could ruin everything they had fought so hard to build.

  Since returning to the city and their Upper West Side townhouse, they had spent most of the afternoon in bed, making love and discussing everything except for what they knew they should – her past relationship with her former college professor, Adrian Samuels, which resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage; his confession to a tabloid reporter regarding Nathan and Sheila’s high school affair, which led to Vanessa’s private life turning inside out and becoming public fodder.

  As much as they both tried to use all of the resources within their possession to not only avoid the problems they were bound to face, but forget them altogether, those resources couldn’t stop the truth from creeping inside every free space that had opened up within their minds anytime even a flicker of silence passed between them.

  Whatever parts had not been previously occupied by food or sex or blithe discussions about what to do with Nikki’s room if she never chose to come home again, began to fill up with thoughts of wonder, of how those same truths would sound if revealed to the other as friends with benefits and nothing more, instead of two people who had fallen so deeply in love with one another within just the last few months that they were no longer sure how or if they could now physically breathe without the other, let alone live.

  Maurice lay with his arm over Vanessa, covering her breasts and clo
sing his eyes. He inhaled the strawberry scent of her freshly washed hair and bent his face down to kiss and lick her shoulder. There were parts of her skin still wet from the shower they had taken together just a few hours before and he smiled in remembering how she felt against his hands beneath the water.

  Vanessa turned to look him in those root beer colored eyes and parted her lips to speak; she wanted to tell him everything she thought she couldn’t, everything she thought he wouldn’t want to hear.

  But before a single word could escape from between those perfect lips, the doorbell rang downstairs.

  Maurice removed his arm from her chest and turned over on his back, grunting and moaning as he wiped his hand down his face and stared up at the ceiling.

  Vanessa laughed and rolled herself on top of him, kissing his forehead down to his soft pink lips.

  “Maybe if we pretend they don’t exist,” she said between his lips, “they’ll just go the hell away.”

  Maurice slid his hands up her back as she slid hers around his neck, pulling him closer, holding him tighter, shoving herself further and further and deeper into him.

  They tried as best as they could to keep their thoughts on each other – what they felt, what they wanted, what they needed and craved – and tune out the noise of the doorbell, and the sound of the banging fist that came along with it, but it was no use. Whoever the hell was on the other side of that door downstairs was not leaving until they were seen and heard, and they both knew it.

  After reluctantly pulling away and slapping his head back down to the pillow, Maurice stared up Vanessa, who still tried like hell to keep him close.

  “Maybe it’s your mother?” he told her.

  Her shoulders shrank and she shook her head. “No.” She rolled back onto her side of the bed and angrily turned her eyes up toward the ceiling fan above their heads. “I think after this weekend, she’s going to need some well needed distance from me. I don’t even think she’ll want to be bothered with me at work. That said, I can’t say that I blame her too much for any of it, considering.”

  Maurice turned to her with a puzzling glance.

  Moments later, his cell phone began to ring.

  Vanessa couldn’t help but laugh. “Even back in the city, we can’t have peace. Like I said before, maybe next summer we should go to a deserted island. Or at least some place that won’t include anyone we know personally. Or hell, anyone we know period.” She immediately slid out of bed and casually grabbed her robe from the back of a chair in the corner of the room.

  As Maurice sat up and snatched his cell from the nightstand, he looked down at the number and his brows puckered. Not in confusion, but aggravation.

  Vanessa lifted her hair from beneath the collar of her robe and looked over at him, noticing the hardened expression on his face. “Who is that?” she asked.

  “It’s uh…” He shook his head a few times and then clicked the red button, hanging up. “It’s a wrong number.”

  “That’s a pretty intense look for a wrong number, Mo.” She smiled.

  He looked up at her and forced a sexy smile to evade her suspicions. “Well I’m a pretty intense kinda guy, V.”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed aloud. “Shut up. I’m going to see who’s at the door. Are you coming?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be down there with you in a second. Just let me get changed into some clothes first.”

  “Okay.”

  As she bounced out of the room and headed downstairs, Maurice ripped the blankets from his body and turned to the side of the bed. Dropping his feet to the floor, he reached over for his phone again, scrolled to the missed calls list and stared down at that number. His eyes were hard yet focused, his lips tight over his teeth. His head was filled with clouds of resentment and his heart was pounding so hard and fast as if he had been put beneath a spotlight, ass out in the middle of Times Square. During Christmas.

  “Shit.” He clutched the phone tight in his hand with the urge to chuck it across the room and break it into tiny little pieces.

  By no means was it a number he didn’t recognize. In fact, it was one he had fought long and hard to forget even knowing, just like the person it belonged to. Both needed to remain a distant memory.

  When Vanessa reached the bottom of the stairs, all she hoped was that the person waiting for her on the other side wasn’t in fact her mother coming to berate her for the horrifying weekend.

  Or worse, the Devil himself in the form of ex-boyfriend and current tormentor, Nathaniel Taylor.

