“Stacy, I met Gabe’s mom today.” She paused in the process of bringing a bite of salad to her mouth.
“Gabrielle?”
“Oh, is that her name? She didn’t tell me.” Goodness, I didn’t even think to ask her name earlier when she asked mine.
“She named him after her father who had named her after him.” She chuckled at the look of confusion on my face. Once I slowed down what she said and played it back in my head, I nodded understanding.
Her smile vanished. “She thought that if she named him after her dad he would accept him.” I stirred my ice coffee with my spoon trying not to appear over eager for information. Yesterday she froze up on me. I nodded casually, as if this was just small talk to pass time.
“Why wouldn’t her father accept her child?”
Her gaze went to Jerome who stood in the far corner of the restaurant reading a newspaper while he kept an eye on us, or shall I say me, before she leaned toward me.
“What I tell you stays between us, right?”
“Of course!”
She looked at me skeptically. “I’m serious, Yas! If Gabe found out I was blabbering about his business he may stop paying my tuition.”
My mouth opened in surprise.
“He’s paying your tuition?” She nodded.
“Girl, without him I would have never been able to afford law school. He’s good to those that he loves, but to those who make themselves an enemy to him… he crushes.” She used her fork to push her salad around her plate.
“Like he did his grandfather.”
“He crushed his grandfather… why?” She had my full attention.
“Well, apparently, granddaddy Gabriel had been a very successful business man in Puerto Rico. Whatever he did caused him to travel a lot between the island and New York. I heard he even had an office in Manhattan.” She brought her napkin up from her lap and wiped her mouth.
“My brother said he had high hopes for his only daughter, sent her to the best schools here in New York. He was hoping she would attract the eye of somebody with a name and money to go with that name in order to help their family get into the elite club. If you know what I mean?”
I nodded so that she could keep talking. But the truth was I had no idea what she was talking about… elite club? Never heard of it.
“But Gabrielle didn’t come to New York and fall in love with a rich white snob. She fell in love with a big black gangster named Calhoun. Although still very rich, not quite what her daddy had in mind. So what did he do?” She slashed her finger across her throat.
“He cut her off. Stop paying for her schooling and everything.”
“Oh, my God! Why?” I was completely and utterly appalled for the second time today. What was wrong with these people? How could they treat family this way?
“He said as long as she was shacking up with Calhoun, he would have nothing to do with her. Now, eventually she couldn’t take living with Calhoun anymore because like I told you yesterday, he was an evil bastard. Plus, he cheated on her like it was nobody’s business.”
“She left him and went back home to her father, but tucked deep in her belly was Calhoun's seed. And of course, papa Gabriel wasn’t open to bringing up no drug kingpin’s baby. I don’t know what happened after that, but baby Gabriel ended up living with his father while his mama was M.I.A.” She shook her head.
“And I guess whatever happened caused him to have some hard feelings because his first line of business when he himself had become a big business mogul was to topple his father’s and then Grandpa Gabriel’s empire.” She wiped her mouth with her napkin again putting it in her plate.
“This brings me to my next point. Sometimes, no matter how hard we pray it to be different, little boys grow to be like their daddies. If they had a good decent dad that would be a blessing, because God knows we need more decent black men. But Calhoun was the very devil himself, and Gabriel is his son. And if you never listen to anything I say, listen to this…” She looked me directly in my eyes, and for the first time since I met her she was completely serious.
“Never cross Gabriel. He is ruthless in his vengeance!”
I swallowed as I took in her warning. At the same time Gabrielle's warning came back to the forefront of my mind. What did they know that they weren’t telling me? And why did they both find a need to warn me against making him angry?
For the rest of our trip their warnings resonated in my head. So much so, I didn’t put up a fuss when we got to the hair salon and Stacy insisted that the stylist put purple highlights matching my eyes in the front of my hair, and that they flat iron all the curls out of it.
“Your hair is amazing!” The stylist exclaimed several times as she ran her hand through it.
“I have never seen hair so full and healthy. Girl, you should be modeling! You can make millions!” I just thanked her for her compliments, but my mind was a million miles away. I was entangled with a very dangerous man and I didn’t know how to get myself free. Anything else just didn’t seem to matter.
After we left the salon, Stacy took me to get my makeup done.
“Yas, you’re going to be the prettiest girl there tonight. Just wait till Gabe sees you!” I smiled at her, but because of the fear in my heart, I could not share her enthusiasm. She was so excited that she decided to ditch the rest of her classes to help me get dress.
“I don’t want the fellas to see