  “Who is it?” she asked once she reached the door.

  “It’s me, V. Sheila.”

  Sheila Harris. Ex-best friend and current pain in the ass.

  Vanessa smacked her hand across her face and turned her head up toward the light. This was one person she ironically hadn’t been expecting.

  “Shit.”

  “I can already hear you bitching from the other side, V,” she said.

  Vanessa waited a few seconds and crossed her arms over her chest. The last thing she needed to deal with so soon after being back from the vacation from hell was this bitch.

  Shelia leaned her head and pressed her eat against the door. She couldn’t exactly see Vanessa standing there, but knew she had yet to move from place. “I wouldn’t be here if this weren’t important, V!”

  Vanessa slammed her hand down on the knob and yanked the door back. “You would be here any damn way despite me telling you to back off, again,” she snapped. “Important or not, so please. Now what the hell do you want?”

  Sheila stepped up and took a deep breath while staring into the glacial eyes of her former best friend. “We need to talk,” she said. “I think there might be a problem with me keeping quiet about you and Adrian.”

  Vanessa instantly clinched her teeth and started balling her fists as they rested alongside her thighs. She hadn’t even realized what she was doing, but Sheila sure as hell noticed the sudden change, as Vanessa seemed to go from mildly irritated to downright pissed the hell off in just a matter of two point five seconds.

  She gulped while staring down at Vanessa’s hands and moved to the side, attempting to inch her way inside the house without being too obvious about it.

  “What the hell do you mean that there might be a problem about you keeping quiet?” asked Vanessa. “And keep your voice down about it. Mo is still upstairs and still knows nothing.”

  “Okay. But can I just…?”

  She tried inching further inside, but Vanessa raised her hand and shoved her back as hard as she could. Had Sheila not grabbed on tight to the frame of the door, she would’ve tumbled back down the stairs in those six inch black leather Jimmy Choo pumps and most likely into the street. It was around that time Vanessa regretted not lining her frame with Vaseline and her doorstep with butter.

  “What the hell is that, V?”

  “It’s me not letting you anywhere in here until you tell me what the hell is going on, Sheila.”

  “Okay.” She shut her eyes and breathed in deep, slowly letting out the air before turning to Vanessa and slightly tilting her head. “I may have accidentally let the truth about your relationship with Adrian slip to Nathan.”

  Vanessa grabbed onto the frame and angrily shifted back and forth where she stood. Turning her head just slightly, she sucked in air and glared at her rival. “Exactly what truth are we talking about here?” she asked.

  “The truth about…” She held her breath for a few seconds before blurting it out. “The truth about the baby.”

  Her eyes closed and she cringed. “Fuck!” she said between her teeth. She reached out her hand and grabbed Sheila by the shoulder. “Getcho ass in here!” She threw her into the foyer and slammed the door. Sheila nearly lost her balance again, but grabbed onto the railing of the stairs to keep herself from falling over.

  As she stood and adjusted her dress, she turned to Vanessa and snarled. “I’d appreciate it if you would stop throwing me around like that.”

&nb
sp; “And I’d appreciate the HELL out of it if you could actually learn how to keep yo’ big ass, muthafuckin’ mouth shut – for ONCE! I guess we all can’t get what we want, huh?”

  “Who is that at the door?” Maurice hollered as he started making his way downstairs. “Is that Sheila?”

  Vanessa tried straightening herself as best as she could and grabbed onto both sides of her robe.

  Sheila spun her fingers around the curls of her hair, worried Maurice might have heard something that he shouldn’t, and smiled as he reached the bottom step and looked over at her.

  “Thought I heard your voice from up there,” he said as he clasped the last button on his crisp white shirt. “It’s been hard to miss in any place that can give off an echo since we were kids.”

  “That’s funny,” she replied. “You should take that on the road to Mars.”

  “Only if I get to stop by Venus first.” A curious Maurice looked between the two women before directing all attention to Vanessa. “What’s, going on?”

  “Nothing,” she reassured him as he stepped in front of her. “She’s just here to apologize for Nathan’s behavior last night.” She peeked around Maurice’s arm and lifted her brows. “Isn’t that very nice of her?”

  Taking a hint and silently agreeing to go along despite Vanessa’s snide tone regarding her presence, Sheila smiled up at Maurice, who turned back to her, and nodded. “I know how it might seem with me coming here so soon after leaving there, but I really did feel like shit knowing that you both had to witness that,” she said. “I had no part in any of what happened. In fact, I don’t know what V’s old professor had to do with being out there this weekend in the first place. But Nathan’s always been a wild card.”

  “Oh, he’s always been a hell of a lot more than that,” said Vanessa. And then she glanced at Maurice’s wardrobe and realized that he was dressed to go out, in slacks and a button down, as opposed to lounging around the house for the remainder of the afternoon. She tugged on the collar of his shirt as he dipped his arms around her waist and clasped his fingers. “And where are you off to?” she asked.